Evaluation and Reflection
Reflection Journal
6.2.20 - 10:30am
Today, I finished finding my five examples for my special effects research. It helped me a lot with understanding the process of creating the makeup. I also learned that silicone rubbers are used frequently when creating skin like textures. Prosthetic makeup is highly favoured by special effects artists because it can capture a realistic illusion of body parts. I also chose films I personally have seen to give more reasoning behind the special effects used on the characters. I still need to research my five example of visual effects next lesson and have created a list of the films I will research.
4.2.20 - 4:10pm
Today's lesson. I completed nearly all of my ten examples of both my visual and special effects. After researching more about visual effects, it has given me ideas and inspiration as to what I might create for my short film. I also have learnt more about the development of CG and its progression over the year. Next lesson, I will start brainstorming my ideas, and I will decide on either specialising in special or visual effects for my short film.
8.2.20 - 1:00pm
Today, I completed my ten examples of my visual and special effects. I also described in detail two of my favourite effects, and how I can personally create similar effects using the resources I have access to. I have learnt more about creating prosthetic moulds and understanding the in depth process of how to create them using clays and putty. Next time I want to create mood boards and storyboards of my own personal ideas for my 20-30 second short film scene. I also want to add into my project the different influences of my research and how their special/visual effects have impacted my ideas for my own scene.
11.2.20 - 10:50am
Today, I started my planning for my 30 second scene. To do this I listed the essential products, people and locations needed for the scene I am created. I described the shot types, colourings, special and visual effects I want to capture when creating my scene. I also watched a video on how to create a prosthetic hand and listed the products I need in order to create one, as well as the pricing and duration of its arrival. Next time I will finish my research and answer my context questions.
12.2.20 - 2:35pm
Today, I have finished researching how to create a prosthetic hand and all the products i need to purchase, in order to successfully create it. I also started my context questions, this was helpful as I can clearly describe my ideas and break them down into stages, of how I am going to devise my scene and what special and visual effects I need to create. I will continue these questions next time I return to my work.
13.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I practised using some prosthetic wax, this will help me practise when i'm carving and sculpting my own prosthetic silicone hand. I also added to my context questions describing the process and skills I will use in this project. Next lesson, I want to finish my context questions.
14.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I finished completing my context questions. I also found a poem to use for the audio in my film, I also found music to use in my film too. This helped me as I could use the audio as a way for me to visually depict ideas and inspirations for my film's narrative. Next time I will revisit my work, I will be finding inspirations I want to use as influences for my film's narrative.
15.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I found inspirations and influences that helped me solidify my ideas for my film. I also described the different meanings behind why I was inspired and how I will intertwine their influence into my own work. Next time I revisit my work, I will be adding my film's narrative and will create a storyboard of shot types that I have in mind to use.
16.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I completed my storyboard and wrote my narrative ideas on my blog. This helped me create an understanding of what I want my film to visually capture and the meaning behind it. I also listed in my storyboard the particular special and visual effects that I wanted to create and their purpose. This was important for me to include as the project is based upon my research of effects and how I will intertwine them into my work. Next lesson, I will create a shot list and I will list the different meanings behind them.
17.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I completed my shot list, this was very helpful as it allowed me to breakdown and plan my film's scenes and structure the way I want to present them both visually and audibly. I also included in my shot list the purpose of the shot type and how I want it to enhance the scene. Next lesson, I will create a location recce sheet and risks and hazard sheet for my film.
18.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I created a location recce sheet of where I plan to shoot my film. This was very helpful as it helped me think about the issues I may face and how I can prevent or lower their impact on my film, when in the production process. I also created a risks and hazard sheet, which included location as well as the overall film. This was helpful too as it allowed me to evaluate my plan for my film and made me question what parts might raise issues or create risk. To conclude, I created these sheets not only to help me evaluate my plans but also they are also a legal requirement for the paperwork of my film. Next lesson, I will create a legal and ethical sheet and colour wheel for my film.
19.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I created a legal and ethical sheet for my film, this was necessary as it is required in the paperwork of my film. The legal and ethical sheet also allows me to go through the issues my film might have with both from the audience's perspective and how I will resolve them. I also created. colour wheel today, the colour wheel was helpful when representing visually the colourings I want for my film, I also added a little description as to why I want to use this particular colours and how them play a visual and symbol part in my film. Next lesson, I will find the costume I want to use in my film and I will write the first drafted script for my film.
20.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I created my first draft of my script. Creating the script allowed me to put my ideas and collective shots onto paper and form a story. This was not only very helpful for my as I will use the script as a way to direct my film, but it was also very helpful for my actor to have as she can use this as a way for her to understand the film's movement, action and character expression. I also created today a costume design of my protagonist in the film. This was helpful too as it allowed me to plan the costume for my actor. Next lesson, I will research the special effects that I want to create for my film, and how I will create them.
21.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I researched the special effects I want to create and how I will create them. This was very useful as I now know what products I need to purchase, as well as the different process I need to go through in order to create them. I created a table to breakdown the different parts of my special effects. I have also ordered the products I will need for my special effects too. Next lesson, I will research the visual effects I want to create, and learn how to create them.
20.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I research how I will create the visual effect for my film, the software I will use is called After Effects. I watched Youtube tutorials on how to create the visual effects I wanted, such as the colouring fo the film, flame overlays and shadow overlays. As I am fortunate enough to have access to After Effects, I practised creating these visual effects. Once I practise them, I created step by step tutorials on how to create them and the different stages I will take. These tutorials I created will help me when in post production of my film as I can look back on my research and understand how I created them. Next lesson, using the products I have purchased I will be creating my prosthetic specula effects hand/claw.
21.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I created my prosthetic hand/claw, using the special effects products I purchased. The hand/claw was very difficult to make as the first mould did not go as planned and set too quickly in time for me to place my hand in. To fix this issue, I created a second mould using excess product. I asked for help from my sister and friend as I needed someone to mix the mould while I lubricated my hand with Vaseline. Once I finally created the prosthetic hand I believe it went quite well considering it was my first time using prosthetic silicone. Although there are some physical deformities with the mould, I believe it was overall successful. Next lesson, I will research the type of paint I need to use, in order to colour my hand. To conclude, I created a Youtube video of my step by step process of making the hand.
22.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I researched the best paint to use on my silicone prosthetic and found out acrylic paint was the best. I did more research on painting silicone and found out creating PAX paint is the best for painting silicone prosthetics. In order to create this I purchased a water based substance called pro-aide PAX paint consists of alcohol, acrylic paint and pro-aide mixed together. I also purchased the false nails for the claws of my prosthetic hand today. Once I purchased them I shaped them using a nail file, giving them a sharp claw shape. Next lesson, I will paint my silicone prosthetic hand and apply the false claws onto them, using the products I have purchased.
23.2.20 - 10:50am
Today, I researched how to track masks on After Effects. This was very useful as it is one of the visual effect I need to create for the opening shot of my film. After researching, I re created my own using footage I filmed and a scene from a film. This was very helpful as I can now successfully create the visual effect I wanted for my film. To remind myself of how to re create this effect when in the post production editing of my film, I created a step by step tutorial including screenshots of how i made the effect. I also uploaded previous practise footage of special effects onto my blog. Next lesson, I will paint my silicone prosthetic hand and start organising date and times for production.
24.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I painted my silicone hand with my black acrylic paint and also added to my research of using overlays and masking on After Effects. After painting my prosthetic hand that I need to layer it with multiple coats to get a shiny dark finish. Later on today, I will create a lesson schedule of my plans and I will be adding to my research on my visual effects. I will add another paint coat to my prosthetic hand too.
25.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I watched tutorials on how to create a demonic sounding audio on Adobe Audition. To do this I recorded myself narrating the poem I am using in my film. Then I replicated the tutorials and created my own demonic narration. Next lesson, I will add to my research of Visual Effects and find an article that will help me create my overlay shadow effect.
27.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I researched an article that helped me understand more about using overlays and track masking on After Effects. This was useful as it helped me expand my knowledge on track masking and will help me when I am in post production, creating the effect. Next lesson, I will be uploading the video I created of me painting my special effects hand. I will also be testing my prosthetic hand in water with actress to block through the positioning of the prop and to test whether it is waterproof.
