Production Reflection

1. STAGE 5
PRODUCTION
REFLECTIONS
Hannah Palfreeman

2. On the Tuesday, I started to create my experiments for my short
film rotation. To start off we were given a task to film a short film
with the storyline of someone finding a key. This was very
interesting to make as it gave me an insight into what I would be
filming in a few weeks’ time. In the morning, Scott ran through
some basic camera details. This was very useful as it reminded me
how to use the camera. and I learnt how to fix the exposure and
what the ISO does. This will impact me when it’s my production
week as I will have my knowledge to improve my shots. After
creating a storyboard and shot list I started to film for this
experiment. I believe this went really well and my first experiment
started to look really good.
Wednesday afternoon I started my second experiment. This
included finding sound effects for a clip out of Shaun of the dead. I
set myself a list of what sound effects I needed. This included
ambience noises from outside college and inside the shop in
college. This is going to impact my short film when I produce it, as I
can use the experience which I have of recording to make some
really good sound effects to go with my filming.
On Wednesday, I learnt how to use a Tascam recorder. This will
come in use when I get to week 3 as I plan on recording my own
sound effects, to do this I will use a Tascam recorder. Everything
which I learnt on Wednesday will come in use in the future as it will
improve the quality of my short film if I use original sound effects.
By the end of Wednesday afternoon, I finished both of my

3. Thursday morning was spent starting my initial plans. At
first I found this rather difficult because I needed to think
of three initial ideas. To think of 3 ideas for a 60-90 second
short film was very interesting to do. I started to research
what genre of short films are the most popular, this was
very useful as it gave me an overall genre to create. I then
started to mind map an idea. I found this very tricky to do
as I am not very creative. However, by the end of
Thursday morning I had come up with one idea, a mind
map and a mood board. When creating this first idea I
learnt that I cant rush an idea, instead I decided to spend
Thursday night just thinking of different ideas and how I
would produce them. The initial idea is just a starting
point and I knew that I could go back and change my idea
so I was not too stressed if it didn't sound perfect.
Friday was scheduled to finish my initial plans. From
learning that it doesn't have to be perfect yesterday, I
drafted two other ideas. However, I did feel as though my
ideas were rather unrealistic. When I realised this I
thought very hard, I recognised that I could use my first
initial idea I would just have to change the location and the
ending. This was a major lesson for me because I noticed
that I don’t have to keep to the same idea all the time, I
can change it as it doesn't have to be perfect. In the next
few weeks if anything goes wrong I will just change it and

4. This week I focused on completing my research
PowerPoint and my proposal. On Tuesday, I
created a survey on www.surveymonkey.com. This
worked really well and there was a wide range of
answers which helped me decide what to include
in my short film. I learnt that my survey was very
useful to develop my short film, it helped me
improve the way I end my film and how to keep
the audience interacted throughout the film. After I
got the results from the survey I started to analyse
them. This was very important as I could reach an
overall judgement for that specific question.
Wednesday was spent carrying on with my
research. I spent a few hours trying to find some
secondary research for short films. This was rather
difficult as it took a while to find good facts and
statistics. However, next time when I do research
for a project I will go on www.yougov.co.uk and go
to the Yougov Profiles Lite and search a topic. This
helped when researching as it backed up the
knowledge which I found when doing my primary
research. When researching primary and
secondary research its very important to keep all
the facts and statistics relevant to the topic. I kept
this in mind throughout the whole of my research

5. On Thursday, I finally finished my research PowerPoint.
When conducting the Potential Production Techniques
slides I researched techniques on how to create the best
sound, enticing storyline and a good edited short film. I
learnt shortcuts on Premiere Pro which would benefit my
short film as well as make it more professional. I also
learnt tips to make an engaging storyline along with how to
make realistic Foley sound effects. These techniques are
really important as they will automatically improve my
short film for the audience as it will be more professional
and neat. In addition, I had to compare 3 already existing
products which compare to my potential idea. I chose a
modern-day film called ‘You get me’. This helped me
develop my storyline as I took inspiration from the stalker
being actress by Bella Thorne. I also compared the Netflix
original ‘Stalked by my doctor’ and the 1987 Psychological
thriller ’Fatal Attraction’. By watching these three films I
found out how to entice the audience through tension. This
was really useful as I can use what I learnt to create a
tense short film.
Seen as though I had finished the research part of the
PowerPoint, I just had to finish the experiments slide. At
the start of this rotation I completed the Experiments but I
didn't write the process of the experiments. I spent all day
on Friday completing this. When doing this I realised how

