Basilisk

Final Evaluation.
Through a rigorous 15 weeks I have come to the end of my Final Major project. I must say
already what an experience this has been so far. I have enjoyed every minute of this unit and
have gained so much from it. I am over the moon about how my production has gone and
am excited to see what people think about this project.

I think this project has come together really well. I really stretched past my boundaries to
create something that is better than what I imagined. This is the first time that I have used a
crew, and I was very sceptical when Will talked about getting a crew, but I do not regret
getting this crew as on many occasions they have benefitted us, and some of these shots and
scenes would not have been the same if not for this crew. The cinematography is great and
Will’s execution of the shots I created are beautiful and work really well. I am very proud of
my editing job and have excelled my own expectations in this project. The VFX looks natural
and work really well with the story, establishing the type of world they live in. For my first time
applying actual practical effects I believe I did a great job, especially the pressure I was put
under due to certain aspects of filming, which I will delve further into later. And I think the
sound effects used are very realistic and create an appealing scene as well as the music
emphasising the types of emotions I was trying to create through a scene. The filming process
was overall very smooth and organised with a few little bumps in the road that both Will and I
calmly sorted out. I have only shown my film to a limited amount of my peers, but throughout
the drafts my peers have given me good feedback, and they few that I have shown the final
edit have all said that it is a very good production. I have gotten compliments on my editing,
practical effects and evolution as an editor and Will also has gotten compliments on filming.
We have gotten a very positive response from peers that gives me excitement for when we
publish this film. I have also gotten very good feedback from my teachers saying things such
as ‘Its brilliant!’ and others giving me feedback on drafts and telling me that the story works,
and that the emotion is there. Thankfully throughout my drafts my teachers have given me
good constructive criticism to help create an even better piece. Overall, I have gotten a very
overwhelming wave of positive response to this production, proving to both Will and I that
we have created something to be proud of.

With anything there will always be improvements to make, and that applies for our
production. There are a few improvements that I would like to list off an explain, a lot of these
are minor and do not change a lot about the film itself. A lot of these are improvements I
 Basilisk
couldn’t make due to time restrictions, actors’ availability and resources I may not have.
Understanding these improvements are what will help me evolve as a person in this industry
and help me when creating future projects. The first improvement that is a very obvious
improvement to make is to do with casting and availability. There should have been more
preparation when casting for extra roles such as the guards. We originally wanted more
guards and, in this project, had to cut the amount down and also get people to be multiple
different guards. This is a major concern and is something I want to improve for future
productions. This should have been handled better, but we manged to do well with what we
had. The second thing that I feel should have been improved, but couldn’t due to the
restrictions of time, is the VFX blunder with Tia in which the camera was shaky and it made
the VFX work very hard to do. If I had the opportunity, I would have loved to reshoot that
scene properly so that it could have looked better whilst also being easier for me when
editing. This is a mistake Will made when shooting and would have been resolved if he would
have just told me, but again we managed to make do and try to resolve the issue in the best
way possible. Something that would have been more important as a lead-up to an emotional
scene, and would have created an overall better set piece, is if we had a longer interrogation.
Due to a very limited time restriction with us unable to shoot on another day, the
interrogation scene was cut a lot shorter than intended, as there isn’t really an interrogation
at all. If I were to make an improvement, fleshing that scene out longer would have ended in
a better result, but again with the limited time we had, we had to make do with cutting it
short. Speaking of guards, the final scene could have been a lot better. First of all, having such
a limited time restriction hindered what it was we could actually do, and we had no more
available time to film anything more than what was filmed. Having more guards, more of a
threat would have been so much better as a closing action sequence, but we played with
what we had and went with the fact that it was a trap, it was supposedly empty, but frankly
everything to do with Basilisk is gone and Daemon walks out of the shadows to destroy the
threat himself. When it comes to improvements, I think an improvement, that would alter the
progression of the film, is spending more time in the film rather than a couple of days, a time
gap and then one day, rather space it out a little more. Frankly due to the limitations of it
being a short film and us not having a large budget, we could not do such a thing. I think this
would be a minor improvement and is not very necessary to the plot. Something I would have
liked, but again budget and time restrictions, is a more in-depth action costume. When they
suit up, all they do is put on body armour and gloves. This works in the scenario we created,
 Basilisk
but I would have liked to see more of an action SWAT like costume where it had more parts
and was a separate outfit than their common wear. The final thing is to do with practical
effects. When shooting I had no time to do practical effects and all of the usage of it was very
rushed, therefore not making the gore as realistic as I would have wanted. Our main problem
in this project was time restrictions and not having enough time to waste. We were very busy
and had a lot too shoot, which meant practical VFX was used is very tense scenarios,
therefore an improvement for next time, is spending more time on practical effects and
allowing there to be enough to make it look phenomenal.

