Doing the Son Of Ash film was a really good experience and I really enjoyed being part of a team. Being behind the scenes of a short film was really different. I didn't expect how much work took place and the amount of organisation we had to do.
The story of the Son Of Ash was about a young man who was created by the blood of his father by the created of the book. So that he can defeat the deadeyes. Throught the story you see him (finish the brief of the story)
I thought that the filming went really well. I loved working as a team and watching the film come to life. Even though we had a short time to do the film and having no budget, the film turned out really well. The shots were sharp and the sound I thought was of good quality and the location that we ended up using turned out to be a good place to shoot. I thought my editing could of been a bit better if I had the more in-indepth knowledge of final cut express and with more available time, I believe I could of improved my final edit greatly.
What I thought was good about the film is the flow and the story behind it. When I was filming I had to read through the script a few times to get the idea of the script because I didn't fully understand the concept. My role of being a producer and the directors assistance was to help to direct the film with the director. This was really useful and helped me gain a lot of knowledge and understanding of what a directors role is like. Also I was a producer, with this role I had to make judgements on what shots we should have, if shots looked good or if we should have a different angle. I liked this role because it gave me the responsibility of getting the rights shots for my and other peoples edit as well as the original storyboard and shot list. With the role of the producer as well I helped with the post production paperwork. What I thought I could improve with the film was the sound because even though it was of good quality, I thought that editing it was really difficult because of the amount of sound systems we used, and some of the sound that we used wasn't at the best quality as we thought so we had to make the best of what we had.I thought a couple of shots in my final edit wasn't the best but I felt if we had more time on this unit and to film then we could of gone back and re- took the shot.
I felt that helping to make a film and edit it as well was really hard considering that we didn't have much knowledge of creating a film or doing our role, so by making and producing a film took it onto the next level. At first I thought our film wouldn't be able to get filmed due to the amount of location we needed, but I feel that even though we didn't get the locations we wanted we still make an amazing student film from the amount of resources and the equipment that we had.
I felt doing a film in final cut was quite hard even though I have used it a bit in other units I haven't used it as much as I did in single camera and doing my film. This is because in my single camera I used new tools such as the green screen and adding sound effects like non- diegetic sounds and ambient sounds. Adding filters onto my film to make it look scarier. Adjusting the sound to make the voices sound creepier to add that effect onto the characters. Overall I feel I can use final cut really well now I have worked with these different tools I can advance my skills on other things within final cut.
If I was to do my short film again I would want more time to prepare and have more time to edit and have more spare time. If I had final cut at home I would of taken it home and do it there but unfortunately I don't. If I had more time if I did it again I would also go on YouTube and look at how to do things on final cut for example good effects and make the edit crisp sharp and clean cut as well as putting the sound perfect with the character. I thought it would come out like a student film, but I feel like we have done really good and each one of us have taken up our role to the best of our ability.
We decided to get another point of view on the film to see what they felt like. We sent Shelly O'Brien a Film Studies Lecture, from Sheffield an email with the link to Callum's final edit of the Son Of Ash and this below is what she said about the film.
I felt doing a film in final cut was quite hard even though I have used it a bit in other units I haven't used it as much as I did in single camera and doing my film. This is because in my single camera I used new tools such as the green screen and adding sound effects like non- diegetic sounds and ambient sounds. Adding filters onto my film to make it look scarier. Adjusting the sound to make the voices sound creepier to add that effect onto the characters. Overall I feel I can use final cut really well now I have worked with these different tools I can advance my skills on other things within final cut.
If I was to do my short film again I would want more time to prepare and have more time to edit and have more spare time. If I had final cut at home I would of taken it home and do it there but unfortunately I don't. If I had more time if I did it again I would also go on YouTube and look at how to do things on final cut for example good effects and make the edit crisp sharp and clean cut as well as putting the sound perfect with the character. I thought it would come out like a student film, but I feel like we have done really good and each one of us have taken up our role to the best of our ability.
We decided to get another point of view on the film to see what they felt like. We sent Shelly O'Brien a Film Studies Lecture, from Sheffield an email with the link to Callum's final edit of the Son Of Ash and this below is what she said about the film.
Shelly O Brien- Film Studies Lecturer, Sheffield (focuses on Horror)
Yes - it is amateur at this point and pretty rough around the edges in places, but there is certainly potential there! I like some of the graphics work SFX wise and the music works well keeping the pace. It's really the narrative flow which needs work. It's a bit hard to follow at times and needs clearer shifts between scenes and events. I liked the actual idea but felt it needed better exposition at the start and also sometimes the dialogue was difficult to make out - the lead actor spoke a bit too fast at times and articulation needs to be be clearer. They also needs to consider aspects of suspense - I know that it's a bit jokey but even here this could have given a few jumps haha!There is obviously a lot to improve on (and I say this as a constructive criticism) but overall I think that, as first effort with no budget, they have done really well. If they can do this with no experience and no budget it shows that they have an eye for angles of shot, composition, and imagination above all! Everyone has to start somewhere after all! My best mate is a filmmaker and he learns stuff everytime he makes a new one! Tell them that I think they'll really benefit from there course and I wish them all the best!! I'm sure they will get better and better.
