S2S - Project Evaluation
Pre-Production
Story development
Once we had been given our brief, I had already started to begin planning stories in my head to what I could potentially want to film. Once I had decided that I wanted to follow the route of a drama, I took pen to paper and begun to write down some ideas. Although, initially I had actually thought of some ideas, I struggled to think of a solid idea that really gave me a buzz.
I had written down a few ideas, one of them being my current idea about a girl who is struggling with life and meets a character who helps her on her journey. Steve taught us that we should write about something we know and can relate to, or to use influences around us. As I am a runner and feel running is good for the mind, I thought this would be good to write about within my script.
I then decided to base the Story on a young girl, Grace and an older man John, the film also featured Grace's mother Jane. I wanted the story to show the struggle of a young girl who's dad had died. Someone with the weight on their shoulders who used running to get away.
Steve had also taught us to have moments and I wanted to ensure I did to create the story and keep the film exciting for the viewer throughout. I got the basis of my story by using mind maps and mood boards to create the kind of personalities and characters I wanted. You can see my mind maps within my 'pre-production notes' blog page.
I really enjoyed this stage of the process, it was the basis of everything and if I hadn't fully prepared, it would off made it more difficult for me at the later stages, if I didn't know my story inside and out. I made sure I was prepared by ensuring all finer details had been noted down and researched. That's really were the mind maps and mood boards came into play, as it let me explore each character individually. If I was going to redo this part of the project, I would take more time developing my idea and looking for feedback from others to evolve and better the idea. Although, we had feedback from Steve and Simon once we had pitched our ideas, I feel I didn't take their feedback on board meaning things that fed-back to me as needing to be improved in my script review, could have been dealt with at the first pitch feedback.
Script writing
During the scriptwriting stage I faced many challenges, although as I mentioned above I had prepared my story and knew it inside out, I still found it hard to know what to write, or where to take my story. It was hard to know when to move onto the next stage of the story and still try and keep it within 10 pages.
I started off by attempting to mark out what I thought would be each scene, or what I wanted to be each scene, for example, when Grace argues with her mum to begin with, I didn't know if that should be the first scene or there should be an opening with some extra context. Steve had already taught us the CIA Principal, which is only to tell the audience what they need to know, so it was hard to gauge if I had over written or if there were scenes that were irrelevant. I would ensure next time, although I knew my story, that I had taken more time to review the beginning, middle and end. Although, I knew all parts of my story, I hadn't step by step wrote out all stages of the story, this threw me off when coming to write the script. It was like I knew what was going to happen in the story and when but I hadn't thought out the parts in-between.
This meant, I had written the big scenes, changing points and the moments; however, the transitioning scenes in between I hadn't figured out yet. The whole process was completely backwards and it meant it took me a lot longer. It definitely taught me that the whole story has to be thought about, every details is important.
When writing scripts in the future, I feel it would be better to develop a storyboard for the scriptwriting to give me an idea to what part of the story is next.
Production documents and Risk Assessments
I had previous experience for the Pre-Production stages before, I had completed Risk Assessments, Shot Lists and storyboards previously so this wasn't the first time I was completing these documents. A lot of preparation takes place to be able to complete the documents thoroughly, for example, I needed to get permission for my location which was proving hard. I had emailed the Rugby Club and emailed/telephoned the director of the rugby club team, but had no response or luck.
I had already completed my risk assessment for this location; however, needed to find a public location to ensure I had my risk assessment completed in time for my scheduled filming date. As I still had no response to the rugby club field I wanted to use, I had to move my filming to a public piece of land in Rochester. Although this was not my first choice of location and I then had to complete and resubmit the updated risk assessment. If I had not been organised and done it in advance, I could of potentially run out of time and missed my filming date.
Production
Production and filming day
After picking up my camera the day before on Monday 25th, my day of filming soon came on Tuesday 26th. I was excited and nervous in general, the weather was extremely bad in the morning, its was extremely windy and rainy. I knew this was going to cause me problems but decided to deal with it head on.
I messaged my cast and crew just to make everyone aware we were continuing in the rain and to bring an umbrella and big coats. I'd made sure I had stocked up on blankets, umbrellas and big sheets to use if we needed to cover ourselves of the camera equipment.