Our brief gave use certain requirements. Such as deadlines to meet; Interim Deadline: 10th
May 2019 and the Final Deadline: 22nd May 2019. First of all, I met both of these deadlines with
completed work that was ready to be handed out but obviously could have been slightly
improved. I worked hard to stay on track and not lose sight of my goals, and one of them was
keeping up to date with deadlines so that I have no reason to panic and I ensure that I can
successfully get the grades I want and need. We
were given a list of rules to follow in this unit and
we stuck to them. These are not rules that are
hard to break. The one saying, ‘no swearing’, we
discussed with our teachers and due to our
competition and target audience we were allowed
to use a limited amount of swearing if necessary, to the scene. We have used no written work
or footage from any previous units and all of my written work is my own and anything that I
have written that has taken information from another source has been Harvard referenced
accordingly. Our project follows the brief created at the start of the unit. We have stuck to the
rules and filled the requirements set by the brief so that we can ensure we do this project
correctly.

There are two forms of guidelines we have to follow in this unit. The first is our competitions
guidelines, the second is the BBFC’s guidelines for a regulated 15 age rating. Raindance is the
Film Festival we plan on apply to. There are a few categories we plan to enter our film into,
but the rules of entry are quite lenient. Every film going into the competition is given an 18
certification therefore rules requiring something about no swearing etc. do not apply due to
the age rating given. The film submitted must only be under 45 minutes to be classed as a
short film therefore we are in the clear, but more rules apart from this aren’t really necessary
due to the freedom the competition is allowing. BBFC have more strict guidelines that both
 Basilisk
Will and I must follow to keep a certification age of 15 suiting our desired target audience.
The first guideline specified talks about Dangerous behaviour such as drugs and suicide
should not be a large theme. There is nothing to do with physical self-harm or people
destroying themselves with drugs, but we do cover the topic of alcoholism. We show little
scenes with Arthur drinking, but it is not dwelled on for too long, and the thought of him
being an alcoholic is more proved by his aesthetic rather than his actions therefore we remain
safe under this guideline. As I said in planning, we will not use any discriminatory language in
the slightest throughout as there is no reason for it to be there, therefore we had no intention
of using it. The next guideline follows drug taking in the form of how you portray it. It is aloud
if it fits the narrative, but in no way should it endorse, and that is exactly what our film does,
we do not endorse it, we in fact portray the message that alcohol is bad and destroys
people’s life. I feel putting this negative light of alcohol as a substance accurately portrays
how it affects alcoholics and proves the issue that stands in front of us. When it comes to
language as cussing, we have absolutely free reign over how much we use unless the
language is racist of derogatory, but simple cuss words are allowed. To suit the guidelines of
the brief, we decided to cut down on swearing unless completely necessary to emphasise on
what they are talking about in the scene to increase the drama and importance of certain
aspects. Violence is allowed but dwelling on injuries is cautioned against. In our film we use a
lot of violence, but we tend not to focus on the injuries, but more what happens in the fight
itself. Overall, I believe that we have managed to successfully stick to the guidelines set and
stick to any restrictions in a manor that helps us out.

I researched into a lot of different topics, genre’s, films, target audiences to help me mould
my production to the best standard. All of the research I have done has benefited me when
thinking about characters, plot, locations, costume, props and a lot more. For secondary
research I did a lot of research on different topics. The topics I researched are; Mourning -

Addiction, Depression and Alcoholism, British Military - Task Forces and Ghost Organisations

and Near Future Advancements - Computer Contact Lenses. These three main topics I
researched so that I could understand more about the different aspects of the plot I plan on
creating. Due to the military background and action throughout I thought best to research
into everything British Military and Ghost organisations that I could hopefully use or take
inspiration from when it comes to character and plot. Understand the clothing they wear, the
equipment they use, helps me when creating a scene and overall helped me understand
more about the types of characters I am creating. Mourning and Alcoholism and Depression
 Basilisk
are all topics relating to our main character, that is being portrayed by me. To really become
the character and do the topic justice I must be able to understand as much about these
issues as possible so that I can properly do it justice and accurately portray the struggles. I
learned a lot of new things such as new symptoms and the way people act and all of it was
presented through my portrayal. Understanding the issues, causes and solutions help use
develop a plot that sustains emotion and can replicate the themes we planned on including.
Learning more about future advancements help when it comes to narrative and props due to
the technology available. Rather than making things up, using real life advancements said to
be arriving in the coming years makes our plot that much more legitimate and personally I
feel that it makes it more real, and personal when watching as it is accurate information that
has helped out the plot. Overall all of the topic research was beneficial and helped me
understand a lot more about what I was creating. As well as this analysing and comparing
with films that use the same genre, same character types etc. is a great way to understand
how to do certain things and how a person should or has been portrayed. This makes the
professionality of our production that much better as we can compare it to that of which is
already deemed professional. This is a great way to learn and improve your work to suit that
of the professional business. Researching into your target audience is a big help.
Understanding who you are reaching out to, creates this bond and accuracy when producing
a film. In the end you are creating this for them, so understanding what an audience wants is
a great way to improve a broken plot. Feedback is always necessary and getting it from the
people that you aim to please, justifies your means and helps create a project that can be
successful. Research is one of the most important things to a project as it is what moulds it
and adds realism and care into it. It is evident when someone has put effort and time into
their work and doing the research shows that you have put in the effort to truly understand
what you are creating.

