Final evaluation

Unit 8 – Final Major Project.

Short film – “Uploaded”

For my final major I decided to create a short film based on the idea that we could live in a
simulation. The short film had to be under 45 minutes and have a genre and narrative. I
made it for a few different film festivals that I could potentially enter it into. I went through
three stages to create my production. The first stage was context, in this I looked over the
ideas I had for my FMP which consisted of three ideas that I went through to decide what I
was going to do for my final major project. I then filtered through these ideas by putting out
a survey to see what people thought of my ideas and filter out what audience don’t like and
to see what people want to see. This then led me to creating a project concept, rationale
and final idea. I also researched competitions I could enter my production into and made
sure my production followed the guidelines for these competitions. I also made a brief for
my project as well to inform others and following this I looked at potential problems I could
have then I looked at whether I faced them or not at the end of the production process. In
Stage 2 I looked at research in which I extensively researched my production and what I
would need to do to make sure that my production was accurate and believable. Firstly I
looked at the medium I chose to do which was short film in which I looked at a short films
purpose by doing secondary research online then I sent out a survey as many people as I
could to find out what my potential audiences thought about the medium. Then I looked at
good example of short films that had won awards or that are very popular in the short film
medium. Following this I looked at awards in the medium to see what I could enter my
production into to try to win an award. Then I moved onto researching genre and learned a
great deal about the genre that my production fits into by analysing short films in the same
genre and making a focus group asking the members relevant questions about the science
fiction genre. I also did some research through a couple books I got from the library and
typed up about those and how they can help my production. Next I moved onto the content
in my production and researched what content I will be including in my production to make
sure that I can make the production accurate which was challenging due to the fact that my
production is based around the theory of living in a simulation. I looked at quotes from well-
known reliable sources and looked at the psychological factors that will play on the
protagonist in my production. After this I practiced techniques and artists then on top of this
I looked at my target audience by doing primary and secondary research and looked at
platforms that I could upload my production to. I also made character profiles and looked at
logical and ethical issues by giving my production an age rating then finished by making an
overall infographic. In the final stage of production, stage three I made a full production
schedule and a script for my production and also 15 storyboards, following this I made a
crew list and props list to keep track of that and also made consent forms for actors as well
as a health and safety document for making sure we are safe on set while filming. But I also
made a contingency plan for any issues that came up as well as an equipment list to keep
track of equipment then I recorded auditions for actors and made two drafts of my
production and typed up about the behind the scenes of my production then listed all
reference in a bibliography and put all of my work from the third stage into a 44 page
production booklet.
For my production I kept the actors and crew to a fairly low amount so that there was a
much smaller chance of people cancelling on me when I needed to film so I had two actors,
me being the protagonist and doubling up as the antagonist who has a hidden identity. For
my crew I had one main cameraman and one of my actors was also a cameraman for the
shots that he was not acting in. I played the protagonist (Edward Hobbs) and antagonist
(The Controller), Charlie Campbell played the Supporting character (Luke Jeffords). Joe
Ruffle was the primary cameraman however Charlie Campbell was also a cameraman when
filming scenes and shots that he was not in. I did have back-up actors and crew however I
did not need them in the end so I did not work with them in the end.
My role was producer, director, actor, fight choreographer, dance choreographer, writer,
storyboard artist, location organiser, head of operations, editor and many more roles that I
covered while creating my production as I was in charge in almost everything in the
production. As sole producer and director of this production I was involved with everything
that has happening in my production so because of this I have been pretty much every role
in the production.

GENRE
The genre for my production is a sci-fi fantasy short film and although I believe that it is a
unique type of science fiction production as it has not been shown very frequently in the sci-
fi world as most sci-fi productions are based on other planets, in space or around robots etc.
My production is based on living in a simulation which has not been done a lot but in the
productions that have used this idea, they have been very popular such as “The Matrix”. I
believe that I have fit my production into the sci-fi genre as it shows ideas and theories that
seem very unrealistic and works on ideas that seem strongly like fiction. I sent out a survey
for audiences to give feedback through and the feedback I got was very positive and useful
as it has given me a good idea of what I have achieved in terms of genre from the viewers
perspective.
From the screenshots above you can see that viewers overall about 90% agreed that my
production fits the sci-fi genre and the reasons why make sense to my productions content.
One comment did say that my camerawork suits the genre but not my audio saying that I
should have chosen more appropriate music for the genre, I understand this however I felt
that my audio was very relevant as the production is not a typical kind of sci-fi piece
however I understand what they were saying in the comment and it does make sense but I
do not think that different music would have gone better. One comment even mentioned
that it is like The Matrix which is good feedback as I heavily researched The Matrix and it
was a big inspiration for my production and I wanted to use some of the ideas in my own
interpretation in my production so this answer was very good to hear as it shows that they
can see the relation. The other answers were also useful as they identified that my
production uses themes and ideas that are unrealistic and that are based in an imaginative
sci-fi ideology. Someone also mentioned that the viewers are aware that something “unreal
is going on”. This response shows that the viewers can easily distinguish what is happening
and can understand that the production is about a simulation.