28.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I uploaded and edited the video I created of me painting my prosthetic hand and the stages I went through. I then tested my prosthetic hand in water, with my actor. This was useful as I now know how I want to frame the hand in shot and where I want to position it. However, after testing the hand in water, I found that it was not waterproof. This is due to the lack of pros-aide I used in my pax paint. To fix this issue, next lesson I will remove the paint from my silicone hand and add more pros-aide into my acrylic paint to strengthen the paint so that it becomes more waterproof. I will also document this and add images to update my blog on testing this new layer of paint.
29.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I repainted my silicone hand using more pros-aide. Once I painted the hand I let it dry using a fan and then applied false (claw shaped) nails onto the fingertips of the hand. To do this I used both pros-aide and nail glue to attach them onto the silicone. Once I finished applying all of the details to the hand I placed the grip into the silicone hold and let it dry overnight. Next lesson, I will be filming my short film, with the help fo my actor and friend (who will be holding the grip of the hand, to move it in the scene).
30.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I filmed the scenes for my film. This overall went quite well, in this production process I ended up filming two extra shots to add in my film. The first shot I added was of the bath bomb spreading across the clear water, I added this shot to give an extra smoke effect and give more reasoning as to how the date turned black (to act as the demonic possession polluting the water. Once I filmed this shot, I then shot the second scene of the protagonist being stroked by the demon across her face. This shot took the longest as I had to direct to my grip holder the placement of the hand and we re shot this until I felt we'd captured it well. It also took long as I had to frame the shot to capture the protagonist's expression as she raised herself in fear. This scene was hard to film but enjoyable as my team were focused, patient and helpful. The next shot we added, this shot was filmed as a cutaway of the black water. It's purpose was to reveal to the audience that the black water had fully covered the bath and taken over the setting. I rushed filming this shot due to battery on the camera. Once I filmed that shot I then filmed the dutch tilt shot of the protagonist rising from the bath, this went quite well and took a bit fo time as I wanted to test different angles of the shot to see which worked best. Once I filmed that shot I then shot the close up of the protagonist's eyes. To do this, I made the actor fall back so that I can edit it in reverse. This is so that I can capture the eye framing in focus. Once I completed that shot I then filmed the picture frame shot that I will edit in post production. My main issue I faced with today's filming was the camera battery. Luckily I captured majority of my shots (except the picture frame one) using the borrowed camera. Although I had to rush some shots due to the battery dying. To conclude, I believe today's filming went very well and was successful.
1.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I created a shot log of my footage that I had previously filmed in production. I went through all fo my shots and renamed them (good or bad). Once I gathered the good footage, I imported them into After effects and started my post production editing. The first thing I did when editing was cutting my scenes in order. I also edited my first draft of my film today which wad very useful as it helped me review my work and see how I can improve the shots and how I want my visual effects to look like, suing my own footage. Next lesson, I will add the visual effect to my scenes and add my colour grading to my first draft.
2.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I added the colour grading and visual effects to my first draft, using After Effects. I found the colour grading easy as it is very simple and I had previously created a step by step guide on how to add a black and white colouring to my film (using hue and saturation). Once I finished colouring my footage, I added my smoke visual effect to one of my scenes and created my demon eye visual effect too. Next lesson, I will be editing my second draft and add the finishing touches to the visuals of my film and will be finding foley sounds and adding the audio of my film.
3.2.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I added the foley sounds and music to my second draft of my film. I had to import the audios I wanted and edit them to the timing of my scenes. I found this quite hard as I had to addd keyframes to each audio and allow for them to rise and fall in certain scenes to give more atmosphere and tension to my film. The hard part of doing this was making sure the audios had a good input level, so that I avoid damaging the audience's ears. I also received peer feedback on my second draft and added from their improvements. Next lesson, I will be editing my final draft and ask for feedback from my supervisor and add any finishing touches to my film.
5.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I received feedback from my teacher and improved my final draft of my film by adding a warp stabiliser to the shots that were shaky and I also trimmed the duration of a shot as it dragged on. Once I finished adding these final touches, I reviewed my film and uploaded it onto Youtube (as seen below). Overall I am quite happy with how it turned out and I am glad that I finished my film in time of it's deadline. Next lesson, I will be evaluating my film and project as a whole to see what grade I would receive for it and how I could improve it too. This will help me learn from my mistakes and improve in filmmaking in future projects.
Today, I finished finding my five examples for my special effects research. It helped me a lot with understanding the process of creating the makeup. I also learned that silicone rubbers are used frequently when creating skin like textures. Prosthetic makeup is highly favoured by special effects artists because it can capture a realistic illusion of body parts. I also chose films I personally have seen to give more reasoning behind the special effects used on the characters. I still need to research my five example of visual effects next lesson and have created a list of the films I will research.
4.2.20 - 4:10pm
12.2.20 - 2:35pm
Today, I have finished researching how to create a prosthetic hand and all the products i need to purchase, in order to successfully create it. I also started my context questions, this was helpful as I can clearly describe my ideas and break them down into stages, of how I am going to devise my scene and what special and visual effects I need to create. I will continue these questions next time I return to my work.
13.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I practised using some prosthetic wax, this will help me practise when i'm carving and sculpting my own prosthetic silicone hand. I also added to my context questions describing the process and skills I will use in this project. Next lesson, I want to finish my context questions.
Today, I finished completing my context questions. I also found a poem to use for the audio in my film, I also found music to use in my film too. This helped me as I could use the audio as a way for me to visually depict ideas and inspirations for my film's narrative. Next time I will revisit my work, I will be finding inspirations I want to use as influences for my film's narrative.
Today, I completed my storyboard and wrote my narrative ideas on my blog. This helped me create an understanding of what I want my film to visually capture and the meaning behind it. I also listed in my storyboard the particular special and visual effects that I wanted to create and their purpose. This was important for me to include as the project is based upon my research of effects and how I will intertwine them into my work. Next lesson, I will create a shot list and I will list the different meanings behind them.
17.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I completed my shot list, this was very helpful as it allowed me to breakdown and plan my film's scenes and structure the way I want to present them both visually and audibly. I also included in my shot list the purpose of the shot type and how I want it to enhance the scene. Next lesson, I will create a location recce sheet and risks and hazard sheet for my film.
Today, I created my first draft of my script. Creating the script allowed me to put my ideas and collective shots onto paper and form a story. This was not only very helpful for my as I will use the script as a way to direct my film, but it was also very helpful for my actor to have as she can use this as a way for her to understand the film's movement, action and character expression. I also created today a costume design of my protagonist in the film. This was helpful too as it allowed me to plan the costume for my actor. Next lesson, I will research the special effects that I want to create for my film, and how I will create them.
Today, I researched the special effects I want to create and how I will create them. This was very useful as I now know what products I need to purchase, as well as the different process I need to go through in order to create them. I created a table to breakdown the different parts of my special effects. I have also ordered the products I will need for my special effects too. Next lesson, I will research the visual effects I want to create, and learn how to create them.
Today, I created my prosthetic hand/claw, using the special effects products I purchased. The hand/claw was very difficult to make as the first mould did not go as planned and set too quickly in time for me to place my hand in. To fix this issue, I created a second mould using excess product. I asked for help from my sister and friend as I needed someone to mix the mould while I lubricated my hand with Vaseline. Once I finally created the prosthetic hand I believe it went quite well considering it was my first time using prosthetic silicone. Although there are some physical deformities with the mould, I believe it was overall successful. Next lesson, I will research the type of paint I need to use, in order to colour my hand. To conclude, I created a Youtube video of my step by step process of making the hand.
Today, I researched how to track masks on After Effects. This was very useful as it is one of the visual effect I need to create for the opening shot of my film. After researching, I re created my own using footage I filmed and a scene from a film. This was very helpful as I can now successfully create the visual effect I wanted for my film. To remind myself of how to re create this effect when in the post production editing of my film, I created a step by step tutorial including screenshots of how i made the effect. I also uploaded previous practise footage of special effects onto my blog. Next lesson, I will paint my silicone prosthetic hand and start organising date and times for production.
25.2.20 - 9:00am
27.2.20 - 9:00am
28.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I uploaded and edited the video I created of me painting my prosthetic hand and the stages I went through. I then tested my prosthetic hand in water, with my actor. This was useful as I now know how I want to frame the hand in shot and where I want to position it. However, after testing the hand in water, I found that it was not waterproof. This is due to the lack of pros-aide I used in my pax paint. To fix this issue, next lesson I will remove the paint from my silicone hand and add more pros-aide into my acrylic paint to strengthen the paint so that it becomes more waterproof. I will also document this and add images to update my blog on testing this new layer of paint.
