Evaluation

As I have now finished the film, I would like to evaulate the film and the project as a whole.

The Intial Idea and Pre-Production:

The basic idea of this project was representing political ideologies as characters, whilst drawing visual inspiration from the "Before I Forget" music video from Slipknot. This idea originally came out of a number of influences, for example the game Bioshock, but mostly it came from the ideas that came out of my context lessons on representation. I decided that I would use the ideas I explored in my context essay as the basis of this film project, which is why they share the same blog and research.

I wrote a script, based on these ideas, it featured four characters each representing a political ideology, I was happy with it but as the time to start filming approached I began to realise that the script was a little too ambitious and ultimately could do with a second draft. Whilst trying to think of how to streamline the script, the idea of filming from a first person perpective of a secondary character could put a unique twist on the film whilst also simplifing the production process. After writing a second draft I was far happier with the script and felt that I could confidently begin the production process.

The Production Process:

Originally I wanted to employ professional actors for my film, but while planning filming I soon decided against it. Despite knowing that the quality of the film may suffer, I decided that due to time constraints and the last minute nature of the project that it was better to focus on other, more important matters like location and equipment. Ulitmately it would have been nice to use professional actors but I really don't think the film suffers much at all from using non-professional actors.

For this project I really wanted make sure that everything was organised properly so that nothing went wrong. I made sure that everything that I needed was on hand and working and that everyone was avaliable for filming, and that we had a lot of time to spare, just in case any significant problems occured. I feel it is this careful approach that helped this project run so much smoother than previous ones who's results were effected by problems that could have easily been solved with careful preparetion.

Filming itself ran smoothly, no significant problems came up and any that did were easily solved. I also feel that the clam, collaborative and open enviroment helped make the film really improve, I think that being willing to hear someone else's suggestions and ideas are key to making and good film.

Post-Production:

In the edit the film really came into it's own. due to how smoothly the production stage went, I had more than enough time to edit and so was free to experiment more, which helped make the film improve more so. Again I welcomed the input of others and listened to their ideas.

One unplanned experiment that really paid off was the addition of atmosphere music and sound effects to the film, the music really added a whole new feel and mood to the footage and the sound effects helped make the film feel far more real.

After some feedback from Dan, I re-recorded some of the dialogue, some was much better re-recorded and some was better in the orginal footage. Being able to re-record dialogue was yet another benefit of having a lot of time to edit and also because of the de-focused visual style, lip-syncing dialogue wasn't a problem.

Thoughts on the Film:

I am very pleased with this film, I really feel that this is a big step up from previous films and the first film that I can show with pride as an example of my work. I feel that I have represented the ideas and beliefs of these ideologies well.  I am pleased with the little references and attention to detail that went into the film. It's turned out far more brutal than I orginally intented, which I am also pleased.

Upon reflection there are a  few things that could have been improved, for example professional actors may have been an improvement but honestly I don't really miss them when reveiwing the film. Ulitmately I am very pleased with this film and am eager to use similar techniques in future films, I feel it has more than achieved the goals I hoped to achieve.

Presentation:

The Presentation went well, feedback was mostly positive. There wasn't much that people thought   that would improve the film. Dan and Andy had some suggestions, the main one being possibly adding echo or reverberation would help make the dialogue fit more and add to the strange atmosphere. But overall I was very please with people's feedback.         

I am a world before I am a man...

I am using this research as the basis not only for my context project but also for my film art consolidation project. Bearing this in mind I would like to briefly discuss how I wish the film to look.

In a session a while ago we discussed how music videos can be a good source of inspiration for film techniques and styles. This got me thinking, so I began to look through my favourite music videos for inspiration. My  favourite music video is Before I Forget by Slipknot, for those who are perhaps unfamiliar with Slipknot, their image is based on the idea of anonymity, they all wear the same boiler suits, each wears an individual mask and they are all named with numbers.

In the music video they are all wearing simple black t-shirts, jeans and trainers, they're masks are off and displayed near them and they are performing in a large, white room. To me this music video is amazing, the cinematography fits the theme of anonymity so perfectly. The entire video is made up of close ups, the viewer never gets the full picture, with an extremely shallow depth of field, making anyone or anything appearing in the background of a shot blurry and out of focus, hiding their identity. It is also quite over exposed, making even their location a mystery.

All these techniques not only continue the band's theme of anonymity but it also makes them feel like more than just people. I feel that not only is this a cool look that I wish to explore but also that it would compliment the subject matter of the film, it would make the characters feel more like entities than people just as the music video does. Another thing to note is the use of costume in the video, very simplified that goes well with the look and it will be worth exploring that as well as the camera techniques for the film.