6. This week was spent preparing for the following week where
I would start filming and editing my short film. I had to
complete the proposal and the pre production PowerPoint
before the following Tuesday. On the Tuesday, I started to
write the proposal. I find this very useful as I could get all my
ideas down and could see if it was going to work. When
writing my proposal I learnt that I needed to include a wide
range of sound effects when filming for my short film. This
means that when the audience would see this 60-90 second
film it will entice them even more. I just finished the
production techniques box when it was the end of the day. I
took my time to create the proposal, as I wanted to put as
much detail as possible when creating my short film.
On Wednesday, I started to finish my Proposal. In the
Proposal it includes a rotation schedule and a bibliography.
On the afternoon, I completed the 50-word evaluation box
on Proposal. I then started to write the specific tasks of the
rotation schedule, I learnt that I needed to add as much
detail as possible to make the tasks for clear and concise.
This took a while to complete because the amount of work I
did. I found it rather difficult to write the Week 4 and Week 5
work as I hadn't started it yet but I needed a rough idea of
what I needed to complete and by when. This was actually
very helpful as I could look back on the schedule and plan

7. I needed to finish the bibliography, which would take 5 minutes so this
was my first task on Thursday. I found this particularly easy, as I had
already done a bibliography for my research so I just used the
examples that I used then. I also included two interviewees, which
completed my survey and added them into my bibliography. I finished
this and started on my Preproduction PowerPoint, which would take a
while. Involved in the Preproduction PowerPoint was a Storyboard,
Shot list, Contingency plan, Risk assessment and a Call Sheet. I found
this PowerPoint to be really helpful, it helped me create and develop my
short film. It was also very effective to prepare for my filming next week.
In the Preproduction PowerPoint on slide 22 there is a Production
Schedule. I filled this out and in the future for all my projects I will
complete one of these as I found it very handy to have and it keeps me
on track with all my work. By the end of Thursday morning I had
completed the storyboard, shot list and Production Schedule. By doing
this bit of the PowerPoint I realised that I need to speed it up ass I want
to film on Tuesday so I needed all my theory work finished by Tuesday.
On Friday, I cracked straight on with my work. I started to complete the
contingency form. I learnt that this was really useful because if anything
goes wrong when filming I can use this to back up my decision on what
I do. From doing a Risk Assessment from my first project I knew how to
complete one of these and completed it in next to know time. I learnt
that not all of these documents in the Preproduction where as straight
forward, Seen as though I set my film in college it was difficult to
complete the Call sheet as my cast were going to be in college anyway.

8. The production week finally started, Seen as though over
the weekend I completed the 3 slides, which I needed to
complete I was set for filming! I was originally meant to
film on the Wednesday of this week but there was a free
camera so I filmed on Tuesday afternoon. This turned out
to be the best day to film as college was not crazily busy
and it was rather quiet around college. When filming for
my short film, I struggled to focus the shot but after a
while of practising I learnt and got the hang of it. I found
this very important as if I hadn't got the hang of this my
shots would have been terrible and unprofessional. This
means that in the future I know how to make more shots
sophisticated and more focused. Another lesson which I
learnt when filming was that some shots in exposure was
all off, there were shots when it was so dark but it at the
time it didn’t look as bad, I did have to reshoot these
shots as they weren't suitable to put in my film. When I
reshot my film I learnt how to expose my shot properly.
On Wednesday, I stared in Sims film so I didn’t get round
to reshooting the shots which I needed to improve.
However, when I got back into class I had 20 minutes left
till the end of the day. I used this time very wisely and
started putting my film shots onto my premier pro
document. This meant that when I came into college the
next day I would be able to crack right on with my film. I