Once we had arrived at the filming location, the weather continued to get worst. I set up the camera and lined up a few shots; however, the rain began pouring so heavily, I decided that we should delay shooting and get ourselves and all equipment within the car. Although, this was really inconvenient, I couldn't allow the cast/crew to stand in the freezing cold, especially with it pouring down.
Although, I had checked the weather a week and then a few days before, it had been scheduled for light rain and not heavy, hailstone rain. I was really disappointed and found it extremely hard to keep focused and motivated. It had put me in a bad mood and I found it hard to get back into the motivated mood once we became filming again. The cold weather and the rain made me think my whole shoot was going to be cancelled. Luckily, once we had sat in my car for an hour, the rain eased of and we saw an opportunity to shoot without any rain.
As I mentioned earlier, my morale had been dampened by the rain and I felt negatively towards my shoot; however, once we had recovered all the equipment and got back out of the car, director mode soon kicked in and I was ready to produce my film. On future projects this has taught me just to stay calm, regardless of how cold or how the weather is impacting your shoot, you can overcome it with patience. I will take that onto every shoot I have moving forward from now on. I allowed the weather to effect my mood; however, in the end it all came together.
Another challenge I faced while filming was the pace of my shots. As I was director and DOP, I did all of my own shots. I had my storyboard and shot list which helped; however, due to the rain, it felt as though I was shooting with a time limit. Although I wasn't, rain was still scheduled later that day and we had no idea when it would start again, the sky was so grey and the air still felt damp, so I felt I had rushed my shots to ensure my storyboard was covered. This meant only getting one or two takes of most scenes, which did cause an issue when editing.
I was lucky on the day of shooting as there was not a lot of the public around, I thought an issue I would find is dogs and pedestrians walking into the shot. The one good thing about the rain was that it probably massively detoured people from coming out and walking their dogs. As we were located near a busy road, it was hard however to get clear sound, the audio was fine. We were far enough away from the road for the audio to be heard clearly, however the ambient background sound was mostly cars and vehicles which I felt was going to prove inconsistent in the edit.
Post-Production
Editing
Editing is my favourite part and this is the career i'm wanting to pursue after university, so this is always the part I look forward to. I think its incredible you get to see and place together clips that you have filmed, so I was looking forward to getting started.
Once I had imported all of my clips, I like to create folders and organise my clips into scenes, I feel this helps to keep organised. Once I had done this, I viewed all my footage to see what it had come out like. Unfortunately, although I was happy with my footage, due to the bad weather and urgency of filming there were a few shots with rain on the camera lens. This was really disappointing for me. I was annoyed at myself that I hadn't thought to of wiped the camera lens to avoid this.
I started placing clips on the timeline and was happy with the amount of coverage I got; however, as I mentioned earlier I did not feel like I took my time, i felt rushed. When looking back at my footage you can definitely see this, not so much the scenes, but only having one take of each shot is really sloppy. I don't feel it has affected my video greatly; however, I do feel it left me short with options for my edit, which is a big shame.
During editing the rough cut, I also found it hard to edit the audio, as I mentioned above the dialogue from the actors was clear but the busy road had caused each clip to sound different. Luckily, I had filmed a buzz track which allowed me to use this as the base line, which meant all the audio should sound as if they're on the same layer. As when you originally watched the edit, you could hear the different sound levels of each clip.
Once I had pieced together my rough cut, it was time for my first lot of feedback from Simon, once he had watched my film he gave me the following feedback:
1- There needs to be potentially some thunder or rain sounds to build the setting of the film.
2- That although I had a lot of coverage, I didn't need to use it all, the scene is quite simplistic, so I didn't need to overcrowd it with lots of shots.
3-The sound still wasn't correct, there were times you could still hear the audio changing.
Once I had received the feedback, I made sure I got on to fixing it. Another part of the editing process I found difficult was the colour correction of shots. Unfortunately, towards the end of my short film, I had the exposure up to high, meaning the clips were a lot brighter then the majority of the clips I had filmed before. I think this again all comes down to the time and rushing the shots. If I had slowed down and focused more on the set up the getting the shots done, I probably would of noticed it had been a lot brighter.