29.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I repainted my silicone hand using more pros-aide. Once I painted the hand I let it dry using a fan and then applied false (claw shaped) nails onto the fingertips of the hand. To do this I used both pros-aide and nail glue to attach them onto the silicone. Once I finished applying all of the details to the hand I placed the grip into the silicone hold and let it dry overnight. Next lesson, I will be filming my short film, with the help fo my actor and friend (who will be holding the grip of the hand, to move it in the scene).
30.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I filmed the scenes for my film. This overall went quite well, in this production process I ended up filming two extra shots to add in my film. The first shot I added was of the bath bomb spreading across the clear water, I added this shot to give an extra smoke effect and give more reasoning as to how the date turned black (to act as the demonic possession polluting the water. Once I filmed this shot, I then shot the second scene of the protagonist being stroked by the demon across her face. This shot took the longest as I had to direct to my grip holder the placement of the hand and we re shot this until I felt we'd captured it well. It also took long as I had to frame the shot to capture the protagonist's expression as she raised herself in fear. This scene was hard to film but enjoyable as my team were focused, patient and helpful. The next shot we added, this shot was filmed as a cutaway of the black water. It's purpose was to reveal to the audience that the black water had fully covered the bath and taken over the setting. I rushed filming this shot due to battery on the camera. Once I filmed that shot I then filmed the dutch tilt shot of the protagonist rising from the bath, this went quite well and took a bit fo time as I wanted to test different angles of the shot to see which worked best. Once I filmed that shot I then shot the close up of the protagonist's eyes. To do this, I made the actor fall back so that I can edit it in reverse. This is so that I can capture the eye framing in focus. Once I completed that shot I then filmed the picture frame shot that I will edit in post production. My main issue I faced with today's filming was the camera battery. Luckily I captured majority of my shots (except the picture frame one) using the borrowed camera. Although I had to rush some shots due to the battery dying. To conclude, I believe today's filming went very well and was successful.
1.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I created a shot log of my footage that I had previously filmed in production. I went through all fo my shots and renamed them (good or bad). Once I gathered the good footage, I imported them into After effects and started my post production editing. The first thing I did when editing was cutting my scenes in order. I also edited my first draft of my film today which wad very useful as it helped me review my work and see how I can improve the shots and how I want my visual effects to look like, suing my own footage. Next lesson, I will add the visual effect to my scenes and add my colour grading to my first draft.
2.2.20 - 9:00am
Today, I added the colour grading and visual effects to my first draft, using After Effects. I found the colour grading easy as it is very simple and I had previously created a step by step guide on how to add a black and white colouring to my film (using hue and saturation). Once I finished colouring my footage, I added my smoke visual effect to one of my scenes and created my demon eye visual effect too. Next lesson, I will be editing my second draft and add the finishing touches to the visuals of my film and will be finding foley sounds and adding the audio of my film.
3.2.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I added the foley sounds and music to my second draft of my film. I had to import the audios I wanted and edit them to the timing of my scenes. I found this quite hard as I had to addd keyframes to each audio and allow for them to rise and fall in certain scenes to give more atmosphere and tension to my film. The hard part of doing this was making sure the audios had a good input level, so that I avoid damaging the audience's ears. I also received peer feedback on my second draft and added from their improvements. Next lesson, I will be editing my final draft and ask for feedback from my supervisor and add any finishing touches to my film.
5.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I received feedback from my teacher and improved my final draft of my film by adding a warp stabiliser to the shots that were shaky and I also trimmed the duration of a shot as it dragged on. Once I finished adding these final touches, I reviewed my film and uploaded it onto Youtube (as seen below). Overall I am quite happy with how it turned out and I am glad that I finished my film in time of it's deadline. Next lesson, I will be evaluating my film and project as a whole to see what grade I would receive for it and how I could improve it too. This will help me learn from my mistakes and improve in filmmaking in future projects.
5.2.20 - 10:00am
Today, I received feedback from my teacher and improved my final draft of my film by adding a warp stabiliser to the shots that were shaky and I also trimmed the duration of a shot as it dragged on. Once I finished adding these final touches, I reviewed my film and uploaded it onto Youtube (as seen below). Overall I am quite happy with how it turned out and I am glad that I finished my film in time of it's deadline. Next lesson, I will be evaluating my film and project as a whole to see what grade I would receive for it and how I could improve it too. This will help me learn from my mistakes and improve in filmmaking in future projects.
Comparison
My project in comparison to the example on the media diploma page.
The project I am comparing mine with is linked below
https://declanhenley.wixsite.com/mysite/task-1-2
When comparing my project overall to the example project. I felt that they described their research in more detail and had a clearer layout of their work than mine. After reviewing their project I believe next time I should create a website (like they did in the example project) as I can then layout page by page my work and make it more clear as to what description and research goes with what. I also believe that next time I should expand a little more on my ideas by researching more about my inspirations and give example to this as I felt the example project did this very well and it was effective. I would do this by adding more examples of films I was inspired by both describing the lighting and cinematography.
What I believe I did equally well with my project is shot the stages of creating my work and the build uo ti the final finished film. I felt I added enough research and description of how I created my prosthetic hand and visual effects, by giving example of tutorial I followed that helped me make my effects for my film. This part of my project I believe was the strongest as it played a huge part in creating my project and allows me to reflect my planning ideas to my final film.
To conclude, I believe my project compared to the example project was good and went quite well. I believe I could have improved on expanding my research and inspiration ideas. This has taught me that next time I will improve by showing more examples and expanding on description. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and feel ti went very well as I finished my work on time and my visual and special effects were successful too.
The project I am comparing mine with is linked below
https://declanhenley.wixsite.com/mysite/task-1-2
When comparing my project overall to the example project. I felt that they described their research in more detail and had a clearer layout of their work than mine. After reviewing their project I believe next time I should create a website (like they did in the example project) as I can then layout page by page my work and make it more clear as to what description and research goes with what. I also believe that next time I should expand a little more on my ideas by researching more about my inspirations and give example to this as I felt the example project did this very well and it was effective. I would do this by adding more examples of films I was inspired by both describing the lighting and cinematography. https://declanhenley.wixsite.com/mysite/task-1-2
What I believe I did equally well with my project is shot the stages of creating my work and the build uo ti the final finished film. I felt I added enough research and description of how I created my prosthetic hand and visual effects, by giving example of tutorial I followed that helped me make my effects for my film. This part of my project I believe was the strongest as it played a huge part in creating my project and allows me to reflect my planning ideas to my final film.
To conclude, I believe my project compared to the example project was good and went quite well. I believe I could have improved on expanding my research and inspiration ideas. This has taught me that next time I will improve by showing more examples and expanding on description. But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project and feel ti went very well as I finished my work on time and my visual and special effects were successful too.
Evaluation
Meeting the brief - How well did you meet the brief? Did it meet your standards of success?
I believe I met the brief quite well. This is due to the fact I successfully hit the deadline of this project and included both a visual and special effect into my film. The brief required one visual or special effect, but I wanted to challenge myself by creating one special effect (the prosthetic hand) and three visual effects (demon eyes, shadows, picture frame). Timing and scheduling was key to me hitting the deadline. I planned ahead of each day and mapped out the tasks I wanted to complete so that I would be organised and know what I needed to accomplish until my project was due. Reflecting upon the four effects I made I believe that they met most of my standards of success. This success is measured by the quality of how they looked and how much impact they had upon my film’s narrative.
The special effect of the prosthetic hand, for example I felt was successful in meeting my standards. However, this was only due to my perseverance with it as many difficulties arose because of its physical elements. I had to repaint the silicone prosthetic many times and test whether it was waterproof, then I had to find a grip that was stable enough to hold the prosthetic. But once it came to shooting in production, my planning and testing paid off and made the filming process enjoyable as no issues occurred with the prosthetic. I eventually liked how this special effect came out and thought it truly created the demonic presence I depicted in my planning.
Overall, this special effect did meet my standards of success, because it not only added to the horror genre of my film, as it created the illusion of a demonic character. But it also visually looked realistic on screen. This was down to the practical side of making the prosthetic as I used silicone to make the flesh of the hand, which when moulded creates a detailed sculpture of a hand. This therefore captured the true physical visual I wanted the effect to form.
The visual effects mostly met my standard of success, however I felt the shadow effect and picture frame effect turned out poor. This was due to technical difficulties with editing.These effects would be more successful if they depicted a more realistic visual. To improve on this, next time I will practise more visual effects on my own footage. As before when I was testing these effects I used online footage that distorted the use of the visual and was not an accurate setting of where the effects were going to be placed.
