Final Major Project- Learners Agreement Evaluation

Now that the module is drawing to a close I would like to take this opportunity to evaluate my performance in comparison to my learners agreement that I wrote at the beginning, this is a chance to look at my performance in the module next to my expectations for the module and to see how I did compared to how I wanted to, I will spend the remainder of this post looking at specific statements and then looking at how they turned out in practise, so without further ado, here we go.

So first up is the fact that I would be serving the role of director and producer on Trick of the Dark, the former of which I found a lot easier than the second role. Directing I found easier as this was the creative element, I found it relatively easy to shot list and storyboard the film as well as to script it, although there were some script changes to be made which did put us back a bit and I must say that while I did have a clear visual vision for the film in my head, I didn't do enough practise with the shots to make sure I could achieve the visuals I wanted, so to evaluate my role as director on this film I feel that I did well and had clear creative ideas I just should have done more practise shoots but this is on me and in all honesty, we did practise some of the more complex scenes so it isn't a massive problem. My role as a producer was somewhat less successful if I am being honest, though perhaps in hindsight I did do what I needed to do it just took longer than it should, particularly I am referring to casting, because this took a while it meant that everything else got pushed back (some of which shouldn't have but I talk about that in my evaluation). The next part of this I talked about was dealing with isolation and mental health, a subject which is very much in the public eye with the current 'campaign against loneliness' campaign that is going out. I feel the film holds true to the messages I set out to convey but they are perhaps not as clear as I thought they would be. Although I certainly achieved my goal of not covering them in a tasteless or offensive way, so in this sense I was successful. The final aspect I focused on was my cave, as you have seen in my research and blog, this is something we took great time in trying to nail. In the end we ended up going to a cave that we had visited many times but it was the way we shot it that made it in the end, mixing the studio and cave together proved to be very successful and I feel really sold the trapped feel of the film.

Just as there was not a lot to be said in my original learning agreement, there is not a great deal to be said about the production now, this is because what I do have to say is in my evaluation and there wasn't an awful lot I can say about how I performed in terms of sticking to my agreement. That being said I will evaluate how I feel I did in comparison to the small amount which I did write in my agreement. So firstly I was right about what my primary role on this film was, and that was paperwork, I was mainly responsible for the production logs which I did on the majority of shoots and I believe proved useful when it came to the edit. I also did a few risk assessments when I was required and got the actor's contracts sorted to upload to the VLE as proof of them signing to appear in the film. Beyond this I had little to do in terms of grade-able work, I tried to make myself as useful on set as possible and at times was like a runner, which I have no issue with as I enjoy physical work. The other role I assumed on set was on set photographer, we had a distinct lack of production stills in the early shoots so I took some and handed them over to Lee to edit so they could be used for promotional purposes for the uni and for the film. I was also correct in my prediction that this film would be of academic use in terms of working in a larger crew as it was interesting to see the division of work between departments and to find my place in all of that.

First off with regards to My Name is John, my role did become more clear and defined and I was as expected, there to give guidance for the most part and I also played my part in preparing the actors and getting them into character ready for the camera for when Sarah wanted to start shooting, this was ideal for me as it was what my minor project was centred around so I was going at this with a degree of expertise on the matter. I will say that I feel the film benefitted from the work I did do on characters, however, due to the tight schedule of the film and the fact that I was on holiday in Sweden during the bulk of filming (because it took place during reading week) I do feel that my input on this film was severely cut down because of this schedule of filming while I wasn't able to help out. However, there is no one to blame for this, it is just unfortunate that we only had John for such a small amount of time with John Archer (the lead) so on the whole I feel I contributed well but lament over unfortunate timing that I sadly couldn't give more.

I would now like to evaluate my performance on each of the three learning outcomes.

LO1

New creative practises is a strange phrase I feel and I am unsure exactly of what it means in terms of what that looks like within the module, however, I experimented with new sound techniques in using the radio mics and a boom mic, I also did ADR for the first time as well as attempting to build a cave (which is guess is experimentation) we also were using a new camera so there was a whole new list of challenges that we solved with smaller cameras but would have to be sorted again with a new, heavier camera, one that comes to mind is the fact we could no longer use the steadicam.

LO2

Demonstrate a critical and contextual understanding, I feel there is no issue with this as my film deals with mental health issues and family issues around isolation, so I feel I have covered this.

LO3

There have been a great many problems on Trick of the Dark which I feel have been resolved so I feel I have this covered with no problem. I have also conducted a great deal of independent research so I again feel I have no issue in covering this learning objective.

To quote a famous poem "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry", this plan was in almost no way at all followed, the location and casting of the film took a long time and as such held everything up, I tried to do what I could up to this point but the film was inevitably delayed due to my inability to cast and my indecision in terms of what cave to use for the film. Now that that has been said, I feel that the issues we had in following this plan ultimately were ironed out or perhaps more accurately dealt with in that we still managed to make the film and make it well, perhaps not as well as we could have and unfortunately I did leave the crew with a lot to do but to go through this and still come out with a good film is somewhat commendable I feel and while I have been hard on myself for not following the action plan, I have given reason as to why and shown that I still managed to make the film despite the issues that came.

A lot of what I have glossed over will be covered more in my evaluation but that was a useful exercise I feel in gauging how I have done in terms of following what I set out to do.