Major Project: Evaluation

Evaluating the entire process

Evaluation of Planning a story

I will start by saying this entire process of making a film and bringing an idea together has really been an eye-opening experience. One that I will never take for granted again because it's allowed me to really channel my creativity and I feel like I've really improved my skills as a director, editor and all round creative person. When evaluating this entire project it's easier to start at the very start at how it all begun. Looking at the planning of the story this was really the place where I set the foundations of the story and it was a very long process but one that I fully understand was necessary. Spending all that time going back and forth with script and getting feedback from other people really took my story to the new level I've fully understood how important it is to really understand your character and understand the reasons behind the actions you'd want them to do, because in the end it creates a better, coherent story.

Planning and prepping

And once you fully understand your story, the characters and what you want to get from the actors, it was important for me to understand HOW I was going to make the film. I spent a great deal of time on props, costume and shot lists and was really proud of the outcome. Learning from previous experiences within this course on other projects, I didn't really take the preproduction stage as seriously as I did this time and it paid off in the end. 

In my opinion, This was one of the biggest learning curves because I realised how important it is to get the preproduction correct. From casting actors and locations, prepping all the props, creating all the schedules,  I really had to know everything about the film and I couldn't wing it. One thing I was proud of was I spent a great deal of time on my storyboards, insuring I got all of the correct shots all of the visuals that I needed to be able to communicate my ideas better between me and the cinematographer. This really helped during the shoot days because I didn't shoot my film chronologically, I tried to be efficient by making full use of the location, shooting all of the shots at the place in that one day in that one location. But the issue with this is a had to make sure all the costumes was correct as it would cross over into scenes which would be filmed at a later date. So, I'm really proud of the way I successfully handled this because it shows that when you take a lot of time and effort into planning and creating detailed story boards, shot lists and schedules, these details will show in the final outcome in the film. This is a bigger improvement when comparing it to my other projects due to the large scale of it.

Evaluation of Shoot Days

One of the main things to mention about  during the shoot day is the great teamwork that I had with my small team. I pretty much just had a crew of three people on the shoot days and when thinking about all the stuff that we did during the shoot to make things go smoothly, the fact that we actually managed to get it done still shocks me. It's a really nice feeling when you have people who are willing to help you on your project and are willing to actually put their all into it and not just help for the sake of it. So, I would say I really like the importance of teamwork during the shoot days. We did work really hard but I realise that there were ways I could've made it better for me and my small team.

Areas of improvement on shoot days

During the shoot days, there are many ways I could've improved. Even though I improved when comparing myself to other projects, there were things that really let the project down. 

• The first main thing was my fatigue and general well being. I spent so long on digital shot lists and story boards, I kept going over them and re checking things and ended up straining my eyes to the point I could not see clearly. This made me panic because I wasn't able to look at the screen for long durations so I wasn't sure how I would cope on the shoot which was happening in a few days. This resulted in Ferg and Jo making me call 111 to ensure I was still fit to shoot. This  had a major domino effect as it caused me to be really fatigued on shoot.  I missed out loads of details and I let things slide that I normally would not have (things like moving on from a shot when you know deep down you may not have got the best take) which eventually came back to bite me in the edit. 

• And example of this would be continuity errors. In this scene you can see the camera bag on the left a jacket in the back and then on the MCU, it's not there anymore.

• That is due to the fact we were running out of time and had to move on from the shot as well as me not paying attention enough. I think I realised the jacket was in the way after shooting the wide so I moved it. Not knowing that I would've used this wide in the final edit, so in turn that created a continuity error.

Even though these are minor details that I believe shouldn't impact the quality of the film, it's still a mistake nevertheless. If I was well rested and really paying attention to every little detail (which I should have)  these little things that have happened. So now I know in the next projects try to get more rest before shoot because everything else will become Much more difficult process that needs to be. You can't really be fully immersed if you're not feeling 100 percent. I also need to make sure I have time to go over shots at least twice. I believe I only shot this MCU once.