The only visual effect that met my standard of success were the demonic eyes. The demonic eye visual effect I felt was successful because it added to my film’s horror genre as it visually revealed to the audience the protagonist had been possessed. I also felt this visual effect added to the film because it looked realistic, this was due to the masking. The masking was a challenge for me as I had to mask the overlay’s frame by frame so that they isolated everything in the scene but the protagonist's eyes.
To conclude, I liked how both the special effect of the prosthetic hand and the visual effect of the demon eye’s impacted the film’s narrative and spoke to the audience through visuals, not words. These two effects I believe allowed me to meet my brief well as they truly captured my growth in using effects and taught me more about the visual purpose of effects too. The other visual effects I created have taught me to be more particular on practise footage and have allowed me to grow as an editor by testing new ways of editing overlays and masking. These two effects I feel did not meet my standards of success but have helped me learn for my future projects.
Effect - How effective was your effect? Did it fit in with the style of the film?
Overall I created four effects, one was a special effect and the three others were visual. The special effect of the prosthetic hand I created I believe was effective. This is due to its impact on my film and how it helped enhance the horror genre through it’s disturbing physical appearance and presence. Another way this special effect was effective was through it’s direction and positioning in my film. For example, the slow rising of the hand escaping the black water in the scene was effective as this movement allowed for the scene to have tension and fear as it is unexpected by the audience. Although they are being foreshadowed something bad will happen to the protagonist, this direction of the movement allows them to be scared though the slow reveal of its presence.
I felt this special effect did fit with the style of my film as my decision for the pitch black, scaly skin of the hand formed a disgusting visual which enhanced the slow paced horror style of my film. This is because its physical appearance was disguised and when revealed looked frightening through it’s unnatural look and unsettling sneaky movement.
The visual effect of the shadow/smoke in the water I felt was quite effective as it enhanced the film’s horror genre though it’s stereotypical foreshadowing of a dark presence is coming. However, I firstly depicted the effect to be more visually provident and to give a ghost shadow motion effect, but in post production this depiction did not create the effect I desired. I believe this is due to the type of overlay I used as the overlay was a smoke overlay. The reason I couldn’t use a shadow overlay (which would have enhanced the scene more and given the effect I wanted) was due to the lack of shadow overlays on youtube. My only resort to finding a similar overlay was to use smoke overlay.
This visual effect I felt added to the horror style of my film as it successful created tension and foreshadowed the demonic presence in the film through it’s slow rise into the shot as it subtly told the audience the scenario that was going to take place (as smoke has connotations to darkness and is typically used in horror films to act as a curtain for evil presences). This was the main positive of using the smoke overlay instead of a shadow overlay, but I still feel it lacked in being effective.
The other visual effect of the demonic eyes I felt was very effective as it told the audience that the protagonist was being possessed by the demon and that she had now become a shell of a body for the demon to reign in. I also believe it fitted perfectly with the horror style I wanted to achieve as this visual effect not only represented the demonic presence in the film but also sped up the pace of the film as it formed the cliffhanger ending to the film, making the audience become empathetic as to what happens to the protagonist next. Which successfully added to the pacing as the beginning is slow paced creating rising tension and then the ending is short and fast leaving the audience wanting more.
The picture frame visual effect was slightly effective as it added to the slow pacing of the film and visually framed the protagonist to narrate to the audience the prediction of her entrapment. Although emotionally and purposefully it was an effective visual effect, I do believe it lacked in effectiveness visually as I felt it looked poor due to the scaling of the track masking and when I asked for feedback people mistaken the picture frame to be a TV which misrepresents the meaning behind the visual effect (as the picture frame is suppose to reflect the protagonist’s isolation and suffocated seal as if she is trapped inside an image, as she cannot escape the antagonist, the demon). This visual effect however I felt added to the slow paced style of my horror film as it gradually created tension, through its gradual zoom into the scene, which allowed the audience to understand the horror genre, by being given a slow but tense atmosphere.
To conclude, I believe the most effective effects I created were the prosthetic hand and the demonic eyes, this is because of their execution visually as both were effective in enhancing the disturbing scene and were key to the style of my film as both reflected the pacing of my horror style well and captured the narrative well. The picture frame and shadow effect could be improved visually, which has taught me to practise more on my editing skills. But these visual effects did have an impact on the style by forming a pace and atmosphere to the film.
Research - describe your research process, how successful and useful was it? What would you do differently to improve your research?
My research process went in stages. The first research I did was on my visual and special effects, used in film and TV. The first stage in my research process was to find films I had personally watched that used special or visual effects. I wanted to use films that I had watched as then I could use my own knowledge of the narrative and intertwine it into the purpose of the effects in the film and what impact they have upon it. Thirdly, once I gathered my selection I films I would research. I then picked a certain scene from each of the films and researched in detail the visual or special effect used and how they created it (makeup artist or visual effects operator). This part of my research was hard as I had to pick certain scenes depending on the amount of information online there was of them. For example, when I was reseraching Midsommar, I had to reserach how the special effects were created for the suicide scene, this was only because they had very limted articles or videos on how they created the other special effects in thre film. This was the main struggle I faced in the research process as it delayed me on time because I had to gather enough research for each of my scenes. Once I completed gathering my scenes, I would then collect videos and images of the effects and present them to give visual evidence of the effect in the scene I had chosen. The brief required me to add how I believe they created the effect, however I wanted to expand on this and research how they actually created the effects. This decision was very helpful as it not only educated me on how they created the effects but also gave me the meaning behind them and it showed me the processes the pre production or post production have to go through in order to make the effects. I also added to my research how you could create a similar effect, this helped incredibly as it educated me on effects and how to create, which ultimately prepared me for creating my own effects and inspired some of my own effects, later on in the project.
Overall, I found my research was quite successful as I could find quite a lot of sources (such as youtube videos, articles etc) to gather research from. However, I felt restrained in some parts of my research as I couldn’t find enough sources to research from. For example, when I was researching the film Get Out, I found very little articles or videos on how they created their visual effects for the ‘sinking’ scene. To replace this lack of information in my film, I had to find a youtube tutorial on how to create a similar visual effect. By researching this it was useful as it allowed me to understand more about visual effects and how to play with the audience's perception through illusion. To conclude, next time I would research more into the different types of visual and special effects as I found the effects I researched became repetitive and lacked in me learning more about the varied types of effects. For example, the majority of special effects I researched were only prosthetics and I wish I researched other types of special effects, such as pyrotechnics, smoke effects, laser lighting etc.
One of the ways I would also improve my research for next time would be choosing films and scenes that included more videos and interviews on the process of creating the effects. I would also like to learn more about the physical and technical process creating the effects, rather than researching just the overview of them. I believe overall my research was very useful in teaching me more about effects, especially special effects as it taught me about silicone prosthetics, which later helped me when creating my own prosthetic silicone hand and was an overriding inspiration to making my own special effect. The success of my research is measured on the influence it had upon my own effects too. For example, the visual effects from my Hereditary research influenced my decision to create a picture frame visual effect too.
I found that the most useful research method was testing and watching videos, as well as reading articles, this is classified as evaluation research. I found evaluation research the most useful as it helped me learn hands on how to make the effects and it also prepared me for when I was in post production too. For example, for my visual effects I tested how to track mask. Without my evaluation research of track masking I would not be able to execute my visual effects to a good standard and would have delayed my project's hand in date by being unprepared.
I found that the most useful research method was testing and watching videos, as well as reading articles, this is classified as evaluation research. I found evaluation research the most useful as it helped me learn hands on how to make the effects and it also prepared me for when I was in post production too. For example, for my visual effects I tested how to track mask. Without my evaluation research of track masking I would not be able to execute my visual effects to a good standard and would have delayed my project's hand in date by being unprepared.
The effectiveness of your workflow - What did you do well? How would you change it?
I believe my workflow was quite effective as I kept perceiving through the challenges I faced with some of my effects. For example, when I was creating the visual effect of my picture frame, the scaling of my track mask kept misplacing and re scaling itself. This was a large issue as I needed the scene inside the picture frame to be freeze framed then zoom into motion. But the image kept cutting out of the picture frame and had black borders around it. To fix this issue, I re watched tutorials on track masking, but nothing worked. To finally fix this issue, I had to re scale the freeze framed scene to be larger than its original framing, so that it fits into the picture frame. Due to my perseverance I finally fixed the issue. To make sure my workflow was consistent and at a good standard, I had to push myself so that both my research, filming and editing reflected the hard work I put into this project. I felt I did well at being patient during stressful times, like the scenario I spoke upon with the picture frame visual effect. Keeping patient allowed me to focus and overcome the challenges I faced with this project. Another example of this is when the paint on my silicone prosthetic wore off in water. I was running low on both my acrylic paint and pros-aide. To fix this issue I had to apply more pros-aide glue into my pax paint mix and only coat the hand in one layer. This was incredibly challenging as I was unsure adding the pros-aide would work and whether it would fully paint the skin of the hand successfully. Luckily, it worked and I tested the new layer in water, but without me being patient and perceiving I would have never been able to focus or fix this issue.
