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Final Evaluation

What You learnt?

In this final project I learnt how to create a comedy film whilst effectively using their codes and conventions to ensure that they are put across and make the audience laugh instead of them being scared. As this isn't the objective that we are trying to achieve throughout this production.

Why is this important?

This is important to keep in mind because if you are trying to create a comedy film then you don't want to use the codes and conventions of a horror film unless you are making a comedy film that is taking the mick out of a horror, for example the Scary Movie franchise.

What are the problems that you faced?

The problems that we faced were the fact that we struggled to find what the codes and conventions are for a comedy film this made it hard to know exactly what we were trying to go for and this slowed down the starting process for the production. Another problem that we faced was trying to come up with an initial idea as to what we actually wanted to create, Storyline wise. This really didn't help because for us to be able to do anything with our production for example planning for what costumes to put on the characters or where to set the scene first and what the storyline was going to be.

These were all hurdles in the first few weeks of the production but they were overcame and we understood what we were trying to create and then we had our idea and ran with it. We swapped our idea around quite a bit as our first idea was to have these two characters that were hanging out and there was a bit of banter between the two of them and then they get into a fight with some guys that take their football and the character that's big and acts hard doesn't know how to fight and it became a shambles. Compared to our current idea which is two friends that meet up with each other and they get invited to go to a party and then at the end we find out that this party that they end up at isn't the one that they anticipated the entire time its something completely different.

I feel like the problems we faced were something that was quite drastically anticipated by our lack of planning as we had no idea for the start of the production. I'm just glad that we were able to get over the problems eventually and get the end of the production finished.

What would you like to improve?

For our production I would love to improve on how much planning we had done. This is because I would have loved to have given myself enough time to do the script because when the script is well wrote the acting comes along easier because you have an idea of what the character is like and this effectively gives us the better idea as to what the character is about that is on screen. For example Jay from the inbetweeners we know is a working class school teen, we know this from the mixture of good acting and good script writing. I would also love to improve on how the characters looked as I feel like this would've made more of an effect on the viewers as they will be able to distinguish which character is the dumb one and which one isn't and I feel like it might be quite hard to distinguish which is which in this production.

What you will do differently next time?

Next time I would love to have more planning which means being more organized and setting myself out a timeline as to where and when I am going to do things because I feel like with this production it was very much left until last minute for a lot of it and this caused us too panic a lot as we had a short timeframe left to do things like shoot and reshoot scenes. I think that I would also like to have a well written script and look a bit more into what you need to do to create an effective comedy film as I feel like I didn't have a well enough understanding how to create it.

So things I would do next time would be have better planning for sure and to have some more character research and how to create a comedy production that effectively makes people laugh.

How did you come up with your idea. What inspired you and what was your goal?

When we came up with our idea we looked at different comedy productions and we saw what different things we could work with and this is what helped us to the first idea of us creating something that involved a fight in it as one of the successful comedies was cobra kai and I liked the production so I wanted to create something that took inspiration from that and other things too. My goal after seeing this was to create something that was funny and took inspiration from Cobra Kai but our idea changed afterwards. So my final goal for the production was to create a piece of media with the comedy genre that would make people actually laugh and have it effectively look good with the characters and how they look and act with some funny parts in it.

Do you feel you managed to create a product similar to your original intentions and why?

I feel like we created something of the same idea but with the lack of costumes so it's more based off of the characters acting in the production. I think we created something similar to our original intentions because we have gone with the same idea but one of the characters have changed from the initial idea.

Our original idea was to have the two characters with set costumes, Rodney the dopey one was originally supposed to be the intelligent nerd character which was wearing something smart and put together and wears glasses and then the other character Adam was supposed to be a quite cocky character and I think that we've kept that In some aspects because we have him being very confident when talking to Rodney because he knows that he has the intellectual high ground.

Another thing we had different was the characters were supposed to go to an old ladies house because they were given the wrong address and then we changed the address to be something different which was the dopey characters house and then we ended up having the characters going to the correct house and it was a troll as it was an old ladies party and an old lady answers the door.

Overall I think we kept the initial idea we just developed on it and made it better in the ways of we added more to the story.

Do you have a better understanding of the type of product you wanted to make now that your project is complete?

I feel like now that I have completed the project I feel like I have a better view as to what I wanted to create. I feel like I have a better understanding because I am actually able to see what works and what dissent with the product as when you are visualizing it you can't actually tell what works and what doesn't because there's nothing to show you what flows and what doesn't.

