This week I finished my picture house project and, in this evaluation, I am going to share my thoughts on the project as a whole, what went well and what didn’t; as well as what I enjoyed.
The painting that I was inspired by was ‘Not to be reproduced’ by Rene Magritte, which is a painting that was given to me as an example on the first day of this project. I didn’t particularly ‘enjoy’ researching about the painting, but it was interesting to see different people’s interpretations of the painting. The fact that Magritte’s work is so thought provoking, inspired me for my own film, as I wanted the audience to think about my film, and perhaps have different opinions on what they’re viewing.
The photography week was one of the most fun weeks in my opinion, and I really enjoyed taking the photos, as well as helping other people with their own shoots. Experimenting with different lightings, angles, props, etc. I also found really enjoyable.
The process of pre-production seemed to fly by very quickly, but on evaluation, I think I should have spent my time more wisely when it came to booking out equipment/planning out scenes, as when it came to actually filming it, I feel I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been. The story board I created for example, I never finished, however did take inspiration from and ended up using some of the scenes from it in my film.
When filming, the biggest problems I faced was lighting and sound. I decided to film at night as that was the effect I wanted; but that meant I had little to no light to work with (as I didn’t borrow LEDs from UCA). Instead, I had to use nearby light sources a lot, like lampposts and bus stops, as well as trying to create light inside too. Using my phone too, meant I had very little control over the settings of the video, unlike if I had a camera, where I could adjust the ISO, etc. I think if I was to do this project again, I would definitely make the most of the facilities at UCA, and tried to be quicker when borrowing out equipment.
However, the filming was definitely my favourite part of this project. Trying to find different and interesting angles to work from, as well as working with my actor (my brother), was particularly fun.
When it came to post production, this was the area that took the longest time in my project. I used Premiere Pro to edit my film, and I think that was a good choice, as that is the software many professional filmmakers use. I did consider using After Affects halfway through editing, because I feel more comfortable and confident using it, so I moved all of my work over to the other software, but decided afterwards it would be best to keep it in Premiere Pro.
I did, however, use After Effects to create the end scene in my film. I wanted the final scene in my film to portray my own version of Magritte’s painting, so I needed it to be good in order for it to leave a lasting impression, just like the painting. The final scene in my film is my main character looking in the mirror, and his reflection holding up a knife in a sadistic/creepy way. To do this I planned on layering both of the videos I filmed (one where he is holding up the knife, and another where he steps up to the mirror and looks in it) on top of each other and mask out the mirror so it reveals the video below it. When editing I realised the shadows in both videos were different, as one of the videos he was walking towards the mirror, and the other he was just standing still, so my masking was obvious.
I also didn't film both of my scenes using a tripod, and instead just tried to hold the camera still in-between making the scenes. This meant the videos didn't line up perfectly, but I ended up using different clips (there was a test clip where he was standing in front of the mirror as we waited for a car to pass our house), so that way I wouldn't have the shadow of him walking up to the mirror. I feathered out the mask so they would blend together better, and also used the lumetri colour scope to do basic colour correction to make sure both clips looked the same.
The final clip was the one I was the most unsure about, as I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be able to create the effect I had pictured in my mind, but now I am looking back on my project, I think that scene is the one I am happiest with.
The audio for my film was the most difficult part of the project for me, as I have little experience on it. This meant that I had to do a lot of research into how music effect the mood in different films/how particularly it's effective in horror films. I watched many YouTube videos talking about the effect of music in films, and how foley artists create different sounds, etc. My plan was to use some of my own audio footage, along with free audio sounds I found online, to create a creepy horror feel to my film. Like I mentioned previously, I didn't borrow any audio equipment from UCA, so I just recorded some sounds that I thought could be useful on my phone. Some of them I used, but some of them weren’t useful so I had to rely on the free audio clips I found online instead.
I needed to make sure the audio I used was effective in portraying the feelings I wanted to, as it effects the mood and also creates suspense during scenes. For that reason, the audio was the thing that took the longest post-production, and I definitely underestimated how much effort it would be to create the effect I wanted and present it in an effective way.
For the marketing of my film, I created movie posters that incorporated Magritte’s painting, as well as adding the name and date of release at the end of my work to create a trailer so people know when my film would be released.
Overall, I did manage to complete my film, but honestly, I'm not as happy with it as I thought I would be. Next time I will plan out my time better, because I needed more time to work on the post production, as there's certain scenes where I feel that the sound isn't accurate/doesn't sound right in the scene.
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