Evaluation of ‘BigIdiots Production’

By stephanie Roberts

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, and planning and

evaluation stages?

Initial Planning

• When constructing our group we decided to research into the stereotypical conventions of a short film, we looked back at previous films that had been constructed allowing us to spot regular patterns and techniques and also any mistakes that had occurred.

Typical Conventions of a short film

• Throughout this research it allowed us to recognize that in short films, there is a low cost budget, a simple plot, a montage and a voice over instead of speech throughout the film, this is usually done in order for the film to remain short and simple avoiding complexity. Without the use of analysing films like this beforehand, our group would not have been able to progress or learn from the mistakes that other film directors have created.

Planning the film

• I personally feel that the preliminary tasks that we completed before forming our groups, of which we analysed and viewed certain films meant that we were strongly influenced by these. Therefore preventing us from bringing original and unique ideas, as we would be basing them upon certain film aspects.

The Planning Stage

• Throughout the planning stage, we decided on a final script idea which was called ‘Straight Edge’ written by Jade Kotowski. As a group we made a few changes that we thought would need changing. The biggest change we made was the minimising of speech throughout as it would have been to difficult to film as a short film. We used celtx to allow us to type up the script easily and professionally so that the team and the cast could read it adequately.

Feedback through the use of an Anamatic

• After we had completed our script we decided to produce an anamatic to allow us to gain feedback on our initial idea, without this we wouldn’t have been able to improve our idea or necessarily spot any mistakes as we would be biased in favour of the film. Anamatic’s allowed us to gain a mixed variety of suggestions for improvement and encouragement.

Results from the feedback

• We produced a table of feedback and put it on our website as a progression process. This feedback allowed us to recognise any downfalls and weak points in our film which then led to any changes and adaptations that we needed.

The Construction Stage• The construction of our film was aided with

technology such as mini DV’s, the camera, final cut pro and the DVD burning software. Without the camera equipment and mini DV’s our film could not have been recorded or transferred to the editing software. I think the mini DV’s allowed most flexibility as it allowed our group to collect footage that we were able to refer back to whenever we needed to.

Editing stage

• After collecting the footage we used the editing software called Final cut pro. With this we log and captured the footage so that it was stored on the computer. The final cut pro allowed us to edit the timing and footage so that verisimilitude was correct. It also allowed us to use various editing techniques such as fade in’s and overlapping for example.

The Evaluation Stage

• The evaluation stage used technology such as using the DVD burning software in order for us to play back the short film to our intended audience.

Evaluation Feedback

• We gained feedback from class members allowing us to record questions and answers about the film in a short sequence which is placed onto our website, this allowed us to recognise what worked well in our film and what didn’t making a successful evaluation of the overall film.

Conclusion

• Without the use of the new media technologies, I believe our film would not have been as successful as we would never have been able to gain the knowledge of our mistakes or have the ability to improve the overall film.

• The group worked well in getting use to the equipment and using it to our advantage. Without the preliminary tasks I don’t believe we would have had the knowledge to recognise the correct ways and features of doing this.

Conclusion continued

• In the final cut pro stages, the variety of techniques of film editing that we have been able to use such as; time alteration and editing techniques to portray a period of film over time. Camera shots are edited as cut ins, fades and cut away’s so that it appears to be more interesting and quick for the audience which we noticed was a key element in short films.

Thank you !We hope you enjoyed the film just as

much as us!

By Stephanie Roberts a member of BigIdiots Productions