When it comes to the Codes and Conventions of both an Action and a Drama, Will and I have
accurately followed these conventions to successfully create an Action Drama. We have
created action set pieces that are relevant but also created emotion through encounters and
backstory. Using colour grading to help portray the emotions and framing shots so that
punches are covered and look realistic. The codes and conventions research helped a lot
when planning a learning about the framing of shots. I am going to create a section of my
evaluation in which I analyse my own film and the Codes and Conventions, and Mise-en-
Scene used that accurately explain reasoning for the way I have filmed this production. I think
 Basilisk
that in a general sense, my film suits the genre and through peer feedback it seems that they
agree. Using framing, colour grading, editing to match that of the genre was very important
and analysing examples definitely helped when creating the storyboards and filming the
scene.

One question remains here and that is; Have I done my Topic justice? To this I say yes. Due to
the abundance of research I have done as well as the research Will has done, we got a lot of
information on how to portray certain themes and understanding of different aspects of these
topic. I previously explained my three main topics, and I feel that Will and I have done all
three justice. When it comes to the military side, we made a few ties and hints to the
Increment, a secret British organisation. We also used certain references to things we have
researched such as a line we did saying ‘We have strong ties with him with a case back in
Gibraltar’. This quote links to our research about military locations to use that the British
military are currently in protection over. We made many tie ins to different parts of our
research through locations, name drops etc. We also made sure that props and outfits also
linked to this, keeping the same colour scheme for Arthur as that of a military operative
showing he is still very much tied to his past. Using military equipment such as combat knifes,
P90’s, Combat Gloves, Body armour all fit into that of what we researched. The way we
portrayed the combat styles and ability tie into their past and previous training therefore
proving that due to our research and implementation of this research, we have done this
topic justice. The second topic, Mourning, was a portrayal I needed to get right. To accurately
portray these themes, my research had to be included, and it was. Different aspects of an
alcoholic’s personalities were implemented into our plot and character.
Things such as him going to the bar in
daylight are ties to our research. Having him
drinking throughout the day, and drinking
what can only be old, flat beer are all things
we have researched about alcoholism and implemented to portray
this idea. Certain aspects of his life and how he acts bleeds into the
plot and cause some of the biggest plot points, and his evolution of a character as he slowly
gets better is evident. I tried my best keeping a sort of persona when portraying Arthur,
creating a mindset that accurately represents an alcoholic. I believe that our portrayal of
Arthur was accurate to that of our research and an Alcoholic and therefore have done this
topic justice. The final topic is technological advancements. Now thinking of the year 2024,
 Basilisk
not much will change, there will be no holograms, there will be no flying cars, there will be no
floating skateboards but there will be advancements. I took researching into the future quite
seriously and wanted to do an accurate portrayal of the near future and what we will
supposedly get. One of the things is computer contact lenses. Especially for a military
purpose, these would be on high demand, therefore it would be beneficial for me to
incorporate this into my plot to help with my VFX. The way I have done the computer contact
lenses, is by having the iris of the user change colour. This is a nice aesthetically pleasing way
to represent this, and creating a HUD for POV shots, creates the knowledge in the audience’s
mind of what this would look like. I feel that this was the best way to approach is to satisfy my
desires, whilst also appealing to the topic itself. Including other advancements to the future
such as ingestible microbots are something that I have researched into and implemented due
to the tie-ins with the military and possible injury. Using and portraying these advancements
accurately have made me believe that I have successfully represented what the future could
be like in 2024. I think this shows that I have done justice to all of the three main topics in my
production through different elements, and I am glad I put in sufficient research to back up
what it is I have had in my mind through the creative process. I believe my research was the
most useful tool and especially for Alcoholism, reaching out to real people that know about
these respective topics has helped a lot. Improving on these topics more comes in through
both Will and I analysing what we have and showing our peers. There seems to be no issues
on our portrayal, and I like to believe we have done this in the correct manor to suit our
project.

