Assessment 3 - Final Evaluation of Short Film "Deadline"

Final Evaluation and Documentation 

Deadline - Short Film

Tuesday 9th February 2021- Friday 26th of February 2021

Concept/Brainstorming:

Tuesday 9th of February - Friday 12th of February

I noted down all the Concept and Brainstorming in my notebook. I'll add more notes after each page to explain more about each pages.

In film/animation/any storytelling seven things to think about to create a "good"/interesting story, after we noted down the resources we have. What we do know is that we don't have a lot of Time, nor Money to create this project.

After having rough idea of what we have, we brainstorm ideas of a short film we could make in three weeks. The circled words are the popular vote and the asterisked is runner ups.

After the short description/notes of The Black Ballet, I noted down the words/rules in writing Screen Play and they continue to the next page.

Noted down classic story timeline, Character development and then brainstorming character ideas.

Noted down protentional talent with their roles, the character flaws and start writing the Screen Play.

For homework we had to research into Zombie movies, even though I prefer not watching Zombie movies (reason green boxed below). I was going to document different apocalypse movies, for the reason of human nature during an apocalypse, but didn't get time.

Preproduction:

Friday 12th of February - Tuesday 16th of February

With the brainstorming and proposal out of the way, start to plan how we are going to do this. In the beginning, I was helping the wardrobe. We went through the script, seeing what we need, wardrobe, props, make up and setting/stunts. I've scan through my copy and show below.

After that we as a class, refined the roles of the Production, as shown below, the highlighted parts is where I put my hand up for that role. In the end I was mostly in Unit.

I did put my hand up for a lot, but looking back I think I should've put my hand up for more the technical as during the filming I wanted to experience the more technical side. I do realize for two of those days I was talent, but for Wednesday I wished I did do at least camera or sound.

But going back to the pre-production, during most of that time I was watching camera and sound team learning how to do their job, as Unit was already finished researching into meals for the days. Below is a link to short tutorial of James (our tutor) showing us how to hand held footage. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebuBr94zGzY&feature=youtu.be

Here is the Screen Shot list, which I'll be talent and in the future do the directing.

    

Production:

Wednesday 17th of February - Friday 19th of February

Personal, my opinion of the three day of filming during is, that it was a lot to do for a "short film", and have a huge respect for the people on YouTube doing small universe/short stories.

• Unit

On the Wednesday, I was in the unit group, making sure that there was enough food for the team and was fulfilling to keep the energy up. Menu included, Mini drink, chip packet, mini savories, some get mandarins (other have extra savories, if there didn't have mandarin) and cookie. Shown below is the meal made up.

(Photo taken by Dan Brighurst)

The team liked meal, felt fulfilled, not heavy, very content of the meal.

After that, there was nothing else to do as my job was done that done. I did want to do the camera or the directing, but other people was already put into those roles that day, so I had to wait till the next couple days. Unfortunately I didn't get to do camera role, but I did get to do the director.

• Director

I got to direct Shea's scene of walking to the door and "sees" the zombie. As it was my first time directing and I had no clue what to do, it was a bit daunting. Most of the time I communicated through Patrick and James, as I didn't have the confidents to tell the talent and the rest of crew what to do. I think other than my confidence and no clue what to do, before shooting we should have thought out the shots before. As during the shot of Shea seeing the zombie, from the other side of the door. I did have an idea of shooting the scene of Shea being one third on the shot and on the other side of the scene would be the Zombie feeding on the janitor. I've drawn a diagram of what I meant.

But thinking about that it might not be needed as already there was a lot of the shots/scenes to film and as this is a taster and first film for most people in the course I think the less footage would been good for the people that just started.

• Talent

On the Thursday and the Friday, I was acting the scenes in the classroom. It was interesting and fun, working with director and the camera team to produce the footage needed. I do admit I didn't like the fact I was the same clothes for three days, as I wasn't notified that I didn't need to be wearing my characters clothes on the Wednesday. 

Thursday filming, it was cruise filming, but Friday filming was a bit draining. I would have preferred doing the classroom scenes even spread through Thursday and Friday, but cause of schedule reasons, we didn't have that luxury.

I did a "stunt" during Thursday Filming, which during the "stunt", would have been more smarter to wear the hoodie, to pad the area where the rubber was getting thrown at, but as the location was quite warm, I choose not to wear it (with the consent of Wardrobe, Morgan). Wish I did though, as Shea did get requested by the AD/Side Director (James) to actually heft it at me.

Behind the Scenes Photos of Wednesday Filming:

(Photo taken by Dan Brighurst)

Behind the Scenes Photos of Thursday Filming:

(Photo taken by Dan Brighurst)

Behind the Scenes Photos of Friday Filming:

(Photo taken by Collective Students)

Post-Production:

Monday 22nd of February - Friday 27th of February

VFX:

Title of the short film - Clock themed.

Reporter -  add blood, screen crack, opposite spin of footage.

Anchor - working with green screen

Editing:

Colour coding - bad = red, green = good, dark green = great

Can add other sounds from other footage to add to another footage.

Rough cut of short film, that was a disaster in a hilarious way. The sound/voice was all over the place, even some that the lines repeats themselves. My acting was embarrassing. 

I created the credits, I wanted to give the same feeling/look like the bigger titles, when working on a project. Photos of Behind of The Scene, giving the people that work on it, the feeling of a lot of work and the fun times during making of this short film.

Also continuing with the joke of this short film adding "In Memory Of" at the end of the credits.

Visual lock cut, done. Personals I think its a bit all over the place. The tempo was exculating over time, like the short film was trying to end the film quicker. Maybe because I was talent during the filming and it didn't represent when filming. 

Watching second time, the tempo seem okay. Yeah probably it was cause we were talent/working on the filming. Still think the bathroom scene could've been a little longer. Like maybe some awkwardness between the zombie and Sam or possibly, peace before the storm.

Final/After Thoughts

I believe what we made in the three weeks we had, a pretty awesome short film, even though it didn't end up the same as what I thought it might turn out.

Next time, if we do this script again, we would know what to do and probably either try and get more time, or shorten the script. If we would do a different script/story, I would recommend making a story that is shorter and straight to the point. Probably even less complicated.

But the time we had and the connection we made during this time was worth it. Comments about the short film, I don't have much, other than what I said before, it didn't end up the way I thought it was going to go. It was a good short film that we created, even though most of the horse power came from James and Patrick, which would sincerely like to thank.

I cant give much constitutive criticism to the Boot Camp, as the amount of time was prefect, not rushed, yet not a drag. Enough time during the brainstorming, pre-production, production and post-production. I just wished I could have done some editing, but as this was a group product, I do believe it would have been an issue if each person in the class edited a piece of footage, as the flow of the short film wouldn't have worked.

Other than that, I enjoyed the hands on learning and experiencing how much work it goes into making something that's only about five minutes long.