Evaluation and Feedback of 1 Minute Short Film

This is my evaluation for my 1 minute short film "A Day in the Life of Feet". Firstly, because the short film was so short I found figuring out the concept and main ideas really easy as there was not much to it. Apart from the match on action at the beginning the rest of the shots were really simple and quick to film, and actually finding the actors to be in the 1 minute short was the hardest bit! The filming was done very quickly and filmed over a couple of days during our lessons, we also filmed on a simple handheld cam recorder supplied by the school. However, on the other hand, I found the editing rather difficult. With having never used FinalCut Pro before in my life it was a challenge trying to work it out. In the end we managed to figure out the basics of FinalCut Pro on the macs and we were able to edit the shots of our 1 minute short film together to finish with a complete short film.

Personally, I feel very proud of what I have accomplished considering I had never used the software FinalCut Pro before nor have I ever filmed and made a short film or video with a purpose before. I also feel that this has proven me and given me enough experience to now go on further to now focus on my main task; a short film roughly 5 minutes long. Spending time filming my 1 minute video has allowed me to expand on my knowledge and creativity, for instance, when we filmed the 1 minute video "A Day in the Life of Feet" we decided that we were going to put the camera on a tripod, hold the tripod the wrong way around to then have the camera at a low angle making it easier for us to film the close ups of peoples feet without making it look messy. Finally, with the techniques of FinalCut Pro, we used the power of the software to turn out footage the right way up, since using and holding the tripod upside-down left us with footage that was also upside-down. 

I will now go on to carry on using these techniques I have learnt along the way whilst producing my 1 minute short film, and I will also expand on my knowledge and learn new things whenever I am filming or editing. I want my final short film to look as professional as can be with all the little resources I have available to me, so therefore, I will make sure that I never fall behind and always know what I am doing to that assure that I am confident with my project unlike the 1 minute video. 

Disappointingly, in the 1 minute video we slightly ran out of time which could be due to the fact I didn't know how to use FinalCut Pro, due the lack of time, the sound was very poor. Throughout most of the video it lacks in sound which prevents it from looking professional. However, we did manage to add diegetic sound such as the school bell which did help with establishing the location and the plot. Overall, I feel that FinalCut Pro was the downfall to the 1 minute video as more knowledge of editing would have enhanced my video greatly. Next round, I will ensure that time on editing is spent wisely as the editing has a greater effect of the overall short film as a whole. In order to do this I need to fiddle around with FinalCut Pro to establish what does what, theoretically this has already been done as this is what my preliminary task was originally for; to get a feel for filmmaking covering all aspects. 

On the other hand, I am proud of what I have accomplished so far and I have learnt from my mistakes so I have a lot to bare in mind for my future project of which I will be creating a short film of around 5 minutes long. 

~Feedback~

Nathalie - "Considering you have never made anything like this before and this was your first shot it is pretty good, I like the close ups of the feet walking. But I would work on the sound and making it look more professional in the future."