Lessons learnt from the Foundation Portfolio-Amie Nelms

From last years thriller opening of 'The Motive', there were a few things which we could improve on this years short film project which we will be focusing on, as well as continuing with the other more successful aspects.

After having a quick look at my foundation portfolio evaluation, my group this time round needs to concerntrate on:


- Time management

- Planning/ brainstorming ideas

- Editing

- Sound/music

Concerning the planning proccess, our group took too long in deciding the plot and creating the storyboard, which wasted valuable time. Hopefully this time round, we'll realise the lack of time available, and think of something simple but creative, which we can grow and develop to make a successful and strong short film which we will all be proud of, without rushing it. I feel that to resolve this, we should have more group meetings, brainstorming and collecting ideas so we all have some input to make sure it's clear and everyone is happy with the storyline. This should hopefully move the planning proccess on, and prevent us from getting stuck with the creative proccess.

With editing, we need to spend less time worrying about the little insignificant details and focus more on the task in hand, work towards the deadline and stop wasting precious time. A more organised storyboard will enable us to work quickly and efficiently in the editing suite, giving us a clearer understanding of where we want to go with the story.

After the class viewing and collecting of their individual evaluations on 'The Motive', the issue of our non diegetic soundtrack became apparent, with people describing it as "annoying", "jumpy" and "repetitive". I feel that we should focus more on this aspect, to make it more accurate in timing and to prevent the gaps and stutters in the soundtrack. However, as we are possibly looking at doing a short film inspired by the style of Social Realism, we most probably won't be needing too much soundtrack, sticking to the genre conventions. Also, our diegetic sound of the reporter at the beginning was "drowned out" by the music and needed "to be louder". This can be rectified by spending more time again, and making sure the recording is a high quality.

Amie Nelms