film evaluation
Over the last couple of weeks, my group and I have made a short western film called "Dead Man's Hand". We worked hard on filming and editing, finally showing it to the rest of our classmates and Ms Ward today. Although there are some areas which I would like to change, overall I am proud of this film.
I think one area that was good in our film was the location. When we were deciding what location to film at, we took in the factor that we couldn't have anything modern visible in it, for example, concrete stairs, fencing etc.. We knew there was a good location close to school that we could film at, but we weren't completely happy with it. This was because you could see some fencing from certain angles, and the grass was very green there. Western films are mostly set in the Old American West, where it is very dry. This causes the grass and leaves to be very yellow and beige coloured, not bright green. By having bright green leaves in our film, it would make the film look less western. We kept looking and found a better location, there was no fencing or any modern object around it, and the ground wasn't covered in bright green leaves. The only downfall to this was that it was a 15-minute walk from school. This meant that when we would film during class time we were very rushed because we had very little time to film before having to make our way back to school. Because of this, there are some inconsistencies because we were too rushed to notice them when filming. For example, the camera bag in the background of the scene where Wyatt picks up the gun. (3:01 in the Youtube video below) Although these inconsistencies irritate me, I do not regret choosing the location we did. To me, the benefits of this location outweighed the negatives.
Another factor I think that we excelled in in this film was audio. Our audio was clear most of the time. This was because of our location. This is another benefit to our chosen location, it was isolated. Besides hikers passing by on the trail and aeroplanes, there were no disruptive sounds. We were far enough away from the road that we couldn't hear cars, and from the school, we couldn't hear any students talking from the schools. Because of our audio was very clear and it was easy to understand what the dialogue was. The biggest problem were the aeroplanes, which disrupted one of our scenes (1:06 in Youtube video below), because of this we had to alter the audio to reduce the background noise. This worked since the aeroplane noise isn't very prominent, but it made the audio sound very spaced out and not clear. For other scenes we noticed when there was an aeroplane, luckily this was the only scene where we didn't notice. If we could, I would've liked to go back and re-film this scene, but given our time frame, we couldn't. Although this is a minor flaw and isn't that noticeable when watching our film, it still tends to irritate me since it makes the audio inconsistent. However, besides problems with aeroplanes, I think the audio in our film was very clear and easy to understand.
I personally thought we had good framing and composition, using various types of shots during our film to make the scene more interesting. For example, we filmed the fighting scene where Quentin runs to the tree and when Wyatt gets shot (1:48-2:15 in the Youtube video below) multiple times. Although it was very time consuming to film, it was definitely worth it. This is one of my favourite parts of the film because instead of being one single angle the entire fight, it is multiple angles, which makes it more interesting. I also think that all the different angles flow together well, there are a couple inconsistencies, but for the most part, we were able to keep the acting and positioning consistent throughout every shot. The one thing that I have learnt about from making this film is the 180 rule. This is a rule we were introduced to after the screening of our film. During the long shots of Wyatt and Quentin (1:38 in Youtube video below), we shot from two angles from either side of them. Because of this, we broke the 180 rule. The 180 rule is that when filming a scene like the one we did, you must film from one side of the characters, not the other. We filmed from both sides, breaking the rule. This rule helps to keep the film more consistent since it can be confusing when the placement of the characters change. This is definitely a factor I will take into consideration for my next film.
If I were to film this film again, I would take more time and be more careful and aware when I am filming. Towards the end of filming, we were in a rush to finish, making many mistakes. These mistakes caused us to have inconsistencies in our film. For example, how Quentin throws away his flask, but still has it on in later scenes. Or, the camera bag and water bottle in the background of the scene in which Wyatt picks up the gun. All these are mistakes that can only we resolved if the scenes are re-filmed. With audio and lighting, they can be slightly altered in editing, but these inconsistencies cannot be fixed easily during the editing process. If I had taken the time to double check any inconsistencies during filming I think our film could've been much better.
I am very happy with the way my group and I worked together. We definitely had a lot of fun together (photos below!), from getting Cha Siu Fan together to singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" during breaks in between filming. As a group, I think we all worked very well together. Conrad and James did most of the acting, while Duncan and I did most of the directing and framing of the scenes. While we were filming it was sometimes frustrating when not everyone was focused and behaving, but that only last for a short amount of time before we all got back into focus and started filming. We also changed the film a lot from the production plan when we were creating it, this was because we were able to see what would work better in our film when were we actually filming it. This caused us as a group to creatively work together, which I think we did very well. We all edited together, deciding what clips to cut, what clips to keep, sound effects etc.. Furthermore, when editing we also tried new things out that we wanted to add. For example, the title disappearing behind Quentin and Dolores was an idea that I had, but I thought would be hard to do. Duncan and I did some further research into it before Duncan and Conrad figured out how to do it the next day. This wasn't an essential aspect of our film, but something we all wanted to do which I think added to the film. Overall I was very happy with the way my group worked together and definitely had a lot of fun!
