Evaluation

Evaluation 

For my coursework I wrote a script and did a digital storyboard about two friends who were in love with the same man, and the way that the one marrying him finds out. I think that my actual script was good and although at times I had to make some big changes to it I liked the overall story that I got to at the end. I tried to give all the characters development, but this is difficult to achieve in a 10-minute film as there isn’t time to get to into the stories of each character. I also think that my script should have included a lot more description rather than having so much dialogue as this could have given the film a bit more depth and helped with the actual pacing of the film. It also would have shown a lot more about the characters and settings than my script did at the end. 

I tried to use some of the key features of the short films that we watched as most of them were very good and therefore helpful towards creating a script for a short film. I like that in ‘The Operator’ they didn’t show you any of the action that happened, instead they talked about it and this let your imagination take over, so that each audience member had a different view of what is happening. This makes the film more engaging for the audience as they must think about it more and will probably still be thinking about it when they leave the film. So, in my film, I didn’t always show exactly what was happening instead I hinted towards it so that the audience will have to think about it more and will come up with ideas of what happened.  

I also liked how in ‘Over’ the story wasn’t told in order as this is very engaging for the audience as it means that there is a twist at the end, and it can be confusing for them to get information in the wrong order so it is pleasing when they finally get told what happened. I also liked the idea of doing a police investigation as it is an easy way to give the audience information about what happened. Therefore, when the police are at the house in my film, I started by using hints towards the murder of one of the girls before actually showing the audience what happened. 

I liked how in the opening sequence of ‘Echo’ the camera follows the girl as she gets the phone call about her dad having been in an accident, as this really makes the audience focus on her rather than everything around her. This is also a good introduction to the character. So, I had the camera follow each of my characters at different points to align the audience with different characters over the duration of the film. 

Some of the short films we watched I didn’t use any aspects of because I didn’t enjoy them as much as I did the others. An example of this is ‘Tight Jeans’ which I didn’t think was as good as the others and I didn’t feel as if the very strong comedy aspect of it went well with the film that I was trying to create. The whole film could be frustrating at times waiting for their mate to come out of his house and although the long wait was meant to show you the frustration that the boys were going through it was annoying for the audience to have to deal with it. I also didn’t add many aspects from ‘The Ellington Kid’ as I thought it was too comical for my film that I wanted to be a more serious drama than that. 

Although I liked the story of ‘The Slap’, it was a longer film than ours were allowed to be meaning that they had a lot more time for character development and to get the whole detailed story in which makes the film a lot more impactful, as we feel more connected to the main character and therefore care more about what happens to him than we would for a character that we hadn’t had any introduction to. The audience also feel connected to him because they see him when he is struggling, which I thought was a good idea. Seeing a character when they are really upset builds sympathy within the audience for them and therefore the audience are engaged with what happens to them. 

With my screenplay my aim was to engage the audience within the story, and to try and promote the values of honesty and kindness between friends as this is a big aspect of life and is important for people to follow to live a peaceful life. I also thought this was important as a lot of younger people watch short films and these aspects are vital for them. I wanted all my characters to be likable in some aspect and have reasoning behind their actions, but to also have flaws, as this makes them seem more realistic as people for the audience to relate to. To do this is tried to use quite a linear storyline so that the audience sees reasoning behind what happens and develops their view on the character as the film moves along and gets darker. 

My digital storyboard shows the scene where the murder takes place. Although I thought that my storyboard was alright, it could have been a lot better if I had spent more time on it. With the planning of my coursework, I didn’t leave myself enough time to do my photoshoot and digital story board, so this meant that I had to rush them both, meaning that the storyboard isn’t of the best quality. I did think that I had good detail on the cinematic aspects that I wanted in each shot of my film and the cinematography that was needed in each shot. I think that to make my storyboard better I should have started working on it earlier as this would have given me time for reshooting and longer to edit some of the photos. 

I would have liked to use a wider range of shots in my film as it is mainly long shots and close ups as having a wider variety of shots would have made my film seem more realistic than it is. I would have also liked to have more control over the lighting as I would have liked it to be a bit darker to emphasise the darkness of the situation, but due to not having the equipment it was hard. I would also have liked to have had more time to sort costumes to make them express the characters that they are playing more than they did. 

I think that throughout my whole project I should have had a much more structured timeline to make sure that I wouldn’t of had to rush my digital storyboard, as this happened because I had decided to change a lot of my script and if I had gotten to that point earlier on I still wouldn’t of had to rush it. It also would have made the whole process a lot less stressful and given me more time to keep up to date with my blog and make sure that it was detailed.