FMP Evaluation

How well do you think you have done? Based on feedback from peers and teachers
over the course of the unit do you believe you have successfully fulfilled
the required brief?

Over the course of the production period I feel like I’ve done really well to stay within
certain guidelines and I stuck to my brief well to produce a well-polished professional
looking production. An example of how I stuck to my brief well is the target audience
work that I’ve done, in my final brief that I produced I spoke about how I wanted to
target my audience at the age range of 13-25 which worked well for my production
due to the fact that a lot of the topics that were within my project were quite sensitive
but very real issues for people within that age range. I wanted to make my production
something that young people could relate to so I went off the idea of someone who’s
down and depressed but finds something (Skateboarding) to help them express
themselves and not being judged for it. This is a topic that is very common within young
people. I found from my topic research that about 20 percent of all teens
experience depression before they reach adulthood. This statistic helped me
a lot as it helped me to realise that the issues that I want to cover effect a lot
more people than I thought. I also found that only percent of young people
who suffer from depression get treatment for it. This helped me develop my
idea as I knew that the number of people that don’t get help for it should find
something to take their minds off their problems, this could be a sport, activity
or person. This led me to choose skateboarding as the escape for my
character as it symbolises fre3edom and I wanted my video to inspire people
that may suffer with mental health issues.
I then produced a focus group where I wanted to gather feedback from my
peers on how I could improve my idea and what research I should be doing.
The focus helped me to decide that my original target audience was wrong
and that I should make it 16-25 instead due to the fact that the issues that I
cover start to effect young people more when they get a bit older so when
they’re young teens they don’t really have too much responsibility meaning
that the issues won’t really affect them as much.

I then sent out my first target audience

survey so that I could narrow down further who I was producing my video for,
I chose to find out what gender my audience thought it would suit more and
a more specific age range, From this I found that my target audience was 17-
19 males. This helped me a lot as it showed me who are most commonly
effected by these issues as well as what I need to include to make it suit my
target audience of males in their late teens, this gave me ideas for props and
costume etc. I was also given a lot of constructive feedback from my
teacher’s throughout this part of the production on how I could improve my
idea to help it suit my target audience more and shot ideas that I could work
off. This helped me massively as it gave me good indications into how to
improve my work. I think I’ve successfully fulfilled the brief as I’ve stuck to the
guidelines well and produced a production to the right style and suited it to
my target audience the best that I could.

Do you believe you followed the guidelines of the competition well?

Raindance endeavours to complete all selection procedures by Friday 31

August 2019 and inform all submitting parties, in writing, if their film has been
successful or not after that time. Successful submissions will receive a
Filmmaker Festival Pack that will include important information on shipping
the DCP to the Festival, press and publicity, guest accreditation, contact
information and how to make the most of participating in the Festival. I think
that I followed the competition guidelines well and I believe that I’ve
produced a production that could be a potential winner of the category
that I entered which was the best music video award. I met the deadline as it
was May 17th and I finished my production a couple weeks before which
meant that if I wanted to improve it further for the competition I could, this
showed me that I managed to stay organised when producing my work as I
completed the work that I needed to within the given time with a lot of time
to spare. I also stuck to the rules and regulations of my competition by
keeping my music video under 10 minutes and not showing any actual drug
use or sexual material. I also made sure that I stuck to the college’s rules and
regulations also so that my production could actually be shown and marked.
These were;

There will be
 No reference to drugs, no swearing and no nudity within your productions

 All practical work must be your own

 Only 10% of your production can be found footage (downloaded) and only if
you are producing a factual programme

 No footage or written work from previous units may be used or resubmitted for
your final project

 All written work must be your own and any sourced work must be
 Harvard referenced properly

 The work submitted must follow the brief created at the beginning of your Final
project

I stuck to these rules well by not showing sex or drug use, all of the footage that I
gathered was also my own so it meant that I wasn’t even using 10% of archive footage. I
also didn’t have any need to use footage from previous projects as I would
see that as cheating as well as the fact that I didn’t need to as no project
that I’ve done before has a similar storyline or topics within it. I made sure that
I also Harvard referenced all of my work so that it was legitimate and I
wouldn’t get in trouble for plagiarism, I also followed the brief we’ll to
produce the work, I worked with its guidelines and it showed when I
produced my Final Major Project.