Furthermore I personally think that I do have a better understanding of my project because when you are planning to create a production you have a base idea in your head but when you actually create the production it sort of connects the dots and you have a better idea as to what you actually have to do in order for it to look good and maintain the qualities of the genre you are trying to uptake.

How did you decide what you had to research?

When we were coming up with the idea we had to think of different comedy characters we could possibly take inspiration from. One of the first comedy films that came to mind was The Inbetweeners because our production was supposed to be about teens who are going to a party and then they try and buy alcohol from a shop but the character who is trying to buy the alcohol isn't old enough to buy the alcohol so they have a fake ID. This made me think of the scene from Superbad where Fogel gets a fake ID and that's where we started our research.

Was your research thorough enough?

I personally don't think that my research was thorough enough when looking back on it because I could've definitely done some more research that would give me a wider range of character choices to take inspiration from. If we did more research then I feel like we could have come up with some proper costumes and accents and scenes we could have shot with the characters as we would have had different inspirations for us to create different scenes.

How did Primary and Secondary research influence your production?

Through doing research I was able to get some inspiration from different scenes from different films that I liked. When I was researching scenes that I wanted to take inspiration from I was trying to find different films and the way that I came up with Superbad was I typed in comedy films on google and went through and looked for different comedy films that I knew and had a look for different comedy films that fit the same idea as the product I was trying to create.

Did your research allow you to create something new by building of information and work of others?

My research enabled me to create something that took heavy inspiration from Superbad with the ID and the fact of going to a party and trying to get alcohol. I analysed how the characters acted in the similar situations and saw how I could implement it in my own way. I also payed attention to what clothes they were wearing and what they were standing like for example Seth was the cocky character in Superbad and he would always act all tough and keep making digs at the other characters so for my product I flipped it and made it so that the dopey character was the one that was making digs at the cocky character to see how it would work.

How did you ensure you planned to the best of your ability?

We ensured to plan to the best of our ability through trying to set dates on when we would shoot some of the production and we would plan out where we would shoot at what time and made sure that the shoot wasn't too late so that it wasn't too dark for the shoot but it looked like what we wanted it to because the party in the script was supposed to start at about 5pm but where we are in summer it takes longer to get dark so we were waiting until about 8pm to start shooting so that it looked like a party going towards night time.

Which planning materials were the most useful?

I found that using story boards were quite useful because they sort of tell you how exactly what shot to do when and how exactly you envision it and then you also have a short description of the scene or shot on the side and this just makes it really easy so that you are able to just shoot straight away and this leads to limited screw ups.

Was your planning thorough enough?

I personally don't think we planned correctly because often we would find that some things didn't go to plan and then we didn't have a catch 22. For example when our friend wasn't available in the day we would have to catch him after he got back from work and before he went to bed. This proved to be very impractical as it took us longer to finalise everything and then we found that everything we have done has been in quite a bit of a rush and the tidy ups on the actual film have been relatively rushed and it would've been better if we had a more thorough plan on what exactly we were doing and when.

Did production go smoothly or were there disruptions that were caused by ineffective planning?

Production of the project was smooth on some days but one scene took us almost 4 hours to shoot because there were buses and cars and cyclists and pedestrians at every opportunity we went to take for the shoot so in the end we ended up rushing it and it didn't turn out as great as we thought and we actually ended up re-shooting the entire thing.

How would you improve in future projects?

I think that I would change the location to somewhere that is more easily accessible for all of the production team and also chose locations that aren't high traffic and then also possibly monitor traffic at the times we want to use a location that is usually quite busy. I feel like I might want to also improve on the planning that we do because I think that the planning in this project wasn't good enough as we often didn't have a clue when we were doing certain things. I feel like if we had a second plan for if the actor that we want isn't available then that would also boost the production efficiency as we could get other things done whilst waiting for the actor. I would also like to improve on using different shot types because in this production I realise I forgot to use close up shots when trying to get reactions and it sort of ruined the production for me because I had to create the close ups in post and it just looked really cheesy.

What major problems did you encounter?

The major problems that I encountered were; My friend wasn't always available when we needed him for shooting and this led to the slowing of the production, We also had the problem of our recorder not working so we had to resort to using voice memos on an iPhone but then we would often forget about using the voice recording and then this led to problems with our post production because by the time we had everything that we needed we didn't really have time to re shoot or record things with the people as they aren't local.

What did you find was the most effective ways of dealing with problems?

The most effective way of dealing with these problems were to try and improvise in as many ways as we could that would give us a better chance at getting the shots done as quickly as possible all whilst trying to maintain continuity and also not making the production too long. I also found that trying to find an alternative that could quickly patch the problem.