I also believe I did well at being organised in my workflow, this was dependent on me being prepared before the production process, creating storyboards and blocking through scenes with my actor helped me be organized so that I would be prepared for filming. Organisation was very important in this project as I had to work around my actor's schedule and also find a prop assistant that would be available on days of shooting. I found planning dates and schedules reduced the stress of the project and made the process enjoyable as I knew what shots I wanted, how I wanted to capture them and overall helped me improve on my directing.
I would change the way I researched in this project as I felt my workflow of research could have been improved in pace as I felt it delayed me on planning my ideas and gathering inspiration. To improve for next time, I will create a schedule and checklist on what I need to include in my research and make sure I hit deadlines I make for myself so that I allow myself more time to find inspiration. Next time I will also improve on my inspiration ideas by collecting my references to films, lighting, colourings and locations that have inspired my film so that I give more scope as to what I want my film to feel and look like.
To conclude, I would also change my workflow by asking and receiving more feedback. For this project, I felt I needed more feedback from peers and teachers so that I can create more drafts of my work and improve the quality of both my written work and film. Overall, I believe my workflow was quite good but needs some improvements when it comes to improvements, advice and schedules.
Scope of the project - Did you feel challenged? Did you stretch yourself?
Overall, I feel this project was very challenging, but an experience that has taught me lots about filmmaking and effects. I found the challenging parts of this project were hitting deadlines and keeping a consistent quality to my work. The time I was given to create this project was challenging as I had to keep adding to my research over the course of the month, as well as this I had to my plan, block, shoot and edit my film simultaneously. If I were to be given more time I believe the quality of my film would improve as I could expand on the narrative of my film idea and practise more of my effects. I wanted to have my work as whole be a high quality, to show the passion I have for filmmaking and show that I am committed to succeeding in executing a good project and to eventually create a good film. The deadline challenge allows me to feel prepared for filmmaking as a career as when you create a film, time is money and it is a necessity that your the deadline. This added pressure to the project but I did not let that stop me, and instead used it as a way for me to push myself through the project.
I believe I did stretch myself in terms of working hard. I felt pushing myself to create more than one effect was hard but achievable if I persevered. I wanted to challenge myself by extending my special effect experience, by putting myself out of my comfort zone and making myself use prosthetics (which is a part of special effects I had never explored before). However, by pushing myself it allowed me to learn so much about filmmaking as I had to plan, practise and re make certain parts of prosthetic which taught me that practising and blocking is key to succeeding in production. Making three separate visual effects stretched me on time as I had to practise each effect and watch tutorials on how to create them. If I were to create one visual effect, I would have had more time to research it, however i felt having all three visual effects really added to my final cut of my film. For example, without the smoke visual effect or demonic visual effect the film would lack in the horror genre representation and give no reference to the protagonist’s possession.
To conclude, although I didn’t have to create three different visual effects, they helped add an atmosphere to the film and give more context of the narrative to the story. Also by pushing myself in creating all four effects, it taught me lots about making effects and the processes and skills you need for each one. This helped me overall with learning more about filmmaking as I saw a different perspective on how effects are made and what ways you can make them.
I stretched myself and challenged myself by taking on the role as the cinematographer, director, producer and editor of film. I chose to challenge myself by giving myself these roles so that I get a scope and taster of how each one works and to give myself an idea of what field in film I am particularly passionate in. I found by taking on these roles that directing is the main role I am passionate in and without trying these roles I may have never realised I wanted to pursue directing as a career.
Management - How well managed was your time? How did this impact your final piece?
I believe I managed my time quite well. The timing for my research I believe could have been improved as I had to keep adding on videos and articles to my research until I felt it was a satisfactory standard. Next time I research for another project, I will make sure I am more organised with timing so that I can complete my research and spend more time on my ideas and planning as I felt this part of my project was cut short on time due to me being too occupied on my research. The poor timing of my research slightly impacted my final piece as it delayed my focus on the rest of my project. For example, when I was adding to my research for my visual effects, I was also sketching my storyboards at the time. This caused me to have sloppy sketched storyboards which made the production process harder as my storyboards were hard to work off due to their lack of accuracy. This lack of accuracy meant I had to block through my shot types more as I needed to practise capturing them in images as my sketching was poorly executed and did not capture the shots I ideally wanted. Having to use more time on blocking meant delaying my production shooting process and I had to push back my filming by three days to go through blocking.
Another issue I faced with timing was painting my prosthetic hand. I had planned to paint my hand once all the products for it had been delivered. I spent the course of three days painting my hand layer by layer. When it came to blocking with the hand, the paint peeled off very easily. This delayed my filming production process as I had to find a solution to re painting the prosthetic, it only delayed the filming by a day but took up a large majority of my time that I could have used on practising my visual effects. If it weren’t for the prosthetic hand delay, the visual effects for my film would be better as i would have spent more time practising them instead of repainting the prosthetic.
When it came to the production of my film it was successful as I had already blocked my actor three times to run through the scenes of the film. I also blocked through the shot types and positioning of my prosthetic hand with my prop assistant to direct her on where I wanted the hand to rise in shot and the timing of this. By organising the timing schedule of blocking it helped me be prepared and organised for the production process and allowed me to make the process stress free and swift.
To conclude, next time in a future project I will make sure that I have organised my research so that I can complete in time and to a good standard. This will allow me to add more time and focus onto the other parts of my project and not delay the production process. The prosthetic hand delay taught me that I should test and run things through more frequently so that i know whether it is successful or not but overall, this timing issues that lead to delaying my final piece taught me that I should always make time for mistakes.
Autonomous learning - How did you cope with being self-dependent? What did you learn about yourself? Where do you need to improve? When were you tested? How did you overcome issues by yourself?
I really enjoyed being self-dependent. I liked how I didn't have to rely on anyone besides myself and my actor in the process of making my film. I chose an actor who I knew would be organised and who I trust in (my sister). To collaborate with someone who I knew would be professional and organised allowed me to be confident in my actor and to know they would execute my vision well. The project as a whole relied on me pushing myself and working hard which I found enjoyable and stressful, because at times I would have loved to have feedback and some help with knowing how to direct my actor well. But I enjoyed having the control of putting my narrative from paper to screen.
However, directing on my own taught me that I need to be more specific on my vision (as my actor felt disconnected from their character, due to my lack of explanation I gave to my actor) and it also taught me to be more confident as when you are directing you are responsible for everything. It also taught me that I need to be organised as you have all the control as it is your idea and film that you are creating. I found this self-dependence was useful in teaching me more on the role of a director, as well as it gave me experience in creating my own film, along with all the planning that comes with it.
One of the things I learned about myself from this project was that I thoroughly enjoy the directing side of filmmaking and wanted this project to test each role in filmmaking and reflect upon which one that I feel most passionate in (which was directing). Not only did this project help guide me into what career path I want to start to, but I also learned that I work quite well under pressure. This project forced me to be organised as I had to plan out every thought and process that I went through that had an impact on creating my film. This for me personally created a lot of pressure. But I found the pressure very motivating as I knew I had a deadline to meet and wanted to succeed by planning and documenting the progress of my film.
This project let me reflect upon where I can make improvements in my work. I found that one of the ways I can improve is by having my work reviewed and asking for feedback. The feedback and reviews will help me turn the criticism into improvement and allow the quality of my work to get better as I will be shown a different perspective of my film. I also believe that I can improve as a filmmaker by taking on board other people’s opinions on set so that I can try a different way of shooting. This I feel is important as asking for a second opinion can improve my work, this is because film as a whole is a collaborative art form and relies on both the director’s vision to lead, but an audience needs to follow in order for it to be successful.
