Evaluation

Evaluation of 'Mourning of'



For my final major project I was tasked with creating a media product around one of three themes. I knew I wanted to do a film. The theme I chose was 'travel'.

Initially I spent a lot of time looking into the idea of travel to work out how I could play with it a bit and not just directly involve the idea of travelling somewhere for the whole short. After lot of research I started developing ideas of how I could take the idea of travel and show the travel and journey people go through on the mourning of a funeral.

Before I started looking into the story and narrative of the short I knew that I had to spend some time looking into the idea of short films themselves. To do this I watched twenty short films of different varieties looking into similar techniques they all use as well as more.

When it came to writing the script, this is something that took me many attempts. Script writing is by far not my strongest point of filmmaking and it took me so long to get a script that was possible in the current climate of the world with the coronavirus and that I liked.


Am I happy with the final product?


I feel ok with the product which I have produced however I believe I could have done a lot better. I feel like due to problems with production I was late into editing which caused me to be very squished for time and speeding through some parts of it more than others. I am happy with the feel however I feel like my ending was weak.

I do believe that if times were different and I had access to equipment, was not stuck at home and had a larger variety of actors I could have made something a lot better. However I worked with what I had and the outcome is not terrible.


What do I like about it? 

In the short I really like my use of VFX to create the flame reflection and the use of music and voice over throughout.

What do I not like?

I am not happy with how the shot of the phone text went. This ended up being rushed due to time constraints and tracking issues after already having to cut out the first phone scene.

What would I do differently next time?

Next time I make a short film I will ensure there is not a global pandemic around.. ;)

In all seriousness I have learnt to check all camera settings (even if you are recording on a phone) before you shoot to save time and hassle. I did not do this and caused myself to have to do a reshoot of the entire thing.

Which part would I reshoot?

If I had to reshoot a scene it would be the last scene. I believe that if I reshot this I would modify it slightly to feel a little less speedy and stronger overall. Especially the last shot.

Scene five is also a close contender as It feels very compact physically.

Which part do I believe was the strongest?

In my opinion it was editing. Not only is this the part I enjoy the most but its the field of work I want to go into. As always, If I had more time I could have polished it up a lot more but what I could do in the time I had I did. I believe neither cinematography or writing are parts of film I am as strong in however I wish to improve.


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