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For my Final Major Project, I created a Short Film based on the grief of losing a loved one. The reason I chose to make a film revolving around this was due to Personal Experience, watching the people I love and care for suffer with the same thoughts as my protagonist does is devastating to watch. I want this film to bring awareness to the people who may relate to it, that they are not alone and should never suffer in silence. Despite being rather nervous beforehand, I was really looking forward to going into this project. This project ultimately decided whether I could get into the University of Portsmouth, so I felt a lot of pressure on my back. However, even with all this pressure on my back, I was well prepared going into my Final Major Project with all the knowledge and skills of making a film I have built on, in the last two years.
Context Stage
The context stage was the first element of my Final Major Project. The first task, the SWOT Analysis, consisted of me initially highlighting our Strengths and Weaknesses. From this, I could talk about what opportunities and threats are presented to me that may affect the FMP in any way.
Next, I created a Pre-Mortem underling what issues could occur over the Final Major Project which was beneficial in preparing beforehand, so these issues wouldn’t be a shock if they were to happen.
The Idea Generation was a slideshow I had to make afterwards, which consisted of me noting down the Initial Ideas I had about our Project.
In the second year of our Final Major Project, we were marked on the presentation of our work ensuring that our content follows a consistent theme and style, which is why I had to create a Branding Document stating the Fonts and Colours I am intending to use.
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Lastly, I created a Process Report. The Process Report was a document talking about the stages of creating a successful project.
Feelings
Going into the first stage of my Final Major Project, I was eager and keen to get going as I love the flexibility that this project gives us. We had the chance to create absolutely anything we want, which worked well in allowing me to show off my specialist skills in Cinematography and Colour Grading. However, whilst I felt keen a lot of nerves overshadowed this as this project was ultimately the deciding factor if I could go to University or not. However despite the nerves, I pushed through them and by the end of the Contextual Stage, I was confident and proud with the standards of work I had produced. I felt very up and down when it came to making the Process Report, this was due to a WIFI issue that had occurred. It stressed me out a lot but with the help of Problem Solving, I was able to find an effective solution that allowed me to complete my Process Report.
Evaluation
The first thing that I believe went well when it came to the SWOT Analysis was how useful underlining my own strengths were. I stated in my Week 4 Reflective Log that “SWOT Analysis task at the Preparation Stage was a clear help with why my Project Proposal is going well. I knew what Strengths I had and from this, I could underline what my reasoning was for undertaking a Short Film.” This task effectively helped me to write the Project Proposal Document and saved me a lot of time doing it as I had already stated what I was good at, and why this gave me the opportunity to make a Short Film.
Another element that went well and stayed consistent throughout was my Branding. It was clear how much more professional having a set Branding made my Site and Film, and I don’t think I would have achieved such a clean and neat site if it wasn’t for making a Branding Outline beforehand. My site layout was also an area that received a lot of praise and absolutely no negative feedback in the Peer Review Stage.
Branding Pack
Using Steel Tongs from Branding
It became clear how useful underlining all the potential issues in the upcoming weeks of my Final Major Project was in the Pre-Mortem. One specifically, was to do with Weather. I stated beforehand, from the Pre-Mortem, that the weather conditions could be poor which would ruin the Production. To ensure I don’t run into this, checking the weather consistently throughout the four months of Production is needed to find the best times to film. This is exactly what I did in my Production, I began checking the forecast a few weeks before Production, and it allowed me to film without any weather issues.
The Process Report became a massive help with the Planning Stage particularly when learning about Storyboards. I learnt from Primary and Secondary Research that Storyboards were one of the most important parts of Planning, meaning it was vital to learn about them more. The Process Report taught me how to create a successful Storyboard ensuring I stay on track with the time, whilst making the most effective Storyboards that I could for my Production.
Quote from Process Report
Looking back at my Idea Generation, I believe that my Cinematic Style page could have been expanded on more. I understand it was only the Initial Concept, but as someone who specialises in Cinematography and Grading, more detail should have been added as it was the area I am most interested in. As well, one of the most important parts of Year 2 was showcasing how you're focusing on your specialism, and the Initial Concept did lack in this heavily.
The only page about the Cinematic Style
I feel like throughout the Production stage of the Process Report, all the content seemed to be information I already knew. I showcased videos about Gimbals and tutorials on how to use Gimbals, yet I already knew how to use a Gimbal. I feel this could have been improved by showing new stuff I have learnt about Production just like I did on Planning, where I learnt that Storyboards are the most important aspect of a plan, meaning I needed to explore them further.
Video from Process Report
Using a Gimbal prior to FMP
Conclusion
To conclude the Context stage of my Final Major Project, I was proud with the start I had made to my Final Major Project. I had started building a solid foundation for my film which had given me a good enough start to pick specific topics to Research into.
To improve on my Context stage for next time, I would firstly say I need to start incorporating my specialism more thoroughly into every section of this stage. When it came to the Initial Concept, I hardly showed an interest in my specialism, Cinematography, as this part was the least fleshed out of them all. I felt the same within the Process Report, throughout the Research part of my Report, I generalised Researching and I believe if I were to do this again I would specifically speak about how I research into finding inspiration for Cinematography and the Look of my film as this should’ve been an important part of my Report. Nevertheless, even with the targets, the work I had produced at this stage was still a solid foundation for my Final Major Project.