One of the ways I was tested while being self dependent was when I struggled in the post production of creating my prosthetic hand. When I was physically making the silicone hand I needed assistance and help as I was moulding my own hand and needed someone to help me organise as the process requires a moulder and helper when removing the mould. The first time I tried creating the mould, it set too quickly. With the help of my friend, they helped me make a second batch of the moudl, suing the excess left over. This issue taught me that I need to plan more incase problems do occur in pre production, making sure you have someone their incase something goes wrong is always safest and it is best to get a second opinion on decisions too as it may help you see a different perspective to your work.
Another way I was tested on this project was in the post production editing of the demonic eye visual effects. The issue I faced with this effect was the masking. The motion track masking I had practised kept misplacing itself. To resolve this issue myself, I had to frame by frame mask the overlays used on top of the eyes in the scene. This was very stressful as it took two hours in total to mask the three second duration the effect is in the scene, however it taught me to be patient when editing as the outcome looked realistic because I did not rush the masking.
To conclude, I found self-dependence helped me reflect on both my positives and negatives as a filmmaker and student. I will be using this experience of making this project as something to grow from and improve from.
Pride - are you proud of your work? What will you do with your work now?
I wouldn’t say I am proud of my work, but more satisfied. In some ways I am proud of the fact that I completed the project on time. However, I believe I could have made a more original film narrative. I feel my film’s narrative is too stereotypical to a horror genre and lacks originality. The possession scenario that my film is based around I believe is too repetitive in horror genre and therefore feel as though my film is bland in texture.
Although I do like some aspects of film, for example the black water I feel is quite an original idea of representing emotion. I overall am only satisfied with the results of my film, this is due to the results of the effects I created. The visual effects I thought are in need for improvement, however for my first time using track masking and exploring certain masks on After Effects, I am proud of how they turned out. I am also proud of how my prosthetic special effect turned out, as I feel it looks realistic and creates the creepy, disturbing visual I wanted it to create. I do believe it is quite unoriginal as similar visuals have been created before to represent demonic characters.
To conclude, when reflecting upon the pride this project brings to me. I feel it is only dependent on the effects I created. After researching for two weeks about effects, practising them and eventually creating them, it allowed me to build my confidence as I became more comfortable with silicone prosthetics and adobe After Effects. I am overall proud of my progression with making my effects and seeing the outcome from my ideas on a sketchpad to being physical and visually on screen, in my film.
After I finished the post production of my film, I uploaded it to Youtube publically. I did this so that I could hopefully see the amount of views it gains and receive feedback from the public audience to see their opinion to know how I can improve as a filmmaker. I also will make a small survey of questions to ask my peers and teachers on what they liked about the film and what improvements I can make. This survey will allow me to receive feedback that can help me improve my future projects by knowing what weak points were in this project and learning from them so I can progress for the future.
Skills - What soft skills have you developed? What hard skills have you developed?
The soft skills I have developed in this project are stemmed from my role as the director in my film. I found that I developed my social and communicating skills by having to direct my actor. For example, I had to build confidence in the work and ideas, by trying to convey them clearly to my actor. I needed to be particular on what movements and expressions I wanted her to show as she was the key focus in my film. When in the production process my social skills were very much developed as I was in control of the whole production and needed to verbally express and direct my actor, prop assistant and communicate to them the actions I wanted them to do as well as my camera movements.
Another soft skill I developed was my leadership skills. In order to successfully direct my film I needed to be able to successfully guide my actor into her role and also be responsible for all of my production and post production work. Developing these skills was hard but manageable because with responsibility you need to be organised. For example, to make sure my actor was comfortable for the production, I had to block through scenes. A part of developing my leadership skills was having to manage time. I had to be responsible with my time by creating a schedule to follow so I knew how much time I had to block, practise, test parts of my project. A huge part of my leadership skills that I developed were from my ability to listen to other people’s ideas and be open to collaborating. For example, one of my friend’s saw my storyboards and suggested I include a shot of the black water seeping into shot, rather than just being in shot. I took their advice and shot it in the production process. This advice was very useful as I think without it my film wouldn’t be as good as it is. By listening to my friend and having feedback on my ideas, improved my work and reflected how being open to new ideas as a leader of my project actually helped improve it. I also had to lead my project in post production by making sure I gave myself enough time to cut my scenes, then add the effects. Overall, the whole project was dependent on me and my leadership skills were shown through the effort I put into my film as would be reflected in my final cut.
For my hard skills, I developed mainly dependant on my research in editing. Although I have had prior editing practise. This project allowed me to grow and improve on my After Effects skills by watching tutorials on how to mask and use overlays which are two skills I had never practised before. I found when editing the demonic eye visual effect, I developed my masking skills and learned how to both track a mask but also position it frame by frame. These technical hard skills helped me expand on my After Effects knowledge of masking and the different ways you can transform an image or video. These skills will also help me in future projects, when editing film.
Another way I developed my hard skills was making my prosthetic hand.The hard skills I developed from creating this prosthetic were budgeting and design managing. To create this prosthetic hand I had to research product types (to find out what branded products I needed) and watch tutorials on how to design my silicone mould. When it came to creating the prosthetic, it was very technical as the stages had time frames and without following them may ruin your prosthetic. Budgeting was a huge part of my time managing as I needed to organise when I was going to order my products and make sure their delivery date was within my time frame. I also needed to set a limit on how much I was going to spend on creating this product as I had to use my own money and didn’t want to spend it all on just my prosthetic. I needed to not only budget for the products that physically made my hand but I also needed to budget for the paint and nails that were going to decorate the hand too. Overall, making this prosthetic allowed me to develop my hard skills but having to know my budget and making sure I purchased what I needed in my time frame. I also needed to develop my designing skills as I had very little experience in decorating props or prosthetics and I needed to research the type of products I needed to decorate the hand (acrylic paint and pros-aide) but also know how to apply them too.
Future - What are some changes you will make to your mindset for the FMP? What are you looking forward to about the FMP?
Some of the changes I will make to my mindset for my FMP will be to be more organised with my research. Although I completed my research, I found that I delayed my other planning and production work because I was too occupied with my research. I need to remember that when I am researching in my FMP I could always go back and add to it, whether with my production I can only complete once. I will also change my pessimistic mindset as I struggled to trust in my own work and this taught me that for my FMP I will need to be more focused on how to resolve issues, rather than dwell on them. This will be my biggest challenge (in terms of mindset) for my FMP as I will need to be less doubtful of my decisions and just have to trust in my work and direction. Trusting in my direction is key as with my FMP I will be solely responsible for everything I research and create.
To conclude, my mindset for my FMP will have to be improved by myself as I am the only person who can change how I interpret my work and how I deal/react to the issues that may occur.
I am looking forward to being independent with my work on the FMP. I liked how I will be able to be creative with my work and be self-dependant. As I completed the Mini FMP I am glad that I am going into the FMP with some experience of what it will be like. This has allowed me to be less stressed about the FMP and has made me look forward more to the creative process of the FMP as I am more comfortable with the work amount and research I will have to complete. To conclude, I am mainly looking forward to directing my next project as I enjoyed planning my film and seeing it come alive on screen. I am thoroughly looking forward to making my own film again and finding new people to collaborate my ideas with.
The effectiveness of your workflow - What did you do well? How would you change it?
I believe my workflow was quite effective as I kept perceiving through the challenges I faced with some of my effects. For example, when I was creating the visual effect of my picture frame, the scaling of my track mask kept misplacing and re scaling itself. This was a large issue as I needed the scene inside the picture frame to be freeze framed then zoom into motion. But the image kept cutting out of the picture frame and had black borders around it. To fix this issue, I re watched tutorials on track masking, but nothing worked. To finally fix this issue, I had to re scale the freeze framed scene to be larger than its original framing, so that it fits into the picture frame. Due to my perseverance I finally fixed the issue. To make sure my workflow was consistent and at a good standard, I had to push myself so that both my research, filming and editing reflected the hard work I put into this project. I felt I did well at being patient during stressful times, like the scenario I spoke upon with the picture frame visual effect. Keeping patient allowed me to focus and overcome the challenges I faced with this project. Another example of this is when the paint on my silicone prosthetic wore off in water. I was running low on both my acrylic paint and pros-aide. To fix this issue I had to apply more pros-aide glue into my pax paint mix and only coat the hand in one layer. This was incredibly challenging as I was unsure adding the pros-aide would work and whether it would fully paint the skin of the hand successfully. Luckily, it worked and I tested the new layer in water, but without me being patient and perceiving I would have never been able to focus or fix this issue.
