Production reflection

Production reflection
Harry T. Docwra

For some of my scenes I wanted to add
some sort of colour correction to make
certain colours seem brighter and stand
out more, making the image seem more
appealing.
As well as the rest of the project it is
entirely filmed with my canon video
camera. I filmed it like this because I felt
like my camera had a similar quality to the
original seasons of the office.
I think the shot looks very bright and I like
how the colour of the leaves and Ben’s
face stand out and make it feel very
appealing.

One of the concerns when adding music to my
project was the fear of getting a copyright strike from
YouTube.
To help keep the strike away I opened GarageBand on
my iPhone and screen recorded myself randomly
tapping the drums in order to create some extra
noise that isn’t too distracting and can be added to
the music going over the intro. By doing this it makes
it difficult for YouTube to recognise the music and
give me a copyright strike for it.
I think I did a good job of making the music sound
quiet enough to not disrupt the music too much but
also enough to hide it from YouTube.

For the intro for my project I took the song
“KIDS” by MGMT and cut it up into a shorter
version of itself using iMovie. To find the music
I went onto YouTube and screen recorded a
video of the song. To help avoid a copyright
claim I went and did the same to an 8-bit
version of the song.
I chose this song because I felt like it had the
right sort of vibes for a film centred around a
group of students. And it is very popular with
this generation.
I think the edit makes the intro go on for a bit
long but I think it is a reasonable length for the
song.

This is the script for the first scene in my
project.
Even though we couldn’t afford rehearsals
we stayed as close as we could to the
script when filming it. I had to allow some
improvisation so the actors could
remember some fragments of their lines.
What needed up being said in the final
product ended up being not exactly the
same in the script but close enough that I
found it satisfying enough.

To do the talking head scenes I set up a desk and
3 sets of lights in the studio. I placed the camera
opposite me and the desk.
The lighting gives a very accurate and clear image
of the actors faces(s), it is also how they filmed
the talking head scenes in the office so it also
feels more like that show, which is what I want to
remind people of.
I think it looks good however since some of the
scenes were filmed on a different day, the
lighting is therefore different in two different
shots. I wish there was a way I could go back to
the filming process and fix it.

To do the credits I went and took a photo
of something that is pitch black and used it
as the background.
I wanted it to look like this because I didn’t
want any special effects for the end
credits. I wanted it to look the way the
credits looked in the office.
Although there isn’t MUCH creativity going
on with the credits I still think they look
good without anything special.

This scene had me a bit concerned as both
of us are wearing masks and therefore our
voices might sound muffled or unclear.
We could have had the masks off but I
wanted to show that students at college
are following the COVID rules in the film.
To make sure the dialogue was audible I
made sure both of us spoke loud enough
so the camera would be able to hear us. In
post I managed to turn the volume up.
I think the scene sounds almost clear
enough. Although looking back I wish I had
us pull our masks down to say our lines so
I know that they will be audible.

Here I have the results of what people thought were
the strengths of my project. From the results I can
see that;
• 54.55% of my audience prefer the performances
• 18.18% of my audience say they prefer the script
• 27.27% said they prefer the Camerawork
This tells me that the performances were the
strongest part of the project, which means that we
were all doing a good job at what Ed were doing in
front of the camera. However it seems as if my
project could’ve done with a better script.
I think if I had a tighter script with more continuity I
would’ve been able to make the project feel like it
tied together more.

Here I have the results for what people
thought were the weaknesses of the
project.
9.09% said it was performances.
18.18% said it was the script.
9.09% said it was the camerawork
9.09% said it was the pacing
54.55% said it was the colour Grading
This information tells me that the Colour
Grading was the biggest problem of the
project and needed fixing. The information
also tells me that there were no problems
with my directing or the tone of the
project.
To make my project better I could fix the
colour grading by making the colours
brighter and stand out more.

These responses tell me what I could’ve done to
improve my film. These responses are very
mixed and do not give me a clear idea of how I
could improve it. For example; there’s a
comment that states I should take some of the
content out because it feels a bit crowded at
times yet there’s another comment telling me
to make it longer.
The responses feel a bit jarring and very
confusing too much for me to reflect on what
needs changing and what doesn’t.

These responses show what people thought
of the soundtrack in my FMP.
From the responses I can infer that a majority
of my audience were very keen on my
soundtrack and thought it fitted well with the
tone and vibes of the film. However there are
those who didn’t. Once again it is hard to
decide whether or not I should change the
soundtrack in a way or just leave it.

