LO3 - Evaluation
Week 8+ 9
How are you finding the editing
process this week? Have you
encountered any problems whilst
editing? How did you overcome
them?
This week was spent editing
The reason I have combined week 8 + 9 of the weekly
blogs is because I finished all of the editing within one
week, rather than two. On the other hand, I found the
editing to be a smooth and simple process for once. I
typically take a long time with editing with my
previous units and get stressed out at the last minute.
This time, I prioritised editing one production at a time.
The stop motion was the easier of the two, with the
method being to lay out each shot’s pictures, nesting
them and putting them into a sequence with music
and dialogue. I already had everything pre-planned
in my research and gathered all my resources and
stuck to my script to keep a distinct and original order
as I tend to change some things completely by the
end of editing. The only issue I found was adjusting the
pictures to a certain speed duration. All of my shots
are altered in speed and I am worried that some shots
look choppy or too slow. To resolve this issue, I
separated each shot that I was unsure of and
extended the pictures to make the shot last longer or
flow better. I hope that this experience with my first
stop motion can help me if I go forward into any other
projects in stop motion. One issue I did encounter was
shooting the green screen shot of the road
backwards, making the car drive the wrong way. I
had to fix this issue by arranging the shots backwards
in the nest and re-uploading to avoid messing up.
The short film was a little trickier within the editing
process. The first two minutes were laid out already
way before the start of my editing process as I
couldn’t help myself. After finishing my stop motion I

Are there any new techniques
you are trying to use during this
editing process?
began to add Foley sounds and arrange the rest of
my shots into sequence. I would say that the Foley
sounds that I externally recorded were the ones to fit
my shots the best over my online sourced Foley
sounds. I also like how my music all flows together to
help transition each scene to the next. I would say the
first problem I encountered was a costume error in my
shots. I accidentally forgot to switch the costumes
from filming the graveyard scenes to the office. They
were meant to be separated days but I was trying my
best to keep to a time limit. This caused a shortage in
shots that weren’t the casual outfit. I resolved this issue
by manipulating certain shots to miss the front of
James’ costume so that the outfits both looked the
same. I had to be careful where I snipped the shots
and zoomed into so that the shots didn’t look scruffy
or lacking in detail to the background. The second
issue was the pace of the song ‘candlelight’ with my
last scene. I just felt as if they don’t fit well together
but I think it will be fine. If it doesn’t look right I will fix it
before the pitch. Others who have watched it have
said it looks fine.
I had the idea of using a flicker in my production and
knew how to do it from previous experience. To
enhance this technique, I made sure to chop each
clip up equally and add parts of audio to them with
black screen in between. I found that this technique
was the longest to do of them all but was definitely
worth it.

