Task 3: Drama Evaluation

Evaluation

Pre-production got off initially to a good start, however it slowed down before production. A story concept that was discussed in a workshop was taken as the base foundation for the narrative of our film. From this, a script, of which I was lead writer, was put into development and a first draft was completed early on. However feedback on the script from the group was largely minimal, which meant that, upon review in the actors workshop, it had to go through a heavy amount of rewriting and tweaking when issues with it arose. Additionally, preparing for the production took a slow amble; locations and actors were found a few days before filming, scenes were not extensively blocked before the shoot and use of equipment caused issues with lighting on the set. The first shoot on April 13th, though we shot the best part of 4 scenes, turned out to have lots of issues upon its review in the edit tutorial. We took this feedback onboard and began to plan when we could continue the production. 

From this point we faced as a group, a major stumble, as our actors bailed on a planned day of filming. However, we came out much more prepared on the second day of filming, when we were able to reshoot most of our film and were faster setting up shots, wiser to lighting the set and more confident in the direction of our actors. Communication between members of the group improved greatly over the course of making this film and was constant and clear at the end. The producer gave constant updates on the status of actors and the shooting schedule and on set, there was good communication between the Director, Cinematographer and Sound team. Our Art Director did great work in making a location available for filming and we were able to dress the set neatly, with splashes of colour. Post-production involved a smaller team working together but I feel this worked effectively. There was good communication and understanding of each others roles and by often working on separate parts of the project we were able to produce the film to a polished and higher standard then our previous attempt in a shorter, pressured space of time. 

Weaknesses of the film can be found in missing cutaways and shots that sometimes make the narrative of the film unclear and a lack of varying shot types and angles. This was however due to the space of the locations and large amounts of dialogue in the script. Additionally, the acting is sometimes more theatrical which pushes it to become a little cheesy in places when it needs to be more subtle. There are great strength in the post production, especially with the colouring, graphics and sound design. The colour grading adds visual tonality to the piece, with a cool blue and the music creates a sense of emotion and gives the film some needed depth and variation. Overall, I am very satisfied with the final film.