Assessment and Evaluation

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Evaluation:
The Final Piece (above), as you can see, is a work in progress, with the deadline being 30th April, so still with a few weeks to finish filming and editing. I just wanted to get something coherent together, and add a few sounds so hopefully people can see what's going on. I stuck some simple credits on the end too as I wanted to have a go at making some in flash as part of this project. They're by no means perfect but they're just to give the idea.

I think the biggest help has been simply sitting down with classic and critically acclaimed films of similar genres and deconstructing them, finding out what makes them so well-made and being able to apply those techniques and ideas to my own work. You can see so much when you know what you're looking for, rather than just zoning out. Whether it's the technical aspects of filming, or the more metaphorical uses of shots etc. It seems you have to learn all of the 'rules' of cinematography and film-making, and then break them in clever ways.

The rest has all been a case of trial and error, with helpful resources or teaching on stop motion very thin on the ground. I guess it's all part of the learning curve, but can be frustrating at times.

Criticisms and Issues:
 - Some parts are still going faster than I'd have liked, so need to be paced more smoothly and slowed down a little.
 - Some of the footage which was meant to be final has some very bad flicker in the lighting due to me wearing a white t-shirt, lesson learned!
 - Similar to the light flickering, there is a little bit of movement in the background props in some of the scene where they have been knocked while animating. It's hard to get around this issue as I'm working in very limited space, and I'm not a robot. I've done the best I can and will edit out anything too obvious.

Further Tasks by Priority:
 - Finish filming the rest of the scenes
 - Re-film the 'bad' scenes (shaky, flickering etc)
 - Re-edit entire film
 - Source/create better sound effects
 - New credits sequence
 -  Photograph set and props for portfolio


So overall, I think I'm well on the way to hitting the deadline, with only a few tasks left to go. Looking back at my personal goals and what I wanted to get out of this project:

Personal Aims:
-To produce a short film for use in my portfolio
-Improve my knowledge of photography, filming, lighting and editing.
-To improve my knowledge and creation of a stylised stop motion environment
-Make use of a set and stop-motion characters I’d built in my spare time.

Project Requirements:
-Approximately 5 minute film
-Completion to deadline (30th Apr)
-Create a strong, complete, narrative and story, with the set and characters already established
-Define who the audience would be and find out how to make it appeal to them ( i.e. styles and filming techniques)


I'll happily say, once it's complete, I've ticked every box, and communicated my story and message effectively, via deconstructing existing media and using what I've learned in order to produce a piece.



About Richard Whillock

A beardy bloke who is pleased by the production of puppets and the set-up of stop-motion stuffs. A love for the scruffy, the textured and the original.

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