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Unit 5 Production Management Evaluation

Constraints Experienced:

Legal

In terms of legal issues, we did follow the rule of having no copyrighted audio in the short film. Whilst initially we did have some copyrighted music which was the song Drive by OH wonder, which featured in 2 of our scenes. However we was able to quickly change this and change the music for another piece which was not copyrighted, Two feet, Love is a B***h. This was more harder to find, and it did take a while to find another piece of music that was similar in order to keep the style that we wanted. However in saying that this new piece made the scene slightly different and create a slightly different atmosphere, which we was particularly pleased with. This new piece of music further meant that it was view able on you tube, because the initial music did breach YouTube rules as well. It perhaps was more key that the short film could be viewed on YouTube, because it is a platform where anyone can view the product. Moreover, all of our sound was Foley, which meant that we did have to download many sound effect and dub them in, we again made sure that all auditory downloads used in our short film, were again royalty free. 

However a weakness in terms of legal issues, was that the cast we chose to feature within the film, did not sign a waiver accepting the rights to the footage. a waiver is a formal piece of paperwork to which the cast must sign, allowing the filmmakers for ownership over the footage and allows us to use the actors that appear in the footage. As we did not have this it meant  that we did not have the sufficient written paperwork to claim the rights to the footage, and all we had was a verbal agreement to the cast featuring in the short film. Whilst there is not a way it can be improved, for future references when additional cast agree to feature in our films, we would need to make sure that they sign waivers allowing us full rights to the footage.

Regulatory

In terms of a BBFC certificate our film may come under a PG rating this is because from the BBFC they state that a PG should, 'A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older' which we feel our short film doesn't do. Through the short film there is no violence, or anything of a sexual nature. The only slight difference between a U and a PG is the imitable behaviors and nature of the short film. Whilst we do not explicitly allow dangerous imitable behavior, scenes do carry a heightened, complex emotion as well as situations within the short film carry a more advanced understanding. The BBFC also state that language under a PG certificate may only be, 'Mild bad language only.' Which we comply with as in the short film as there is no foul language at all. 

In terms of an improvement that could be made, it may be that by bringing the short film up to a higher certificate may allow for a more 'edgier' audience. Of course though this would limit the number of people that may like it or even appreciate it. For instance by bringing the film up to a 15 for example, we may include stronger language then what we originally have. This in effect may relate the film back to a more British realism drama, allowing for a more cultured audience too. However as the films stands, any audience may watch it and appreciate the emotion that is behind the main characters struggles. In terms of bringing it up to a 15 the BBFC state that, 'there may be strong language' and, 'sexual activity may be portrayed.' If by obliging to a 15 certificate then it would mean that the atmosphere and shape of the short film would drastically change. This could be seen as an improvement because the short film would take a more serious and adult approach to it, as opposed to what it is now which is a very open film, allowing a wider audience to view it. 

Financial

In terms of the films financial status, as there was no budget to start with, we did find strength in the equipment. This was because we already owned a lot of equipment, such as a dslr, dji osmo, stabilizer, rode mic etc. This meant that we could save money by not renting any equipment, and thus spend the little money we had on travel to new locations outside of London. It was more crucial that we could go and film where we wanted because that would firstly enhance the mise-en-scene of the film and moreover, enhance the atmosphere that is created within the short film.

As for a weakness within the financial side of our short film, of course traveling to and from the locations was our biggest expenditure. However this was known when in the pre-production stages of the short film, which meant that it wasnt an unexpected expenditure for us. However, the travelling on trains was a big expenditure at 14.80 pound return, to which we did have to go to the location twice. Perhaps to be more economical we should have only had to go to the location once, it was only due to re-shoots that we had to go back. This could have been avoided if we had got the lighting right first time round, this was something that we should have considered when in pre-production is how the shot would look on camera. 

Management:

Time management 

In terms of time management we worked very well as a team, and individually. We was on time to meet up and film and we was able to go to locations at the right times in order to encapsulate the pathetic fallacy. We further was able to meet up at the same place, via different routes and continue with our filming like normal. There was a good trust between us which meant that there was no cancellations or struggles. As for the actual production of the film, during the shoot, we did have to record scenes a numerous amount of times because we wanted a variety of angles when it came to editing. This of course does take up some time, but we were willing because we wanted to make sure that we could change the scenes if they initially didn't quite work out.

