Directions Unit- Reflection

In this unit I produced a one min sound piece, a directors statement and a four min film.

The one min sound piece could be improved as the ending seems a bit unfinished, as if rushed, it could be smoother but that is an issue with my editing that can also be seen in the four min film as the cuts between scenes do not seem to flow as well as they could do. Some of the sounds in the sound design piece could be more apt to the piece if I had taken the time to record them myself but as I did not they are sounds found from the internet/ final cut pro, they are not original and in a way don't fit the piece.

My directors statement is a document that is meant to reflect my creative decisions as a director in directing the four min film. I don't think that I managed to use this document to its full potential, I think that the directors statement that I have produced is written in an informal manner which is not what is required. Unfortunately in places of the directors statement I don't think that I could of worded it in any other way. I think that my directors statement made me research more into how to be a director but I don't think I managed to figure out what kind of director I am, and my statement is now lacking due to me not being able to decide on what kind of director I am. I think that I was able to get the right photographs for what I needed in the directors statement and if not I took my own photo's to provide an insight into what I was trying to convey in the document. I looked into many different text books for my statement and although I didn't refer to them in the document they helped me learn a lot about pre-production, and some even how to handle actors. The books not mentioned in the directors statement are mentioned on this blog, however the notes I made on the books may not be on the blog. The theories I used in the directors statement were from text books, mostly from the reading list provided by my tutor. Although not a lot of theory is used and I could have produced more detailed theoretical perspective, I wanted to keep it simple as I only wanted to write what I understood to have related to my work and what I believed to be relevant.

My four min film, it is exactly 4 mins as required in the specifications given to me at the beginning of the project. After going through the script and making the relevant changes I produced some preproduction work, that is on this blog. The work lead me to a story board, shot list and script break downs, I used text books that could tell me about the work of a director and how they should do the preproduction work. I did auditions in which I took on board other readings from other text books, these auditions were recorded and most can be found on this blog. After the auditions I gave myself a week to decide if I wanted the actors and for what roles would they be playing, I then looked into producing a call sheet, I found an example in a text book and then came up with a shorter version of the one I found. On the day of the shoot it rained so I felt rushed, but with the patients of my crew and cast I managed to get all of the filming done in the first day of shoot. I failed on creating a buzz track and therefore had to have help off Andy Cox who was creating his own buzz track at the same time I was doing mine. In editing I believe that some of the work is a bit jumpy and could do with being smoothed out but I am not good at that and need more practice. I believe that I managed to get enough coverage over all in the four min film. The audio was an issue in editing but by using the same piece of audio over and over I made the audio almost work, I think that it is a bit patchy in areas and could do with some work by someone who is good with audio. After watching my piece over again I think that the story line is portrayed nicely but I am unsure if the feeling of "Sorrow" comes off strong enough.