Evaluation Website

I haven't been uploading too many blog posts recently, and that is because I have started my evaluation. On my website you can find all my final products plus all four questions. The website link is below.

https://jackthechinesemonk.wixsite.com/jackculluma2mediaeva

Final Products

In this post I have attached all of my final products. The short film, the poster and the magazine article. The film has been through five drafts, the poster has been through seven drafts, and the magazine article has been through three drafts.

The Short Film



The Poster

The Magazine Article

Additional scenes

Last week after a focus group session, I decided to test some additional scenes in the film. These scenes were flashbacks, and took place in-between scenes on the bench.

The scenes were interesting and they did add some variation to my film in the sense of locations, angles and characters. However I felt, and so did my test audience, that the scenes just did not fit the flow of the film. I think the film works best with what I already had.

Reflective Comment:

I'm glad that I was able to test some additional footage, but it just didn't fit. I didn't want to upset the flow and atmosphere of my film by adding more scenes, but the testing was worth the time.

Wind Issue Solved!

So one issue that has been plaguing me since the very start of the editing process was the wind being too loud in the final scene. However it seems that I have finally found a solution. First I added Greg's music, which does slightly mask the wind. However I then used the Final Cut Pro audio editing software to use sound reduction to make the wind even harder to hear. With this combination, the wind is barely a problem anymore.

Reflective Comment:

I am very happy that I have found a solution to the problem that I was having. Without the wind problem there is very little outstanding issues that still need to be dealt with.

Grim Reaper Wedding Ring

When showing my short film to a few friends a couple of days ago a friend of mine pointed out how the Grim Reaper was wearing a wedding ring. While my friend thought this was an accident,  it actually was intentional.

When we started filming Peter (My Grim Reaper) asked if I wanted him to remove his wedding ring. I decided that he should keep it on, as it gives the Reaper another dimension.  I am already trying to push the idea that the Grim Reaper is actually just a normal person. Having him wearing a wedding ring and implying that he's got a wife adds to this.

Reflective Comment:
The Grim Reaper's wedding ring is more of a subtle signifier compared to other props. I feel this would not be noticed by everyone and would more likely be observed on a re-watch. 

Music Implemented into Film

A couple of weeks ago I sent my friend Greg a small table of timings for the music that he was going to create for me. The table, which can be found here, also included atmosphere examples.

Greg has now sent me four pieces of music. So far I have used two of these pieces. The first piece I have used for the opening scene, as it's quite dark and foreboding. The musical cues match with the cuts in the scenes. The second piece, is more ambient. It's dream like and fits well with when Nathan and the Grim Reaper are talking. Due to the length and variation of the piece, I can cut and splice what pieces of the song I want and different times.

Reflective Comment:

I didn't realise until I added some music how empty my short film sounded. The music compliments the scenes nicely and make for a more enjoyable overall viewing experience. I can't seem to find a way to upload the music to my blogger, but if I can I will add it. 

Creative Careers Fair Feedback

Last week my school hosted a Creative Careers evening. I was tasked to help set up for the night and to make sure things ran smoothly. I also asked if we could show our media productions to gave more audience feedback. We were allowed and Me, Max and Adam had a stall that showed off our posters and our short films.

I also created a short montage of all our productions, which was shown to over 150 people. Afterwards people came over to our stall and offered feedback. I received feedback such as that I need to edit out my wind in the final scene and that the film is severely lacking some music. I was told that my short film was impressive and that many people enjoyed it. I also had some surveys filled out regarding my film and poster.

Reflective Comment:
This feedback was quite unique because it wasn't from people I know. I've showed it too large amount of people in my sixth form and posted it so my social media, but on the night there were people from all different creative backgrounds which gave some very strong and critical feedback.

Third Magazine Draft

This is my third magazine draft. I have moved the grade until what I think is a better position and I also have added a fake author to the article. I'm waiting for more feedback off my peers and teacher so I can improve it further.

100 Blog Posts!

Wooooooooo!

Sound Editing

I've finally downloaded Audacity on to my computer and I am now currently editing the sound levels and trying to fix the wind problems.

My short film's audio.

