Fiction Adaptation: Project Evaluation

FICTION ADAPTATION PROJECT EVALUATION

PRE-PRODUCTION

I started this unit, with one idea in my head. I wanted to do animation, and so I kept this in mind when choosing the poem. My first poem choice was 'Wish You Were Here' by Emrys Plant. After some trial and error, I quickly decided that attempting animation would not be a good idea for me. Because of this change, I also decided to choose a new poem, 'Poem Heard on Heart 105' by Ross Sutherland. When I first read that poem, I found it easy to imagine the imagery that could match it. This was my final poem choice.

My first idea for this poem was to attempt a 'one shot' film. I wanted to use the camera to explore the interior of a car, and tell a story using the words from the poem. I did some research into director Alan Clarke to help build on this idea. During this time, I was also able to talk to Ross on the phone, and ask him a few questions about the poem, and the story behind it. I found this really helped with the development of my ideas. After a few brainstorms, and a feedback session, I decided to change my idea one last time. My final idea involved following the story of a boy who had been left alone in a car for a few minutes. It has a sinister twist, because the car comes to life, and a mysterious figure tortures the boy. I will then incorporate elements of the poem into this story.

For my cast I decided to use my mum, and my brother. My mum will play the parent, and my brother will play the child. I wanted their on screen relationship to feel real, and as they are a real mother and son, I thought casting them would work out well. Neither of them are actors, and so I had to keep in mind that they may not always understand my directions.

For my locations, I decided to use a location I had previously scouted for another unit, an empty industrial area near my house. It is empty on weekends, and the owner was fine with me filming there. It has a sinister vibe that I thought would work great for the final film.

During the pre-production process, I also spent some time researching the horror genre, including watching a few short horror films set inside cars, and looking into the use of sound in horror. I found all of this research helped me when writing my script, as well as when I was producing the shot list. As well as this, I also looked into story telling with cinematography, as I felt it would help me understand how to transform my poem, into a visual piece.

I think my strength during the pre-production process was my research skills. I found all of the research I conducted really helped me when I was coming up with the idea, writing the script, and creating the shot list. My weaknesses during this part of the project was my organisation skills. I am normally an organised person, but I feel on this occasion, I let other opportunities take priority, and I didn't spend enough time getting prepared for the filming day.

PRODUCTION

To see more about the filming day: Filming

I knew I only needed to spend one day filming, as my script wasn't very long, and I was only using one location, and, for a majority, one actor. I spent the day before preparing the steadicam as I knew it would take a while to set up. In the end it took about 2-3 hours, so I'm glad I did it the day before, and not on the day of filming.

The filming day went really well, even though I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. My brother was really good, and he followed my directions really well, although it did take some time for him to get used to the camera. We spent the first few hours filming my 5 main shots, which made up a majority of my coverage for the scenes. As the film was set in one small location, it wasn't too difficult to film, but at the same time, it allowed me to be creative with my shots. After this we spent time getting all of the extra shots I needed, as well as all of my close ups, and wide shots of the location. We finished the shoot by filming all of the steadicam shots, and recording all of the sound effects.

Overall, the filming went really well and I was able to get all of the coverage I needed. My cast were really good, and they were able to understand all of my direction. My location worked really well and I think the choice of setting the film inside a car worked out nicely, and gave me the opportunity to be really creative with my shots.

My main strength during this part of the project was my directing. I was able to direct two non-actors, and get what I needed out of them to make each scene work. My brother took all of my advice on board, and delivered a good performance. My weakness during this part of the project, again has to be my organisation. All though all the filming went well, I still feel I should've been more prepared for it, and I shouldn't have left everything until a few days before.

POST-PRODUCTION

To see more about the editing process: Rough Cut and Fine Cut

For this project, the post-production process only involved editing the rough and fine cuts, as I had already acquired a recording of the poem, and I had recorded all of my sound effects during the filming process.

I found the editing process quite easy, I had already planned in advance how I wanted to edit this film together, and I kept that in mind during the filming process to ensure I had the right coverage. My favourite part of this process was the sound design. I learnt a lot about sound design during the directions unit when I had to recreate my entire environment as the sound I recorded was unusable. I had a similar with this unit, because all of my sound was ruined by the sounds of me directing my brother during the scenes. Luckily, I had planned for this, and so I had recorded some atmos sound during the filming process. I was able to recreate the environment in post-production, and in the end it worked really well.

Editing the rough and fine cuts together was a simple process, and I was able to assemble, fine tune, colour and level my final cut in a few days. Editing is always my favourite part of the process, and I really enjoyed it on this occasion.

I'd say my main strength during this part of the project was my ability to edit together a good rough cut, in a short space of time. I have really honed in my editing skills now, and I am able to put a good video together in a short space of time, which allows me time to work on other things. My main weakness, was my colour correcting skills. This is something I need to work on, as I tend to over do it. However, on this occasion I feel eventually it worked out nicely.

OVERALL EVALUATION: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS

Strengths-

• My contextual research skills made the pre-production process on this project flow better. I was able to use research into other productions to back up my own ideas, and help me develop new ones. I was also able to apply the information I had learnt about cinematography, and the steadicam, during the filming process to help my camera operator get the shots I was aiming for.
• My editing skills were also another strength. I was able to quickly put a good rough cut together, which was essential as I filmed two days before my rough cut viewing, and I wanted them to be able to view a cut that was as close to what I wanted as possible.
• My sound design skills helped on this unit, especially as having a complex sound track was part of the brief. I was able to recreate my environment in sound, and use the right foley and sound effects to build up that environment. My use of certain sound effects in the film, helps the poem fit in, and prevents it from getting lost in the visuals.
• My communication skills aided me during the pre-production process as I was able to contact my poet and learn more about the poem, which ultimately helped me come up with ideas.
• I feel my directing abilities helped me during the filming process, as I was able to successfully direct two non-actors, and get them to give me what I was looking for on screen.

Weaknesses-

• My main weaknesses on this unit was my organisation skills. I spent too much time focussing on other projects, and not enough time focusing on this one during the pre-production process. This lead to me only deciding what it was I was filming, a few days before the shoot day, which is not a good position to be in. This is unlike me, and something I work on fixing.
• I also feel I should've tried to work with actors for this unit. Although my cast were good, I feel I should have allowed myself to develop my experience working with actors.
• Although this isn't part of the production, I also feel another one of my weaknesses was my essay writing skills. I feel the final essay I produced could've been better, and lacked depth. I should work on my essay writing skills for future occasions.

Possible developments-

• If I were to do this again, I would:
• Hire professional actors as my cast.
• Be more organised and prepared for my filming days.
• Spend more time working on getting the essay right, instead of focusing most of my time on the production process, or other projects.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I am very happy with the final production, it's a shame I can't say the same for the essay. The film I produced visually looked nice, and I feel it represented the poem really well. I hope the poet agrees with my opinions on the film. This project allowed me to be creative, and develop my editing and sound design skills. To summarise, I am proud of the final film I have produced, and despite the few weaknesses in organisation, this project ended up being not as bad as I thought it might be.