Final Evaluation

Sleep and Switch

Josh Richardson
[email protected]
 What did you intend on making and why?
As it was my FMP I intended to make a professional looking production,
one that has a message/moral in it so the audience can hopefully take
something away at the end of the production to become better people,
whilst also engaging the audience and make them want to want as much
as possible. I wanted to portray all of my skills I have gained over the
course of this year to show my marker everything I’ve got and to
hopefully get a good grade on it.
I also want my production to do well in the competition, the Raindance
film festival, as if it gets any sort of nomination or award in this festival I
know I have been successful as a filmmaker. To get as far as I can in the
competition I have done a lot of research into the competition as well as
the competitions previous winners, getting an Idea of the standard of
writing, cinematography and editing that are needed to compete, as if I
make my production as high standard as theirs, using some of their
techniques that people have praised their productions for, I know that I
will be able to achieve a high grade for my FMP. In future I may study my
intentions a lot more before my production has been planned, rather than
doing them whilst I’m in my planning stage as this way I could study them
in more detail to really understand how to portray my messages to the
audience.
How did you use your findings from your research to plan a
production?
I did a lot of research for my production to help me make a production as
higher quality as possible, and one of the things I didn’t feel overly
confident on where the two main genres of my production, mystery and
drama. I think at the start I wasn’t too confident on them because they
are two genres I had rarely ever worked to make a production on, but I
knew I would find this challenging when I started my pre-production, and I
stuck with it as I did want to challenge myself. When research my genres I
did a lot of secondary on the codes and conventions and here I became
very familiar with the techniques. One of these is the common use of the
shot reverse shot in the drama genre- being able to put this in my own
production a couple times shows my marker I know when and why to use
this technique – as I used it in a moment where I wanted to show the
emotions of my characters, which is the main reason it is used as the
drama genre is known for its portrayal of authentic emotion to make the
audience feel like they are their and to take them on the same
rollercoaster or emotions that they have shown in their production.
As well as this I also analysed two productions from my genre, one being
‘whittling away’ where I recognised where they use the codes and
conventions of the genre as well as what the filmmaker was trying to
suggest and what he did to engage the audience. Some of the things I
found from this analysis to build up suspense during the production as it
kept me very engaged in the production as because of this I decided to
use this same technique in my production hoping it would give my
audience a similar effect. I did it when Sammy drinks the strange liquid
but for a few seconds he suffers from it and even looks dead, before
eventually waking up. I have done this as the audience would panic and
thinking he’s dead.

This screenshot is from one of my first surveys, where I

selected 3 pieces of advice from my target audience when I
was about to write my production, and these pieces of advice I
had set myself a target to incorporate each of these in my
production in some way shape or form, which Is something I
believe I have fulfilled. For the first piece of advice, I added a
climax point at around the 4 minute mark, so about ¾ of my
production. This is the point that Sammy drinks the suspicious
liquid and risks his life to try and get back to his family but it at
first it doesn’t look like it works. This builds up a lot of tension
as I want the audience to really feel like he is actually dead, by
doing multiple shots of him looking unconscious, and even
when he does return into his normal self, there is still a little
time before the ‘real’ ending happens and Sammy’s dad tells
him the news about a doctor being found dead. The second
advice I used in my production by having a lot of plot twists,
including Sammy switching bodies, his mood changing in the
new body, as well as finding something to get him back, with all
of these plot twists I am hoping it will keep my production
engaging for my audience. For the third piece of advice I also
felt I used well, as my production is unique and sometimes
unpredictable which tells me that It should keep the audience
engaged as they wouldn’t have ever seen anything like it
before, and I felt I was very creative with my idea and have
improved it over time.
During my research I also looked into two professionals, being
George Lucas and James Wan, whose work I both highly
admire. And a they are also famous filmmakers their
techniques in the film industry, and so if these techniques work
in my production well it should boost the quality of my
production and therefore get me a higher grade for my FMP. I
really like George Lucas style of writing for his characters. The
development for characters such as Luke Skywalker and Anakin
Skywalker is very in depth and well portrayed, but as I have a
lot less time to develop my character I had to find a way to do
this in shorter time, and to do this I had him change his mind a
lot, where the audience would respect him more as eventually
Sammy puts family first after a long time of wanting to be away
from them and having money as his most prized goal. The
character of Sammy starts off as ungrateful but learns a lot in
the short film, and I hope this message is translated to the
audience too, as that is a goal of a filmmaker who has put a
moral in his films.
I also looked into what techniques James Wan uses and the
main one I added into my production was a ‘dual ending’ where
as the main story ends, there is also another problem- this
could setup perfectly for a sequel or if there wasn’t I would
work as well. I feel I used this in a way that ends my production
uniquely. This was when Sammy actually wakes up but then
receives the news that someone who is described as exactly
the same as the body he was just in. This would get the
characters and the audience thinking of a lot of questions like Is
it Sammy’s fault he is dead? What happens next? Does Sammy
tell anyone what’s happened? And if they are asking these
questions I know I have been successful for engaging
themselves in my short film. James wan also believes having
establishing shots are unneeded as it makes the audience think
a lot about where the characters actually are. I also used this
technique in my film because I felt if I put an establishing shot
when Sammy switches bodies It would ruin the flow and look
random, so I didn’t have one so the audience realise at the
same time as Sammy that he has woken up in a different body.
I think this makes the production more engaging for the
audience as they feel the same emotions as Sammy does
rather than knowing how Sammy will feel once he’s woken up.
Next in my research I did some primary research on my target
audience, as I wanted them to have the same/similar feelings
as Sammy as Sammy is in the same age group as them, so I
wanted him to have the feelings and emotions that they would
have if they were in his position. For example, I surveyed my
target audience how they would feel if they woke up in
someone else, and my results were mixed. Therefore Sammy

