Depict short evaluation.

Depict short evaluation.

This is an evaluation of our depict short "Shell shocked". In this evaluation I will be focusing on the camera work, the Mise-en-scene, editing of the film and also the sound. I will be also be comparing the final product and our pre-production based on these categories whilst commenting on reasons why we were and weren't able to do so, and also suggesting ways of improving the short in general.

Camera work/Mise-en-scene

 This is our shot list and storyboard.  These detail each shot we planned to use for the film. We had both the shot list and the story board with us while shooting the short so we could follow it to help us produce the product we had planned to. However while shooting the short we began to have some different ideas, and also came across some difficulties which meant we had to deviate slightly from our pre-production paper work. The first shot tells us we intended to use a medium shot using a high angle showing the bench and the people sitting on it. Then to lower the camera and zoom onto the group of snails and to then cut to a shot of "slug", a character in the film. For the most part the first shot in the short matches up to the description in the shot list. We did however have to make a change to the cut and the movement of the camera. The cut we planned was to cut just to slug after the camera had craned down to reveal the snails. We changed our minds about this however as without the proper equipment, like a crane, the movement of the camera from a high angled position to the ground was very hard, and didn't look smooth enough to use. So instead we have the camera moving down towards the ground and then a quick cut to a over head view of the group, a previously unplanned cut. This doesn't look as nice as a smooth camera movement, but it does look better the camera movements we managed to record; and was therefore a compromise we had to make. positioning the snails was also harder than we had anticipated and cutting to the snails already in a group made the filming easier and we also felt it looked better than having shots of snails suddenly appearing out of thin air which would have ruined the continuity of the short. The first shot is also slightly shorter than the shot list says roughly lasting 8 seconds instead of the planned 15. This was because as we filmed it and watched the first shot we felt 15 seconds was too long especially as the shots purpose was to just introduce the snails and nothing more. Shot 2 was a medium, straight up shot of "slug" as planned. We also developed the idea of using freeze frames and having a narrator introduce the characters after their first lines in the short. This wasn't included in the shot list, however was in the story board and the shell shocked script. The rest of the shots and cuts were all to be medium straight up shots of the individual snails with the camera focusing on which ever snail was speaking. This just involved holding the camera as close to the floor as possible so the snails were facing the camera. These shots do match up to our shot list, however do not match the drawing in our storyboard. This is mostly due to the fact no one in the group was a gifted drawer and also the fact we were unaware of the proportions involved before we had started filming and realised that the audience wouldn't know which snail was talking if the shot focused on more than one sail. Something else that was present in the storyboard but different in the film is that we cannot see the feet of either jack or Alana in the back ground. This wasn't for any reason other than us not realising until it was too late, probably because we were focusing more on positioning the snails. There is also a shot of trigger that is blurry in the film. It would have been nice to re shoot the particular shot however because of the difficulties filming the snails it is unlikely we would have gotten a shot that didn't break the continuity of the film as after we finished filming we let the snails go. On the whole I was quite happy with the camera work. Having the needed equipment would have benefited the short great and enabled us to get closer to the short we were trying to create.

Editing and continuity

The first cut in the film takes place as the camera is moving down towards the snails, cutting to a bird’s eye view of the snails. The cut isn’t a nice one, however was a compromise we had to make. Originally we had planned to lower the camera smoothly down to the floor revealing the snails. This proved to be very difficult without any purpose built equipment so we felt instead of scrapping the shot completely we would use a quick cut to reveal them instead. All of the footage seen was actually recorded in 1080p and captured all of the snails in a group. We then switched the video from 1080p to 720p. This allowed us to zoom in closer on the snails and cut from one to the other neatly whilst maintaining continuity. obviously this had a negative effect on the resolution of the film however for the most part the film still looks clear and I like the way although the different shots focus on individual snails, the sides of some snails are still visible showing they are still in a group which maintains the continuity of the short. The freeze frames were done by taking frames from the short and then editing them in photo shop and then inserting them back into the edit. On the whole we liked the way they worked with the film and allowed the narrator to introduce each character. We would have liked to perhaps make them more stylized and cartoon like  but this proved to be very difficult and we were running short on editing time.

When it came to editing the sound which in this case was the recorded speech, we had to match up the right dialogue with the right cut. This took some time however was done efficiently and just involved deleting the parts of the audio we didn't need and placing them in the correct part of the short. I would have liked to add an ambient sound track behind it as the speech sounds like it was recorded in a room and just sounds a bit out of place as the snails are outside. Also I would have liked the gaps between each characters lines to have been shorter as it sounds like each snail is reading the lines off of a piece of paper rather than it being a spontaneous conversation. However we did follow the script exactly which was written by myself using Celtx.

Sound

As for sound we pretty much stuck to the plan. We had the rock n roll music at the beginning as planned which gave a really nice gritty feel to the short from the offset as well as helps to grab the audience's attention. We also have some music in the back ground that acts as filler music, this helps the flow of the short and helps carry the dialogue and was a nice addition to the film. The dialogue its self was very clear and recorded on a microphone brought in by jack. There could have been some improvements however. As I've said before the time between the snails responses to one another are in my opinion a bit too long at times which results in a conversation that doesn't sounds spontaneous or real and given the chance I would have changed this. We did follow the script exactly however which I was pleased with. Something that now after watching the film I have realised is missing from the film, an ambient soundtrack, for a group of snails outside the voices sound a lot like they are inside, this would have had a massive positive effect on the film and regarding sound would probably be the improvement I would be most eager to make.

Conclusion

 As a whole I am reasonably happy with the film considering the restricted tools we had to create the short. It would have been nice to follow our pre production down to the letter however the finished piece still had all the main elements of our original idea which for the most part were all completed to a standard I and our group were happy with.