Evaluation and Reflections

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Part 1

Final Major Project

Final Evaluation

See the Journal entries for these weeks ->

Final Evaluation-Week 33

Final Evaluation-Half Term

This is final proper page for my FMP. Below you'll be able to read the entirety of my Final Evaluation. Next to the Evaluation I've included images to help display what I'm talking about. This Evaluation spans the whole FMP project and will go into detail into things such as my original idea, my target audience, my use of critical perspectives, the skills I've gained and even more.

Part 1: My intentions and Creative/Logistical problem solving

Part 1: Intention and Problem Solving

My Original Intentions

My original intention for this project was to create something that would challenge me while still being an interesting final product. By looking through some of my past projects from this year, I was able to figure out the parts of production that I felt I could improve the most. The majority of these were practical skills, and so I knew my piece would have to be live action, so that I’d be able to improve these skills. But thanks to my Options project, I’d found that I had also really enjoyed animating. And so my original intention was to find a way I could blend live action and animation to produce a final product that would be able to challenge my skills in a variety of mediums.

But I didn’t want my piece to focus purely on visuals. Arguably the most important part of any production is the story. I hadn’t really had any previous experience with writing a longer narrative and so I felt a narrative based piece would be more challenging and help me develop new skills, over something such as a music video.

Why I chose this Specific Idea

Why I chose my Idea

As mentioned before, a large reason for this idea was to challenge myself. Throughout my previous projects, I’ve experimented with a large amount of different mediums as well as styles of productions. And so I wanted my FMP to be representative of the knowledge I’ve gained over the past year.

This led to my choice of creating a Mixed Media piece. I really enjoyed animating in my Options project, especially the visual style of it, and so I wanted to be able to include some form of animation within my FMP.

My animation for Options Project

But I knew that from a logistical standpoint I was probably weakest in my live action production skills, and so I thought it made sense to include live action in order to try to develop these skills. And so by choosing to create a Mixed Media piece, I hoped I’d be able to develop these skills simultaneously while hopefully developing new skills at the same time.

All these choices led to me choosing a Mockumentary as the basis of my FMP. And there were a multitude of reasons I chose this. For the story I wanted to tell, I felt it would be best told through this narrative structure. I wanted the story to be quite personal, and something people could relate to, and so choosing a Mockumentary made the most sense. It would allow the characters to become more fleshed out and relatable as they speak to the audience, and the visual style would help to make the piece feel more realistic than if it were a dramatised narrative. The visual style, specifically in relation to the camera, shots and framing would allow me to try something new. Mockumentary is a form I hadn’t yet tried and so using it with FMP would allow me to experiment with this new genre.

The story I wanted to tell also became crucial to the specific idea I chose. Throughout my Ideas Development I decided I wanted to tell a story of acceptance, specifically through my main character. And this once again, gave me another good reason to create a Mockumentary, as it would allow the audience to better engage with the protagonist. But I didn’t want the story to limit itself, so that only certain people could relate to it. And this is where I tied in my use of animation. I felt by having the acceptance be about something that was fantastical, it would help reduce the restrictions around audience reactions.

My Ideas Development Mood Board

My Main Creative Problems

One of the most important features of my piece, both visually and narrative wise, was the animation. From the very beginning I knew the animation was going to be the biggest struggle, my plan was to have a completely animated character, and with rotoscoping being my original plan, I knew the time it would take would be extreme. My original idea was to only have the actual person animated, leaving their clothes, shoes and anything else unanimated. This would allow me to cut down on the animation and make it feasibly possible.

However this original plan was thrown out the window, when in my secondary research I discovered a software called Ebsynth which was able to help me animate. The basic premise of Ebsynth was that it took a drawn keyframe and applied it, to the best of its ability, to all the other frames within the video. With this revelation, I was able to create what I had originally wanted, which was a fully animated character, while still being able to complete it within the set time.

The Ebsynth Software

However, using Ebsynth came with a few problems of its own. For a start, it was a brand new software which I had never used before, so learning how to use it was the first problem. Through the use of instructional videos as well as primary research I was able to learn how to use the software, as well as figure out problems with it, such as the fact it will only work if the keyframe is named the same thing as the original frame from the video. But now I understood how to use it, I was able to properly create my final piece.

An Ebsynth Instructional Video

An example of Ebsynth Glitching

My Primary Research with Ebsynth

In post production I ran into some problems with it that I hadn’t previously experienced. One of these problems was the glitching that it sometimes produced. This issue was created due to Ebsynth struggling due to the lack of keyframes. A lot of times, the way to fix this problem was to create more keyframes. However, another way I discovered to get around this easier was to use an opacity mask and keyframe it to cover the large glitches that were sometimes produced. With the help of these two solutions, I was able to massively reduce the impact of the glitching. However, when people reviewed my work throughout the production, many people said they actually liked the effect of the glitching and so this helped to reduce the pressure of the problem as much of the target audience were actually fond of the effect.

The use of an Opacity Mask

The final big problem that arose from the use of Ebsynth was timing. Specifically in relation to the timing between the animation and the original live action footage. Ebsynth’s final animation would always be about a frame or so shorter than the original video which meant the timing would be slightly off. And this became a big problem as it meant at certain times, the actor could be seen under the animation which ruined the effect.

I had to come up with a couple different ways to solve this problem. The main way I solved this problem was through the use of positioning keyframes. This allowed me to go frame by frame and move the animation to make sure it was covering the actor the most it could. Sometimes this also meant changing the scale of the animation, making it larger to make sure it covered the actor. Other ways to fix this problem was to simply make more keyframes which would allow cutting between animations easier to make sure the actor was covered.

Using Positioning Keyframes

Splicing multiple keyframes together to make the
animation

Overall, animation was definitely the feature that created the most creative problems, but it also encouraged me to think on the spot and make adaptations in order to create my final product. Although I do feel it left a significant impact on the final piece as there are still scenes where you can tell I struggled with the animation. If I were to go through this project again, this animation would definitely be the thing I would want to improve on the most.

Emulating the Mockumentary style also created problems that I needed to overcome. The main struggle of the mockumentary style is balancing the original documentary style, while still making sure people can tell it’s not real. Throughout the earlier stages of Production, it was highlighted to me that people do not usually like to be fooled when consuming media, and so when creating a mockumentary it’s important to not make your audience feel stupid for believing it was real. However, I didn’t want to include a disclaimer at the beginning as I felt this would remove some of the impact from the narrative.

Instead I made sure to include Cody as a character at the very beginning, and make it obvious from early on that this story is something that couldn’t happen in real life. And using the animated character made this fairly obvious as I believe the majority of the audience will recognise that an animated character is purely fictional. Making it obvious that it was fiction early on, also allowed me more freedom when writing my script. As I knew the audience would know it’s fake, I was able to make my script and narrative more realistic and include themes that could be present in real documentaries, which is why Acceptance is the main message within my production.

Cody being featured in the early scenes

I feel this creative problem impacted the piece a lot earlier in the process, compared to other problems which changed the piece a lot later down the line. But this early problem allowed me to develop my piece better, especially in regards to the narrative, and made sure that I could tell the story I wanted to tell without having to worry about audience backlash.

The final major creative problem I ran into was in relation to the sound design in my piece. In my opinion, sound is a lot harder to design and create than the visuals are. And I designed my sound quite heavily in pre-production to try to avoid any problems or changes, but they still happened. Documentaries are interesting in regards to sound as you wouldn’t commonly associate them with sound features such as Foley as they are supposedly true stories. However as my piece was fictional, I knew I needed to include Foley features as well as other features such as atmospherics and music. And balancing these features was very important. However, I found it very hard to visualise how these would all sound, and it wasn’t until the post-production stage where I was finally able to listen to all the sound features. And this led to me quite majorly changing the original plan.

One way I adapted was by reducing the amount of music throughout the piece. Originally, music was quite prevalent, however after placing it in, I felt it distracted from the dialogue and atmospherics and so removed it from many of the interview scenes and other scenes where it distracted from the central plot. Other features such as the Foley and atmospherics stayed largely the same with some of them being played down or added into additional scenes, where I hadn’t originally thought about including them. For example, originally I had early morning atmospherics for the Director’s interview, but in post I changed it for outside atmospherics, as I felt this sold the same effect a lot better than my original plan had. Overall, when watching the final piece, the impact these adaptations have on it is probably easy to not notice but when looking at the piece as a whole these changes influenced the piece a lot from its original idea to its final production.