will portray mixed emotions when he does wake up, so that as

many target audience members could relate to his character to
make the production more interesting for them.
This question is asked to them so I could understand how they
would feel if they switched bodies to someone richer (which the
doctor is) IF they got to bring their close ones with them. The
overwhelming majority said they would and hence Sammy
originally is very happy in his new body as the new body is in
his opinion, a dream body with a wealthy house on a beach.
The reason I chose a beach is because in the same survey I
asked my target audience what they felt the most luxury
location was, and 80% agreed it was in fact a beach rather than
a room with a city look out or just an extremely luxurious room
without a view. I feel because I make these type of decisions to
make my production to make it more relatable to my target
audience they are more likely to enjoy it.
Why would have your production have met the needs of
your target audience?
I think my production would have met the expectations of my
target audience because a lot of the production was written
with them in mind, my film was based around my survey
results and feedback, as I feel if they say they want to see
specific things in my production (such as a beach as a luxury
location) this will make the location seem as luxury as possible
for them to keep them engaged. I also did 3 surveys in my
research and added a lot of their suggestions into my
production- this includes including numerous plot twists, having
my production uploaded to YouTube, which is their platform of
choice, and also having my protagonist, Sammy, feel a lot of
the same emotions that they would in various circumstances.
This would make them a lot more engaged and almost feel like
the production is about them.
When I first wanted to get to understand what my target
audience wants from the production, I sent out a survey asking
them about what they wanted my overall production to be
about, and what they would find most interesting to watch,
because if they have a choice they are a lot more likely to
watch the production than if they were just given a random
production to watch. I gave them a brief description of all 3 of
my ideas, without spoiling it for them. 55% of those who took
part in that survey voted for the sleep and switch idea, hence I
took it upon my self to start researching a production in that
style, and it would have became even more tailored to them
after more surveys and me learning more about what they
want in a production. I overall wanted to have as much possible
that they have requested, as they are more likely to enjoy the
production as it is more tailored to them.
My second survey was all about short films as a median and
what they want to see the main result I got out of it is that my
target audience strongly believed that my short film should be
around 5 minutes, and with my production, as I have deadlines
to meet for my FMP, this is the time frame I will be aiming for,
this helps me a lot that they agree with this timeframe, as this
is just another part of my production that meets my target
audience’s needs, which I’m trying to do as much as I can to
meet. My third was all about what platform is most convenient
for them, and I considered other platforms such as physical
media and subscription services such as Netflix, but the
overwhelming majority votes YouTube, and I think some of the
main reasons for this is that it is easy to access for all, free and
is commonly known in this target audience. Therefore I will be
posting my production on YouTube as they had requested for
the benefit, and likely more views for my production.
When writing the production using techniques from those
whose work I admired, The duel ending helps my audience
decide their own ending, this way I feel that they could make
their own continuation and think of their own ‘sequels’. This
would help the production gain a lot of popularity as more
people would be talking about the production after its release.
They were also less likely to be unhappy with the conclusion of
my production.
I feel as if I could have done a little more primary research to
expand on my knowledge and tailor my production even more
to them, but this was already hard due to deadlines. I could
have also done more types of primary research, other than
survey’s. This could have been a Vox pop or even a Focus
group, but as I cant do them in person due to covid-19
restrictions, it would have had to be over the phone or on
Microsoft teams, If I was to do planning for this again, I would
include more types of primary research to expand my
knowledge on the audience as much as possible, as the more I
know about them the better the production would be for them.

