Evaluation – Final Major Production

For my final major production, I decided to make a short film

titled ‘Silent Traders.’ The message of the short film was to show
viewers the negatives of going against the law and to also send a
message indirectly about the negative impact of phone use. This
shows the fact that I wanted a self-reflective kind of response
from the viewers. I also wanted an emotional type of response
from the viewers as I wanted them to be connected to the
characters in my production and the storyline. I decided to
submit my film to the ‘London Short Film Festival.’ There are no
specified genres that I am restricted to, it is said that
competitors can create a short film in the genre of our choice,
yet the short film production length must be no longer than 45 minutes. Although there were no
other specific rules or boundaries set by the competition holders, my course has set the following
rules: no nudity, no foul language and nothing explicit. My film is based on two criminal ’friends’
that trust each other and are trying to work their way up the ladder. The plot twist comes in halfway
through / near the end of the production where the main character’s friend, ’Billy,’ is found to be a
detective that is trying to get evidence on the gang leader, ’Terry.’ Throughout the short film, there’s
little hints thrown into some scenes including the detective / fake gang member wearing similar
clothes etc. I worked with a numerous amount of people to ensure my end production is the best
possible. I had a decent sized acting cast consisting of 2 main characters and 2 side characters.
Thankfully, we effectively worked together due to the organisation and unobstructed vision on set. I
contacted my actors Shay, Kane, Mamadou and Clayton through email to arrange dates everyone
is happy with filming / acting on. Throughout the filming and editing process, I did not have a crew
or any extra help, as I believed I could produce a short film to the standard it is expected to be at.
Throughout the process, my role included being the camera operator, video editor, producer, and
director. Thankfully, as expected, this allowed me to take full control over my production and
ensure a high quality, entertaining piece was the end result.

At the start of the process, the first thing I focused on was producing ideas. I wanted to do this as I
already had some considerably basic ideas, I did not mind trialling out, so I decided to jot them
down.
As shown above, I noted down my three ideas that I did not mind completing for my final
production. After this, I moved on to creating mind maps of my three ideas. This was extremely
successful in allowing me to understand and develop my ideas. After getting a good enough idea on
what kind of ideas I had, I turned to the people around me to help me understand which idea would
work out the best and most interest them. I carried out google forms to help me understand what
the audience would prefer the most and how they would want the story to play out. The forms were
extremely helpful in allowing me to get a better understanding of what the audience want and how I
could develop the current ideas I had. Although the forms were helpful, if I were able to redo my
forms, I would ask certain questions a bit more differently to be able to get specific replies and to
also stop people answering lazily. Thankfully, due to the google forms, I ruled out one of the ideas I
had as almost no one voted for me to do that idea. This made it a lot easier for me to present my
ideas when it came to focus groups. I put forward the two ideas the majority of people voted for in
my form and the people in my focus group seemed to like it. The focus group conducted was
extremely successful in allowing me to get a better depth of understanding of what my idea could
be, it helped me develop my idea and get people’s opinion on it. After all of this, my idea had
expanded rapidly. My idea went from a basic idea with not much thought or context to a half-
detailed idea that had a lot more thought gone into it. After this, I wanted to create another mind
map to be able to map my ideas out and to also be able to develop it as I go. After I created my mind
map, I moved on to creating another focus group based on social context. This focus group was
extremely successful in helping me realise a lot more about my idea and the social implications it
has. For example, one thing I came to realise is that the topic I am basing my production on could
be a slightly controversial topic, especially with the younger generation. This made me
acknowledge the fact that, throughout my planning and execution, I will have to ensure I take a
softer approach in terms of presenting the negatives and dangers of tech. I also came to realise
that, if phones have been banned in the alternate universe my production is based in, then
everything will be different. The way characters dress, talk, act, everything. The social context focus
group I carried out was extremely successful in allowing me to understand the implications I may
face throughout. After I completed my social context focus group, I created a proposal to be able to
have a clear bit of work displaying my intentions with what production I would like to create and
how I would do each section. The proposal was unexpectedly quite helpful in allowing me to come
back to it and reconsider what my idea is and how I would implement it. After I created my
proposal, I arguably created the most important document I created throughout this unit which
was the production schedule. This was extremely helpful in allowing me to envision and
understand what I needed to do and when it needed to be done by. The production schedule was
successful in guiding me throughout my unit and allowing me to tick off what I had done. Once I
had done all of this and had settled on an idea, I searched for a film festival that I could submit my
short film to. I stumbled across the ‘London Short Film Festival.’ They had no specific requirements
that would be an obstacle for me, submitters were able to create any genre of films but one rule
that was mentioned was, films had to be 45 minutes or under. It seemed like the perfect
competition for me to enter as it went hand in hand for what I was looking for, so I decided to enter
into that. There were no other requirements stated by the competition holders, but my course had
some rules I had to follow which were: no nudity, no foul language and nothing explicit. Overall, this
was all achievable work for me as there weren’t too many boundaries, so I was able to create what I
had in mind. By the end of all the research I conducted, my final idea had come to works. I had a
basis of an idea that I could build on. I knew that my production would be based in an alternate
universe where phones are banned, and I knew it’d include detectives. I had a couple choices on
how to end my production due to primary research suggestions, but I was still deciding what to
pick. Overall, all the research conducted throughout the previous section was extremely
successful and necessary to help me build up my idea.