Research Stage
The next stage of my Final Major Project was Research. Just like the Context stage, I created another Research Report however, instead of focusing on the Process of making a Film, this time it was solely about the Contextual aspect and developing my film idea further. This report was split into three stages: Similar Narratives, Real Life and Theories and Techniques. The first two were devoted to developing the Narrative and Cinematic Style further looking into different films and finding inspiration from them and the last section, was about looking into methods of achieving certain techniques and I finding the most effective one to use when it comes to the Planning and Production stages of my FMP.
Feelings
Starting off this stage, I initially had no motivation to want to begin my Contextual Report as I had just finished writing the Process one. Having back-to-back reports ruined my mood heavily which scared me as I knew deep down I didn’t want to fall behind but I was struggling badly. However, through Problem Solving I eventually got past these issues and enjoyed fleshing out my Final Film. I became more excited when I got to the Theories and Techniques stage as I loved especially talking about Practical Techniques, being the element I’m most interested in. I was confident with the finished report as I had learnt a lot about the topics that I never knew before which gave me hope for the Planning stage. I knew I was well prepared to start fleshing out the idea into a Short Film.
Evaluation
SIMILAR NARRATIVES
The first stage of my Contextual Research Report, Similar Narratives, focused on initially trying to find inspiration for the narrative I wanted to showcase. What Was Lost was the first film I looked into and I noticed straight away how powerful the voiceover was throughout it. It enhanced the emotional tension which I backed up by a quote from Linkedin stating voiceovers enhance the “emotional impact”.
Quote from my Contextual Report
Knowing the ability voiceovers have to enhance the emotional impact, is why they became a huge part of my Final Film. Voiceovers were used throughout my Film, ACCEPTANCE, I used them in a way to allow my protagoinst to express his emotions which I found was the best way to emotionally connect with the audience. If it wasn’t for learning about the effectiveness of voiceovers, in my Contextual Report and being able to implement them into my film, I don’t think my outcome would have been anywhere near as emotionally impactful.
When researching into the main theme of my film, Acceptance, I learnt that it isn’t hard to seek for Acceptance unless it is a "loss". Which in my eyes, took me straight into looking about the topic of grief and losing a loved one. The theme of grief ended up being one of the most important parts of my film and the Research here allowed me to look more in-depth about grief within the Real Life section, which became a detrimental part in building a chracter profile for my protagonist.
The Character Profile I created in the Final Pitch with the help from my Contextual Research Report, as stated above.
I did vaguely touch on the Cinematic Style on these first few films I had analysed, a shot in particular was one from What Went Lost. I stated in my Contextual Research Report that ‘I could’ve turned off the sound and explained to the audience that this film has themes of someone dealing with loneliness and isolation through this one shot’. Which was why it played such a big part in my Final Outcome. I wanted to tell my stories through mainly the visuals, being someone who specialises in Cinematography, and the isolated effect this shot gave is one I knew I had to implement within my Film.
Shot from my Film
Shot from What Went Lost in my Contextual Report (where I took inspiration)
However, as someone who specialises in Cinematography and Grading, what didn’t go so well just like my Context Stage, was showing a clear focus on these two elements. Especially within the first few films I analysed, the narrative was the sole analysis for these and I hardly touched on what inspiration I could take from a Cinematic point of view except for a few stills.
One film I picked in particular, Empathy, was clearly devoted to me taking inspiration from the look of the film which can clearly be backed up by my Final Outcome.
Stills from the film "Empathy"
I looked into how he created the shot of his protagonist lying down as I wanted to re-create the somber emotion this shot had created. This was all down to the time of the day, being the Blue Hour. Learning this, I used it when it came to Production Days, ensuring that I waited till this certain time of day to achieve the same results that Jordan did, and I was happy with the shot I achieved.
Shot from my Film
Shot from the Film Empathy (where I took inspiration from the Blue Hour Shot)
Even though Empathy was a film I specifically chose for the Cinematic Style, I feel the Similar Narratives stage could have been improved massively if I had found a wider range of films to analyse on the Cinematic Style. As I mentioned above, being an individual who specialises in Cinematography, this should have been a focus before thinking about the narrative element of my Film. However, the narrative element became a part that I was so fixated on perfecting due to the criticism I received from my FMP last year. My narrative confused people a lot, leaving them puzzled as to why my characters did certain things. So I knew this was an element I had to improve on in my Final Major Project this year. When it came to Peer Feedback this year, I had absolutely no criticism with understanding my film which just goes to show how useful my Contextual Report has been at improving my narrative ability.
Peer Feedback Review, where the Narrative has been complimented on.
REAL LIFE
This stage was used to explore my chosen themes, grief and learning to seek acceptance. I knew the best way to showcase these to my audience was going to be through a message, so I researched and learnt the best ways to portray a realistic message, which was necessary with such a serious and emotional topic.
I was provided with the opportunity to experiment with Casting as I found hiring experienced actors was going to be a necessary step in showcasing that realistic message in my film, as my friends or family could not emotionally connect with the audience as well as experienced actors could.