Are you happy with the outcome
of your productions? Why?
The next technique was adjusting the audio of the
high pitched sound to grow until the peak of the
paranormal experiences and have it cut abruptly at
the end. This seemed like a smart idea at the
beginning but now I am worried that it may be too
loud on the audience’s ears. I feel as though it builds
tension and enhances the presence of the ghost.
The flashback technique was an easy yet short
process with the help of a YouTube tutorial. After
following each step, I found this technique helped to
enhance the transition from the present to the past.
The flashback helped to move the present to the past
which effectively appeals to my non- linear structure
that I was aiming to use.
I am happy with both productions durations that
meet the required time limit that I was told to follow in
the brief I was given at the beginning of this unit. The
stop motion had met the maximum time limit and my
short film was half way between 5 and 10 minutes, the
minimum and maximum time that was required to me
by the brief. I am also happy with how some shots
turned out as well. I feel like my cinematography skills
have improved since my last unit that required a large
amount of filming. The fact that I managed to do a
stop motion for the first time without that much stress
to the editing process. The reason why this outcome
has occurred is because I have had a year in cmp
with different variations of projects to experiment with.
The last outcome that I am happy with my
productions is the flow between my music tracks and
how they work with the tempo of my shots. The lyrics
and the narrative seem to fit together, thanks to my
previous research and planning.
How did your productions meet
your target audience? What
aspects of your productions could
have been better targeted to
your audience?
To meet my target
audience, I
researched what a
typical 25- 40 year old
is like, what activities
they do, behaviours
and goals they have.
Some of the
personality traits that I
found were
considerable for my
main character but I decided to use the most
common ones and opted for hardworking as a
positive trait of my main character and anti-social as
a negative trait. The positive trait is represented
through Enzo’s need to still work, even after a tragic
event and the negative trait is adapted into his lack
of doing anything outside of work and home. This
shows a reality than some people in my target
audience may go through. Although it may be seen
as abnormal to the average person and helps them
to interpret Enzo being reclusive to the outside world
after losing Arlo.
The horror/ thriller genres were
voted to be my short film and
stop motion in my LO2 survey.
I was always hoping that the
results would work out this way
as I originally had these two
genres in mind. I would say
that the results tailed towards the thriller genre more,
which helped me in the making of my productions. To
accurately fit both of these genres, I researched for
tips on how to accurately make a
horror short film. The material
taught me to focus on the sets,
which I already looked at and the
music. I looked back at previous
examples and extracted certain
codes and conventions that I
knew would appeal to my target audience as the
examples were made in their time. I tried to
incorporate the psychical special effects like Michael
Jackson’s thriller intro my own short film by adding
fake blood into the car scene at which Enzo has
flashbacks to the crash.
Friendship and life lessons were the top styles that
were voted to appear in both of my productions. The
two may be relatable to my audience’s real life and
teach them that looking after yourself after losing a
loved one to death. Death is something that
everyone knows of or experiences at least once in
their lives, so to show an aspect of it into my short film
helps to appeal both my genre and the interest of my
target audience.

The last way my target audience was adapted into

my short film was through asking them what would be
best suitability wise for their own taste and opinions.
The responses I had varied from ;

-The character having a job. Which is what a 25 to 40

year is known to have at that time in their lives.

-The characters to share items to show a strong bond

that reflects that one may have at least once in their
lives. The props like the journal + notebook helped to
convey that the two characters share memories. The
journal even show childhood pictures to give context
to them being friends from a young age.

-Don’t show bad spirits as many didn’t like this

concept in my original idea. Which is then replaced
by the want of the film being meaningful and
relatable that my focus group suggested to be more
engaging.

- a few people suggested the stop motion to be a

dream like state to replace my original idea to
explore the concept of their being a concept to the
afterlife that is unknown to us in the psychical world.
How effectively have you When doing research, I was given tips when making a
matched the codes and short film with no dialogue, in my production I made
conventions you researched sure to focus on the settings and actions to tell the
earlier in the unit? audience of the narrative without the need to have
dialogue. I will allow the main character in my
production to communicate the memories/
connection they have with the best friend to build a
slight back story. The visual symbols will help the best
friend tell the main character of their presence
without talking’. Some of the visual symbols will be the
necklace and the journal as a way to show the strong
bond and memories that the characters shared. The
props are used In further detail to help the late
character communicate with the main character
through paranormal activity with the items.

Another tip that I was given was for the shots to be

‘‘All represented through action'. A film without
action is said to keep the character "off their feet,
moving around and completing a task". This helps the
audience to stay engaged and to build up to the
main events. I will have my main character to stay in
no more than 2 locations at a time to keep the action
to evoke a reaction from the audience. Building up
the characteristics through the actions help to relate
the production to the audience and make them feel
empathetic towards the characteristics.
Erasing the dialogue from a script can help to see if
you're presenting the narrative enough through the
visuals.’

After being taught how to control my cameras white

balance, I concluded that ‘The colour tone of the
short film tells the audience that the situation is a dull +
mundane situation that the character is in. The
situation may be enhanced to be nothing exciting
from the constant use of the colour. You could also
say that the blue tones help to convey a calm ness or
sadness that one can get from being in the situation’.
One setting I learnt of was Tungsten Light; The
Tungsten light has no differences from the last two but
has more defined shadows around the features that
may help to deepen the situation of the character.
Which helps to make the audience think about the
situation in a slightly more serious manner. I used this
colour setting for the scenes set ‘in the past’. Where
the mood is sad and more dramatic than usual
because of the recent death and funeral.

