Katie evaluated her final film project using a provided rubric. She felt her pre-production went well though location planning could have been improved. Production went smoothly despite issues with lighting and sound. Post-production challenges included special effects and sound editing. Scheduling her cast and crew was difficult. Lack of contingency for her actor canceling last scenes hurt the film. She learned new skills but pushing visual effects too far compromised quality. Feedback helped improve her film and understanding. While technical quality suffered, the film met her creative vision and deadline.

1. PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT
EVALUATION
KATIE HAIR-MORSE
YOU SHOULD USE THIS TO EVALUATE YOUR FINAL FILM
PROJECT. EACH QUESTION SHOULD BE ANSWERED FULLY, USE
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM YOUR PROJECT WHERE NECESSARY
AND EXPAND ON THE POINTS TO FULLY EXPLAIN AND JUSTIFY
YOUR ANSWERS. YOU MAY ADD ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADD
EXTRA SLIDE WHERE NECESSARY, BUT YOU MUST ANSWER
EACH QUESTION.

2. PRE-PRODUCTION
Broadly explain your pre-production process. What went well, what could be
improved? How did you organise and plan your film.
I started pre-production by making a mind map of my initial ideas and
considering how the story should develop and be concluded based on the idea
that I had. I also had to consider the target audience of the idea and weigh up if it
would be worth making. I did this by doing primary market research, in the form
of a fairly broad survey and interviews which were more tailored to the film I
wanted to create and provided more detailed responses. I then did further
research into what already exists within the market and how I could cater my
short film to the target audience. I then began planning the film in more detail,
creating and naming the characters and developing them along with the story. I
feel that I could’ve gone into more detail with the location planning as this would
have been beneficial further into production as I ultimately had to use a green
screen for a portion of production as the original locations I had planned were
unavailable. I wrote script for the film, then translated it into shot lists and a
storyboard to make it easier to follow when filming. I broke down the time I had
on the project into sections so that I could monitor whether I had remained on
schedule and plan accordingly throughout the project. It was in this stage that I
assembled a cast and crew for the short film and organised production plans
with them, which was the most difficult part of pre-production as it was difficult
to get people together at one time in order to film.

3. PRODUCTION
I took a script and shot list when filming to keep myself on track and ensure that I didn’t
miss out any important shots and planned what needed to be filmed on what day and in
which location using a production schedule. I gave each of my actors a copy of the script
in advance so that they could familiarise themselves with the dialogue pre-production. I
am very thankful for the time and dedication put in by actors to learn their lines as it made
filming in the studio much smoother than I anticipated and I owe a lot to the great acting
throughout the shoots, no matter how many takes it took. The studio shoot was complex
as the green screen could only cover one angle, meaning that I had to rotate the set and
film the entire scene again from each different angle, ensuring that there is green in the
background in every shot. I filmed the office scenes in Ethan’s parents office meaning
that I had to be with him to get access to the building. Ethan provided transport for
myself, Jack (the actor) and Frankie (who was helping as crew) to the office in Appleton
roebuck from York College and took us back. The lighting in the office was really good
and all the footage from that room have come out better than anticipated. I used a slider
shot in this scene and experimented with balancing it on a rolling office chair to get the
height and angle that I wanted to achieve for the shot. The final location was at my home
in Harrogate. My mum was a last minute addition to the cast after another actor was
unable to make it, but she worked really well with everyone else and was a great
contribution to the production. I found that the lighting in the back bedroom of my house
was a problem, and even with the lights on and the curtains open the footage was grainy
and needed colour correction in post production. I found that the camera sound was
clearer than that picked up by the sound recorder, especially as it was windy when we
filmed the outside scenes. This was a minor problem as the camera sound is a bit too
quiet and would need to be edited in post. The scene with the car outside was difficult as
we could only re-take the shot a handful of times as my driver did not have a lot of petrol
(contingency issue) and I had to get the sequence from multiple angles. I feel that overall
production was successful up to this point and the majority of the footage was clear other
than the issues in the house and the odd shaky shot. However, before filming the last

