Alone - Final Short Film Production

Alone - Final Short Film Production

Here is the final short film production that we have created:

Audience Research For First Render of Short Film - Audience Research

Audience Research For First Render of Short Film - Audience Research

We have created a first render of our short film. This is not the final product that will be submitted, however, it is very close to how the final product will look and sound. What we are going to do is show the rendered short film to 10 members of the target audience. We will show each member the short film multiple times. Then we are going to ask them a few questions:

• What did you think of the short film?
• Could you clearly understand why the protagonist wanted to kill himself?
• Do you think the protagonist ended his life?
• Was it clear the protagonist was lonely?
• Was it clear that the protagonist was content with killing himself?
• Are there any issues in the image editing that stood out to you as you watched the short film?
• Are there any issues with the sound editing that you noticed when you watched the short film?
• Were there any parts of the short film that didn't make sense or made the short film boring?

Before we showed the short film to the group of the target audience we had a group screening with all the group members. During this, we had a look at some aspects of the short film and made sure that we were happy with the final product that we had created. The main thing that we changed is we got rid of the text that said "The next day". This is because we felt that it made the short film look less professional and it is not normally seen in real short films. This meant that we had to create a black screen between scene 1 and scene 2 to make it clear that it was a different day between the two scenes.

The Video We Showed:

The Feedback:

• What did you think of the short film?

All the people that viewed the film said that they enjoyed watching it. They said that it wasn't too long which could have made it boring, however, it was not too short so that information could have been missed. Also, lots of the viewers noticed the subtle repetition within the short film which was used to emphasise certain parts of the film, for example, in the scene where the protagonist sees his friend again and then the friend disappears. 

• Could you clearly understand why the protagonist wanted to kill himself?

All of the members of the audience understood why the protagonist wanted to kill himself. However, some of the members of the audience thought that the protagonist killing himself  was very extreme. They felt that if the story was more explanatory showing that he has been lonely for a very long time then it would have made more sense for the protagonist to think about suicide. 

• Do you think the protagonist ended his life?

The short film left a cliff hanger which all of the members of the audience really liked about the short film. They liked it because it left them some uncertainty about whether he would have actually tried to commit suicide or not. This is what we wanted the audience to think. Also, we asked whether they think that he went through with the suicide or not. Some of the people said yes because they assumed that this person didn't have any friends for a long time. On the other hand, most of the people though that he didn't kill himself they just thought that he was thinking about it. As a group, we felt that the protagonist wouldn't have killed himself because it would have been a very drastic thing to do.

• Was it clear the protagonist was lonely?

All of the members of the target audience said that they could clearly see that the protagonist was lonely. Also, they said that they liked how the protagonist was doing things on his own that he used to do with his friend, however, he is doing them on his own. This adds a good element of repetition to the short film.

• Was it clear that the protagonist was content with killing himself?

Most of the audience could tell the protagonist was content with killing himself. They said that the final shot in the short film showed that he was content with killing himself. We were worried about this shot because it was very hard to convey to the audience that the protagonist was content because the protagonist was not played by an actor. However, some of the audience were a bit confused with the last shot and they said it would have been better to show that he was content in a better way. Also, they said that once we told them that the protagonist was meant to be content with killing himself then they could see it more clearly from the final shot.

• Are there any issues in the image editing that stood out to you as you watched the short film?

They said that they couldn't see any major issue with the image editing in the short film. However, one thing they did say was the during shots where there is a lot of movement the was a slight blur or ghosting around the movement. This was an issue with the camera and the export that we did notice, however, there were a lot of still shots in the short film that were in focus and not blurry so we decided to leave this issue. Also, it would be very hard to get rid of all of the blurriness that appeared in the short film.

• Are there any issues with the sound editing that you noticed when you watched the short film?

They said that there was only one noticeable issue with the audio of the short film. This was that at the end of the short film the car screeching sound only played through the left speaker of their computer. This is not a huge issue because the sound is still clear, however, this is a small detail that makes the short film seem less professional.

• Were there any parts of the short film that didn't make sense or made the short film boring?

The final question that we asked the group were any parts of the short film boring. All the people that view our short film said that none of the parts of the short film were boring. This is good because during the editing process we made sure to be thorough when choosing what should be in the short film to make sure that anything that was in the short film was relevant to developing the story or intriguing the audience.

Fourth Filming Shoot - Short Film Prodction

Fourth Filming Shoot - Short Film Prodction

We have now completed the fourth day of shooting our short film. This was the final shoot of our short film and this went very well. This means that we have not fully completed the filming for our short film.

Success Factors:

Here is a list of the success factors of this shoot:

• We managed to get all the shots we planned to shoot completed. This means that the whole short film has now been shot. 
• We adjusted the white balance for every change in location or any change in the lighting. The will give the finished product a better look because all the shot, colourwise, will look how the are supposed to instead of looking yellowy.
• We shot most of the shots multiple times with variations like the length of the shot and the shot distance. This is good because in editing we can choose from multiple shots and choose which shot fits the piece the best.
• We used an external sound recorder to record some foley sounds like the diegetic 'ping' message sound. 

Problems during the shoot:

Here is a list of the problems that we encountered during the shoot:

• During the shoot, we had an issue with the battery life of the camera. This is because the camera that we had only had two batteries and we didn't get a charger for the batteries. This meant that we had to be very conservative with the camera battery. By the end of the shoot, the camera battery had 2 minutes worth of battery life left which is good because it means that we managed to get the shoot completed, however, if we have had run out of battery then we would have to go back and shoot the last couple of shots of the shoot.
• Also, during the shoot, it was very hard to set up the tripod for some of the POV shots. This means that we had to shoot some of the shots where the protagonist is sitting on the bed handheld. We made sure to keep the camera as steady as possible, however, we won't know the outcome of these shots until we get into the editing phase.
• We did not have enough battery life in the camera to go back into the woods and shoot the picture for the short film poster. This means that we have to go back during the next week and shoot the picture for the short film poster.