CONTENT
I researched the content in my production thoroughly and looked at the kind of content I
want to put into my production I had a great inspiration from the film “The Matrix” as it is
based off a very similar idea to my production. In my content research I researched a lot into
what conditions would have to be met for our reality to be a simulation and I also looked at
the psychological factors that would play on the protagonist in my production and I also
looked at what Elon Musk (entrepreneur genius and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla) and Neil
Degrasse Tyson (Astrophysicist) think about the idea as they have studied and thought out it
so this also helped with getting other perspectives from people who have a further
knowledge and understanding into the idea and how the theory works. When looking into
the content an important part of the content was the psychological factors that play on the
protagonist in my protagonist as I had to make sure that I could show how seeing glitches
and evidence of the simulation effected the protagonist in my production and to make sure
that he reactions were believable and made sense with how a person would interpret what I
show in the production.
In this survey monkey I received good answers again, most people responded saying that
the content in the production is relevant to the narrative/story. Respondents said that the
narrative linked strongly with the simulation idea and that it links together well, one also
mentioned that I showed the different effects on the character when placed in different
scenarios which is good as that was one of my goals when creating the production due to it
being key for people understand my production. So the overall answer from my survey was
that the content did fit the productions narrative/story however there was one more
detailed comment that gave a more in depth answer; they mentioned that the build-up was
good however the line from the protagonist at 2:35-2:43 when he says “Yeah, for all we
know it could be a simulation” should be re-considered, I understand what they said as it I
looked over the scene I did see there point, it does seem like the character almost knows he
lives in a simulation however I don’t think they quite understood what I was saying as the
character was theorising that they live in a simulation but actually finds out the truth at the
end of the build-up in the production. Still a valid point but I think it was a slight
misunderstanding and if I were to do it again I would have to make that part of the scene
clearer to the audience so that they know that he does NOT know he is living in a simulation
and only that he is theorising the idea. Overall I believe that I did make the content relevant
to the story and narrative because I used strong links between the simulation and the
characters and made every scene relevant to the simulation idea.

STYLE
I think that the style of my production is well thought out as I not rushed anything nor have I
dragged anything out making it well timed, I tried to follow a fairly simple style so that
viewers could understand the complex idea and narrative that I am showing in my
production, I did not want to have a complicated style as well as narrative as this could
confuse viewers and the last thing I wanted was to make my production rubbish by
confusing viewers and then having a production that didn’t make any sense so by having a
simple style for a complex narrative I believe that I have been able to make the production
better this way. When I was looking at the styles of other sci-fi short films the generally had
complex narratives that took a degree of understanding however the style was simple
enough to understand which is what I have done in my production, I have followed other
successful productions that have done the same thing. I also decided to make the
production generally darker so that it looked more professional and not overexposed, I also
did this as it is like a constant foreshadowing that the production has a sad ending.
In my survey you can see that generally I received positive answers which were all relevant
and thought out excluding maybe 1 that was very short. The most detailed answer I
received was very good as they told me that my camerawork, mood and dialogue worked
really well however they said that I could have colour graded more as the footage looks
quite raw and I agree, looking back I realised that colour grading would likely have made the
footage look less raw however I did not have time to colour grade every shot as I had over
150 shots in the production although If I were to do it again I would allow more time to pay
attention to colour grading. I also had s comment saying that pace was good and that it was
not rushed or dragged out which is good to hear as this was a goal of mine, I definitely did
not want the production to feel too quick for audiences to understand or care about it and I
did not want to the production to be so long that audiences got bored and disliked the
production because of it so I have achieved this goal. Someone also said that the simulation
element as very clever and they liked the production being based around someone in
education with a laid back feel, this answer to useful as it tells me that the production did
not bore them and they liked the complex idea, they also identified the fact that it is based
around characters in education which was good as well because shows that in my
production I made the characters clear and the dialogue purposeful as this is part of how
they would know that it is based in education. Another comment mentioned how they liked
the separate shots of the protagonist and the controller which is good as they can tell that
the characters are separate and can see that there is a separation even though you could
potentially get confused by their storylines and how they link up. I also had a comment
saying that the editing, story, music and style made them think they were watching
something on TV and that it was very professionally done which is great as this was the
ultimate goal, to make viewers immersed in high standard short film so I have achieved this
as well. The overall answer was that the style was good and had a good flow to it, but if I
were to change something it would be the colour grading someone pointed out.