Once I had done the feedback above, slowed down the footage and took more coverage out and held shots for longer. I was ready to export my video and watch it on the big screen. This was to ensure that the sound levels were correct and the audio could be clearly heard.
Final Evaluation of the overall project.
Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my script, video and how the module went in general. I think it was nice to face challenges as this is what teaches you to improve for the next time.
The struggle of finding permission for my location was definitely one of the first challenges, as the owners of the field were not responding, I then had to take the initiative to find another field that was public to ensure I could use this short notice. I will definitely, take that lesson and use it towards every project moving forward. I will ensure I am always fully prepared with a backup location just in case the same thing was to happen again. As I mentioned above, If I hadn't been organised in this sense, it could have completely delayed all stages of production.
While filming the rain became a big issue and it was hard to keep up morale. I have learnt from this that regardless of the weather or struggle, I needed to of took my time and still continued to line up each shot correctly. If I was to do this project again, I would ensure I took time on every shot, that I wasn't rushing and I was taking the same amount of time I would of, if we were in the warm.
If I had of taken more time, I would of noticed the rain on the lens and the exposure being too high, which are both two major challenges I had to face and overcome within this project. It has taught me for every shoot moving forward to have patience and take the correct amount of time to set up each shot.
From filming, I have also learnt that it is so important to get enough takes of each shot. As I mentioned above, I had plenty of coverage of each shot, close ups, medium shots and long shots. Which meant in that sense I had plenty of footage to chose from; however, I only had one take of each shot, instead of a few shots of the close ups or long shots. This meant if there was any discrepancies within the footage it was harder to cover it up with different takes. This again all comes down to the patience and speed of the shoot. This is another thing I will take onto future shoots, that it is so important to get lots of coverage and takes of each shot.
Overall, I really enjoyed this first project and I feel it has taught me alot, to ensure I am taking my time, preparing correctly for a location shoot and the weather. Most importantly, paying full attention to each shot and noticing rain on the lens or high exposure. These are the finer details I feel that will take my work to the next level next time.
Story development
Once we had been given our brief, I had already started to begin planning stories in my head to what I could potentially want to film. Once I had decided that I wanted to follow the route of a drama, I took pen to paper and begun to write down some ideas. Although, initially I had actually thought of some ideas, I struggled to think of a solid idea that really gave me a buzz.
I had written down a few ideas, one of them being my current idea about a girl who is struggling with life and meets a character who helps her on her journey. Steve taught us that we should write about something we know and can relate to, or to use influences around us. As I am a runner and feel running is good for the mind, I thought this would be good to write about within my script.
I then decided to base the Story on a young girl, Grace and an older man John, the film also featured Grace's mother Jane. I wanted the story to show the struggle of a young girl who's dad had died. Someone with the weight on their shoulders who used running to get away.
Steve had also taught us to have moments and I wanted to ensure I did to create the story and keep the film exciting for the viewer throughout. I got the basis of my story by using mind maps and mood boards to create the kind of personalities and characters I wanted. You can see my mind maps within my 'pre-production notes' blog page.
I really enjoyed this stage of the process, it was the basis of everything and if I hadn't fully prepared, it would off made it more difficult for me at the later stages, if I didn't know my story inside and out. I made sure I was prepared by ensuring all finer details had been noted down and researched. That's really were the mind maps and mood boards came into play, as it let me explore each character individually. If I was going to redo this part of the project, I would take more time developing my idea and looking for feedback from others to evolve and better the idea. Although, we had feedback from Steve and Simon once we had pitched our ideas, I feel I didn't take their feedback on board meaning things that fed-back to me as needing to be improved in my script review, could have been dealt with at the first pitch feedback.
Script writing
During the scriptwriting stage I faced many challenges, although as I mentioned above I had prepared my story and knew it inside out, I still found it hard to know what to write, or where to take my story. It was hard to know when to move onto the next stage of the story and still try and keep it within 10 pages.