After I had done all my context and idea generation, it was time to do my pitch. Although the pitch
seemed worthless and helpless to complete, I got it done anyways and to my surprise, it gave me a
great couple of ideas and problems to think about. For example, one person mentioned the
problem of using copyright music, this reminded me to keep in mind to not use copyrighted music,
so it doesn’t become an issue later on during the process. All of the suggested improvements and
help I received from my pitch are shown below.

Overall, the pitch was very successful in allowing me to understand a bit more about my
production. I believe the pitch was necessary to allow me to better understand what my idea was
and to confront the problems I may face throughout the process.
After completing my pitch and all the work that needed to be done, I moved onto my research and
problem solving. The first and most useful thing that I done was I created a research plan. This was
an extremely helpful plan that I created as it allowed me to tick off the work that needed to be done
as I went along. The research plan was extremely successful and thankfully worked in my favour in
helping me get a good enough understanding of what needs to be done. Once I completed my
research plan, I carried out a form questionnaire to find out more about what my target audience
would want and how they’d prefer certain aspects of the film to play out. The form research was
extremely helpful and successful in allowing me to develop my idea and to also get a stronger
understanding of who my target audience is. For example, one thing I realised was the majority of
my audience was around 18/19 and majority of them like the idea of a mystery/adventure. The
forms were also extremely helpful in allowing me to understand how viewers would prefer my
production storyline to the end. Furthermore, it also helped me with my research, giving me
potential directors of movies that it would be beneficial for me to research. Anyways, after the
forms, I moved on to the focus groups. I conducted a focus group as I believed it’d be helpful for me
to get to ask my audience questions in person. As expected, it was extremely helpful. It allowed me
to understand a lot more about my target audience, including their preferences in terms of movies
and what specifically stood out for them in each movie. This was extremely helpful and beneficial
for me to know as it allowed me to acknowledge what points I can steal, alter and add into my own
production with my own twist to it to ensure my target audience enjoy my production. For example,
one preference that came up in my focus group was one person liked ‘Stranger Things’ due to the
bond the characters had in it. This is something that I implemented into my own production,
between the characters of ‘Billy’ and ‘Terry’. Another idea that someone mentioned was how they
liked ‘Batman’ due to the hidden identity of the criminal. This is also something that I decided to
implement into my own production, ensuring that ‘Billy’ in my production was masked up, having a
hidden identity. I believe the focus group was completely necessary and helpful in allowing me to
ensure I met the needs of my target audience. It also allowed me to develop my idea to something
more in depth. Continuing, I then went on to do my secondary research. I started off with my
character analysis, starting off with the ‘detective’ character. For me to be completely honest,
before completing this section I thought it was slightly useless until I completed it. Upon
completion, I came to realise that this section was vital for me to do and absolutely necessary!
Before completing, I thought things like ‘I already know what detective is’ and ‘what more do I need
to know about detective’s’ but after conducting the research that I did, I came to realised the word
‘detective’ is a lot broader than I thought.
As shown above, there’s a whole bunch of different detectives you can get. Each sector of
detectives follow different rules, has different targets and aims and also acts, speaks and dresses
differently. Once I researched a lot more in depth, I came to realise that the detective that I will
have in my production is going to be a ‘narcotic undercover detective’. A narcotic detective is a
police officer tasked with pursuing drug related crimes. Obviously, this isn’t exactly what the role of
the detective in my production has but it’s the closest I could find and most similar. This section
also allowed me to consider the social impact of a detective. Moving on from this character, I
moved onto the criminals. Now, with the criminal's section, it was a bit simpler for me as I already
had a rough gist of what kind of criminals there are. An aspect I researched that came into handy
during the filming and planning process was the character image analysis. It allowed me to
understand the kind of dress the characters in the successful production wear.
Overall, the character analysis secondary research I done was extremely helpful in allowing me to
understand how each character will be portrayed. I believe this section of the process was
completely necessary to allow me to understand how I should present and display my characters.
Once researched, I realised that the majority of clothing worn by characters in similar kinds of
movies wear blacked out, casual kind of clothing. As shown below, I tried my hardest to take hints
of the clothing from the more successful films based on a similar genre to ensure the short film I
produce doesn’t look odd or out of place.
I believe that I successfully researched and planned the characters outfits out for filming
day to ensure their character background and lifestyle is clearly presented. This also
worked successfully in my final production film, allowing me to be able to present all the
key points about the character through the outfits clearly.