NARRATIVE
I feel that the narrative of my production came out really well and I believe this because I
planned the production extensively to make sure that the production could go as well as
possible and in my planning I wanted to make sure that the scenes were relevant to the idea
of living in a simulation but I also wanted to make sure that the scenes were well thought
out and that they linked up in a sensible order. I had to think of scenes that I could show
glitches in the simulation while still making the scenes relevant to the teenage college
student protagonist. So do this I thought of what a student would be doing in his everyday
life then thought of how I could represent glitches in the simulation that the protagonist is
living in. I believe that I managed to do this successfully as the narrative makes sense and
was clear enough to understand which helped because its style that I spoke about earlier. I
believe that I made the narrative to a high standard as the scenes link up and there are not
any scenes that are implemented for the sake of it and there are no scenes that are
pointless as every scenes is put to good use by showing glitches in the simulation.
In the screenshots above you can see that the answers agree with what I said as the overall
answer is that my narrative was clear and made sense apart from one comment as one
person was confused as they thought that the protagonist already knew that he was living in
a simulation from early on in the narrative however all of the other answers said that the
narrative was clear enough to understand and made sense with everything that was going
on so the majority understand which is good as I expected some people to possible not fully
understand the entire short film due to the complex idea. One comment mentioned that the
actors made themselves understand with ease which is also good to hear as I wanted to
make the characters understandable and believable.
 CHARACTERS
To create the characters in my production I made character profiles that give quite
extensive information about the characters and who they are. There are three characters in
my production as I wanted to keep the cast simple to make sure I was relying on less people
and it works with my narrative. The protagonist and supporting character have detailed
character profiles so that I could involve points from the profiles in my production If I
wanted to, this also helped by giving character depth in my production and ensured that the
characters are believable. The Controllers character profile is not as detailed as I want him
to remain mysterious so there is little information about him at all which is relevant to his
character due to his demeanour and character style so I made sure that he remained
mysterious throughout the planning and production. I researched other characters in the
research stage to make sure I could identify what makes characters believable and how the
other short films showed character depth or detail so that I could do the same in my
production. Through my research I found out how other productions presented characters
and from this I made sure that I presented m characters with the correct relevance and
representation.
Looking at the answers I got in my survey I can see that overall the answer was that yes the
characters are relevant and believable for the most part. Most answers agreed that my
acting was good and the characterisation worked well however one comment said that the
supporting actors lack of emotion of his and tone of voice was not good and did not do as
well however for the most part the general answer is that the characters are relevant and
believable which is great as I tried very hard to make that happen. People said that the
characters were realistic and that they were believable which is great. One person said that
the minimal amount of people made it easier to grasp which is good as that was part of the
reason that I kept the characters to a bit of a minimum. One also said that they liked that I
had a little of my own personality yet I captured the character of Edward well, this is great
to hear as I believe that the actor makes the role rather than the role makes the actor as
roles can usually be remember by actors and depending on how the actor performs can
make or break a role and character so this is good to hear as I have essentially made the
role.