4. POST-PRODUCTION
Broadly explain your post-production process. What went well, what could be improved?
How did you edit and produce your final piece?
My initial editing went well and I was able to use feedback from my peers and tutors to
improve the initial sequence and allow it to flow better. I lightened and colour corrected
the opening scene as the raw footage was too dark. Some of the shots had irrelevant
background noise so I had to alter the sound on a lot of footage, this was especially
important in the scene with all the dialogue as I needed to ensure that the sound synced
up with the actors’ lips and sounded like all one audio track. I moved on to special effects
using after effects, starting by chroma keying all of the green screen scenes. This took
some practice but once I properly knew what I was doing I was able to get this portion of
the editing done quickly. I edited the ‘chip implant’ onto the protagonists head but I am not
happy with the outcome, the chip kept moving out of place and I went back to re-keyframe
it several times. The chip moving made it much less realistic and brought down the
quality of my final film. If I were to do it again I would make a physical chip and use
eyelash glue to stick it to the actor’s temple before filming, instead of relying on post
production. Another difficult area of the post production was the computer, especially as
the actual monitor used when filming was broken and the webpages had to be added in
using after effects. The numbers above characters heads were added in using the text
feature and a motion track. I was really proud of how this effect turned out, especially as
I’d had a lot of problems with it in my tests during the pre-production period. A large issue
I had was related to sound, both with finding appropriate music for the soundtrack and
with syncing up the actors’ speech with their lips and keeping several takes worth of
audio track sounding the same. I used many layers to get the sound right, and was never
completely happy with the outcome. Overall, I feel that I have managed to significantly
improve my skills using Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, and that I have created my

5. SCHEDULING
How did you plan the different parts of your production? Did you use any
specialist software or techniques? What problems did you have?
I created a schedule of production to help keep myself on track and so that I
could clearly see what needed to be done within a certain time frame. I co-
ordinated with the cast and crew to find out when they would be free to film and
tried my best to work around their free time and keep in line with my own
schedule. This was difficult as a lot of the filming required transport to get to a
location and I had to ensure that I would be able to get the cast to location and
that the location would be available when I needed it. For one scene, I had to
organise several people and a vehicle to be at a location for a certain time which
took a lot of advance planning and changing of dates before we came to a
conclusion, but in the end the scene was filmed. I planned the majority of the
shoot in advance and used shot lists, a script and storyboards when filming to
keep myself on track and to save time that could have been wasted re-shooting
if I had missed out vital parts of the film due to lack of planning. The main
problem I have had with scheduling and planning is that my lead actor was
ultimately unavailable to film the last scene and I have had to re-edit the entire
film to accommodate the lack of an ending. I found that having a schedule to go
off really helped when things started to go wrong with my film and I got really off
track, as I was able to see where I should have been in the production process
and try steer myself back in the right direction.

6. TROUBLESHOOTING
Think about the problems you had in your production [consider technical,
logistical, organisational and personnel related issues]. How did you resolve
them? Did your contingency plan work? How could you have improved this?
Unfortunately, my contingency plan did not cover my actor suddenly cancelling
on me with only one scene left to film so I was forced to troubleshoot and re-edit
the draft of the film in order to create an ending out of footage I already had. This
was the biggest issue that I had and I think it has decreased the quality of my
final product significantly, although I believe that I was able to salvage a clear
storyline and attempt to create a cliff hanger ending. Another issue that arose
during the project was the location for the science lab. The science department in
college were not co-operative regarding allowing us to film in a lab, so my tutor
helped me to book out a meeting room that would have been passable with the
appropriate props and mise en scene, however, this room became unavailable
when I had scheduled to film, and under time pressure I resulted in filming on a
green screen back drop and editing the background in post production. The
chroma key was useful and worked, but due to the nature of the scene, I had to
rotate the set up and move my actors to keep them well on the green background
and make post production as easy as possible. A final small issue was that the
actor playing the protagonist lost the shirt that he had been wearing during the
first shoot. We managed to find a similar one, but this may affect continuity
throughout the film.

7. INDIVIDUAL
PERFORMANCE
Assess your performance in your chosen roles. What did you do? How do
you think performed in this role? Can you think of any areas where you
could have improved your performance?
I wrote, directed, filmed and edited the short film. I feel that I could have
organised the cast better and allowed myself more time to edit the film when
creating my schedule. If I had the chance to re-do the project I would have
chosen and idea that required less visual effects and relied more on
camerawork, as this would allow me to play to my strengths. However, I feel
that I have really pushed myself and gained better understanding of film and
editing in this project, and have learned more than I would have if I had not
over-done it (although I would have a far better film). I feel that I was able to
stay calm and professional when on location with the cast and crew and
have been able to troubleshoot when things have gone wrong. If I had better
managed my time towards the end of the project, I may have been able to
come up with an alternate ending or improved the special effects in the film,
I will remember this for next time. Although my film isn’t what I intended it to
be, I feel that I was able to work around issues as they arose and have still
achieved something as a result.