Learning about Ethics went well in my Report, it made me aware of certain implications I had to be aware of to stay out of trouble and conflict when it came to my film. I was set on showcasing something like 13 Reasons Why did where they had a now-deleted scene of Hannah killing herself. I felt like this could have been powerful in my film as it showcases the raw emotion, but learning about how much trouble 13 Reasons Why got in because of this and how much controversy was created, I knew it was best to stay away from it when it came to fleshing out my narrative in the Script.
I taught myself a lot about the biggest factors of why someone would kill themself, as I am an individual who has not experienced these thoughts, I knew it would be detrimental to look into why people feel this way to ensure my narrative is as realistic as possible and most importantly, people can relate to why my protagonist suffers with these terrible thoughts. I found out that suffering with bereavement is statistically a huge factor in a lot of suicides. Men in general, were also a group who had one of the highest rate of suicides. This helped me build Character Profiles as I knew the protagonist should be a man, which became handy later on when talking about my characters in the Casting Calls.
Character Profile on my Casting Call that was helped by fleshing out the protagnist profile in the Real Life stage
Regarding the Ethics section of my Real Life Report, I found a quote from the Taking Ethics Seriously book “We need ethics not to decide who is good or bad, but to build social infrastructure that, like physical infrastructåure, is vital to getting anything done.” Which is something I couldn’t agree more on, however I felt I needed more of my own opinion stated throughout this topic as a lot of it was sourced information. Sourced information is good especially as throughout the Real Life section I had used a wide range of sources, including Primary and Secondary as well. But my own opinion is important to back up the information I find.
A part that lacked heavily in Suicide Prevention, looking back at it now that could’ve saved me a lot of time when it came to Planning and especially Production, was highlighting how you go about living a happy life after. I stated it would be important to showcase that life does get better even if you are suffering from suicidal thoughts right now, but I never stated how to go about this, and what steps are necessary to make that change. This impacted my Planning as I thought that showcasing seeking professional help from a therapist would be the best way to show the next steps, however after filming this I don’t believe this was the right way to go about it which is why I deleted the scene. I should’ve improved this by Researching into the steps of recovery, to ensure I could have kept my Production more efficient, and not wasted as much as I did.
THEORIES AND TECHNIQUES
I split the theories and techniques section into two stages: Planning Techniques and Practical Techniques. I spoke about different methods of achieving certain planning and practical techniques, in my case Casting Calls and Storyboards for Planning and Colour Grading and Lighting for Practical.
Planning Techniques
The Planning Technqiues went particularly well as they were the first initial step at making my project complex. I knew from previous research in my Real Life stage that I had to deliver an important message to the audience, and the best way to go about this would be through hiring external actors who could deliver the emotion properly. So, experimenting with hiring actors seemed ultimately necessary as it was something I had never looked into before hence making this project rather complex.
Casting Calls were clearly the most effective way of finding actors, after conducting successful Experimentation with these.
The Casting Call I made
in my Experimentation
I learnt in my Theories and Techniques stage that “To achieve successful responses to my Calls, I need to make sure that they look professional and presentable. “Getting common industry terms right, such as avails, pins and holds, eliminates confusion for actors and agents and establishes faith in the production.” Knowing this, helped me throughout my Experimentation and I sought advice from more experienced designers which I will go into more detail about in the Experimentation Stage of my Final Evaluation.
I decided to go with Storyboards as I had learnt within my Process Report that “The most important part of pre-production will always be your scripting and storyboarding. It provides the foundation that you’ll spend the rest of your time trying to build upon.” So I wanted to find the most effective way to begin the foundation of my film, especially visually. It states here Scripts and Storyboards are both the most important parts of pre-production, but I chose to stick with Storyboards as I specialise in the visual aspect of my films.
If I’m being honest the Planning Technqiues was one of the least problematic stages of my Final Major Project. The only thing I wish I could have done better looking back at it now was where I stated last year, I watched tutorials on how to improve my Storyboards, when it came to Planning Experimentation and especially Planning, I had completely forgotten how to do this which resulted in my Storyboards being a document I never ended up using on Production Days. In essence, this lack of learning made my Storyboards pointless when it came to Filming.
Practical Techniques
The Production Techniques was the stage I spent most of my time working on as being practical was the part I enjoyed most about Film and TV. Not only was I making my project complex theoretically, I was ensuring that the Practical element of my FMP was complex as well. This was through the techniques I had decided to look into, one being my specialism Colour Grading, and the other Lighting.
An area of my Grading Research that went well was highlighting how necessary it was to switch to DaVinci. I learnt throughout this research how much more precision I have to achieve good results in my Colour Grade, which as someone who specialises in Grading, is something that is so beneficial to me. I didn’t learn about specific details but with some of the features DaVinci has on offer such as Halation and Bloom to achieve that Filmic Look, a style I stated I was interested in throughout my Initial Concept and Similar Narratives, was a no-brainer.
The Lighting Research was completely new to me, I had never thought about using lighting rigs within my Projects. I knew I had to try this out as I found in my Primary Research that lighting was one of the most important parts of Cinematography.