In terms of an improvement for our time management it would be to get the shots right the first time as we did have scenes that we had to go back to location and re-shoot. Of course in any film there will need to be re-shoots, but considering the time scale and budget that we had to work with it would have been better if we had filmed everything properly the first time around. What we had initially planned for is for a night time shoot when there was little action in the background of the shots. What we found out though is that the shots would look grainy on the camera thus having to waste time to go and re-shoot a different day.

Leadership skills

In terms of leadership skills as a team we did function well together, took the role of the director and franki took the role of cinematographer and editor. This became a good partnership because i was able to sit further back during the editing process and see what needed to be changed and what would perhaps fit better, in terms of the style of the film, and franki was able to make the every technical changes such as the colour grading. This meant that individually we could implement our own ideas, whilst collaboratively being able to decide what is best for the film to bring it up to a near professional standard.

As for an improvement of weakness within the leadership throughout the film, there was perhaps a small breakdown in post-production. This was because the post-production coincided with exams in other subjects, this meant that for the first week of editing it was hard for me and franki to both be present to edit the film together. This meant that collaboration was more challenging, and we really needed to have good communication at this crucial point of the film, as otherwise we might not have met deadlines. The improvement next time around would be to both be present to edit the film together, because thats when we was at our strongest, in terms of post-production skills. 

Communications

Communication was key for us, with this film, we needed to make sure that we imagined the same film, which we felt we did. There was not a point that halted our progress because we saw creative differences, which enhanced the performance of me and my partner Franki. In terms of production the communication between us grew even stronger, because there was times when we would have to improvise, either with dialogue or camera angles. However we was able to really come together and accept each others opinions to make for a good end product. During production, when we was filming on a location to which we both had never experienced before, we was both able to be as open as possible which allowed the film to progress massively because perhaps some angles would not flow as well as others that came from the other person, and we could take this into our stride with no problems.

In terms of problems, perhaps the electronic communication could have been better, various cast and crew would have been at work or on exams, which meant that trying to sort dates for filming became increasingly harder. Luckily we was able to get the filming done, but perhaps there was times during production where it looked more bleak because there was a lack of electronic communication.The improvement would have been for everyone to have been more motivated when trying to sort dates out for filming, it perhaps one of our weaker points which did not necessarily always happen on purpose but it could have been improved more.

Meeting requirements

In terms of meeting the brief, its requirements specified that we must produce a, '5-10 min' short film, with groups, 'no larger than 3' using only a, 'single camera production.' Within my group, we did carry out all of these requirements, as the group size was 2 and our short film was 6:30. The brief was less specific on the creative ideas, behind the short film all that it specified was that it had to remain within only one genre. In terms of filmmakers, this meant that we had no limits to how creative we wanted to become. The brief allowed us to think about very different ideas, in which we could encapsulate a whole topic whilst remaining close to a very specific theme/style. This is what we really aimed to do and felt we were more successful with, is the style that we wished to emulate and the ingenuity of the topic. 

However in terms of a weakness, we initially did not meet the brief as our film did contain some copyrighted music, which featured in 2 scenes. However we was able to rectify this and change the music after quickly noticing. This meant that we needed to make a revision in our short film to once again meet the brief and be accepted. We further worked well to make the improvement and hand in another draft which fully met the brief. 

Achieving agreed outcomes

In terms of how accurate the short film was in comparison to our pitch, we felt that there was a good level of detail that could be compared. The more obvious one is the start of the short film in which we said in the pitch that we wanted to start with the track shot at the bus top, which tracks close into the main characters face, showing the levels of anguish he is going through. Within our pitch we did say that we wanted to, 'leave the audience asking questions' which is something that we initially wanted to do from the very start. We felt that within our final product we was able to do this. We further said that we wanted to, 'show the most out of one character' this we felt we also achieved, because the main character featured in every scene of the short film as well, as the other characters only having a max of 2 minutes 30 seconds of screen time. We further stated in our pitch that we wanted to maintain a, 'non-linear structure' which again is something we felt we achieved. Within the short film it continues to revolve around a central location and scene, which is the main character trying to write the letter, but further he has ventures outside of the bedroom in other scenes.

