Feedback

For the product assessment, I have asked 4 people to write a short paragraph stating what was good and bad about my film and what I could change. I did this not only because the brief requires it but out of personal interest to see what people made of my film. I was very intrigued by what they thought of it and not for them to just say 'good' but go into detail and perhaps pick my film apart. This method has definitely proven worthy in the past as I have had much feedback on previous short films explaining not only what was wrong but why it was wrong which helped me learn a great deal about me as a director and learn a lot more about my film. I have learned many valuable lessons such as; 'Always keep your target audience in mind' and 'keep the camera work as smooth as possible if it's a crucial scene.' It is things like this that teach me and allow me to be a better director in the future.

I definitely did keep my target audience in mind while making this film, in fact, I also pictured what my film would look like on a big cinema screen in front of my target audience. This was because in the previous year to this that I have done at college, (Level 2 Media) we did a presentation of all our products and films. The films were all on one main massive projector screen and it was only then when I realised my film wasn't as good as I thought it was in my head and that goes for the audio as well. It wasn't bad but I thought much higher of it in my mind as to what I was seeing when I was editing it. It took me that long to realise this before it was too late and I didn't want to make the same mistake this time. I know I don't have a presentation this year but I know that helps the bar get raised in my head. This is also for when I show family and friend this film on a big screen television at home as this general concept keeps this film's standards raised throughout the entirety of the production.

Joshua Northeast:

"Right from the get-go, you can see the pure effort that the director has put into this Documentary. From a viewers perspective, I feel that the cinematography is clearly one of the best features throughout. With the drone footage and the slider used the shots put in are effective and tells the story (through the camera as well). One aspect I didn't particularly like was the duration of the history section, I wasn't able to connect with the information because there was too much. A way to improve this could be by making the history briefer, therefore, giving a more precise and quicker duration. I feel this will engage the audience much more significantly."

Jack Friend

"The Documentary is a stunning effort as it is aesthetically pleasing. It is informative and it's easy to engage with and fun. I liked the slow-mo shots of the car as you can see finer details. One thing that this lacks is the overall duration. As great as it is I fell it could be cut down a little more and as it is quite long and so makes it hard to stay with. Maybe just cutting down in general on a few of the shots could help. Apart from that, this is a great film and I very much enjoyed it."

Noah Rombach

"It's a good film, the best bit was the middle part after the interviews which were also very informative. I liked the shots on the road, they were a lot like Top gear and looked to a professional standard. I liked the way you see the national speed limit sign and the car accelerates and goes off. I also appreciate all the filter used in this film as it helps to highlight the car. I didn't think the filters help the quality, however, as it looks pixelated it doesn't look that good. If that can be changed maybe keep the colours but export it into a different quality."

Harry Sheridan

"I think his film is quite good but some of the shots are quite jumpy in maybe the way they were filmed or exported. Apart from that, I think this film is good. It's easy to connect with and it's easy to understand everything that is said in the voice overs as the voice is clear. The same goes for the stand-up part as it shows enthusiasm from the director. The drone is subtly and so, almost professional in the way it has been filtered. The low moving shots are nice and so are the shots of the car on the road and the audio that comes with it shows how loud it actually is."

Reflecting on this I can put my films strengths and weaknesses into perspective by creating a list.

Strengths

Information

Cinematography

Audio

Colour

Weakness

Duration

Video Quality

Reflecting on this, I agree. The reason for this is I only exported in 720p which is all Premiere allows you to and I wish 1080p was an option but also I used some 720 footage so it is not worth risking it and upscaling it just for it to look bad. The export took 40 minutes as showed by the editing process 1-hour video I have. I didn't want to wait for that to be done just to see that it has failed and doesn't look good. I asked for advice and they agreed that there was no workaround. I agree that the film would work a lot better with a higher quality but I am happy with what I've got. The Saturation and Vibrance that I put on the film only helps the quality in my opinion as I hate blaming my tools but it can only look so good on the camera. I think it does help the quality but in some factors where highlighting the black parts, it looks purple because there is so much colour grading on it. I think this is because I didn't want anything to be dark. It is supposed to be colourful, bright and happy feel-good film and black is the opposite of that so I gave it colour.


As for the duration, I think the film is long and yes, there is a lot of information crammed in as it was originally going to be 25-30 minutes. As this is the best thing for it, I cut it down. I wanted to get all the information packed in there so that the film wouldn't be too long. Top Gear makes there reviews at 9-12 minutes but mine was going to take longer. I had more time to try to express my point so that it gets across. I am excited to make these changes as they are going to make my film not flawless but much much stronger nonetheless. I am also wary of cutting my film down too much. I am not taking chinks out as even 10 seconds is a very long time in terms of shots. This is why I have to be careful so that I don't get rid of too much. Perhaps I could cut it 30-50 seconds down and get rid of the hanging shots which will add up to this making my film much quicker and crisper.

In my fix, I have included making the audio much better in the voice overs and the stand-up part as I felt that this was insufficiently quiet. Also, the start is quite delayed with the audio and I really don't like that. I prefer the original version in that respect. I like the original more because it has a longer duration, it shows you more detail on the cut. In this "fix" that start of the film is very poor as it is nothing like the original. SO I went back and made a second fix that was much better where the start matches the original since there was nothing wrong with it. I will keep the unused original fix to show development into the fact I have gone back and fixed the fix.

Otherwise, I have mended the audio in every stand-up and voice-over part since my voice was originally quiet and drowned out by the music and this way my voice has a bigger presence. I am clearer to hear as this is crucial to the film. In other fixes, I have been cutting out part such as when I got the lego model out, I was trying to get it for a long time and I was just generally taking too long so I cut it to me having it in my hand from reaching to it at the end of my sentence. I also cut the sound and the clip of the car on the road the first time we see the travelling forward the following shot because beforehand we had it hang on so that you could have an excuse to hear the change down in gear which made a very nice sound. The shot is too empty so I made it shorter and cut that last bit out. I added an extra credits text that tells the viewer looking to copyright my film, that all the links are in the description. Even though I don't want to put this version up on Youtube I will keep it if I change my mind in the future. I didn't change the speed of the time lapse I the last section because it would have been incomprehensible to see the views around the car, it would neither match the rhythm of the music. All in all, I have fixed all the things bar the video quality, I had a long search in Premiere of seeking out higher quality possibilities but it is simply not possible to keep my film looking good while doing those suggested things to the video. I think that the fix has been successful as I have made the audio clearer which is something I realised I could do after tweaking my film and watching it over to make it the best possible even though it was already a strength.