Post Production of Music

Post Production of Foley

Post Production of Atmospherics

My Main Logistical Problems

Pre-Production is where a lot of the logistical part of the production took place. Which meant it was also the part where the most logistical problems arose. There were a couple minor ones such as finding enough actors and making sure all my locations were safe using my risk assessments. But the main logistical problem I ran into was finding a location. Many of my locations were fairly easy. They included my house which I was able to use with no problem, and many of my other locations were public property and so filming was allowed.

However the one scene I needed a good location for was Act 2 which takes place within a school. I knew I would have to shoot this within College as it would be the easiest place to find a location, however initially I was unsure of how to find a location. To get around this problem, I got in contact with one of my lecturer’s Nigel, initially asking if it was possible to use our classroom to film. And it’s good that I contacted Nigel, as instead he showed me how to book out a room properly in order for filming. Thanks to this I was able to book out a whole classroom for 2 hours on the planned day. This meant I shouldn’t get any interruptions or people disturbing the production. I feel this had a great impact on the final piece as having this proper location to shoot in really helped to improve the feel and realism of those scenes, as the location felt like a real place and not just some set.

Correspondence with Nigel

Continued Correspondence with Nigel

With the location fully booked, I felt pretty confident about that shoot, however I ran into another problem with it. One of my actor’s, who was supposed to be playing the body double for the Bully, told me only a day or so before that he would be unable to attend the shoot. This was really bad news, and ended up becoming both a logistical and creative problem. For one, I would need to find a replacement actor, and if necessary fill out all the required paperwork. And creatively I would have to adapt this scene as well as a couple others to account for this loss. As the same actor was also supposed to be playing the Boom Operator in one of the later scenes.

I knew it would be hard to get a whole new actor on such short notice, so instead I decided to adapt the scene with the two actors I had left. I chose to do this as I felt it would reduce the chance of the replacement not being available as well as reducing the risk of any other problems occurring, as I had made sure to double check with the other two actors that they could make it. And so my plan was for Cody’s actor to also play the body double for the Bully and for the Student actor to also play the boom operator.

The boom operator replacement, in my opinion, created quite an impact on the final product, as I think it’s kind of obvious that they are the same actor as the student, as their T-shirt is seen and if the audience is paying attention they’ll most likely recognise it as the same one. This is something I would have liked to fix but as I only had the location for two hours on that specific day, and only had those actors available, I had to work with what was available.

The Student Actor and their T-Shirt

The Boom Operator Actor and their T-Shirt

The Cody actor replacing the bully I feel had less impact on the overall production. They are usually covered with animation and so I feel it’s less noticeable that they’re the same actor. However, as they also had to play Cody, it meant as I panned back they had to run behind me to get back in position. This led to the second pan back having to be slower. I sped it up in post, but it’s not the same as the first pan, which is what I had originally planned to do. However, this is a minor problem which the majority of the audience would probably not notice.

One of the worst problems I encountered involved my audio equipment. For many of my scenes, I used a fuzzy boom mic as I was recording in outside locations. However, in many of my recordings there is a slight buzzing noise. To this point, I’m still not entirely sure what the original cause of the sound is. I had heard it during production but when initially listening to it back, I couldn’t hear it as it could only be heard at higher volumes. Which meant that in post production I had to think on my feet in order to try and solve it. I found several instructional videos, and made use of the denoise effect in both Premiere and Audition to try and get rid of it, and I was able to reduce it heavily from what it originally was.

Using the fuzzy Boom Mic on set

Overall, I feel I did an ok job in reducing the buzzing noise, and I think it’s a lot less noticeable than it once was. But if I were to go through this project once more, I would have liked to encounter this problem earlier on so that I also could have tried to solve it earlier as well.

My Creative Changes from my Original Plan

One of the largest changes from my original plan was the way my animation evolved. As I’ve discussed, I had originally planned to use rotoscoping on just the parts of the actor where their skin showed. This would have made possible for me to animate it all frame by frame. However with the discovery of Ebsynth, it allowed me to animate a lot more movement in a lot smaller time frame. This also allowed me to become more inventive with the character of Cody and allowed me to flesh him and his world out a lot more, as I could really make him stand out with the level of animation I was able to use.

Without the use of Ebsynth, I feel the piece would have been a lot less visually interesting as the animation would have had to be toned down a lot more so that I could’ve actually completed it in the timescale. Additionally, some parts of the narrative such as Cody’s animated explosion or his animated room, most likely wouldn’t have been featured as all the animation time would’ve gone to the character of Cody. So I believe that without Ebsynth the narrative of the story would’ve had to change as well, to incorporate the more minimal animation.

Cody's Animated Explosion

Cody's Animated Room

Discussing narrative, I feel the main message and structure of my story remained fairly consistent from the original idea. It was mainly focused on Cody accepting himself for what he is, and learning that it doesn’t matter what other people may say about him. And that was always my plan, really from the very beginning. But the way I presented that story really changed from my initial idea. The time between the initial idea and pre-production is where the narrative evolved into almost its final form. And at this point the foundation for the story was fairly solid.

But then it wasn’t till John watched it on my final week of post production where the narrative reached its final stage. When watching it myself, it’s hard to notice the narrative flaws as I already know the whole plot and everything that’s gone into it. But when John watched it and said he became slightly confused around Act 2, I began to see what he meant. And so in order to improve the narrative and avoid confusion, I added a couple of text cards that are popular in documentaries to provide context for the scenes. The impact that these provided for the narrative, in my opinion, as well as others I’ve had watch it was very large. It definitely helped to improve the narrative and help the story run a lot more smoothly. And even though the plot itself didn’t alter much, the way it was presented became a lot better, particularly for an audience who hasn’t seen all the previous work that’s gone into it.

The First Text Card

Netflix Documentary Visual Style

The Second Text Card

One of the largest changes that I didn’t originally plan for was the visual style of my piece. Originally I had planned to lean into the Netflix Documentary style, but the longer through the process I got, and the more of the animation I realised I could do, the further away I strayed from the Netflix style. With my original plan, I wanted to make it seem very dramatic, to make it fit in with the reduced animation. However, with the animation being able to be used a lot more, I felt as though the drama and seriousness of the Netflix style didn’t fit in with what the rest of the piece was trying to portray. The new way allowed the visuals to feel as though they fit in more with a world where an animated character could be real, rather than a darker grittier world where it would feel more out of place.

My Final Visual Style

From a narrative perspective this didn’t impact the overall piece too much, but looking at the progression of the production, this is a large point where my piece changed. Embracing the lighter visuals fit in better, especially with the earlier story, which then also helped to make the more serious themes in the latter half of the piece feel more impactful as originally the piece seemed more lighthearted.

Part 2: Meeting the Audience's needs

Who is my Audience

I don’t feel that the target audience for my final piece has differed too much from the target audience I initially discovered within my secondary research. During this research, I looked into the average audience for documentaries as well as the audiences for some of the most popular mockumentaries. These two presented a similar trend being young adults to middle age. And this was also similar to the audience which was most likely to view it, which was 15-35 year olds, as I will be releasing it on youtube.

Documentary Audience Research

Mockumentary Audience Research

And I based this target audience around the themes within my piece as well as the style of media that my piece was represented as, being a mockumentary. And these trends stayed consistent throughout my production, with only minimal plot or visuals changing, but the core of the piece staying the same.

And for this reason I believe that my target audience has also remained the same, meaning my final piece will most likely appeal to young adults to middle aged people the most, with gender not making a major difference.

Did my Production Suit my Target Audience

To discover how people felt about the final product, as well as discovering if my original target audience was correct, I decided to carry out a survey. The surveyees first watched my final piece and then completed the questions on the survey. These questions began with age and gender in order to analyse the results. And then the rest of the questions covered what they liked/disliked about the piece, what they would want to change about the piece, what themes they felt were present in the piece and then whether they’d change anything about the piece. I chose these questions as I felt they covered a wide breadth of opinions and information to discover.

The first Survey Questions

What People Liked about my Piece

And the results from the survey allow me to say with confidence that my final production suits my target audience. The majority of surveyees said that they liked the piece, highlighting parts such as the concept and themes that they enjoyed. And the surveyees weren’t just from one specific age group but covered the whole target audience with some being young adults around 17 and others being the upper end of the target audience in the 50’s. And so this evidence shows that all ages throughout my target audience enjoyed the piece.

