Evaluation and Reflection

4th March - 8th March

On the 7th of March, we went on a trip to the Sky Up Academy Studios in Isleworth. In there, we were given a task that was to create a news report on the topic given to us, which was related to gaming. We were split up into four groups, which I was part of Group 3, some others in my group were Dennis, Thomas, Eoin Daly, Azaan, Taren, Chantel, Juhi and Poppy. My role was a scriptwriter, where I (alongside the others) would generate ideas on what should be said in our news report, which would then be typed out by the Sky employee who was in charge of our group. 

11th March - 15th March

This week, I have been mostly focusing on tasks like the Proposal, Pecha Kucha, Potential Research used for the FMP, Ideas for the FMP, alongside finishing off work that I put aside to focus on the FMP. I've definitely had a busy week and I'm currently finishing up some of the tasks that I've focused on to complete, I can safely say I am getting on pretty well in this subject.

18th March - 22nd March

This week, I finished up with all of the work listed on the tracker, though I'm not sure on what to do next. One important thing that happened today was on Wednesday where I did my Pecha Kucha presentation. There was a lot of positive opinions about the presentation, though it was not criticism-free, but the positive did outweigh the negative.

25th March - 29th March

This is the last week in the college until the Easter holidays, this week has been pretty slow all things considered, but one thing that has happened is that I finished my script for the FMP, which is a silent film with no dialogue, only actions are shown. Another thing is I will be working on is research linked to autism, whether that be shorts that follow a similar concept, or experiences from other people that I can use to incorporate into the final film to make the representation more tasteful.

15th April - 19th April

This week, we have went back to college and this is the term where I must start work on filming the FMP, this could include story-boarding it, visualising shots, and also gathering a crew of people who understand my vision, and are willing to work for me. For the planning, I used the Call Sheet, Location Recce, Risk Assessment and Shot List for the FMP, these detail who I believe will be perfect for the project, the details of what I want the shots to look like, and also when filming will presumably begin, which I intend it to be filmed next Monday, and if it doesn't happen, I may schedule it for next Monday.

22nd April - 26th April

Final week of April, and this is where we start production of the FMP. So far, I have finished filming my FMP this Friday, and will now start editing the video and developing the final product. However, the filming process was strenuous to say the least, this involved things like tight schedules to cram in around 10+ scenes, different visions from the skeleton crew that delayed filming, cast members either not being during filming or feeling nervous therefore having to replace them, it was very chaotic. So on Thursday, TJ told me the studio wouldn't be available, which made me realise that I could re-write the script to make it shorter while also keeping the essence of the message/story. I rewrote the whole thing in under an hour and started filming on Friday, which we managed to film it all in an hour. The actor's featured were Eoin Daly and Poppy, the cameraman was Dennis, and the sound recorder was Thomas.

29th April - 3rd May

This week, we have now less than a month until the deadline to the FMP, and I can say this week has definitely been a massive improvement from last week. To get my FMP stuff out of the way, I finished editing the whole thing, using Premiere Pro to edit it, like I said in the Pecha Kucha, I have never really used Premiere Pro that much, and initially I struggled with it, but I managed to push forward and found it relatively easy all things considered. Though, I made several versions because while I saved the first edited one in the Mac room, that meant it couldn't be properly transferred over to the other room, which did suck, but I managed to finish the second version on Friday, so it wasn't too bad. One thing about the FMP is that it runs at a minute and thirty-five seconds, which is very short all things considered, but to me, the FMP conveys it's message across and pretty much tells you everything without padding it for too long. I'm scared when it comes to presenting it, but I hope it gets a pass at least.

Another thing I did over the week was acting in Denis' FMP, which I play the main character, I won't tell you a lot, but what i can say is that it has been a pleasure working on the FMP, though sometimes the directing was less-than-stellar to what I considered directing, though I didn't mind it too much, and we are supposedly filming next week on Wednesday so I will mention that next week. 

Another FMP project I helped be in was Hannah's FMP about diversity in media, which I mentioned autism in media, specifically Rain Man on how it appeals to both demographics like my FMP would, but also mentioning how it can perpetuate a stereotype that all autistic people are the same, which is not true at all. I also talked about a character I thought represented me the best, which I went with George Newman from UHF (1989), because I really didn't know which one represented me the best, but George Newman was one i thought represented me the best, as it is one of my favourite films of all time, but that's something worth talking about for another day.

