Reflection Analysis For Final Film
- May 12, 2017
- 2 min read
During the production of my final film I have thoroughly enjoyed creating the puppets and props. I feel that the elephant puppets went particularly well - their style came out as planned and their armatures worked well, except for the wire in the mother's trunk that snapped off. The camera moves worked well, as I spent a lot of time planning them out and setting them up - especially the vertigo shot. I enjoyed learning how to use the laser cutter: creating files on illustrator and using creativity to design useful parts and tools for the animation. I created a sign to be lit up with a separate border and engraved slots to appear like wooden planks, along with a hinged prison door to be used as a silhouette in the lighting.
On the downside, I lost a lot of time out of my schedule due to a shortage of silicone and bad planning as I had no other work to do until I had silicone. This caused a 1 week delay. In future I would plan to do any such work that could have possible delays earlier in the production incase of delays. The clothes on the puppets, I feel, could have been much neater.. as I used fabric glue and had to attach the clothes onto the puppet rather than construct them separately which led to difficulty in constructing the sleeves and collar of the shirt.
Some things that I learnt during this short-film project include: stitching and constructing fabric on puppets is a time consuming task; sometimes less is more and subtle touch can go a long way; it is important to spend an entire day setting up the camera and lighting with a set to ensure the look of the scene is just right; test, test, test as it pays off in the final shot even if it takes longer; don;t be afraid to re-do shots or change bits if you can improve on it and to take care with armature construction as it always pays off when it comes to animating.
Improvements I would like to make if I re-did the film or advice I would take onto future projects would be: to spend more time on puppet's clothes and plan to build the clothes off the puppets (perhaps using detachable hands/arms); start the production with tasks that could be delayed and always ensure that any materials or equipment that will be needed is present well before it comes time to use it; explore the relationship more between character's where it is of interest to the audience; ensure that sets are always large enough for desired shots with plenty of tests and lastly, to take care with pre-production artwork as it is always better to present something that represents and matches the quality of the rest of the film.
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