This went well as I learnt a lot of new information about lighting setups and specifically how you can achieve suspense in your shots. Suspense was something that I was looking to implement within my own film and learning new techniques that I didn’t know beforehand became useful as it gave me the opportunity to experiment with this further. I am so glad that I researched into lighting as looking back on my Outcome, I would not have achieved the look I was going for if it wasn’t for the One-Point Lighting Setup in particular.
However, what I feel could have been improved when it came to the Lighting Research was finding two relevant techniques to compare. I was comparing Lighting Setups and Natural Lighting which seemed pointless as these were never going to be used in the same scenarios. I should’ve found two methods of Lighting that could be implemented in the same environment. However, I noticed this when it came to Experimentation which is why I split my experimentation into two stages. I compared Lighting Setups to other Lighting Setups and Natural Lighting to other ways to light outside such as using Reflectors, instead of comparing Setups and Natural Lighting to each other.
Natural Lighting Experimentation
Lighting Setup Experimentation
Planning
The Planning stage is where I took all my Initial Ideas and Research that I had looked into over the past few weeks and put them into action, creating documents that gave me the opportunity to put all my ideas into a Short Film. I created a range of documents: Pitches, Story Outlines and Loglines, Scripts, Storyboards and Shot Lists, Location Recces, Casting Scouting, Equipment Lists and Risk and Release Documents. I also completed the Planning Experimentation here, where I took the techniques I looked into throughout the Contextual Research and experimented with the different methods I found.
Feelings
This was the stage where I began to feel more eager and keen going into the Planning of my Film. I was finally able to take all I had researched from the Contextual Research Report and put it into action. I was confident going into the Planning as the work I had produced from the Contextual Research Report had been to a high standard, I had fleshed my idea out well and all I needed next was to transfer my ideas into the documents.
Evaluation
The Pitch
The Pitch was the initial document I completed for the Planning section. This also covered the Logline and Synopsis as I featured both of these within The Pitch. I believe completing this first was useful as it allowed me to write down everything that I had fleshed out about my film over the last few weeks. This became typically beneficial when it came to writing other documents such as The Script. Having my narrative fleshed out onto slides in the Pitch made it easy for me to begin writing The Script as I already had all the information in one place and didn’t have to scroll through the thousands of words that I wrote in my Reports.
What I feel could have been improved with the Pitch is how I visually showcased some slides. The narrative in particular, was full of words with no visuals to back this up. I could have created a mood board of the scenes, anything to visually back up what I was writing. The narrative was the only section I failed to visually show as the Characters, Visuals, Locations and even sound had visuals to back up my points.
The Script
The Script began so well as I knew exactly what was going on in the Narrative with the help of The Pitch. I was also surprised with how well the dialogue flowed at the start as this was an area I had always struggled with last year. However, where it started off so well I later on had many issues with layout and presentation. This was due to the fact that the Process Report this year was heavily centered around my specialism, Cinematography and Grading, that I didn’t think to look into creating Scripts.
I regret not doing this beforehand as I had to seek help from my friend, Ez, who is someone specialising in Screenwriting, to teach me some methods of laying out a Script in the most effective way possible. This was useful, but it lost me a lot of time in the already short time I had to plan.
What I found particularly useful within The Script was stating the Scene number, something I hadn’t done within my Script last year. This was useful as it meant when I began to work on my Shot List, I already knew what scene correlated to which shots, so it saved me a lot of time when working the Shot List as I didn’t have to figure this out when I knew from the Script beforehand.
I also highlighted changes well throughout my Drafts as I was consistently changing how I felt I should structure the Narrative. This was best done in the change between my First and Second Drafts as I wanted to include more of an Opening Title Sequence beginning, so I added shots like my protagonist running that didn't overly contribute to the narrative, but they visually looked nice.
Storyboard and Shot Lists
Storyboards were by far the most unsuccessful piece of Planning that I had created. This was a shame as when working on my Process Report, I believed that this would have been one of the most beneficial pieces of Planning as it is what I found out through not just secondary but primary research as well.
Even though Storyboards were unsuccessful when it came to Production, I am still glad that I did the Planning Experimentation of these. Before completing the experimentation I was certain that the Picture Storyboards were going to be the most effective way of Storyboarding. However, what particularly went well about this was how much time I managed to save myself in Planning as experimenting with Picture Storyboards before taught me how much time I would waste by doing these. I found them to be pointless and unpractical with the short period we got to plan our film out.
Shot Lists, on the other hand, were a much more beneficial source of Shot Planning. Having the shots written down with all the information about them is what I found most useful in Production. Additionally, what went well about the Shot Lists was how organised and neat the layout was. I provided a Colour Code on there to state which day each shot was being filmed. This helped me out on Production Days, ensuring I wouldn’t miss a shot as I could easily find which ones I had planned to shoot on that specific day and tick them off.
Location Recces
Location Recces were something I had done in a much different way this year. Last year, I only ever saw photos of the places I was shooting at, or been there unintentionally in the past. However, what went well with the Location Recces this year was I got into contact with the Rod, the owner of Bocking Church, to arrange a time for me to come and scout out the Church. This was useful as I could get a real feel for the place and surroundings and it also gave me the opportunity to get a few shot ideas in place beforehand.