Characters are always important to any form of story and should have reasoning to be a part
of a plot. I feel that all of my characters have meaning to my plot and suited their desired
roles. Arthur Holden is the protagonist, the main character, the most important piece to the
puzzle. He is what this story spirals around and of course, suits the plot. Arthur is portrayed
by myself in this film and I feel that I gave a very accurate portrayal of how we imagined the
character. Due to me being the one creating this Character alongside Will AND doing all of
the research on the characters issues and flaws in life, I am probably the best suited for the
character. I spent a lot of time prepping for the character by growing out my hair, my beard
and putting on a little more weight. This all helped me get in the mindset of the character and
give a very accurate portrayal that suited our narrative. When it comes to Noah Shepard, we
wanted him to be the anchor or the crutch. He is Arthurs support and lifeline and is in all
natures of the word, the helper. Noah is a crucial part of the story and is the person who
 Basilisk
starts this journey. Will was cast as Noah and gave an excellent portrayal. Just like before, due
to Will and I creating this character, we understand our intentions and what we wanted out of
the character and his importance to Arthur and the Story. Originally Will had no interest of
playing the role, but soon understood that the role was pretty much made for him and that
he was the best bet when it came to physical appearance, acting skills and availability. Will
had a very accurate portrayal and I very much enjoyed his performance. Next is Daemon
Blackwater. He is one of the most important parts of the narrative. He is crucial when it comes
to narrative because although he is only in one scene, he is the driving point of the whole
plot, he is the cause of the problem, the overarching threat. We wanted to get a cocky, older
person to portray Daemon, but due to casting we went a bit over the desired age, but It
ended up making the character more of a threat and slightly more menacing. Chris Streete is
the Actor for Daemon and did a fantastic job. His overall Aesthetic still matches that of what
we originally planned for the character and he is very obviously a cold-hearted person.
Although he wasn’t our primary cast, Chris did a good job of matching our intent with an
accurate portray giving his own personal spin on the character. Next is Lily, the deceased
girlfriend who was probably one of the easiest portrayals to get right. Lily is crucial to the plot
as she is Arthurs deceased girlfriend in which was killed by the hands of Daemon. Without her
there would not be as much stakes or drama going into this plot which would give less
reason behind Arthurs outcome and desire to kill Daemon. The reason Lily isn’t a hard
portrayal, is the fact that she has no dialogue. Tia is the person who we ended up casting, and
the reason she worked so well is because how available she was to us. She gave us a lot of
help and was readily available on multiple occasions, she could successfully hold in a laugh
and keep a serious face through filming giving a serious tone in the film. This proves that she
gave an accurate portray of what we wanted out of the girlfriend and I am happy with the
way things worked out. Samantha, to me, was the perfect casting for Maria. She perfectly fit
into the role and gave an amazing performance. I was more than happy with how Maria’s
scenes ended up and overall Samantha fit perfectly in the Maria’s character, and I now cannot
imagine casting anyone else to play that role. Maria is another character who perfectly fits in
with the narrative and is a crucial part of their plot to find Daemon. Ziko is a smaller character,
who isn’t that crucial to the story. We wanted means to introduce the action and to show a
slight portion of their abilities and to create more interest in the plot, of which they gather
information through a source, and that source is Ziko. We managed to get our friend Owen
to portray Ziko, and for this role he pretty much needed to be a punching bag. Owen isn’t
 Basilisk
necessarily what I had in mind when creating this character, but luckily the traits of the
character aren’t too important dude to the size of the role itself. The reason I have done Otto
last is due to this character going through the most changes. Otto was originally older, but
due to casting changes, we made Otto a younger gentleman. Changing the character didn’t
change anything to do with the plot, or his importance to the plot, more just to fit in with the
casting. Liam Kelly, I think did a great portray of Otto, and really suited the new character
profile, and personally I feel this version of Otto suited the story way more than he did
previously. I think its safe to say that overall, every single character was of great importance to
the plot and had an accurate, interesting and enjoyable portrayal.

Only had 6 locations in the project. Each with their own reasoning to be a part of my plot. The
first is Will’s Apartment. Will’s apartment was used as Arthur’s Apartment.
Due to it being small, urban and very busy it suited the Aesthetic we were
after when creating Arthur’s house. This is definitely one of the main locations
and is evidence of how Arthur, as a character lives his life. This location very
much suits the plot and character as especially considering what locations we have available,
was the best option. I personally think this was a great option as it is accurate, owned by Will,
and is easy to get to. The second location is The Hershal Arms. Due to the
character of Arthur, we needed a bar location. Luckily enough Will had a
contact that has family that owns a bar. The Hershal Arms is the bar we got
to use and very much suits our story. As I have just stated, we needed a bar
and this bar was small, free to use, easily accessible and overall had a nice aesthetic that
works well with our desired look. The wooden feel works well, and it is very obviously a bar
that has been open for a while creating this genuine feel when watching the footage back.
The next location is my house. Now my house is a lot bigger and fits the idea of a
richer person. When thinking of locations for Maria, her being a successful
government agent who works behind a computer as well has having a family to
look after definitely suits a location such as this. I personally feel this was the best
bet as a location for Maria and overall suits the narrative we have created. It is spacious, very
home-like and suits a posher lifestyle such as that of Maria Smoak. For the
interrogation scene, as we like to call it, we wanted to have a more abandoned
and rugged feel due to the fact that they move around a lot and like to stay
unnoticed. Originally, we wanted to film in the locker room that is inside this
building, but due to use filming in the Easter holiday, we were unable to secure this location.
 Basilisk
Luckily, just outside of this location is these pillars and a patch of grass secured behind walls
and shrubbery. We thought it best that we film in this location as aesthetically it was the most
relevant, and especially when its darker, it suits the type of look we wanted to create. This
location suits the narrative and overall is a good ulterior to our original plan. To film the
beginning and end scene, we needed a graveyard that had two graves next
to each other. There is a graveyard near us that best suited our ideals and
our narrative choices. The aesthetic was nice and was engulfed by a large
tree that created a beautiful scene and was relevant to our ideals. Having
this location was a good way to set the theme of the film as soon as it opened. The final
location that we have chosen is a Warehouse. Now this warehouse is of great
significance to us and was a great help to our production. Sticking with the
theme of Basilisk using cover ups as their base of operations, a warehouse was
a perfect coverup accessible for us to use. Luckily enough for us, N.A. Brown
LTD were happy and able to help us out with shooting. The overall aesthetic of the place is
beautiful and works perfectly with out narrative. I think that this was one of our best locations
and works really well will the film overall. I think that with every single one of these locations,
we have picked relevant places that suit our genre, aesthetic and narrative and am very
pleased on how this all turned out.