What People Disliked about my Piece

The themes within my piece were a major part of determining my target audience, and so gaining the surveyees' opinions on the themes was a great way of confirming my target audience. My first question about the themes was asking what they felt the themes were. And many of them used the word “Acceptance” which is exactly what I was trying to show. And many others were on a very similar track mentioning things such as “Struggling with issues” and “Importance of self worth”. And the second question about the main message of the piece had very similar answers with “Accepting yourself” and “Being yourself” mentioned multiple times.

The fact that the vast majority of the surveyees were able to recognise and understand the main message about the piece once more goes to show that my target audience was correct, as others outside of the target audience, especially younger audiences, would be less likely to pick up on these themes and therefore understand the piece less.

How People felt about the Themes

People's Final Opinions

And so the fact that my target audience both liked my piece as well as understanding it proves that my target audience is correct and hopefully means that when the final piece is released, it will receive a good reception.

Target Audience's reactions to my Production

Once again, I’ll be using my survey in order to provide evidence for the reactions I’ve gathered from my final piece.

As previously mentioned the majority of surveyees said that Yes they did enjoy the piece. And this is good, as the surveyees covered different genders and age ranges, so this reaction shows my final piece appeals to a wide audience.

The first Survey Questions

With the next two questions there was a wider range of answers, with the questions covering what people liked and disliked about the piece. The things people liked covered different parts from the concept, storyline and themes, to the animation and the style. This is really good feedback as it shows there are many things about the piece that people enjoy.

What People Liked about my Piece

Many of the things that people said they disliked were things that I had already identified myself. Most prominently the fact that occasionally you can see the actor under the animation. These dislikes were things that I myself wanted to fix if I could do this project again, and so seeing that these are also things other people identified is quite helpful as it shows I was able to critically evaluate my own work.

A surveyee saying they liked the pacing

A surveyee saying they disliked the pacing

What People Disliked about my Piece

Interestingly, there also seems to be some personal preference between what people liked and disliked about the piece. For example one surveyee said that they “liked how it felt paced to the length”. Whereas another interviewee stated that it felt “on occasion a little slow paced”. And these differences are interesting as the two surveyees were also of different groups with the positive one being a male in the 10-19 age range and the negative one being a female in the 40-49 age range. This shows that even though people throughout the target audience like the piece, they each like it for different reasons, and certain parts will be liked more by certain audiences than others.

I previously discussed the responses to the questions on themes and messages in my section focused on the target audience, but I will also touch on it briefly here. The majority of the surveyees picked up on and were correct in the themes and messages that I planned within the piece, and this is good to show that my project correctly conveyed these themes and that audiences were able to pick up on them. And each of the survey members phrased their answers slightly differently, which is also good, as it shows the message of the piece is also able to be interpreted slightly differently by everyone who watches the piece. And in my opinion this is one of the best things for the piece, as each audience member will leave with a slightly different take from the final product.

People's Final Opinions

How People felt about the Themes

My final question was simply asking about any other things people felt about the piece, in order to gather information that may not have been covered by any of the previous questions. And the answers for this question were highly positive with people saying that “I really enjoyed it” and that they “Can see that a lot of work has been put into this”. But the response that has stuck with me the most says “The concept of using animation to express diversity was outstanding”. This is amazing feedback and really good to hear, as that was pretty much one of my exact reasons for using animation within the piece, so that it could help represent a multitude of different things. And knowing that people were able to pick up on this fact and interpret it correctly is fantastic as it makes me feel that my piece was able to achieve exactly what I was intending for it.

How could I have tailored more to my Target Audience

I feel the best way I could have improved my piece to better meet the needs of my audience was if my piece was longer.

It’s not the length that would’ve improved my piece, but if I had a longer piece, I would’ve been able to cover the themes in greater depth, introduce more characters to create a more diverse world and improve my story and pacing more. Obviously, in the time I had to create my project, making a longer piece would’ve damaged all the parts that I just mentioned. But looking at a way to improve the final piece, this is the best solution in my opinion.

Some of the dislikes that people mentioned talked about the pacing, and the animation as well. And although some people were fond of the pacing in the original piece. I think with more time planning and creating the piece, I would be able to expand the story and world of the piece from what it is now, and develop a more thorough story that would also allow for a more stable pace throughout. And if I put more time into it now, using all the skills I developed, I’d also be able to improve on my original animations, as well as possibly being able to include more animations to serve the larger story.

Surveyee's dislikes about the piece

Surveyee's opinions on the Themes

From my survey results, I feel the main theme of my piece was conveyed well and the audience was able to understand it. But if I wanted to tailor to my audience even more, I think I could’ve included a wider range of themes, and possibly focus on other messages, that possibly a wide range of audience would be able to relate to. This once again goes hand in hand with if I could have made a longer piece, but even in my original production, I could’ve possibly introduced a new character to help introduce a new theme/message.

Overall, I believe my final piece was able to meet the needs of my audience quite well, and the main thing I could’ve done was push everything I had done to the next level in order to tailor to the audience’s needs even more.

Part 3: My use of Critical Perspectives

My use of Genre

I started my creation of genre by conducting research into both Documentaries and Mockumentaries as these are the bases of my genre. My piece is a Mockumentary, which can already be viewed as a subgenre of documentaries. And so completing research into each of their aspects felt like the best way to understand each of their genres, in order to properly create my piece. I looked into their history, techniques and visual style in order to best understand what my own piece would need. This also allowed me a better insight into how the genre should feel, so that I could recreate this feeling within my own piece.

Mockumentary Research

Documentary Research

As Steve Neale states “Genres are instances of repetition and difference”. Repetition within a genre helps audiences to identify the films they might like as well as creating realistic expectations and a sense of familiarity. Whereas differences allow the film to remain interesting and be considered unique. And it was important to me that I was able to cover both of these bases so that my final piece could be considered a good example of its genre.

Steve Neale

The main way I chose to implement the repetitions of my genre was to use Iconography of the classic codes and conventions. This can most obviously be seen within the framing of my piece, especially in regards to my interview segments. In these scenes, I made use of two different shot types, a main angle where the character is framed slightly off centre, and a secondary angle where we see the character from almost a side on view. These two different shot types are in almost every documentary and mockumentaries, and in my opinion are one of the staples of the genre. And so by recreating these shot types in my own piece, I was trying to visually show the audience the genre I was trying to recreate.

Primary Angle

Secondary Angle

I also tried to use a mix of emotion within my pieces to fit into these two genres as well. Most of the time mockumentaries are comedies, think of such shows as The Office and Parks and Recreation. And so the first half of my piece is more light hearted, fitting into this more stereotypical view of the mockumentary genre.

On the other hand, Documentaries are typically more serious and grounded in reality. And since my piece is a fictional documentary I felt it was only right to fit some of this theming as well, which is why the latter half of my piece becomes more serious, tackling more real problems. And the mix of these two themes helps to represent the two different genres which I based my own piece off of.

But Steve Neale also said “Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre”, and so making sure my piece had uniqueness was also an important part of its genre. And there were two main ways I did this. My main way was the inclusion of animation. Typically even though mockumentaries are fiction, they are grounded in the real world, as to better represent a real documentary.

Obviously there are exceptions to this rule such as the hit film “What we do in the shadows”. But this film itself was regarded as an excellent addition and a great way to revitalise the genre, and so following in its footsteps isn’t a bad thing. And so the inclusion of animation breaks down some of these typical conventions and expectations, which allows the piece to remain more memorable, especially the visual style.

Breakdown of the Documentary

And the second way I tried to create differences within the genre is within the second half of my piece, where the documentary style starts to break down. In the piece this is due to Cody exiting the documentary, but behind the scenes I chose to do this as I felt it was a good way to try and make my piece more unique. In one way, this breaks down the typical documentary genre, where everything seems thoroughly planned beforehand and executed as needed. And this is a good way to slightly separate myself from the typical genre, but looking back, it could also be viewed as a convention of the mockumentary genre, where stories are typically looser and rely on the characters to push the story forward, changing as the characters develop. But in both ways this breakdown of my piece helps to fuel the style of genre I was aiming for.

Breakdown of the Documentary

I also used intertextual references to represent some aspects of my genre, as well as showing my inspirations. The largest way I did this was through character names where almost every character is named after a popular cartoon character. With names such as Cody Soboo being an anagram of Scooby doo and Dr D. Pines being a reference to Dipper Pines from the show Gravity Falls.

