Final Film

Here is the link to my final film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flQt67m5Teg

I uploaded my final film onto youtube for people to see

I also linked my film onto my Facebook page for my friends to see and give me feedback on

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of my final film. At the start of the project, even though I loved the idea of my documentary I had a lot of doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be able to make the documentary how I had imagined it to be. However through a lot of discussion with my tutors and peers they definitely gave me the confidence that I could make this documentary. Being an animal lover I thoroughly enjoyed the research aspect of the project, as I was able to study deeply into my subject (wolves). I also gained a lot more knowledge on documentary and wildlife film making. I feel that by studying this type of film making it has encouraged me to potentially build a career in either field. I feel that I have been very fortunate during this project, especially with the people that I have interviewed. The UK Wolf Conservation Trust were extremely welcoming and supportive of my project, allowing me to spend the day at their trust when it was closed to the public. I was able to capture a lot of footage of socialised wolves and the keepers at the trust were very helpful when it came to answering my questions. I also interviewed wolf expert Shaun Ellis, a man who I have been a fan of for many years and to be able to film him was an amazing experience. Even more so to see up close Shaun interacting with his wolves.

During the editing process I think what I struggled with the most was trying to get my film in a good structure that made sense and enabled my film to run smoothly. Structure in a film/documentary wasn't something that I had ever paid great attention to before, however I now value its importance to a film and I feel that I have managed to create a structure/storyline that works well for my film. Overall I was very pleased with the collection of footage that I managed to get during filming. However when it came to editing it was harder than I thought to place certain footage with the audio that I had. If I were to do this again I would allow myself more time to look over my interview footage and then go back and do some more filming, if I felt I needed better footage to go with it.

Another aspect of editing that I found difficult was sound. Sound is an area I don't know to much about and my film needed quite a bit of editing due to both my interviews being outside. A lot of my footage from the UKWCT had wind interference, therefore I had to lower the sound levels so it couldn't be heard as much. Similarly the footage of Shaun Ellis had a lot of background noise from other animals in the zoo that I was filming in. So again I had to alter the sound levels so this couldn't be heard as much. However although some of the background noise my footage picked up was very loud, the majority of it was rather subtle. And I feel this worked really well with my film, as the background noise was very natural and suited to the whole 'wildlife' aspect of the documentary. If I were to do this again however I would take the sound into consideration more. I was also advised by my tutor Seb to next time use a different editing software such as premiere, as it allows you to have a lot more control over editing sound. So this is something that I will keep in mind for the future.

I can honestly say I have extremely enjoyed working on this project as it has enabled me to combine two passions of mine together, film and animals. I feel that I have gained a lot more knowledge and have built up a lot more confidence in regard to trying out new things and being more experimental. This project has allowed me to build on skills that I will certainly use in the future, as well as taught me new skills that I hadn't before had the confidence to use.