I also believe I did well at being organised in my workflow, this was dependent on me being prepared before the production process, creating storyboards and blocking through scenes with my actor helped me be organized so that I would be prepared for filming. Organisation was very important in this project as I had to work around my actor's schedule and also find a prop assistant that would be available on days of shooting. I found planning dates and schedules reduced the stress of the project and made the process enjoyable as I knew what shots I wanted, how I wanted to capture them and overall helped me improve on my directing.
I would change the way I researched in this project as I felt my workflow of research could have been improved in pace as I felt it delayed me on planning my ideas and gathering inspiration. To improve for next time, I will create a schedule and checklist on what I need to include in my research and make sure I hit deadlines I make for myself so that I allow myself more time to find inspiration. Next time I will also improve on my inspiration ideas by collecting my references to films, lighting, colourings and locations that have inspired my film so that I give more scope as to what I want my film to feel and look like.
To conclude, I would also change my workflow by asking and receiving more feedback. For this project, I felt I needed more feedback from peers and teachers so that I can create more drafts of my work and improve the quality of both my written work and film. Overall, I believe my workflow was quite good but needs some improvements when it comes to improvements, advice and schedules.
Scope of the project - Did you feel challenged? Did you stretch yourself?
Overall, I feel this project was very challenging, but an experience that has taught me lots about filmmaking and effects. I found the challenging parts of this project were hitting deadlines and keeping a consistent quality to my work. The time I was given to create this project was challenging as I had to keep adding to my research over the course of the month, as well as this I had to my plan, block, shoot and edit my film simultaneously. If I were to be given more time I believe the quality of my film would improve as I could expand on the narrative of my film idea and practise more of my effects. I wanted to have my work as whole be a high quality, to show the passion I have for filmmaking and show that I am committed to succeeding in executing a good project and to eventually create a good film. The deadline challenge allows me to feel prepared for filmmaking as a career as when you create a film, time is money and it is a necessity that your the deadline. This added pressure to the project but I did not let that stop me, and instead used it as a way for me to push myself through the project.
I believe I did stretch myself in terms of working hard. I felt pushing myself to create more than one effect was hard but achievable if I persevered. I wanted to challenge myself by extending my special effect experience, by putting myself out of my comfort zone and making myself use prosthetics (which is a part of special effects I had never explored before). However, by pushing myself it allowed me to learn so much about filmmaking as I had to plan, practise and re make certain parts of prosthetic which taught me that practising and blocking is key to succeeding in production. Making three separate visual effects stretched me on time as I had to practise each effect and watch tutorials on how to create them. If I were to create one visual effect, I would have had more time to research it, however i felt having all three visual effects really added to my final cut of my film. For example, without the smoke visual effect or demonic visual effect the film would lack in the horror genre representation and give no reference to the protagonist’s possession.
To conclude, although I didn’t have to create three different visual effects, they helped add an atmosphere to the film and give more context of the narrative to the story. Also by pushing myself in creating all four effects, it taught me lots about making effects and the processes and skills you need for each one. This helped me overall with learning more about filmmaking as I saw a different perspective on how effects are made and what ways you can make them.
I stretched myself and challenged myself by taking on the role as the cinematographer, director, producer and editor of film. I chose to challenge myself by giving myself these roles so that I get a scope and taster of how each one works and to give myself an idea of what field in film I am particularly passionate in. I found by taking on these roles that directing is the main role I am passionate in and without trying these roles I may have never realised I wanted to pursue directing as a career.
Management - How well managed was your time? How did this impact your final piece?
I believe I managed my time quite well. The timing for my research I believe could have been improved as I had to keep adding on videos and articles to my research until I felt it was a satisfactory standard. Next time I research for another project, I will make sure I am more organised with timing so that I can complete my research and spend more time on my ideas and planning as I felt this part of my project was cut short on time due to me being too occupied on my research. The poor timing of my research slightly impacted my final piece as it delayed my focus on the rest of my project. For example, when I was adding to my research for my visual effects, I was also sketching my storyboards at the time. This caused me to have sloppy sketched storyboards which made the production process harder as my storyboards were hard to work off due to their lack of accuracy. This lack of accuracy meant I had to block through my shot types more as I needed to practise capturing them in images as my sketching was poorly executed and did not capture the shots I ideally wanted. Having to use more time on blocking meant delaying my production shooting process and I had to push back my filming by three days to go through blocking.
Another issue I faced with timing was painting my prosthetic hand. I had planned to paint my hand once all the products for it had been delivered. I spent the course of three days painting my hand layer by layer. When it came to blocking with the hand, the paint peeled off very easily. This delayed my filming production process as I had to find a solution to re painting the prosthetic, it only delayed the filming by a day but took up a large majority of my time that I could have used on practising my visual effects. If it weren’t for the prosthetic hand delay, the visual effects for my film would be better as i would have spent more time practising them instead of repainting the prosthetic.
When it came to the production of my film it was successful as I had already blocked my actor three times to run through the scenes of the film. I also blocked through the shot types and positioning of my prosthetic hand with my prop assistant to direct her on where I wanted the hand to rise in shot and the timing of this. By organising the timing schedule of blocking it helped me be prepared and organised for the production process and allowed me to make the process stress free and swift.
To conclude, next time in a future project I will make sure that I have organised my research so that I can complete in time and to a good standard. This will allow me to add more time and focus onto the other parts of my project and not delay the production process. The prosthetic hand delay taught me that I should test and run things through more frequently so that i know whether it is successful or not but overall, this timing issues that lead to delaying my final piece taught me that I should always make time for mistakes.
Autonomous learning - How did you cope with being self-dependent? What did you learn about yourself? Where do you need to improve? When were you tested? How did you overcome issues by yourself?
I really enjoyed being self-dependent. I liked how I didn't have to rely on anyone besides myself and my actor in the process of making my film. I chose an actor who I knew would be organised and who I trust in (my sister). To collaborate with someone who I knew would be professional and organised allowed me to be confident in my actor and to know they would execute my vision well. The project as a whole relied on me pushing myself and working hard which I found enjoyable and stressful, because at times I would have loved to have feedback and some help with knowing how to direct my actor well. But I enjoyed having the control of putting my narrative from paper to screen.
However, directing on my own taught me that I need to be more specific on my vision (as my actor felt disconnected from their character, due to my lack of explanation I gave to my actor) and it also taught me to be more confident as when you are directing you are responsible for everything. It also taught me that I need to be organised as you have all the control as it is your idea and film that you are creating. I found this self-dependence was useful in teaching me more on the role of a director, as well as it gave me experience in creating my own film, along with all the planning that comes with it.
One of the things I learned about myself from this project was that I thoroughly enjoy the directing side of filmmaking and wanted this project to test each role in filmmaking and reflect upon which one that I feel most passionate in (which was directing). Not only did this project help guide me into what career path I want to start to, but I also learned that I work quite well under pressure. This project forced me to be organised as I had to plan out every thought and process that I went through that had an impact on creating my film. This for me personally created a lot of pressure. But I found the pressure very motivating as I knew I had a deadline to meet and wanted to succeed by planning and documenting the progress of my film.
This project let me reflect upon where I can make improvements in my work. I found that one of the ways I can improve is by having my work reviewed and asking for feedback. The feedback and reviews will help me turn the criticism into improvement and allow the quality of my work to get better as I will be shown a different perspective of my film. I also believe that I can improve as a filmmaker by taking on board other people’s opinions on set so that I can try a different way of shooting. This I feel is important as asking for a second opinion can improve my work, this is because film as a whole is a collaborative art form and relies on both the director’s vision to lead, but an audience needs to follow in order for it to be successful.
One of the ways I was tested while being self dependent was when I struggled in the post production of creating my prosthetic hand. When I was physically making the silicone hand I needed assistance and help as I was moulding my own hand and needed someone to help me organise as the process requires a moulder and helper when removing the mould. The first time I tried creating the mould, it set too quickly. With the help of my friend, they helped me make a second batch of the moudl, suing the excess left over. This issue taught me that I need to plan more incase problems do occur in pre production, making sure you have someone their incase something goes wrong is always safest and it is best to get a second opinion on decisions too as it may help you see a different perspective to your work.
Another way I was tested on this project was in the post production editing of the demonic eye visual effects. The issue I faced with this effect was the masking. The motion track masking I had practised kept misplacing itself. To resolve this issue myself, I had to frame by frame mask the overlays used on top of the eyes in the scene. This was very stressful as it took two hours in total to mask the three second duration the effect is in the scene, however it taught me to be patient when editing as the outcome looked realistic because I did not rush the masking.
To conclude, I found self-dependence helped me reflect on both my positives and negatives as a filmmaker and student. I will be using this experience of making this project as something to grow from and improve from.