However, one thing I do feel I could’ve done better beforehand was working on a rough shot list to see if any potential ideas that I had could work in the Church. When I went, I did scout out a few ideas for Shots but looking back at it now I wish that I had gone into more detail with the Shot Planning before I did the Location Recces as when it got to Production Time, I spent a lot of time figuring out what shots to get and this made a lot of my extras angry as they had to sit still for a long while. This could have also been resolved by heading back to the church once I had my rough shot list in place, but with the short time we get to plan it would have been hard to fit this in.
Casting Scouting
The Casting was by far one of the sections I was most proud of this year. I had never thought throughout my time at college I would get the opportunity to work with experienced actors, but with the help of Casting Calls I had made this experience happen.
DAN MISSING
Matt Clark
LOIS GARDNER
Sarah Clark
As this was something I had never done before, it felt necessary to experiment with it beforehand to ensure I was finding the most effective way possible. I always thought finding actors through Stage Schools and College Courses would have been the easier way. However, after conducting the Experimentation I completely proved my point wrong finding Casting Calls to have been a much more successful method of Casting Actors.
Another thing that went well about Casting External Actors was how much of an improvement my film was. My actors were always pretty solid in my films as my friends are great at listening however, this film was the first time I had received positive feedback specifically stating about how well the actors performed. This goes to show how much hiring out experienced actors improves the quality of your film.
When it came down to Casting Actors, I had issues with actors cancelling which was rather annoying. However, thankfully they were only small roles and didn't require much experience, so I ended up using my friends for these. I stated well throughout my Casting Calls the changes I had made due to the cancellations, which is also dated meaning it is clear when I had made these changes.
Equipment List
The Equipment list was a standard document that I have been doing for the last two years in every single project. It highlights all the pieces of equipment that I will be taking with me to Production and state my reasoning for why.
What I found went well with the Equipment List was highlighting my changes to the document. I had initially created what I thought was the finalised Equipment List, but after completing the Reflector Experimentation I decided it was best to add the Reflector to my Equipment List as I saw potential in using this within my Production.
Looking back at my nearly finished website and this Equipment List, the only downside I saw that made the list look off was how it did not fit my consistent Branding Theme. I didn’t see this as much of an issue as it was such a small part of my Planning, but I would certainly improve on this if I was doing it again just to ensure my website was as neat as possible. The Equipment List still followed the minimal theme I was going for throughout my Website, so there are some elements in there that correlate.
Risk and Release
The Risk and Release Documents were heavily important, especially this year as I was externally casting actors and I did not want to risk getting sued when putting my actors on YouTube.
In general, they went well, I was able to create a successful legal document that ensured I could not be sued, this set my mind at ease when going into Production even though after meeting and bonding with the actors, it is something I could never see them doing as they gain nothing out of suing a Student who will most likely never make money off of this film.
Evaluation
Just like the Research Stage, my Planning kept my project complex through the use of Casting Calls, a document I had never implemented within my Planning before. What I had produced throughout this stage was strong enough to move into Production Stage, as I had completed every necessary document to a high standard. Throughout my Planning Documents, an area in particular that was consistently successful was how I stated where my Documents changed, and when I had changed them.
Improving on my Planning for the future, I would like to see major improvements in the way I organise when I produce each document. I ran into some issues with the Shot Planning in my Production as I didn’t scout out the Church Location as much as I should’ve. So, to ensure I can solve for this for next time, creating a Planning Schedule just like I created a Production Schedule could help to benefit the efficiency of my Planning Stage.
Experimentation
When it came to the official week of Experimentation, I only focused on the Practical aspect of this as I had already completed the Planning Experimentation throughout the Planning stage. For my Practical Experimentation, I used what I had researched throughout the Theories and Techniques stage from my Contextual Research Report. I looked into Lighting where I split it into two stages: Natural Lighting and Lighting Setups. I decided to split these into two, as a stated in my Reflection about the Theories and Techniques stage that comparing Natural Lighting and Setups to each other seemed pointless as they worked in two very different scenarios. So instead, I split them both up into their individual Experimentation task, where I looked into the most effective method for achieving both of them.
The next practical element I experimented with was Colour Grading, an area I have specialised in. However instead of just grading in post, I looked into grading using Colour Gels placing them inside of a light source. I compared this to grading in the newly complex program that I have researched into, DaVinci Resolve. This stage was also detrimental to making my project practically complex as Lighting was an area that I had never looked at before and grading inside of DaVinci Resolve was new to me as well.
Feelings
Going into this stage I loved Experimenting with new equipment and techniques, it has been one of my favourite elements of my time on this course. Being able to Experiment before hand, especially in this project, was the reason I felt so confident going into Production. In general, I am a very stressful person, so having this dedicated time before arguably the most important stage of the Project, Production, gave me all the reassurance I needed when working with new techniques, Lighting in particular, that I had never thought about using before.
Evaluation
Lighting
What I am glad I did at the start of the Experimentation, was changing my idea for the Lighting Experimentation. I was originally set on comparing Natural Lighting and Lighting Setups but after some thought about it, I concluded that these would be pointless comparing as they can’t be used in the same environment or scenario. The main reason why I am glad that I made this change, is because I don’t believe my Lighting Setup Experimentation would have been as critical and in-depth if I vaguely compared the two. Instead, I went into detail about finding the best way to place a One-Point Lighting setup specifically finding the best position to create suspense, as suspense was an emotion I wanted my audience to feel stated throughout my research in my Contextual Research Report.
