Evaluation

For my final major project, I wanted to make a short film in the genre of
drama. I chose to create a short film because I wanted to tell a story and
found that this was the most appropriate platform for me to do so as it is
the best way to tell a creative story in my opinion. Especially since the
locations and actors I wanted to include would be best represented through
actually travelling to these locations and using real people and filming all
this, instead of- let’s say, an animation. As this would prove hard to tell my
story through drawings or Lego figures, especially since I would have to
purchase or personally create any sets or characters that I plan to use.
Which is why I followed these codes and conventions here for a short film. I
also found that it was important to use real people as my drama is slower
paced and relies on actors’ acting capabilities as facial expressions and
movement will be a very present theme in my storytelling by being able to
represent emotions like awkwardness, fear and anger (to name a few). I
guess I also opted to make a short film as I’ve always loved creative writing
and coming up with stories, so it’s nice to be able to have that cross over
into my college work. It’s important to be mentally invested in your work
and enjoy what you’re doing to create something of quality and importance
to yourself. I need to be engaged with my work to be able to work efficiently
and effectively.

I chose to make my short film in the genre of drama as I believe it fits best,
due to it being of a serious nature and has a lot of suspense, tension and a
gradual, clear build-up towards an important event. It plays on the
audience’s emotions and causes them to vote for an outcome depending on
their opinion, views and morals. These are the codes and conventions for a
successful drama. I believe I have stuck to these guidelines and delivered
just that- something that the viewer can engage with and hope for a
particular outcome and be able to side with or against a character that I
have created. It was important for me to have a clear build-up of tension
and a satisfying ending that picks a clear side and is climactic enough,
answering any questions that the audience may have from watching the
events of the story unfold.

I think the strengths of my work include my script and storyboards (my pre-
planning production). I believe my best work was here because I was given
the opportunity to incorporate my creativity and ideas to make something
tailored to how I wanted/ envisioned it. I have noticed a considerable
change from my work at the beginning of the year to now and am pleased
with my progress. Especially since my work is being negatively affected by
the UK’s lockdown which began at the very beginning of this project.
Weaknesses, I would say are my research as I struggled to find what to look
into and exactly how to write it. Some of my writing is perhaps vague and
doesn’t in some cases, link back directly to the questions asked. This would
have been made much easier if I was able to turn to the person next to
me and ask for feedback on my writing or ask how they are approaching
their own research. Saying this however, I have looked at a few of my
classmate’s websites and read through their own work and reflected on
their approach and how I can improve my own research.

My biggest weakness would definitely be Covid-19/ coronavirus and

lockdown as it creates so many barriers to do with being able to actually
record my production as there are full restrictions on being able to leave the
house and meet up with anyone else outside of your household. This is
obviously a huge issue when it comes to utilising locations and actors. This
would largely limit the accessibility of ideas as I wouldn’t be able to have an
‘out there’ plot and only have my house and parents to film with. Obviously,
I would be able to write here about how the production itself went and the
filming, camera shots and editing but I am unable to. Weaknesses that
affected my work was having to work from home and not having much
structure to my days or schedules. Organizing time to sit down and work
(and work efficiently) proved to be very challenging. During the
development of ideas stage, I was not able to bounce ideas off of my peers
or turn to my friends or teachers for a quick question or ask for feedback at
regular intervals. As the days slip away quite fast in quarantine, I often find
that the deadline has caught up with me before I have caught up with
myself which is hard as I have not been working at regular intervals for
suitable periods of time.
I think my first-hand research was helpful as it is a lot more directed at
helping me and my production develop. I received peoples’ advice and
opinions on my storyline and how I can improve it. I mostly asked for
reassurance, so I knew that I was choosing the right genre, medium and
ideas. I asked how clear or complicated my idea was and received mostly
positive feedback.

Although in the past I have done second-hand research solely because I

have been asked to- I found it extremely helpful for this project. This is
because I could look at the codes and conventions of what makes a
successful drama. Learning what makes up a good drama as a whole
allowed me to be able to break my story down and almost have a ‘check
list’ of what to include in what order and it gave me smaller targets to reach
rather than just having the mindset of ‘beginning, middle, end, finish the
script’. Working towards smaller scale checkpoints made me focus more on
the smaller details which add together to make a higher quality ‘polished’
finish.

