22/03/22
I have made good progress so far in developing my project idea as I finally have a plan for my final project which I'm going to stick to and not change. As of now what I need to work on is a bit of everything, because I have my plot idea, its there I've researched it and I know the context behind it I just need to make it stronger by adding a few things. Characters have been sorted out all I need is a name for her and the other character in it. I know what my locations are going to be but I'm not to sure on props or costume just yet that still needs working on as I stated earlier that things still need working out. I've researched about Amnesia and how it can affect a person and their wellbeing. For example I looked up amnesia and how it affects a persons wellbeing. Looking at my schedule I am on the right track. All I need to do to prepare for my pitch next week is too create a PowerPoint with all of my ideas onto it.
05/04/22
Today was the day that I had to present my pitch Infront of a small group of people in my class about my short film. Now because my idea is still in early development stage there were some questions that I couldn't answer and I hadn't really developed my character in detail yet so there were still parts missing. But nevertheless I engaged my audience with my pitch talk and got my idea across to them. What I've researched since then is the different types of amnesia so I can really go into depth of my main character and how she feels and acts. The amnesia type is called retrograde amnesia and only affects recently stored memories and not memories of the past.
25/04/22
After Easter break I now have all of my clips that I need to start my editing process. I am confident that I have shot enough clips to edit all together on premiere pro and I am very proud of everything that I have shot. I tried shooting my scenes at different angles and using different techniques to see which ones would fit better. I am going to colour correct my footage and add some type of effects when it is all laid out and edited on the premiere pro timeline. For the next week I will begin to get a rough cut of my short film progress so far.
03/05/22
Now that I have every thing I need I am going to put all of the footage onto the macs ready for editing the framing and quality of the videos are good so I don't think I need to reshoot any clips as I have also done a double take of everything. My camera techniques range from close ups to mid shots to wide shots. The lighting in my shots are good I had to retake some a couple times as it kept getting blurry but it all worked out in the end. The multiple locations of my short film are suitable because they fit in with my storyline and my main character following all of them to get to the end. The locations are also the photo props as we see them as photos and as the actual locations in real time when following Maria around which I think was a good choice as it will make the viewers confused and intrigued by it. The costume for my main character Maria is dark black clothing and I think it was a good choice because its meant to symbolise confusion and despair. The other outfit choice for flashback Maria are lighter colours which I think is a good choice because it's meant to symbolise happier times. I'm very glad that I don't need to reshoot anything after looking through all my clips. When I finish my rough cut I'd like to show my audience so I can get some feedback and tell me what needs improving.
10/05/22
I thought that I had completed my proposal form but it turns out that I didn't complete it properly so I get on that and get the updated version back onto my website. With 3 weeks to deadline I really want to concentrate on my edit and try to at least finish by the 25th May. I have a schedule of what I will do till the deadline. What I need to do in the next few weeks is to start editing in some effects like credits in premiere pro. As of now though I'm proud of how far I've come.
17/05/22
My editing process is going smoothly and now it's time to find and put in some sound effects after researching on how to use sound effects effectively by looking at scenes from my inspiration for example the pretty little liars video I took inspiration from for the flashback it had a slight echo effect when they spoke and there was a flash and a sound effect when it faded into white and faded out. I have gotten people to look at parts of my work and they said that they like the tension build up at the end and the reveal. I understand my context because I am getting to know the key parts of my thriller project to make it work. I am also experimenting with the colour corrector again just to see if I like my clips to be a little bit more darker and listening to copyright free creepy music to see which ones would fit better.
23/05/22
Just a few more days left till deadline I have arrived at the stage in my editing process where everything nearly feels complete. I am very close to finish editing I only have tomorrow but I will get it done and uploaded ready for the screening on Thursday. A bit of feedback that I did get was that I could've made the sound better. I still have time to fix some of the audio but for the voiceovers I can't re-record them but that's ok because I will try and make them sound better in Audition by adding some effects. There are still a few things that I want to do before the deadline which is create a proper thumbnail for my video which I will do in Photoshop. I am also due to get some more feedback in a couple days from my peers as we are all screening our projects on that day. After this I will do my final evaluation on my project as a whole to evaluate reflect these past few months.