Overall, the shoot went very well and we have not completed the filming four our short film. Furthermore, when we get back to college we will log all the footage onto the computer and then we will start editing the short film together. 

Pictures of use filming:

Third Filming Shoot - Short Film Production

Third Filming Shoot - Short Film Production

We have now completed the third day of shooting our short film. This shoot went very well and this means that we only have one more filming shoot to complete.

Success Factors:

Here is a list of the success factors of the shoot:

• We managed to get all the shots that we planned to shoot, shot today. This means that we have completed scene 3 and 5 today which leaves scene 4, 6 and 8 for the final shoot. 
• We adjusted the white balance for every change in lighting condition or any change in location. This will give the final product a better overall look because the moving image will not look yellowy.
• We shot most of the shot multiple times so that we can have enough footage in the post-production stage of the short film production.
• We used an external sound recorder to record some foley sounds like the kicking of a football and some footstep sounds. Also, we used it to pick up some dialogue between the two characters.

Problems during the shoot:

Here is a list of some problems that we had to solve during the shoot:

• Filming the part of the third scene where the protagonist walks along the middle of a road proved to be very difficult. This was because cars kept coming and using the road. This meant that we had to be very patient whilst waiting for enough time to set up and get the shot. In the end, we managed to get each of the shots.
• Filming in the woods also proved to be tricky because there were a lot of dog walkers and children walking in the woods and making noise. This meant that it took a long time to get each shot because we would have to wait for the people to move out of the frame. This was not a major issue it just delayed our filming meaning it too longer to get each shot.
• Also, during the shoot, we had some issues with lighting. Firstly, when filming on the field the sunny was behind the protagonist which meant that the camera was pointed directly at the sun. This meant we had to adjust the camera angles to avoid the sun being in the shot because it caused a lot of over exposure. Secondly, in the woods we had the issue of ever exposure again which meant that we had to manually control the camera settings like exposure to make the image look correct.

Overall, the shoot went well and we got the shots we needed to. However, we forgot to take the picture for the poster which means that we will have to go back to the woods location and do it again in the next filming shoot. 

Pictures of us filming:

Second Filming Shoot - Short Film Production

Second Filming Shoot - Short Film Production

We have now completed the second day of shooting our short film. This shoot went very well as we were able to complete all the shots that we planned to get.

Success Factors of the shoot:

Here is a list of the success factors of the second day of shooting our short film:

• We managed to get 11 shots of the short film filmed. This meant that we have now completed filming scene 1, 2 and 7 of the short film.
• We shot most of the shot multiple times with slight variations. This decreases the chance of having to go back and re-shoot any of the shots.
• We made sure to set the white balance for every change in location or any change in lighting situation. This means that we will not end up with shots that look very yellow instead of looking how they should. 
• Made sure to light our shots properly so that they didn't look grainy. This was especially important because in this filming shoot we were filming inside which means that there was less natural light than normal. Therefore, we had to use external lights to properly light each shot.
• Also, we made sure to keep to the continuity editing techniques. At one point during the shot, we were setting up a shot where the two characters were sitting down and playing video games together. Then we realised that they way we were going to set up the next shot would have broken the 180-degree rule. Therefore, we made sure to adjust the shot so that it didn't break the rule.
• We used an external sound recorder to record some foley sounds and some dialogue between the two characters. This is good because it means in post-production we will be able to have more control over the volume of these sounds.

Overall, the shoot went very well because we didn;t have any issues while filming and we managed to film all the shots that we needed to. This is good because we are not on schedule to finish filming by the end of half term which gives us plenty of time to edit the short film. 

Pictures of us filming:

The First Filming Shoot - Short Film Production

The First Filming Shoot - Short Film Production

We have completed the first day of shooting our short film. This shoot went very well as all went according to plan. We managed to film all the shots that we had planned to and we made sure to film each shot multiple times.

Success Factors:

Here is a list of the success factors of the first shoot for our short film:

• We shot all 13 shots that we planned to shoot for the short film.
• Most of the shots we shot twice with slight variation in either angle or shot distance so that we can have a play around in editing to see which shot fits the piece better.
• Made sure to set the white balance for any changed in location or any change in lighting. This is a vital part of the filming stage of the short film production because if the white balance is not set properly for the lighting situation then the shot will look very yellowy and it will make the final piece look awful. For the white balance, we brought a white piece of paper that we used to set the white balance to every time the lighting changed. This meat that we set the4 white balance about 6 or 7 times during the shoot. 
• The costume of the characters was as we planned it to be which was good because it meant that the correct information is going to be connoted to the audience. This is because the protagonist was wearing a white t-shirt and light blue trousers which connote's his happiness.
• Made sure to use a variety of techniques. During the shoot, we made sure to use some more complex camera movement and camera techniques like slit framing and pans. This is because it makes the piece look more professional and having variety keeps the audience engaged for longer.
• Kept to the continuity editing techniques. During the shoot, we made sure not to break the 180-degree line which is good because it means that our piece will not break continuity.

Overall, the shoot went very well and nothing went majorly wrong during the shot which would have set us back in any way. This is good because it means that we are sticking to the shooting schedule and will because able to get straight to editing the piece when we get back from half term.

We did have one issue when we were filming on the Bridge Road. This was because lots of cars kept coming past the camera which meant it took us a while to get each shot because the cars were driving very close to the camera and they would have been very loud on the camera on board microphone.

Video from our filming shoot:

Pictures of us while we were filming: