Evaluation

Drama

I quite enjoyed working on this project, however I feel I could have done much better. My drama did not turn out the way that I would have like and I feel like my vision as a director reflected in the scenes. This is down to my poor organisation skills, I lacked in this a lot this project and I wish I could change that. 

When it came to finding actors, I found some, however, they kept dropping out on me last minute or was not available when I would have wanted to film, in the end I had to use two actors that had, had no experience with acting before but they had tried my best.

When it came to editing my drama, I struggled a lot, I found that I did not cover all the shots that I wanted, this was mostly my master shots, I feel I did not cover enough of them, or even my smaller shots that I needed, I want to and need to improve on this so I can make editing easier form myself and so that I can feel proud of what I actually create in the end. 

Self Portrait 

When we were first told about the self portrait I was excited because I had many ideas going through my mind that I would like to have tried, however in the end this did not happen because I lacked in being organised for this project. I would have liked to be able to have filmed in the place that I grew up, Scotland, however I knew this would have been impossible as it is so far away and a very long drive away, so I opted for a beach around Kent that was similar to one in Scotland. 

Overall, I was quite disappointed in myself with how I went about this project, if I was to go back and do again, I would make sure that I plan better and have everything organised better, I want to be able to reflect on all the things I did wrong with this project and do much better on the next project so that I can improve not only myself but also my work and creative skills. 

Director - Tim Burton

Tim Burton

Tim Burton was born in Burbank, California, he had spent most of his childhood drawing cartoons and watching old movies. After graduating high school he attended California Institute of the Arts, like many other people who graduated from this college, his first job was as an animator for Disney. 

His early film career was fueled by almost unbelievable good luck, but it was his talent and originality that kept him at the top of Hollywood, he had worked on films such as The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. Disney had recognised his talent and gave him the go to make Vincent, an animated story about a boy who wanted to be just like Vincent Price. 

Tim Burton has a specific directors style to him, he has quite a dark and artistic style, by watching any of his films you would not have to know that he was the director, you would know from paying attention to the style that the film is actually made in. 

Tim Burton is a director that I look up to as a director, I have always loved his style and I would like his style to somehow show in my future filmmaking. I think that if Tim was to direct my chosen drama, he would not change to much about it, Fringe is quite a dark and mysterious show as it is. 

Directions: Pre Prooduction

Storyboard 

As well as doing a storyboard for my self portrait I also did one for my Drama, this is just a very rough sketches of what I want to happen in my drawing, drawing this storyboard helped to make filming much easier for me and my actors. My actors were able to visualise what I want to happen and they followed these directions well. 

Shotlist 

Having this shotlist made the shoot much easier, I had this on me at all times when I was shooting my drama, it helped me to establish what shots I really wanted to capture, this along with the storyboard helped my actors to follow directions. 

Location

My original plan was to film in the woods and in a park, however that became harder than I though because by the time my actors were available in the evening it had become too dark for the camera to actually pick them up in the distance so I chose to change my locations all together and shoot inside a house. I still tried to keep the scenes similar to the original as much as I could. 

Casting

I had gone through many actors, at first I had the perfect two however I kept having people drop out of the production last minute meaning I had to keep pushing my production, I soon the found two back ups but they had also dropped out last minute, I also found people that were not available around the time that I would liked to have filmed. In the end I found two people that were willing to be in my production, however they had not had any past acting experience, but they were willing to try their best so I agreed to use them, in the end they came through for me and did the best they possibly could. 

Directions: The art of directing

When I think of a director I automatically think of someone who is confident in what they do and someone who is ready to take on any task. Being a director consists of many jobs, you have to be ready to take on anything and give it your all, I think of it as you are running a team, if you are not confident on what you do when directing then your crew wont feel confident in what they do or you.

One of the first known directors was George II, the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914), it is to be said that he was the birth of directors. George II is credited as the first modern director and his wealth allowed him to construct his own theatre and organise a resident company of actors and artists.

Some things that a director has to go over before any rehearsal or filming can happen is the theme, characters, language, plot and most importantly the script. The director has to cast the right actors to suit certain characters from a production.

Some of the many responsibilities that a director holds are, they have to read and reread a script over and over again so that they can come up with a vision of the story and so they are able to visualise locations and how they would like the characters to look. Directors and producers will work closely together to cast people for a production and do location scouting along with many other aspects of a production. They will also work closely with the director of photography to decide where the cameras will be placed when it comes to filming and where actors will need to be placed.

One of the main aspects that a director needs to think about is budget, they have to be able to create and carry out the entire production in the set budget, if the director was to go over budget then it is possible that the production could not be completed. Depending on the type of production and how big the production actually is, depends on what the set budget is for the director.