Easily the most productive week I have ever had at my time in the college, and I'm more optimistic from where I am currently to what will happen in the future, whether that be achieving my dreams as being a director, finding new jobs related to film that will satisfy me at best, and meeting new people that I will be more than happy to work with on either my projects or his projects.

6th May - 10th May

On Wednesday, I finished filming for Dennis' FMP, though it was frustrating to say the least, because there was a lot of people entering in the scene, which essentially ruined the take because I got cold feet when it came to continuing the scene with people around, but we managed to get it in one take due to it being after break which meant there was pretty much no one there, which was a relief. 

Thursday rolls in, and I finish with adding the standard Harvard Referencing in my Bibliography alongside going into detail about how I edited the final product and the methods I used to create it, all I need to do is design the posters, see which one is the best to use, then write a final evaluation, and then I'm finished. I am honestly pretty happy at the work and planning I have done for the FMP to come together despite the many hardships I faced during the production, which also included acting in other people's FMP alongside one of my other friend's FMP.

Speaking of acting in other's FMP, I was one of the main characters in Eoin Daly's FMP (the jokes write themselves don't they), Daly was the main character and I was his friend, I won't reveal what the story was about, but it was a heap of fun for me because I got to play a negative character, which I then used to create my own version where he is kind of like a cartoony villian, but deep down he genuinely cares about his friends, it's just that he get's too overly angry when something different happens in a conversation.

It is now Friday, now 2 weeks until the deadline, and I have completed photographing the actor's for use on the graphic posters I have in mind. So now I gotta design the posters, then I evaluate all of it, and then I'm finished for now, since we have an exhibition coming up, which would include my work. Another part of filming I have to do is filming for Eoin Daly's FMP, which is meant to be the opening scene supposedly, but we will see how it goes on Monday.

13th May - 17th May

This week, I am around 80 - 90% complete with the FMP, I designed the graphic posters and evaluated both, which means I now have to get feedback from it, then I can evaluate the FMP, and then I'm finished with everything, and can start resting knowing I finished something I've developed for over 2 months.

The thing about Eoin Daly's FMP is that he seems to have a problem where TJ isn't getting back to him, which does suck but hopefully he can get it complete by the time the deadline is tomorrow.

On Friday, I collected feedback for my posters to see which one would people prefer, so far, 5 people responded. 1 of them preferred the first poster, while the other 4 preferred the second poster, so now, the final poster for my FMP will be the stick figure poster. In my opinion, I do prefer the second poster over the first one, mainly because of the design choice I made that combined a human with a stick figure anatomy as the main focal point of the poster.

Also, Yasmin did watch the FMP, and she very much liked it, alongside someone else who I don't know the name of, but he kinda liked it, but one issue he had was that the part where Poppy speaks, it was only in mono and not stereo, so he showed me how to balance the audio on Premiere Pro, which was a nice lesson I learnt about using Premiere Pro. 

Final Evaluation

My intention for making the final project was essentially given a voice to autistic people, seeing as I'm part of the autism spectrum as well, and knowing that while autistic people do get some media representation, it's often pretty rare, so the final project was more of a way to have autistic people both have a voice and feel some representation. The message of the final project was to provide some hope towards autistic people, saying that even though they have flaws socially, that doesn't stop them from meeting someone special, such as a new friend like in the FMP. The audience for the film was autistic people themselves but also people who know someone who is autistic, whether that be an allistic person or someone who doesn't consider themselves autistic. In terms of furthering my education/career, I felt like I've learnt a lot from filming the video, such as filming scenes individually instead of in-sequence, the power of editing in terms of cutting small clips together, and also audio and how you can alter it to make it watchable, these skillsets are very useful for making a project, whether it's good or bad, because if you want people to watch something, you need to present it like you put actual work into making it look decent, because things like bad sound can turn people away from a film, no matter if it's good.