Scooby Doo

Dipper Pines

Although my main genre is based on doc/mockumentaries, the character of Cody is based on cartoons and the genre they encompass. And these intertextual references serve as nods to this additional genre, as well as being Easter eggs to the audience, so that they can also see the previous work that has inspired my piece.

Understanding where my piece lies within its own genre is important, and the best way to do that is to look at Christian Metz’s Genre Life Cycle. In this he breaks down the stages of a genre, from its original experimental stage all the way to its final deconstruction stage.

Metz's Genre Life Cycle

And from my understanding of this life cycle, I believe my piece falls within The Parody Stage, where the codes become Cliche and the audience are able to easily recognise the codes and conventions. And although some of these descriptions can seem like negatives, I view it more as paying homage to the classics of the genre. Although audiences have gotten used to these conventions, they can still enjoy them if conducted right and not seemingly over the top. In order to fit within the genre I mostly used framing and theming, and that's exactly why I view mine within the parody stage as I’m taking these classic tropes and using them in my own piece in order to recreate this genre. However you could also see my use of animation as deconstructing the genre, which could potentially push my piece into The Deconstruction Stage of the life cycle, where the genre starts to evolve and rules are broken. However as I tried to stick to the rules in order to recreate the genre I don’t feel properly confident in including my piece within this stage of the life cycle. Instead the best way to describe my piece would be: paying homage to the classics of the genre, while trying to evolve how the audience views it.

My use of Narrative and Character

One of the most popular way to structure narrative is using Tzvetan Todorov’s theory; 5 stages of narrative, which goes as follows:

A state of equilibrium at the outset
A disruption of that equilibrium by some action
A recognition that there had been a disruption
An attempt to repair that disruption
A reinstatement of the initial equilibrium but with some change.

Many popular films, no matter how complex, can fit into this theory, as it covers the fundamentals of a good story structure. And so I felt it would also be beneficial to structure my own piece similarly. I originally used this theory in my ideas development to roughly structure my narrative. And although since then my narrative has developed and evolved, you can still easily apply this theory to it.

1. A documentary is being made about Cody’s life and what he regularly goes through.

2. Cody hears someone being mean about him, disrupting the original intent of the documentary.

3. Cody decides to stop doing the documentary, and the director discusses this with the audience.

4. The director attempts to get Cody back by showing him all the positive messages other people have said about him.

5. Seeing this Cody feels better about himself, allowing him to accept himself and finish the documentary.

I chose to base my narrative around this theory as it allows for a better structured story, additionally allowing a better pacing. But Todorov also describes Narrative as circular, and that characters and situations are transformed by the process of the disruption. And I also felt these aspects were good to include within my own piece. So that the narrative also helps the character development while still keeping it structured in a simple way for the audience to understand.

But there are other theories that also cover the use of Character, and one of the most popular of these is Vladimir Propp’s 8 character types. According to Propp these types act as “Stock Characters” and although not all narratives contain all the characters, the order of their functions often remains consistent. It’s harder to apply the character types to a piece like mine as my genre and narrative strays more towards reality, which makes the characters more realistic and therefore less fitting into tropes. But although my piece does not contain all 8, you can still identify the following character types within my piece.

1. The Hero- acts as our protagonist, who’s job is to serve and sacrifice.

In my piece this is obviously represented as Cody, who’s the main character as we follow his story of acceptance.

2. The Villain- opposes the hero.

This can be represented by two different characters. Most obviously, the bully, who insults Cody, opposing the story of acceptance and harming Cody. But Cody himself can also be viewed as the villain as he is having to learn to accept himself, which makes him his own worst enemy.

3. The Helper- helps the hero to achieve their quest.

The documentary, and the characters within it, such as the director, cameraman and boom operator act as the helpers within my piece. It is their creation of the documentary which helps Cody to accept himself.

4. The Princess- the reward for the hero on achieving the quest.

In my piece this isn’t represented by a character but instead by the theme of Acceptance. Cody’s reward is happiness as he learns to accept himself.

Using Propp’s character types as a way to develop my own characters was a good way to develop my piece, as it allows for a character's motives and purpose to be set out easily for the audience. And this combined with Todorov’s narrative theory makes for a final product which an audience can not only understand, but can also relate to, or relate to the characters within it.

The final theory that applies to my narrative and character is Claude Levi-Strauss’ study of opposites. In this theory Levi-Strauss states “Meaning is established via conflict between two qualities” “All meaning is dependent on an understanding of opposites”. And the most obvious use of opposites in mine is Cody Vs The World. This type of opposite can be seen commonly in films such as “The Hunger Games”, where the protagonist is fighting against the whole world in order to achieve their goals. Although in my piece it’s not quite dramatic, Cody is still fighting against the world in order to gain acceptance. And it’s this use of binary opposites which helps to create meaning within the narrative, forming a reason for the piece to be made, as well as providing the audience with a reason to root for Cody. Keeping them invested in the narrative and characters as they want to see him succeed in this battle of opposites.

My use of Technical Codes

I used two main ways to demonstrate technical codes within my piece. And the first way I did this was through the use of framing. One way that framing is sometimes used is to show a position of power. Characters close to the top left of the screen are typically in higher power than characters closer to the bottom right of the screen. This is mainly due to how a western audience will view the piece, as similarly to reading a book they’ll view it starting at the top left and going down to the top right. So by having a character in the top left of the screen, the audience views them first, implying they have more importance than other characters.

In his first interview, Cody is framed to the left, showing the importance of his character. In his second interview at school, he is still framed slightly left, however closer to the centre than before. Then after the bully has insulted Cody and he storms out, the next time we properly see him is when he’s watching the interviews on his computer. And at this point he’s framed to the right. This shows he’s weaker in this scene than he was before due to how he feels about the bully insulting him. However at this point, he’s watching people say good things which leads into the last interview with him. And when we see him at the very end in the last shot, he’s in frame centre. This is to represent the peace and acceptance he has found, and by showing him in the middle he is neither of most or least importance. Instead he is in the centre, balanced between the two sides, similarly to how he’s found balance in his own life.

I chose to use the framing to show this as I wanted another way of displaying the theme of acceptance, which is the overarching message of my piece, and although audience’s are not always aware of this sort of framing, I think they still feel the intention of it, especially in terms of character’s power. And as Cody is the main character, I felt it only right to also base his framing around his character development.

Cody's First Interview

Cody's School Interview

Cody's watching the positive interviews

Cody's Final Interview

The second way I used technical codes within my piece was through the use of the static and handheld camera shots. Throughout the piece there’s a mix of these two types of shots, but they each serve a different purpose.

Within the world of my piece, the documentary that is being made is supposed to be a real thing. And so the times where the static shots are used, mostly in interviews, are representative of the parts of the documentary that are planned. All the interviews, as well as shots such as the ones within Act 1 Scene 5, make use of a tripod to stabilise their shots and keep the framing still. This shows that these shots have been planned, they’re intentional within the world of the documentary and have been planned beforehand.

Static Shot

Handheld Shot

Whereas the shots that are handheld, such as Act 2 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 2, are scenes where the documentary has strayed off the original path. The cameraman has unintentionally left the camera on, and the director is trying to get Cody back. These scenes are supposed to seem rougher and less professional than the static shots as within the world of the documentary they are unintentional, or unplanned. The reason I chose to make this decision is to visually show the breakdown of the fake documentary, and not just represent it through the narrative. The rougher handheld shots represent the documentary falling apart, similarly to Cody’s feelings, and the stable, tripod shots are planned showing the documentary is on track, or as in the last shot, showing it has recovered.

The only exception to this rule is the first scene where Cody walks across the field. This is handheld but still appears planned. However, this scene acts as a hook for the audience and so the visuals were important for this scene, and I felt the handheld shots added a bit more liveliness to the scene, which made it more visually interesting. And so for this scene I decided to stray away from the technical code used throughout the rest of the piece, in order to improve the other parts of the piece.

My use of Symbolic Codes

My main use of symbolic codes is through the use of my animation. In lots of other productions, things such as costume, hair and makeup can be used as symbolic codes, and as my piece used animation to create a character, I felt it only made sense to use the animation for my symbolic codes.