What codes and conventions did you plan into your

production?
When I studied the different codes and conventions during LO2,
I was always looking at each and thinking about how I could
incorporate them into my own production, as these are staples
of my genres that I need to show a good understanding of to
get a high grade. One of the main codes and conventions of the
drama genre is the shot reverse shot. As it is a genre
commonly known to be able to engage the audience through
serious and authentic looking emotions , this is something I
have worked hard to show in my production planning. One of
the ways I have done this is by using a shot reverse shot when
Sammy is talking to the caretaker. Two people with completely
different mind sets and emotions will contrast well and if it
looks authentic enough it will interest the audience with such a
unique ‘argument’ going on. Capturing these emotions is key to
the drama genre and the shot reverse shot Is something I will
be using a couple times in the production, including at the end
when Sammy has a conversation with his Dad, as the shot
emphasises emotions and this is what I want from my
production to make it realistic for my audience to show how ill
use the shot reverse shot I have portrayed it on my storyboards
and the speech on my script to give my marker a better picture
of how I want my production to look.
As well as this I also took into consideration the codes and
conventions of my median, short films and how I could have
them in it. They key codes and conventions of short films
include the setting and characters, which during pre-production
I thoroughly though about all aspects of. For setting I had to
think what settings do people find luxury? As I needed to know
because Sammy’s new body is going to be someone really
wealthy, so I wanted to emphasise this in the setting so the
audience sees the location as luxury as possible. For this I did
some primary research on a survey to ask my target audience
which location they find most luxury, as doing this sort of
service to them will mean they are more likely to be engaged in
the production.
From the survey I had seen that around 65% had chosen the
beach lookout, and so therefore I chose this to be the main
location for the production, This was a code of my median that
was practically decided by my target audience, which lets me
know as a filmmaker they would like to see the beach view in
my production and therefore enjoy it more. The next main code
and convention was characters, and I also wanted my target
audience to have their say in this, so in a survey I asked gave
them scenarios on events that happen in the short film, so for
example, I asked how they would feel going into a new, richer
body if they got to take their family with them, and as most of
them said yes I am going to originally have Sammy being seen
as very happy, as this is before he has realised his family isn’t
with him. Having him share the same feeling as the audience
would have in his position would make them be more engaged
into the production, as if they felt opposite to how he is seen
on screen they are likely to become uninterested. In conclusion,
with these codes and conventions I let my target audience
decide a lot of things such as characters feelings and locations,
and I think this will make them enjoy the production more as it
is doing more service to the viewers I am targeting. I also
clearly labelled each shot on the storyboard so my marker will
understand which shots I’m going to do and when I’m going to
do them so they can get a better understanding of what my
intentions are.
 How effective do you feel your planning materials are?
Could they be used by another person to produce your
project? If not, what could be improved?
After looking back at all my planning materials, I am confident
that someone could produce this product. Some of my planning
material I feel deserve a high grade as I spent a lot of time on
some of the pieces of planning work such as my storyboards
and I feel I put in sufficient detail into these and I am confident
they are to a good standard. Even my script and other pieces of
planning I have spent a long time on and getting feedback on
and improving where I can and taking time to ensure the best
quality, which will hopefully boost my grade as I’m trying to
show my work to the best of my abilities. I think my
storyboards stand out to me because of the time It took me to
do them. Although the drawings aren’t the best I believe I more
than make up for them with the descriptions and placing where
I want specific things on each shot, such as having Sammy in
the centre of a shot to tell something is not quite right. To
improve my storyboards, I did them numerous times adding
scenes I felt were worthy of being put into my storyboard, and
removing the ones that were too similar. In previous units my
storyboards have always been rushed, and therefore missing a
lot of key shots as I would only do a maximum of 2 pages for
my storyboard per production. This time I have doubled that,
working hard to include as many important shots as possible. I
have done this to help my marker find the production a lot
easier to visualise If I was going to actually make it. Therefore If
my maker finds it easier to visualise then it should be fine to
use if someone else was going to produce this production.
I felt the script was also a clear and effective piece of planning
as this was again something I did multiple drafts of, improving
and amending, whilst also making sure that I have set it in the
correct format, including speech, fonts and text sizes. The
script explains itself in the parts of my production where there
is speech, stating the emotion they are speaking with or if there
is an exclamation point or question mark. This helps the actors
understand how to say it, and if they can easily understand it I
know I have a well written script. For the parts the have no
speech in the scene, I have clearly written what has happened,
cramming in as much detail as I can including any movements,
setting and if anything else is happening. I have refined my
script multiple time since i started its first draft and this was
anything from adding extra speech, to making it sound less
robotic by constantly reading it aloud to see if it sound right in
person. I also added in scenes like the dual ending after my
research into James wan, as this was a technique I had adopted
from my research into my professionals, and I wanted to have
as many of these techniques from my research for my
production as this should make it look like a short film of a
more professional standard, which is what I want as it should
up my grade.
My production schedule is also something I believe would help
anyone that wants to produce this production, as it goes into
detail all about what do on each day to make a specific
deadline for the production. This would help anyone who is
planning as it is clear information and helps them keep track of
time and if they’re going to make their deadline or not.
Although I think this is still up to a good enough standard for
someone to use I think if I went into even more in depth details
about what should happen on each day I would make it even
easier for those producing the production, as I’m targeting my
planning material being to as good standard as possible that
they could understand it all, as then I would know I have made
successful and good quality planning materials.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the work