First of all I just listened to the audio of the short film, without any footage. It's quite interesting and actually makes it easier to notice where the audio jumps a bit, where normally I would be distracted by the footage. Just listening makes it very good for identifying what sounds well and what doesn't.

So to try remove the wind sound what I do is I select a scene where the sound is fine. I then set this as the sound profile. I then highlight the scene with excessive wind, and then I click ok. This then filters the wind sound out of the scene.

It did not work as I planned, I will be honest. Without the footage, I find it hard to tell how good it is. But I do think that is an improvement. I have several saved different audio files and compare them to the footage I have at school. The files are nicely organised, as seen below.

Reflective Comment:

I sort of always knew that I would never be able to completely get rid of my sound issue. However I feel that Audacity has helped a little bit, and it I do think it sounds better than it did before. It adds a strange whistle sound to the audio, however I feel this may fit the film.

Magazine Article Survey feedback

Earlier last week I created a survey to get some feedback on my second draft of my magazine article. I posted it on Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. The responses are mostly positive, but with some suggestions on how to improve the magazine articles. With this information I am going to update my Magazine article and hopefully create a better draft.

Reflective Comment:

I was hoping for a bit more feedback from my survey, but that responses I have got have been very helpful. I'm hoping that with this information I am going to create a better draft.

Marking Criteria for Evaluation and Media Texts

This is the marking criteria for the ancilliary task and the evaluation. I have been refering back to this several times over the oast few weeks. Refering back to this means that I can make sure to maximise my marks.

Second Magazine Article Draft

Above I have attached a second draft for the magazine article. I think it's definitley an improvement on the first draft and is closer to resembling what a review article from IndieWire looks like. I have added a banner on the side, with the 'most popular' articles on the site at that time. I have also shifted the article and main photo to the left to accomdate for the banner.

It does still need some work however. I can't really seem to place where the grading of the film should do. I also feel that some of the proportions of the article themselves are a little off.  I also still need to add a author to the post.

For the 'most popular' banner, I created fake articles about productions from fellow students. These include Max Shephard, Adam Anderson and Fabian Harrison. 4 is a previous project that I have helped create for media and 5 is a mockumentary that I starred in year 10. I added a photo from Fabian's production as the most popular article always has an attached image with it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm starting to feel a whole lot more confident about the final ancillary task. Before it overwhelmed me slighlty, but now I understand what I have to do and how I can improve. My next plan of action is to show my magazine article to some people and get to complete a survey for me.

First Magazine article draft

Above I have attached my first draft of the magazine article. My film would fit well on the IndieWire website as they have a large portion of website dedicated to short films. I used one of their articles as a template and worked off of that.

To improve I think I need to improve the layout of the text and the grade. (A staple of IndieWire's reviews.) I think the photo and everything above it works very well and looks good, and would certainly fit it in with image of IndieWire. 

Reflective Comment:

I'm pleased with my first draft of the magazine article and how it has progressed. It looks like it would've fit in with the IndieWire website. I've already had some over the shoulder feedback and I know how to improve the draft futher.

Testing Some Music

Today I added some of the test music Greg sent me while I wait for him to get back to me about my timings. I added it over the bench scene to try see how well it would cover the wind. And it does cover the wind very well. It also compliments the scene nicely, but since it's only test music it can get a bit repetitive at times. However it works quite well and I am looking forward to adding more.

Reflective Comment:
While the music isn't long enough to fit the scenes it still works very well. Once Greg gets back to me with some more music I'll be able to create some more footage with music.

Music timings table

I have created a table for timings for music for my short film. In this table there is a time-stamp, the mood of said scene and also the actual content of the scene. This is going to be sent to Greg so he can create some music for the short film. Greg has created some test music which has helped us both in deciding what would fit best.

Reflective Comment:

This time-stamp table is going to be very helpful for creating music for my short film. Spilting it all up makes it very easy to make sure that each scene is given the correct music.

Third Draft of my Film

Above is a HD third draft! Edited and ready to be shown to some more test audiences. I have already started the editing process of the next draft, but overall I am quite happy with this draft. One problem I did face was that some sound effects I have added have decided to remove themselves. Hopefully I will be able to fix this problem by the time of the fourth draft.

