Evaluation

Project evaluation

For this project I had to design and create a short film. This film could have been live action or animation, formalist or realistic. I decided to do a animated film because I was partly inspired by the film ‘Kiwi’ it made me want to do a film with animals and I knew that the easiest way to do this, was by making an animated film. My aim was to create an animated, uplifting-film, likeable for all ages of audience that could tell a story with a strong use of narrative perspective.

When I was deciding on what animals to use I had many ideas, insects, sea life, birds and made-up creatures. I decided to use sheep because just the idea of them gave me so many different plots and storylines. I had the saying ‘sheep are followers’ stuck in my head and this gave me an idea to create a main character which was a sheep called shay that goes against that saying.
Before I made my actual film I needed to have some pre-production materials. I did a: Gantt chart, to plan my schedule; mood board, to portray the basic style of my film; synopsis, to explain my story in a clear way and some storyboards to structure out my film. What helped me the most was my story board because it gave me a clear idea of how I was going to produce and structure my film and I was able to follow it out fairly well.

To start off I couldn't decide between filming with stop motion and play dough or making an animated piece on the application, ‘Flash’. I decided to test out both of these styles by making two pre-production exercises to help me decide. Making the flash animation was a success I managed to finish it in quick timing and most people said that they were impressed by it. However when I tried to make a stop-motion piece I experienced too many technical problems to finish it. This quickly helped me in my decision to stick with Flash.

When I started on making my film I could tell that timing was going to be the biggest issue for me, in order to overcome this, I decided to make the characters face expressions exaggerated and more defined. This meant that I didn’t need to have any dialogue in my film and could spend longer time on the animation rather than the sound and editing. This decision worked extremely well for me, because it meant that I could produce a better quality animation than what I would of done if there was dialogue and the face expressions made the film more enjoyable to watch.

My aim to use narrative perspective didn't turn out as bold as I intended it to be. I managed to have some dramatic irony in the film by having the other characters more clueless than Shay. This helped bacause not only did this enhance the dramatic irony but it also increased the sympathy the audience had for Shay.

I believe my creative vision was realised, I wanted my film to be funny yet able to make the audience sympathise with the main character. When a few people viewed the film, they laughed and felt sympathetic at the right moments, I asked them to explain the storyline and they seemed to understand what was going on pretty well. They were also impressed with the style of cartoon I had done which i was particularly suprised and happy with. I beleive this meant that my film had a good quality and style to it.

Overall I beleive my film itself was a success, it was undastandable with or with out sound and turned out entertaining to watch. I do, however, think that the sound for the film could of been improved if I had recorded my own sound effects that would of suited the style of the film more. The ones i had chosen sounded too realistic, cartoon styled sounds would have increased the quality of this.

I have learnt alot from the process of making a short film. The biggest thing I have learnt is that storyboarding your film before you make it is very important because it can help you with both time planning and how you structure your film. I have also learnt about just how much varieties of films there are, from formalist to realistic, animated to live action and comedy to drama films. This intrigues me because it sets out just how many different ideas for plots and storylines there are that are waiting to be made.

By Olivia =]

Pre-Produciton Materials.

I have done a story board which i am aiming to follow very closely when I'm making me short film. here are the pictures of it:

Synopsis

Synopsis
My film is going to be about a sheep that goes against the concept that if your called a sheep you ‘follow the crowd’.
It’s set in a countryside surrounded by large, green hills and a river. Shay/Shane/Shafiq the sheep is an extraordinary sheep that thinks more than the others, he is relaxing in a meadow, near a lake whilst munching on some grass with the rest of his herd. Meanwhile, a greedy duck called Dan is becoming annoyed with the amount of space the sheep are taking up and decides to make up a plan to get rid of them.
Shay/Shane/Shafiq the sheep is still enjoying the grass when he disturbed by the amount of noise Dan the duck is making. Shay/Shane/Shafiq starts having suspicions on Dan and spies on him.
Dan the Duck walks through the herd then grabs all the sheep’s attention and they follow him. Shay/Shane/Shafiq become more suspicious and paranoid but follows anyway.
Dan the Duck leads the sheep to the edge of a cliff edge and flies off the edge with the sheep still following him. More and more sheep keep falling off the edge but when Shay/Shane/Shafiq comes near the edge he realises what’s happening and backs away. He goes the opposite way to all the other sheep and tries to warn them but they all ignore them.
Once all the sheep have fallen Shay/Shane/Shafiq goes back and looks over the cliff edge to find all the sheep bothered and annoyed scrambled in a big ball.
Shay/Shane/Shafiq spots a path back up and leads them to it.
The sheep go back to the meadow to find the duck. They punish him and learn to listen to Shay/Shane/Shafiq the sheep next time.

Statement of Intentions - Redraft

For my project I am going to be doing a short animation film aimed for a wide variety of audience from children to parents. I would like to produce a moral story or a story with a confusing question that gets answers at the end with a twist.

I am going to be studying that makers of:

Kiwi

And Morph

I am studying these makers because they use the same styles of animation i would like to try out. I am either going to use stop motion or flash animation. I am going to do a story about either an animal or a made up creature which is what both of these films have done. I also like the way the storyline includes a lot of narrative perspective to keep the audience intrigued with the films. Throughout the 'Kiwi' film there is restrictive narrative which keeps the audience guessing and wanting to know what the character is doing and why until the end. In the 'Morph' clips the audience can tell what's going to happen but the characters are completely oblivious to what's going on, this dramatic irony contributes some humor to the peice. I am going to use one of these narrative perspective techniques to base my story line around so that I can help my audience understand the characters I create or portray an unusual view on the everyday world.

I am going to produce my film using flash animation becuase it is quick and easy to use. I am planning to keep in schedule by using the application 'Gantt project', i am using this application because it is quick and easy to use. To help structure my ideas, I will make a mood board to make my project more specific on the theme. When devoloping my ideas I plan to start by writing out my script and then producing the storyboard because I find it easier for me to start out with the dialogue when thinking up a story. I will then use my storyboard to develop my cartoon on the application 'Flash'. When doing this one of my mane focuses will be to ensure that the movement of the cartoon can math the dialogoue from the script. Once I have completed the animation, I will begin recording the voiceover for the clip, followed by the background sounds and sound effects.

Once I have compleated all of my productive actions I plan to go over and look through my film and evaluate the work so far then add any alterations i wish to make with the peice, add the finishing touches and then evaluating my final work. This ensure that I don't any mistakes that I could of prevented.

Production excersise

This week I have experimented with how I am going to produce my film, I used the programme Flash to make my cartoon. I am very happy with how it has turned out.

Gantt Project - Schedule

Today I Re-Planned out my schedule on Gantt Project. I prefer this plan because it is more realistic and easier to follow. It will help me to know where I am in the future during my film project.

Statement of intentions

For my project I am going to be doing a short animation film aimed for a wide variety of audience from children to parents. I would like to produce a moral story or a story with a confusing question that gets answers at the end with a twist.
I am going to be studying that makers of:
Kiwi

and Morph.
I am studying these makers because they use the same styles of animation i would like to try out. I am either going to use stop motion or flash animation. I am going to do a story about either an animal or a made up creature which is what both of these films have done. I also like the way the storyline includes a lot of narrative perspective to keep the audience intrigued with the films. Throughout the 'Kiwi' film there is restrictive narrative which keeps the audience guessing and wanting to know what the character is doing and why until the end. In the 'Morph' clips the audience can tell whats going to happen but the characters are completely oblivious to whats going on, this dramatic irony some humor to it.
I am going to use one of these narrative perspective techniques to base my storyline around so that I can help my audience understand the characters I create or portray an unusual view on everyday life.