Project Evaluation

My short film was a fictional Crime/Thriller Detective themed story of two childhood best friends who are now detective partners. It begins in Fred’s living room; Bobby is sitting on the sofa and gets a phone call from Anthony. Bobby continues to act weird even when Fred returns from the Kitchen with two teas. After a short conversation, Bobby gets another phone call from Anthony. Him picking up his phone makes Fred notice the jewellery on Fred’s finger and points out his unique ring. Bobby then receives a threatening message from Anthony, making him race off, leaving Fred’s house and finishing the first scene. It then cuts to a forest where a crime scene investigation is being held. After another short conversation, Fred leaves Bobby with the body to go investigate for potential evidence. Bobby then checks his hands a pocket, realising that his ring is missing. He chases after Fred. While Fred is looking for clues, he finds something on the floor: Bobby’s ring. He remembers it’s Bobby’s but it’s too late. He hears a gun reload behind him. He knows who it is. They talk it out but it’s too late. The scene ends with a gunshot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I believe one of my strengths of my final major project is the quality of the camera work. After getting feedback from my tutors while in the post-production process, I was complimented on the originality of shots as well as the quality of the footage. I also think that the camera quality was a strength of mine and helped the overall quality of the whole short film. I also think another strength of my short film is the graphics and titles. In the editing process I added titles to introduce and give information to the viewer on the title, the time frame and extra information like who is ringing. I was also complimented on this feature of my short film by my tutors as it was unique. Another strength I have is that there is a contrast between the two characters physically and aesthetically. Not only does this allow the viewer to easily tell them apart but the aesthetic differences show the personalities of the characters clearly, helping the viewer understand the emotions and actions of the character’s better. The lighting of the whole short film is another strength in my short film as every scene is bright but not too overly exposed that it ruins the quality. No scene is too dark either, which helps make my short film flow smoothly from shot to shot as there are minimal continuity problems involving lighting. Finally, I think my final strength within my short film is the ending shot. This is because of the angle of the shot. The viewer is unable to view Bobby’s face which means they can’t see the emotion he holds. This represents Bobby as a character as he is an emotionally closed-off character, and he doesn’t show his emotions a lot, so he is struggling to in this scene where he is deciding to kill his best friend for his own safety.

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Nevertheless, there are still negatives within my final major project. I know the audio could’ve been recorded better if I just spent more time practicing and preparing what to do with the lapel microphones. Especially with the second scene, I had to use a lot of camera audio for one of the character’s dialogue due to the low-quality audio that was recorded. Next time I will make sure to prepare the audio recording better so I can receive high quality audio for every piece of dialogue. Another weakness in my short film, “The Ring” is that I have some continuity issues which could’ve easily been fixed if I just took a step back and reviewed everything. For example, there are some scenes where arms aren’t in the right place, people looking the wrong way, objects are in the scene that were or weren’t there before etc. To avoid this happening in the future, I will make sure to match up the last shot to the next shot to every detail. I believe I could’ve also done better with the storytelling side. For example, in the first scene, make sure that all the important details are stated. If I could go back and redo it, I would state that Fred and Bobby are detective partners and insinuate their childhood friendship more. For the second scene, I would add more props like police tape to show the audience it is a crime scene. This point goes into my next point that I feel that I am pushing the viewer too hard to understand the storyline. Due to the lack of extra props and not stating important points within the dialogue, I think that the viewer will struggle to understand why they’re suddenly investigating a crime scene. Next time, I will make sure that everything is stated, and everything makes more sense. I will also pay more attention to needed props to help tell the storyline in the pre-production section for my next project. The final weakness I had while in the production stage is that I missed an important shot that I needed to film. Luckily, it was an easy fix however, next time I will make sure all of the shots are recorded to a high standard, so I don’t have to panic my way around the issue.

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For my final major project, I had no intended question that I was planning to explore and find out. It was rather a genre that I wanted to experiment with. I wanted to see if I could create a crime themed thriller short film however, I wanted to research and attempt to create a plot twist ending. For this, I researched multiple different things such as how to create a successful plot twist and how to build up tension. This research led me to investigating a specific director who excels in suspense, Steven Spielberg. I specifically took an example from Jaws, where he took shots close to the character’s hands and used small cues of music to help build the tense atmosphere. This helped me understand the importance of quick close-ups and music to help build suspense and tension and how it affects the viewer by making them feel uneasy as they realise something bad is about to happen. I also found that “the best plot twist is the one that can create the biggest surprise without ruining the established logic.” This has helped me identify what is a successful plot twist ending and what I need to do to support that. These pieces of research have affected my project for the better as they helped me up the quality of my short film as well as giving me information to hold onto for future projects.