Another area of improvement is time management. 

• This also ties into organisation skills because even though I was prepared with my shot lists, there was still minor things like transportation on shoot days and transporting my cast and crew from location which weren't accounted for as much as it should have. This eventually jeopardised some of the shoot times and delayed the shooting process. So now I know in the future I must always account for travelling times and never underestimate how long it takes to actually get from one place to another. Even though the crew is small rounding everyone up can sometimes be a little bit more difficult than it seems, especially when you have so much equipment to take and so much props to also bring along.

• Again the previously mentioned issue ties in to the amount of crew on a shoot. If I had more crew or production assistance, there would be someone who is designated to sorting out transport, booking cabs, ordering food whilst I direct the actors and camera . If I had this, the shoot days would've gone on a lot more quicker and more efficient so, in the future I know to source crew from as early as possible. Even though I did this, people tend to be flaky even when offer to pay so I can only do my best in the future but I know I will be working with more reliable people where I would be able to have more crew on board.

Overall view on shooting process

The main thing to pick up on when thinking about the entire shoot process is to always expect the unexpected. under estimation for certain things jeopardise the shoot times and had the biggest domino affect on the following shoot days. For example when shooting outside I did not account for aeroplanes and natural interruptions as much as I should have so I will definitely keep that on board. 

Another main thing is that my confidence in myself in being able to put forward an idea and make it into something has really grown there wasn't an ounce of doubt that I wasn't going to be able to get my idea out, I was more worried on the whether the decisions I was making were the best decisions for the film, Since there's like 1,000,001 ways you could shoot a shot, sometimes you think well is the shot the best shot? Is this the best way I can put forward this idea? All these little questions sometimes float around in my head whilst directing but I had to learn to trust the initial idea and initial instinct and know that the decisions I was making will still be good.

Evaluating the editing process of the film 

When thinking about the editing process of the film, this is when I had the most ups and downs. It was a really bittersweet time for me because I was able to see my idea slowly come together But at the same time also fall apart in some ways.

The good things;

• When I first watched the footage back I couldn't help but notice all the little things that were wrong with it because I knew exactly how I wanted the shots. Sometimes in the moment on the shoot days you can't notice certain things until the edit so this was a very frustrating time for me. When people saw what I was trying to show them, they didn't think it was that bad, but to me "not that bad "just isn't good enough sometimes. So after putting together the rough-cut and getting feedback from Simon and Andrea this is when I started believing in my film a little bit more because the reassurance was really important for me as I was beginning to lose track of what story I actually had. So that is where my outlook on my film became much more positive for awhile.

• Speaking of feedback, It was a really great experience getting feedback from people from all levels, whether that was students, teachers, practitioners in the industry, and even people who don't have an insight into filmmaking. These are all important cogs in the machine when trying to build your story the best way you can be because I realised when you are consistently wrapped into the edit the whole time it just becomes a downward spiral of negativity and sometimes you need to be taken out of it to really appreciate what you have in front of you. 

• And example of how important it is to get feedback is when thinking about what scenes were really necessary to begin with. But Simon and I sometimes did not agree on what scenes should remain in the final edit, at first I was reluctant to see where he was coming from with certain shots but then after I tested it out, it made much more sense to get rid of the shots. An example of this would be the Summer house introductory scene.

The reason why I wrote the two characters to go into the summer house and for Isaiah to be amazed by the surroundings was to be able to show some character development and show how he's not used to being in a surrounding like that. I felt like we needed to see the inside of the summer house to have more context as to why they would be in there. Simon repeatedly told me that he doesn't believe my edit needs that scene and I couldn't understand why. After three separate viewings and me saying "no, I don't think that would be a good idea" I finally got rid of the scene and it made things much more smoother. I finally understood why. The quality of the shots inside were actually really poor in comparison to the rest of the film so I felt like the cracks were showing during that scene. It made sense to get rid of it. 