Mise-en-Scene and Codes and Conventions are very important to both Will and I.
Throughout this film Will and did a lot in every shot to portray different things and right now I
am going to analyse every aspect of my film and the reasoning behind this.
Something I am very proud of doing is these shots. Having both
the First shot and the Last being completely mirrored shots is
beautiful. Starting with Arthur mourning over his deceased wife
and ending with Noah mourning over Arthur, both of which
were gifted the ring. These shots are mirrored, but in the shot
of Arthur holding the ring, there is only one grave, Lily’s grave,
but when Noah holds it, there are two, as Arthur has been
buried next to Lily. I think this is a great was to open and close a
film as it portrays to the audience the theme of the film, and
that they are somewhat stuck in a loop or a cycle of life and death. Noah is somewhat taking
over Arthurs story, by passing along the ring, he is passing on the torch to Noah to carry of
 Basilisk
fighting for the cause. This is one of my favourite elements of the film and shows the passage
of a hero and the legacy Arthur is leaving for
Noah to continue. I have stated previously that
sticking to storyboard is important and as you
can see, the way I planned for the shot to go has
been perfectly replicated through our film and
the message has been sent. We then go to a bar in which we have an
expositional shot of Arthur, sitting quietly at the Bar. The camera starts to
pan in as time is seemingly slowed as if he is out of it. The way it is framed
keeps Arthur in only one half of the frame, throughout the duration of the
shot as we pan closer to him getting deeper into his psyche. Keeping half
of him in frame creates this separation and keeps a lot of negative space as he is not fully
with it, and you see the light is surrounding him, but he is caved in with darkness somewhat
shielding the light away, as he has no intention of getting better. He snaps out after the
bartender comes over, but instantly goes out and has a hallucination of his
old squad next to him. This is the first use of VFX as the hallucinations are
in the middle, the main point of focus having a jolly time, but Arthur is
next to them absolutely depressed and it creates a juxtaposition of
emotions as he used to have such happy memories of what use to be. The
whole duration, Arthur is focused on his ring, he knows they are there but the cause of it all is
his ring, this object keeping him linked to his previous memories which he cannot let go. He is
still shielding himself from the light as he is consumed with darkness until he is snapped back
into reality because of the Bartender slamming his beer in front of him.
We cut to Arthur lying in bed and this wide expositional shot shows off
the state of Arthurs living conditions with bottles and cans scattered
everywhere even the one from the night before under his arm.
Something I want to add which will probably be
repeated many times, but I am glad at how well we have stuck to the
storyboard as these shots are a true reflection of what I imagined when
storyboarded and look very good. These shots replicate the ideas I had to
a very accurate degree showcasing a lot about the scene whilst making it
aesthetically pleasing as all of these shots have been framed like this for a reason.
 Basilisk
I personally really like this shot. It adds in a sense of mystery to who the
character is before it is revealed and if the audience is paying attention,
this character has already shown up before through the hallucination.
Having a silhouette of a man gets the audience wondering who this person
is and what is their importance to the plot, but little do they know one of
the most important people to the plot is behind that door. I
really enjoy the next encounter between Arthur and Noah as it
very accurately portrays the power and emotion between the
two. This is a lot more personal to Arthur than it is to Noah and very obviously Noah
realises the mistake he has made and how Arthur has changed. This encounter
quickly heats up until Noah explains why he is there, and Arthur quickly steps back, as
the person he is talking about, is the person that took everything from Arthur. After the intro
credits roll, we see Arthur and Noah sitting in the bar
talking about the information Noah Has gathered.
Noah is in focus and takes up a lot of the screen
whereas Arthur is next to him, a lot smaller and out of
focus, which portrays a lot about the characters and
how they are feeling. Noah is focused, keen, intent, fit whereas Arthur is slumped, lazy, out of
touch with reality and already has a beer. After they have the conversation Arthur gets
buzzed and when he picks up his phone, his phone takes up more room than him, and he is
very close up as this is a very personal matter to do with his wellbeing. Following up from this
is probably my favourite shot of the whole film which is this awkward shot
showing the current relationship between Arthur and Noah. There is a lot of
space between them and the power imbalance. Arthur is smaller and weak and
hurt whereas Noah is strong and fit, but obviously realises the mistake he has
made. The situation these two are in is very sticky. When they return, we stick with continuity
as Arthur kicks some of the bottle on the floor out the way to clear space for
walking. Arthur then literally and metaphorically lets some light into his life. Due to
him finding a new purpose in life and allowing Noah back in… somewhat… he is
