Critical Evaluation
The actual Evaluation you know what this means? This year has come to an end. The last thing i had to do was to work with some class mates who i am proud to say i worked with to create a short film portraying a story that our groups director has told us. His idea came from a friend of his whom once he got mugged by these guys who once he told them he didn’t have any money except that of some change they gave it back to him and let him go unharmed.
So after beeing assigned this project all that was left was to make it happen. First of all each individual in the group had to take on their role for the production of this film. At the first meeting i was ill and did not know what i was assigned for. When i went in at the second production meeting we had i found out the roles of everybody. Jamie Ashcroft was to be the director, Johnny Yates responsible for sound both on set and editing, Niall Alexander on cameraman duties, Jaden Randall on editing, and there was one position open. That position was none other than the producer. First i hearing about it i thought to myself “well that’s not bad! seems easy enough! i guess this will be easy” BUT LITTLE DID I KNOW this was a bit of hand full.
I get home and i search what is the role of the producer in a film. The main answer that keeps coming up is the producer is the guy who is responsible for keeping the movie going, finding the actors, sets and locations and keeping it all in budget. First i did was to meet up with the rest of the group but most importantly the director. After sending them a message on facebook, we met up in the cafeteria at Bower Ashton, a place we called ground zero! We meet up and i ask the director how do you picture the actors? His honest answer was “I don’t know” where i replied “don’t worry when you see them you’ll know”. So for him to “see them” and “know” we first had arrange auditions. The way we went for doing so we’ve put up adverts in all kinds of social media asking for young actors wanting to play the roles we wanted and whoever was interested should give us a call and we will arrange a day to host the auditions who people who also couldn’t contact us could give it a shot. This DID NOT WORK! Only a hand full of people contacted us for the parts and none where able to make it to the auditions. Niall (camera man) suggested we work with some of his friends that might be able/willing to act in it. We all agreed for so but Jamie (director) and myself insisted on having them audition first. We tried to arrange that but Nialls friends where never available. So we head on to PLAN C. We act in it!
Though usually this is not the best way to go i knew we had a talented actor amongst us that is non-other than Johnny Yates (sound) whom i saw act before and thought him to be great, and i had also done some acting in the past. We actually auditioned for the rest of the group at a group meeting we had, the rest of the group liked our performance. We where missing one more actor, and that’s when Niall’s friend came threw and so the show was ready to hit the roads.
My part as producer was to figure out where to shoot? The scene was held outside of a house, so i ask the rest of the group if we know a place meeting the requirements for the shoot. One of the group members said that his house would actually work perfectly. I arranged a pick up for us all and there we where. The set actually looked good. It seemed like a quiet enough neibourghood where we could shoot at ease.
First day of shooting
The weather was lovely, the costumes and props where ready, camera fully charged , and everybody on location. The shooting begins and before you realise it so do the issues! First the batteries of one of the microphones die on us. Second the quiet little place i thought we where shooting at came to be a very busy road whenever we where shooting and last, it was raining! The problem with that was, the sudden change of weather altered the colours of the film. So we had to sit around and wait until the clouds had passed so we could shoot again. It took time that first day but the first day of shooting was over.
The second day of shooting was arranged a week after the first day we shot because of the group members busy schedule. But we where faced with kind of a big problem. My co-actor Johnny had something he could not get out off and had to leave Bristol for a week or so. Seeing as we could not get this done by losing a whole weeks worth of shooting we thought that the best way to go was to re-cast. We call up friends, acquaintances anyone who could do it and we did. Tom again a friend of Niall’s ( impressive connections that Niall, good friends ) was able to shoot it with us.
Second Day of Shooting
Fully stocked on batteries, checked on the weather and it would be lovely, took photos of the actors clothes to avoid continuity errors, practised are lines and BOOM 2 and a half hours later we where done.
One of the things that where the most tiresome about being the producer, you have to call everybody and text everybody and make sure all is good and all are okay and ready for go! And so we find our second location. An empty road in the middle of nowhere that looked perfect for the scene we had to shoot. And it was at night and inside a car. So that meant we had to be able to figure out the lighting. Cause actually none of us where assigned to it so we all took care of it! We tried to use a lighting device that had to be plugged in the smokers car lighter so it could be generated. We tried it and…it was MAKING A HORRIFIC NOISE! we could’t shoot it like this so we all took out our smart phones put the flash light on and tried for us and our shadows to stay away from the cameras eye!