How well do you believe your production followed the conventions of your genre
/ style?

I think that the work I produced followed the codes and conventions of my
genre really well as I made sure that when I was in the researching section of
the production I looked into all of the conventions that make up my genre
which is drama. I needed to find out how to set up shots to get different
angles that help portray my genre as well as costume, prop and lighting
examples so that I could make my work suit this the best that I could. ‘’A
drama film is a film genre build upon the journey and development of realistic
characters dealing with emotional themes like poverty, class division, drug
addiction, infidelity, sexuality, moral dilemmas, and alcoholism’’ The
interaction between characters, and how they relate to each other forms the
major part of the storyline, this is something that I did well by creating a reality
that’s relatable to a wide range of people that feel like they’re on their own,
suffering from many different issues at once. One of the main ways that I

stuck to the style and genre was the character interaction. B3ecuase it was a
drama I wanted to make the short film at the start as emotional as possible
for the audience so that the music video brings together the story more (the
recovery of my character). I did this by showing The main Character and the
love of his life happy together then her happy with someone else and by
showing the effect that it has on the main character grips the audience more
and gives it more of an emotional appeal which is crucial for the drama
genre. I also made sure that I portrayed the right camera angles that suit the
genre, for example I made sure that I made use of eye line matching,
showing a conversation between two characters which is also a key
technique for the drama genre. I also made use of a long take at the end of
my production which shows the full scale of the shot and what’s going on
within the characters mind. I made sure that as the music died down in the
music video I put into place the long take so that it goes with the music and
closes the video nicely.

I also looked into the conventions of lighting within the drama genre so that I
could make it suit the genre the best that I could. I learnt that you can
portray a characters emotions through the use of shot lighting, this is
something that I took into account for the short film at the beginning of my
production when I was showing a lot of long shots in remote locations. For
example the shots when I’m in bed I tried to look as dark and grainy as
possible so that the audience could feel the characters emotions as he’s
lying in bed, not being able to sleep, Also the shots when the character is sat
on his own drinking I got low angle shots and I turned down the exposure and
increased the amount of shadow shown to show that he’s feeling sad and
alone as darkness symbolises that.

The way the camera is used is crucial in producing a music video. It can
create different effects by the different Angles, and Movements. In general
every music video uses a variety of camera Shots, Angles and Movements to
create different moods, reflect different genres and to emphasize certain
elements in the video itself. I made sure that I stuck to the non-linear structure
as it’s what suited my music video the most as the conflict has happened
previously and is being resolved, this is something that is also key to the
drama genre conventions. I feel like I could have stuck to the conventions
more when I came to the filming process. I feel like I let myself down a little bit
due to the fact that I wasn’t filming my footage myself I had to set up my
camera on a tripod at a certain angle which meant that for a lot of the shots
I didn’t get exactly what I wanted which let down some of my footage but I
worked with what I had and worked hard to achieve the right lighting for
each shot whilst in the editing process as well as editing the shots I didn’t like
in a way that made them look better. This wasn’t too much of a big problem
due to the fact that I had over 200 shots for my music video, this meant that I
could pick and choose what I wanted to incorporate.

Do you believe you did your topic justice?