The feedback actually made me take a step back from the film and really evaluate all the little parts I already have within the film. Lilly and Isaiah already talk about the summer house at start, even before they reach to the summer house she speaks about how they should get started on the expert together, At first I didn't see that as a cutting point but actually, in the edit it worked much better as a cutting point because it's still gave context as to where they were and you could still see the summer house on the outside so it really was best to cut out the middle part. That is why it is really important to get feedback on your work throughout the different stages because I really don't know what my film would've been like if I left that scene in.

But saying that, even though getting feedback is good it's also important to know the limit on how much of that feedback you can really act upon and that just comes down to how much you know of your film and the reasons why you'd want certain shots in. For example Simon said that the end scene could've been cut down more so that after the bath scene he would literally just be about to jump and I felt that was way too abrupt for what I was trying to go for I felt like we needed to see the contrast between lilies view on him and how he actually feels. I didn't want suicide to seem as a quick decision. I did agree that the end seem to drag on a little bit and I did actually cut it down in half but there was just some things that I didn't feel the need to let go of. In hindsight, If the ending was shorter it may have been a bit more snappy but I don't think that was what I wanted to go for initially anyway. So again it's great to have feedback but it's also great to stand your ground with things you feel passionately about as long as it doesn't jeopardise the film in a major way, because sometimes feedback is just based on different peoples taste in film styles .

Inspired by the feedback of cutting scenes out, I actually decided to scrap a few scenes myself. Andrea made a very useful point that "you don't want to keep trying to create the same moment". I agreed with this, in my script there was a scene where Isaiah revisits the river and ignores Lily's call as he continues to look at his sketchbook. I actually shot this scene during my re shoot day 1:

But I thought, why spend the screen time showing this when I already have him doing this throughout the story? I would've much rather used that time to illustrate new elements like Isaiah's thoughts. This is what led me to creating new scenes last minute to enhance the film.

Taking inspiration from George Washington (2000), I vividly remembered this scene;

I really liked the use of the bars to illustrate the captivity so I decided to incorporate that into my film.

I'm really proud of this minor, yet creative decision. It shows me that it is okay to stray from the script a little bit, sometimes you need to go with the flow of what the film is asking for. That is a major learning curve for me and I will continue to leave room for improvement for any future projects.

Editing sound

There were so many ways that I tried to fix my terrible audio issue - I tried reducing the volume of the air conditioning but it didn't work because you could hear the dipping in and out.

But what worked best was convolution reverb which somehow helped after I tiresomely made some changes.

Levelling
After having a group tutorial with the class, I managed to make notes of where I needed to bring the sound levels up or down. This is when I discovered the 'audio" editing workspace which brings up an audio mixer that tells you the volume of the channels. With this I was able to see which tracks where peaking and which tracks where not quite meeting the range. 

So, after having a conversation with ferg, I was advised to;

•  keep the dialogue at around -3 to -9, 
• music bed at around -19 to -15
•  nothing peaking over 0

By following this, I successfully improved the levelling of my film. From this, I learnt the importance of listening on speakers. Also, when you constantly change from headphones to speakers, it can totally throw everything off. I was advised to not touch the volume of my laptop when editing, I should leave it in the middle and adjust my sound from there so that the sound would be consistent. 

For future projects, I knew it would be a good idea to understand how the correct way of editing and levelling sound and images. Ferg told me about 'Bars and Tone' and how it should be used. I used youtube to help me learn more about it. 

• Title cards are used at the start so that everyone knows what version they're working on
• Bar and tone being used at the start and allows the user to know if the signal of visual and sound is coming through
• The use of markers in premiere can help you separate the bars and tone so that when you're ready to export it, its already at the correct ins and out points.

its interesting to know how the industry professionals start their workspace. Its safe to say that I did not do anything like that during my process. Partly because the project didn't really require me to insert bar and tone but its good practice to know how to correctly set up an editing workspace if you're editing something for a client who will need it. 