After the character analysis, I moved onto the film analysis. I started off by analysing a film
that has a hint of my genre called ‘The Purge’. I looked at every aspect that builds up the
film including the storyline, the camera angles, the lighting, the clothing, the acting, the
colour grading and even the surroundings / set of the characters. I believe everything in the
film was very well put together hence why I thought it’d be great for me to look at for
inspiration and analysis. Looking back, The Purge was a great film for me to analyse as it
allowed me to understand how they built up their production and it allowed me to
understand what I can take for inspiration. After completing the analysis for ‘The Purge’, I
moved on to analysing a movie called ‘Kingsman’. This movie was extremely helpful in
allowing me to understand how big producers portray the mystery element of their
production. From the ‘Kingsman’ movie, I learnt a lot including how I could mix the genres
of mystery and thrill, the different camera angles they used, the lighting, the editing style
etc. Although these couple of techniques mentioned may seem typical, they were
significantly helpful due to my production having two genres coming together. The video
analysis was extremely successful in allowing me to understand how I could present my
storyline to my characters through the filming, editing and other techniques but it had its
negatives. The video analysis didn’t quite help me develop my storyline or idea so in that
sense it was a bit useless.
After completing my video analysis, I moved on to my topic research. To start off, I researched into
smuggling. I wanted to know everything there was to know to ensure I can present the idea of
smuggling in the clearest way in my production. At this point, I didn’t quite know if I should show
the product in my production being smuggled so I researched everything in depth so I can
understand what would work best. The topic research based on smuggling was unexpectedly
helpful. It allowed me to develop my idea and to get a good understanding of how these criminals
smuggle it, giving me ideas on how I can present it in my own production. For example, one thing I
learnt about how I could present the product being smuggled in, is through the use of cars. Whilst
researching, I stumbled across a video from a different movie where they were attaching a product
they were selling in car tyres, under panels etc. I realised this could be a great idea of smuggling
that I can use if I decide to include the product getting smuggled in my production. This research I
conducted was extremely successful as it even allowed me to start thinking and researching about
the why’s. For example, one thing I couldn’t quite wrap my head around was ‘why do people break
the law by smuggling’ and thanks to my research, I got the answer. I came to realise that the
majority of people do it to make money, some people do it for personal gain and some do it due to
force by other criminals they may owe. This one answered question I got allowed me to critically
think about how I could implement one of these reasonings in my own production. Anyways, after I
finished researching smuggling, I moved onto researching selling. This was extremely successful in
allowing me to stop and genuinely think about why criminals do what they do and how they do it.
For example, thanks to the research I conducted I realised that selling is a bit different when it
comes to criminals. They may do it to make more money, but some do it due to their upbringing,
lack of opportunities at a young age, family struggles etc. I also researched into the criminals that
sell themselves, how they tend to keep a low profile, hide work from the public and even how
criminals don’t use the same routes every day to minimise risks and chances of getting caught.
After I done this, I moved onto writing a paragraph for each of my chosen genres. To be completely
honest, this bit was a bit useless. I don’t think it really helped me much other than allowing me to
map out my genre ideas and thoughts. Overall, the topic research that I done was significantly
helpful in allowing me to develop my idea and to also get a better understanding of the characters
and their actions in my production. After I completed this section, I decided to move on to
terminology research. I done this as the terminology used in the typical movies in my genres are
slightly different and filled with a bit more slang. The terminology research was quite helpful in
allowing me to understand what different words meant and how i could use them in my production.
I feel like this section of work saved my production, ensuring everything flowed smoothly and
nothing sounded odd or out of place. After I completed this, I went on to do my test shoots. Now,
these were absolutely necessary. I believed they helped me envision and master the skill before
going and doing it for my actual final short film. It allowed me to understand how the technique is
done and what effect it has on the rest of the film and the audience.