Of course there perhaps were some changes that happened throughout the production of the short film which were different to the pitch. The differences that occurred, were through the structure of scenes. We initially had said that we wanted to end with the main character posting the letter to his parents. However upon review and discussions we found that the film strengthened when this scenes was put at the start rather then the end. It was a change that we actually was quite happy with because we felt that the ending of the short film , grew in strength by ending with the final pieces of voice over and finishing the letter he was writing. whilst this may have been a weakness in terms of deviating from our initial ideas, we felt that in order for the short film to grow it was a change that needed to happen.

Working to agreed timescales

In terms of deadlines that we needed to meet, the final deadline for the finished product was June the 19th, which we was able to meet and hand in a finished piece on that day. This was a hard deadline to meet because there was exams that happened over the course of the production and post-production, but we was able to overcome many problems and complete on time. The challenges that really halted our progression were mainly logistical which could have really knocked us and stopped the short film, however each time we was able to move past theses challenges and make sure that we would hand in on time if at times we did go behind schedule slightly. In terms of our own deadlines too we really wanted to complete filming by June 4th which would have been the final production date. We again was able to complete filming by this day and continue further with the post-production elements.

In terms of weaknesses that we had, the call sheets were a problem, initially we had a cast that agreed to some dates. However this changed and we had the cast cancel which was a big challenge for us. We further needed to find a cast quickly so that we could remain on schedule, luckily we was able to do this. Whilst the call sheets are perhaps wrong and we did not film on the initial agreed days, we did get the filming done and too a good standard just on a different day. The improvement that we would make would be to try and find a more realibale cast, so that the initial dates could be kept to.

Recommendations

One skill that i defiantly learnt more about was the scripts and screenplay. These were things that i was not sure on how to properly write and i didn't necessarily appreciate them before this project. However a screenplay and scripts for things such as voice overs, became ever more helpful and to an extent powerful. By writing a script for the voice over it allowed me to try an access a high emotional investment for the audience which i felt they did appreciate. The screenplay too, although a longer process, really allowed me and my partner to see what each other saw, which meant when it came to production we easily saw what the other person saw.

In terms of a weakness that i experienced through this production was the lighting. We had to work hard in post-production to try and fix lighting issues that we didn't realise we had. Throughout the film during the desk scenes, we used a more orange filter on the box lights, to try and make lighting more natural, however when watching the footage back we found that the shots looked to warm, and didnt carry the same emphasis that we wanted. I now understand the importance of making sure the lighting within the scenes correlates with what emotion i want to be built into the specific scene. 

Unit 4 Technical Evaluation

Technical and Aesthetic Qualities. 

One technical aspect of our short film that we feel was a strength was the editing and post-production of the short film. We felt that post-production is where our film really captured the themes and style we wanted to go for, this was achieved through the colour grading and the audio (music and voice over) to intensify the emotion we wanted the audience to feel. The feedback we received was that the, 'music was a good choice and it really matched the theme.' Moreover other feedback said that the, 'editing pace was good' and was in keeping with the style that we tried to create. We felt that at 6:00 there was some of our best work, in terms of post-production for the short film, here the final scene denotes the reveal that the voice over was the letter that our main character was writing to his parents. The crux of the short film we felt was from the depth of the last scene, the voice over coupled with the music, pairing with the visuals made for what we felt was some of the strongest work we have done. We really attempted to encapsulate a professional standard through this scene, and hoped that the audience would recognise this as well. The real strength we felt that could have been highlighted through this scene was how the voice over matched the visuals. Whilst this was something easy to do, the harder part was the timing in between the pieces of voice over, trying hard to not to leave it for too long or too short a time period.  