Pride - are you proud of your work? What will you do with your work now?
I wouldn’t say I am proud of my work, but more satisfied. In some ways I am proud of the fact that I completed the project on time. However, I believe I could have made a more original film narrative. I feel my film’s narrative is too stereotypical to a horror genre and lacks originality. The possession scenario that my film is based around I believe is too repetitive in horror genre and therefore feel as though my film is bland in texture.
Although I do like some aspects of film, for example the black water I feel is quite an original idea of representing emotion. I overall am only satisfied with the results of my film, this is due to the results of the effects I created. The visual effects I thought are in need for improvement, however for my first time using track masking and exploring certain masks on After Effects, I am proud of how they turned out. I am also proud of how my prosthetic special effect turned out, as I feel it looks realistic and creates the creepy, disturbing visual I wanted it to create. I do believe it is quite unoriginal as similar visuals have been created before to represent demonic characters.
To conclude, when reflecting upon the pride this project brings to me. I feel it is only dependent on the effects I created. After researching for two weeks about effects, practising them and eventually creating them, it allowed me to build my confidence as I became more comfortable with silicone prosthetics and adobe After Effects. I am overall proud of my progression with making my effects and seeing the outcome from my ideas on a sketchpad to being physical and visually on screen, in my film.
After I finished the post production of my film, I uploaded it to Youtube publically. I did this so that I could hopefully see the amount of views it gains and receive feedback from the public audience to see their opinion to know how I can improve as a filmmaker. I also will make a small survey of questions to ask my peers and teachers on what they liked about the film and what improvements I can make. This survey will allow me to receive feedback that can help me improve my future projects by knowing what weak points were in this project and learning from them so I can progress for the future.
Skills - What soft skills have you developed? What hard skills have you developed?
The soft skills I have developed in this project are stemmed from my role as the director in my film. I found that I developed my social and communicating skills by having to direct my actor. For example, I had to build confidence in the work and ideas, by trying to convey them clearly to my actor. I needed to be particular on what movements and expressions I wanted her to show as she was the key focus in my film. When in the production process my social skills were very much developed as I was in control of the whole production and needed to verbally express and direct my actor, prop assistant and communicate to them the actions I wanted them to do as well as my camera movements.
Another soft skill I developed was my leadership skills. In order to successfully direct my film I needed to be able to successfully guide my actor into her role and also be responsible for all of my production and post production work. Developing these skills was hard but manageable because with responsibility you need to be organised. For example, to make sure my actor was comfortable for the production, I had to block through scenes. A part of developing my leadership skills was having to manage time. I had to be responsible with my time by creating a schedule to follow so I knew how much time I had to block, practise, test parts of my project. A huge part of my leadership skills that I developed were from my ability to listen to other people’s ideas and be open to collaborating. For example, one of my friend’s saw my storyboards and suggested I include a shot of the black water seeping into shot, rather than just being in shot. I took their advice and shot it in the production process. This advice was very useful as I think without it my film wouldn’t be as good as it is. By listening to my friend and having feedback on my ideas, improved my work and reflected how being open to new ideas as a leader of my project actually helped improve it. I also had to lead my project in post production by making sure I gave myself enough time to cut my scenes, then add the effects. Overall, the whole project was dependent on me and my leadership skills were shown through the effort I put into my film as would be reflected in my final cut.
For my hard skills, I developed mainly dependant on my research in editing. Although I have had prior editing practise. This project allowed me to grow and improve on my After Effects skills by watching tutorials on how to mask and use overlays which are two skills I had never practised before. I found when editing the demonic eye visual effect, I developed my masking skills and learned how to both track a mask but also position it frame by frame. These technical hard skills helped me expand on my After Effects knowledge of masking and the different ways you can transform an image or video. These skills will also help me in future projects, when editing film.
Another way I developed my hard skills was making my prosthetic hand.The hard skills I developed from creating this prosthetic were budgeting and design managing. To create this prosthetic hand I had to research product types (to find out what branded products I needed) and watch tutorials on how to design my silicone mould. When it came to creating the prosthetic, it was very technical as the stages had time frames and without following them may ruin your prosthetic. Budgeting was a huge part of my time managing as I needed to organise when I was going to order my products and make sure their delivery date was within my time frame. I also needed to set a limit on how much I was going to spend on creating this product as I had to use my own money and didn’t want to spend it all on just my prosthetic. I needed to not only budget for the products that physically made my hand but I also needed to budget for the paint and nails that were going to decorate the hand too. Overall, making this prosthetic allowed me to develop my hard skills but having to know my budget and making sure I purchased what I needed in my time frame. I also needed to develop my designing skills as I had very little experience in decorating props or prosthetics and I needed to research the type of products I needed to decorate the hand (acrylic paint and pros-aide) but also know how to apply them too.
Future - What are some changes you will make to your mindset for the FMP? What are you looking forward to about the FMP?
Some of the changes I will make to my mindset for my FMP will be to be more organised with my research. Although I completed my research, I found that I delayed my other planning and production work because I was too occupied with my research. I need to remember that when I am researching in my FMP I could always go back and add to it, whether with my production I can only complete once. I will also change my pessimistic mindset as I struggled to trust in my own work and this taught me that for my FMP I will need to be more focused on how to resolve issues, rather than dwell on them. This will be my biggest challenge (in terms of mindset) for my FMP as I will need to be less doubtful of my decisions and just have to trust in my work and direction. Trusting in my direction is key as with my FMP I will be solely responsible for everything I research and create.
To conclude, my mindset for my FMP will have to be improved by myself as I am the only person who can change how I interpret my work and how I deal/react to the issues that may occur.
I am looking forward to being independent with my work on the FMP. I liked how I will be able to be creative with my work and be self-dependant. As I completed the Mini FMP I am glad that I am going into the FMP with some experience of what it will be like. This has allowed me to be less stressed about the FMP and has made me look forward more to the creative process of the FMP as I am more comfortable with the work amount and research I will have to complete. To conclude, I am mainly looking forward to directing my next project as I enjoyed planning my film and seeing it come alive on screen. I am thoroughly looking forward to making my own film again and finding new people to collaborate my ideas with.
Feedback - Research and Final Draft
Feedback from supervisor
Feedback from supervisor
How do you feel about your feedback?
I feel my feedback is very useful as it has made me reflection upon my project and will allow for me to improve on future projects. One of the ways in which I found my feedback useful was the questioning of my colouring choice. This has allowed me to know that I should test the before and after of my final draft with and without my colour grading to evaluate which compliments the atmosphere and visual best. My feedback also taught me to expand upon my research sources in my final major project so that it will reach the optimum standards required. I also found the feedback I received helpful in boosting my confidence as I know what standards I need my final major project to achieve and what I should carry with me in terms of success with this project.
What would you do if you had more time to act upon your feedback?
If I were allowed more time to add to my project, I would extend my research by giving more evidence to different sources I used to gather research, such as film festivals, interviews, books etc. I would also test both my film in colour and black and white to see which fitted the atmosphere of my film best as I believe it was a good improvement I could make from my research. I would also edit my final draft by testing with and without the VFX picture frame to see if it visually makes my film more fluid as believe this improvement mentioned in my feedback would be good to experiment with. To conclude, I found my research very helpful in reflecting upon how I can improve my research for future projects and helped me understand ways I could have advanced my mini major project too.
How do you feel about your feedback?
I feel my feedback is very useful as it has made me reflection upon my project and will allow for me to improve on future projects. One of the ways in which I found my feedback useful was the questioning of my colouring choice. This has allowed me to know that I should test the before and after of my final draft with and without my colour grading to evaluate which compliments the atmosphere and visual best. My feedback also taught me to expand upon my research sources in my final major project so that it will reach the optimum standards required. I also found the feedback I received helpful in boosting my confidence as I know what standards I need my final major project to achieve and what I should carry with me in terms of success with this project.
What would you do if you had more time to act upon your feedback?
If I were allowed more time to add to my project, I would extend my research by giving more evidence to different sources I used to gather research, such as film festivals, interviews, books etc. I would also test both my film in colour and black and white to see which fitted the atmosphere of my film best as I believe it was a good improvement I could make from my research. I would also edit my final draft by testing with and without the VFX picture frame to see if it visually makes my film more fluid as believe this improvement mentioned in my feedback would be good to experiment with. To conclude, I found my research very helpful in reflecting upon how I can improve my research for future projects and helped me understand ways I could have advanced my mini major project too.
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