The next LUT is Daylight; The daylight mode wasn't a

success either and didn't change much from the last
pre-set. They both seem to give the same impression
of seriousness to the audience. The only difference is
that daylight should be used in outside conditions.
Rather than a room full of artificial lights and closed
blinds. I used this LUT for present day scenes and a
happier atmosphere/ mood to convey healing/
happiness.

Along with this, I was asked to research Todorov’s

theory and conclude it from existing examples and
apply it to my own. After looking at existing examples
of both a short film and a stop motion, I used the steps
in a reverse order to make a non-linear sequence and
used the traditional linear sequence for my stop
motion.
I then used the Propps theory to help the audience
and actors define who the characters really are and
what their impact is in the narrative. Vladimir Propp at
first noticed recurring themes in 'folk tales'. The
psychical story telling in books. He found that many
people already had obvious or recurring character
stereotypes that have represented the story. These
are the stereotypes I chose and which character suits
it.

The protector/ Victim

Enzo is potentially the one who needs help over

coming grief. They will potentially need with letting go
of the past and being so protective/ negative.

The Hero, Helper

and/ or Donor

The late best

friend will be
appearing
through several
paranormal
actions to warn
and help the
best friend
through grieving.
The best friend also needs to learn how to grieve and
let go so that the two can part.
 To help me in
my process of
making a stop
motion, I
researched tips
into making a
stop motion with
a budget + at home. The most useful tips that helped
me in the process was to keep the tripod steady, to
use manual and have consistent lighting.

Keeping the camera steady helped my shot to stay in

one place without jittering the placement of my
subjects or set. This also gave me the idea to tape my
sets down in case of anything moving dramatically or
braking. Using manual was the best decision to make
because it helped to maintain all of the settings I
needed for the shot and didn’t take forever to re-
focus like it typically does in auto-focus. Lastly and
most definitely the most the best tip I’ve had is to
have consistent lighting. To keep the lighting
consistent, I kept a camera mounted light on one
level. I found that any movement I made around the
camera didn’t make a shadow because all the
lighting was made to deflect towards the lens and
almost protect it.

Another tutorial I used was how to create and control

your characters. I found it difficult and expensive to
use as much clay as I did so I compromised on buying
‘bendy men’ for 3.00 each and masking them in a
light layer of clay. The transformation videos helped
me in the
positioning of
the objects
away from
the subjects
like the heart
melting and
gave me an
idea of how long the transformation would take and
be. The next few tutorials help me on a budget. They
advised me of what software and equipment would
be best but I already knew that my canon camera,
adobe premiere pro, light and tripod would be
enough for my production. These tutorials did give me
the idea to use home resources or cardboard from
work to reduce my budget on buying small yet useless
parts when I could get them for free elsewhere.
 I then looked to
tips on making a
stop motion. The
most useful tips
from the first
video was to
complete pre-
production,
which with this
course I have
already technically done. The next tip is to be flexible.
I was very flexible throughout my filming and
compromised a two day filming shoot into one for my
actor who wanted a rest before doing panto acting
later in the evening. The last tip is to organise my
footage for editing. I made sure to organise my
footage in order to keep track of what scene required
what shots. This
made the
process
smoother and
didn’t take up
half my time in
looking through
each clip that
looks similar.

To appeal to the horror genre, I looked at tips for

making horror short film. The most useful tips of the 5
that the source gave me was to keep it simple, focus
on the story and to remember that it’s only a movie.
Keeping it simple helps me to leave room for the
editing or visual effects to enhance the overall shots. I
also need to make sure that my actors or audience
can understand the production and won’t feel
negatively towards the production. Focusing on the
story can keep the audience engaged and making
the characters be relatable and have their stories e
compelling. Making sure to focus on the short film itself
and find what works
for you and what
doesn't. Making it a
big deal may distract
you from actually
focusing on the
production.

How do you feel your work When it came to analysing productions, I looked at
compares to existing professional three film/ short film examples and three stop motion
productions?
examples to help me in the codes and conventions of
my productions.

The first film I looked at was the Addams family, the

dining scene in particular shows a completed family in
one main setting. I wanted to simplify my number of
locations like this scene and add props that help to
visually tell
the audience
of my
narrative.
Another
feature I was
inspired to
use for myself
of this film was the editing. The scene is simply edited
with cuts but is enhanced by dark colouring and
dramatic music. Both are used to appeal to the
thriller/ horror and help to make the situation is more
dramatic than it actually is.

