Evaluation for Final Major Project

My short film follows the story of a runner who falls over and starts to imagine giants, because he is working on the set of a giant film.  The main theme behind the project is perspective, and the genre is comedic drama.  I chose this project specifically because I have never used perspective in my films before, and I thought I could also research camera settings and further refine my After Effects abilities.

When I started this project I intended to include perspective shots, shadow puppets, noir and green screen effects to create a short film. This idea was going to be very diverse and very complicated to make, where when I presented my idea to the lecturers, they suggested I should minimise the scale of my project to get one of the three ideas polished and its potential maximised.
"Knowing you, I think you should go with one idea and just go for it." "I think the narrative works quite well, and I think with the perspective there is a lot of potential for experimentation" (Lecturers quotes from presentation)

Well I decided I would settle for the perspective theme and I also decided the best way of linking this together was involving a giant and incorporating a film runner frustrated with their job. I decided that the best way to portray this story was to tell the story in a simplistic way because in my past projects the story was very difficult to understand what was happening. I researched a number of films that used perspective. e.g. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and I went for a shot that was more practical and with less moving parts, more in line with what Harry Potter did with Hagrid rather than Lord of the Rings where they gave the perspective on a larger scale.

I tried a number of different techniques which I presented in test footage to experiment with how perspective should be used in my film. I did one experiment with two people sat at a table, one of whom was closer to the camera and one who was further away, with the front of the table slightly raised and this gave the illusion that the person closer to the camera was larger than the person in the background. I ended up not using a table and two characters in my final film because there is one character and if I bought in another character i would have to rewrite the story and it would confuse things - there was no real place for it. I think looking at my project proposals and statement of intent that I included the elements that I intended to.

Below is my focus group 

"Forced perspective was certainly the best part and it would benefit if it had more of it"

"I think the green screen effect was very impressive but would work on matching the hand to the background"
Quotes above are from the focus group.

If I had the opportunity I would ask more open questions to expand the range of answers, which would enable me to obtain more useful feedback. I ensured that I included a variety of different demographics to receive the most diverse feedback. However, to improve upon this I would ask a wider number of people to participate.

Following my test footage of the giant stomping across the screen chasing the runner, I decided to be behind the camera for the finished shot because it was to difficult to line everything up, get all the camera setting right and to check focus and to see if my stomping was in line with the runner in the background, I also decided to film it on a slight slope with the camera slightly tilted up, looking up the slope and decided to shoot in a location with longer grass where this would hide the misalignment problems.

I initially considered with the giants hand picking up the runner to do this as a perspective shot but quickly decided that it would be very difficult to line this up and get the proportion right and also it would be impossible to get the runner on the inside of the hand when the hand closes I decided to do this in green screen effects I experimented with several different edits with the size of the hand, the lighting on the hand and the way the hand closes all differing slightly between each edit. I asked several different lecturers on their opinion of the edit and what I could improve upon. the difficult thing was that when I had the feedback and they recommended I change something, I had to re-edit the whole sequence on Adobe After Effects because there were multiple layers of the same image which all had to be the same to work, where if I'd changed one of the layers I'd have had to change all of the layers, whereas it would be easier to start from scratch. For example I had to change the brightness of the hand and I separated the fingers of the hand so that when the hand closes the fingers overlap on the outside of the character.

The biggest problem I have with my film is that there is not enough perspective shots and obscure camera angles which in my original vision was going to be most of the film. I did plan to incorporate more perspective shots after I'd filmed the majority of my film but there was simply too many factors that prevented me from doing so such as time, continuity with costume, lighting and surroundings. It also didn't fit with the story because to film a scene of the film that he was a runner for, this wouldn't have involved the main character because he was not the actor on the set, the film within the film  would have been difficult to film indoors because it would involve figures which need a wide area to get the perspective right and outside would have required more reshoots from Tobie walking out of the studio.


Five strengths:
1. The one perspective shot I have included: it lines up well and from the feedback of the people I've shown it to, they say, "how did you do that?  Did you do that on After Effects."  I didn't use any After Effects, so its a very effective in-camera technique that fits with the story and looks very effective.


