After producing our film and presenting it to the class, we received some feedback, good and bad. This will help us improve our film so that we are able to get the best grade possible and make the film look professional by using all of the correct techniques.
First, we were given a pre- made marking sheet. This was given to the teachers and students who were watching our film.
Our submission was teacher and peer-assessed using the following criteria;
- There is controlled use of the camera.
- There is close attention to framing.
- A variety of shot sizes are used.
- There is close attention to mise-en-scene.
- It is edited so that the meaning is clear to the audience.
- The soundtrack is appropriate; it supports the visual images.
- The soundtrack mix is well-balanced.
This is the sheet that was used to mark our film and give us feedback.
As you can see, the table had columns on so the class could mark the film. Level one being the lowest level and level 4 being the highest. The class could then make any comment necessary so we were able to have the feedback written so we were able to go back to it when needed.
The feedback that was given was as followed...
- We needed to include ambient sound, for example, in the scene where they are in town, there needs to be sounds of cars and people walking past.
- On the dog scene, we broke the 30 degree angle and the scene was too long making it too tedious and boring.
- The title needed sound effects.
- The underscore of the dialogue needs to be made more clear so it is more obvious what the story line is and that Carly is in fact dead.
- With the Elephant scene, Jack's head was cut out making it bad framing.
- Cinema scene - the audience may be able to tell that it is a school theater, we need to frame it so the audience cant see the top of the theater.
- Cinema scene - The lighting is too low key.
- Cinema scene - too long making it boring.
- Swing scene - for the POV shot, Jack could be holding his phone so it is like he is filming her on the swings.
- Swing scene - jump shot
- Credits need to be longer.
Here is the reactions of the class from the first watching our rough cut.
After receiving the feedback off our class mates, we had to discuss how we are going to improve our film and make it better so we are able to get a better grade than what we would.
Solutions
After getting our feedback we had to try and think of solutions to the problems that were brought to our attention. So after discussing it as a group this is what we came up with.
Dog scene - There were a few things wrong with this scene for instance the framing and the length, so we decided to cut the length down completely making it short and sweet so the audience do not get bored of the scene.
Park scene - Because of the shot being out of focus, we decided to refill the whole scene because of continuity if we just filmed the shot out of focus.
Memorial - To improve this scene we got told for this one that it looked too much like a school quad and that it didn't look realistic, so we decided to re-film the whole scene and instead we decided it would be better if we were to get a bench and a memorial place and put in in a park to film the memorial scene again. To make the bench look more like a memorial bench we decide to design a plack that had in loving memory of Carly engraved on it. We will see Marc walk in shot, from the left and then sitting down on the bench holding Carley's teddy he will sit the teddy down next to the flowers already on the bench before slowly walking away stroking the plack with his hand as he leaves.
Cinema Scene - With the cinema scene we descided that in order to improve the scene we are going to use different lighting, we are going to use torches and an LED lighting system to make it look like the two are actually in a cinema. We are also going to make the scene shorter so it doesn't drag too much and in editing we will insert cinema sounds such and an underscore to a film making it more realistic. We also didn't use the teddy so in the improvements we are going to have an insert of the teddy dropping so it is more relevant to what happens which is Carly disappearing.
Cannock Scene - As a group we found this scene had no relevance to our film. There was no reference to the teddy which was the main part of the film as well as the focus of the scene being grainy and also framing being awful. So as a group we decided that it would be best if we get rid of this scene completely and replace it with a different scene. Instead we are going to have a library scene with Jack Studying with friends and Carly comes along to disturb him, she finally walks away after dialogue and she drops the teddy. We will use this scene because it has more of a relevance to the film, they were both students studying in school and this is a fact that teenagers have to study.
My next post will be about re-shooting and re-editing
