Initial Ideas and Proposal: 

After re-reading my proposal, I feel like I can confidently say that I did stick with it and created what I set out to create. I believe this is because of my research task and how specific I went with them. It would have been next to impossible to change my idea as I would have to have started the full process again. Not only this, but I really did love my idea when I created it, I really felt determined to see that creation through. I will openly and honestly admit, when it came to the schedule, I struggled. I don't feel like I really considered how long each task was going to take me and that made it harder to follow, however, by the time my actual production came round, I was back on track with where I was suppose to be in my schedule. At first I didn't like having that schedule as it felt like added pressure and stress. However, once I got past the little bump with the extra time my research took me. I started to enjoy referring to it as it reminded me of everything I had to complete still. 

Context and Research: 

When looking back to my research, I now realise how much I actually did but how much all of it benefitted me. However, when I look at the three sections of my research (audience, media and primary), the one that stands out the most was definitely primary. It really helped me get a better understanding of what I wanted to create and what key things I specifically needed to include, not to mention all of the information around cannibalism. However, audience and media both also really benefitted. Audience allowed me to see how to target people to watch it and what to include to do that, and media allowed me to get practise in on two things I had never tried before, giving me experience before I filmed. 

The most helpful thing I learned from my research was the genre signifiers for horror films, and honestly watching films (short and long) to see how they present their characters and the specific's. It really helped me find away to present the victims and give them notes on how to act and really helped me present my killer. Not only this but genre signifiers helped me include certain things, such as typical situations and locations, which really helped me show and highlight that this is a horror film. 

Honestly, my research helped me massively, with production. As I was able to go over everything I had learnt and studied, I was also able to make my character development better, include little things when filming like, canted shots and close ups. It was just really helpful. I also knew from my research what I wanted to aim for with my audience so I was able to plan using my aunties house to get the point across of how the rich consume the poor for their own benefit (and much more).

When doing my research, I did find one new technique, I had never used before, and that was colour grading. I had also wanted to try and use it but I never really had the chance to learn it. So when that opportunity came up to use it and try it our before I moved on, I jumped at the chance. Learning this at the beginning really helped my piece overall  and I was able to set a scarier tone and mood for my film. 

Pre-Production and Planning: 

For me personally, the most challenging part of the planning stage was the character profiles. I think this was because my characters had to be so specific to match the script and because I had all three of my actors pull out last minute, meaning I had to find new ones. I also wanted to base my characters off of the actors, so it was easier for them to come across and help sell their story. I felt like it was even harder as I had to change everything last minute, due to my original characters dropping out and so I had to change everything again to match my new characters. 

I think overall, I planned my production very well. There is a few things on like the paperwork and throughout this stage where the actors names don't match up but all this work was complete before they dropped out (which was a week before I filmed). Not only this but the location form also has some incorrections due to me filming in half term and when we got Heaton Park it was to busy. Other than that though everything else was great. I know this because, I feel like I really showed what my story was about in planning how I was going to try and present my film. Not only this but in Pre-production and my filming schedule, I made it all extremely detailed and wrote paragraphs after each one explaining why I did what I did. 

Like I said before, my actors and locations changed. The only other thing that changed was meat, I still bought and used meat in my film, however, I didn't buy lots of it like I was planning because of how expensive it would have been. Again, other than these small things, I followed all my plans and schedule. It made it a lot easier having everything already thought out for when it came to filming.

Production/Post-production: 

When it came to actually filming, I used my GoPro. This was such an easy piece of equipment to film on. It was so light and small and it picked up every noise that it needed too, making my life easier and not having to film extra sounds for Foley. Considering, my camera moves a lot in some scenes it just made it really easy using a GoPro. For the software, on the other hand, I use Premiere Pro. I had used this multiple times before, so I knew my way around it pretty well. It was also easy learning new things on it dur to it's simple layout. Surprisingly, I didn't encounter any problems really with either. It went a lot more well that I was expecting it to. 

My actual piece matches up with my story board pretty well, I'd say. There is a few things that did have to change and don't match my final piece but this was down to editing and safety reasons. For example, when my character was suppose to die in a tree, on the day of filming I considered it and it was far two dangerous to let her do that. So that changed and instead she died behind a tree. Another example, was scene four and five. On the storyboard, they are two sperate scenes happening before and after each other. Yet, when it came to my final piece this was to boring, so I made it a montage instead. 