When it came to the Lighting Setup Experimentation, the results I had achieved were great. I took a lot reference from a shot in The Godfather and when comparing my experimentation to this reference image, I had done a great job at achieving the chiaroscuro technique this shot from The Godfather showcases that I spoke about within my Experimentation.
Shot from Godfather
My Experimentation
Experimenting with these setups beforehand had a clear impact on improving my workflow when it came to filming the Hospital Scene. This experimentation showed me the best position to place my light source and I implemented this exact setup when it came to placing my light source in the Doctor’s Hallway. It saved me a lot of time figuring out what position would be the most optimal as I had already experimented, finding this out beforehand.
My Experimentation
The Same Lighting Setup in my Film that I found most effective in my Experimentation
The Result
As I moved on to the Natural Lighting stage, I used different pieces of equipment that I had never thought about using before, one being Reflectors. I thought that Reflectors were used primarily to keep “both the subject and background exposed the same.” as I found out in the Theories and Techniques stage of my Contextual Research Report. This is one of the main reasons I went about trying to use them, as I found it difficult in harsh sunlight conditions to keep both the subject and background exposed properly, without blowing out the highlights.
However, this experimentation that I had conducted did not go well, and not how I was expecting it to.
I initially thought beforehand that Reflectors was going to enhance my outdoor footage and make my scene feel more natural, yet instead it did the complete opposite. The results were something I could not implement into my own film however, I didn’t rule reflectors off completely. I didn’t Experiment with this, but I decided to keep Reflectors in my Equipment List as I felt when it came to that Golden Hour time of day, Reflectors may be able to provide more natural results with that golden, warm glow that subject acquires when a Reflector is shining on them.
I am so glad that I chose to keep them, even after having unsuccessful Experimentation, when it came to filming in the Church, I managed to acquire great results using the Reflector by enhancing that warm glow onto my subject’s face.
lucasdixon9
lucasdixon9
Colour Grading
The next part of my Experimentation was based on my specialism skillset, Colour Grading. Instead of just experimenting with Grading in post, which I have only ever done for the last two years, I wanted to ensure I could improve the complexity of my by implementing the grade in Production instead. I put this to the test against grading in post, but not just the typical beginner-friendly program Adobe Premiere Pro, I tried out a more advanced industry-standard software DaVinci Resolve.
Colour Gels were used in the first method to experiment practically with Grading. I loved the initial grade these produced, the footage looked nice and visually pleasing. However, this experimentation also consisted of an issue where once I had shot the footage in this colour there was no changing it later in post. This was an issue for me as I tend to change my mind a lot in post.
When it came to grading in post, especially DaVinci Resolve, it was clear how much Colour Grading in post overpowered using Colour Gels. I was able to obtain the same look, in a much shorter time frame and I also had all the flexibility I wanted when it came to changing the colour.
Throughout the Lighting Setups and Grading, I did a great job at showing the BTS of how I was achieving each method and what the setup looked like. This was specifically useful when it came to Production Days as I could resort back to the BTS I made of the Setups to ensure I had my lighting placed correctly.
Conclusion
To conclude this stage, it has been a detrimental part of my Final Major Project at achieving complexity using a wide range of techniques that I hadn’t before. Experimenting with areas of my skillsets has led to a clear improvement in my Cinematography and Grading ability, which has allowed me to produce a more visually pleasing Short Film.
Moving forward with experimentation, I would like to go and experiment with Reflectors more as I really believe that in the right scenario, these can be more beneficial than I found them in the Experimentation and even the Outcome. They are praised and used a lot throughout Feature Films, so I think it would be best to find some more tutorials on these to equip myself with a better understanding of how to use them.
Outcomes
After having finalised the Planning and Experimentation stages, it was time to put all of the information I had learnt and documents I had produced into action by Filming and Editing my Short Film. Filming consisted over 4 days and the Editing went over a whole week. Once the editing week was over, I then made amendments with the feedback I received from my peers.
Feelings
Going into the filming, I was confident with putting the film into action as I had created sufficient planning and found the most effective ways to achieve certain techniques throughout my Experimentation. However, as this was my first meeting up with external actors that I had casted, this was rather nerve racking and made me worried that it would be awkward or we wouldn’t get long. But confidently after working with them for a few hours, this stress faded and I was back to feeling only excited and eager to film.
Production
Evaluation
On the first day of shooting I was primarily based around my Grandad’s house, Barn Mead. When it came to my protoagoinst sleeping, I was successful able to use the One-Point Lighting technique I had experimented with in my Experimentation the week before to achieve contrast in my shot. I didn’t use the lighting in this shot like I did in others to achieve suspense, instead I wanted to replicate a lamp coming from the other side of the bed as we didn’t have one to use.
I utilised my experimentation in many different shots throughout my film, what went well about doing this within the Hospital scene was I could use the exact same setup that I did in my Lighting Setup Experimentation, placing the One-Point Light outside a window, faced 90 degrees to my Subject, as I stated in the Experimentation, to achieve that look of suspense as the surrounding background is dark and dimmed out compared to the subjects.
