Final Evaluation (FMP)

Now that I have finally finished the Final Major Project, its time to do an evaluation not only my thoughts on the project but the feedback of the viewers as well.

I personally think its badly filmed, I don’t like that there is a date and timer in the bottom right corner, but the camera I was using does that automatically. Thankfully it does add to the atmosphere but its still annoying none the less. I’m also not keen on the lighting, its too dark but I couldn’t correct it in post any further than I’d already done. I had to change a lot of ideas as well due to time restrains and lack of materials.

For instance, one idea I had was having ink drawn across the very top of the three walls (left, right and centre)  and then pouring hand sanitizer down the walls causing the ink to react which makes the ink separate and spread in different shades. The look it makes is breath taking, I was exited to film it, but I couldn’t find hand sanitizer anywhere near me. And since I didn’t have a lot of time left I had to improvise. Instead I replaced the previously placed grease proof paper with normal A4 paper and covered them with a most tea bag; causing an old, ugly and dark look.

Another example of a change in plans are the spirals drawn on the floor of the room. I thought it would work better than old rotten fruit and other rotten materials. Simply to heavily present the idea of being plain, old and dull. Fruits and vegetables (I feel) were too happy and colourful for my production, atmosphere and for what I was trying to portray.

If you read my planning and shot-lists, I mention many times that I will use stop motion in this short film. And when you watch the project you can see that I did not use stop motion. The reason why? It was a mixture of not getting the results I was hoping for and time restraints. I have a set for stop motion but no animation actually takes place in my project. I think the picture came out great, aside from my personal imperfections, and I now believe stop motion/animation would have disrupted the flow of the film. One shot in the final project that was inspired by the Quay Brothers who notorious for there use of animation. A scene in one of there pictures ‘Streets of Crocodile’ showed a group of small nails unscrewing, completely on their own, out of there places and moving around. I want to do something like that, and so I made the nails in my project move on there own. I did this by filming the nail and simply using a free hand to move them from outside of the shot and box.

The people that I showed the film to didn’t quite get the meaning. But understood the piece when I explained the meaning. One person said they felt like they were inside my head when watching it. Another said it was ‘creepy’. And one other called it ‘profound’. The only complaint I got was someone saying they were looking forward to see my use of ink and hand sanitizer. Which I regret not adding, as I do believe it would have added a nice touch to the piece.

In personal criticism, I feel that I need to work on lighting and camera skill. But the one thing that I believe I struggle with the most is of course time management. I need to put time into consideration before I plan anything. In my own time, I will try and make this project once more, adding the things I couldn’t. I’m proud of my work, but I’d like to tidy it up a little bit.