you completed?
I think that one of my main strengths of my production was my
research and using that research into my production to make it
as good as it could be. My work on George Lucas and James
wan is incredibly detailed and I took techniques from his work
and use them in my production. This is including character arcs
and writing style of Lucas and some of Wans unique styles like
having a duel ending and having no establishing shots before
you’ve seen where the characters are. I implemented all of
these into my production which I feel have made my production
stand out that little more. And as these are techniques used by
famous professional filmmakers, I am hoping it improves the
level of my production and makes it look a little more
professional, as not only will this make the audience more
interested but hopefully boost my grade for my FMP.
Another strength of mine was tailoring my production for my
target audience’s needs, and what they want to see in a
production. I did multiple surveys and a lot of their advice and
suggestions are in my production, doing some service to them
so that they’re most likely to enjoy it. Some of the aspects of
my production that were mostly decided by my target audience
include my overall idea, as I briefly listed each of my 3 original
ideas and the sleep and switch idea won by quite a distance, I
also let them choose the location, as a key code and
convention of location, I let them have freedom to decide what
they felt was their most luxury location was, and as they chose
a beach I set my production on a beach and even did some
research some locations for it, doing a location recce on a
beach in Bournemouth. I even based some of my protagonists
actions based on their choices, including what emotions he
portrays when he wakes up as if he showed the same emotions
as how the audience feel they are a lot more likely to be
engaged into the production.
I believe LO4 was another strong point of my FMP, including the
weekly blogs and even this evaluation so far. For my weekly
blogs I constantly tried to explain myself in detail, and why I did
some of the decisions, and backing it up with as much
reasoning as possible so I can get a good lo4 grade. In previous
units, I feel as if my weekly blogs weren’t up to the standard I
do them in now, with the main reason for this is that I used to
just state what I did, but I didn’t say why. This defeats the
purpose of evaluating what I’ve done as a whole and I do feel I
have improved on it and put a lot more effort into my weekly
blogs then I normally do.
I also think one of my strengths is taking my feedback and
improving my FMP with it. When I get feedback from my
teacher I always to use it and improve as much as I can, as If I
correct the aspects of my production that I need to I’m much
more likely to improve my grade and improve a higher quality
production. An example of me improving my work was when I
needed to expand on context in lo1, with in a matter of days I
feel I made huge improvement by re-writing my project action
plan and looking at improving my competition research too. By
taking this feedback and using it to benefit my productions
quality I am confident I can get a higher grade by doing so.
One of the weakness of my production was that I didn’t use
enough types of primary research. I did a lot of surveys that
helped me learn about what my target audience wanted to see
in my production, however I think that if I did some other forms
of primary research such as focus groups or Vox pops I would
have had an even better understanding about what my
audience want to see in the production to make it more
enjoyable for them. Due to the Covid19 pandemic I couldn’t
meet people in person, but I could have recorded a phone call
or voice memo for my Vox pops and for a focus group I could
have set up a group call on teams or zoom, this is what I’ll do if
I was to do the production again as it would help me get an
even better understanding of my target audience and what
they want to see.
I also think I could have improved my content research. As my
topic of changing bodies it is quite hard to find information and
stories about it but I still felt if I found as much as I possibly
could my production would turn out to be better and the
process of changing bodies would seem as realistic as possible,
as if I have so much information about my content the scenes
will be as close as possible to if a situation like that had
happened in real life. If was to do the production again this is
something I would look to improve upon. One way of doing this
is looking at more stories about it and seeing what the authors
do to portray it, and I would also even use some more primary
research like Vox pops, as this would tell me even more about
how my target audience would feel if this had occurred to them
and make my characters more relatable to them so they get
more engage in the short.
What areas do you feel you need to improve on most in
second year?