For example, one test shoot I carried out was this powerful colour grading. This kind of colour
screams power, heat and gives off this narcotic kind of vibe. As shown below, I believe the colour
grade I trialled in my test shoot was successfully implemented into my final production film. It
worked hand in hand with the theme of my production and the kind of message I wanted to get
across.

Another technique I tried to practice in my test shoot was a POV shot. I believed this kind of shot
would successfully allow me to present the idea of power and authority the group had in my
production, but I didn’t want to add it in if it didn’t flow with the theme of my production. It was
successful in my final production film, and it flowed well with the rest of the footage so overall, this
test shoot was successful and paid off as shown below.
As shown above, this is another test shoot that I trialled, but this one wasn’t as successful.
As smoothly as the test shoot went and looked, I couldn’t quite find a section in my final
production to add this technique into, especially as I had plans to add other angles and
shots that would work better, in terms of presenting the storyline. Nevertheless, this
technique was a good test shoot and it allowed me to understand how to create a camera
monitor kind of shot.
After my test shoots, I went on to research my characters. I wanted to research into how I
could present my characters in the film, how they would speak, act etc. This mind map
was successful in allowing me to achieve that, it allowed me to understand the
characteristics of my characters. In the long run, this still came in handy. Even during the
planning process, this was a good document to look at to quickly get a rough idea of how I
want the characters to be. Although it was just a rough mind map mockup based on my
characters, it was extremely helpful. After completing this, I went on to research what
platforms I would upload my final production on. This bit of research was successful in
letting me understand where my production would perform the best on. It allowed me to
balance out all the options. In the end, I decided to upload the production onto YouTube
due to their extensive number of daily viewers. In this section, I also researched where I
would promote my production. I decided to use Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to
promote my production as that’s where the audience spends most of their time anyway.
Overall, this research was helpful in allowing me to better understand the platforms and
their specific benefits. After this, I went on to research my target audience. I wanted to get
a better understanding of who would be watching my production and what they would
enjoy. This section was helpful in allowing me to get a better understanding of who my
target audience is, what they enjoy and to also acknowledge how in demand my genre of
movies are.