TECHNIQUES and TECHNICAL QUALITIES

I think that my techniques went well as I used a variety of techniques and I made sure that
they were used properly at the right time in the production when relevant, this includes,
camera, editing, sound and lighting techniques. I used relevant camerawork techniques
throughout my production, for example in the first scene there is a pull focus for when the
character is waking up as it represents him going from sleepy to up and awake, essentially
the camera focus is going with the character waking up. Another notable camera technique
was in the last scene in which the protagonist is falling to the floor while dying, during this I
used a lot of slow-motion and a Dutch angle for the shot in which he is falling, I did this
because it foreshadows his death and goes with the scene as it emphasises the sadness of
the characters death as the angle shows that something is wrong, while the slow-motion
extends the time In which the character is dying so the death is made more significant in the
narrative. During duologues I used over the shoulder shots while also using the 180 degree
rule to make sure the conversations were smoother and looked less raw and awkward. I
learned this from my research into other short films and conversions almost always use the
over the shoulder technique with the 180 degree rule to make sure the immersion is kept
and to flow smoothly throughout the conversations. I used over 150 shots and I believe that
with my camera techniques I did very well to use a variety of angles and techniques. In my
editing I also used a lot of techniques to make my production better, one of the most used
was the fades on audio files as there was a lot of background music and sound effects that I
used in my production and from looking at other feature and short films I found that they
achieve a professional production partly because they have such a smoothly edited set of
audio tracks so that all sound effects and music go with the production smoothly and on in
sync. I looked at what editing techniques make productions look better and what makes a
production professional and one thing I learned and applied was the use cutting between
multiple shots on the same scene as one of the problems with low quality productions is
that they lack enough camera angles, I made sure I had a lot of shots to go between, this
gives audiences better perspective and keeps the visual experience more interesting as the
viewers see more. Another noteworthy technique was my use of silence in scene 5, as I fade
in the music I also deleted all of the audio for the shots of the protagonist so the only thing
you can hear is the music and one sound effect when the protagonist punches his friend, the
supporting character, I think this worked really well because the songs audio is not
interrupted by diegetic sound which makes the music more significant and helps
foreshadows the protagonists death while making the scene dramatic and sad. The reason I
had one sound effect of the punch in my production was because the one sound effect
brought significance to the attack and signifies the violence in the character at that moment
making it a defining shot as he attacks his friend in rage. A lighting technique I used was
actually having less of it, I deliberately made the lighting darker to make the production look
more serious and to foreshadow the sad ending of the production, I have seen in other
productions that this makes it look more professional and I believe that it works well with
the style of my production. One slight problem with my slow-motion shots is that some of
them were slightly out of focus however upon reviewing them I actually decided to keep
them because it goes with what the character is thinking in that last scene as he is very
distressed and is basically “freaking out” so this worked out in my favour. The pull focus in
my production also worked very well and I am happy with how smooth it was as it done in
good timing with the movements in shot which was my aim for the pull focus’s technical
quality. I also think that the audio editing I did turned out very well, there was no distortion
and the overall audio levels were essentially level so that the production did not get too
loud or too quiet compared to the rest of the production or other sound effects and
background music, I believe that I got the technical quality of that to a high standard. I also
think that the smoothness of the camerawork was also a good technical quality that I
presented as many of the shots were smooth and the movement was very clean in a lot of
the shots however some were a little shaky unfortunately. In terms of the technical quality
of the editing effects in which the cat walks across the room twice and when the car freezes,
they were not the best visual effects however I believe they achieved the desired effect and
I believe that viewers will understand what is happening in those scenes, although it may
not be perfectly done It was a good attempt on my part as I do not have a lot of training in
special effects.
From the survey answers above there is a variety answers from people as to what they liked
in my production in terms of techniques and their quality. A few answers mentioned the
camerawork and the overall answer to do with that was that they thought the camerawork
was good, a few comments mentioned that they thought that the camerawork was very
good and that they liked the shots used which is good as I tried to get many shots and
angles for my production to make it better quality and to make the scenes more interesting
by offering different perspectives and various views on the scenes in my production.
Someone also said that they liked the dark lighting as it was good foreshadowing which is a
good answer to see as that was my intention, so this shows that I managed to get that
foreshadowing across to my audience. A couple of answers mentioned that they liked the
use of slow-motion and that it made it very believable with the music which is good
feedback as I wanted audiences to be immersed and engaged by my production so that they
could enjoy it more and so that the production was more interesting and better quality and
better production value. There were also comments mentioning the quality of my editing
saying that they thought the editing was very good which I agree with as I put a lot of effort
into the editing and I think it came out very well so its good that it reflects in the viewers
feedback. They also mentioned my use of the song in scene 5, saying that it was very well
chosen and works well with production making it more believable. The was also an answer
saying that they liked the visual effects editing in the cat scene and the car scene, this is
good as it shows that they recognised the effects and thought they worked well which is
good as it shows how I have incorporated a sci-fi convention and that it was good enough
for viewers to notice and appreciate.

AESTHETIC QUALITIES
I think that the aesthetics in my production are good, as soon throughout the production
there is a nice flow and most shots do not look awkward, which is easy to do by mistake,
some dialogue wasn’t perfect and aesthetically not the best however I believe that for the
most of the production my short film is a good visual piece and is entertaining to watch as it
visually maintains immersion and follows a certain tempo/speed that is not too rushed or
dragged out making it a consistent piece. The camerawork is smooth in most scenes making
a massive difference for the production as the audience is kept immersed and engaged by
the smooth visual presentation of the short film. I also tried to keep the exposure of shots
lower than usual as I found that a lot of student made production make the mistake of
having the exposure too high which then makes the background in a shot look very bad and
there shot is then very obviously low standard, it is particularly obvious when the sky is in
the background as the light will be too harsh on the camera so to keep a professional
aesthetic I kept the exposure lower similar to what professional productions are like and I
have seen this in my research, it is also noticeable on behind the scenes shoots in which on
scene it is well lit and bright but then the shot deliberately comes out darker to achieve a
professional look.
From my survey answers I essentially got good feedback on various parts of thee production
and as one respondent said before they think that more colour grading would be good for
my production which I agree with and If I were to do his again that’s something I would
spend more time on. A few answers covered the mise en scene and locations saying that
they were very relevant to the scenes and that they were realistic which is also good to hear
as these were qualities in my production that I really wanted to work well so that the
production looked good, kept to a high standard and is stuck to good aesthetics. Someone
also mentioned that the aesthetics made the production look very believable which is also
great to see as an answer as I tried very hard to make my production believable and
interesting to keep viewers engaged so this has worked which is good to see. Something
that not many people look at was the outfits the characters were waring and someone
noticed it in my production by saying that the outfits were appropriate which fits with what
I was trying to achieve as I really wanted to make sure the characters fit into their roles well
by having the correct outfits and appropriate look of character, and I believe from my own
work into this and by seeing this answer I have achieved this with my characters outfits.