9. On Thursday, I carried on with editing. This was pretty simple
until I came across a shot which, didn’t have bad exposure, but
needed to be brightened abit, the shot was filmed in a darkish
locker room and looked very rubbish. When I did my research
PowerPoint I found out that I could add effects in the Adobe After
Effects application. This meant that I could fix the shot but learn
something new as well. It took me a while to get round the
software but once I got the hang of it I found it really useful to
use. In the future I would use this software again as it was pretty
easy to get my head round. I had another problem with one of
my other shots but I didn’t want to edit that on After Effects so
instead I planned on reshooting it the following day as the
people who I needed would be there. Overall, for Thursday I
had nearly completed my editing task and just needed to add
sound effects.
Friday morning I filmed the scene that I needed to reshoot, this
went really well and the exposure was perfect on it. I edited this
in to my Premiere Pro document, this meant that I had finished
editing the filming work all I needed to do is make a start on
recording my sound effects and I would be complete. After the
break I set on with the sound effects, I recorded a door shutting,
someone saying, “Time is running out” and also some outside
and inside ambience sound effects. However, I wanted to add a
gun shot noise, the one that I had recorded was very high pitch
and it didn’t sound very realistic. Unfortunately, I had to revert to
getting a sound effect on YouTube. I did find this helpful, as it
was more realistic and more intriguing. However, I didn't finish

10. This was the last week of production and finishing off any theory work
which was left unfinished. On Tuesday, I started to finish off my editing
and made sure everything was in place before showing it to Scott.
Before showing my film to Scott I felt that there was something missing
in my film and decided that I might need to add a soundtrack into the
background just so it doesn't sound as boring and there is something
going on all the time to keep the interest of my audience focused. I
decided to show Scott what my film originally looked like before I
decided whether to add a soundtrack. He initially thought it was very
good and most shots were in focus. However, he did agree with me
when it came to the soundtrack. I spent most of Tuesday trying to find a
soundtrack which would be smooth and wouldn't cause too much
attraction, I wanted the audience to focus on my film not the
soundtrack. I decided to add a happy soundtrack at the start as that is
when the two best friends were not in an argument and getting along
well, when it got to the arguing scene I faded some tense music in so
increase the tense atmosphere. To get the right soundtrack into my film
was so important as it needed to fit and make my audience feel more
intrigued to my film. By the end of Tuesday afternoon, I had found two
soundtracks which needed to be added and edited onto my Premiere
Pro document.
On Wednesday, I converted the two soundtracks from YouTube and
made sure they were royalty free. Having all my sounds royalty free was
very important as I could only use sound effects and soundtracks which
were royalty free as that is what was said on the brief which we were
given. I added the two YouTube soundtracks onto my document, I kept a
record of where they came from so I could add them into the credits for

11. On Thursday, I came into lesson and started to export my work.
After yesterday when I started to mess around with the effects I
chose some sound effects which made the audio smoother. My
first attempt at exporting my work didn't go to plan. For some
reason, the end of my film was missing, when I looked back onto
the Premiere Pro file I learnt that the last bit of my film was not
rendered. I tried all the options to render it but nothing was
working. This was very puzzling and I didn't know what was
wrong with it. However, I noticed that there was a little line
above where it was not rendered, I moved this across so the
end of my film and rendered it. Once the line turned green I
exported my film. All my film worked and looked really good. By
the time I finished exporting I had an hour left of lessons. I
decided to start on my evaluation and try to complete some of
that so I won’t have to do loads over the holiday. I just
completed my second slide when it was time to go. I set the task
of getting peer feedback for my film and to do another detailed
slide of my evaluation for Friday.
Friday was the last day of the film rotation, this meant that my
short film had to be put on YouTube by the end of the day and
posted to my blog and my Pre-production PowerPoint posted to
my blog. I spent the first half of the morning cleaning all theory
work which needed to be completed by Friday night. This was
important as if I hadn't finished my Pre-production PowerPoint I
would be behind on the deadline. Once I had completed this, I
started to go around and ask people to watch and evaluate my
short film for my peer feedback slides on my evaluation. I ended
up getting my 3 feedbacks completed and even managed to fill
out some of my peer’s feedback. Unfortunately, I ran out of time
and did not complete the slide which I wanted to do for my