Week 10 - Reflection on 'Ride'n'Dine'

Now that our film was out of the way, we had the opportunity to gain feedback from our tutor and review the film as a group.

From our weekly drop-in sessions with our tutor, Elin, it was identified that we had issues with the original idea. Whilst our original idea was clear, the deviations from that idea – due to a potential lack of focus and the logistical issues we were having with the film – were made present within the final film, as there was no clear link between the shop, the interview, and the personal questions aimed at the interviewee. Although arranging this production was stressful enough, arranging more interviews should have been a priority for me, and I should not have relied on one person within the shop, who even then could not make it to the shoot.

We were praised for a good structure, which improved after every edit Jakub produced. I do think creating a rough structure plan with Ellie helped in this case, as it allowed us to create a radio edit that made sense and didn’t jump around the story. With that said, our narrative didn’t really seem to go anywhere, and so the audience could not take that much away from this film. Sticking to this film idea, if we were to re-create this, involving more participants and investigating alternative narratives would be a good thing to consider.

Whilst we did have to strip our idea down because of the issues we were facing, the simplistic nature of the film shone through, with simple, straight-forward shots. Jakub did remove some of the literal edits, where a shot of something being mentioned would be shown on screen, however it was hard for him to avoid this as the pool of B-roll footage was limited and there was only so much that could be filmed inside of the shop. We were commended for our use of cutaways, however, with a good flow throughout the interview and at the start and end of the film.

Overall, I am pleased with the feedback we have been given, and as a group, we all agree that the logistical challenges threatened our original idea. Had this been the spring or summer, the idea would have been a lot ‘safer’, whilst still allowing us to creatively explore the ideas surrounding the subject.