New to the third draft

1. New scenes. These new scenes add a little bit more humour and actual content to the first half of the film. These scenes include the fob watch scene and the file scene.
2. New sound effects. I've started adding more sound to the film to make the film more varied and immersing. Some sound effects add to the atmosphere while others are crucial to establishing the scene. I am going to do a blog on sound effects soon.
3. The title card. The title card has finally been added and it fits quite well in my opinion. It still needs tweaking but it does work well.

Reflective Comment:

I am very happy with the my short film so far. I feel that it flows well and is improving with every draft. Test audiences have enjoyed it as well. While I would like to do so much more with the film, being realistic I think I'm getting very close to be finished with the film.

Survey Feedback

So a few weeks ago I created a detailed survey about my poster and my draft. You can find the post about that here. I have now got the results.

Are you male or female?

How old are you?

Are you religious?

Do you like the design poster?

Do you think the poster would catch your eye?

Did you like the short film?

Do you think the poster works well with the short film?

So from my feedback it seems that what I am doing I am doing right. I can make a few changes to what I have. I'm hoping to do some interviews with some more particular audience members and get some more in depth feedback. There were 'Why?' question in the survey but they were quite basic in their responses.

Reflective Comment:
While the feedback I have received isn't too in depth, I still find it useful. Using this information I can adapt my next draft for both the film and poster to better please my audience.

Woodland Footage

Today I went and got some woodland footage for my opening title sequence. It only took about half an hour and I got about two minutes of footage. I really only need about twenty seconds of footage for the OTS, but the more I have the more I experiment with.

This is the footage that I captured and have imported.

This is the footage imported into Final Cut, ready to be edited in.

Reflective Comment:

Today was a very simple task, it took very little time and was just to capture around half a minute of footage. With this footage I can continue to edit my draft.

Editing My Third Draft

I have completed the editing process of my third draft. I have added scenes, added to scenes, edited sound levels and cut it, and have even begun the process of adding transitions and sound effects. Also, I have begun my editing my cold open and title card.

This is the entirety of my film. Purple boxes represent text and titles. Blue are clips. Green is sound. The grey boxes are transitions. As you can see, I have tried to make the first half of the film a bit more exciting as it was just my two characters walking around.

This is how I've organised all my media. These folders include footage, pictures and sound. This has helped me when I am trying to find particular scenes that I need to use. While not needed, it just makes the overall editing process a whole lot easier.

This is the title card and cold open section of the film. As you can see,  I have two blank spaces that still need to be filled with woodland scenes. I have utilised Final Cut's sound effect feature and have added footsteps, heartbeats and a male breathing. The footsteps lead into the scene, the heartbeats are to signify that Nathan is having a heart attack, and his breath is there to tie it together. I did have Ronan do some heavy breathing but the file was corrupted. I also have a LF sound effect for the title card, which has an ominous impact.

This is the fob watch scene. I have added a very quiet ticking sound under the footage, just to add to the scene. It's not too loud or distracting, but instead ticks quietly in the background. I made the mistake on the day of not filming a scene where the Reaper puts the fob watch away. To solve this, I used a backup scene of the Reaper pulling out the fob watch, and just reversed it. This makes it look like the Reaper is putting away the fob watch.

This is the final scene for the film. The only change I have made is the addition of a 'cave and wind' sound effect. The howling of the wind guides the film to a nice exit, and adds to the atmosphere nicely. If I am unable to re-shoot the ending scene, I'd be happy with this.

So editing has been time consuming but worth it. The film is improving with every draft. Here is a full list of changes for this draft.

• New scenes. File scene and fob watch scene.
• Additions to scenes. Body scene, floor shot.
• Several sound effects. Heartbeating, footsteps, LF, ticking, breathing.
• Title card added to the film.
• Cold open to the film.

But I still have things that I need to complete in the fourth draft. Here is a list of new things I need to add.

• My music still needs to be added.
• Balance the lighting in the forest scenes.
• Film some woodland shots.
• Minimise the sound of the wind in the final scenes.

