Production Reflection

WEEK 1– CONTEXT RESEARCH &
PROPOSAL
I felt pretty confident writing through most of my proposal. I had a fairly
detailed idea in my head of what I wanted to make, though I wasn’t going to
hold onto each little bit, knowing that my further research could easily change
my mind about what would be included. I also knew several different trailers
that I could research and pull ideas from to interpret into my own.
I may come back to these later if I find that I have taken inspiration from more
than I expected and definitely comparing between my initial concept and what
I actually ended up making.

WEEK 2 - RESEARCH
One of the first things I did for my research was start to write a survey for my
primary research. I decided to do the analysis of my results in the second week
when I should hopefully have enough responses to know more about my
target audience. I wanted to know what my age range was most interested in,
in terms of genre, to know if I should add in any elements into my trailer that
would suggest so and appeal to more people. I also wanted to ask about
promotional techniques, in case I have any time to create additional material.
While I waited for enough results of my survey to come through, I started to
look through existing trailers and analysing them. I could look

WEEK 2 - RESEARCH
at different layouts of film trailers that I liked the setting of. I knew I was also
making a right move looking at films with action and sci-fi elements as I could
see that the results of my survey were already favouring those genres.

WEEK 3 - RESEARCH
From looking at the different products and techniques I’ve researched, I’ve
found it being really helpful even if I’m just making a trailer. I learnt that I can
hide secrets and subtle references cleverly in the background of shots if I think
its appropriate to put across messages of undertones that trailers often do.
Finding out extra information about recording sound also made me realise
that I need to be careful about how the sound is recorded and that I may have
to consider recording some of the sound separately and I’ll have to be very
careful when recording conversations.
Researching existing trailers was good for getting more ideas for what I should
include and was successful in giving me tips on how this genre tends to set out
its trailers. After I’d finished going through each trailer

WEEK 3 - RESEARCH
I’d decided to look at in depth, I returned to my survey to go through the
results. I learnt that sci-fi was the most popular of the genres out of the
responses. That means I should probably try and include at least hints of sci-fi
elements to my project, although post-apocalyptic fiction often does anyway.

WEEK 4 – PROBLEM SOLVING
This week of problem solving was really helpful in allowing me to realise all of
the things that I would have to consider before and during the production of
my project. Especially since I plan to do at least the majority of my filming
outside, I had to consider travelling to these conditions and how weather
could affect my planning for filming. Luckily, I should have different solutions
for those, such as having my Father drive us to the location that is further away
and the other being local to college. And my Grandad lives close by to the
distant location so there may be a potential source of facilities there if not in
the local town. It does mean however that my scenes at the distant location
may have to be filmed more quickly and precisely as there is less opportunity

to be there and less crew members for filming assistance but I think that I can
make this work to my advantage.
One thing I also wanted to start to do this week and next week was testing out
a few technical effects to see if I had any problems with those that I’d need to
fix. This week I went out and took a short clip of an outside scene to test out
some colour correction for what I might want to use for my project using one
of the tutorials as a start.

This week I did more of my problem solving, delving into the potential health
and safety risks that comes with filming outside at each location I plan on
filming at as there are some variations with each. I also took time to get a head
start on starting my storyboard. To do each part, I’m using a graphics tablet for
the drawings and descriptions; I’ll change the writing for text if I find it is
impossible for others to read. The tablet was harder than I thought but I liked
how it looked and I could get across what I wanted to. What I know I need to
sort next is costume for my actress so that I can start planning when I can start
to film when my storyboard has more to it. I’m confident that I’ll be able to get
everything sorted although I want to make sure I stay to schedule.

WEEK 6 - PLANNING
Planning this week has gone well. Thanks to getting a head start on my
storyboard last week, I was able to finish the part of my storyboard for the
opening to my trailer. This part takes place an hour away from home which is
why I wanted to make sure that I filmed this part first to be comfortable in
knowing I’d have more time to organise and reshoots I might need to take.
Once I finished that part, I arranged a time on Friday to talk to my main actress
so that we could organise when the best time to film would be and sort out
finalising details on costume. While we’re still finalising some of the details, I
may have a date to film the first part of the trailer, though this will depend on
whether the rest of my crew can also join me.

WEEK 7 – PLANNING
When doing my planning, I want to make sure that I don’t make mistakes and
leave some planning to the very last minute to risk not being able to film what
I want on that day because of something in my control. I spent this week
finalising my plans to start the first part of my filming. Having spoken again
with my actress, we finalised the date to be on Sunday and whether the rest of
my crew would make it. I’m much more confident about starting my filming
now that I know they should all be available and that I know how and when
we’re aiming to be there for. I am a little worried that I won’t have my
storyboard finished in time to do the rest especially once I start editing, but I
am still confident that I will have enough time to do everything.