Were there any problems that you couldn't overcome?

The problems that we couldn't overcome was when it came to re shooting we had to travel to our friend in Melksham and sometimes we had no way to get over there because we couldn't carry camera equipment over to there and I think that this is a reason why we should have re-located to make it easier for everyone.

What skills have you developed through problem solving?

I feel like I have better developed on how to improvise with effective things that were relative to the scenes but turned out to be more efficient. Through problem solving I have gained the skill to be able to look for another way to create the same effect in the film that I originally intended on.

What practical skills have you developed and learnt?

Through creating this final product I have learnt how to create a comedy film to an extent. I have learnt the codes and conventions of a comedy movie and I have also learnt how to create a scene that is comedically timed so that it ensures to get a laugh out of the viewers which is the original intention of the product. I have also learnt to not include scenes that serve no purpose to the story because this then in turn creates a longer scene and can effect the attention of the audience and this will in turn bore the audience.

How will these help in future projects?

This could help in future projects because if I want to create another comedy piece of media I will remember what to create and how to do it for example when I have a scene with characters that are interacting with each other I will remember to capture their reactions and this makes the scenes funny. I will also remember not to include shots that are too off topic that aren't relative to the storyline and don't serve any purpose to the storyline.

How did you best utilise the resources available to you?

Having equipment from college was a sort of pro and con at the same time. This is because when we were using the cameras we had full range of control over the shots and what they would look like but there came a disadvantage with this as we only had access to a certain amount of batteries and microphones. This led to us having to use iPhones as they were the only other option that I had that was there.

What have you found to be your most valued development?

I think that my most valued development is how I can effectively create a scene that is comical and gets a laugh from the audience as this is the main purpose of a comedy piece. Another most valued development I took from my production is now having the knowledge on how to frame comedy films and what to do and what not to do.

What are the strengths of your final product?

I think the strengths of my final product are that we told a story that ended with a funny twist and I found that the ending was done quite well and I like the way that I now have an even better understanding about creating comical media so I can take it into other things.

What are the areas for improvements for your final product?

I think the areas for improvement in my final product are, when shooting shots make sure to get a voice recording of the shots and to take multiple takes of the shot to see which one works best and to be able to change it if there is anything wrong with the shot that we chose. Another area for improvement on my final product is the characters costumes as they would make the scenes a bit more funny as I found that my character doesn't really put across the part and its hard to tell the personality of the character because the outfit confuses you as an audience.

Did any changes affect the end product? Made it better / worse?

One of the changes that affected the end product was the voice of the old lady at the door at the end as we got my friends brother to play them because we didn't have any old ladies available but the way that Ben did the voice at the end came across as homophobic so I had to voice over the end and it doesn't sound as good because it makes it sound like there is no background sound and the voice is very isolated compared to the rest of the shot. I feel like this change made the end product worse because of how it effected the audio as it doesn't seem to flow.

Is your final product suitable for its intended audience and how?

I think that my final product does suit the viewing of the intended audience because there is fowl language every so often and there isn't any use of drugs in the product and there is also no nudity so I personally think that it is suitable for the target audience I was trying to aim for.

How do you feel about the audience response to your product?

As of now I have only had a few people on the course view my film but this was before some of the changes. Some of them liked it very much and thought that I did quite well with some of the shots whereas others thought that I could possibly change a few things. I also managed to get my sister to watch it and I got a few laughs and she is 15 years old and this means that she is a part of the target audience so I personally feel like I am glad with my audience responses as this gives me clarity on where I can improve and it also gives me a little insight on what it would be like if I showed a bigger audience.

Where were you at the start of the unit?

At the start of this unit I had no idea on what I wanted to do, I was completely stuck on an idea that I wanted to create but I managed to overcome this hurdle with a little bit of help from research and some pointers from different classmates and tutors. During the starting weeks of this unit we had a very basic idea of what we wanted to do. We just sort of jumped on the idea of making a comedy because this is something that we really both wanted to create as we had only made a mockumentary in one of the previous units

What have you learnt?

Through the course of my final project I have learnt how to effectively create a piece of comical media and how to frame different shots in a comedy piece. I have learnt that when forming a conversation between two characters, if there is a joke that is said then you need to capture a close up shot of the other persons reaction to the joke that was created unless you have a scene that contains multiple characters like The Inbetweeners then you would capture all of the characters' reactions in one shot.

How would you like to develop moving forwards?