Link to 1000 Word Evaluation Document:
Link to Critical Review Document:
FINAL EVALUATION:
I have learnt a lot of things during the 10 weeks I have spent on my Final Major Project.
Throughout the project I did have to adapt my proposal slightly, changing my initial idea of a film narrative with multiple timelines, with colours depicting the emotions, to a film following the change in emotions following only one timeline.
The idea of using colours to tell a story didn’t change for the duration of the project, and I continued to research into relating themes and filmmakers.
During the 10 weeks, I researched multiple shows and movies to gather inspiration for my own, including The Lion King, Mystery Train, The Addams Family, and Standby. Standby in particular was the show that inspired me most, as it gave me the idea to create a film following a narrative where the camera stays in one place. From that idea I then discovered other shows like Gogglebox, and The Royale Family, etc.
Researching different filmmakers and looking at their work was also interesting, as it gave me an insight into their own cinematic style. Wes Anderson was a big inspiration in this project for me, as he uses colour in his films to represent different emotions well. I used this research to implement ideas into my own work.
My research was wide-ranging, using primary and secondary research, and multiple sources such as websites, videos, books, and films. This helped me to discover new ideas and develop my knowledge.
The first problem I came across in this project, was the realisation I won’t be able to follow through with my original idea, so to overcome that I slightly changed what I planned to do. As the thought of using colours to tell a story didn’t change, my main idea wasn’t altered too much.
Another big problem I came across was when I started to colour grade. I didn’t like how my film looked and I was not happy handing in the work I had produced. To overcome this, I finished my project a couple days earlier than planned, which left me with a few days to practise grading other footage, to build my confidence in my own abilities, and have another try at editing. Even though in the end this didn’t improve my film, and I was still disappointed, practising on good footage helped me to identify what was going wrong, and why I couldn’t make it look the way I wanted it to.
Feedback is also a way I have problem solved, as getting feedback from my peers and tutors have helped me to see my work from different perspectives. This has ultimately helped me to improve my work and gather new ideas.
All my processes have been posted on my blog throughout this whole project, showing feedback, research, idea creation, experimentations, and my journey as a whole. My padlet is also an area in which I have regularly updated my work.
I learnt how to use a new software, DaVinci Resolve, while working on this project, which is something I am proud of, as I took a risk choosing to use it rather than Premiere, which I have used to edit films on previous projects. I think this shows my versatility and ability to learn new things, and I have learnt new skills by doing this. It is a software used by people in the colour grading industry itself, so by testing my ability, I think it shows my professional development well.
Evaluation is something I think has been successful compared to previous work I have done. Throughout my Stage 1 and 2 work I didn’t do weekly evaluations, instead just did one big final evaluation. Because of this, evaluating my work every week was something new to me, but it has definitely helped me stay accountable. Referring back to my timeline each week and comparing how much work I had completed to what I had expected to have accomplished helped me to stay on track and not fall behind too much.
In previous projects my time management was questionable, so to be able to finish my project a few days earlier than hoped (which was still a lot earlier than previous projects) was a great feeling. This meant I wasn’t stressing or rushing work in the last couple days, which is something I am guilty of in the past.
Another thing I think was successful in this project was my research. I spent a lot of time throughout these 10 weeks researching and creating in-depth blog posts about different films and shows I had watched. I also used this research and implemented ideas into my own work.
Looking back on my project, something I would improve on would be to test out lighting better. I have shared that I don’t know much about lighting; because it is not an area of film that I am particularly interested in, but looking back, that should have been all the more reason to research it and test out a lot more before I started filming.
I did spend an entire day working with the lights in the location of my film, but I didn’t test out filming in log, nor did I test out the lighting with only the TV light, which a couple of the scenes in my film did involve. This caused some scenes in my films to be poorly lit and created so much noise in my film that I couldn’t get rid of. It also meant I couldn’t grade in the way I wanted, as the lighting wasn’t bright enough/caused my image to be distorted.
As well as my own critical evaluation, feedback from my peers and tutors also helped me to improve and develop my work further.
Overall, my Final Major Project has been a learning experience. The independence I had throughout the project allowed me to explore my own ideas and do what I felt like doing. There are things that I think I have improved on from last projects, but also things I still need to work on, if I was to do this again.
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