I started off by attempting to mark out what I thought would be each scene, or what I wanted to be each scene, for example, when Grace argues with her mum to begin with, I didn't know if that should be the first scene or there should be an opening with some extra context. Steve had already taught us the CIA Principal, which is only to tell the audience what they need to know, so it was hard to gauge if I had over written or if there were scenes that were irrelevant. I would ensure next time, although I knew my story, that I had taken more time to review the beginning, middle and end. Although, I knew all parts of my story, I hadn't step by step wrote out all stages of the story, this threw me off when coming to write the script. It was like I knew what was going to happen in the story and when but I hadn't thought out the parts in-between.
This meant, I had written the big scenes, changing points and the moments; however, the transitioning scenes in between I hadn't figured out yet. The whole process was completely backwards and it meant it took me a lot longer. It definitely taught me that the whole story has to be thought about, every details is important.
When writing scripts in the future, I feel it would be better to develop a storyboard for the scriptwriting to give me an idea to what part of the story is next.
Production documents and Risk Assessments
I had previous experience for the Pre-Production stages before, I had completed Risk Assessments, Shot Lists and storyboards previously so this wasn't the first time I was completing these documents. A lot of preparation takes place to be able to complete the documents thoroughly, for example, I needed to get permission for my location which was proving hard. I had emailed the Rugby Club and emailed/telephoned the director of the rugby club team, but had no response or luck.
I had already completed my risk assessment for this location; however, needed to find a public location to ensure I had my risk assessment completed in time for my scheduled filming date. As I still had no response to the rugby club field I wanted to use, I had to move my filming to a public piece of land in Rochester. Although this was not my first choice of location and I then had to complete and resubmit the updated risk assessment. If I had not been organised and done it in advance, I could of potentially run out of time and missed my filming date.
Production
Production and filming day
After picking up my camera the day before on Monday 25th, my day of filming soon came on Tuesday 26th. I was excited and nervous in general, the weather was extremely bad in the morning, its was extremely windy and rainy. I knew this was going to cause me problems but decided to deal with it head on.
I messaged my cast and crew just to make everyone aware we were continuing in the rain and to bring an umbrella and big coats. I'd made sure I had stocked up on blankets, umbrellas and big sheets to use if we needed to cover ourselves of the camera equipment.
Once we had arrived at the filming location, the weather continued to get worst. I set up the camera and lined up a few shots; however, the rain began pouring so heavily, I decided that we should delay shooting and get ourselves and all equipment within the car. Although, this was really inconvenient, I couldn't allow the cast/crew to stand in the freezing cold, especially with it pouring down.
Although, I had checked the weather a week and then a few days before, it had been scheduled for light rain and not heavy, hailstone rain. I was really disappointed and found it extremely hard to keep focused and motivated. It had put me in a bad mood and I found it hard to get back into the motivated mood once we became filming again. The cold weather and the rain made me think my whole shoot was going to be cancelled. Luckily, once we had sat in my car for an hour, the rain eased of and we saw an opportunity to shoot without any rain.
As I mentioned earlier, my morale had been dampened by the rain and I felt negatively towards my shoot; however, once we had recovered all the equipment and got back out of the car, director mode soon kicked in and I was ready to produce my film. On future projects this has taught me just to stay calm, regardless of how cold or how the weather is impacting your shoot, you can overcome it with patience. I will take that onto every shoot I have moving forward from now on. I allowed the weather to effect my mood; however, in the end it all came together.
Another challenge I faced while filming was the pace of my shots. As I was director and DOP, I did all of my own shots. I had my storyboard and shot list which helped; however, due to the rain, it felt as though I was shooting with a time limit. Although I wasn't, rain was still scheduled later that day and we had no idea when it would start again, the sky was so grey and the air still felt damp, so I felt I had rushed my shots to ensure my storyboard was covered. This meant only getting one or two takes of most scenes, which did cause an issue when editing.
I was lucky on the day of shooting as there was not a lot of the public around, I thought an issue I would find is dogs and pedestrians walking into the shot. The one good thing about the rain was that it probably massively detoured people from coming out and walking their dogs. As we were located near a busy road, it was hard however to get clear sound, the audio was fine. We were far enough away from the road for the audio to be heard clearly, however the ambient background sound was mostly cars and vehicles which I felt was going to prove inconsistent in the edit.