CREATIVE QUALITIES
I believe that in terms of creativity, my production goes quite far in that respect as I have
made a production about a theory that may be true, this bases itself into the science fiction
genre which has allowed for more creativity in my production. I have spent a lot of time
researching into other science fiction productions and few have used the idea of living in a
simulation as most involve space and laser shootouts, I decided to go with something more
out there as this idea sounds a little crazy to most people and many refuse to think of it as
any kind of potential truth so I decided to show the idea in a short film with a tragic ending
to boost the emotion behind it. I believe that through the various special effects and
representations of the glitches in the simulation I have a great deal of creativity, and
because in each scene I have managed to make them link up while all showing evidence of
the simulation that the narrative is based in without disrupting the flow of the narrative, I
have learned how to do this from my research into other sci-fi short films and I believe that
coming up with my production scenes ideas were challenging as most short films consist of
a couple of big scenes however I had 4 fairly small scenes and 1 big ending scene to finish it.
You can see that from the answers above the overall answer is that creatively I have one
well to deliver a creative production that has a unique storyline/narrative. The overall
answer was that they liked the creativity in my production, one comment mentioned that
they noticed how hard I worked on the production which is a good recognition as many
hours have gone into this production so it is good to see that someone has noticed this in
my production as the final version of the production has hours of work behind it and has
been weeks in the making. Another comment mentioned that they liked the flow and that
there were no horrible surprises which is good as it means from a creative perspective, they
liked the production for how it worked and its progression which is something I worked very
hard on to get right. Someone mentioned that the story is unique and something they had
not seen much of before which is great to see as an answer as I have found out from my
research, the idea I used is not used widely in creative productions making it quite unique
and interesting. One comment mentioned that they liked how the creativity of the
production had drawn them into “the world of Ed” who is the protagonist, this is good
feedback as it shows that in my production I have made an engaging, realistic character who
ties into the narrative really well so that viewers are interested which was one my main
goals from the start. The overall answer from my survey is that viewers liked the creativity
and the way everything goes along and how it all ties together in the narrative with a unique
storyline and a believable set of characters based in a creative narrative, I am very happy
with how my creativity in my production turned out and it reflects in the answers to the
survey.

What went well

Overall I believe that most of the entire production has gone very well as I have worked very
hard on my production. In terms of my context I believe that it went really well as I managed
to come up with a good idea from the early stages of the production which was a good start
to the production, as I was able to come up with idea in the early stages of the project I had
more time to think and develop the production making it easier to complete the work on
time as I was not rushing as much to move onto the next task. I also found that during the
survey in which I asked about which of the three ideas my audience preferred, there was a
strong overall indication to choose the simulation idea as well as verbal answers from
people I asked, this meant that not only did I have an idea from early on but I also had a
strong backing from people to do it which was great as I had a lot of support for my project
and its idea. My research also went really well as I did a lot of extensive research to make
sure I got my production right and to make sure that it is factually correct, or as close as
possible, I also looked at what makes a production professional. I did detailed research into
many different areas to make sure my production went well by looking at medium, genre,
content, target audience, awards, books practice shoots, artists, characters and more. As I
did a lot of research into each section, my research went really well and I managed to find
out about how to make sure that my production was as professional as possible, due to my
analysis on other productions and test shoots I made it much easier to achieve high
standard results in the filming stage so that part went well too. My content was one of my
best parts of my research due to how crucial it was to being as factually correct as possible, I
looked at the maths, chance and conditions required for our reality to be simulation and
then I looked into various points like the psychological factors that go into it as well as
popular examples like The Matrix which I drew a Significant influence from, this meant that
when planning my production I made it as believable as I possibly could which went well as
seen from my feedback and the standard I made my production too. My filming and
production also went incredibly well as I stayed well on track for filming which allowed more
time to edit and re-shoot even though I did not need to. My filming went well because I did
all pre-production planning on time and to a high standard, my documents all went well as
they were all properly formatted and thoroughly detailed enough. My script and
storyboards helped a lot on scene as they told exactly what I had planned to do which made
filming go better and this meant that I could film all scenes in two full days of filming. What
also went well was the re-shoots as I decided to review footage after each scene to see if
any of the shots needed re-shooting to save time doing it on another day, this meant I did
not have to re-organise actors and crew and also meant that I was efficient when filming.
My actors and crew were chosen well as they were committed to the roles and did not
cancel on me making filming a smooth process and they were committed to the longer
hours of filming. My editing also went well as I had two to do two drafts and a final version,
in my final version I did really well to pull off fairly high standard editing and from feedback I
can see that the editing was good as I got good feedback on my editing on the surveys and I
put a lot of effort into the editing as well which helped a lot when working on the final draft.
Notably the amount of different shots, audio, sound effects, music, audio editing and slow
motion as well as special effects went really well and I know this from feedback in the
survey answers I got.