Finding the right music - The importance of music and montage
This was one of the most difficult, time consuming yet important things. I wanted to find the perfect music to go with my montage and I needed to understand the best ways to do this. I went and searched the internet and came across a very interesting article regarding film music. (https://nofilmschool.com)

I use this technique straight after the bath scene where Isaiah is about to jump in the river 

There is a hard hitting music bed that acts as a "music sweetener" as it adds tension to the scene. The scene would be quite boring without it so I really understood how effective music can be when its used in the right way and not in an overkill way.

moving onto the second element; 

I included this type of sound design within my bonfire scene. Here you can see the fire and hear the crackling of the fire playing throughout. You still hear the fire as we see the characters look at each other. The scene is definitely not silent, it enhances the scene and it lets the audience breathe and really embrace the stillness of scene for a moment. 

Im happy I managed to incorporate this style as it keeps it realistic and allows the audience to really pay attention to what is happening on screen, not just theatrical music to keep the story going. I learnt the importance of knowing when and where to use music effectively.

Learning and exploring more about music choices in the real world, /www.theedgesusu.co.uk speaks about the difference between a music score and soundtrack. It was important for me to know what it would be like in the real world of film and see what elements of this I can implement as part of my own music choices for the film.

Since my film does not have the budget to have a composed score, I opted to finding great free tracks to use during the ending of the film as well as the montage. My film is also short and doesn't actually need a score to be played throughout but it is interesting to understand how it would be on a bigger scale. Until now I did not actually know the difference between a soundtrack and a score. I currently only have 2 soundtrack songs during my entire film. Two of which I think was an accurate and fitting choice as it was used to set the tone and convey emotion for the film. 

 The still ness contrasted to the manic reviving, mimicked within the music choice.

In this end scene, I specifically chose a song that had different "high" and "low" points in it. As Isaiah jumps in the water, the music slowly starts to come in. And when his body is pulled out of the water the music has now built to a crescendo where he is now being revived. I matched the cuts with the highs and low points to really enhance and engage the audience with what is going on. I really didn't want it to just be backing music, I wanted it to seamlessly fit together and work together to convey the emotion. I believe I did this successfully and I am very fortunate to have found the free songs that I did.

Evaluating the final film itself

I will start off with talking about many issues I have with the final film. 

Sound: 

Looking at the final film I realise how important it is to capture good sound. I already knew it was important but I didn't realise how important it is to get a sound op who REALLY knows what he is doing. I really took that position for granted until i experienced the downsides of how it can go wrong.  In my opinion the sound which was required shouldn't have been a really difficult task because we weren't in any locations that should've jeopardise the sound too much, apart from being outside in the woods which had a lot of natural disturbances, the sound op was stationary and didn't have to move around from most of the scenes . So I expected great deal of detail to go into capturing a good sound but it's clear that he didn't do that and that seriously jeopardised the final result of my film.

Below is an examples of the original sound I received when going through and piecing together the art corridor scene. You can hear the difference between the levelling as sometimes it would come through on one side, this left me the task of having to learn how to manipulate the sound in ways I have never done before. You can hear in the comparison video that I'd greatly improve the sound by balancing it out as much as I could but it still wasn't up to my standard.

 It was also too late for me to go back and change in reshoot as my actress is now away. I thought I was able to fix sounds but it was evident in the group screening that there was still a long way to go and you can really hear the difference between that sound in the art corridor and the rest of the film.  I feel as though it's the weakest link of the whole film and it's one of the most important scenes because it sets of the characters and set context for the rest of the film. If my story did not rely on the exhibition as much I would've cut the scene out and somehow found found a way of having them meet elsewhere but the story did not allow this.

