1.1 Describe areas for development in your current knowledge, understanding and skills

At this moment in time I am very interested in the directing side of film making, as I have previous experience of acting, so I would be interested in directing actors on their performance. I would see myself taking on this role while working with the academy. Some of the areas that I have identified for improvement are editing and working with the technical equipment, as I have minimal experience in this side of the film industry. I would like to be able to learn more about editing, as I know it is an important skill for post-production. I hope to learn more about editing on this course, and furthering my knowledge myself by researching more about it from home. In the future I would like to advance my knowledge in the film industry by both studying film production at university, or finding an apprenticeship that involves learning about and being involved in film making.

1.2 Take a Role in a short film production:

Within my team for the short film production, I have taken on the role of the director. For my role I have the responsibility of working with the actors and guiding them about their performance in the scene. I will also have the responsibility of developing the visual look of the film, in pre-production, production and post production and guiding my team in order to achieve the look that we were originally after. In order to prepare for my role, I will be taking a keen interest when we have our directing master class with Richard Heap. I plan to take as many notes as possible on the advice he gives us, and to ask questions regarding the subject, to further my knowledge. Skills I will need in order to execute my role will be good communication and team work when guiding my group.

2.2 Describe a range of key job roles and responsibilities in the film industry

Producer: The role of a producer involves planning and organising everyone involved with the film. This includes selecting a script, finding the cast and crew, organising how to receive funding for the film, planning the budget, taking care of the legal issues and overseeing the marketing and advertising. The producer is involved in pre-production, production and post production and is attached to the film first. The producer also works very closely with the director, who is responsible for the creative vision of the film. 

Script Writer: A script writer is responsible for creating the story of the film and writing the script. This will include the dialogue of the characters and a description of what will happen in each scene, where the scene is set and a description of what the location will look like.

Cinematographer: A cinematographer is responsible for how each shot is filmed, considering the lighting, colours and camera angles. In big budget films the cinematographer would most likely instruct the camera crew on how they would like each shot to be filmed, but on a low budget film they would most likely have the responsibility of also being a camera operator.

Editor: The editor will work in the post production of a film, putting each individual scene together, making cuts to scenes and adding additional elements to the scenes like music, voice overs, text and then credits at the end of the film

5.1 Spring Clean, by Ed Clifton, Ed Daggett and Michael Strann, UK 2013

A funny story of a regular man who discovers that he has the gift of making things vanish with his cleaning polish which results in everyone he hates being stuck in the cupboard under his stairs. The man realises he has this power when he goes to clean his jam stained tie with his cleaning polish and it vanishes right in front of him. He begins to start making all of his house hold rubbish disappear, including a used pizza box. His power is then taken to the extreme when he starts to make people he doesn’t like vanish, starting with the annoying MP on his door step. The short film ends with the man realising that he hadn’t made everyone disappear, they were instead all stuck in his cupboard along with all of his vanishing items, like his tie from the very begging.

The genre of the film was a comedy, which was very light hearted and the purpose was to entertain. I think that the film achieved this as I did find it funny and enjoyable to watch.

 Another impressive part of the film, was the use of sound. When the MP was talking his voice started to become distorted and mumbled, to show the audience that he is a boring character and to show the perspective from the main character, giving reason to why he is later vanished. The non-diegetic music, helped to show the change in atmosphere as the slow paced music at the beginning contrasted with the fast paced one towards the end when the action had picked up. The diegetic sounds throughout the films had been enhanced, which I think made the film seem more professional.

As well as finding the plot enjoyable, I also found the cinematography impressive as a range of creative shots were used to keep the audience interested and showed a high level of skill. Close ups were used on the items and the cleaning spray to show the significance of them later vanishing and the importance of the spray.

The editing was another element of the film that I believe was used successfully. At the begging of the films the shots were quite long which created a slow pace and a calm atmosphere. When the man started to get carried away with making things disappear, quick cuts were used to create a fast pace and manic atmosphere, which contrasted to the beginning of the film. Another part of the editing that I liked was when text was added in when the man was making notes, to allow the audience to know what he was writing. This was an effective technique which quickly allowed the audience to better understand the character.

All of the film was set inside the main characters house. The opening scene where the man is stood in his eating his toast, you can see that his kitchen is just black and white, very plain looking. The dullness of his kitchen could reflect a lack of excitement in the man’s life, which makes the fun he has with his cleaning spray, significant.