My Experimentation
Lighting Setup in Film
When we first got to Production Day, one of the scenes I filmed first was the conversation scene between Matt and Sarah when he is lying in bed. As I was getting the camera setup, I expected to be waiting a while for them to go over their lines. However, when the camera was set up they were all ready to go.
This just shows how important creating the Script in the Planning Stage was beforehand as this saved us a lot of time in Production. Not to mention, the importance of Production Schedule’s as well, providing this to them beforehand prepared them with what dialouge needed to be a priority at learning. This is one of the main reasons my Production Days went so smoothly, and I was able to film a whole 12 minute film in 4 days. Putting this side by side with my last Final Major Project, I failed to provide the actors with a script or schedule and it took us 2 weeks to film a 5 minute film!
Throughout my flashback sequence in Day Two at Finchingfield, it needed to be as happy as possible to create that "emotional impact" as stated in my Contextual Research Report. However, due to poor weather conditions that day there was no sunlight meaning I could not implement the technique of where my subject was placed from my Natural Lighting Experiementation. Even though this was the case, throughout the Group Project this year I was provided with footage that I had to grade to make look ‘happy’ even though it was shot on a cloudy, windy day. So I didn’t doubt for once that I was going to struggle to resolve this within Post Production as I have before.
I faced a few problems throughout the Production period, a frustrating one was having no boom pole for the camera operator to hold. The sole reason I forgot this was when creating my Equipment List in the Planning Stage, I included the RODE NTG-1 Microphone, but I completely missed off the pole. However, I used Problem Solving to sort this out and I changed two things. Firstly, I found a chair at the back of the church that allowed my boom operator to stand at a higher angle and next, I placed my camera at a much tighter angle that I initially was going to to ensure my boom operator’s arm didn’t accidentally come into frame.
Lastly what well in the Production stage, was the evidence I showcased throughout the Production Stage. I stated in my Project Proposal form “When it come to the Experimentation and Production stages, I will be recording Behind the Scenes material to show what I am doing in that week to show off how I was able to achieve a particular shot” Which is exactly what I had done throughout the whole of Production, it gave me the best opportunity to reflect on what I had created and evidence everything on my WIX site.
Post-Production
Feelings
I went into the filming feeling relieved that Production had gone so well. The RAW footage I had acquired alone itself was amazing, so I was really looking forward to enhancing it even more with the Colour Grade, in the new advanced program I am using DaVinci Resolve. I was confident in my ability to grade with this program, even though I have only been using it for a short amount of time.
Evaluation
I believe that the main reason for my Post-Production week to have gone as successful as it did was down to my workflow. I found from a YouTube Video by Scott Edwards that I looked into in my Process Research Report that “The most important part of Video Editing is arguably the workflow.” So going into this, I knew workflow beforehand was going to play a determining factor in how quickly I could get my Short Film edited.
The workflow I followed was firstly putting together a rough cut on the film just the RAW clips combined, then moving onto the Grading and Audio Mixing/Music. This seemed to work best for me as I could stay consistent with each section, staying consistent is a target I have set myself earlier on in the Reflecitve Logs and it always benefited me in the end.
Grading was a huge part of my film as it has been the area I have heavily specilised in throughout my second year on Film and TV. When it came to my Final Pitch, talking about visuals was a key part of this. A huge inspiration I had was emulating film and in particular the Eterna 500T Film Stock.
I loved the colors this produced and I learnt from my Contexutal Research Report that with Magic Bullets Look you can “Go beyond color correction, with accurate simulations of lens filters and film stocks.” So I knew when it came to Post Production using Magic Bullet Looks would be the most benefical way to achieve the look I desired in my Final Pitch. I was really proud of the results, Magic Bullet Looks didn’t just provide me with the ability to use Film Stocks, I could also add Halation, Optical Diffusion and Lens Flares. All which contributed to making my footage replicate old film to the best of my ability.
I had some issues throughout with the Optical Diffusion effect on Magic Bullet Looks, it would cause my DaVinci Resolve to freeze up and the preview did not want to play. This stressed me out a lot as I thought this would impact my workflow out however, I found a quick solution at setting my preview quality to ¼. This wasn’t ideal as it made it hard for me to see the grade, especially the fine detail. But, there was nothing I could do about this and it evidently worked out fine in the end.
Even though I was specialising in the Colour Grading, an element I am really proud that I solved was the horrendous RAW audio from the Microphone in the Church Scene. As I was listening back to the audio from my RODE microphone it was subtle at first, but when I turned my headphones up there was a horrific buzzing noise layered over the whole eulogy. This annoyed me and worried me initially however, using my Problem Solving skills I was able to find different methods that could isolate the audio, where after finding one tutorial on YouTube, Adobe Audition provided me with the right plugins to fix my audio making it sound clean and free from the buzzing noise.
Where my evidence of BTS was great in Production, I still had a fair amount but it did lack a little in Post-Production. This was due to the fact that my MacBook only has 500GB of storage and the clips take up a fair amount of this, being high quality 4K 10-bit clips. I do have a storage device which I looked into initially however, I had hardly any storage on there and was unable to remove anything due to most of the files being important data.