WEEK 8 – PRODUCTION
Having filmed over the weekend on Sunday, I wanted to get straight into
editing the first part of my sequence. I made a new premiere file and made
three different sequences. One was for the main timeline that I would
eventually export as my finished product. Another was for syncing up my
clips to audio and deciding which ones I wanted to use. The third was for
editing this specific section so that I could keep all my videos organised.
One problem I did notice was that the opening three shots I wanted to use
were slightly out of focus. At first I was worried I’d have to reorganise going
back to Pately Bridge but luckily it was pointed out to me that I could refilm
those shots without there being a continuity error as long as the weather
would be similar.

The second thing that I did was organise all my files into folders so that I could easily
find different clips that I wanted to use.
From there I started by putting the film clips together in the
order of my storyboard and then syncing it with the
corresponding audio from the recorder. Once I’d
added the audio in, which wasn’t a lot by choice, I started to add in the music
as that was what I wanted to use as the predominant source of audio in this
part especially. This took longer than I had expected as I

made lots of extra little adjustments to the soundtrack so that parts lined up
better and still gave off the eerie, desolate and lonely atmosphere and when
other people are around it’s dangerous. I then moved on to the adjustment
layers for colour correction. I started with one from what I researched but it
made my footage too dark. So I tried giving it a slightly orange, higher
constant tint, similar to what I took from my context research. I initially had
the idea that I would use this for the flashback but quickly changed my
mind.
I actually ended up with three adjustment layers: one a toned down version
of the YouTube tutorial, the other to level out the contrast and

the other to add the colour tint that ended up working really well with the footage in
my opinion and really put across the effect I was trying to create.
While making these adjustments did take quite a lot longer than
I’d hoped, I was definitely pleased with the outcome and worth
the extra time it took to perfect. It may need tweaking slightly
when the rest of the footage comes in but by being a similar
landscape it shouldn’t need too much.

This week I resumed my storyboard so that I knew what I would need for the
rest of my trailer and could plan accordingly to get both my actors in and the
kit booked. It’s a little more difficult to plan now that I have two different
people acting though the upside is that it is an easier set location to get to for
most of my crew members and any train and bus expenses will be paid for
those who need it. Another thing that I noticed was that while I loved the
effect of the colour correction, the high contrast had turned the sky white and
the clouds weren’t visible. While I thought that it still looked good, I decided to
try something. I copied one of my video clips onto a new layer so that I had a
backup one already edited and created a mask around the sky. Once I’d done

that, I went into Lumetri colour and turned down the contrast for that area. I
was so pleased when I saw it brought the clouds back into view and some
detail into the sky while still fitting in with the colour grading I already had.
One thing that did worry me is that I realised if I did it for one clip, I’d likely
have to do it for multiple where the sky was too bright however I decided that
it made such a good contribution to the overall look of my film that it would
be worth the time it would take. By taking breaks between masking my clips, I
returned to my storyboard, managing to round it off into the title sequences I
plan to make once I know I’ve completed all my filming.

I spent the start of this week finishing up the part of my storyboard I was
planning to film on Friday the 5th of April. It was a little rushed as I was initially
unaware if the day would be the Friday or the Saturday which did result in one
of my crew members not being able to join us, although I was able to find a
replacement at short notice which worked out just as well. The other part of
my week was finishing up masking through my footage to sort out my
overexposed sky. This took longer than it should have as at one point I tried to
speed up the process of going through each frame to adjust the mask, I
managed to delete some of the progress and had to do it again. This annoyed
me and I started to worry if I would have enough time for everything else to
do.

I filmed on Friday 5th April to get almost all of the remaining scenes for my
trailer. Filming went successfully, especially with the weather being similar to
when I filmed in earlier and I got the shots I wanted. While I was on the set, I
did decide to change my storyboard a little. I didn’t have quite enough time to
obtain the prop I wanted to have the character look at a photograph which
starts a flashback to when she has to leave home and takes the photograph
with her. However, I realised that I didn’t necessarily need it to still make the
scene give the effect that I wanted. In a way, I decided that it could actually
make it better emotionally because it really highlighted that she did lose
everyone and doesn’t have even a picture to remember them by.

On the last week before the Easter break, I spent my time at college
continuing to go back through all of my shots and masking the sky so that it
fit better with the colour grading. I was glad that some of these shots were
easier to mask this time as I didn’t have to move it around each little
movement on them all because you couldn’t tell the difference, but it still
took me most of the week to do most of it where it was necessary. It did
however take me almost all week to do the remaining scenes as some of the
skies overlapped with Isabelle so I had to make sure that she wasn’t in the
mask and the small movements made it more difficult. However, knowing
that I don’t have many left to do and what I’m planning over the holidays
won’t require a mask as it is inside so I am slightly less worried about that
front.