The production stage was by far my most favourite part. I felt like I had full creative control and I could really bring what I imagined in my alive. It was so fun and amazing to be able to do that. Other then the ones I stated above the only new technique I learned was how to change the audio levels. This was so simple but important for my final piece, as in some of the clips you can't hear the speaking or something was too loud like the music. Now I know how to sort this our in the future making my piece feel more timeless and neat. 

I honestly, received the best feedback ever for this piece. Nearly all the feedback I was given was manageable. It was simple as making the into/outro more interesting to adding in a black out to changing a font to cutting down some clips and making it faster. I tried my best to do all the suggestions that I was given and honestly when I was done re-editing, I was so happy that I took their advice and made changes. It generally my film better and faster and more tension filled. 

Final Product: 

Surprisingly, I am really happy with how my piece came out, I know even after re-editing there is a lot more that could be done better but, I love what I have created. Honestly, I am proud of my full creation but if I had to pick one thing I would definitely pick the colour correction. I managed to get every single clip to match close enough to the one before, this took my ages but I was so proud of how it came out and not only this but I feel like it really represents a horror film with these colours. The most effective to me in my piece, is definitely the music. I feel like I picked good songs to make my piece more dramatic and I love the impact it has on my film and the audience. 

I feel like, as I said before, there is a lot I still need to improve on, such as my camera moving, background noise and even cutting more of the clips down. If I was to do this all again the first thing I would do would be to film extra shots of the same scene, so I have more options to see which shot was better. With the background noise I would spend time finding away to turn that down so you can hear the volume of the speaking better. I feel like the last one of cutting clips down is self explanatory, but I would simply cut more scenes down to try and get it to seven minutes as my script is seven page. 

To start of, I believe that my piece suits my target audience really well, as the characters in the story are their age. Not only this but from the statics that I found when on my research, that you can see that this age group (16-24) is a big fan of horror films, which works in my favour. I also think that the name will bring in viewers in that age group, as they would have played hide and seek more recently, drawing them in and making them curious. If I could do this again I would try my best to insert the female gaze and the male gaze, I did talk about this in my research, but I don't honestly believe I was able to do. I would have my characters talk ore so their personalities come through and the audience can relate to them more and seem them in their shoes. Overall, I would just have a better connection with the characters and audience. 

My audience who have watched my project, have really liked it. They thought it was entertaining and thrilling. They liked the music and thought it added suspense. Not only this but they really liked the colour grading and the build up. They understand why their wasn't much talking, but I believe they would have liked more instead or the silence  that I had in most scenes. 

I see my product fitting on YouTube the best. That is where a lot short films are and get views from. I feel like it would fit nice there so it can be accessed with other horror short films. I also haven't really seen short films on any other platform, and that's the main reason it will fit.

The Process:

I actually loved working independently on my project. I loved the full creative control I had and how I was able to create whatever I wanted. It was really a nice feeling knowing that when my project was finished that I was the one who created and had no help in doing so, it was empowering and gave me confidence for other projects. I don't believe I did rely on my tutors for motivation or to stay on track. Me knowing that I had all of this to do on my own was enough to keep me motivated and enough to keep me on track. 

When it came to sticking to my schedule, I struggled at the beginning due to research taking longer than I had expected but I was able to get back on track, and then when I was I loved sticking to that timetable. Setting my own goals and targets was so easy and fun. I was able to set myself hard goals and more achievable ones, which I could work towards, like getting a distinction and making all my work full of information and detail. 

The only main issue I ran into was my original actors pulling out a week before I filmed. Meaning I had to push production back one day. Luckily, I had planned back up actors in case this happened, so I was in fact prepared. Any other problems I had we easily fixed within five minutes of them happening so I wouldn't even consider them any issues. 

I believe the main thing I have learned from this project that will help me in the future, is that the time we are given, isn't enough and that I have to throw all the spare time into the project as well, to do great in it and succeed in what I am aiming to achieve. I know now for next time that working at home is just as important and for my net project, I will work at home more than I have this project.