However in terms of weaknesses, we felt that perhaps the audio (dialogue and background noise) throughout the film could have been improved. Although we did use an external mic for all audio, there was still some background noise in certain scenes which would have lost the engagement of the audience. The feedback that we received was that the, 'sound/audio near the beach, did carry a lot of background noise.' This at the time was harder to control, although we do realise that it was something that we should have tried harder with. Through the scene at the sea front at 2:17 where the friends are walking down the road and talking there was a lot of background noise as well as there being a bit of background noise through the date scene at 3:13. We felt that if this was better then the emotion of the scene would have been kept higher allowing the audience to continue to be engaged as opposed to them becoming disinterested because the audio was not clear enough. In terms of how it may be improved, there was unfortunately not much we could have done in post- production to correct it, we perhaps could have tried to re-record the audio but then there was a risk that the audio would come out too clean and wouldn't be fitting for the scenes visuals. In our opinion to correct this issue we would have liked to go back and re-shoot the whole scenes all together. 

Realisation of proposal

In terms of how accurate the short film was in comparison to our pitch, we felt that there was a good level of detail that could be compared. The more obvious one is the start of the short film in which we said in the pitch that we wanted to start with the track shot at the bus top, which tracks close into the main characters face, showing the levels of anguish he is going through. Within our pitch we did say that we wanted to, 'leave the audience asking questions' which is something that we initially wanted to do from the very start. We felt that within our final product we was able to do this. We further said that we wanted to, 'show the most out of one character' this we felt we also achieved, because the main character featured in every scene of the short film as well, as the other characters only having a max of 2 minutes 30 seconds of screen time. We further stated in our pitch that we wanted to maintain a, 'non-linear structure' which again is something we felt we achieved. Within the short film it continues to revolve around a central location and scene, which is the main character trying to write the letter, but further he has ventures outside of the bedroom in other scenes.

Of course there perhaps were some changes that happened throughout the production of the short film which were different to the pitch. The differences that occurred, were through the structure of scenes. We initially had said that we wanted to end with the main character posting the letter to his parents. However upon review and discussions we found that the film strengthened when this scenes was put at the start rather then the end. It was a change that we actually was quite happy with because we felt that the ending of the short film , grew in strength by ending with the final pieces of voice over and finishing the letter he was writing. whilst this may have been a weakness in terms of deviating from our initial ideas, we felt that in order for the short film to grow it was a change that needed to happen.

Fitness for purpose, audience

The target audience profile that we identified within our pitch was a 19 year old male living in an urban area such as London, with interests in similar films and TV programmes such as the pursuit of happyness and peaky blinders, with all ethnicities included. We felt that we could strongly engage an audience with our short film, with the audience feedback saying that, 'technically it was near professional standard.' The audience further said that the technical aspects of our film were exceptional which is something we really aimed for, by working hard in post-production. The audience further said how the topic we chose to produce a film on was, 'quite groundbreaking.' Dyslexia was an idea that we really wanted to explore, because much like the audience said, it was a topic that hasn't really been produced in film much before, which meant we had many different perspectives and styles that we could have chosen.

In terms of weakness though the audience thought that in some of the scenes where the main character sits at the desk frustrated, there perhaps were, 'one or two shots too many in those scenes.' This perhaps left the audience a little disinterested because there were too many shots trying to fill space, as opposed to making a point and then moving on. We did try and aim to eek out as much emotion of the scenes as possible, but it may have been overdone too much and meant the audience lost emotional investment in those scenes, having the opposite effect to what we aimed for. In terms of improving this we would have taken some of the close ups out and perhaps added in some track shots which revolve around the main character.

Fitness for purpose, client

In terms of meeting the brief, its requirements specified that we must produce a, '5-10 min' short film, with groups, 'no larger than 3' using only a, 'single camera production.' Within my group, we did carry out all of these requirements, as the group size was 2 and our short film was 6:30. The brief was less specific on the creative ideas, behind the short film all that it specified was that it had to remain within only one genre. In terms of filmmakers, this meant that we had no limits to how creative we wanted to become. The brief allowed us to think about very different ideas, in which we could encapsulate a whole topic whilst remaining close to a very specific theme/style. This is what we really aimed to do and felt we were more successful with, is the style that we wished to emulate and the ingenuity of the topic. 