Research for the FMP including analysing a short from 2022 called 'Beautiful Bear', which follows an autistic man and his toy bear. I essentially talked about the actions the main character had that autistic people have, such as being sensitive to loud noises, poor understanding of social rules etc. Alongside researching a short, I also conducted a survey that asked people about autistic representation, alongside aspects that could be influenced on the final film, such as filming it in black and white. I also took some influence from my actual life when researching, such as what I would be like in a setting like this, how I would speak, and how would I move. I made sure to be as accurate as possible in order to make the project not seem like an insult to autistic people, so I made sure not to lean into stereotypes about autism, I more so wrote the character as an average person with a few autistic traits to him, that way, it can appeal to autistic people who feel represented, and non-autistic people, who would feel more engaged with the story and maybe wanting to see more of where it goes.

The audience for the film is mainly for autistic people, but can also appeal to non-autistic people for two different ways, one way is autistic people feeling represented and feeling comfortable about who they are, and another way is non-autistic who have a friend/relative that is autistic. One method I did in terms of appealing to both sides was making the film short, simplistic, and easy to digest, as the film is only a minute and thirty-five seconds, there are only 3 shots throughout, and features almost no dialogue expect for the middle part. This form of simplicity helps appeals to anyone of any age, it doesn't try to be profoundly deep, or bore you, it simply wants to tell a simple feel-good story and nothing more. This helps appeal to wide range of audience because sometimes, people just want to watch something that makes them feel happy, so I chose to make it simple as, but i did make sure not to make it too simple, otherwise that would actually be insulting the audience for being stupid and thinking they're too dumb to understand complex themes.

In terms of social commentary on my short, it does raise some awareness about autistic people and their difficulties fitting with society, this is an issue a lot of autistic people face and some people dismiss it as them just being rude when it's really not the case. I also relate to difficulty fitting in society mostly from how I act and how I present myself, so this film can act as a way of showing non-autistic people our struggles in the hopes they be more understanding when it come to dealing with autistic people. The short also tackles the idea of autistic people in the media, which a common stereotype is that we are either genius' or braindead, with no in-between. This short has the character not being either, but just a regular autistic person, one who does struggle fitting in, but one who has a decent understanding of being a normal person. The short challenges the stereotype I mentioned by portraying the character inside the middle, that way, it shows people with autism aren't different from normal people, but do have characteristic traits that do make them stand out in some way.

For the project, for filming, I rented the studio, got two people to act in it, and used both a camera and a mic. For editing, I used Premiere Pro, and for graphic poster design, I used both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Most of it was pretty easy to use, though I did have to look up how to do certain things I wanted to do, which was to say a lot of times because I never really used these softwares ever in my life, so you could say it was like a learning experience. In terms of how much I'm improved since doing this project, I have had more of an improvement than I was when I first started, though I still don't know how to pull off more complex designs, I know how to create stuff in a basic and competent level.

The final project you see was vastly different from my initial idea for the FMP. The initial idea came from linking something from my identity to use as the main basic for the FMP. The final idea came from my autism and how I am around new people, which I felt was a perfect enough storyline for my FMP. The initial idea had a visible crowd of people, alongside the main character initially moving away from the other character, but difficulties in shooting like tight times and shooting in-sequence essentially turned it into a colossal train-wreck, which I then rewrote it to make it more simple, while still keeping the fundamentals of the original story. In terms of the final finished product, I am proud of most of it, some things I would've wanted to tweak is the cinematography, because in the shots with the two characters, they always change positions every shot, which is a bit distracting once you notice. Another thing I would've wanted to tweak is the part where the other character holds the main character's hand and they warm up to one another. What I don't like is how sudden it all is, especially since there is no buildup towards it. How I would've improved it is film more scenes about her thinking what she can do to show the main character she likes him without being too pushy, that way, it gives the audience a room to digest what happened last scene, and what will happen next scene.

In terms of audience evaluation, I have showed it to one of my teachers Yasmin, and some other classmates, but I have mostly kept it a secret, mainly because I fear them thinking the film is bad. This is essentially the norm for people who make films, where other people may think it's a good film, but the director of that film wouldn't think so. Art is subjective, so obviously not everyone will think it's perfect, and one thing no one will want to hear is criticism, I know I'm scared of having criticism, but criticism is necessary if you really want to make it big, since criticism can be used to make better products in the future. So far, no one has said mostly anything negative about it so that brings a bit of self-confidence about my film, aside from the flaws in the cinematography that I mentioned, but I'm also worried about if there is another flaw in my film that I didn't know of, which is why I've essentially kept it a secret, but once we get ot the exhibition part, I will be able to see if people really like it or don't.