I think one area that was good in our film was the location. When we were deciding what location to film at, we took in the factor that we couldn't have anything modern visible in it, for example, concrete stairs, fencing etc.. We knew there was a good location close to school that we could film at, but we weren't completely happy with it. This was because you could see some fencing from certain angles, and the grass was very green there. Western films are mostly set in the Old American West, where it is very dry. This causes the grass and leaves to be very yellow and beige coloured, not bright green. By having bright green leaves in our film, it would make the film look less western. We kept looking and found a better location, there was no fencing or any modern object around it, and the ground wasn't covered in bright green leaves. The only downfall to this was that it was a 15-minute walk from school. This meant that when we would film during class time we were very rushed because we had very little time to film before having to make our way back to school. Because of this, there are some inconsistencies because we were too rushed to notice them when filming. For example, the camera bag in the background of the scene where Wyatt picks up the gun. (3:01 in the Youtube video below) Although these inconsistencies irritate me, I do not regret choosing the location we did. To me, the benefits of this location outweighed the negatives.
Another factor I think that we excelled in in this film was audio. Our audio was clear most of the time. This was because of our location. This is another benefit to our chosen location, it was isolated. Besides hikers passing by on the trail and aeroplanes, there were no disruptive sounds. We were far enough away from the road that we couldn't hear cars, and from the school, we couldn't hear any students talking from the schools. Because of our audio was very clear and it was easy to understand what the dialogue was. The biggest problem were the aeroplanes, which disrupted one of our scenes (1:06 in Youtube video below), because of this we had to alter the audio to reduce the background noise. This worked since the aeroplane noise isn't very prominent, but it made the audio sound very spaced out and not clear. For other scenes we noticed when there was an aeroplane, luckily this was the only scene where we didn't notice. If we could, I would've liked to go back and re-film this scene, but given our time frame, we couldn't. Although this is a minor flaw and isn't that noticeable when watching our film, it still tends to irritate me since it makes the audio inconsistent. However, besides problems with aeroplanes, I think the audio in our film was very clear and easy to understand.
I personally thought we had good framing and composition, using various types of shots during our film to make the scene more interesting. For example, we filmed the fighting scene where Quentin runs to the tree and when Wyatt gets shot (1:48-2:15 in the Youtube video below) multiple times. Although it was very time consuming to film, it was definitely worth it. This is one of my favourite parts of the film because instead of being one single angle the entire fight, it is multiple angles, which makes it more interesting. I also think that all the different angles flow together well, there are a couple inconsistencies, but for the most part, we were able to keep the acting and positioning consistent throughout every shot. The one thing that I have learnt about from making this film is the 180 rule. This is a rule we were introduced to after the screening of our film. During the long shots of Wyatt and Quentin (1:38 in Youtube video below), we shot from two angles from either side of them. Because of this, we broke the 180 rule. The 180 rule is that when filming a scene like the one we did, you must film from one side of the characters, not the other. We filmed from both sides, breaking the rule. This rule helps to keep the film more consistent since it can be confusing when the placement of the characters change. This is definitely a factor I will take into consideration for my next film.
If I were to film this film again, I would take more time and be more careful and aware when I am filming. Towards the end of filming, we were in a rush to finish, making many mistakes. These mistakes caused us to have inconsistencies in our film. For example, how Quentin throws away his flask, but still has it on in later scenes. Or, the camera bag and water bottle in the background of the scene in which Wyatt picks up the gun. All these are mistakes that can only we resolved if the scenes are re-filmed. With audio and lighting, they can be slightly altered in editing, but these inconsistencies cannot be fixed easily during the editing process. If I had taken the time to double check any inconsistencies during filming I think our film could've been much better.
I am very happy with the way my group and I worked together. We definitely had a lot of fun together (photos below!), from getting Cha Siu Fan together to singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" during breaks in between filming. As a group, I think we all worked very well together. Conrad and James did most of the acting, while Duncan and I did most of the directing and framing of the scenes. While we were filming it was sometimes frustrating when not everyone was focused and behaving, but that only last for a short amount of time before we all got back into focus and started filming. We also changed the film a lot from the production plan when we were creating it, this was because we were able to see what would work better in our film when were we actually filming it. This caused us as a group to creatively work together, which I think we did very well. We all edited together, deciding what clips to cut, what clips to keep, sound effects etc.. Furthermore, when editing we also tried new things out that we wanted to add. For example, the title disappearing behind Quentin and Dolores was an idea that I had, but I thought would be hard to do. Duncan and I did some further research into it before Duncan and Conrad figured out how to do it the next day. This wasn't an essential aspect of our film, but something we all wanted to do which I think added to the film. Overall I was very happy with the way my group worked together and definitely had a lot of fun!