WEEK 12 - PRODUCTION
Being the first week back after the Easter holidays, I knew that according to my
schedule it was about the time I would ought to have a draft edit of my trailer
by now. However, with the masking of the sky having taken so long over the
different clips that required it, I knew that the draft wouldn’t be quite as much
as I wanted it to be. So I made a new sequence and put together the shots that
already had organised and combined them. I then shortened the clips and got
the music to fit, adding in the narration that I had filmed over the holidays to
add an extra layer of context to my draft. I felt that the narration helped so
much in enhancing what was going on, while not solely relying on it to tell the
story. I knew that there was one of the masks glitching that I

WEEK 12 - PRODUCTION
didn’t get chance to fix before the showing but I did also get helpful feedback
to work on, such as spacing out the narration a little bit and not needing the
adjustment layer on the flashback to be as drastically distant.
On Wednesday and into Thursday, I started to wonder about my timeline and
storyboard. Having seen the shorter draft of my trailer I was starting to wonder
if it was too long and more like a scene during what would be the whole film
rather than a trailer like the ones I researched. Deciding to try something
different, I made a new sequence, so that if it didn’t work I still had the original,
and started to test a different layout

for the shots and audio. I was initially worried about trying this as I knew that I
would be shorter on time if it didn’t turn out well. Re-watching the trailers
helped as I started to piece things together. I liked how the new sequence was
turning out more and more, feeling as though it was more effective and played
a lot more like a trailer would. Coming back to it on Thursday and looking at it
again really boosted my confidence in this new sequence and I decided that I
would keep it as the official trailer timeline.

This week of production was shorter than usual with the bank holiday on
Monday. I spent Wednesday adjusting the trailer further and starting to add
clips to fasten the pace. I used a new music clip that was faster paced so it
would fit in with shorter clips and spaces I’d leave for the title sequences I
decided to start later in the day. When I’d loaded After Effects, I realised that I
wasn’t as familiar with the program as I’d remembered which started to worry
me. Thankfully it didn’t last long as I thought I could do them on Premiere Pro.
Production Create had some really nice effects such as a smoky background,
lens flares and a moving background that I thought could give a similar effect
to what I researched without being exactly the same. I knew I would need to

download the clips at home as the download links were blocked on college
Wi-Fi. I spent Thursday becoming more confident as I started piecing together
the clips with a font I also spent time searching for. I was going to use one of
the ones I had looked at during my production planning but I didn’t like them
the more I looked at them. Going back onto the website I saw Gang Wolfik,
which I knew would fit in with my theme and potentially hint at Sci-Fi elements
and plot undertones to ‘No Man’s Land’ with it’s futuristic clean look as
opposed to what is otherwise visually apparent. It looked even better when I
started to add shadows and a sheen to it to add depth.

Being the last week of production, I wanted to make sure that I prioritised it
fixing and tweaking my trailer as I knew I had most of it laid out in the new
layout I’d tried the other week which I’d known was already better than what
I’d initially started to edit together. The first thing I sorted out were the
transitions between the present and the flashback where the adjustment layers
change. So far the problem had been on returning from the flashback where
the transition wasn’t seamless and flickered as they layered back over each
other. Thinking about how I might solve that, I tried using a dip to white
transition on the top colour graded layers. I then moved back onto the title
screens I’d started. Along with the title screen, with the decision to use an extra

lot of text after the trailer’s main title. I decided that the time I’d left for that
title felt a little long, so I tried adding another part at the end, as I saw where
common with other trailers. After adding the part saying ‘coming soon’, I felt it
was a bit small on the screen but I didn’t want the font to be as big as the title
before. Then I had the idea to have some small but still readable text which
turned out to be a great opportunity to credit everyone who helped me with
my production.
On the Friday I came into college I went back to a few of my clips that I knew
had masks I wasn’t pleased with. While the masks worked, I felt it was messy
and not as good as I’d done the other masks where it was less obvious. This
took longer than I’d expected and doing this and deciding two of the three
other title sequences between clips during

the rest of the trailer. I wasn’t sure what to put in the first one which kicked off
the quick clips leading up to the main title screen.
With the next week being for my evaluation, it was on the next Friday that I
finished off my title sequences which was relieving. I also redid one of the
masks again as I still wasn’t happy with it, ending up deciding to add another
mask to brighten up Isabelle’s face as it was a bit too dark on its own.
However, once I’d exported the video I noticed that they looked slightly out of
focus, but I didn’t have time to fix it before I had to leave for half term.

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