Feedback
the visual and audio quality was clear and consistent, including voiceovers and high energy scenes with co-stars. The intro was fast and intriguing for the viewer and made it clear what the story was about. The camera quality itself was also executed well with clear points of view from characters as Dexter chased and attacks producer. Characters The characters were kept clear and simple with dexter being the obvious focal point of the story, however an improvement may be to add more background information about other characters as well to help understand the relationship ad emotions throughout the scene. A comedic spin was put on all characters well, Including tv presenter. Storyline Due to the clear intro of the new reporter the story line was clear and established at the begining to hold the views attention as a brief of the story was told. The story was also funny and well thought out with a high energy end scene.
Evaluation
The inspiration for my idea definitely came from Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge character. This idea of a Radio presenter who is obviously very eccentric and flawed as a character but has to stay professional is some how both interesting and hilarious. This inspiration mixes with my fascination in the disruptions that could occur within radio and television. There’s an undeniable desire to watching the unraveling of perfectly designed and structured programming. This makes me feel like I’m not alone in thinking that it is a very interesting topic and something that audiences would really get into. I created the creator “Dexter” by imagining a more aggressive and younger Alan Partridge. Dexter is supposed to be a young television star and it is shown in a way where you see the effect that fame and money has a young person like that, where you see Dexter very aggressive and talking about drugs a lot. I thought the idea of a young celebrities final moments before his career took a dive and he gets fired from his own TV show was a very interesting subject matter and a story that would keep viewers entertained. I also decided to go with the comedy genre as I feel like audiences relate with comedic shows the most.
I explored these ideas by watching several different pieces of media. To get a good grasp of what I wanted Dexters aggression to look like I watched “Ted Lasso” and analyzed the character of “Roy Kent”. Roy is an ex-footballer who is heavily based off actual footballer Roy Keane who is well known for his aggression on and off the pitch. I saw how Roy Kent was played and decided his level of aggression is something I want Dexter to have a bit of. I also watched a lot of EAS (Emergency Alert System) videos and these gave me a really interesting view on how the beautifully structured programming of television can be interrupted so easily. This is something I originally wanted from Dexter, where he would go mental on air and it would be this massive news story where he beats up his producer live and gets fired on air. However, with issues in booking out the TV Studio I had to rewrite the script so it could be changed into Dexter fighting with his producer in his office.
One of the biggest issues was being unable to book out the TV Studio. This was supposed to be the main set for the short film and without it, I had to completely rewrite the script and replan all of the scenes. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave me too much time to prepare in the end and we were about to start another project. This made the whole thing seem rather rushed and I would love to be able to finish it the way it was supposed to be done.
I think when we finally got cracking the scenes starting flowing and that went really well. I loved directing the film while also playing Dexter and it really brought out the acting side of me which I thought was buried years ago, and it was very fun to be acting again. I also think my editing was something that really made the film something, especially with the opening scene with the news story which I had a lot of fun messing around with. I think one of the biggest issue with the whole project was the audio. Because we had to change sets without much notice I had to settle for a room that was quite large, and with the microphones we had available being boom mics the audio has a lot of echo.
I think the biggest thing I learned was the importance of planning beforehand, as when we couldn’t get in the TV Studio it derailed the whole project. In future I will stick to Pre-Production planning which should help me get a step forward into getting everything done as intended and get finished on time without rushing. I also learned how to make a more serious piece of work. As it was still a comedy, it did touch on subjects of drugs and suicide which are quite heavy topics but I think it was used in quite an interesting way which still worked with the context of the film and still had an element of comedy to it.
I feel like I experimented with Dexters character as I have never really wrote a character as troubled and unique as him before. I was definitely stepping out my comfort zone creating a character who is a lot more aggressive when usually my characters are just relaxed and funny. I also think I experimented with the news section of the film, as I have never tried to do anything like recreating an already existing form of media like that. BBC News especially is a very difficult thing to replicate, as a lot of their assets are not open to public domain so I had to get creative when creating my own graphics, which is a very difficult thing to get the hang of.
Next time, I will definitely plan my scenes more. I also think I should have a back up plan as this time the main idea failed and I had to think on my feet to save the film. I think with better planning in the future it could be a much better piece. I also would like to touch into less comedic pieces, simply just to learn how different genres of film are created and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for film itself.
I think one of the parts I was successful was with the script. I believe it was well written (even though it got slightly changed) and told a compelling and interesting story. I also think my editing throughout added to the comedic timing of the script and complimented the theme of the film in a lovely way. I also think the ending where you follow the producer through the hallways from Dexters point-of-view was a very unique and different way to show how the chase scene would work.