The most obvious symbolism within the animation is the use of colour. Throughout the majority of the piece Cody is seemingly normal, he wears different clothes, but they don’t really mean much, however, when Cody storms out of the school interview, he bursts out a form of red animation. Then later on when the Director tries to get Cody back, Cody has become completely red, his whole body and clothes. This is the most obvious form of symbolism as red is often seen as an aggressive colour, representing anger. And it’s used in the same way here, where Cody’s use of the colour red is to symbolise his emotions, the anger and sadness he feels about the situation. I chose to incorporate this, and specifically red, as that is the easiest way to guarantee that the audience will understand the symbolism.

Cody's Animated Explosion

Red Cody

But this isn’t the only time the animation symbolises Cody’s emotions. The amount of animation is also a way I chose to symbolise Cody’s emotions. For the majority of the piece, Cody is the only animated part of the world. However it’s foreshadowed early on in Act 1 Scene 3 that Cody can interact with his world and turn it animated as well. And this returns in both Act 2 and Act 3. In Act 2 Cody has his animated red explosion and in Act 3 the Director discovers Cody has turned his whole room animated.

Cody's Animated Graffiti

Cody's Animated Room

And in my planning, the amount of animation directly correlates to Cody’s emotions. So the fact that Cody’s whole room has become animated shows that Cody himself is going through a lot of emotions, which at this time is due to the Bully’s harsh words. This symbolism within the animation is less obvious than the red colouring of the explosion, but in my opinion is a better form of symbolism. As it shows Cody’s direct relationship with his world, as well as once again enforcing the symbolism of him being different which is also shown through the fact that he is animated.

My use of Editing

Cuts are used in practically every single piece of media. They can be used for a whole number of reasons whether it is just stitching two shots together or showing the audience something they may not have seen yet. Popular shots such as the jump cut, created by George Melies, fool the audience into believing they’re seeing something that isn’t feasibly possible and can also act as secret cuts. And within my piece, there are a number of cuts I used to create particular meanings.

The first is my use of cutaways, which are most prominently used in my first two interviews, with Cody and the Doctor. In Cody’s first interview there are two cutaways, one showing Cody dropping a cup and the other showing him being bad at playing football. Then in the Doctor’s interview there is one cutaway showing an animated diagram. All of these cutaways serve the purpose of visually displaying what the characters are talking about. As the Doctor discusses her theory about Cody the animated diagram is shown, visually displaying what she says, and it’s the same for Cody’s interview. I chose to include these cuts as they follow the theory of Show don’t Tell, which is used in a lot of media. Where instead of simply telling the audience what they need to know, you visualise it for them. And although in my piece, you still have the character speaking over the top, the cutaways provide visual context and allow the audience to understand more about the character and the scene, than if they had just been told.

Cody's First Interview- Cutaway 1

Cody's First Interview- Cutaway 2

Doctor's Interview Cutaway

Within a piece of media, controlling the timing and pacing of scenes as well as the piece as a whole is super important, and there’s a couple of different ways I edited my piece to change the pacing throughout the different moments. And one way to control this, is once again through the use of cuts. This is best shown through the examples of my interviews.

The first couple of interviews make use of primary and secondary angles, two different shot types that can be cut between to create the final interview. Mixing these shots with other shots such as cutaways helps the final interview feel faster paced and less boring. For instance if it was just one shot for a 2 minute interview, the audience would quickly get bored as there would be no new visual information. And so the use of all these different shots and cuts works well for these early interviews, as I wanted them to seem like real documentary interviews.

Primary Angle

Secondary Angle

Director's Interview

Whereas for some of my later interviews, particularly the director’s interview, it is simply one shot. However this is a purposeful choice, particular for this interview. I wanted the director’s interview to feel a lot more raw and unfinished. Additionally I wanted it to feel more important and the words to have more of an impact than the previous interviews. And so by removing the cuts and any secondary angles, you slow down the visual pacing, making the scene feel longer for the audience. And this to me was an important factor, as this scene explains what’s just happened and what’s about to happen, so I wanted my audience to be paying attention to the character and the dialogue instead of any possibly distracting visuals.

My use of Sound Design

One of the most important differences to know when editing sound is the difference between Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound. Diegetic sound is the sound within the world of the piece, for example footsteps, whereas Non-Diegetic sound is something outside the world of the piece, so only the audience can hear it. With my piece being a fake documentary, quite a lot of the sound needed to be diegetic as it’s recreating a truthful piece of media, so the sounds would also be real. However not all the diegetic sound could be captured on set, so foley and atmospherics had to be added in after.

And so for many of my sounds such as Cody kicking the football or the sound of birds and the wind in the first scene, although they are diegetic sounds, they are actually fake in terms of the editing. But it was important to me that these sounds appeared diegetic and natural as that would help immerse the audience into the world of the documentary. And so I implemented these additional sounds in the post production process, and tried to make them as realistic as possible so that when the audience viewed it, they would presume that it really was natural diegetic sound, increasing the realism of the documentary’s world.

Cody kicking a football- Diegetic Sound

But my piece also contained Non-Diegetic sound, most prominently being the music I incorporated into the piece. Although unheard by the characters within the piece, the music is used as a way to entertain the audience, and in some circumstances to reflect the emotion of the scene. For certain parts such as Act 1 Scene 2 and the text card in Act 2, music is used to keep the audience engaged as the visuals are simpler or less engaging for these moments. Whereas for Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 3 Scene 4 the music is used to reflect the emotion of the scenes.

In the first scene the music is slow and stays quite consistent throughout, this helps to provide backing to the visuals of Cody walking as well as his voiceover which comes in a little way through. This scene acts as a hook for the audience and so the music is used as a way to further the audio appeal while also backing up the enticing emotion which is trying to draw the audience in.

Sound Design for Act 1 Scene 1

Whereas, the music in the last scene starts slow and simple and becomes more complex, until the end where the drums come in and the piano picks up more. This slow build up helps the visual and dialogue build up as we listen to Cody’s final monologue and see him for the last time, and see that he’s accepted himself for who he is. And so while also providing more interesting audio for the audience to listen to, the final music also helps to reflect the build up of the piece so far, and also leads us into a satisfying conclusion as it fades off at the end of the credits.

Sound Design for Act 3 Scene 4

The final piece of audio editing which I want to discuss are some additional noises I added in, in order to slightly break the immersion for the audience. The noises that I am referring to are the noises you can hear the camera make, most obviously in Act 2 Scene 1, where the camera refocuses and Act 3 Scene 3 where the camera zooms out. These sounds are purposely put there so that the audience recognises that there is a camera.

Editing of Camera Sound effects

In lots of films and media, the goal is to make the audience feel like they’re part of the world and really experiencing what they’re watching. But as my piece is supposed to resemble a documentary I wanted to make sure the audience knew this. Especially as the fictional elements of the animation can sometimes cause the audience to forget that the piece is supposed to be truthful, even though they know it’s not. And so these sounds act as checkpoints throughout the piece, not to totally break the immersion of the piece, but simply to remind the audience that what they’re watching is supposed to be a documentary.

My use of Representation

The main theme and message of my piece was one of acceptance. This is something I decided on very near to the beginning of production and continued to carry through the entirety of the process. I chose the theme of acceptance as I felt it was something that a wide range of people would be able to relate and empathise with and I didn’t want my piece to only appeal to a small group of people.

And to make this theme of acceptance more easily relatable, I chose to make it about something that was fictional, in this case animation. I believe if I had chosen something specific e.g. sexuality or gender, although it would’ve been good representation, it also would’ve limited the people who could relate to it. So by choosing a fictional case of being animated, I felt it could represent all these other cases of acceptance. If you whittle it down the plot, it essentially becomes: someone has something different about them and they learn to overcome it and accept themselves. And this is something very relatable to practically everybody.

Cody's Fictional Animation Problem

And by leaving the “problem” of Cody fictional, it allows the audience to interpret the meaning of the piece and Cody themselves. This means each audience member will interpret the meaning slightly differently, and in a way that is more personal to themselves, which then helps in making the final piece relatable to a wide range of audiences.

However, even though I am happy with this representation, I feel I also could’ve pushed it further. For instance, Cody still looks like a white male and this could potentially reduce the people able to relate to it, even though he’s also animated.

The best way I think I could’ve improved this representation is by possibly making Cody less humanoid. For instance make him look more like a cartoon character, possibly something like spongebob or the Simpsons. Where they’re not obviously human or their identity is left a little more ambiguous. This would’ve changed the way I would’ve had to use Ebsynth. For instance I would have had to create a costume for the actor or something similar in order for Ebsynth to track the movement. But I think it would’ve been possible to achieve.

