Project Evaluation

Under this section I will critically evaluate my final media project against agreed requirements and parameters.

Evaluation

FMP

Introduce the project in your words
List five strengths and weaknesses in your final design
Was there a theme for the design idea or a question that that you were trying to explore? Can you reference any influences - art movement, filmmaker, artist, campaign etc.
What experiments and exploration did you do ( what happened). How did it affect development of your project?
Find a similar type of media product ( film, radio podcast, magazine, photographs etc) - place it next to your own - what comparison / difference can you identify?
What were the key areas of development in this project? use your daily reflections to help you with this.
Review your proposal - did you managed to complete everything you set out to achieve?
What was the feedback from your tutors and your target audience / peers like. How you could make your project better.

My FMP is a short story called 'Lost Letters' it’s a light-hearted romance between two young adults who were past pen pals that get in touch again, the short film is inspired by Wes-Anderson with his stylistic approach being expressed through the various shot types I have used that are typical in his own movies. I also ponder the question of how colour can be expressed through film as it plays a big role in the telling of a story, throughout my short film you can see elements of this through the clothing worn and even growing RED on the calendar and letters. The two characters begin to write letters back and forth ''falling in love'' until one day a letter never arrives, we then learn that the letter was returned and instead of writing another letter they decide to finally meet. The short film lasts just over 5 minutes long excluding the end credits with an upbeat feel throughout to pair with the steady music.

Some strengths of my project were my organisational skills that helped me to plan efficiently ensuring everything was noted down that needed to get done, this then made filming run smoothly with everything in place and happened to only take one day leaving more time to edit and to go over my website. I also believe that due to my forward thinking I was able to plan ahead specific props and costume design to focus in on the meaning of colour through my short film. Another strength following on from this was my colour grading skills within editing, from further research I was able to gain a better understanding on how to edit colour on avid; my short film's colours and shadows were resultantly brightened bringing them out from the screen, giving it an overall sunny appearance. Outlining another strength would have to be the sound effects, although from a sound library and not my original sound they lined up well to the actions taking place and fitted to what sound that would be originally made. Upon discussing my short film with my peers, I have outlined an additional strength that being that my short film flowed as a result it was uncomplicated and an easy watch, with the correct props in place along with a sensibly paced music nothing was rushed. For my short film I was inspired by Wes-Anderson I do believe that I was successful in doing so with many aesthetic frames within the shot types this being another strength as it gave the film a specific theme that being light-hearted, not over complicated, the music chosen I believe supported the Wes-Anderson vibe I wanted the short film to give off.

Some weaknesses of my short film are the audio, specifically the dialogue of the letters; although there is no background noise the character charlottes letters are very quit and even mumbled as a result of this you slightly struggle to hear them when they are reading out the letter's, I did try to fix this by turning the volume up to the max however, next time I would need the actor to speak louder when recording. Another weakness of my short film is the lighting in some of the clips towards the end I was filming in an area with very little natural light which made the clips darker than the rest of the scenes, details of the character can even be struggled to see. When editing I did not realise I would have to cut out so much footage therefor in the stop-motion of the calendar scene the camera can be seen to move around, making the footage very jar opposing to the satisfying look it’s supposed to give, I believe this is another weaker part of my film and is something I would of done differently if I knew I was going to edit in this way. Following on from this, other scenes in my short film the camera can be seen to move around slightly and even be at an angle, the weakness being the camera set up as it makes the film look marginally messy in some scenes specifically the letter box, due to this would need to be redone if there had been time to do so. The camera also goes out of focus in the last scene where the character charlotte writes a letter, the camera also struggles to go back into focus when the calendar is crossed off although not super noticeable this could have been avoided by zooming the camera out slightly; this would have then meant the audience could see the detail on the calendar and is therefore a weak attention to detail on my part.

The theme of my short film was a romance I specifically wanted it to be light-hearted and nothing dramatic to do so I took inspiration from Wes-Anderson's stylistic approach in the way he sets up a scene and the placement of his camera, his movies my favourite being The Darjeeling Limited but for my short film I watched Moonrise Kingdom another one I enjoy. His stylistic approach helped me to explore the question of how can colour convey meaning in a short film? The reason I was drawn to this question was firstly it was allowed for a lot of experimentation in the process of filming and editing having only made a short film once I wanted to challenge myself. Through the use of props and costume design I was able to do so matching the colours to the mood I was trying to represent, using a mixture of wide shots and close-ups I was able to fit in all of these details throughout the film. I wanted my short film to be simplistic in a way to ensure the audience would know what is happening, to also create satisfying shots/scenes to do so I used a birds-eye-view; seen typically throughout Wes-Anderson films; to have the letters read out which meant I could play around with the props in frame.