letting new light come into his life. This is soon crushed as
when he goes to get his old equipment, he has another hallucination of
his deceased girlfriend, yet this time he stares her dead in the eyes,
reminding him of her and what his old life did to him. There is a lot of
 Basilisk
negative space between them showing how different their interests are as she is a beacon
reflecting on what his old life did to him as he tries to re-enter that lifestyle. He collapses to
the floor and Noah comes into frame asking if he is alright. Without even
answering you can tell that Arthur is very shaken up. He is very small in this
scene with a lot of negative space surrounding him. You can tell the source
of the pain as he is grasping his promise ring proving that it is something
linked to the promise ring. Due to Noah lack of friendship there is nothing
for him to really do. When he gets up, the two suit up and prepare to head off on the mission
previously stated. I love this next shot; it is a beautiful
one shot in which you follow a guard and in the
background the other guard is taken out, but when it
goes around the fountain and back, he is behind the
guard and takes him out (I have put on an effect so you
can see it clearer). When we get to Ziko we see him consumed with darkness and
a contrasting red and blue light across his face. From the right side of the frame
Arthur come in and tackles him to the ground. This shows a negative space and
that they are both consumed with darkness and as the action goes
further Arthur get more and more engulfed in red as if to show that his anger is
taking over him as a sort of blood lust overtakes him as all of the pent up sadness
and aggression towards Basilisk is being released. Noah takes Arthur
off of Ziko before he kills him and we go to a 50/50 were Arthur is completely
engulfed in red now as his anger is overflowing and that anger is radiating through
Noah, but He still has a hint of blue, a hint of calmness towards the cause but now
we see that Arthur has more power over Noah because he has reasoning and in this situation
has the power even though Noah wants to debunk it. Arthur heads home and we see him
behind the door as if to show that he is isolated and feels trapped within the
constraints of his own mind. His knuckles are red and sore due to the repeated
punches and he has instantly gone back to a bottle of beer. A purposeful thing
we have added is to do with Arthurs hair. It starts shaggy and as he slowly gets
better it goes to slicked as he seems to be somewhat a hold of his bearings, but as soon as he
starts heading back into that dark mindset his hair gets messy and scraggy. Arthurs
hair throughout is a representation of how mentally stable he is. Another shot I
enjoy is this of Otto Schmit, we have just been introduced to this guy who is in
 Basilisk
allegiance with Daemon and Basilisk and he had a bug on him, the thought of his being two
faced is represented trough the reflection of his face the bathroom wall next to him. Quite a
fun little Easter egg that I think works very well with how the audience react to this character.
They start to head out, walking past a very suspicious person and when
they go through, Arthur pulls them down so he can get a drink. We get a
nice shot of Arthur and Noah either side of Otto as he explains his story,
he is very obviously still their captive as they don’t know whether they can
trust him. When Otto nearly finished his story, a man tackles
Arthur off his seat and we see this shot of Arthur stamping his skull and has he
does a wave of red comes across his face to signify that his anger has been
activated and he is ready to start killing some guys. When they
finish killing off the attackers, they head back to grab their stuff and leave but as
Arthur is packing up, Otto comes in to talk, we get this shot on the left that shows
the ring being the focus point already showing that this is what Otto will talk about
to Arthur. We move forward to the guys making their way to Maria’s house,
once they are all done conversing, we get this shot of Arthur looking over the
bannister. I really like this shot as Arthur is not the focus point, but what
happening is all a part of his perspective. As Noah starts sorting out his stuff, we
see Lily suiting up as this used to be the place they would work. Lily is putting on Arthur’s
equipment that he put down earlier to signify that she is happy for him to finally fix
everything as he has a more positive mindset. You can also see that he is not scared of this
hallucination, but in fact is happy about what is going on. Another montage goes on as
Arthur cleans himself up in preparation for this final fight in which is a new man. They get to
the location and realise that they have been set up and Daemon
appears firing at the two. Arthur takes it upon himself to save Noah
by sacrificing himself. He finally realises that the threat is bigger that
the both of them and realises what he need to do to save Noah to
not hold onto the past but save who you have in the present. He now has the power over
Noah and is the righteous one. Noah tries to stop him but even though Arthur knows he is
going to lose and has no backing but has the confidence to stand up for his loved ones. As
predicted Arthur is beaten, but as Daemon stands over Arthur the camera tilts because Arthur
is the one who one this fight, and smiles in the face of Death as he knows he has done
the right thing and saved the ones he loves, and is ready to be reunited with Lily.
 Basilisk