Third day/night of shooting
At night in the car as mentioned earlier. We did the scene a couple of ways not being afraid to work around the script and improvise where the director thought we should. After our first location we had gone to an alley behind a student accommodation residence where Johnny Yates told as it would look appropriate. I told him to take photos of the place and send it to the rest of us. He did we liked and we went to check it out. On our way there we spotted a place that looked even better and decided to use it instead of the other one. We started shooting. We used our phones and even the cars head lights for lighting and we ended up with a great look.
Fourth day/night
It was a Saturday and the place we where shooting at was quite busy. My co-actor was actually just about to go out but he had bring his clothes with him. We tried to make the shot in such a way that the shaved beard incident would not show so much threw various angles and tests we did. And for the second and last time the shooting was over!
It’s been a couple of days now i hope they don’t call me in!
The Look
The look and feel we wanted to bring into this film was mostly comedy. We wanted to combine a serious look with a touch of body language and script comedy. With the directing and some improvisation from the actors part i believe this was achieved.
For the actors to act we/they had to sign a document that states they agree to shoot this with us and we will use the footage for the creation of a 5 minute film for our final project.
In total for this film we had to use a minimum of 3 characters and 3 locations and we used 3 main characters and 5 locations.
As to the film as its own and each speck. For starters ill go with the lighting. The lighting i didn’t love and thought we where sometimes unprepared for it. No matter how many times i used all kinds of techniques we couldn’t get it just right. Perhaps if i had thought a bit ahead and tried to book some lighting equipment from the university i could have avoided some of this issue, now that i know ill keep it in mind for next time. My second worry is the editing. Though all of the actors and the director tried their best for this film, the editing could have been a bit more complex.
Editing
At the beginning once the characters get in to the car there could be more cutting from one character to another as on of them doesn’t say really anything for a while and in that way making the audience aware to some kind of verbal and non-verbal conversastion. Also at some points you can clearly see the actors braking out of character just before of a scene where it could be easily cut just a second earlier. In addition i also think that the editing doesn’t really show that witted fast paste that i thought we where going for, for example there is a moment when the character closes the door locks and the camera is literally waiting for it to happen, when it should happen instantly cause he is doing something that to a regular human being is by that age second nature.
Acting
As far as this experience on acting, i have to confence that i don’t feel i gave it my all. I didn’t feel that connected to the character i was portraying, except from when he got physical.
Producing
With the producing element in a whole this experience was a great one. It was a chance to get to know one another and it felt like an actual production company. A very low,non budget, amateur one but a production company none the less. I’ve been used to creating my own ideas and directing them myself and it’s rare for me to work on someone elses idea. I found myself at the begining to not be that in to it at first but until the end enjoying myself threw the process. I believe that i did ok for my first producing job. Could i do better? Yes. I believe that if i had tried to arrange more group meetings everything would be much better. If now i have problems with the editing but the sound has already overlapped it, i blame myself. Perhaps i could have asked them to show me the final cut before going to sound.
Sound
The sound editing was a really good job. The foley for it was seamless and not to loud. The one issue i had was with the score. The music used towards the ending of the film where our two main characters are trying to rob the musician, was not bad but i felt it a bit to loud going in and perhaps not all that clear, giving the feeling that i was forced to feel scared which because of that it contradicted and didn’t give it to me. They way that this could be resolved would be by having the score go in a bit more smooth and perhaps not to the level that it went and maybe if there was some kind of music(score) in the background of the film from the very start setting a tone before hand(though this could not work i would like to have arranged a test if we had more time). This happens only at the very beginning once those 15 seconds pass by the sound is good again.
Conclusion
Though it had its fun moments it was alot more challenging than what i originally thought it would be. To be able to keep threw a deadline and trying to keep up with everybody’s daily schedules it was mind boggling experience. I would like to do some work on producing again sometime, and that time i’ll wont underestimate it not even for a bit.
DeadKingDom 