How it can be improved

I think I did really well however not perfect and I did get some good constructive criticism
about my production. One thing that could have been improved was my timing spent on my
storyboards as I spent a lot of time doing them and thing meant I had catch-up to do out of
lessons, I spent too much time trying to get them done while having to try to stick to my
production schedule so that could have gone better. I also did not get as many answers in
the content section for my surveys so the results for that was limited so I should have tried
to secure more answers for my survey in the content section. Also something that went
wrong was when filming my slow-motion shots were slightly out of focus which could be
improved however I decided to keep them in as they reflected what was happening to the
character at the time as the slight blur would reflect his state of mind in those moments so
this could been improved but it also works at the same time. Something else that could have
been improved was the acting of my supporting character, he was very much up for the role
and a competent actor however upon reviewing my project I realised that some lines were
not perfect so I could have helped him improve his work with acting and his acting skills.
Something else that could have been improved was staying on track earlier on in the project
as I did not stay fully on track even though I did very hard to but some of the work took
longer than I expected to which meant that I fell slightly behind so to improve this I could
have stayed on track better by re-evaluating the time it takes to do each task as some ran
overtime meaning that I had to spend some time catching up when I had planned to be
doing other piece of work. Also I forgot to get behind the scenes for all of my scenes so this
was irritating as I was limited when showing behind the scenes as I kept forgetting to get
behind the scenes and because there was so much filming to do in the time frame I had it
was not on my mind much and filming was actually my main focus over everything else as
you would expect which meant that I left out some behind the scenes by accident, so
getting some behind the scenes footage would have been better but I still managed to get
photos and I explained them as well.

What could I do differently next time?

Next time I would preferably have had sharper slow-motion shots as my slow-motion shots
went really well however some were not perfectly in focus, I thought it would work by
reflecting the characters state of mind however on larger screens I think a sharper focus on
those out of focus shots would have been better. I also would have edited the cat shot
better as you can tell that the image is split which didn’t turn out quite the way I would have
wanted it to so instead I would have edited that differently and used a different editing
effect however I was running tight on the deadline for my final draft so I had to leave it as I
did to move onto more important parts of the editing. Something else I would have done
differently would have been the production schedule timings, although I did a good quality
production schedule I underestimated the timing it would take to complete various tasks on
for my production which meant that it was challenging to keep up at some points so I would
have made the timings more realistic for the longer pieces of work. Something else I would
do differently next time would be the audition for the supporting actor, I would have asked
him to do more lines so that I could I identify his weaknesses in acting so that I knew what
to improve for him as I did not know what I was going to improve on his part which meant
that some of acting did not go as well as I wanted it to, overall he did pretty good but
identifying actor weaknesses would have been a useful task to do. Something else I would
change would be one of the cameramen I chose, from his previous work I thought that he
was a fairly good cameraman however we had to re-shoot shots that he had messed up with
shaky camera movement or he sometimes made noises when filming, so I would get a
filming audition next time to make sure that my cameramen can film, fortunately we still
stuck to my own personal filming deadline however knowing more about crew would have
been useful before confirming him as my cameraman.