Colour Grading is very important when it comes to making a scene look profressional.
You can see above all of the different colour grades that I have done on my project.
These adjustment layers help the audience understand the emotion. By removing some
saturation and lowering the temperature, you create a dull and bleak scene that can
represent sadness whereas upping the saturation and turning up the temperature would
make a scene more vibrant and happy. As you can see, a lot of my clips and desaturated
and have the temperature down as most of the production is sad an bleak, and the
sadder something is, the more intense the grading. My grading is not too intense and
make the footage look a lot cleaner.
 Basilisk
This is an Image of my timeline. The pink on top are the adjustment layers in which the
colour grade is added to. Each colour represents a location. Blue – Bar, Purple – Arthur’s
House, Green – Abandoned Location, Orange – Maria’s House and Pink – Graveyard. This
just helps separate the timeline up a little to make it easier when looking for a certain
edit. The green underneath is all of the music and sound effects. On the timeline you see
a few random pink clips, which are After Effect Compositions that I have forgotten to
recolour.

I feel that overall I have improved a lot in my editing. I have learned many new skills and
techniques that I previously didn’t know, and mastered some techniques that I already
knew. This will help me with my progression as an editor as I will understand knew thing,
and be able to apply this into my work. The obvious progression from this;

TO THIS

I am very happy about how I have progressed over these 2 years and my improvement
is evident. This unit especially has helped me put all of my experience and skills into one
piece to truly portray my growth going into the industry. I plan on going all the way with
editing and advancing with my 3D Visual Effects and that is what I have grown very
passionate about. This was my first time using the 3D converter on after effects, which I
used on multiple objects which I will list right here;

The first one is the knife in which I used 3D visual effects to but on the Blade on the
knife to simulate Oscar getting his head slammed into a knife. The other three are gun
shots and bullet impacts, all of which used 3D objects and Masking to have the angles of
firing and impact match the gunshots. Overall I am pretty amazed at my progression as
an editor and what I accomplished in this Final Project. I have grown so much as a
person and a creator and I feel that this is all reflected through my work.
 Basilisk
With both Practical Effects and Visual Effects, I did test shoots. Visually the test shoots
from Test to Final Project worked perfectly, the VFX worked a charm and everything I
had learned was portrayed to a higher standard with better quality and time put into it.
On the practical side I was a bit let down. Due to the fact that we had very limited time
at every location, the amount of time I had to do
this makeup was very limited. There is also the
conditions in which I had to do the makeup. Was
also quite sketchy and hard to work around.
Thankfully due to the skills I picked up from these
practical test shoots I was still able to make good looking practical effects. I wasn’t able
to use the bullet wound in any of the locations due to time. In the final fight I had about
5 minutes to apply the face makeup alone, so doing a bullet wound in my own shoulder
was a now go, so I decided to colour the bullet wound area, bloody it up and edit it in
post production. The test shoots were a big help to me, and in more ways than one they
helped me create a realistic and good look for the final production and I know that if it
wasn’t for them test shoots, this production would look substantionally worse.

Changes are inevitable when it comes to a production. I have already glossed over a few
of the changes made, but I am now going to go into more depth. The original cast we
started with was;
Arthur – Jordan
Noah – Will
Daemon – Johnny
Otto – Bart
Maria – Samantha
Lily – Grace
Ziko – Liam

This is who we had in mind for the original plot and characters. The first to drop out was
Grace, saying that she couldn’t help out during easter, so we looked to recast. We got in
contact with a guy named Liam, who knew some female actors that could help. We
ended up recruiting a girl named Lily. Time was running thin and we needed
confirmation but we were not getting any response, so the day before twe needed a
scene with the character of Lily, we recast to a girl name Tia, who ended up portraying
Lily in our production. Bart was originally meant to play the older version of Otto Schmit,
 Basilisk
but was not that availible and wasn’t sure when he would be busy. We decided it best to
switch with someone more reliable, so we went to Antony, who was previously playing
Jaq, a member of the Ex-Squad. Antony was a good actor but very young, so we decided
to re-jig the character of Otto, to instead be a child prodigy. This was more accurate to
Antony and actually worked better with the actions Otto makes throughout the film. One
day Antony surprised us by saying that he was no longer availible as his parents are
making him focus on his own work. We were put in a tight spot, so I thought it best we
re-cast Liam as Otto as he perfectly fits the new version of Otto. Will agreed and we
ended up using Liam as Otto in the final production. Due to Liam being re-cast as Otto,
we were left with no-one to play Ziko. It got to a couple of days before we had to film
Ziko’s scene, so I contacted my friend Owen, who has been in previous productions and
asked if he would like to take the role, he agreed and therfore we had Ziko. The last
casting change is for the Character of Daemon. I have explained many times already
about how we wanted a guy named Johnny, but he was not responding well too
messages. We decided on the day of the shoot that my Dad was the best bet as he still
suits the character, and already auditioned. Will agreed and so we re-cast Chris to
Daemon. There were only minor changes in the script and this was only due to the
change of Otto, apart from that there were only Dialogue tweaks and mistake fixes
moving to the final version of our script so that it worked smoother and was easy to use.