Before researching into the conventions of my genre I looked into

researching the different topics that my production includes so that I could
make it as realistic as possible, for example I looked into how males with
depression act, dress, and the possible causes so that I could get a better
outlook on why people act the way they do and how you could portray a
character to be depressed. From the way they dress, body language, facial
expressions and the things that they do. An example of this is when I found
that people who suffer from depression experience a lack in self-confidence,
therefor not caring about their appearance as well as being sluggish and
lazy. I used this in my production by wearing baggy7 clothes with holes in
them that helped to portray the emotions of my character to the audience
as well as using a lot of shots of me sat or lying down, showing that I’ve
become lazy etc. A part of this section where I think I let myself down a bit
was when I was researching into drug use with teens. I had the original idea
to show my character going on a downhill spiral throughout the short film
where he gets into using drugs. This would have been a visual representation
of his emotions and it shows the audience what he’s going through and how
he’s trying to escape before he finds skateboarding. I put a lot of time and
effort into researching into this topic, I looked into what drug addicts do and
act, why they start and how to find help etc. I looked also into how they
would typically dress so that I could design my character. When it came to
the filming process I didn’t include any shots of drug use as I remembered it
was against the college guidelines which meant that I didn’t put the research
I did into use. Although it helped me dress my character, a lot of the stuff that
I looked into wasn’t relevant to what I actually filmed. I also looked into gang
activity around the UK as part of my topic research as I wanted to show my
character following a dark path and getting involved with the wrong crowd
which triggers him into his spiral of drugs through peer pressure but when it
came to the filming process a lot of the actors that I originally planned to use
dropped out on the days which meant that I couldn’t gather all the shots
that I wanted. The research on this part taught me how also to dress my
character and some of the locations that I could use.

I think that I did my topic justice but it’s a shame that all of the topics that I
researched into weren’t involved in the Final edit. Most of the research that I
did was about depression/mental illness within teens and this helped me
massively to adapt my story as I learnt how to portray emotions like this in film,
especially by analysing videos with a similar narrative, it helped me to direct
myself when filming in terms of my body language, facial expressions and the
clothes that I wore. When I found that people with depression feel lonely, lost
and trapped it helped me to decide some of the long shots that I wanted of
my character on his own in open locations (conveying his emotions) As well
as realising that an escape like skateboarding was a solid idea as it takes
your mind off issues if your suffering with mental health issues.

Short film / music video do you think you developed your characters to
suit your story?

 Throughout the research and planning section of our project I

developed my character multiple times to make sure that he suited
the style and genre of my story, for example in my short film my
character developed from the start to the finish, I wanted at the start
to show him dressing well and wearing a suit and tie for his job, after
researching into the warning signs and symptoms of depression I
found an article titled ‘’Why today’s teens are more depressed than
ever’’ this gave me a lot of useful information about people who
suffer with mental health issues like my main character I found a list of
warning signs which were;
 Sadness or hopelessness
 Low self-esteem

 Sluggishness (less active)

 Substance abuse

 Spending more time alone (this includes time alone from you as parents and time away from
their regular friends)

 Decrease in desire to do things they used to like to do (sports, activities, hobbies)

 Physical ailments (headaches, appetite problems, sleeping problems)

  Problems in school (falling grades, getting into trouble, not paying attention in class)

 Talking about death or suicide (never to be taken lightly)

 Not caring about appearance

 Running away from home

So from this found that they become extremely unmotivated and sad with the way they
feel. and I tried to show this by my character gradually become more fed up, so I
showed him coming home from work, falling on his bed, showing to the audience that
he’s deep in his thoughts I also showed him getting ready for work where he half puts on
his tie and has his top button undone, this shows how I’ve developed my character as
you can see that he’s beginning to not care about his appearance which is what I
found from research. I analysed a scene from the film ‘Submarine’ where the character
is suffering from different issues, I analysed how he’s rejected from his friends because of
his emotions, he starts not caring about what he looks like and he spends a lot of time in
bed, this helped me to develop my character to suit my story as it gave me shot ideas
that I could use that would be effective and would help to convey his emotions, for
example the shot of my character being pushed to the floor and standing on his own
where he’s looking at his old friends, this gave me inspiration as how to make my
character look as depressed as possible so that the audience really felt for him. Another
way that I developed my character was through body language, from my research I
found that people who suffer from issues have a bad posture and just want to slump all
the time, it shows how I’ve developed my character as in the short film at the start the
angles look down on him, showing his lack of confidence whereas towards the end of
the music video where he’s skating with his friends the angles are low, showing his
importance and the build of his confidence and of his character in general, also when it
goes back into a short film at the end my character walks with his chest out and his him
help up high, showing that he’s found an escape from his problems, he’s changed and
bettered himself, this shows how I’ve developed my character throughout the whole
production.
Problems you faced