Screenshots of my own production

 “Caronte” comparison
Differences:
Comparing my work to a sci-fi short film I analysed earlier in the project called “Caronte”
there is a lot of differences however there are also similarities in terms of professionalism.
Starting with differences obviously the entire narrative and story are completely different,
my production has a male lead and “Caronte” has a strong female lead. “Caronte” uses a lot
of sound effects, far more than my own production, this is due to it being in space and my
production being based in normal everyday life. “Caronte” uses much better colour grading
than my own which works better to set the scene which I should have done in my own more
but I did not colour grade as much. There are more characters is “Caronte” compared to my
own production, I have three characters whereas Caronte has over 5, main and supporting
characters. My production is a linear narrative that goes in one simple order of time
whereas “Caronte” uses flashbacks to support and give information throughout the
narrative which works well for that production as it gives background to narrative and its
characters, I do not do this as I wanted to keep a simple structure to represent my complex
storyline. Something else I noticed is that “Caronte” uses smoother camera work than mine
this shows the difference in budget as I had almost no budget whereas “Caronte” has a
much larger budget for example the shots are smoother because they are likely using a high
quality gimbal which I do not have and cannot afford to spend that kind of money. Another
very obvious difference is the difference in quality of visual effects, “Caronte” uses high
quality CGI of space, space-ships, lasers, explosions and more whereas my production has a
limited use of special effects, this is because I have less experience in special effects editing
than there editor(s) meaning they are far more capable of editing good quality CGI and also
shows their budget for professional standard editors and production crew. I have almost no
budget and only my own editing skills and I do not have enough time to learn advanced
professional CGI skills to then apply to my production. Another difference is the quality of
their lighting as “Caronte” uses much clearer and better quality lighting, this is due to the
fact that they will be setting up professional external lights and making full use of light
bounces and so on, whereas I did use light bouncing, I did not manage to do as well in terms
of the lighting in my production and in general my production is darker for its own reasons.
The mise en scene is also very different due to the fact that the locations are very different.
Similarities:
Both “Caronte” and my production have visual effects, the visual effects of “Caronte” are
better however we both have them In our productions my visual effects are just far more
limited due to me having less editing skills than the editor(s) on Caronte’s production team.
We both used many camera angles in each scene to give a variety of perspectives
throughout the production. This shows me that I have followed the same professional
element as they have in their production as we have both have used many different shots
on the same scenes. Both of our productions are fairly dark for most of the scenes, this is
also a professional standard as this shows how serious the production is and stops the over
exposed image that makes shots look amateur and low quality. Although “Caronte” uses far
more sound effects, both productions use sound effects and this means that the production
is more professional due to the immersion caused by engaging sound effects in each
production, this also Improves the viewing experience as full feature films at a professional
standard will record all audio separately so and will implement it later in post-
production/editing, so viewers a more accustomed to non-diegetic sound. Both productions
involve a tragic death for pathos to engage viewers and give the viewers a reason to care
after the dramatic build-up of the production. Both productions use violence to build the
tension, there is a lot more violence and fighting in “Caronte” compared to my production
however I still used a small yet significant punch and throw to increase the feeling of danger
and imminent threat. Although both productions are very different in narrative, both
narratives are based in worlds that are not real, my production uses a simulation/simulated
reality and “Caronte” uses an exaggerated photo-realistic narrative of a video game, so in a
certain respect they are similar to each other in that way. Both productions use characters
with depth to make the viewers care about them, particularly the character that dies. This is
done for dramatic effect and to make the production more interesting. Both productions
also use slow-motion in the final scene to make it significant and more effective while
showing dramatic content important to the narrative. During the slow-motion both
productions use dissolves and fades in the footage, this makes the slow-motion smoother
and more fluent with the dramatic state of the final scene. The mise en scene is fairly similar
in the scenes in the house for each production as they both use homely environments with
typical props you would see in that environment.
Screenshots of “Caronte”:
 “The space between us” comparison
Differences:

