Wednesday April 18th: Ending on an Evaluation

A Final Evaluation

After having completed another film project with this group I can once again say it was an incredibly fun experience. With a little more creative freedom this time, we were able to create a film which I believe effectively conveyed emotion. As sound designer, I took part in creating foley for the final piece and the location was easy enough to secure, as I took the reference shots in the house I'm currently staying in. The creativity was through the roof and an ideas were being suggested all the way through, and while some may have been rather ambitious, the enthusiasm and passion for film making was not lacking. We easily slipped into our roles and got to work as soon as we could. And while some may have struggled to adapt to their new role a little more than others, we made it work in the end. Everyone was willing to step in and pick up the slack at any point, and though we managed to stick with it all the way through, it was nice to know a team was behind me willing to step up at a moments notice. It's honestly been a fantastic experience working with this group, and I look forward to the films we make in the future.

When you can't stop going back and watching a film you've just spent several hours going through, you know it's a good sign. I personally am a big fan of the finished piece, especially the sound design. I may be biased, as I designed the sound, but it's something I feel is so immersive and so effective. You may notice while watching that a ticking clock features in the soundtrack quite consistently. This was actually inspired from the very first scene in a film called Dunkirk. I'll reference the scene I mean at the bottom of this post. I've always been a fan of ticking clocks in any kind of audible experience and using one as the beat to a song is one of my favourite things in films today. The voices in the head idea was also taken from war films where characters will hear gunshots and noises in their head. As the film was going for an approach on PTSD, it felt appropriate to have those same techniques used to represent scenarios in big budget films, in our own smaller one. I believe we were successful in this

A few things in the film could be improved, we could have lighted a few of the shots a little more effectively, there was a missed opportunity at the very end of the film for the cuts to speed up and match the beat of the ticking, which would have been fantastic for adding a frantic tension to the end of the piece, even more so than what we currently have. Though, after experiencing this film, I think I'd prefer to go for a more structured approach in my future films. While I'm glad I had the experience, it hasn't quite scratched the itch for story telling. I'd love an opportunity to tell a coherent story using film.


References:

• Dunkirk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYhZv7Ial9s