EVALUATION

I fulfilled all of the roles in my film as I worked on my own. These roles were
director, producer, and camera operator. I fulfilled these roles reasonably well
for working alone. I think for the camera work it would have been easier if
there was someone there to help me so I could get some more interesting and
creative shots that are constantly being monitored while filming to check all
the levels are correct. I do think that for me acting and running the camera at
the same time it does work pretty well. The only issue really is some of the clips
are shot on my phone camera as I couldn’t do this on a big heavy camera by
myself for safety reasons, and some of the clips are portrait because it was shot
on my phone held at weird angles. Doing the camera work on my own I got to
be able to use a camera on my own and get to know how it works a bit better
as I didn’t have someone telling me what to do or doing it for me.
For directing, I think this was pretty easy as I didn’t have a crew to tell what to
do I just kind of knew what to do and could just immediately do it. Because of
this reason I think I fulfilled my role as director pretty well and prepared for
what I needed to shoot on the day pretty well (things like timetables,
storyboards etc.). I learnt how to work independently more and how to work
without the extra support of other people. I had to carefully plan all of the
work I did leading up to the film being complete as I had to do all of the work
of preparing on my own.
For being a producer, I think that it was a pretty easy job and I got all of the
paperwork and stuff that I needed done in time. Doing this role, I gathered
more knowledge about how to do all of the risk assessment paperwork and
how to operate safely. I showed this by filling out a risk assessment and not
doing dangerous things like taping a camera to the roof above my head. Some
mistakes I made were not finding a safe way of doing some scenes that also
looked good. I could have done more research into this.

I think I did a lot of research that was helpful to do with the style of my director
leading up to making the film. I could have researched more in other areas
though like how to fulfil roles better and locations, colour schemes and things
like that. I should have researched a wide variety of everything I need and not
just the style of the director and not how to do that myself.

I worked on my own for this project, so I did not have so much of a team. I did
however work with the tech to check out equipment I needed. With this there
was an issue with getting a piece of equipment I needed but to sort this out I
came back the next day and communicated what happened and it was easily
resolved between us, I could then go out and film the day after I planned to,
and it worked out. I also worked with the tutors and other students well when
communicating my ideas and receiving feedback. When I received some
negative feedback instead of taking it personally and getting offended, I used it
as constructive feedback and an opportunity to improve my work in the future.

I think using myself as an actor worked out well as I planned the meaning of
the film around an issue I relate to strongly and my own experience with it I
could then show the audience my own personal experience well and
communicate it well through my acting. For the location I chose, I think that
using my own house/bedroom also worked as it is a personal thing I was
communicating through my film, so it makes sense to use somewhere personal
to show this. Although this isnt my final film and I would like to explore a
different variety of locations in the next one I make, I think I will stick with
using some personal locations with a meaning to communicate the deep and
personal meaning of the message of the film.

I think that this shot looks cool, however as it was shot on my phone camera it’
not good quality and it's also portrait. I think if I chose to replicate this shot in
my final film, I would find a way to increase the quality, whether this is just
letting more light into the room or figuring out a way to use a camera safely. I
also think it would be so much better if I shot it in landscape mode.
I think this shot looks very cool and fits Kiarostami's style very well, he includes
lots of overexposed windows as he only tends to light the inside of places and
set the camera settings to just the inside. I think it’s a very nice and arty shot
which I personally just like the look of too.

I added this close up, side profile shot into the second test film because I
realised this was missing from the first one and it’s a big running theme in
Kiarostami's films. I think this was a nice touch to keep the scene running
fluidly but also adding some movement, so the audience stays engaged in
what's happening. I think this worked very well with matching to what I
visioned when I added it into the film sequence.
This shot didn’t work exactly how I wanted it. I planned to reshoot this in the
dark so I wouldn’t get the reflection from the sun in the window. I also wanted
to get the second window next to the main one in the shot too but there
wasn’t enough space to set up the camera for that. I think it worked better
than how I shot the first one in the first test film because you can see more of
what's happening in the window.

I don’t really like how this shot turned out because its portrait and shot on my
phone camera so it's bad quality. I do like what is happening in the scene
though because it shows how you can really want to do something, but you
just can't manage to because that’s not how your brain works.
I added this to the end of the film because I feel like it fit into my director's
style, and it just looked cool and arty. It also gave the audience time to reflect
on what's happening and how that relates to themselves which is something
Kiarostami does a lot.

My tutors told me they thought my work was more fitting for an art installation
rather than a cinematic film, I think this is quite fitting for my director as he
went to school for art and not for film making. I was also told that it felt more
like an art installation film because it didn’t feel like there was a big story line
like a cinematic film, I feel like there is a story line that you can easily follow in
Kiarostami's films so I do need to work on that in my final film I make for the
auteur project.