Spongebob

The Simpsons

I think this would’ve increased the relatability and the themes of the piece even further as the main character would be more abstract, allowing for the audience to project themselves onto the character more. Which would then allow people to relate to the piece even more.

Part 4: My Career and Skills Development

Production Roles that I undertook

The main part of the process where I was covering multiple production roles was during my Production stage. On my shoots, I was the only person working with the equipment, as the rest of the people on set were actors. This meant I had to cover multiple jobs at a time while filming.

And the first and one of the most important of these jobs was the Cameraman. Capturing the visuals is obviously one of the largest parts of any live action production, and I had to make sure all was in order when fulfilling this role. That included; checking focus; aperture and ISO; white balance and more. Being in control of all these different features helped to develop my balancing of tasks as well as my major technical skills, as I had to make sure to constantly be aware of everything that would affect my camera and visuals, especially when I was shooting in outside locations. And looking back on some of the shots I’ve produced, I can tell which shots I paid good attention to and ones where I hadn’t noticed slight problems. And so even though there are ones where I made mistakes, this allows me to look back and understand how I could improve if I was to shoot those scenes again.

Shooting with the camera

Recording with the Boom Mic

Checking the camera's settings

While being a cameraman, for many scenes I also had to fill in the role as boom operator. Using the boom mic and pole in order to capture dialogue and atmospherics on set. This was a little more tricky than the cameraman role as I had less experience with this equipment than I did with the camera. Covering both of these roles really forced me to develop my multitasking skills as I would have to set up and start recording with the camera before I could set up and start recording with the sound equipment.

This also meant my planning skills and technical skills with the audio equipment improved. For planning, I needed to prepare all the camera features as well as the framing so that the audio equipment wouldn’t come into frame. And this transferred to my practical skills with the audio equipment as I was forced to hold it deadly still in order not to drop it into frame. But this multitasking was really a blessing as it allowed me to develop a range of skills simultaneously.

After developing my skills in the Production stage, I then transferred into the Post-Production stage, where I also needed to cover a range of different jobs and skills. The main role for this section was being the Editor. For both visuals and audio. In order to fulfil this role, I made sure to follow the natural order of an Editor. Starting with the creation of a rough cut, and building all the visuals on top of that, including the transitions, animations and colour grading. All these tasks needed completing and going through them, and sometimes having to do research in order to complete them properly, allowed me to properly improve in all the different basic editing skills.

Visual Editing Timeline

And with the visual editing complete, it allowed me to move onto developing my audio editing skills. This mainly included adjusting levels and the placing of music, foley and atmospherics within Adobe Audition. Audition is a software used in a lot of proper productions and so gaining these skills within it now will not only aid me in future employability,but will also make it easier to transfer to other editing software such as Avid which is also popularly used.

Audio Editing Timeline

As my piece is a mixed media production, I not only had to fill the editor role, but I also needed to fill in as an animator. But with my use of the software Ebsynth, my animator job was slightly different to a classic animator. The main skills that I developed while animating were my time management skills. With 4 shots needing completing per day, making sure I could produce all of them to a good standard was a high priority. In order to manage my time wisely, I made use of the time where I was waiting. Once you’ve imported the keyframes into Ebsynth it generally takes 10-30 minutes to finish the animation and so instead of waiting around, I made sure to use this time effectively. During this time, I prepared for the other shots I needed to produce as well as planning out future work. Using this spare time wisely turned out well and allowed me to slightly alleviate the pressure from the work I needed to compete after.

Running Ebsynth

But not all the skills that I developed were technical or practical. As I was in charge of all my production shoots it also meant I had to improve my interpersonal skills. For many of my shoots I was working with one or multiple actors and so making sure they all knew what they were doing and how to do it was important. Taking this leadership as well as having to work within a team is a really good experience, especially for the possibility of future employment as interpersonal skills are incredibly important within this profession. On my shoots, I was working with people I already know, but they were also less knowledgeable about what needed doing on set so having to explain what was happening in order for them to understand was also a really good way to improve my communication skills and making sure I can deliver information concisely.

My Team working skills

My Team Working Skills

Although I was the only one working with equipment behind the scenes, I was still working with an actor or team of actors on the separate shoots. So I still developed my team working skills as a consequence. The best example of this is when I lost one of my actors within my Act 2 shoot. To begin with, I had to communicate with this actor to confirm that they couldn’t make it, and although it was at very short notice I was able to clearly communicate with them in order to understand the situation. This then led to me having to communicate with the other actors in order to explain the situation as well as the new plan. This string of communications really helped in improving both my leadership and communication skills, as I first had to make the decision on how to adjust the scene to make up for the lost actor, but I then had to relay this new information towards the other actors that comprised the team of that shoot.

Explaining to Actors what I was doing

Discussing with an Actor

When working with the actors, having a good rapport with them helps. One way I made sure of this was by making sure I knew my actors, at least to a certain degree before working with them. This allowed me to make good judgement calls on whether they would work well and help to push the production forward. This also allowed production on set to move a lot more smoothly, as I knew the actors I was working with knew what to do and how to do it as well as understanding the importance of the work. This mutual understanding between everyone was an excellent way to build up a good team, and allowed for everyone to fulfil their job roles in a professional way.

Was I working to the Best of my Ability

Throughout my production as a whole, I feel I have worked to the best of my ability. Through the whole process I ran into several problems and choices which really forced me to solve them in the moment.

One example of this is during my early production shoots. I originally planned to shoot lots of my outtakes on the day, with my production of Act 1 Scene 3 scheduled to be filmed the following week. However, on the day, I realised the weather was very nice, and I was unsure if it would be the same next week. And so I made the conscious decision to swap the production shoots in order to make good use of the weather, and to reduce the chance of any problems in the future that may have arisen.

Weather on the original first Monday shoot

Weather on the original second Monday shoot

And all the choices I made throughout the project were similar, in the fact that they were either to reduce the chance of mistakes or to fix mistakes that I may have made. I believe this adaptiveness and flexibility helped me in producing the best work that I could.

But my project would not have been able to start properly, if I hadn't completed my planning and research. And this is one aspect of the project where I feel I worked to the best of my ability. Within my research especially, I made sure to look into every aspect of the project that I could think of, and this included things such as; the equipment I was using; how I would emulate the mockumentary genre; my target audience as well as the editing techniques I could potentially use. And all of the work I put into these stages helped to push the potential of the project, as well as helping to structure it in its future stages. And although not all mistakes or problems were able to be avoided, I think this earlier work allowed for a lot more errors to be avoided, which allowed me to put more focus into the things that mattered, and helped me work to the best of my ability.

Secondary Research Menu

My animation at the beginning of the project

There was only one aspect of my project where I feel I could’ve pushed myself even further, and that was within my animation. I am happy with how the final product turned out, but I think with a little more time, or even more planning, I could have pushed it even further. Looking back at it now, and from what I’ve learned, I know how to fix some of the errors I made earlier on. For example, near to the end of my animating, I’d really got the hang of the amount of keyframes that were needed, as well as how I could blend it with the opacity masking. And if I’d known this earlier on, I think some of my first animations could be improved upon, which would also have then allowed me more time on some of the more complex animations. But saying all that, I think the final product is definitely something I’m proud of, but out of everything within the project, this is the aspect I feel I could’ve improved the most.

My animation at the end of the project

My Future Career Path

Heading into this project, I was unsure of what I wanted to go on to do after College. And this was one of the reasons I chose to do a mixed media production, as it would allow me to practice a wide range of different skills. And although I still don’t have a 100% grasp of what I would like to go on to do, this project has shown me some of the things I enjoy most.

Combining both animation and live action was the idea I was most excited for, and I do really like the final effect that it produces. It’s hard to choose which of the different mediums I like more as they both provide very different ways to present themes. I think what this project has shown me is that going forward I would like to experiment more with each of these mediums, and push the ways that I can use them, as well as how I can combine them with one another.

Mixed Media Piece

Editing

Another thing I’ve learned, not just from this project but from this year as a whole, is the fact that I enjoy editing. The process of collating the clips and combining them into their final product is a part of the process that I really enjoy. And editing comes with a bunch of different and new skills that I can learn and improve upon which is something I find very interesting. It also goes hand in hand with animating as they both take place at similar times in the process and so possibly in the future finding something that could combine the two would be something that I’d be interested in.