To prepare for filming I decided to experiment with the camera after having researched and made my story boards to gain an idea on what will/won’t work in the real world, it would also give me enough time ask any questions and gain help before filming my project if anything were to go wrong during experimentation. When experimenting my plan was to film at least the two main areas I would be shooting my film and test out the audio recording and where's best to record, this is where I started, I recorded in three different locations two with different types of sound proofing one without. I was then able to decide on where was best to record the letters; that being under a quilt as it had the least/no background noise. I then moved onto the filming, firstly making some temporary props to play around with; I filmed the birds-eye view first seeing what props would fit in the frame, how zoomed in the camera would be, from this I also panned the camera up and down which is when I realised it had a slight wobble; I was then able to speak to my tutor about this to gain a solution. Moving on I placed a prop calendar on the wall walking in and out of frame to cross of the calendar I had the camera zoomed at different distances until I found one that kept the camera in focus once I walked out of frame. With more time to spare I decided to myself record what kind of reactions I would want to see the actor do when reacting to the letters being posted and the movements of props. Overall, the experimentation helped me to gain an understanding on what questions I would need to ask the tutor before moving on to film, the placements of the camera in different scenes, I also noted to keep an eye on the focus of the calendar scene when filming, with this extra footage I was also able to experiment with colour grading.

From this project the key areas I believe I have improved would first be my directing, being the director of my short film, I was able to further develop my communication between me and the actors noting what the best ways of expressing how they needed to act in certain scenes. I was also able to gain feedback from the actors on how they thought I did as a director both stating that I could do with some more experience as at times it was hard for them to know what they needed to do as the communication was not 100%. By creating this project independently, I had to ensure I was on top of everything boosting my efficiency and organisational skills as everything was up to me to put into place before filming, my confidence has also boosted from this as I have been the one in charge of other people taking the lead. By choosing a very specific question to explore I was able to experiment a lot more with editing, creating my own colour filter enhancing my editing skills and knowledge of avid media composer through further research and experimentation.

After reviewing my proposal, I do believe I have managed to achieve everything I set out to do, the goal I initially set out to do was to create a light-hearted short romance exploring how colour can convey meaning in film through the use of Wes-Andersons stylistic approach. In my short film you can see the use of colour being represented as the love growing between the two characters, I decided to do this through the costume design and various props; red growing on the calendar, love heart becoming bigger on the letters, red nail vanish, pens, plant pot, pink and red tops, blue tops. I was then able to develop my skills on avid experimenting with the colour creating a filter to brighten up the film as a whole, I then decided to leave the original filter in scenes when the character(s) is expressing feelings of sadness/loneliness. Through furrow research I was able to create a story board filled with various typical shot-types seen throughout Wes-Anderson's films, I also kept the actions in scenes throughout very quaint to keep the film very calm and aesthetic. In the end my short film turned out the way I was visioning although I had to edit some clips slightly different to what I had planned, it all came together well, and I believe both colour and Wes-Anderson’s style has been represented very well, achieving my original goal.

When comparing my short film with a similar media product that being the movie 'Letters to Juliet' there are both similarities and differences, the one main similarity is that both movies incorporate letters although letters to Juliet only uses one letter it is still a love letter; similar to my short film where the letters grow the love between the two characters. Both movies are romances of course mine lasts much less being a short film compared to 'Letters to Juliet' running for 1hr 40mins. However, in both films you only see the perspective of the women who has received/wrote the letters it's only towards the end that you finally meet the opposing love interest. Some differences between the two movies would be the settings, one set in Verona Italy ('Letters to Juliet') the other in a house, by being set in Italy it further emphasizes the love as Verona Italy is famously labelled 'the capital of love' that being where Romeo and Juliet is based from. Another difference is that in the film 'Letters to Juliet' there are two love stories happening simultaneously however, in my short film there are only two characters throughout. Overall, both movies are quite a few similarities by being in the same genre, they both incorporate a lost letter of some kind in 'Letters to Juliet' though one has been lost for over 50 years in my short story a couple of days.

(Rotten Tomatoes , n.d.)

My short film is a romance about two character Charlotte and Otto; old pen pals who get in touch again. Sending letters back and forth they fall in love until one day Charlotte never receives a Letter, what will happen next? Does Otto no longer want to talk?

Letters to Juliet is a romantic-comedy drama starring 2 love stories, sophie and her fiance go on an early honeymoon in Verona Italy where sophie discovers a lost letter in the juliet wall, determined she helps the women Clair who hid the letter track down her lost Romeo (Lorenzo Bartolinis), sophie soon discovers she is falling for Charlie Wyman Claire's grandson who is there to help and realises she has fallen out of love with her fiance who has ignored her the time in Italy. Will they find Lorenzo?

From tutor feedback I have outlined one major improvement that could be made when doing the project again; that being the duration the actor holds the letter whilst its being read out; instead, I could have filmed extra scenes of the character to not only fill the gap but build the characters personality give the audience an insight to their everyday life and hobbies. One of my tutors said that it would have also made sense to have the character be hesitant to reply to the first letter as you would do if you were surprised to be receiving one, this would have also shown the character more in their surroundings which is something one of my peers pointed out I could have included more of in the film. My tutors did however, like the music that was paired when I was editing, they pointed out I should use the music to my advantage having it change when the emotions change, and they found it matched well with the over-all film. From peer feedback I was told that the audio for charlottes letters were too quiet and not enthusiastic enough, perhaps next time I could record the letters myself or even push the actor that bit more to accentuate the letters however, the conversation of the letters were not awkward you could tell the characters got along well. My peers also liked how the music flowed at the end of every day, it was clear to understand what was happening throughout.