1. CallumWallace – Final MajorProjectEvaluation
For my final major project I decided to make the opening to a film with the genre being a
crime thriller. In this evaluation I will talk about: the technical quality of my final product,
the production skills have I used, how closely my final product matched my original
intentions, how I used time management and problem solving, how I reached my target
audience and finally a conclusion on how I would tackle this project if I were to do it again.
Technical quality of final product
Firstly the technical quality of my final product. The footage I captured was using a CANON
DSLR camera and was filmed in HD. The settings used when recording were 720p, 24 frames
a second. I chose these settings by mistake on my first recording session and then had to
stick to them so the clips all looked the same. In the end I think my footage came out pretty
good. When recording I also used a voice recorder to capture sound which attached to the
camera and had a boom connected to it. This picked up high quality audio and even though
there isn’t any speech in my opening, there is exterior sound, such as birds and phones
ringing which sound really clear. When it came to editing I made decisions which weren’t
originally planned, such as a title credits scene and putting my footage in black and white. I
chose to do this because I felt my footage’s colour was kind of its downfall and it looked
stronger and artier in black and white. I also took inspiration from the TV series ‘Better Call
Saul’ where any scene that is set in the past has a clear difference in colour in most cases it
being black and white and as seen after my black and white scene and the opening credits,
colour comes back when we enter present day. I made the title credits sequence because
my favourite film openings all seemed to have this and I decided to make mine a homage to
Saul Bass who was famous for his title sequences and he was the man who completed the
title sequence on my favourite film ‘Goodfellas’, I completed the title sequence in Adobe
After Effects, I had to pay a lot of detail to the timings of each sentence going across the
screen and when they came in and out so they looked smooth and clean. I spent I think 2
and a half lessons perfecting the title sequence. I also had to import some royalty free music
behind the clips to make it feel more atmospheric, I had to search online for the right kind of
music once I did that, I had to control the volume at each specific point, to make sure it
sounded smooth. I also had to sync all of the footage and audio together because they were
recorded on two different audio tracks. In the composition I made sure that each
component was on for just the right amount of time and made sure the overall length of my
project was a suitable length for a film opening.
Production skills
Next the production skills I have learnt are mainly making credits in Adobe After Effects, I
had never done this before and I had to experiment to learn how to make them. I learnt to
2. CallumWallace – Final MajorProjectEvaluation
how to use it pretty fast and got a credit sequence I was happy with relatively fast. I also had
to time each aspect and make sure every frame looked smooth. I also believe I developed
my editing skills in premiere when making my project when placing clips together, adding
music, syncing audio etc. Another aspect I believe I have developed is camera usage, mainly
framing shots, I think I have improved on the framing of my shots since my last camera
based project.
How closely my final product matches my original intentions
My project is quite different to what I originally intended. I originally intended for my
project to be more of a story and dialogue driven project. But in the end with acting talent
lacking I decided to do more of an ambiguous opening which had no speech in it. I also had
limitations with extras and people to record for me if I was to feature in the project so in the
end I just had to settle with me and my girlfriend doing two recordings and I had to change
the plot a little bit but still kept the underlying story there. I also intended there to be
smaller aspects which I removed, such as voiceover and freeze frames, I removed these
aspects because I felt my project looked better being simpler and I felt less was more in the
case of my project. If I had the resources available to achieve my project I feel it would have
been completely different; such as the length of the project, the style of the project, the
story featured in the project etc.
Time management and problem solving
During the production of my project I kept a schedule to keep track of what I had to do. I
completed this on the Monday of every week. I also completed a production diary to remind
me what I had done each week and what I needed to do the week after, this helped me stay
on track with my tasks.
When I completed the project I encountered practical constraints such as; as stated before
not having enough people to complete the scenes I wanted to do which needed a fair few
actors and someone behind the camera if I was to be featured. So with just me and my
girlfriend working on it the project turned smaller and featured no dialogue. I also
encountered the problem of suitable locations, I had to change/ remove scenes because I
was unable to find suitable locations. I overcame by changing the feel of my project and
making it a lot smaller. Another practical problem I encountered was on my first recording I
set the camera settings wrong but after the day of recording I had to complete my project in
the settings I accidentally had that day.
3. CallumWallace – Final MajorProjectEvaluation
Conclusion
If I were to complete my project again, I think I would plan the project with my limitations in
mind and try to be a little bit less ambitious when thinking of ideas for my project. I would of
also planned more when it came to people who were helping out with my project, as I was
in a group by myself and everyone else was completing their own projects it was hard to
find people who have the time and I would also take into consideration more the location of
my shoots and try to find more dynamic spaces.
Another thing I would do if this project was handed to me again was stay on top of planning
and organising as at some points I fell a little behind causing me to get stressed with what I
had to do and if I had been more rigorous with my planning that wouldn’t have happened.
Overall even though I made these mistakes I still think my final product turned out okay, I’m
still not 100% happy with it but from the results on my survey it seemed my audience
enjoyed it.
Reaching my target audience (See Separate Document Below)
