Depict Evaluation

Our task was to produce a 90 second short film that could be an appropriate candidate for the international depict challenge. the idea that i and my team chose was a comical Nerf war. we were inspired by the drama and the action that surrounds a typical war film. We wanted to include this within our film to emphasise the comedy. This pieces required multiple important documents in order to film a successful motion picture. We produced a shot list to get an idea of the complete run through of the film before developing this into a series of story boards. These story boards were completed in a lot more detail which allowed us to create a more accurate finished product Other processes that we had to complete in order to be able to film this piece include: 

• Location recces and releases - in which we scouted different locations that we could possible use to film in and the correct releases to allow this to happen. Ours happened to be a public park so a release was not appropriate.
• Risk assessment - this legal document explained and health and safety risks that we could potentially come in contact with and stated ways to prevent them. For example: crew or equipment could have been harmed or damaged by the Nerf guns so they were only to be fired on command with consideration of surroundings.
• Talent releases - All of the cast members that we scouted were under the age of 18 so minor talent release forms were required in order to feature the cast within our short film.
• Budgeting sheet - this form listed all of the props and costumes that needed to be bought and how much it had cost us. The sheet allowed us to total how much had been spent. This allowed the college to reimburse any students which reflects how a Hollywood organisation would total the costs of their films in order to pay any other crew and companies that had helped along the way.

Our final product and our original idea differed slightly in the meas that some of the comedy was lost. The drama and action in our product was elevated creating a stronger link to our influence. I am very pleased with the final outcome, to me the most successful part of is the editing. The shots are cleanly cut and the sound effects, including the music, fit well into the production. I believe that this is the most successful aspect of the project but if i were to undertake it again i would re-shoot some of the shots, to ensure that they are clean, in focus and smooth. I would also make some of the shots longer and have less of them so each shot was long enough to register in the viewers head. After watching back the beginning i feel that there are too many shots and i got confused because it was too quick to focus. Overall i enjoyed making this project. Allowing my creativity to flow as well as taking on different roles such as the director, camera man and actress were really fun for me. 

After viewing our films in class our short film was praised for the concept, the editing and the sound effects. They loved the music and the comedy element of the film. However, because we lost some of the comedy that we originally planned on, they were confused as to why the guns were still Nerf guns. Also they suggested as an improvement that we remove or re-edit the fire effect at the end of the film.