This project has shown me one part of the process that I like the least though. And this is the sound recordings. Editing the audio and implementing it into the piece is something I don’t mind, but the process of actually recording things such as the foley and atmospherics is something I’m less fond of. I understand the importance of sound, and especially foley, but I struggle to create the right noises that I’m trying to capture, and I think this is one reason why I like audio recording less.

Recording Sound Elements

Understanding this and looking forward to future careers, I think a job more geared towards the visual aspect of media would be better suited for me.

But coming out of this project, I’m still not 100% sure of which career I would like to pursue. I still enjoy the vast majority of the whole process, even the planning and pre-production, so for now I will keep my options open and continue to improve my skills throughout the whole of a production.

Part 5: My Final Reflection

Successes and Failures of my Final Production

One part of my piece which I view as the biggest success was my narrative. When viewing my piece without any knowledge of the work behind it, I think many people would view the animation as the main part of the piece, and while the animation is a huge aspect to it, in my opinion the narrative and specifically the themes I included are the most important part of the piece.

From the very beginning the goal of my piece was to make a story focused on Acceptance and showing this through the protagonist of the story. And I feel confident in saying that I was able to succeed in this aspect, not just in my own opinion, but as well seeing the responses from my last survey, the audience was able to pick up on this theme. And the fact that the audience is able to pick up on this theme not only shows I was able to succeed in my narrative and story, but also shows that the work that’s gone into it, and particularly the messages I put into the characters has also worked. And this was one of the biggest struggles I had throughout the whole process, was making sure that what I wanted to say was put across in both a way that could be understood but also in a way which people would respect and think about after they viewed the final product, and so that is why I view it as one of my biggest successes.

Acceptance in my Ideas Development Mind Map

Surveyees picked up on the theme of Acceptance

I don’t like to view much of the work that I did as a complete failure, however there are definitely aspects of my final production that I’ve looked back on and thought I could’ve improved. And one of the main ones of these was my sound design. I don’t think my final sound design and audio editing was necessarily bad, but I do believe that it could’ve been better.

One thing in particular in relation to the sound and audio was my dialogue. Some of my recorded dialogue was fine, and then others, as I’ve discussed quite a lot before, had a weird buzzing sound in the background of some recordings. Through the use of research and editing, I was able to reduce this buzzing sound in the final product, however I think it really impacted the final dialogue and particularly lost me a lot of time which could’ve been devoted to other parts of sound design.

Reducing the Buzzing noise

Because as a whole, I was quite happy with the rest of my audio, the music, atmospherics and even the foley I was quite happy with. But I think if I hadn't been so hindered with the dialogue, I could’ve pushed them further. Particularly in relation to the foley, although I was happy with the final product, I think without the problem of the dialogue, I could’ve really made the foley have a stronger impact.

Then there were other parts of my final production which I view as both successes and failures. The biggest part in relation to this is the animation. I am very happy with the animation, and I view it as a huge achievement, but at the same time I can definitely see room for improvement. Most prominently in the covering of the original actor. Sometimes the animation glitched a little bit or the movement was slightly off, but I didn’t mind this, and in fact people watching the piece, especially when I showed it in class, actually said they were fond of the glitching. But when you could see the actor underneath, in my opinion it did ruin the illusion a little bit.

In some parts Ebsynth struggled

And I did this a number of ways, through lists, production schedules, and the action plan especially. All this planning that happened before I even picked up the camera, allowed for my final piece, at least in my mind, to be viewed as a success.

Overall, I was able to reduce these moments to just a few, thanks to the skills I developed more as I went through the animating process, but if I were to go through this project all over again, then just touching this animation up even more would be one of my highest priorities.

But overall, I view my piece as a huge success. I learned how to use a brand new software to bring an animated character to life, and I believe my practical and theoretical knowledge have both grown largely from this project. And mainly this was all thanks to one of my biggest successes, which was planning. Both from the very beginning and especially within the pre-production stage, planning out the work I needed to do and when I needed to do it was absolutely vital.

Examples of some of my planning paperwork

What am I most Proud of

The part of my production which I am most proud of isn’t necessarily the part that I view as the best or the most polished, but is instead the aspect which I feel I overcame the most challenges in. And this aspect is most definitely my animation. I’ve discussed my animation a number of different times and for lots of different reasons, and this is because it was one of the hardest but also most rewarding experiences of the whole project.

As I mentioned in the previous section, my final animation was a mixed bag, visually I think it looked good, but there were also some downsides, such as occasionally being able to see the actor. However the effort I put into creating the animation is the reason I view it as the aspect I’m most proud of.

An example of good animation

Sometimes the animation glitched

Initially I was planning to rotoscope Cody’s whole character. Obviously the amount of animation my final piece contains would’ve been basically impossible with traditional rotoscoping, as I would’ve had to draw each individual frame. But when I discovered the Ebsynth software it allowed me to largely increase both the amount and technical aspects of the animation.

But this also presented lots of new challenges. First I had to actually learn how to use the Ebsynth software, then I ran into problems with the glitching, the amount of keyframes needed and the timing of the animation with the original footage.

Using position keyframes to help time the animation

But it was through these challenges that I was able to improve the animation, and I think this is able to be seen if you compare my first animations to some of my final ones.

And it's because of these challenges and the way I had to overcome them that I view the animation as my proudest aspect, and even though it may not be the best part of the entire piece, I believe that in the final product you can see all the hard work that went into it.

What would I have liked to develop further

The part of my production that I would have liked to develop further would definitely have been the supporting characters in relation to the narrative. With the timescale I had and the story I wanted to tell, most of the side characters I created acted as ways to push forward Cody’s story. And this isn’t a bad thing as they served their purpose well and helped to progress the themes and the character development of Cody.

But after looking into and analysing my production further, especially in regards to the representation within my piece, I think building up these side characters would’ve been a good way to further both the narrative and themes of my piece.

Developing the side characters would’ve also allowed for the documentary genre of the piece to feel more realistic as these characters would seem more developed and lifelike. As well as them seeming like more complex characters instead of just tick boxes in Cody’s story.

I am happy with the final characters that are present within my piece, but when you look at the piece as a whole, once the characters have served their purpose they don’t really appear again. For example once the bully insults Cody he never really appears again. And if I were to develop both the narrative and characters further I could’ve given this character a redemption arc, or made his part of the story even more critical, which as previously stated would’ve made the world of the documentary more realistic and lifelike.

The Bully

How have I grown as a Filmmaker

One of the ways I feel I have developed most as a filmmaker through this project is through the development of my practical skills. From camera skills, to audio equipment and even the software needed to animate and edit. Originally I chose to create a mixed media piece to present myself with a challenge, but it has also allowed me to grow my practical skills in so many different forms.

Before this project I had only really scratched the surface of all these different skills. I had used a camera for several projects, I had briefly used some audio equipment for my options project, and I’d animated once before. But this project allowed me to take all the skills I’d learnt this year and combine them together to create a piece which I was not only passionate about but also helped to develop all these different skills simultaneously. I was able to use new equipment and techniques, such as the boom pole and mic that I’d never really used before. And I was able to research and create new skills in editing, such as learning how to control an opacity mask, and furthering my skills in colour grading. And on top of this I learned new things such as how to use the Ebsynth software.

Using lots of different Equipment

And all these new skills will allow me to push further in my role as a filmmaker as well as allowing me to venture into new ideas, genres and projects.

But having good practical skills doesn’t mean you won’t run into problems as a filmmaker, and this project has definitely prepared me for that fact. Throughout this project I’ve had to think on my feet so many times, and come up with solutions and new ideas to fix problems I hadn’t even considered. For example, I had to adjust for the loss of an actor, adjust shooting days to account for the weather and change the pacing of my piece in the last week of editing to make the narrative more understandable.

But through this project, I’ve been able to overcome these challenges and push forward with production, and some of these problems even resulted in improving my final piece and making it better suited for the audience. But what it's really taught me is to be flexible and adaptable, which is a skill I’ve struggled with, but one that is also incredibly important. And with a project as large as this one, adaptability was absolutely necessary and I’m glad that I’ve learnt this, as it will allow my future projects to be even better.

And the last skill I’ve gained from this project is one that in my opinion is so important to filmmakers, and that’s knowing your project in and out. I found that by the time I came to my production stage, there were times I didn’t even need to look at the storyboards cause I had the whole scene structured out in my head, and I simply had to transfer that onto the screen.

