Following a showing of our LAFTAs short film, we recieved audience feedback from the rest of the class, this feedback was both positive and constructive and allowed us to see where we went wrong and what we needed to do for our coursework short film next year.
What people said they liked about our film was how simple the storyline was, we didn’t over complicate anything and we chose something that could be shown visually and without much dialogue so that our audience would understand the concept of our film. I felt that this was a good decision because we were able to redirect our time on incorperating really nice looking shots rather than concentrating too much on worrying whether or not it made sense.
In particular, the shots using the mini dolly were very successful and added an element of movement to our film, which made a difference compared to our previous work which mainly contained static shots. I’m glad that we made the decision to test this piece of equipment because it is something that I will definitely use in the future. We found out that we needed to put down a flat piece of plasitic in order to ensure our dolly had a smooth run, as well as this we attached a piece of string to it that we then pulled it along with. This took a while to set up, but it means that now we know what works and what didn’t when using this piece of equipment.
Another thing that our audience liked was our sound design, which started off silent and came in during the film title. I felt that our music choice worked well and wasn’t too loud or overpowering. It also suited the visuals well which is something that other films seemed to be unable to get just right. We didn’t want our sound to be too repetitive so therefore we added in the odd foley effect such as the car door slamming and shuffle noises. Also the sound contrasted well against the ending, as it almost seemed to be building up to a jump scare, but rather it made the ‘suprise’ ending a little funnier.
The shots that we took of the body being dragged had both positive and negative reviews. We wanted this scene to be really dark and difficult for the viewer to look at. The sound effect definitely added to this because it was a little over exaggerated and wasn’t very pleasant to listen to. However some people said that they felt we could have thought about our shots a little more because there were a few too many, although we did make the right decision to use a handheld camera, because this made the scene seem more rough and uneasy to look at. I think we definitely needed to plan these few shots a little more, as we didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to find the correct angle whilst the body was also moving and how to achieve a steady shot that wasn’t shaking too much.
Some people felt that the shot of the body being taken out of the boot was a little too long, which I agree with. We were aware of this whilst we were editing, however it was difficult to cut this shot so that the continuity of it still made sense. Also, during the filming of this shot we struggled to remove the body quickly. On the other hand it could be said that the length makes the shot uncomfortable to look at which adds to the roughness and shock of the scene, although we should have found a way to reduce the length of this one shot by at least a few seconds.
Although not many people said that they noticed it, one thing that really bugged me was the fact that you could see my little sister’s reflection in the car at one point, which was annoying because we couldn’t see it until post production. We were unable to reshoot and therefore we had to include it in our final film, we covered it a little with the filters that we put on, however it was still visible. Likewise, people said that they felt they could see our dead body moving, whilst I felt that it looked as if our murderer was simply moving him about in the back of the boot. There two aspects of our film had mixed opinions on and both probably should have been addressed if we were able to.
Our day into night effect was sometimes a little inconsistent, especially during the shot looking out of the boot, as a lot of sky was seen in the shot. We tried to match this in each shot by setting the levels of each filter at the same value, this was mostly successful and I felt that we should have thought about this more during filming rather than relying on being able to fix it post production. I also felt that we could have recorded a little more sound on the day rather than having to find foley effects so often, even if we didn’t use 75% of them, I felt that they would have been useful to us.
The overall feedback on our final film was mainly positive, and although we had a number of errors in the way we planned and filmed it, the finished scene still worked well and had the desired effect on our audience. I’m glad we chose the idea that we did and that we worked well as a group.
There were aspects of each of us in the group that meant we were able to combine our skills and create a final film that was made to the best of our abilities. Ben and Thomas helped to organise us during the day of filming and offer practical solutions to the problems we were having, whilst I was able to set up the camera in a way that looked really nice visually. Also during planning, the differences in our personalities really came out, all of our ideas really contrasted and we found it difficult to come up with something that we all agreed with, in the end our storyline with really dark visuals but a comedic aspect suited us all. I felt that this really worked despite seeming like an odd combination. Ben and Thomas are both incredibly creative individuals and I really feel that without them our storyline wouldn’t be nearly as good.
Both me and Ben worked equally on the editing, we both had a completely different method of getting the finished scene edited. Ben seemed to roughly cut all of our shots into place and apply filters, his aim was to firstly get the entire film put together. Whereas I was a lot more particulous with the little details. For example the aligning of the text and the timings all the fades and sounds came in I wanted to get perfect. As a result of the two of us working together we had a film that was finalised and edited to the best of our abilities really efficiently, and we didn’t miss out anything that we could have improved on.
The one thing none of us seemed to be able to get right was organising transport and the times that we would be at all of our locations. The first shooting day, Lauren was unable to make it and we ran a little behind schedule. We were forced to rush a little more than we had hoped but it helped to know what we needed to do and in what order, therefore we quickly made up any time that we had lost. We initially planned to film the party shots on the same day, however we made the decision to do this on another day so that we had better access to props, location and actors. We would also have more time and we could begin editing the first element to our short film in the mean time. This was definitely the correct decision because it relieved a little bit of stress to complete everything on that one day for the group, we didn’t waste any time because we had plenty to be doing in the mean time. Our timing can be greatly improved the next time we film something and plan dates well ahead so that we can ensure that all of us are there on the day and we don’t have any other plans that mean we need to leave early or start late.
At the end of this process, I am really proud of the outcome, I feel that our short film was really successful and it was definitely the best scene I have put together throughout the A level course. I couldn’t have done any of this without the group as we worked so well together and on top of that we’re all now great friends and we look forward to hearing back from the LAFTAs and hopefully attending the award ceremony!
Jess Marshall's A2 Media Studies Blog 