Critical Review

1For my project I have created a single ‘pilot’ episode  for a mini sitcom style

 web series called ‘Common Room’. It introduces five university aged 

students with different ,ethnic, social and economic backgrounds who live in

 the same accommodation. The films follows how they learn to put their 

differences aside to be friends.

2I began with the intention of producing a series so I explored how different 

mediums present series. I looked at TV and mini web series to understand 

the standard I should be aiming towards for my own project. However since, 

I was keen on looking at comedy I wanted to visit other series like Hogarth’s

 paintings and children’s book series so that the humour in my project was as

 inclusive as possible.

3I originally had written my proposal with the intention of making five one 

minute long micro short films that look at the same event from the 

perspectives of different characters. Very early on in the project I changed 

my mind and decided on a sitcom style format that had more conventional 

episodic storytelling, However once I had written my characters I had 

experimented with presenting the story as one complete short film and had 

written several episodes. I finally decided to develop my strongest script and

 only make one episode.

4When writing the proposal we created an 8 week action plan of how we 

intended to manage our time and the resources we would need to carry out 

our projects. Even though I had planned for a contingency week I might have 

been too ambitious with my planning as I hadn’t thought of problems that 

would arise when filming.

5This project required me to try a range of new roles for the first time such as 

writing, directing, producing, production managing, casting and location 

scouting. Throughout the year I had avoided making films with too much 

dialogue so this project was the first time I got to learn about narrative 

devices such as subtext and visual storytelling. I also used the software after

 effects for the first time in order to try and create visuals that would make 

my film look more surreal. I also learnt how to to sync audio for the first 

time and edit scenes depicting conversations for the first time 

6.Throughout the project I would document any research and 

experimentation  in my sketchbook and at the end of each week I would 

reflect on my progress and how I was adapting my plan to overcome 

obstacles on my blog. I found that my most interesting ideas came from 

when I was able to find a link between concepts that I found across my 

research. Having a record of my research in my sketchbook made finding 

these links a lot easier. For example I had written an episode about a magical

  scarf that developed on an already existing script about a scarf but I was 

able to add elements from my research about surrealism to form a more 

interesting idea. 

7. When writing my proposal I had decided to present a series of micro shorts 

but I finally decided instead to present a pilot episode for a potential mini 

sitcom style web series as I thought it was my strongest episode in terms of 

story and technically.

The intention of this show was for it to be on uploaded onto the web. If I had

 enough episodes I considered entering into the web series category at youth 

film festivals. 

‘Teen sitcom’ would best describe the genre  target audience for this series is 

a teenagers aged 14-19 

since it deals with scenarios that are supposedly common and relatable for

 this demographic. I had set out to make something light hearted that would

 entertain instead being challenging.

8The biggest thing I have learnt over the course of this specific project is that 

filmmaking  is extremely collaborative and in order to make a successful film 

a range of different skills are needed. It is simply not enough to be creative 

and have good ideas. It is also important to have strong people skills to be 

able to bring people on board to help you bring your vision to life and keep

 morale consistent through shooting. If I were to go back I would change my 

time management skills. I lacked discipline when keeping up to date with my 

blog and sketchbook and I now realise how important they are to keep track 

of progress.