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When I was researching ideas for my short film, I came across a film that had the plot twist ending that I was hoping to achieve. That film was The Prestige. After watching it, I took notes such as “I can take inspiration from how they revealed the plot twists. I can flash back to the original scene or new scenes with familiar settings and reveal important details that weren’t signified before.” This film helped me understand what kind of plot twist ending I want and how to achieve it efficiently. If I didn’t use this film for my research, I think I would’ve struggled on the plot twist. For experimentation, I wanted to attempt on successfully doing a rack focus. My idea was for the end scene is to have a rack focus going from Fred’s distressed face and him holding the ring to Bobby’s figure in the background, holding a gun to Fred’s head. I chose to do this as it helps build suspense. I attempted this technique myself with two figures to represent the characters. It took me 2 attempts to successfully do it. I also experimented with the new microphones to try and find the best possible way to get sound without showing the microphone. I also practiced script writing to help write my script for the dialogue in my short film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In comparison to The Prestige, the film I was mainly inspired from for the plot twist, I think I could’ve done better to build up the plot twist and I also think I could have inserted more information for the viewer to understand the overall storyline to help backup the logic of the twist. Next time, I will pay more attentive detail to the small features to help with the storyline and to improve the quality of the short film overall. Furthermore, compared to other detective games/shows, for example Detroit: Become Human (the main inspiration for me to choose a crime/thriller genre), I feel like I need to add more props to help backup the storyline – for example, police tape, better outfits, badgers – that will make the viewer understand the plot more as well as giving my short film some originality. For my upcoming project, I want to pay more detail to my choices of props and what I can add to the list to make my short film more interesting and understandable.

 

 The main areas I wanted to develop with this project were my directing, camerawork and editing skills. I wanted to improve my directing skills because I struggle with directing due to not being able to socialise as well as others, making myself quiet and closed-off in front of new people and even acquaintances. I wanted to open up and improve my social and directing skills ready for the next project. I think my directing skills have improved however, I feel like I can improve more when it comes to asking the actors to give emotion rather than just taking the take and going. Additionally, I think my camerawork skills improved majorly as it was highly commented on for my final major project. I will take what I have learned from this experience with me for an upcoming project and hopefully I can achieve the same quality if not better. I wanted to improve them as my one-minute short film wasn’t great camera quality wise so I wanted to show that I can do better. Finally, due to my interest in editing and high chance of me continuing with the post-production path in the future, I wanted to improve my editing skills further to help me learn new tricks and skills for a potential upcoming opportunity. As I had to remember and learn a little bit about a new editing software for this project, I believe my editing skills have improved as I now know how to run two editing software’s.

 

I believe I achieved everything I set out for but one thing. Due to not having my own camera on me as I do not have a camera bag that fits everything inside, I had to use another one which belonged to my friend. This camera did not have the feature which I used to create a rack focus, so I just scratched the idea completely. In the future, I will make sure to bring my own camera and try to include a rack focus in my next project, so my experimentation and research haven’t gone to waste. I also think that the plot twist ending would be successfully complete if I had more props to explain the storyline, overall making the plot twist more effective on the viewer. Other than that, I’m happy that I achieved everything despite the feeling that I could’ve improved on a lot there.

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The feedback from my tutors was that they felt like I needed more props to help direct the storyline more, which I totally agree with. In the future for upcoming projects, I will make sure to delve into props to help with the storytelling factor more but being careful at the same time not to overdo it. Furthermore, they also said that the overall camerawork is great, but I needed to add more sound to liven the atmosphere more – which I added last. I feel like I could’ve had more sound design so in the future, I will make sure to think thoroughly into sound design as I now know the true importance of it. My peer feedback was that the film is great however the audio could be better, which I agree with, and that the continuity issues are sometimes noticeable. This means next time I have to be extra careful with continuity as well as preparing audio recorders such as microphones and making sure they are recording high quality audio before filming.

 

Overall, I think I done well with my short film, and I understand the issues I had with my project. I know and comprehend the tasks that I want to set myself to really push my boundaries to create an amazing film. All of the feedback I have gained has been so constructive and really motivated me to make sure my next project is better. I still think I gave a good effort and it is high quality, I just believe the story telling could be confusing to most viewers and that they could get confused easily.