One area I want to improve on in my second year is script

writing skills. I feel I haven’t written enough scripts this year to
feel as comfortable as possible when doing so. I think if I do
write a few other scripts and practise refining them and revise
the common techniques of them such as non-speech, speech
and stage directions, I can come into second year feeling a lot
more confident having known I practised a lot. I think I mainly
feel like I struggle on scripts because of how little I’ve done
them, and therefore practicing them should make my scripts
improve a lot for next year.
One thing that helped me with my scripts during my FMP was
doing multiple drafts and refining them, as I believe the
contrast between my first draft of my script in comparison to
what I have now, is huge and I feel my current one is so much
more detailed and refined because I took the time and effort to
improve them by myself, whether that be adding/removing a
scene, giving more detail in my non speech scenes or even just
making sure my format is correct. As I know this is something
that helped me, in my upcoming units I will do the multiple
drafts and refining of my script because I think this would boost
my grade and make my script look a lot more professional. I
would also like to include parts in my script that help out even
more of the crew. Although its mainly for actors and producers,
having something as simple as including what foley sounds
need to play during which scenes would help my sound crew a
lot as they would know what to record and where to place it,
meaning my script is a lot more time efficient then a script that
has little detail on in and leaves a crew to work out for
themselves.
I would also like to improve on my Ideas and generating good
ideas in a quick time. I feel I have improved on this compared
to previous units, like my first short film, for example, but it is
still an area of my pre-production I feel I need to improve to
improve me as a film maker. Right now I think I am ok at it as
now I take a lot of time to think about ideas and improve them
over time using my research, but as me applying my research
to my production is a strength of my planning I feel I don’t need
to improve on this, but I need to improve on my speed to think
of a detailed idea, as at time I struggle and although I finally do
it I could spend that time getting a head start on planning and
production to ensure the highest possible quality for my short
film.
One way I will improve on this is by noting down ideas anytime
I feel I get one worthy of a production, and overtime expand on
them so that when the time comes that I need to make another
production I have a good storyline planned and my pre-
production would be as time efficient as possible, meaning my
production quality should be higher grade thus a higher grade
for me and improving myself as a filmmaker.
I could also do this by having a notepad when I watch a film,
noting down anything that I liked about it, whether that be
some mise en scene, character development or how the
director makes me feel and why. Doing this would have me feel
comfortable when the time comes to write my own as I would
have so many ideas from professionals to choose from and
have my own spin on, and as they are from professionals the
techniques I learn from them are likely to increase the quality
of my production.