Evaluation

Introduction

The brief we were given was to make an adventure film for the Peak district National Park. We had about 10 weeks to complete the project. I initially proposed a film about a climber who was working on a climbing project in the Peak District, my film wasn’t picked but I ended up working on another film I was passionate about. i worked on a film by Tearnin which was about two walkers traveling through and showing off the most beautiful parts of the peak district. In the team I ended up working on was myself, Tom and Tearnin. I was assigned the role of cinematographer, Tearnin was director as it was is film and tom was the sound designer, I was very happy with my role of cinematographer as I prefer the camera work and being able to make the look of the film.

Planing

My initial proposal wasn’t that useful as I ended up working on someone else’s film so allot of the thing in the proposal didn’t apply but if I was working on my own film I think that it would have been useful in the production as it would have given me a basic structure and checklist to stick to as I made the film. If I was to complete a proposal again I would definitely change the way I said that I would do the production log. Both me and Tearnin (the director) both put in our proposals to do the production log with a video log whilst on set. We found that there usually isn’t time for this and it usually gets forgotten, if I was to complete a proposal again I would say that I will log production with production diary entries after each day of production.

I think that for the most part my planing was effective because we met the deadline for the screening of the film meaning that we had time to tweak the film based of the views of focus groups. Although we did meet the deadline for the final video we did run out of time for the first part of the first day of filming as we misjudged how long it would take us to get the first shots so we ended up having to scrap filing at Whinnits pass. Apart from this one timing issue the planning was very helpful, the location recce especially as we could visualise what shots we wanted as we’ed already been there to check it out.

I think that I could have managed my time better throughout the unit by first making a more detailed schedule for the production days, maybe plan it too the hour rather than to the morning or afternoon and plan when we would do each shot. I think that this would have made production move much smoother and I would have been able to get every shot I wanted too without running out of time. I could have also planed out a timetable for when I was going to write up my pre-production, do research and write up the post production as well as actually colour correct the footage. A timetable would have made these parts of the production much easier to handle as they are allot of work and I occasionally found myself with allot of work too do in not allot of time and a timetable would have spread the workload more evenly. One minor problem that came up in production that I didn’t plan for was that there was continuity errors in the final film due too shooting different scenes at different times of day. I could have sorted this in the pre-production by planing the production days schedules around the order of the scenes depending on the time of day. I overcame this by correcting the color temperature of the sky and over exposing it to make a sunset shot look like it was the middle of the day. If I was too plan my production again I would plan the shoot days in more detail (too the hour and by time of day) and I would also make a schedule for the pre and post production.

Research

Most of my research was secondary research using the internet. This is because it involved allot of videos of how to do certain things in the editing program and using google maps too do an initial location recce. I also did s ome primary research, this included actually visiting the proposed filming locations to see if they were viable filming options, online surveys to find out the target audience of the film and then the target audiences attitudes towards certain aspects of short films. I also did primary research after the production of the film to see what the target audience felt about the initial cut and colour grade of the film and what may need to be changed.

My primary research was very effective as it gave me information very relative to the film I worked on were. The secondary research was useful but sometimes had to be backed up with some primary research, for example, the location scouting was initially done using google maps but then had to be backed up by an actual visit too the location. With the research that I gathered I planed the shoot days and how I helped in the production of the film. With the information from the scouting I worked with the director to work out a schedule and then with the research from other films in the same genre I had a rough idea of what shots too get and then planed a shot list. I think that I could have done more research into the genre and style of the film that I was making, I think that it would have made the film allot better as I would have had a better idea of what shots to get, how to give the film a certain style in the post-production and what doesn’t work with the genre of film i’m making so that I could avoid including it in the film.

One of my main worries with the research was the reliability of the weather forecast as I needed the weather to be sunny and dry for both of the days to keep the weather constant throughout the shots. Also as we were making a promotional video, the film had to make the peak district look appealing meaning sunny weather is required. I worried about the reliability of the forecast as it has a tendency to change an I couldn’t do anything about it. Another difficulty that I had was finding other films that were similar to mine, as the film I worked on was basically an advert I had limited choices and only found 1 that really matched the feel I was going for in the film. I overcame this by using different types of films that were similar and studying there cinematic aspects to get an idea of what I will do with my film.

I did very minimal research during the production whilst actually on location filming, the only real research I did was weather checks for the following day and having a look at photos of Curbar edge on google images as the plans changed last minute and we had to film at a different location that we hadn’t been too to look at first. With the findings from this research I could plan roughly were on Curbar edge we would film, this research was helpful because without it we would have gone to the location with no idea of what we were going to film or where. The only other research I did was in post production which involved looking up YouTube videos to see hot to do certain things in the programs I was using, this included how to colour grade in Adobe Premiere Pro and how too clean up an image from dust in Adobe After Affects, I used this research to improve the quality of the final film. I could have improve my research during the production by completing primary research into different ways for colour correcting and grading and the different looks that I could achieve through this

Reflective Journal

My reflective journal helped me throughout the production of the film and during the research because it gave me a something too look at and see what I’ve already done so that could figure out and could plan for what I still had too do and what I would do next. this was especially helpful near the shoot day where I had allot of work too do and I could look at it to see if I had missed something or if I had already completed it and I f so where to find it.

