Love or Money? Film Critique

Andrew Running

     The movie that I made with the help of three others was called Love or Money? Our group chose this title because in our film the main character is forced to choose between going on a date with a girl he likes (love) or go to a job interview (money). Since this was my first time making a film, I wasn't exactly sure what style we were going to experiment with as everything was new to me. We tried to make style resemble that of our movie inspiration Run Lola Run, using some elements, especially running. Our movie was geared towards a younger audience that can understand the difficulty of making a choice between work and play. I feel as if our concept for the movie was good, but the execution fell short.

One of the shots I had to redo because
of poor lighting and worked camera
in this shot as well

      My area of the film varied because we rarely had all of group together, so I had a little bit of work as the cinematographer, made some lighting judgements, helped with the shotgun mic, and even had a small acting part as well. However, that is only during the production. I also co-wrote the 2-column script and this helped me to have an idea as to what the movie will begin to appear like. Finally, I had my own edited version of the film, which was different than the version that was screened, and had some aspects that were better and worse than my own edited version.
 One problem was that we were constantly missing our cinematographer, causing us to need to juggle around some of the jobs so I had to do the camera work. An additional problem was that we had to retake many shots because the lighting was inadequate.

Simple pan with me working camera

Handheld shot (a little shaky)

     As for the missing group member, it was noticeable in the film where we had our cinematographer and where we didn't. Either my director or I had to step in to shoot, which was especially challenging for me with this being my first real encounter with having to use the camera. While I knew the functions of the camera, I had never had the pressure of having this work judged and be such an instrumental part of the project. Because of this, I kept to making only basic camera moves if I made any moves at all. Additionally, my skills with the camera were challenged as I was used to working with the tripod and was forced to take the majority of the shots handheld, which in the beginning lead to really shaky footage until I was able to get a better technique to steady the camera. Finally, we had some issues with lighting, something that I could fix. One problem of the lighting occurred outside where the sun was almost directly in-line with the top part of the camera lens, so I had the camera set up with the back towards the sun instead. Our other problem was inside on a foggy day. We had to turn on all of the lights because we were without the lighting kit and we had to try and create the illusion of a sunny day.

Should have been a calendar

When we finally got to shooting at the park

     For the group, a main problem was missing shots from the script. Missing shots always makes it harder to create an effective movie, but when the shots were some of the essential shots that set up the story and help make the story more believable the challenge level of fixing mistakes on post production jumped significantly. One of the shots that was missed was a beginning scene where it wasn't exactly a shot that was missing, but it was a prop (a calendar) that was meant to show that the date and interview are at the same time increasing the weight of his choice. Another missed shot was at the end, where our actress should have ran to the guy who got the job. This would have been a better climax to our movie and we would've had the comedic ending we desired. This would have made our protagonist Andrew wish he went to the interview instead. Both of these scenes were essential to have the film get the message of the power of choice. Unfortunately for us, there was no fix for these missing scenes as we were unable to shoot anymore because it took too long for us to realize this and we could not shoot anymore. Another problem that arose when we were filming was we were greatly limited in two ways: we could not maintain focus on the project for long periods of time and we the time we did have was short. To try and fix our focus problem, we tried to keep all distractions away from us, but we ended up just finding more ways to distract ourselves. For example, we had a scene to shoot at the park and while we were setting up a shot our actors started to fool around at the park and eventually the whole group joined in and we spent at least a half hour just messing around. Another time was when we signed out for the steady cam to try and get good shots of Andrew running, and everyone decided to try it out. This was a big distraction as Edward, Liz, and I each tried out the steady cam and burned quite a lot of daylight doing so and unfortunately forced us to hurry up some of the shots because it was getting dark. There wasn't much we could do to fix our lack of attention span since our preventative methods didn't work. Additionally, I think that if we had payed more attention we wouldn't have missed any of the shots making our film just better as a whole. The final problem we had lied in the fact that we had initial creativity conflict with our cinematographer and our director, causing a little bit of internal resentment and dissent between the two. However, they were able to work out their differences for the most part and put together a successful film. Consequently, if they had been able to work together we may have finished our script faster so that we could have had more time to shoot and not have had the pressure of time as much.

"dreamweaver" would've been here

     In the end, I thought that we were able to create a successful film. However, I know there were some areas that we could greatly improve upon, starting with the pre production. I feel like our initial script was good, but when we were getting feedback we didn't write down everything we heard so some of the suggested improvements were forgotten. Additionally, the entire group did not originally work well together. In the beginning of the pre production we did not put forth enough effort. Our film was short, but the short length was paced well for the most part. Our plot and characterization could have been greatly improved, especially if we would have used all of the scenes, especially that of the calendar which I stated earlier. Additionally, if we would have had a 'dreamweaver' sequence when Andrew looks up from his wallet it would have further developed his attachment to this girl he doesn't know very well. It also would have made it seem like the decision was a lot more difficult for our main character. I felt like our cinematography could have been better, as we did not have any particular frame that stood out as better than the rest. Another shot that could have been improved was the scene where Andrew collides with the bicyclist. We could have been closer and watched Andrew try and get out of the way or  not have him stay on the ground for so long to show his attempts to get to Grace as fast as he possibly can. Also, I would've liked to see the seen with the Grace and Andrew drawing closer slow down a little bit. In conclusion, for my first film project ever, I thought it was exceptional especially considering the importance of the shots we missed. Overall, I wish the process was a little faster and a little more smooth but I was glad to make this movie.