‘Depth’ critique.

Overall I feel that with ‘Depth’ we had a success. I felt we stuck consistently to the brief which was to include an environment, a character, ensuring there is lighting; camera, sound, and also that we had to convey a sense of place, to create a consistent world. I felt that with ‘Depth’ we did that very well. By using combination of occlusions, fish effects, bubble, shadows, along with moving cameras, and the added atmospheric sound I think we created a realistic world for Dweeb. I also added in a short part where we see, what Dweeb sees, just so we feel like we are on board this journey to keep the audience more involved.

I felt that we were also consistent with the brief in that we took inspiration from a poem. Felt Gordon and Myself worked well in the early stages of the summer to have a rough idea of what the story would involve the characters and the general tone of the film.

I feel that by starting with the camera on the Diver boat we got to effectively change the atmosphere to something darker, something unknown. I also feel that by including an array of animals for Dweeb to react with and anticipate allowed us to really make him believable as his own character. The puffer fish scene especially emphasises Dweeb in an unknown environment exploring the depths of the ocean, and this allowed us to gradually begin to crank the tension up toward the tense boat exploration.

I was pleased with the visual look of the film, however if I was to be critical I would say that If I had the chance to go back and re-do the film I would definitely improve the textures on the animals in particular to get a more realistic surface texture. Such as adding fur to the penguins, and feathers to the birds. I would have maybe also looked at another way to make the spines of the puffer fish to more accurately reflect the movement of real life puffers. Perhaps this could have been achieved by adding dynamic hairs into each spine and adjusting the gravity and friction to adjust the movement of them. I also may have gone back and reworked the mouth and teeth of the shark to make it more highly realistic.

I do feel however that we were let down in the production bible area, an area which I feel should have been shorter and more about the concepts and images that we had brought together over the months of hard work. I feel that in general our work ethic was of a high standard and all team members contributed well to the project.

Also I agree with the feedback from most people who have seen the film and the extended versions, commenting that the extended version works better. I do agree that the shorter version could have perhaps been cut slightly different to ensure that the whole reason for the underwater mission is not surpassed. However I do feel as a whole piece the ‘Depth’ movie was a success and was great to be a part of.