Throughout the course of the project I faced many problems but I

found ways to work around them and to overcome them by
working with what I have. The most major problem that I faced
was my actors dropping out of the production on very short notice
which put me in a bad position. I planned for my main character
to be Denis Wright but a few days before we were meant to film
he broke his leg whilst skateboarding which meant that I couldn’t
use him at all. This put me in a bad position as it meant that I had
to find another main character on very short notice, that actor
then also dropped out which meant that if I wanted to get
anything filmed I had to step in and play the main part in my own
production. This worked well as I knew how I wanted my character
to act which meant I didn’t have to direct someone for facial
expressions and body language but it also meant that I couldn’t
do my own camerawork, this was annoying as I knew the angles
and shot types that I wanted for both the short film and music
video, this meant I had to set up my camera on a tripod in an
angle that I thought would work then just went from there, I
overcame this problem by bringing Benny to London with us, he
has experience in camerawork so I thought it would work well if he
helped me with a lot of my shots. In the end it worked out and
came together nicely so this problem was easily overcome.

Another problem that I faced was the weather due to the fact
that you can’t skate in the rain so one day we got to London and
it started pouring with rain, this meant that we had to turn around
and go back to Wycombe but I overcame this by getting shots on
the way back and filming some of my short film in the dark/rain, it
meant that I was pushed back on my production schedule but
the day that we went the weather was perfect which meant that
the shots I did get looked even better than planned. When in the
planning section I also faced the proble4m of coming up with the
right ideas for the music video for the shots, costume etc. I was
worried that id waste a lot of time in the thinking process but I
overcame this problem by talking to my teachers and my peers
for advice on how I could tell the story better along with shot type
ideas.
Based on your discipline (editing /camera etc...) Do you feel
you have developed your skills? How?

My chosen discipline for the Final Major Project was editing due to
the fact that it’s the part of CMP that I’ve flourished in the most
throughout the two year course. From the start of the first year I’ve
noticed that my skills have developed a lot and I’ve learnt and
grown into a good editor. I feel like from doing this final project
I’ve furthered my skills even more. I researched into colour
correction and how to change the feel of a shot through the use
of colour this was also specific for the drama genre so I was able
to make my production suit its genre the best I could.

I spent a lot of time in the editing process colour correcting and

grading each shot so that the emotions could be more visible
through the visuals. For example I went through each shot in the
short film and turned the exposure right down as well as increasing
the shown shadows to give it more of a dark and sad feel. I also
looked into how to make a video more raw looking and I put what
I leant into action by adding a faded film effect to each shot so
that it looks like the whole thing has been hand held filmed and it
gives the shots more of a raw, real vibe, I learnt that this helps to
convey what might not be shown on screen. I found that through
the new editing techniques that I learnt, my production has more
of a professional, well-polished look compared to my previous
pieces of work. I can notice that my editing skills have developed
as well as I’m much better at cutting to the beat than I was before
and it helps bring together my music video and makes it look
more professional, fast cuts are something that makes a good
music video as it shows a lot is going on all at once. I also found
that the way I overlay shots has improved due to its smoothness,
shots like this help to show parallel storylines without changing to a
different shot, it helps to show the effects of one characters
decisions. I think my skills have developed majorly thanks to the
final major project, and they are skills that I know I can take on to
future projects with me.

