Critical Evaluation

4) We researched our film in various ways these included through research into films of a similar genre and a similar length using internet sets like http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/. We even looked into TV programmes that had a similar storyline to our own which helped us to create a well developed script and enabled us to thoroughly plan our short film. The research we did into film posters also helped us when creating our own as we were able to look at similar genre films and the way in which their film posters are designed in relation to the way we wanted our own to look. Then we moved on to planning, in this stage it thoroughly relied on our research as we were able to look at previous examples. We made a script, shot list, a storyboard and scouted locations. In this stage we encountered a few minor glitches as the location we intended to use “Wentworth Castle” ended up being a bad choice due its location and our struggle to get our extras there. We also had to contend with the British weather which at the time decided rain would be a good idea.

To film “The Last Line” we used a HDV1000 camera, the strengths of this particular camera are you have more control over the white balance which enables you to get a very high quality shot, which looks real. You can also film in widescreen on that camera so we got some very good wide angle shots which helped to establish our settings. We then took our footage and edited it with Final Cut Express, this year we obviously had a better understanding of the software and I think that our final outcome was of a much higher quality. We used better effects like a Flashframe, which appeared like a camera flash which was particularly appropriate for the style of our film. We kept our editing continuous and on most occasions kept to the 180 degree rule. When we did differ it was done properly and was done on purpose. We encountered another problem when uploading somehow our film had been shot monotone which meant our sound was very quite, to correct this we had to double up the sound to enable the audience to be able to hear dialogue.

For our sound, we chose to use music from bands not currently signed to a label these way “I am not left-handed” and “This ain’t Hollywood” we chose these bands as they most suited to our film and also gives unsigned artists some recognition. We found these artists from the website from Jamendo http://www.jamendo.com/en/ which was very useful as it provided a wide range of music to choose from. We used GarageBand software to create our radio trailer, which was a new experience as in our last film we never created any soundtracks or radio trailers. We also used Photoshop to create our film poster, which again for some of the members of our group was a new experience. To evaluate our film, we uploaded it to You-tube which is a video uploading sight, we then using Facebook asked friends and family to give a review of our film which helped us to get the feedback we needed to evaluate our film and make improvements.. Through this type of evaluation we were able to get the best type of feedback because it came from our actual target audience. This year we have really extended our knowledge of digital technologies and used a lot more different types of software etc. Through this I think that I have developed creatively this year.