Post-Production
Editing
Editing is my favourite part and this is the career i'm wanting to pursue after university, so this is always the part I look forward to. I think its incredible you get to see and place together clips that you have filmed, so I was looking forward to getting started.
Once I had imported all of my clips, I like to create folders and organise my clips into scenes, I feel this helps to keep organised. Once I had done this, I viewed all my footage to see what it had come out like. Unfortunately, although I was happy with my footage, due to the bad weather and urgency of filming there were a few shots with rain on the camera lens. This was really disappointing for me. I was annoyed at myself that I hadn't thought to of wiped the camera lens to avoid this.
I started placing clips on the timeline and was happy with the amount of coverage I got; however, as I mentioned earlier I did not feel like I took my time, i felt rushed. When looking back at my footage you can definitely see this, not so much the scenes, but only having one take of each shot is really sloppy. I don't feel it has affected my video greatly; however, I do feel it left me short with options for my edit, which is a big shame.
During editing the rough cut, I also found it hard to edit the audio, as I mentioned above the dialogue from the actors was clear but the busy road had caused each clip to sound different. Luckily, I had filmed a buzz track which allowed me to use this as the base line, which meant all the audio should sound as if they're on the same layer. As when you originally watched the edit, you could hear the different sound levels of each clip.
Once I had pieced together my rough cut, it was time for my first lot of feedback from Simon, once he had watched my film he gave me the following feedback:
1- There needs to be potentially some thunder or rain sounds to build the setting of the film.
2- That although I had a lot of coverage, I didn't need to use it all, the scene is quite simplistic, so I didn't need to overcrowd it with lots of shots.
3-The sound still wasn't correct, there were times you could still hear the audio changing.
Once I had received the feedback, I made sure I got on to fixing it. Another part of the editing process I found difficult was the colour correction of shots. Unfortunately, towards the end of my short film, I had the exposure up to high, meaning the clips were a lot brighter then the majority of the clips I had filmed before. I think this again all comes down to the time and rushing the shots. If I had slowed down and focused more on the set up the getting the shots done, I probably would of noticed it had been a lot brighter.
Once I had done the feedback above, slowed down the footage and took more coverage out and held shots for longer. I was ready to export my video and watch it on the big screen. This was to ensure that the sound levels were correct and the audio could be clearly heard.
Final Evaluation of the overall project.
Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my script, video and how the module went in general. I think it was nice to face challenges as this is what teaches you to improve for the next time.
The struggle of finding permission for my location was definitely one of the first challenges, as the owners of the field were not responding, I then had to take the initiative to find another field that was public to ensure I could use this short notice. I will definitely, take that lesson and use it towards every project moving forward. I will ensure I am always fully prepared with a backup location just in case the same thing was to happen again. As I mentioned above, If I hadn't been organised in this sense, it could have completely delayed all stages of production.
While filming the rain became a big issue and it was hard to keep up morale. I have learnt from this that regardless of the weather or struggle, I needed to of took my time and still continued to line up each shot correctly. If I was to do this project again, I would ensure I took time on every shot, that I wasn't rushing and I was taking the same amount of time I would of, if we were in the warm.
If I had of taken more time, I would of noticed the rain on the lens and the exposure being too high, which are both two major challenges I had to face and overcome within this project. It has taught me for every shoot moving forward to have patience and take the correct amount of time to set up each shot.
From filming, I have also learnt that it is so important to get enough takes of each shot. As I mentioned above, I had plenty of coverage of each shot, close ups, medium shots and long shots. Which meant in that sense I had plenty of footage to chose from; however, I only had one take of each shot, instead of a few shots of the close ups or long shots. This meant if there was any discrepancies within the footage it was harder to cover it up with different takes. This again all comes down to the patience and speed of the shoot. This is another thing I will take onto future shoots, that it is so important to get lots of coverage and takes of each shot.
Overall, I really enjoyed this first project and I feel it has taught me alot, to ensure I am taking my time, preparing correctly for a location shoot and the weather. Most importantly, paying full attention to each shot and noticing rain on the lens or high exposure. These are the finer details I feel that will take my work to the next level next time.
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