In my problem solving sheet I talked about all of the issues I faced in depth, right now I
am going to just gloss over the different issues. Too many characters. This was my first
error. It wasn’t the main characters it was the extras such as guards and attackers and
expendible people I could kill off. Frankly due to people having busy schedules in the
exam weeks, we were unable to get a lot of people to help out therefore re-using
people and getting a main actor to play a guard aswell is how we solved this issue. The
next issue is to do with sound or should I say lack of sound. The issue came in the form
of in a couple of shots, the Microphone was turned off, meaning we were unable to use
certain shots as there was absolutely no audio. Frankly we managed to get past this
issue as only a couple of clips had this problem and only one major clip was without
audio but luckily we had a re-shoots and another version on the gopro, so crisis was
averted. One serious issue that arose was my project along with two after effects
compositions decided to just delete. Luckily a had saved the project on a separate drive,
but I had to redo the two after effects compositions I had lost. To this day I have no
 Basilisk
explanation as to why, but I just hoped it would not happen again. The final issue I
faced, was to do with preperation for the VFX. After I had instructed to leave the camera
on the tripod after the movement, Will decided to hold the tripod, causing the footage
to be shaky, and make it insanely hard to do the VFX. Luckily after a rigarious 1 hour
and 45 minutes I solved the issues and it is pretty much undetectable unless you really
focus in on it. Luckily none of the issues majorly affeted my project and all of the
problems got solved. This has helped me when understand where things can go wrong,
and what I should do to stop this happening for future reference.

Something I thought was best for this production, and myself personally, was Social
Media Interaction. Through my newly created TETHD Productions
Instagram I posted updates about the porgression of filming, and
posting things related to the page to keep the audience involved with
the process and give some excitement towards the production. I
posted thinks like BTS pictures, pictures of locations we filmed at, what
the editing process looks like and a link to the Trailer. The page
reached 19 followers without any form of advertisements from me, and
the posts got a few likes from a few people. I thought this would be a
fun and interesting way to include the audience and gain more traction
and hype towards the production. This was a fun experience and I am
glad that there were a few people that were genuinely interested
about this production and I hope that once this is published that the
followers enjoy. I might end up promoting the page further to gain
more traction, but for now I am going to leave the page as it is, as it has followed my
journey of this project to its completion. I feel a sense of professionality as well by
creating this business account as it somewhat certifies my company and separates my
work life with my personal life nicely.

As you already know, this was not a solo project. This was a collaborative
project with Natapong Willaim Collins. I want to start this section off by
saying how good this experience has been. Will has been a huge help to
me throughout this production, and I feel like together we have created a
really good production that both of us can be proud of. As we planned, we
played off of eachothers strengths, using is light expertise and good
cinematography alognside my Visual and Practical Effects expertise, we blended together
 Basilisk
creating an professional and aethetically pleasing piece. Not only was the look of the
film good, but the plot itself. We put our brains together to think of an engaging plot
that would be a challenge for us to create. We didn’t want this final piece to be a cake
walk, we wanted to face a challenge together and that we did. We managed to creating
and interesting narrative that matched with an amazing look that fit into out desired
genre and target audience range. The response we got from this collaboration was
amazing. Will helped supply resources, locations, actors and a lot more which without
him would have been impossible. I did as much as I could to help him without doing
anything for him, and he replicated that. The support and motivation we gave eachother
definitely helped us progress and the sheer dedication within both of us is what caused
us to excel in this production. Throughout this process I thought that there would have
been more tension and some butting heads, but working together went a lot smoother.
There were days for both of us that pateince was low, but we managed to stay strong an
not fall out. I am proud of the both of us on what we have achieved not only in this unit,
but this whole course. I have already thanked Will for his help and couldn’t have wished
to work with anyone else and I hope we get to collaborate more in the future.

In conclusion I feel that this has been an amazing project. I have put so much time and
dedication into my work and I feel that is evident. Throughout this process I have not
once lost an ounce of motivation and I believe that I have broken past the limits of my
ability. I have surprised that I have been able to manage the work load I have put on
myself and thouroughly believe that I have pushed myself past what I thought possible.
This whole unit was a shot in the dark. Me trying to do as much as possible and try out
new things. I faced any issues with confidence and got past every one of these road
blocks. I am going to continue working on my editing and improving my skills leading
up to my future. This project is a good milestone and I am happy that this is what I have
to show for 2 years of hard work.