Reflective Comment:

I am very happy with my third draft. I feel that is my best draft yet. I'm making steady progress already to my next draft and therefore my final product. I know what I have to do to improve this draft and I know what steps I have to take to do this.

Class Feedback on Poster

I decided to show my poster to my class to receive some feedback. The poster I showed was my sixth draft. I had a few questions on the board to indicate what I was trying to gain from my feedback. I have attached a Vimeo video below of the feedback. With the feedback, I made a few slight changes.



Below is the improved poster with the feedback I received.

The changes that I have made to the poster are only slight but I do think they improve the overall quality of the poster. First I removed the WordUp logo from bottom left corner as it filled too much space and didn't really fit in with the atmosphere on the photo. I also made the block credit bigger and easier to read. The other change I made was the addition of a scythe for the Reaper, making it much clearer who he is and what the film is about.

Reflective Comment:

I'm happy with the changes I have made and feel like with a few small tweaks I'll have a finished poster. I'm planning on showing my poster infront of my entire year in assembly, as they won't know what the film is about like my class do. Their view will be unbiased and much more truthful.

Title Card Test

Today in lesson I spent most of my time importing and organising the footage and photos from yesterdays filming. I didn't have time to edit, so I have decided to leave this until Wednesday. For the short time I had, I decided to do a test of the Title Card that I mentioned last week.

Title Card Test

Above is the title card test. I quite like it, but I feel it does need work. I think I'll keep the silhouette idea, but I think that I need to make the text possibly animated. At the moment it looks to still and I feel it would seem awkward in the film. If I could, an animated sytche would be very good as well. Anything to make the title card look less still and awkward.

Reflective Comment:

For a quick test I'm pretty happy with the title card. I think if I were to make it more animated it would look more professinal and more unique. After creating my third draft, I think this is what I will aim for.

Title Card Planning

After filming today I finally decided on what I want my title card to be. I want the film to have a short 'cold open', with a montage of grim woodland shots mixed with dark shots of the Grim Reaper, with the sound of Nathan's heavy breathing playing over the top. Then cut to the title card.

The title card itself I want to be all black. I want there to be a silhouette of the Grim Reaper with his scythe, and the text above him. I don't think this will be too hard to create. I am planning on using the photo below for the outline of the Grim Reaper. The only part that I think will take lots of experimentation and audience feedback is the typography.

Reflective Comment:

I am regretting leaving the title card so late, but it's not a major problem. I think that I should be able to complete it in good time, enough time that I can get a bit of a feedback and refine it if I need to. 

Third Day Of Filming (19/02/2017)

So today was my third day of filming and overall it was a good success. I got the majority of the scenes that I wanted to re-shoot and film today done.

The day started off poorly when I arrived at my filming location, 45 minutes away from my house. I had forgotten my tripod. It was too far to go back and I couldn't seem to find another one. Also, one of my actors was half an hour late and I thought maybe that he had forgotten.

However my mum is a hero and dropped off my tripod for me. My other actor arrived and I was able to continue with my plans. I re-shot most the scenes planned. You can see my plan here. The floor scene, and the looking down at the body scene were quite simple to re-shoot. The addition of my new props, those being the file and the fob watch worked well, and I feel that their scenes fit in well with the atmosphere of the film. 

Peter, the Grim Reaper, also suggested a panning shot that went around Nathan as he looked around in confusion. The scene is disorienting and does work quite well, so this was a nice improvised scene to add. However I am not sure where about in the short film I will be able to fit this in. 

I also took some photos of my actors, which can you see below, for their StarNow profiles but also so I could do a post later on about costumes. I am also planning on using the outline of Peter's photo for the titlecard.

I now have a good idea for the titlecard and you can expect a blog post on that soon. There will also be a post about the third draft in a few days, also posts about progress with the poster and magazine articles.

Reflective Comment:

I am very happy with how today. It started off poorly and ended up being quite a productive day. I got a lot of filming done and planned out a lot of my title card. Overall I feel like I made a lot of progress today and I am pleased with this. 

Preparing for Filming on the 19th!

