Creative Media Reflection

1. Describe any problems or difficulties your group encountered during the planning. These may include; organizational problems, group related issues, etc.
A prominent difficulty my group encountered was developing the ending to my script. We found that we wanted to have a non cliche ending, something that would remain with the viewer after they walked out of the room. Further development to the storyline was also needed and that took a few weeks to construct.
2. Clarify any time-management issues your group encountered during the planning. These may include; organisational problems, group related issues, etc.
My group was relatively organised with the exception of Ruby being away and myself and Issie being un-able to get access to footage that we needed, but we soon figured this out and got 8gb usb's as well as Issie taking the hard drive and putting it in her locker so that if anyone was away there was easy access to it. Ruby was also away quite often so this affected the input she had with parts of the project. I think that this was a small issue as it reduced the amount of ideas regarding editing.
3. Discuss whether your group made effective use of the provided templates to assist the film-making process.
Our group definitely used the pre-production templates to their full advantage, and often referred to the to develop our ideas. We seldom used the post-production templates, which we, upon reflection should have used more often.
4. Explain whether the planning process helped your group during filming. In particular, discuss whether the use of devices such as storyboards, shot-lists, and rough edits assisted throughout the filming process.
When we first created our storyboard (final) we wrote out the scenes and what we needed to film within them and this helped so much. We didn't exactly refer to our full storyboards throughout the filming process, considering we knew our synopsis back to front and had a shot list we knew we could film successfully :) The rough edit we put together also helped us get an idea for our final editing where everything needed to go. It formed the base and skeleton of our final film.
5. Describe any problems or difficulties your group encountered during the filming process. These may include; organisation problems, unreliable cast members, group related issues, equipment problems, etc.
When we were filming my brother got a bit frustrated and tired because he is a teenage boy, which is understandable but um that affected the scene when jackson explains the lie as he didn't look convincing. An equipment problem we had was that we didn't realise that the tripod had a lever which you could wind and un-wind to make this pole go up and give you extra height. This was quite annoying as we had to get tables and chairs to get a higher angle, good thing we realised this sooner than later in the filming process.
6. After reviewing your footage and completing the rough cut of your film, describe any aspects of your film, which need to be addressed. ie. does your group need to reshoot any scenes; are any additional shots required; are there any scenes which worked better than expected.
Yes, after we constructed our rough edit we realised that we needed to film an extra scene and that required myself and Issie to on separate occasions take home a camera and film these scenes. This was the scene before the park scene, when Jackson and Sarah wake up. A scene that worked better than expected is the second lab scene, where Sarah finds the file, there are some edits that Ruby made with the draw opening and I think that it works quite well :)
7. List any skills, techniques or tricks you have discovered during the project.
I gained a lot of filming technique skills such as angles, types of shots etc. I also gained a lot of knowledge with Final Cut Pro, i now know how to use a majority of features on Final Cut and I am really happy that if I wished to make a film myself that i have the skills and tools to do so.
8. Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to throughout your project. Have you provided enough evidence to support your work?
I feel like i could have reflected more on my blog, i did update my pre-production materials but i didn't really update during the editing process, i feel i was too consumed with working on my film to update and when i was working on it after school i didn't update either. I don't think I have provided enough evidence to support my work but I don't really know how i could prove i was editing?
9. Are you satisfied with your groups final result?
I am very satisfied with my groups final result, i feel like we all worked together, we did the best we could and worked really hard on our film. We spent hours outside of school filming and editing and i couldn't be happier with the final product.
10. Would you like to change any aspects of your film?
I think over the holidays we will be doing so but i really want to re-film the stair scene and incorporate the lightbulb scene. So that the scene is more effective.
11. If you could start the project again what would you do differently?
I probably would have thought about the injection scene in more depth, we didn't want it to be visible but not leave the audience wondering what has happened.

Shot List

Scene 1 - sarah in lab doing research
Scene 2 - sarah in lab doing research again..pen runs out, find folder, exits scene
Scene 3 - sarah walking to apartment, unlocks door, enters apartment
Scene 4 - sarah calling Australian Federal Government to report file, Jackson walking towards Sarah's apartment, overhears conversation - 48 minutes later - sarah receives call from Jackson telling her to come over
Scene 5 - sarah walking up stairs of Jacksons house, enters house, drugs cranberry juice in fridge with syringe, jackson calls her downstairs
Scene 6 - jackson holding syringe, sarah's feet and hands as going down stairs, light bulb flickering
Scene 7 - sarah waking up in her bed, receives call from Jackson, looks for file, finds file
Scene 8 - sarah at jacksons house, comes in, sits down and jackson pours cranberry juice into glasses, explains lie to sarah, sarah goes home
Scene 9 - sarah and jackson waking up in beds, brush teeth (all split screen)
Scene 10 - jackson and sarah walk past each other in park, jackson bumps sarah she drops her wallet, the exchange few words, walk away