Compare your production to the ones you looked at in your research?

When in the research section of the production I looked into different
productions that suited the same sort of style as mine, as well as the same
genre and music videos as well as short films. When looking into these
productions I was inspired for the shots that I wanted to get. They also
helped me to figure out what I wanted my costume to lkook like as well as
the mise en scene within shots. For example I looked at a short film called
‘’drowning sorrows’’

This production was one that had a similar narrative to mine based
on the fact that the main character is going through a lot of issues
and is trying to find an escape so he turns to alcohol. I tried to
make the short film at the beginning of my production similar to
this as there were a lot of shots in it that really portrayed the
characters emotions which is what I wanted to show the best I
could, the close up shots of his face as he’s surrounded by beer
bottles is something that I tried to do as well but instead I had my
character covering his face, this shows his pain and symbolises the
pain that he’s feeling. In my production I made a lot of the shots
dark and almost blue in colour due to the fact that it denotes
feelings of sadness and loneliness, it worked really well for my
production as it engages the viewers more as they see what’s
happening to him and is something that this short film also did
really well.

I also looked at this music video for inspiration for my project. I tried
to make the locations in my production similar to the ones in this
video so that I could compare this to my piece of work to see how
effective they are. For example a lot of locations in this music
video are signs as to the way he’s feeling and what’s going on in
his life. This is something that I also wanted to show.
There’s nothing different about this kid, he's normal but just unlucky
enough to go through what he's going through. It shows that
anyone could be dealing with these situations no matter what
age, this is something that’s important and what I wanted to
portray in my production. So the shots of my character in his room,
at college etc show that he’s just a normal person and that the
issues he’s facing are changing his life from bad to worse. The slow
motion long take shots of the characters face in the music video is
something that I should of included in mine to show my characters
emotions more and something that makes ‘Wings’ stand out as a
strong narrative music video.

What would you do differently next time / if you did it again?

I think next time if I was producing a piece of work the same length and
depth I would change a lot of things. Next time I think I would definitely
make my production schedule to its fullest at the start of the production
period so that I could stick to it. When I made mine I did half at the start
and half at the end which was a silly mistake as It meant that when it
came to the filming process I was extremely unorganised and it seemed to
be all very last minute. I understand that because of the weather I was
unable to film some days but if I planned for events like this I could of got
other actors down on the same day to film different shots instead of letting
the footage that I needed keep piling up which meant that when I did
actually film it felt kind of rushed. I think throughout the whole process if I
was more organised it would have gone a lot smoother than it did.
I also think that if I was going to do this again in future that I get
confirmations from the actors that I wanted weeks before the actual
filming process as well as finding back up actors that could step in if
something went wrong like it did. My production worked well and came
together nicely but I know if I stayed more organised I could have made it
better and more professional looking. This way I could of found a better
way around the problem then stepping in to do it myself, I think that if I was
doing the camera work it would of looked more professional and there
wouldn’t be any out of focus shots like the lip-syncing ones that I did.
I think next time I would also take two or three cameras with me with
multiple tripods so that when at a location I could get a number of shots to
pick and choose from, I did gather over 200 shots for my music video that
worked well but if I took more than one camera I could of got more a
wider variety of shot types and angles.
Another thing that I would change for next time would be that I should get
my location recces done early on so that I knew exactly when and where
I should film , I felt like during the filming process a lot of the locations I
wanted to use to film in I couldn’t get to and it meant that a lot of the
locations that I filmed at were randomly picked, it worked well and my
footage was great but if I stayed more organised in this sense I could of
gotten a lot more shots that I needed earlier on which meant that I would
have had more time to work on my written feedback.
Overall I think that my production has come out really well and I’m
extremely proud of what I’ve produced given the problems that I faced. I
think my production could be better if I stayed on top of the work and got
stuff done earlier on but all together it works and I know that I’ve put in all
the effort that I possibly could into making a professional looking
production.