2. The scene when the giant picks up the runner: works quite well because Toby is in the inside of the hand and it closes.  When the hand closes and lifts him away, he is no longer in shot.  I also like that I have included a shadow of the hand.

3. I believe that one of the strengths is the story line, as it makes sense without further explanation from me.  It is very simplistic but it is easier for the viewer to follow and is very visual, unlike previous films I have made.  The hint to what the story could be sounds like a good idea but it is very hard to follow if you're watching it without any background information.

4. The music shifts to what is happening on screen.  This is effective because it sets the scene and adds to the lighthearted comedy.  For example, when Toby the runner, was walking down the corridor, I had some jolly piano music and then when he's falling, I've added a record screech.  This helps with the sudden stop of music and also makes it more funny.

5. I think a big strength to my film was the casting of the runner (Toby). He was a runner and he is the right age and because the story was that he had been a runner for five years, if I had cast a student it wouldn't have worked.  Toby was very helpful to work with because there were certain things in the film that needed a lot of over-exaggeration of body language: because when there's little speech, this helps the audience know what he is thinking and what he is feeling, for example when he falls over and then gets back up, and when he gets chased by the giant.

Five weaknesses:
1.  One weakness was the shadow in the green screen After Effects shot: if I had another chance to tweak it further, I would increase the opacity of the shadow to make it more in line with the opacity of the shadows that were really there.



2.
I think the film is quite short and could have benefitted from including my planned third act, which I had to scrap due to filming issues.  I had planned on filming the third act when the runner is on a giant's bookshelf.  I filmed the green screen shot but he had a different t-shirt on and so the continuity would have been out.  It would also have been very difficult to match up the speeds of him pushing the giant box of tea, because the original idea was that he woke up next to the giant box of tea bags.  The he pushed the box off the shelf and then he fell off the shelf himself, which would have triggered him to wake up.

3. The story was a strength, but in my view it is also a weakness, because it limited the perspective shots and effects I could use.  For example, to include more perspective shots within the film, I also considered filming a scene with the giant on a ladder, with a camera on his shoulder looking down.   But this wouldn't make sense with the story because he was being chased, and also because it wouldn't be in proportion with the giant's hand and giant's feet scene.  The only perspective shot from my research that I would be able to replicate in my film was the giant's shoes stomping in the foreground, with Toby running in the background and this is the only shot type within perspective that is moving, not static.  For example, I did some test shots of a giant and a human sat at a table, and this doesn't fit with the storyline.

4.  The first shot with Toby walking towards the camera and then falling down: this was very difficult to get in focus because I had a tripod on wheels and was pulling it.  The speed of the camera on tripod getting pulled and of Toby walking was very difficult to match up.  I focused it when he was close to the camera, so when he starts off in the distance, the focus was quite soft; he walks into focus.  If I had gone the same speed that Toby was walking, it would have been shaky because if I pulled it along too fast, the carpet was uneven.  I wanted to re-film this, but, because it was difficult to have Toby fall over realistically, I ended up keeping this take as I was happy with the acting, but had to compromise on the focus.  I tried it with autofocus, but it was when Toby fell over, towards the camera, it would throw the focus out.

5. One of the main issues I have with the film is the pacing because the first act is roughly half of the total duration of the short film. I tried to amend this by inserting a narration to help the audience gain an insight into the main characters thoughts and attitude to his job. This lessens the boring task of going to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and keeps the audience engaged. However, if I had paced the film better the tipping point would come sooner. The conclusion could have been extended slightly for when he stands up and heads to the kitchen, in a Groundhog Day(1993) style. I did try to include this idea, when I was reviewing my editing but unfortunately the continuity would have been compromised and time constraints restricted this.

Summary

Having now completed the project I would change a number of things in relation to how I managed my time constraints, as I initially planned a more ambitious project, which therefore resulted in me focusing on one of the three ideas. With future projects I would primarily focus on the one theme I have chosen, allowing me to maintain focus, without having to rewrite the majority of my first assignment, avoiding conflicting direction.
However, I very much like the perspective shot I have incorporated into my finished film, as it has helped me to gain new techniques which I will use in future films. The research has helped provide me with additional knowledge, which I didn't have before.