Final Evaluation
I don't think that my idea has changed that much at all, most of the key parts that I had planned out stayed the same which was my main character having some type of amnesia and waking up in the middle of nowhere. My research really helped my planning stage as it gave me quite a lot of inspiration and ideas. An example of my research that helped me was the film memento as its about a guy called Lenny who has amnesia and can't remember anything that happens short term. Before watching that film I already had an idea in my head about a girl who has no memory of where she is and what happened to her, so when explaining the idea to people they recommended that I watch Memento which I'm so glad I did as it gave me a bigger push into really developing a whole character and story in more detail. Researching deep into amnesia also really helped me shape my idea as a whole as well because before researching I only thought there was one type of amnesia but then I searched some more and I found different types so I could now give some more context behind my main character and her well being. My research also helped me with wanting my beginning shot and ending shot t be the same as the context behind that is that my character is stuck just in a unchangeable loop. Researching also helped me decide that I wanted to use flashbacks to give context to my characters past and develop them more.
The planning in my project actually helped me quite a lot, the script helped me with developing my idea better it was also right there when filming so I could look and know what I had to do and say which was very time efficient so I wouldn't waste any filming time. There were some lines and scenes cut from my script because I felt like it would make the project drag on for too long and get boring. My shot lists were helpful in terms of what shot type I needed to film and in order of when to film them, (close up, wide shot, mid shot) etc. My storyboard really helped with my planning because it helped me visualise where I needed to be and what the shot types and angles I needed for that specific scene. Looking around at different scenes and playing around with colour schemes really helped me decide on the colours, costumes and locations for my film. What I wish I could've done to make my planning for these better is to make a mood board, so for any up coming projects that I may have I will plan one out to deepen my plan and shape it to be more detailed.
I think the practical skills and techniques in my project was very successful and I enjoyed it very much as the editing process is my favourite process. I used skills that I have already been taught but there was some that I hadn't been taught so I decided that I would search up tutorials on how to do these certain techniques. One that I found on YouTube was how to make rolling credits. Before finding that video I had no idea on how to make a nice looking credits, especially one that rolls up the screen like you've just been watching a movie so when I found one I implemented it into mine and it made my credits look really nice instead of just text on the screen and I'm proud of it. Another technique that I'm very proud of is the making of my thumbnail. Now I made my thumbnail in Adobe Photoshop and I've used photoshop before but since it had been so long I had forgotten how to do the basics so again I went to YouTube again to research how to blur out faces as I wanted to blur out my face on my thumbnail and add faded writing at the top and on my face. I'm super proud of how my thumbnail turned out as I have never made one before so when I actually completed it I felt really good about it, my editing process on how I did it is on my practical skills page. One thing that I haven't attempted before is to make a flashback scene. Now I used a editing effect on premiere pro called dip to white and added it to the end of one clip and at the start of my flashback. It's a very simple effect but looking back I wish I could've maybe tried a different type of flashback that would make my project stand out a bit more. I used many other simple editing effects on my project such as opacity which fades my clips to black, denoise which when added onto a clip it makes the noise in the background less loud so you can hear the person talking more clearly. I used the colour correction to colour my scenes to the way that I wanted them. Every scene except the flashbacks were coloured to be dark and depressing whereas the flashbacks were coloured to be happy and laidback. I'm glad that I used these effects to make my project look better otherwise it would've looked very boring and unprofessional and it would make it seem like I learnt nothing over the past year.
I got some people to watch my short film when it was finished and got some feedback from them. They liked my story and thought it had a really good narrative which I'm happy with because I was afraid that they wouldn't get it but they did which means that I did a good job on researching my ideas properly. What they thought that I could've done better was the voiceover as they said it didn't sound like it was realistic and was a bit strange and the lip syncing was a bit off. Now for the future and for any other projects that I do that include a voiceover I will try and make it seem more realistic like its coming from real time filming by adding in some effects or not speaking so close to the microphone, I will also use the voice recorder and watch my video at the same time so it will match up when I edit it in post.
