For my year 2 FMP I aimed to create a short film called Dreamcatcher with the genres mostly being Sci-Fi, Physiological Thriller and Found Footage based. Within the context of the story this short film is connected to my Unit 9 and Unit 11 projects and also my year one FMP project but can easily be watched as a standalone film with no needed context. This short film has been my biggest project yet with as many as 15 people being involved in the creation of the film. Every person contributing their talent and skill torwards the final result of the film. Unfortunately due to tight scheduling with all of the crew and being ambitious with the project I was not able to complete this short film within the FMP deadline although I will continue to finish the film even after the deadline as I would like to finish what I started. As for the story I started brainstorming ideas and developing them into final ideas back in September and officially had an official base story by January, in January I worked on the script and shot list and storyboard while also working on Unit 10+12 and in March I officially started filming much earlier than I was allowed but as I showed my teachers that I was ready I was permitted to start filming way earlier than everyone else. Due to the main actors only being available on Mondays and Tuesdays I only had those 2 days to film everything which heavily limited the films schedule. As for the editing I was working on the editing myself but as time progressed I included 2 additional editors who were both experienced in visual effects to help progress the post production of the film and we would all go on group calls together to further progress the film using programmes such as Premiere Pro, After Effects and HitFilm. As mentioned the film is not finished and wont be finished in time for the deadline which is unfortunate but I am personally not effected by this result.

 

In terms of what went well I believe it was overall successful. All people involved with the project contributed for free and were all genuinely extremely useful adding in their own ideas and talents improving the overall film. With such a tight schedule I was extremely lucky with the weather, I was not allowed to any call offs if I wanted to get most of the filming done before the deadline and the weather fit the scene in every single filming day, for example for a certain scene where the environment needs to be sunny and clear sky the weather for that day matched the weather needed for the scene and this applies to the entire film. The whole crew came on time and did their role and knew what it was. There was a lot of pre planning for majority of the scenes with reduced the amount of filming time and potential filming days that I did not have the schedule for. I was fortunate enough for the Lumix to be available for the days that I needed to film and to the 2 times that they weren't available for me to use I had a reliable backup plan. Before filming for this project I was very self conscious about me not knowing how to use the Lumix or that I would make a mistake and not know how to operate the camera but with being taught how to use the camera by Mathew and Toby in the previous Unit I did not have any issues with the camera. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to film in a company's staff room. I was very well planned and organised for production.

 

What went wrong? Due to the crew only being free on mondays and Tuesdays that heavily limited how long I really had to film. Due to personal issues half of the crew dropped out of the project very much near the end of the production (including the main character) while also needing to film one more major scene. One of the people who dropped wont allow me to use their song which was made specifically for the credits of this short film. I also lost out on an animation that would've been played at the end of the short film due to the same reason. I had COVID for 2 weeks reducing even more filming time which was already extremely limited. I also lost out on a filming session during to bank holiday. I also lost out on a month of filming due to the main antagonist of the short film going to Thailand for a month for his own personal college work and his character was in 90% of the scenes and could not be replaced which prevented a lot of filming. The biggest issue for me was that throughout the past year I have slowly and increasingly felt more burnt out from college, more specifically the actual writing segments. Looking back at this Years units my unit 9 has my full energy in terms of the writing but as the next 2 units followed I was slowly more burnt out and put less energy and effort into the writing segments. This ultimately lead to my mindset being more focused on the actual product of the short film for the FMP rather than my final grade that I get for it. I thought this was laziness but after doing research for my own personal reasons I'm lead to believe that I feel burnt out and mentally exhausted from college which ultimately had a huge effect on my FMP as I put minimal effort into the writing (excluding the actual useful information such as script and shotlist and storyboard, I put all of my energy into them) for example I was planning to work on my research but kept pushing it back and now the research is the only main requirement I was not able to complete. Overall this is why I am taking a gap year to mentally rest my mind as I am extremely burnt out from writing. A big reason as to why I felt like this torwards the FMP is that all of the writing outside of the script ect. Felt unimportant torwards the creation of the film. I am fully aware that they are incredibly important when it came to achieving the best grade possible but it still did not help me at all achieve the best possible film I wanted to make which is a very self destructive mindset to have had when making this FMP. Overall the grade I get for this does not effect me as I already have the next few years of my life planned and whatever grade I get for this does not effect that. This is something I'll HAVE to work on, avoiding the feeling of being burnt out. Because if the scenario was different and I felt burnt out then my job would depend on it although that entirely depends on what job that is and such. This has been the biggest problem with the process of making the FMP, it has not effected the physical film but it heavily effects my grade as the film itself means nothing when it comes to the grade, mostly the writing dictates what grade I get. Overall i am unaffected with the grade I will get and am satisfied enough to have been given the chance to make Dreamcatcher.

 

To conclude this evaluation I will say that I regret none of the choices I've made torwards this FMP as I have learnt valuable lessons that will help improve my skill and creativity torwards my future projects. I am determined as ever to continue my work into media as doing this college course has made me realise how much passion and love I have for this subject. I love to create films and I want to spend the rest of my life creating more content to give to the media whether they are my own projects or contributing torwards others. I am very excited for my future potential and very excited to see my peers around me succeed in their strengths within media as a whole. I will continue to finish my short film even after the deadline as I am determined to finish this film. I will finish Dreamcatcher.