Depict evaluation

Camerawork 
In 'The Cookie Monster' camerawork is used dramatically from start to finish. Right at the start of the film it fades into a close up on my face throwing you right into the action. The film also uses focus on a medium shot of myself sitting on the floor, using these types of camerawork helps to create emotion and builds tension. It also makes the film quick and sharp instead of slow and humdrum. We were lucky to have Ehren because he had a good knowledge of filming and this helped us dramatically when we were deciding on what shots to take.

We used the focus on the camera to create some impressive shots, as you can see below we went from blurred to clear and by doing this we were aiming to increase the suspense. We used a tripod to help give the stillness in some of the shots, but some were purposely shot by hand to very bring across the emotion of the scene. When filming we gradually started to shoot at eye level throughout the film till Reuben comes into the room, this is also to build suspense. We made sure that the shots were focused on my face to capture my emotion and what I am doing, there is also a match to action shot when I reach for the milk and to when I am pouring it.

There are parts in the camera work that we could improve, we used two different cameras, one from college and Ehren's, you can spot the quality changes on the shot of the door handle.

Mise-en-scene

In the film we had a lot of factors of Mise en scene, to start of with we had very little props, this was down to us agreeing that we really wanted to focus on getting our emotion through by using different camera angles and shots. The main props we used were the milk, the glass and cookies. The costumes we sourced ourselves with me wearing normal/casual clothing and Ehren sourced Rubens boy scout uniform from his bother, this really helped because it meant that we didn't have to use any of our budget. For the sweat effect on my face we used a water sprayer to gain the whole effect of me looking nervous, this just added a bit more continuity and realism to our short. Next time we do a short like this I would like to source a suit just to really give it that little more realism, but with a five pound budget this could not be done. Myself and Ruban (from another group) were the actors, me being the main actor. As a group we worked great together and stuck to our production schedule well. Overall I believe the Mise en scene was good in our short, we could have maybe used more props or even more actors but for a 90 second film and a budget of five pounds the outcome, in my eyes, is good.

Sound

In our short, sound plays a key part, from building suspense to presenting comedy. We were able to get all of our sound from FreeSounds.org apart from Reuben's voice which we recorded from the DLSR camera. We really wanted to get the best sound files so we did a lot of searching and found all the sound fx we needed. These consisted of such things like; the sound of footsteps, the sound of liquid pouring and the door knocking. I was in charge of placing the sound of the timeline when editing, I found this very easy but it took time to place the sound files in the right place and allign it correctly with the action on the video. The soundtrack we used was from James' last video, he got it from a copyright free website. It fitted our whole narrative perfectly, and creates emotion which is the main strength of music!

In my next production I would like to improve the soundtrack, use music more and really show the narrative. I would also like to compose my own music for my production. The second soundtrack really had a message to send, we used it in a comedic way and from the response we got from the class it really worked well.

Editing

We are lucky enough to have the Premier Pro software on our Mac desktops. Ehren was our main editor because he had pervious experience on the software, but we all chipped in and had a go. When editing we decided to reverse some our shots for example the fade shot seen above we were originally going to have the fade at the end of the clip but decided it looked and worked better the other way round. We also used it on the shot with me putting my thumbs up, this was originally a two minute clip but we trimmed it down until we found the perfect part. We tried changing it into black and white but because of the lighting in some of the shots it did not look right and the quality was below our expectations. Instead, we decided to keep it in colour and just change the lighting and brightness on Premier Pro, we also added a lens flare. Overall we came together at the right times and added our skills and learning together, each taking it in turns to have a play with the clips. In the next production I would like to do more editing and really get to understand Premier Pro, because I want my future productions to be at the best possible standard they can.

Overall 

Overall I am very pleased with the production and what we have achieved. Since showing it to the class we have spotted a continuity error, the glass goes from full to empty in one shot. Looking back at it now it doesn't look right but things like this happen, you have got to learn from them and they can help you improve your skills. I'm looking forward to making a new production and being able to improve my skills and get the best grades possible.