Peer Feedback
For my Peer Feedback, I made sure to write questions that could be answered with a constructive and critical response instead of a simple yes or no. This was so I had more specific information to make changes on instead of receiving an answer that I had nothing to work off. The questions were mainly focused on my specialism, however I also included areas that I know I have struggled with in the past.
These questions showcase what people thought was good about my film which I am so proud about as nearly every single element of producing the film was stated as a positive. The Narrative, The Camera Work, The Grading were things people found exceptional, it makes me so happy as it shows all the hardwork I have put in for the last 12 weeks have paid off. It shocked me a lot with the narrative, as this is the first time someone has complemented a narrative of mine, it really proves to me how much my skills have developed over the last year. The feedback on what people liked most about my film, every single response had stated the Cinematography which tells me I had succeeded in what I set out to do. Focusing on my specialism Cinematography, to build my narrative through visuals and this is what people loved the most.
The next few questions were based around finding feedback to improve on. The majority answer I received was improving on the audio, and thankfully one of my responses provided me with a timestamp to find the issue that I had missed. This is something I completely agreed with and made the necessary change by increasing the volume to sit naturally with the rest of the scene. Another piece of feedback that caught my attention was to do with camcorder shot towards the end of my film. They stated it would look a lot better if it was worse quailty, this is something at the time I thought was perfectly fine but looking back at it, I noticed that the camera quality was way too nice to replicate any sort of camcorder as it was still in 4K. So I made this amendment to my film, I was really happy that this person spotted this out as if I was to have noticed this after I released the Final Film, it would have got on my nerves a lot.
The Peer Feedback was undoubtedly a useful stage to have before Final Outcomes as I prefer the film much more looking back at it with the changes I had made. However, the one issue I had with the Peer Feedback this year is I only obtained 4 pieces of feedback. This was far downgraded from the 14 pieces I received last year. It would have been useful to receive more as there would’ve been a higher chance at finding other issues in my Film with more people looking at it. I believe to improve on this for next time, if I am unable to gather more feedback from my peers on Film and TV, I will result in contacting people outside of my college course and finding out what either friends, family or even the general public think of my work.
Conclusion
To conclude the Outcome stage, it has been such a successful stage from start to finish. Being able to put everything I had learnt and worked on in the previous stages into action here went efficiently to build my final piece. I have done a great job at building my film, telling my stories heavily through the visuals and showing off the development with my chosen specialist skills, Cinematography and Colour Grading. I created a complex piece using new lighting techniques that I have never looked into before.
However I feel to improve on my Outcomes for another time, I need to look into gaining more feedback from others as this was a clear area that lacked detail in. The feedback I acquired was useful and constructive, however there was very little of it. I feel with a larger pool of Feedback, this could’ve helped to spot more errors that were in the film as I know it isn’t perfect.
Reflection
The Reflection of my FMP has been split into three sections: Reflective Logs, Problem Solving and finally this Final Evaluation.
The Reflective Logs have been beneficial to make each week as they importantly state the targets I set for that week to complete in a certain time frame. This ensures that I make consistent progress and improve each area throughout my FMP. I followed the Gibbs Reflective Cycle in all my logs, which covers talking about what I did in that week, how I was feeling and then evaluating what I had done successfully throughout that week and what didn’t go so well.
Evaluating these beforehand made it easy to set targets for me afterwards. I also spoke about whether I had met the targets I set for myself in the previous weeks or not and evaluated how I had done this and if it benefited me. I was really happy with how I created my Reflective Logs however, if I had to improve on them for next time, when it came to the Evaluation section I would have laid out the evaluation with subtitles as the questions I am answering such as “What went well?”. Even though all the information is in them, doing this could make it easier for the examiner to read what is happening in them.
Problem Solving has been a new stage to me this year, I touched on it vaguely last year but I had never had a dedicated section to solving the Problems I come across throughout my FMP. I was really successful when it came to solving the various problems that came across both theoretically and practically. I structured my Problem Solving to first, talk about what the problem is and why it is affecting me, how I am dealing with this problem and what I can do to ensure that this does not happen again. I found this to be the most effective way of structuring this as it covers every necessary step. I also showed strong evidence throughout my Problem Solving with a lot of visuals showcasing what the problems were, and how I fixed them.
Concluding the Reflection, I think that this stage has been a real success. As I have followed had followed the Gibbs Reflective Cycle well, ensuring I set myself targets to follow to see a persistent improvement and ensuring I found a solution to stay away from the problems that had already occurred
To conclude my Final Major Project, I couldn’t be more proud of the work I had produced from the writing aspects to the practical. I have enjoyed every single minute of this Final Major Project and it has been great watching me develop my skills in Cinematography and Colour Grading, being that I always strive for improvement. I have introduced complexity this year through the use of hiring External Actors who have had the experience to deliver my emotional message well. Additionally, I have learnt how to use lighting to present emotion in my visuals which contributes to the aesthetically pleasing look I have created and am immensely proud of.
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Moving forward into University and future projects, I want to work on my Planning, ensuring I go more in-depth with the shots I want to produce in my Final Outcome. This impacted one of the scenes in my film which led to annoyed actors and extras and if this continues, it could result in a loss of people wanting to play a role within the films I make.
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