8. PRODUCTION
TECHNIQUES
Did you have to learn or develop new skills are part of your production? How did
this change or influence your choice of production techniques? Of the techniques
used which did you rate as the most successful and why? Which techniques were
not as you had expected? Why?
I used a slider mount for the first time in this project. It took a few test shots (and
balancing it on various things to get the right height etc) to get a smooth shot but
once it was stable it was perfect and I got some great shots with it. I also used the
green screen in this project which I hadn’t done seriously (I’d used it once
previously in a college corporate video) before and found keeping the green
screen flat and well lit was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. I stuck
to a simple white background when using Key light in post production as I didn’t
have a lot of experience or time to experiment at this point in the project and
wanted to create something of a decent quality.
Although I had used motion track effects before and did several test shots in my
planning stages, I still found this to be the biggest challenge in my project and
required help from my tutors at multiple stages during this stage. The task of
doing multiple tracks in one shot and have the numbers count down at the same
time was far bigger than I originally intended and I feel that I let myself down by
leaving this as the last effect to be added.

9. MONITORING AND
REVIEW
How did you monitor and review the progress of your project? Essentially, how
did you track the project to keep it on deadline?
I used my schedule to keep as on track as I could and faced the set-backs
during production by rescheduling or finding a way to work around them. I feel
that the outcome of the project is not all that I wanted it to be but I will be able
to meet the deadline with the final film. I realised that I was not on track with
my schedule after filming ran over by a week. I had a significant amount of
special effects to do on the film but they ended up being a lower quality than
intended as I had to meet the final deadline and the effects were imperative to
the story. I monitored my film by showing it to my peers and requesting
feedback throughout the whole process, from the initial idea to the draft edits. I
used all this feedback to review my work and make improvements and changes
that could make my work a higher standard. I had a dilemma regarding the
ending of my film and showed it to one of the tutors, asking for advice. We
decided to end the film on a cliff hanger and leave the ending of the film up to
the viewers interpretation, rather than making it all for nothing in a way by
having the character wake up and it all be a dream. I incorporated this
feedback into my production and changed the soundtrack for the end of the
film to heighten suspense rather than to be melancholy in order to create the
new desired effect.

10. EARLY VERSIONS OF
YOUR FILM
Explain the process that you went through in order to complete your final
film. This should consider your choice of interim screenings and what
feedback you received, how you used this feedback and whether it affected
your final film.
I started by assembling an original draft edit by simply putting the footage in
an order that worked with no consideration for sound and no detailed colour
correcting or brightness editing. I then watched it through several times and
made changes in order to make the sequence flow better and seem more
natural. After this was when I began to fix the sound and alter the brightness
of certain shots, alongside other simple but key editing. I did not submit my
film for the screening as it makes no sense without the VFX numbers that
count down, but from the feedback received by others and from watching
other student films, I was able to use this in my own production, cutting the
opening sequence of the protagonist getting ready for work and tightening it
up. I also made the build up to the climax of the film a more rapid edit to
build suspense and create more atmosphere. I experimented with multiple
options for the chip implant in the protagonists temple and how I would
represent that on screen and came to the decision by showing examples to
my peers and getting feedback from them.

11. FINAL FILM
Assess your final film in the following areas; technical qualities, creative qualities
and whether it fit your plan. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each area
and suggest how you could improve it further…
The final product was not what I wanted it to be. I think that the VFX let it down
and as they were imperative to the plot. If I had better managed my time and done
more test shoots I would have had a better quality final product. I think that
visually, my film had some decent camera work and the dialogue was a good
quality. The technical qualities of my film were not the best, but this allowed me to
focus on the editing of the film and try make it the best it can be to make up for
the visual effects. I also spent a lot of time colour correcting and ensuring that the
shots without visual effects were as good as they can be. The creative qualities of
my film were stronger than the technical qualities and I managed to stay very
close to my plan when it came to how my film would look visually. I was happy
with how closely the majority of the film matched with my storyboard and other
visual planning. Other strengths in my film include the camerawork, I was very
proud of a slider shot in the opening and I enjoyed the sequence of close ups
which translated well from my planning into the final film. I could improve my film
by going back and re-doing the special effects using skills that I have developed
throughout the project. I would also concentrate more on the soundtrack planning
and creating a soundtrack that fits better with my film and creates more impact.
I’m not sure if the message I’d intended in the planning has translated into the
final film, but the general idea worked and has made for an interesting story.