Post-Production: Conclusion

This post will conclude the Blog for
Team 1
Group 3
Nathalie Kranich - NK312


The Project will be concluded today, one day before the submission deadline.
Throughout the journey for this module, we had to come to terms with a few difficulties that made our work harder or possibly less rewarding, but I believe we came out of this with many new and nice experiences.
Our most fatal mistake throughout the entire project was time management. We had drastically underestimated how short 2-3 minutes would be, and had prepared an idea and script for a project that would require a much larger time frame. We therefore had to reduce our script to the minimal shippable product, and often struggled with how our vision had to change due to time restriction.

We also came to realize that finding actors interested in a project can be difficult, and that advertising the project and properly arranging for contacts is essential to keep a movie alive. Thankfully we found a very capable actress in the end, after a total of three audition.

Filming was a wonderful experience for most of us I think. I thoroughly enjoyed directing, and being with a friendly group that got along well made the filming days fun and rewarding. 

I feel as though throughout filming and post production we were little prepared for the things we had to mind. We often took unfocused shots, or disregarded the lighting so that shots became over exposed. We had only very little camera training, and Cian, our camera man, was the only one who really picked up the camera throughout these times, as he had claimed that responsibility from the beginning. Our whole camera knowledge was therefore mainly focused on him.
We had also received only one editing lab session with the bare necessities of editing, resulting in a minimal shippable product but by no means something I would consider professional work. We had to accept that we would probably never be able to fix all the audio problems we had. Audio management was not taught to us at all, and other than balancing out the audio and working with the microphone we had, we felt like we knew how to do very little.

As all the post production had to be done within two to three days this week, our days became pretty stressful. I am the first to admit that I started to become quite irritable with my group due to the stress that was building up before the deadline.
Teamwork can often be a difficult thing, and although rewarding, I am little used to letting other people do a large part of a group work on their own, resulting in me wanting to link myself into every aspect of work on the project. I believe that as a group we communicated well and regularly, met up often, and made big decisions together.
Overall I am very happy with our teamworking skills throughout the module. Apart from some stressful moments we got along well and got work done reliably.

Was my vision of the shortfilm fulfilled?
I don't fully believe so, although I have not yet seen the final colour corrected version. It was our absolute first attempt, and for that I am content with what we have produced. I think we can do better another time when we have less time restrictions and possibly more knowledge and experience. I would certainly do a few things differently next time.
Ofcourse the vision was obstructed by the simple fact that we had to butcher our idea into a shorter script, therefore we are happy with an outcome that matches the criteria and leaves us with something to show for our work.

Me and my group have already spoken about maybe picking up a filming project next term. We enjoyed the moving image module and might want to do more on our own terms, with a chance to experiment and take our time.

Although this is the conclusion post, I might upload the final short film here later on. That however depends on whether our actor is fine with that.