Now I know in the future That it's really important to do as much research as possible when hiring a sound op.  it might be useful to also check references and speak to other people they've worked with to know how they work as well, of course you don't always get a luxury like that but that is something to keep in mind if I want to get a good sound on a better scale in future. He was my only option because I had so many cancellations before hand. What I learnt is anyone can say that they are good at sound but sometimes just knowing how to press buttons and operate the kit doesn't equate to having certain common sense that can save the entire project in the long run. It's such a shame that I've had so much sound issues because I worked really hard on everything else to make sure that there wasn't anything bad about my film, however I did every thing I could to try and fix this and I will continue to work on it until I get it to a satisfactory standard.

Another sound issue I had was there was no recorded sound for some of the scenes which meant I had to get my actress to dub over it but the issue is I couldn't be with her physically this meant that when I recorded I say is responses the microphones did not match and I feel as though it was very hard to change that but again I tried everything I could to make it seem in sync with each other. This just shows me how determined I am because I could have cut that scene out but then the rest of the film would really make that much sense and the whole exhibition theme wouldn't make any sense , It would be pointless if we didn't get to see their reaction of them actually getting in. I partly blame myself because I was tired and I may not have remembered to tell the sound recorder to record the sound because we were filming the montage part but at the same time it would be nice if he was more vigilant on the day. 

The power of Pick-ups
I think its pretty crazy how these two shots are actually months apart yet they cut so seamlessly together. No one would actually know and I think thats so amazing. It made me realise that I shouldn't beat myself up about not always getting all the shots because if push comes to shove you can hopefully still shoot pick up shots. But obviously its best to avoid this.

On the bright side, when it works, it can work really well

The film before and after colour correction

So, although I edited everything, Sam Creamer really wanted to do the colour grade and I thought it would be a good idea because it would be one less thing for me to worry about. 

After seeing his previous work I was confident in his colour grading. So what had to happen was I had to finish Editing the film export it in Apple programs for 2 to 2, which would be a suitable export format for him to do the colour grading on da Vinci resolve. He told me that that was the best program to use however I did not know how to use it so I left it in his hands. He showed me previous sample colour correction images and I really like them so you went to head and applied the same thing to the rest of the footage. Unfortunately I was not able to be with him as he did the colour grading and I was not able to grade on my laptop as my laptop is too slow so upon receiving the edit I did notice a few minor things but due to the time it was too late to make any changes. 

Below I haven't included some before and after photos of the colour grade house, there are some really really nice shots I'm super happy with and there are one or two sections I believe could've been a bit less.

I do really love the blue hues within the colour grade, Although I must admit its giving me some type of crime thriller / true detective vibe at some points which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Its amazing how much the mood can change when you change the colours. 

There was one section that I wasn't sure about; 

you have to be really careful when colour grading blue hues on black skin otherwise they will look like blue men. I think this scene is very over saturated and goes beyond the "gritty" effect. the blue made their lips look quite "ashy" as opposed to the original image. 

So, What I have learnt from this is its great to get someone who knows how to use the Davinci Resolve software for colour grading because it can really speed up the process. However, it is an imperative that you're around whilst they do this because its very easy to go overboard with the colour correction. I am thankful for the colour grade nonetheless but I know that I will now have to ask him to tone it down a little as the over saturation is giving off too much of a distortion at times. It is a shame that I will not be able to have the proper colour grade that I want for the hand in but I will have the newly graded film for the screening.

Overall thought on film

I am so proud of myself for being able to write a script and bring my idea to life. This has honestly been the hardest experience I've ever been through because it's so easy to get lost in your own idea and forget how far you've come. But that's why it's so important to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who are able to give you relevant and helpful feedback. I'm very thankful for my tutors and peers for supporting me through this very gruelling task . But when thinking about the film, I really do think I've written a powerful story and I am happy that I managed to put the original message out there. I just hope it will be received in the way I want it to. 

Some of what I've learnt from this experience is;

• Contracts. These are so important
• Time management
• Good crew sourcing
• The power of editing 
• Dont be afraid to cut things out, its okay to not follow the script
• The power of using actual actors and actresses
• How important it is to try and stay positive throughout.