So tomorrow is the hopefully going to be my final day of filming! I am very much looking forward to finishing up with filming and being able to edit it all together. I have contacted both of my actors and provided them with a handout which entails what scenes need to be reshot and what additions we will be making. We're starting filming at eleven and I'm hoping to have everything done by about half one.

Reflective Comment:
I'm glad that I'm nearly done with filming. As much as I do enjoy it it will just be so relieving to know that I have it all done. Also, once the filming is done for tomorrow I should be able to edit one of my final drafts together!

Filming cancelled 12/02/2016

Unfortunately I had to cancel filming for the twelfth of February due to the snow that came over night. My actors could not work too late enough for the snow to melt and the sudden appearance of snow in random scenes would most certainly hurt the continuity of the film. I've re-scheduled the filming for the 19th.

Reflective Comment:
The snow is annoying and frustrating as I just want to finish up with my filming. However I did start my filming process early on meaning that I can allow for these annoyances. 

Magazine article attempt #3

On the first of February I completed my second attempt on a magazine article contents. Since then my teacher has gone over what I have written and has identified some changes that I can be completed. I have made some changes. These can be observed in red.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't really know." The following line is said quite a few times during the short film about the Grim Reaper and his unfortunate companion. While many would expect the Grim Reaper to know everything and anything about life and death, but Dying Denial, a new short film by up and coming film maker Jack Cullum, offers a much more humorous and clueless Grim Reaper.

Dying Denial leads with only two characters, however they are extremely convincing characters. Nathan, who has recently died, is perplexed about his current predicament and just can't stop asking heavy loaded questions. Asking about religion and the meaning of life, Dying Denial explores several different subjects, but does not offer a definite answer to anything. The film is very open ended and definitely up for discussion.

The visuals and soundtrack compliment the writing well too. The eerie setting a early morning forest, empty and desolate. The music is at times dreamy, while at times it's quite sombre. This combination is very interesting and can really does add to the atmosphere established by the characters and story.

A highlight of the film is certainly Peter Long's portrayal of the Grim Reaper. Serene, wise and amusing, Peter excels in the role. Acting as a guide for Nathan, and in part the audience, you'd hope that the Grim Reaper is quite alike to how Peter portrays him. His chemistry with Ronan is strong, as Ronan plays the poor guy who has unfortunately died. Ronan plays his role exceedingly well and convincingly.

When you break the film down, all it is is one man's passing on. It doesn't focus on dramatic goodbyes or second chances. Death comes, and there is nothing you can do about it when it does. It's a sombre ending, but as an overall film, it's quite a touching take on dying. The film is open-ended and open to interpretation, so much to the point where anyone could enjoy it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reflective Comment:

I am much happier with my third attempt, and think I'm getting closer to the final content that I am going to use. After another review from my teacher, I will refine the changes.

Update post

This is an update post to update on the current situation. Due to unforeseen consequences I was not available to film on the Sunday that I had planned. Therefore I have moved the filming a week back, to the 12th of February. This, while not ideal, is not too much of a problem.

I am making steady progress with my poster ancillary task. I am now creating the sixth draft, which I am hoping will be my final draft. I have received feedback from several different people, from those who know about the film and those who do not. I am planning to have to complete by the end of this week.

The second ancillary task, the magazine article, I am struggling with but still making progress. My teacher is going to be helping me with how I write the article and this seems to be my weakest point at the moment.

Despite my set backs I still feel that I am on track to meet with the deadline. The filming should be done this weekend and once I've edited in the changes, my main product will hopefully will be close to finish. The poster is the least of my worries right now, as the progress there is steady and stable. While the magazine article is difficult to complete, I still have plenty of time to do so.

Reflective Comment:
I started a lot of my production early, meaning that even with these setbacks I still have time. I am not overly worried about not meeting the deadline, as I just seem to refining the majority of my work, with the bulk of it completed.

Analysis of Poster Development

Below I have attached a voice thread in which I go through all my different drafts for my posters. I highlight my ideas, whats changed and feedback I have been given. This voicethread is quite useful in observing how my ideas had progressed, and is quite useful when looking back in reflection.




I apologise for the audio quality.

Reflective Comment:
Completing this was actually quite useful in understanding how my ideas have developed. I can clearly see now how my ideas have grown over the past few months and I think this voice thread will be very useful in helping others understand how my ideas have grown. 