Upon completion of the previous work, it was finally time to move on to the planning of my
production. I started off with making the production schedule. The schedule for me
personally was a genuine life saver. It allowed me to understand and complete tasks that I
set, like filming, and ensure I don’t fall behind or let someone down. The production
schedule was an honest success that extremely helped me out. I then moved on to my
storyboard. This was a simple task that I had to complete as I knew how I wanted my
production to look. Nevertheless, my storyboard was helpful when it came to filming as it
allowed me to ensure that all my filming was done. It also allowed me to understand how
my production would look beforehand. After completing my storyboard, I went on to do my
crew list. I done this as I believed that was the next thing to do that made the most logical
sense. Ensuring I knew who my actors were allowed me to envision my production even
better. Anyways, after this, I completed my clearances and confirmations, which was
simple and useful. Completing this task gave me the stability to one hundred percent focus
on the other tasks, giving me the comfortability knowing the actors had confirmed they
were available. Once I had my chosen actors and had confirmed they were available, I
carried out auditions to ensure they met the requirements I had set myself based on what
kind of characters I had in mind for my production. Thankfully I carried out auditions as
although all the actors I chose to act in my production were suitable for the role, the
auditions allowed me to understand which actors may be a bit more difficult to work with
for whatever reason. This helped me understand and acknowledge the fact that I’ll have to

help the actors that may struggle with certain aspects of the role. This meant that I may
have to be more in-depth with explaining to them what their role is, my requirements etc.
After this, I completed my location recce’s, props list and equipment list. For me
personally, I found the location recce’s to be quite useless, I didn’t really see a need for
them other than allowing me to confirm where I’m filming and possibly if I need
permission, which I didn’t. The props list was more helpful than I thought. Whilst creating
it, I thought of it as useless but when filming day came, the one thing I looked back to was
the props list. It helped me tick off what prop I needed and when. The equipment, similarly
to the props list, seemed useless whilst being created but when it came to filming week, I
genuinely believe without the equipment and props list, I possibly would have left behind
important bits for the production. Those two documents were extremely successful in
allowing me to be prepared. After this, I created a contingency plan which was really useful
as it allowed me to stop and think about problems and how I could fix them. Funnily
enough, whilst filming, a problem I faced was my camera battery dying but thankfully I had
brought spare. Lastly, I created a sound table which was also helpful. The sound table
allowed me to also tick off as I go and make sure I don’t leave anything behind.

I then got to filming. To be honest, as much as I was dreading filming, it wasn’t as bad as I
thought. With all the correct research and planning done, the filming was fairly simple and
straightforward; all I had to do was follow the documents and schedules I made. During the
filming week, I also had to act in other people’s productions, so it was all a bit hectic, but I
got it done. I filmed my production and acted in other productions to the best of my
abilities. One problem I faced with filming was that the scene I wanted to film looked a bit
dodgy, especially because we were in a residential area. Due to this problem, we had to
move location to a empty street opposite the residential area that had no one there.
Thankfully for me, that scene worked better than I could have imagined. There were a
couple more problems, but I only realised those during editing week.

Finally, it was time to edit, the week we piece our productions together. This week was
rather relaxed compared to the last couple. This week went rather successfully. I got my
editing done in time, the majority of the test shoots looked and fit perfectly with my
production, and I had an overall entertaining production. There were some issues I came to
realise. One problem was, the dialogue of my production had lots of wind as the
background noise. This was something that I tried to tackle but it clearly didn’t work. I
expected wind to ruin my dialogue / sound, so I got a lav mic but somehow the audio was
still ruined. This was an irritating issue to face, as I already knew wind would be an issue
and I tried to tackle it, but it didn’t work as expected.

As shown above, sound quality was a huge problem in my production with half the viewers
of the screening production we conducted saying the sound quality was bad.

Another problem I faced during editing was I realised I hadn’t filmed a 5 second clip that I
wanted to include to my production. Although this was an insignificant clip that wouldn’t
have made too much of a difference, it would have been great to have in. Due to not
effecting the storyline, I decided not to film it as an improvement.