The Product

I do think that my product is fit for purpose, it fits the brief which was to make an adventure style video for the peak district national park which it is.It follows the codes and conventions of an adventure film, its fast eddied, has a cinematic look, its feel good and makes you want to join in, it follows a simple story (two boys on a camping trip). I could have improved its fitness for purpose by including more iconic arias of the peak district in the video as it is basically a promotional video for them.

My role in the production of this film was cinematographer. I think that I fulfilled the role very well as I was responsible for the image of the film and hot to shoot the scenes we wanted and I believe that I did a good job at doing so. I believe that the parts of the film that worked well (that I was responsible for) was the shots. I was very happy with some of the shots that we came away with from the shoot days.

Good shots.

I could improve on these by touching them up colour wise to make the colour a little more constant and make it look a little more saturated and cinematic. Some of the other shots aren’t as nice as these, they a shaky due to wind affecting the Steadicam or the shots are dusty or I simply didn’t compose the shot very well so I could improve these shots by using better lenses, choosing a less windy environment to film in or compose he shot better. The location recce research really helped with this as it mean that we were shooting in amazing locations and we knew about them through the location recce.

Bad shots.

Overall I think the film was a success. Its a visually pleasing short adventure film, filmed in the peak district showing of the peak district to the target audience, this means that it fits the brief perfectly. If I was director I would have changed the concept of the film slightly and give the film a stronger storyline. Because I found with my research into the codes and conventions of the genre at the Sheffield adventure film festival that the most successful adventure films are both visually pleasing and have a strong storyline through them.

As a result of the production of this film, the technical skills I have developed are filming in wind, filming in bright conditions and colour correction. The filming in wind I didn’t actually think of in the planing meaning I brought my lighter tripod due to the amount of hiking we would have to do to get to the locations. I later found that this was a mistake as the tripod wasn’t big enough to withstand the wind meaning the shots were shaky. I overcame this problem by borrowing another groups tripod for the shots with the big telephoto lens when they weren’t using it. For the filming in bright conditions (and most conditions) ND filters were a must. As I was using old canon FD lenses I couldn’t stop down the aperture as they were very dusty inside so the large depth of field means that the dust is visible. I used the ND filters to lower the light levels getting to through the lens meaning the shots are correctly exposed. They were also useful as I could use a graduated filter to expose both the sky and the ground. The last technical skill I developed was colour correction. I hadn’t had much experience with colour correction and grading but through secondary internet research I leant how to do it and control the individual colours separately. This really helped with the production as it made the film look much more professional and I could fix aspects of the film that didn’t go to plan in the production, things like the sunset shot in the middle of the day I corrected to look like daytime.

There were two main issues with the members of the team. The first was disputes about discussions between me and the director, we couldn’t decide on certain things but we worked together to complete the film. The director and I also got very annoyed at the sound designer as he took along time to find a song that was suitable. I ended up having to search through licence free songs as well so that the film could be finished quicker so I could do a focus group.

I think that the film would appeal to the target audience. I think this because its very visually pleasing, short so that I will hold the viewers attention for the entire length of the film and the beginning of the film is very interesting near the beginning meaning it will grab the viewers attention at the beginning so they continue watching. I also think that it would appeal to the target audience as its aimed at such a wide age range meaning that most people that see the film will want to visit the peak district. One reason that the audience may not like the film is that it doesn’t have a very strong storyline meaning that its not the most interesting adventure film ever made.

I did some audience research before the production of my film. The research that I did consisted of 2 internet surveys. The information I got from this was useful but there were issues with the research that I did. As I only did internet surveys, I limited myself to internet users that I can reach through means of social media so i will have squeed results as the people who do the surveys are people i’m likely to know so they will be a similar age to me, live in a similar aria and have similar interests.

The initial audience research consisted of a focus group of film students who were in the target audience age range. The look through the film and each picked out 4-5 points that could be changed to improve the film. I chose the most realistic ideas for amendments and improved the film using these suggestions. once I had amended the film I showed the film to them again and they said that they really liked the film and that it made them want to go to the peak district, this was the whole point of the film so I think that its a success. I did agree with the initial feedback from the focus group as I could also see that there were some changes that needed to be made. I do also agree with the second audience feedback as I do believe that it fits its purpose and makes you want to be there in the peak district.

I didn’t get feedback from an industry practitioner. I think that it would have been useful if I had as I would have got feedback and suggestions from someone who really knows what there talking about and would probably be able to give me more effective feedback than the film students. If I was to ask for feedback from an industry practitioner I would have probably asked a documentary film maker I know called Jonathan Young as he has been making documentaries for over a decade and has worked for the likes of the BBC and channel 4 filming things like news broadcasts and Panorama. I would also contact Matt Heason as he is the director of the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival meaning he knows allot about adventure films.

Yes my film does adhere to media law and ethical guidelines. The media is all copyright free as I shot it all. The music is all copyright free. The colours are also broadcast safe.

Conclusion

If I was going to the the project again I would improve the planning by looking for more locations that may be better and easier to access. I would also plan the project in more detail so that I would make the deadline easier and not take as long to complete the project. I would improve the research by doing more in-depth audience research by using other methods other than internet surveys like physical surveys, vox pos and interviews. I would improve the product by using better lenses and using variable ND filters to get cleaner shots that are perfectly exposed. I would improve my communication by listening to the other group members more, give clear concise advice and explanations, compromise more and take on other group members advice. I would improve my creativity by doing more research into picture and the cinematic styles of adventure films and do some primary research tests for the cinematography.