The next example is the funeral scene from a 90s

movie called ‘death dreams’. This movie’s special
effects helped to give me an idea of what I had to do
to make a believable paranormal action. The change
in music, shots,
lighting and use
of props were the
things that
helped me the
most. The late
daughter used
items that she
shared with her
mum to communicate her presence. The mother is
also encountered with her daughter’s whisper/ voice,
like I did as well to connote the presence of an
unseen individual.

The thriller short film helped to see how psychical

special effects should be enhanced in post-
production. Using music and psychical effects helps to
create a suspenseful and mysterious mood that I
attempted to add
in the car scene of
my short film.

Are there any areas where your
production falls short? How would
you improve it next time?
To help me in the mise en scene of my stop motion, I
looked to ‘The Marshalls’ for inspiration. The first thing I
was inspired by was the appearance of the
characters. The Tim Burton inspired characters have
human like features with dark eyes and costumes. My
characters aren’t made to look gothic but in fact
have human like features and aren’t exactly dressed
in bright colours. The next feature was the setting. The
house that is
shown in two
shots is clearly
to represent a
family home. I
used a house just like this stop motion to relate back
to my audience who may also be in houses by the
time they enter their thirties. The music I also classical
of a horror and is accompanied with simple sound
effects. I made sure to do the same as it made my
stop motion more engaging and helps the audience
to focus on the visuals.
The last example is ‘a kiss in the darkness’. This
production’s narration and meaningful narrative
helped me when writing my script. The deep and dark
thoughts that the main character feel sis portrayed in
a dream like state. I found this to be very inspiring and
found it was structured very professionally. In an
attempt to replicate the meaningful and well-
structured stop
motion, I made
sure the scenes
made sense in
transition
concept with
the first scene starting in an everyday scenario in the
car, to the second scene being in a neighbourhood,
to a grave to then being stuck underground. The
order is meant to symbolise Enzo going through Arlo’s
death in a dream with the doubts and guilty thoughts
that Enzo has to be said by Arlo in his position.
The fact that I messed up the costumes from the first
home scene onwards has hindered both my planned
10 minute duration and all the shots I had to cut to
make the scenes last longer for the audience’s to
understand. The costume mishap was made because
I didn’t focus on the change and therefore mean I will
have to double check everything for the visual shot
before I go in and start recording.

What have you learnt about
yourself to take into the Final
Major Project? What do you
personally need to improve on?
Are you on track with all of your
work? What work needs to be
completed outside of lessons?
The next issue I had was the high pitch sound effect at
the moments that paranormal activity occurred. I was
afraid that they were too loud and might let my
editing down in the process. To improve on this next
time, I will get a second opinion on the issues I find
before exporting and uploading.
I have learnt that organising and double checking
absolutely everything helps me in the long run and
helps to reduce the chances of me messing up. This
will help me to focus on anything that needs attention
before getting to deadlines. The next thing that I’ve
learnt about myself is that I can work more efficiently
and comfortably with experienced actors than
people who find it awkward to be on camera. The
actors have done student shoots before and knew
what pre-cautions or suggestions would work to help
my filming process go easier. The actors were calm,
respectable and quiet. Which made communication
easy and made the shoot faster due to no
interruptions. The next project I do may need a
confident narrator and due to my efforts to research
for drama groups helped me to find exactly who I
needed to fit a role. Taking the extra mile may help
me make the best out of my future projects. I
personally don’t need to improve on my timing skills
anymore but I need to make sure that I keep a
psychical checklist on small things for my work as I
now find myself needing to do things before deadline
that should have been done ages ago.
After finishing all of my practical work, I now have to
focus on the written coursework. I have done bits and
pieces of my weekly blogs outside of lesson but most
of my college work is done in lesson and frees. I’ve
tried to use my time wisely and adjust my week to be
calm before preparing my pitch over the weekend for
next week. I would say that I have to finish little things
like uploading one audition or re-uploading
documents that won’t show up on my website to be
marked over the weekend.