Whilst editing, I also created a rough editing to show the before and after. Once I had
edited my production and uploaded it, it was time to screen them. We got put into groups
where we would all play our productions, and we would give advice to each other based on
how we could improve. This was helpful as it allowed me to acknowledge what people
didn’t like, allowing me to understand what I can do better next time. It also made me
realise what was a success.

For example, one thing I can say for certain is that my production was entertaining, and the
storyline was crystal clear. Everyone that I questioned, based on my production,
understood and enjoyed the short film that I filmed, edited and uploaded. Now, one
question I wanted to know was ‘where could I have improved’.

As shown above, I got some helpful feedback that allowed me to understand where I want
wrong and what I should have done to make this a better production. I ensured that I took
into consideration all the feedback I received and to not overlook any of the feedback. I
believe without feedback, you can never learn and develop your skills, so I ensured I took
the feedback I received into heavy consideration. After we did our research, I had to go and
make the improvements that I could. For example, one repetitive issue people kept on
complaining about was the audio quality, so I went into premiere pro and added a
‘parametric EQ’ effect to the audio which was supposedly meant to suppress the noise of
the wind. From my judgement, it didn’t really do too much. Another suggestion I got was
‘add music where there are long silences’ which is exactly what I did. For example, if you
go to my first production uploaded there were a couple silences that some people disliked.
Due to this problem, I went and added some music over some of them. For some of them, I
left the silences as I believe the silence in the production is more powerful than any music.
After I completed my improvements, I created social media posts and short videos for the
promotion of my production which would go on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

How well do you think you have done?

To be honest, I believe I have done extremely well. My production was a success, from start
to end. All the results I have gathered from my target audience indicate towards a
successful production. From starting my idea from pretty much nothing to a whole
production is just insane for me to think about.

As shown above, it’s really good for me to see that everyone that watched my production
actually enjoyed what they watched and didn’t just gawp at the screen or click off. I’m also
proud to know that people actually understood the storyline I wanted to get across. This
means that all the planning and pre-production work I did beforehand was successful and
paid off.
Another thing I want to mention is the image above, the fact that the majority of people that
watched my production believe that my film fits the target audience. This is genuinely great
news to hear as it allows me to understand the fact that, to improve I should’ve focused
more on execution, how I would have eliminated wind noises etc.

Do you believe you followed the guidelines of the competition well?

Yes, I believe I have successfully followed the guidelines of the competition. The one and
only kind of rule we had to follow was to ensure the production time didn’t exceed 45
minutes, which mine didn’t. I also stuck to the guidelines set to my course including no
foul language, nudity etc. My production was definitely a success from that angle,
throughout my production process, I ensured I kept in mind my chosen competition rules
and the college guidelines set.

How well do you believe your production followed the conventions of your genre /
style?

I believe my production follows the conventions of my chosen genres. To ensure it does,

whilst creating my production storyline and documents, I referred back to my research and
I ensured I had a good bit of understanding of my chosen genres. I have done this to ensure
I have a good enough production that actually has the capacity to meet the needs of the
target audience. I believe it has paid off as the majority of the people I sent my production
off to actually did enjoy it and understood what they saw.

Do you believe you did your topics justice?

Yes, for sure. I believe I have definitely done my topics justice! I combined two genres
together and got all the people that viewed my production saying they enjoyed it and
understood the storyline. I do believe I could have done a bit better if the audio was up to
scratch but I tried my hardest to ensure I got the best quality audio, but I guess the wind
was too loud that day.

Do you think you developed your characters to suit your story?

Yes, my characters were the main focus of the show so, in reality, I had no choice. The
characters had to have an interesting and mysterious enough storyline to keep viewers
entertained throughout the film, which they were. I firmly believe the characters of Billy and
Terry had been built up to a good enough standard, enough for people to enjoy watching
the production. The Billy and Terry characters were also built up good enough to actually fit
in with the storyline so yes, they were a huge success.