For my final survey monkey question I asked
people what they would give my project out
of 10, in order to gain a simple answer on
whether people just thought my project was
good or not.
From the results I can see:
8.33% gave it a 3/10
Another 8.33% gave it a 4/10
25% gave it a 6/10
16.67% gave it a 7/10
Another 16.67% gave it an 8/10
25% gave it a 10/10
These responses show that my project has
some mixed reactions

These results from another
audience show their opinions
on what they thought were
the strengths of the project.
From the responses I can see;
26.92% said performances
19.23% said script
23.08% said camerawork
23.08% said directing
3.85% said pacing
3.85% said the tone
Like the responses on my
other survey most of my
audience said they prefer the
performances in the film.

From these responses from my other audiences I can
see what they thought were the weaknesses of my
project:
11.11% said performances
22.22% said script
14.81% said camerawork
29.63% said pace
18.52% said colour grading
3.70% said tone
The comments also suggest that there are somethings
wrong with the script and pacing.
To make my project better I could have written a better
a tighter and more linear script as well as make the
pacing go a bit faster so it doesn’t drag.

I asked my audience the simple question
of what I could do to improve my project.
It was mostly the same answer from all of
them. My project was too long and
needed trimming down, in order to make
some of the jokes hit harder and keep
them entertained until the end of the film.
One of the complaints mentions making
the actors ‘seem like they’re not acting’.
Although this is usually up to the actors
who are acting I suppose I could have had
a few rehearsals and done a few more
second takes to make the acting seem
better and make the actors seem like
they’re taking the job more seriously.

I asked my audience what they thought of the
soundtrack (the songs used in the project).
The responses to the soundtrack are mostly
positive and say that it goes well with the
tone of the film very well, saying it gave off a
good energy about it. Some say it comes a bit
out of nowhere.
I personally disagree with this but to fix this I
could maybe remove a song or find a new
way for it to come into the project.

Here I have the responses to the simplest question
in my survey which was what my audience would
rate my project out of 10.
From my results I can see that
17.86% gave it a 5/10
28.57% gave it a 6/10
46.43% gave it a 7/10
7.14% gave it an 8/10
This tells me that my project does have some strong
elements in it and is somewhat entertaining to the
audience and is well made in some aspects.

Personal Feedback-Kieran
• What did you like about the project.
It was very inclusive of several people that are close to or know Harry who he has met over
the last two years which made it a fun project for everyone involved you can tell from the
final project itself that the piece is very involved with all the people that featured in the
piece.
• What did you not like about the project?
I liked the piece in general and don’t have a bad word to say about it in all honesty it
ticks all the boxes

Personal Feedback-Erin
• What did you like about my project?
The overall concept and how you built up on it through your
production .
• What didn’t you like about my project?
There were some aspects where I didn’t feel it connected in terms of
the scenes, possibly because of scripting issues.

Personal Feedback
• What did you like about my project?
The video was an entertaining watch, there were multiple funny moments and the performances
were decent. There were interesting ideas throughout, but…
• What did you not like about my project?
Many of the ideas were very clearly stolen from the primary inspiration behind this piece, ‘the
office’. Now, this could be a way to honour the original, but for a project like this, of such crucial
importance, I think reworking old material and playing it off as your own is quite lazy and doesn’t
impact me in the same way, that an original idea would. The parkour scene in particular was
unbearably long and showcased to me your incessant need to use pre-existing material, in an effort
to resonate with a specific audience (fans of the office), whereas with people such as myself who
aren’t in that category, the entirety of that sequence plays off quite cringey and ineffective in
engaging me as a viewer; the same goes for the jelly scene (also stolen from the office). Overall, the
piece was FAR too long, to a point where it was clear that things were being added in for the sake of
a cheap laugh. Something a 1/3 of the length would have kept me more interested and given the
sheer amount of unnecessary material within the piece, shedding down the timeline would have
been an achievable goal. Finally, despite its flaws, I did find elements funny within the piece, but
that’s likely due to the fact that many of the jokes scattered throughout are only understood by our
inside group, whereas external audiences will be alienated by the context behind each one, leading
to mass confusion and a lesser entertainment value.

Personal Feedback Reflection
• From my personal Feedback I can see that one of my viewers did not like the
references to the office, claiming that they were just stolen. They also
believed that most of the jokes were inside jokes when they were not meant
to be. A lot of them are fond of the concept and ideas that are in the project
very good and clever, but there could have been better executed. It seems as
if one person thought there was too much content in the piece to keep him
interested all the way through (hence why I made a second cut with half the
run time).
• To help appeal to my audience better I could maybe have written a more
straight forward storyline and less random scenes to show off my comedy. I
could’ve maybe tried and kept it under 10 minutes, so the viewer can stay
attached for the whole thing.

Production reflection

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