I think that my work is successfully tailored towards my target audience

because I made it a focus point in my vox pops, asking them what they
thought my target audience would be- to which they replied (the same if not
very similar) ages 15-25. I believe my production would suit this age range
because there are certain adult themes that would not be appropriate for
someone under the age of 15- especially because I believe this short film
would have the age restriction of 15 in the UK due to its adult themes and
language. By choosing t put it up on Netflix and YouTube as its main sites, I
have automatically pushed my production in the direction of that age
bracket as they are the main users of those sites. YouTube is free and
accessible to anyone with a phone and WiFi connection, and Netflix is
the hottest streaming app which requires a paid monthly subscription. It
is broadly used by all different ages but particularly the younger
generation. That is how I plan to reach them. I think that the story applies to
my target audience and is engaging as there is an extraordinary idea of a
bomb and a sudden, unfamiliar occurrence that people can relate to, even
though it is an unlikely event. This way it will engage with the audience
because they can imagine themselves in this, although unlikely, realistic
scenario and would be able to empathize with the characters and imagine
themselves and how they would feel if it were them personally.

I believe that my planning materials are

very helpful, particularly my script and
storyboards because I could confidently
say that I could give those materials to
another person and they would be able
to carry out and film my production
successfully. My storyboards are
detailed in terms of camera angles,
timings and character positioning. It
helps to explain my ideas visually, like
how I envision the cinematic ending,
which was harder to explain in only
words in my script.

The script itself has a lot of explanation,

describing what is happening in the
scene. I usually find that I only use
scripts for dialogue and they’re very limited other than that. I have
definitely developed my scriptwriting abilities up to this point, just in time
for this final major project. I think that it gives enough, relevant, important
information for somebody else to confidently use. I am happy with the
quality of my pre-planning production work. Improvements could be made
by spending more time describing the setting/ scene and including
information about the lighting. This could help the actors that read the script
to have a better idea of the mood of the scene. This would help them get
into character better and understand the effect of the setting.

I think in the second year, the area for improvement is definitely going to be
the hands-on work outside filming as it is hard to get together a cast of
actors and appropriate locations. Organizing your actors is hard as you need
to consider how accessible your locations are as well as how much money
they would have to (be willing to) spend to get there. Finding locations that
fit your specifications is also hard as there are many setbacks for all types of
places. Public spaces will have people who might get in your way, and you
must stay out of theirs. You may also have to ask for permission to use
other spaces which you might not get the ‘go-ahead’ for. This limits idea
generation as you can’t be too ambitious about props and locations because
only so much is available to a teenage media student. Being realistic
whilst keeping optimistic is a hard balance to maintain but it is important
to have.

There is also room for improvement in my analyses because when

analysing videos, I don’t necessarily reference the correct things and
struggle to stay on topic and hold my focus well. This can be improved next
year by keeping to the rules of analyse, synthesize and evaluate. I will also
make sure that I ty to ask for help from my peers but especially my teachers
next year as regular feedback is important for me to being able to develop
as I go, rather than reflecting at the end. It’s nicer to be able to break things
down as I go along.

Adding that extra detail in my college work will aid me to getting a

distinction. Next year I plan to spend more time in college, outside of lesson
hours so that I am able to keep up the quality of work. I will also subscribe
to the editing software so that I may use it at home. I will try to complete
work before deadlines rather than the day and hour of the deadline. I will
surround myself with hardworking students that I believe will help me and
not distract me and will motivate me to complete good quality work ahead
of schedule. Picking good working partners instead of friends would also be
a good step in the right direction- I definitely need to take a more formal,
professional approach rather than sticking to the people that I am
comfortable with to ensure well executed work. So, in all, I think it is
important to develop on all areas but maybe I would particularly focus on
filming and editing and choosing the right people to work with (groupwork)
as I believe these skills go hand-in-hand and to be able to develop one, you
must be able to develop the other and improve on all 3 together. I will add
more detail in pre-planning work and make sure to look at all aspects
including mise-en-scene and lighting so that I have everything to be able to
look at when filming and preparing to film.

This will ensure the quality of my footage if the actors are on point, the
location and lighting is how I wanted and adds to the feel of the scene. All of
these elements coming together will create a high quality production in the
future. Having a stable, well-thought idea in the idea generation process is
also very key to getting things moving along quickly which is something I
struggled with particularly in unit 7, as I wasn’t sure what kind of production
to make. As cool as it is to have complete freedom, it does leave a lot up to
me to decide and figure out.
Most importantly- is to improve on everything and stay focused, up to date
on work and enjoy what I’m doing to ensure quality control.