Left is Terry, right is Billy

For the character of Joe (the customer), there was room for improvement in terms of
development although it wasn’t quite needed. If the character of Joe’s storyline was built
up better, maybe my production would have been even more entertaining than it is. As
shown below, someone suggested that the woods scene should have had more around it
to build up tension. I absolutely believe that if I built up an actual developed storyline for
the character of Joe, the woods scene would’ve been a lot better. Nevertheless, this was a
great learning curve on which I will take onboard all the feedback received.
 Problems
you faced?

A problem I
faced
during research was finding specific productions that were based on my
genres. Due to picking more than one genre and combining them both, it was a lot harder
for me to find a production with both the genres in them. In the end, I decided to analyse
two separate movies that had a slight hint of both genres in each, I done this as i believed
this would be the most beneficial. When it comes to practical work like filming, problems
are unavoidable as there’s some things you can’t control. For example, weather. This was
a huge problem for me that cost me my productions audio. Regardless of how much I
planned to film on a sunny and less windy day, I didn’t have a choice but to film on a windy
day. Also, regardless of how much I tried to fix the problem of wind by using a lav mic,
somehow the wind was still really bad in my production. Another problem I faced was I
didn’t get to film one of the scenes that i wanted in my final film. Now, this could have been
due to under planning (although I did plan as much as possible), but I believe it was due to
all the pressure I was put under. The fear of not completing my filming in time got me
slightly panicked, which would have been the problem.

Do you feel you have developed your skills?

I have definitely developed my skills. Firstly, my stress tolerance and management levels
have increased and bettered. Before this final production I was able to work under
pressure, but not like this. This felt like I was going one hundred miles per hour and
thankfully, I had come out of the tunnel with a high quality, entertaining production. This
was a great way for me to prove to myself my capabilities and what i can achieve,
especially under pressure and under time constraints. Another skill I feel like I have
developed is my directing skills. Where in the previous productions when I was directing, it
wasn’t as serious as this. Everyone and everything was at lower quality, in previous
productions it was more about meeting targets and having fun, whereas for this
production, it felt a lot more serious, everyone was dedicated to completing the task at
hand, which we did. This seemed like a great opportunity for me to develop my skills in
terms of directing and ensuring everyone on set was there to work and work only. The
developing process was all a journey, for example, I didn’t come into the unit thinking that
I’m going to develop my stress tolerance skills, but once I was placed in that situation, I
had no choice but to perform. Overall, I believe I have successfully developed my skills
thanks to this unit, and I have learnt a lot.

What would you do differently next time?

For this course, this was my final production, but I am planning to go and do an
apprenticeship in media. I want to develop my camera and tripod skills and understand
how certain shots are filmed and brought to life. Before this, I will be taking a gap year so
during that time, I am aiming to learn a lot more about camerawork, develop my skills and
gain some experience. For this specific unit, If I was able to redo everything, one change I
would make is I would double plan for failures. For example, for my audio, I would have
had the lav mic for backup, but I also would have gotten another backup in case the lav mic
doesn’t do the job. I would also make my storyline on characters a lot more detailed and in
depth. I would allow the storyline of the character Joe to play out a lot more than it did in
my current production. I believe the characters in my production didn’t quite get an
introduction to the audience, they kind of got thrown into the production but regardless,
the audience still understood which is what matters the most. This unit has taught me the
significance of planning. Whilst completing certain pre-production pieces, i thought they
were useless but it’s only after they were created that I realised that they were absolutely
necessary. If I had the chance to redo this unit, one thing I would ensure I don’t do is
overlook any bit of work.

To conclude, I am extremely proud of the production and work I have created. No matter
how difficult or tedious a task was, I ensured I persevered and pushed through any
challenges. Throughout my final major production, I have gained a lot of new skills that I
wouldn’t have learnt anywhere else. This course was a great experience and allowed me to
expand and develop on a lot of things. It also allowed me to step out of my comfort zone
and try out new things. This project in particular has allowed me to challenge myself and
learn new skills.