Storyboard for Act 1 Scene 3

And I feel as a filmmaker, this is so important to have as if you don’t understand the piece yourself, then there’s no way you’re gonna be able to make the audience understand it. But I didn’t just understand my piece overnight, it was only thanks to the initial ideas, the research and the planning that I was able to reach a point where I could visualise the piece in my own head. And so this project has also taught me the importance of following the creative flow, instead of just jumping straight into production. This is something I don’t think I’d ever properly appreciated until this project, but now that I understand, I’ll be able to take all I’ve learnt forward and be able to create even better projects in the future.

Did I achieve the statements I made in my Extended Essay

After re-reading through parts 2 and 4 of my Extended Essay I’ve been able to identify a number of goals that I’ve been able to achieve since then. The first of these was something I mentioned in part 2. I had previously been analysing Hot Fuzz in part 1 and had been particularly fond of the way Edgar Wright uses cuts and transitions within his films. And at the time I wanted to be able to improve my skills in cuts, particularly making them smoother and less noticeable as I felt at the time my cuts were quite noticeable.

Extract from Part 2 of my Extended Essay

And I think in this project I’ve definitely been able to achieve this, most prominently in my interview scenes through the use of my primary and secondary angles. These cuts allow for two different shots to be stitched together, allowing the visuals to be more appealing. And the dialogue carries through the two shots which helps to reduce the noticeability of the cut.

Primary Angle

Secondary Angle

Using Fades within my piece

Additionally in this project I’ve been able to experiment with new cuts and transitions as well. Notably using the opacity fade to create transitions a number of times. But additionally this project was the first time I used a new form of cut, which was a J cut, where the audio for the next scene starts on the visuals of the previous one. And this again was another way I improved in making the cuts more seamless, which is one of the goals I was trying to achieve.

Within part 2 of my Extended Essay, I also mentioned wanting to improve my skills in colour grading. I mentioned in the Essay that I had used colour grading in my Self Portrait, but that had been a lot more fantasy based, and I wanted to improve my skills in realistic colour grading.

Extract from Part 2 of my Extended Essay

And once again I believe I’ve been able to achieve this within my FMP, especially in regards to my sunset shots in the beginning of my piece. I was very happy with this colour grade, as it improved the colours that were already in the shot, instead of having to create an artificial colour grade which could’ve caused the shot to look more fake. I used a youtube tutorial to aid me in this colour grade, and I think this helped to improve my knowledge of how to colour grade as well as the practical skills. I believe if you went back and looked at my Self Portrait project now and compared the colour grading between these two projects then you’d definitely be able to see the improvement, particularly in relation to the realism that I mentioned in the Extended Essay.

Colour Grading in Self Portrait

Abstract Self Portrait

Colour Grading in FMP

Looking at the conventions and techniques section within my Extended Essay, I talked about wanting to create a more narratively focused piece which allowed me to focus on the camera angles a lot more. This was in contrast to the projects I had done at the time which were my Self Portrait which had been a lot more abstract and my music video which had been more performance based than narrative.

Performance based Music Video

And this project absolutely allowed me to venture out into this narrative focus, as the story and themes within this piece were essential to me and one of my main priorities when crafting the final product. And looking at the narrative and themes ties into the representation part of my Extended Essay where I discussed wanting to have a more character driven narrative, and to include more representation within my characters. I believe this is absolutely what I was able to achieve with Cody and his focus on Acceptance, which I thought lots of people could relate to.

And one of the reasons I decided to make Cody animated was because I wanted the representation to be larger, so that almost anyone who watched the piece would be able to relate to this character and what he’s going through, even if it wasn’t the exact same struggle that they may be going through.

The main thing I focused on within part 4 of my Extended Essay was improving the skills I already had, particularly in live action filmmaking, as at the time I had not yet ventured into animation. And one way I discussed improving these skills was through the use of equipment. I talked about how I wanted to use more equipment to enhance my projects. Within this project I believe I achieved this goal, as I was able to use equipment I had never properly used before including the light stands, boom pole and mic and most prominently my phone gimbal. In fact I even mentioned using my phone gimbal within this part of the Extended Essay, and so seeing that I was able to achieve this exact thing is amazing.

Using my Phone Gimbal

Using a camera, tripod, Boom Mic and Lighting Kit

But it wasn’t just because of my Essay that I made sure to use more equipment, the equipment I used also made sense within my piece, as I discussed in Part 3 of my Final Evaluation, the gimbal is mainly used when things are going wrong within the fake documentary. Within part 4 of the Essay my reasoning for using more equipment was to enhance my visuals shots, but after completing this project it’s good to see I’ve been able to use the equipment to also enhance my narrative, which I didn’t even consider when writing my Extended Essay.

So while completing these things I set out within my Extended Essay, I’m also able to look back and see how I’ve evolved not just my practical skills but also my theoretical knowledge as well.

What impression would I like my audience to have

One of the main aspects I want the audience to remember, and one I think they probably will, is the visual style of my piece, especially in relation to the animation. The idea of an animated character living within the real world is one that I think is quite memorable in itself, and I believe that the way it’s visually portrayed is a way that will also leave a lasting impression on the audience.

When compared to other animation, such as the one from my Options project, the animation within my FMP definitely has a memorable style to it, particularly in the way it moves. The slight glitches that sometimes happen will also help the visual style remain memorable as well, particularly as people have said that they like this aspect of the animation. The way the animation blends with the realistic setting is also something I would like to leave an impression on the audience, and I think the way the colours of the animation contrast to the more naturalistic colours of the world definitely help in making this aspect stick out.

FMP Animation

Options Project Animation

Survey Responses on Themes

As well though, the themes and message of the piece is something that was super important to me, and so I hope it's something that will be important to the audience. With acceptance being the main message of my piece, it was a theme that I felt a lot of the audience would be able to relate to and feel represented by. Through my final survey that I’ve conducted for this Final Evaluation, I’m seeing people pick up on these themes and that makes me quite happy as it shows that the narrative and message that I’ve put into this piece is one that’s creating an impression on the audience.

But overall, I’d just like people to watch my piece and enjoy it. Even if they don’t pick up on the themes as long as they’ve enjoyed watching it and found it an interesting production then I’ll feel like I’ve made a good enough impression on them. As one of the main goals of any media piece is to create something that people like to watch, if people enjoy watching mine or find it interesting then I’ll view my final project as a success.

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Interactive Media Project

Bug Testing and Corrections

Final Major Project

Final Evaluation

Part 1: My intentions and Creative/Logistical problem solving

My Original Intentions

Why I chose this Specific Idea

My animation for Options Project

My Ideas Development Mood Board

My Main Creative Problems

The Ebsynth Software

An Ebsynth Instructional Video

An example of Ebsynth Glitching

My Primary Research with Ebsynth

The use of an Opacity Mask

Using Positioning Keyframes

Splicing multiple keyframes together to make the animation

Cody being featured in the early scenes

Post Production of Music

Post Production of Foley

Post Production of Atmospherics

My Main Logistical Problems

Correspondence with Nigel

Continued Correspondence with Nigel

The Student Actor and their T-Shirt

The Boom Operator Actor and their T-Shirt

Using the fuzzy Boom Mic on set

My Creative Changes from my Original Plan

Cody's Animated Explosion

Cody's Animated Room

The First Text Card

Netflix Documentary Visual Style

The Second Text Card

My Final Visual Style

Part 2: Meeting the Audience's needs

Who is my Audience

Documentary Audience Research

Mockumentary Audience Research

Did my Production Suit my Target Audience

The first Survey Questions

What People Liked about my Piece

What People Disliked about my Piece

How People felt about the Themes

People's Final Opinions

Target Audience's reactions to my Production

The first Survey Questions

What People Liked about my Piece

A surveyee saying they liked the pacing

A surveyee saying they disliked the pacing

What People Disliked about my Piece

People's Final Opinions

How People felt about the Themes

How could I have tailored more to my Target Audience

Surveyee's dislikes about the piece

Surveyee's opinions on the Themes

Part 3: My use of Critical Perspectives

My use of Genre

Mockumentary Research

Documentary Research

Steve Neale

Primary Angle

Secondary Angle

Breakdown of the Documentary

Breakdown of the Documentary

Splicing multiple keyframes together to make the
animation