Week 14 – What I want to achieve from the Final Project?

I have asked myself this question from the beginning of the the third year and I never would have believed that I’d end up completing a final project and answering it. I want to gain a high 1:1 grade and leave the University on a high note. That is my only real aim – I do want to create a professional looking film but when you compare it to other short films that have entered the film festivals, it’s not a competition. It’s not an insult to myself, the group and the project, as I feel we’ve done the best we can. We don’t have a large enough group or enough money to raise our film. That’s where I see the problem as well as the stress of having to get rights, distribution and producing the correct formats among others. However, I would like to use this film as a starting point, to show people what we can do with 5-6 people within the group. We managed to use a beautiful location, hire two experienced actors and film with high quality equipment in a two day shoot. This will certainly be good for my media portfolio as well as the PPP module. It’s better than the second year fiction module, which I honestly didn’t like for the cheesy music and acting, and so I’m happy we’re pushing ourselves.

To explain further on what needs to be done to make a good film, I’m going to reference Noel Clarke’s ‘Kidulthood’. Even an accomplished actor like Noel Clarke was struggling to support this movie, to the point that he used his mortgage money to finance the film. Fortunately, the movie was received well but it didn’t do much for Clarke except a few awards and a lesser known sequel ‘Adulthood’. There has to be greater risk put in for these types of films and I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of level. We are not going to be overnight success with this short film and therefore I don’t see the point in putting so much effort. At the moment, I am not feeling secure about the course and my career, as it’s evident that I’m not going to get a job from making a short film. I’ve now decided that filming is a side hobby and that my bigger career aspiration is to become a media technician or teacher. As an AD and producer for many films, I really enjoy being big brother to the cast and crew; it is a nice feeling for people looking up to you and listening to you for inspiration (that is, if you know what you’re talking about). I like having the final say or second opinion on things and appreciate it more when others listen to my perspective. I’ve always thought of things differently and took that risk to use that method – the result was always good. For example, in my music video at college, I spent two months of the summer holidays filming with my friends. We planned and improvised everything throughout and it was an enjoyable process. The film was ready for editing the day I started my last year at college – that meant that I had a whole term for editing. I planned and filmed ahead of everyone, despite concerns that I was doing things way too quickly or not understanding the brief. I understood everything that needed to be understood and I got a great result out of it. My iniative is strong and I can utilise that in teaching. Hopefully I can continue making short films still, but at the moment I don’t feel secure about pushing it as a career. The best that I can get out of this experience is become a freelance videographer, which itself is highly competitive. So I think I’ve achieved everything I needed to so far in this final year; I’ve made a professional short film, negotiated with experienced actors, learn new skills with the JVC and SQN mixer and hopefully get a positive reaction to the film from my peers.

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