Evaluation

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Drama strand module evaluation

In this module we were put into group to produce a series of drama pieces that dealt with emotion and how emotions can tell a story and how audiences react to them.

Pressure is the first film we produced where you used only music and sounds to convey meaning. The story around Pressure is of a young girl being overwhelmed with her grades and everything around her whilst she journeys through the tough time. This piece was directed by Kelly Purcell and produced by myself. I was happy with the finished product. This short is two minutes long.

The production ran almost smoothly with only some minor setbacks. We mostly shot it in chronological order because we felt this will be easier as the story was told in a non-linear way. From the first shoot, I knew that we were making a strong film and the audiences will understand what is going on. My collaboration with Kelly is marvellous as our communication skills were on point, as they needed to be. I believe everyone played a key part in this production. Even though it was only two minutes in length, a lot a time and effort was put in to make this it is.

The two setbacks we had with this production was the crews scheduling and the actresses scheduling. With the crew, it was having time with other projects currently going on at the time but we managed with the time we had by using a shooting schedule. The actress’ availability was challenging for the crew and me, as her availability was very limited. We could only shoot on the weekends and usually only one day in the weekend, which made it very tricky. The actress was going through her GCSE mocks and needed time to revise for them. The weather also made a major part in our setbacks but we did overcome it. When the weather changed, we resumed shooting the exterior scenes.

Whilst filming the short, the inspiration came from the short film we watched in session A Changed Man (2003) because the emotion of the piece is present from the first opening shot, as the film focuses on the main character’s facial expression and you can see the struggle. With opened Pressure with a zoom-out shot of our main character looking through the camera to convey that she is in some sort of a trance. The opening shot was my idea as I think it was powerful and it sets the mood of the piece. The editor decided to intercut other sequences in that part but I’m unsure that I was too happy with the editing choice but the director approved it so I did not question it. I can say that the decision was to give the piece structure but this could’ve been done some other way. Originally, the Father character was going to disturb her from her trance but this got changed at the last minute.

Furthermore, I feel that we worked closely to the brief and produced some hard-hitting piece of work and we are all proud of it. This was done with the guidance of our lecturer and the reassurance from the members of the film crew.

Pressure Part II is the follow up to Pressure as we follow now follow the young woman through her loneliness and the pressure of making the right decision for her future. This piece included synced dialogue and music throughout. Kelly Purcell again directed and I produced, I was also the sound recorder for the project. This short film is ten minutes long in length.

Due to end of semester timetables and deadlines, we had to make do of using the screenwriter Isabel Raven to play the main character. We had tried and seek actual actors/drama students to be a part of this but again their schedule made them unavailable for the last two weeks of filming.

Pressure Part II was a bigger scale so everything had to be planned well to get all the scenes and additional footage. The production was very overwhelming due to the short time we had to shoot, edit and distribute the film. Even though we did not seek actual actors for this production, I was glad that Isabel agreed to play Hannah as she did fit the characterises and did look like the age of the character she was portraying.

I have to admit, I do not like the final cut of the film. I thought the reputation of the story was irritating and fell flat halfway through. The sets were the best thing about the piece as I did seek various locations including the office space in Sheffield Hallam University. To be fair, the office scenes were the most difficult place we shot in due to the time limit, because of the actual space and the three people conversation we needed to complete the brief. The other locations were used perfectly as Hannah’s apartment was shot on different locations but the transitions of sequence emerged together well.

Isabel’s performance was quite strong and that was surprising, as she has no previous acting experience. George, who was the editor and assistant camera-person was a stand in for an actor who did not show for the shoot. He also excelled in the role. My favourite shoot was the night shoot as the lighting and colours of the surrounding works well. Usually night shoots can be hit and miss but this was fantastic.

Again, I wasn’t happy with the final product of Part II because of the reputation and duration of the film but other than that we did not move away from the brief and completed the task to a high standard.