Overall I think my project went quite well and I enjoyed making it as it kept things tense and mysterious and my ending is not revealed till the very end. I think that I portrayed the amnesia in my film quite well especially and the beginning and the end so the audience will have to try and piece that together by themselves. I think that all the different effects and the techniques that I used kept the viewers attention on it because of how eerie it looked. I also believe that my film fits into the thriller genre and intrigues my target audience.
The planning in my project actually helped me quite a lot, the script helped me with developing my idea better it was also right there when filming so I could look and know what I had to do and say which was very time efficient so I wouldn't waste any filming time. There were some lines and scenes cut from my script because I felt like it would make the project drag on for too long and get boring. My shot lists were helpful in terms of what shot type I needed to film and in order of when to film them, (close up, wide shot, mid shot) etc. My storyboard really helped with my planning because it helped me visualise where I needed to be and what the shot types and angles I needed for that specific scene. Looking around at different scenes and playing around with colour schemes really helped me decide on the colours, costumes and locations for my film. What I wish I could've done to make my planning for these better is to make a mood board, so for any up coming projects that I may have I will plan one out to deepen my plan and shape it to be more detailed.
I think the practical skills and techniques in my project was very successful and I enjoyed it very much as the editing process is my favourite process. I used skills that I have already been taught but there was some that I hadn't been taught so I decided that I would search up tutorials on how to do these certain techniques. One that I found on YouTube was how to make rolling credits. Before finding that video I had no idea on how to make a nice looking credits, especially one that rolls up the screen like you've just been watching a movie so when I found one I implemented it into mine and it made my credits look really nice instead of just text on the screen and I'm proud of it. Another technique that I'm very proud of is the making of my thumbnail. Now I made my thumbnail in Adobe Photoshop and I've used photoshop before but since it had been so long I had forgotten how to do the basics so again I went to YouTube again to research how to blur out faces as I wanted to blur out my face on my thumbnail and add faded writing at the top and on my face. I'm super proud of how my thumbnail turned out as I have never made one before so when I actually completed it I felt really good about it, my editing process on how I did it is on my practical skills page. One thing that I haven't attempted before is to make a flashback scene. Now I used a editing effect on premiere pro called dip to white and added it to the end of one clip and at the start of my flashback. It's a very simple effect but looking back I wish I could've maybe tried a different type of flashback that would make my project stand out a bit more. I used many other simple editing effects on my project such as opacity which fades my clips to black, denoise which when added onto a clip it makes the noise in the background less loud so you can hear the person talking more clearly. I used the colour correction to colour my scenes to the way that I wanted them. Every scene except the flashbacks were coloured to be dark and depressing whereas the flashbacks were coloured to be happy and laidback. I'm glad that I used these effects to make my project look better otherwise it would've looked very boring and unprofessional and it would make it seem like I learnt nothing over the past year.
I got some people to watch my short film when it was finished and got some feedback from them. They liked my story and thought it had a really good narrative which I'm happy with because I was afraid that they wouldn't get it but they did which means that I did a good job on researching my ideas properly. What they thought that I could've done better was the voiceover as they said it didn't sound like it was realistic and was a bit strange and the lip syncing was a bit off. Now for the future and for any other projects that I do that include a voiceover I will try and make it seem more realistic like its coming from real time filming by adding in some effects or not speaking so close to the microphone, I will also use the voice recorder and watch my video at the same time so it will match up when I edit it in post.
Overall I think my project went quite well and I enjoyed making it as it kept things tense and mysterious and my ending is not revealed till the very end. I think that I portrayed the amnesia in my film quite well especially and the beginning and the end so the audience will have to try and piece that together by themselves. I think that all the different effects and the techniques that I used kept the viewers attention on it because of how eerie it looked. I also believe that my film fits into the thriller genre and intrigues my target audience.
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