A2 Media Short Film

For my product for coursework this year, I have decided to do something that is more of my tastes and interests. At GCSE level Media Production, I had to make a short film, and decided to experiment with the usage of CGI at a basic level. As we had to make a short film revolving around zombies and our cast was limited, I suggested the idea of adding computer generated zombies that I would make at home, and then add them in through green screen when editing. This idea was good in theory, but at the time I had neither the experience nor the skill to create anything lifelike and it only ended up looking ok. However, I was nominated for an award from the school for creative usage of technology.

In my next year of GCSEs, for Film Studies, I again had to make a short film, this time with horror themes. As I had more experience using my modelling software and animation programs, I decided that it would be a better idea to reverse the original concept; instead of putting CGI images into real life, I planned to put real actors into a CGI world (in this case, a space ship) and film them against a green screen. This idea worked a lot better and produced a large amount more realistic scenes. However, the issue with this was no longer realism, as for it wasn't perfect, it wasn't bad with the exception of some green screen errors. The issue this time was the organisation of actors, the quality of the actors themselves and the strength of the plot, which resulted in the short film being more of a technological demonstration as oppose to being a good short film. Nevertheless, it won a Best Video Product award at my college's media awards night.


This time, I have refined the idea from the feedback that I have received from these two products; the CGI is good and it's use is imaginative and creative, but the physical side of it (the actors, props, etc.) were lacking at best. Therefore, the short film that I am making this year will be completely computer generated, as I now have a job revolving around modelling and animating, as well as creating realistic 3D environments, the final product should be of a much higher standard then any of my previous efforts.

For creating the models and model texturing, I will be using the free 3D modelling program Blender, smaller more specific textures and other extras will be created using Photoshop. The larger amount of filming and environment creation will be done through Unity 3D, a game engine that I have over 6 years experience using and now use professionally for my job. This experience should allow me to create a good looking animation for my short film.

The short film will be styled in a cartoon-esque format, with some exaggerated movements and such allowing for a better display of emotion and character. Along with this, my actors will all be robots as they are easier to animate while having still look good, as well as allowing for a large amount of creative freedom with designs. When designing my characters, I will attempt to put in place methods of displaying emotion within the robots that will allow me to better show the characters in a more believable and descriptive manner.