The first main and obvious difference is that the narratives are completely different, one
being based on humanities last chance of surviving as the oceans flood the world involving
an alien like sea creature and the other being about living in a simulation. Another
difference is that the locations are completely different, although both based on Earth (or a
version of Earth), “The space between us” is based on an island surrounded by rough ocean
waves and tides whereas my production is based in a couple of English towns in a computer
simulation in an unknown place. The CGI or special effects in “The space between us” are
used to create an alien like sea creature whereas I use visual effects to represent glitches in
the simulation of the reality that they live in. “The space between us” is a much visually
darker production and uses blue colour grading whereas my production uses warmer darker
colours throughout the production apart from the very dark scenes in which we see “The
Controller”, I believe that “The space between us” uses bluer colouring as it is based
strongly around the sea through location and narrative and the narrative is very serious and
the narrative represents a rundown research facility so the blue brings out the theme of the
sea more and also goes with the run down depressing feel of the research facility. Another
difference is the mise en scene, again very different due to different location and themes,
they are different also because the narrative and whole basis of the stories are very
different. The audio in “The space between us” is heavily edited and likely most of it is non-
diegetic as the characters are wearing respirators so the voice audio was likely recorded
separately and implemented later in editing when they can edit the audio and make it more
realistic. Most of my production is non-diegetic sound however I do use quite a lot of non-
diegetic sound as well as I did not want to separately record all audio as there was no point
when the mic could pick up good quality diegetic audio. The camera movement is much
smoother in “The space between us”, this is likely because they have a professional
cameraman or cameramen using gimbals and stabilisers whereas I do not have the budget
for professional cameramen or a gimbal/stabiliser. This is one of the more obvious
differences between our productions as the budget is very different and resources are also
very different essentially because they have much more including funding.
Similarities:
There are some similarities in productions even though they are very different. Firstly they
both exist in a version of Earth that does not exist but at the same time could exist in the
future. They both use dark lighting to show how serious the production is and to promote
the feeling of drama and a professional production, this is down by having good lighting in
scenes then setting the camera settings to have high quality recording and high quality
smooth shutter speeds as well as appropriate focus ranges, as an overexposed look makes
the production look very bad quality amateur. Both productions use special visual effects
and although the effects are very different, both productions use it as an important part of
the production. Both productions use a large variety of camera angles to show multiple
perspectives on a scene and this gets viewers more immersed and more interested by
seeing multiple shots of the scene. Both productions use colour grading and although “The
space between us” uses a lot more colour grading than I do, we both use it to display
emotion and to give the production a further theme and feeling behind the scenes visually.
Both productions use violence to make the film more dramatic and to increase the feeling of
imminent danger, as I did with the punch in scene 5 and as “The space between us” did
while being chased and shot while the protagonist and “Adam” escape the facility. Both
productions use sound effects to make the production more immersive and engaging to
viewers, this is because in professional productions almost all sound is non-diegetic and
implemented during editing, so the more non-diegetic sound used the more it sounds like a
professional quality film that most viewers are accustomed to. Another similarity used is the
use of an out of focus shot towards the end or at the end of the production, “The space
between us” does this as the protagonist is dying while her respirator is sinking, the shot of
the respirator is out of focus to show the dying of the character and her life fading away, in
my production I do this as the protagonist is running away from his friend that he had just
attacked, the out of focus shots reflect the out of focus mind of the protagonist as
something extreme has just happened. Another similarity is the use of back ground sound,
both productions use back ground music and sound effects to increase the mood of the
production and to emphasise the mood behind the scene, it also helps support the theme of
the scenes as well.
(Both productions = my short film and the one I am comparing it to).
Images of “The space between us”:
 How suited I am to the media industry
Overall I have picked up a lot of skills that make me suitable for the media industry and in all
honesty I believe that I could go into it fairly soon but obviously I will need to complete my
second year to make sure I am fully ready for the media industry. I seem to be quite ahead
in skills at the moment so I am at least more than ready for the second year but in terms of
the media industry I am fairly well prepared. My editing skills are pretty good, they still need
developing however as seen in my work I have consistently been working at distinction
standard throughout the year and through my productions my main focus has been editing
and I have made lot of advances with footage and audio editing through Adobe Premier Pro
and Adobe Audition, through using these industry standard editing software’s I have
developed my skills well. I have improved my skills in clip placement, colour grading, visual
effects, footage fading, dissolving, audio fading and dissolving as well as how to green
screen edit and more editing techniques. In my camerawork I have definitely become much
better at it as I have learned from specialism research; what angles to use, how many angles
to use, what camera settings to use for different scenes and locations, depth of field, blur,
pull focus, shooting in the dark, camera movement and smoothness, shot types, camera
positioning and more. I have developed my camerawork skills to a point in which I can film
my own productions to a fairly high standard and this reflects in the work I have done
throughout the year. I have also developed my lighting, however I wish to develop it more in
the second year as I have not spent a lot of time this year developing my skills in lighting as
my focus has been editing and camera work but in the media industry I do not want to work
in lighting and that is why it has not been my focus during this first year at college however I
do now possess knowledge and skills to do with light bouncing, reflecting and the colouring
of light to give a scene a certain feel or mood which paired with white balance can help a lot
to improve my work if I enter the media industry. I have also developed my skills in audio in
terms of recording Foley sounds as well as editing sound effects and back ground music and
music in general. During my first year on the course I have learned how to effectively use
music, background sounds and sound effects in productions which is especially useful in
editing as music is a very strong part of productions and in professional productions, almost
all audio is non-diegetic so my skills in post-production audio implementing and editing will
be very important and useful If I go into editing in the media industry. I have good
confidence and public speaking skills which will help with giving presentations and pitching
my work to people, for example if I decide to be a producer/director then I will need to be
able to confidently pitch and present my work to potential investors so this is a good skill
which even if not in the media industry I will need to have at some point in the future. I am
also skilled at analysing work as well as researching to make my productions better whether
it’s making them factually correct or by making them more interesting by finding out what
will make them better and closer to a professional standard. My skills that I have in research
means that I can make productions that meet requirements and also means I can self-teach
myself in whatever area of media that I need to, this will help me become a more
competent and more viable option for employers in the media industry. As I am on a
creative media course I have improved my creative skills as I have learned to think more
creatively with the skills I have learned and to pursue more creative and interesting ideas
that I can put into practice when working on projects, this not only helps me be a better
director/producer but it also means that I can bring new ideas to the table when on a
production team making me a more useful worker If I go into the media industry. I have also
made great improvements in my documentation skills and planning skills om top of my
organisational skills, through my first year at college studying this media course I have had
to be very organised and I have had to stay on top of the large amount of work that I have
been given throughout the units making me better at organising myself and my work. My
improvements in documentation means that in the media industry I can put together
documents to help with projects and to help with presenting my work, it also improves me
as a worker as potential employers can see the work I have done through the extensive
documents that I am able to produce meaning I am better equipped to organise work in pre-
planning but I also able to give physical evidence of the work that goes into my productions.
Although I have improved my skills in media such as; editing, sound, camerawork, lighting,
pitching, social media, researching, directing, producing, documenting and thinking
creatively I am not sure that I will be going into the creative media industry however I am
doing really well so far and my skills have improved a lot since joining this course. I am
already almost suited for the media industry but whether I actually pursue a job in media is
undecided, for now I will continue to improve myself and make myself better for the media
industry as I have worked very hard to get to this point and the better qualified I am the
better I will be regardless of whether I go into media or not and media covers a wide range
of jobs so there will be many opportunities for me to look at and I could well go into media
due to my great work ethic as I am dedicated, motivated and I have already learned a lot of
valuable skills in media so I will keep my options open.