However in terms of a weakness, we initially did not meet the brief as our film did contain some copyrighted music, which featured in 2 scenes. However we was able to rectify this and change the music after quickly noticing. This meant that we needed to make a revision in our short film to once again meet the brief and be accepted. We further worked well to make the improvement and hand in another draft which fully met the brief. 

Production Log 4

Success, Challenges, Targets for next week. 

This week was very constructive and successful for us. At the start of the week we was able to get some feedback on a completed version of the short film, to which we was able to make revisions in order to make the product better. Aside from minuscule changes such as cleaning up the audio levels, there was an idea discussed, which was to take the final scene and put it at the start of the short film. This in effect would continue the theme of the non-linear structure and create some questions for the audience. Upon making this change we did think that it strengthened our short film, to which we was then able to export the film in 1080p and upload the film. In terms of challenges that we faced this week, there was a piece of music that we wanted to use, but eventually realised that it was copyrighted. This meant that we had to go back and firstly find a new piece of music and then add it in to the specific scenes. Whilst this was not a hard challenge it was perhaps more aggravating. Furthermore, there are no targets for next week as this was the last week of production on this film, which would mean that we would remain on schedule for the deadline. 

Team and individual performances, Contingency plans.

This week we functioned really well as a team, we both wanted to finish the edit of the short film and have a finished product. The teams performance was can be more explicitly highlighted when we did face challenges with the music, but we worked quickly and confidently to make this right and remain on schedule. In terms of Contingency plans we did need to use a back up piece of music because the first was copyrighted, however we felt that the contingency music was just as good and fitted really well.

Monitoring Final Product, Problem solving, Quality control. 

As for monitoring the final product, this week was the week in which we really watched the entirety of the short film on numerous occasions, this was because we really wanted to make sure everything that we could do had been done, and by the end there was nothing more that we could do with the short film. In terms of problem solving, the only problem we did have was this piece of music, which we was able to maneuver around and change. In terms of quality control, we used final cuts sound meter which enables us to see the levels of audio throughout the short film. This enabled us to see when the audio would go above 0DB and be too loud, to which we could then rectify that. 

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Production log 2

Success, Challenges, Targets for next week. 

This week we had huge success in the post-production, whilst we knew we had some more things to re-shoot, we were able to get a lot done this week. Throughout the week we was able to build the the structure of the short film, and start to really edit the beginning of the film. We further was able to record the voice over scripts for the film and start to add in the non copyright music for the certain scenes. This week really helped us to get things edited as we knew this would take up the most amount of time. We ideally wanted to start to colour correct as well, as we knew this would also take a long time. The bedroom, desk scenes came out too orange and warm, which was the opposite style that we needed to go for. In terms of weaknesses, we didnt actually face many, because we was just editing this week. We did encounter a technical problem with final cut and our mac, but this was quickly solved by switching macs and transferring the file over. The targets for next week would be that we would really like to re-shoot the scene that came out too dark, as well as finish production by recording the final scene of the short film, which was a date scene. 

Team and individual performances, Contingency plans.

This week individual performances were very key, this was because exams were starting and so we did not spend much time together editing, so we needed to be on the same page with the direction and vision of the film. This was done to a very high standard, which allowed us to come together at the end of the week and continue with the edit where we did not have to go back and change things. In terms of contingency plans we did aim to record the voice over in the music department, so that the quality would be very crisp. However to remain on time and on schedule we decided to record it in the gallery of the media department because it was quicker. Thankfully the clarity of the voice over was still high, as we was able to record it with a rode mic as well. 

Monitoring Final Product, Problem solving, Quality control. 

In terms of monitoring the final product we was able to go through all of the shots by now that we wanted to use. We found that the visuals were all fine except for some of the audio, which either had some feedback noise or had some heavy background noise. This was not too much of a problem as we were going to use Foley sound anyways. In terms of problem solving we did not face any that stumped our progression towards the final product. We was able to edit this week with little to no problems which was a big help for us in terms of progression. As for quality control this week, we really focused on the colour correction and the visuals of the product. The aesthetics was something that we really worked hard on this week, which meant we could leave a lot of the audio for next week.