Emaze on my props

This is an emaze on the actual props that I will be using. If you are looking a more indepth look at my props, please head over to this post. This post is just outlining that I have found my props for the filming on this Saturday.

Reflective Comment:
Having the props is making me look forward to filming this Saturday. With the props I'll be insert more symbolism and new scenes into my film that will improve the overall quality of the film.

Planning for filming on the 5th

Above I have attached a slide about my filming plans for this Sunday. I am planning to print this off and taking it on the day to hopefully make the filming process a lot more smoother. I had wish I had done this sooner really.

Reflective Comment:
I feel like that with this small plan that filming will go a lot smoother than it has previously. Also now that I've worked with Ronan and Peter a few times I feel confident working with them. 

Magazine article contents 2nd attempt!

So after my first attempt at writing a film review for my ancillary task, I now am going to attempt to write a second attempt. This time I have a better understanding of the mode of address that IndieWire uses so I can better replicate the way they write.

Article

"I don't really know." The following line is said quite a few times during the short film about the Grim Reaper and his unfortunate friend. While many would expect the Grim Reaper to know everything and anything about life and death, but Dying Denial offers a much more humorous and clueless Grim Reaper.

Dying Denial leads with only two characters, however they are extremely strong characters. Nathan, who has recently died, is perplexed about his current predicament and just can't stop asking heavy loaded questions. Asking about religion and the meaning of life, Dying Denial explores several different subjects, but does not offer a definite answer to anything. The film is very open ended and definitely up for discussion.

A highlight of the film is certainly Peter Long's portrayal of the Grim Reaper. Serene, wise and amusing, Peter excels in the role. Acting as a guide for Nathan, and in part the audience, you'd hope that the Grim Reaper is quite alike to how Peter portrays him. His chemistry with Ronan is strong, as Ronan plays the poor guy who has unfortunately died. Ronan plays his role exceedingly well and convincingly.

When you break the film down, all it is is one man's passing on. It doesn't focus on dramatic goodbyes or second chances. Death comes, and there is nothing you can do about it when it does. It's a sombre ending, but as an overall film, it's quite a touching take on dying. The film is open-ended and open to interpretation, so much to the point where anyone could enjoy it.

Reflective Comment:
I'm still not overly happy with the article contents. I feel I am struggling to do it correctly . I have analysed IndieWire so hopefully this second attempt will be closer to the mark. 

Emaze on props

I have created an Emaze on implementing props into my short film.



Reflective Comment:
I am looking forward to adding props to my film. I think it will add more content to the film and add more depth to it. It'll also allow me to add more meaning to my film. 

Music for short film

For the music in my short film I turned to my friend Greg. Greg does A-Level music and was a part of my group last year for our starter task. I showed Greg my first draft and told him what type of music I wanted. I told him I wanted a curious and dreamy song, and he said he'd get back to me. Soon after he sent me a draft of a song. I liked the song and me and Greg had a bit of back and forth on how to improve the music.

I have now sent Greg my second draft of my short film with notes on what type of music I want for each scene. Greg is currently on holiday but once he is back he's going to work off my notes to make some more draft songs. With those we can test it with the footage and go forward from there.

I am having issues with attaching the music to my blog, but I will try get this sorted soon.

Reflective Comment:
Music is something that I really struggle with so I am glad that I am starting to make progress with. Hopefully I can get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

Audience feedback survey

I have completed and have just sent out my survey. My survey focuses on both the poster and the short film. Anyone doing the survey looks at the poster first, saying what they like and do not like and what they can infer. Then they watch the short film, and give me feedback on that. Then, they look at the poster again after watching the film and understanding the plot.

I'm putting my survey on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. I'm hoping to get a lot of responses that are honest. When you show someone in person they're always too nervous to say anything negative, so once they can analyse it without me over their shoulder they're bound to be more honest about it.

Here are some screenshots of my survey.

Reflective Comment:

I am hoping to get real feedback which is critical and helpful. Hopefully with the feedback I receive I can better improve my short film in it's third draft, and the poster if need be.