Self-evaluation of Foundation Portfolio

Research: In terms of research for our genre of film;psychological thriller, I gathered a good amount of research including opening credits of films and choosing scenes that used techniques that we wanted to use in our film. A limitation of this research however, was that it could have been much more relevant as most of the clips were from a mixture of genres including horror and thriller as initially we were unsure about our chosen genre and therefore the research appears to be quite general. To improve this for A2, I plan to have a greater understanding of the genre as often I found it difficult to distinguish between similar genres( e.g. horror, thriller, psychological horror and psychological thriller) and this would mean the research would be more relevant.
        In terms of our target audience (T.A) and whether our film was successful in reaching our T.A, as well as the interviews prior to filming to find our T.A we could also have interviews after the final product is finished to find out whether we reached that particular audience. Other interviews that could be beneficial to us could be how the T.A feel our media product represent particular social groups and whether it is the representation that we have intended or if not, then there is the option of making alterations to achieve it.


Planning: Planning was a strength of ours in terms of the amount that we produced including storyboards and PowerPoint’s with the plan for the plot, location and costume however the greatest amount of planning produced was for our initial idea that we did not continue with meaning the majority of our planning was not used. It did however mean we were better at planning for the next two ideas but an improvement would be to choose an idea and stay with it to ensure thorough planning for the final product. A weakness of our group was that in theory there was a large amount of planning however the actual work was often not put into practice until the last minute because of our lack of flexibility and communication with one another. To improve this for A2, we plan to meet more and set dates to keep up with the work when it is set.

Preparation: Although we planned our final product, the majority of this was in theory and not put into practice until quite late. Although this fortunately turned out well as we didn't need a huge amount of props, for A2 there is likely to be more props and locations and therefore rather than filming the entire thing in one day, we need to set dates where all of us our free to film the separate scenes early on to leave enough time for the evaluation of our film.

Editing: I feel that this is the area that I am weakest in and would like to improve on using the Macs because it is an essential part to our task. To do this, I will need to research various tutorials on Youtube to broaden my understanding of editing techniques as our material could potentially be good but it is the editing which is essential to bring the piece together, particularly if montage editing is used.

Final Product: We were extremely happy with the final product however there were a number of improvements that could have been made. A strength of ours was the main title 'Delusion' being incorporated into the film as it was illustrated in blood however the other titles were in a simple font and could have been improved by either incorporating them into the film to make it more original or used a font that suited our genre. In one scene there was a lot of blood filling the bath and in the next it disappeared and although the blurred screen effect we used made it less noticeable, an improvement for A2 would be ensuring that there are no drastic changes from scene to scene as it created a jaunty feel for the audience. As we used a glass screen to create a blurred look there were sometimes reflections in the glass that although these were only obvious if the audience were looking closely it has taught us to ensure that we have to film more than you need in case there is a reason such as a reflection which prevents us from using the original clip.