Evaluation | It is what it is

Our film, It is what it is, is a mockumentary based on the life of a teenager named Connor. Throughout the planning of the film our initial ideas on how the film would represent the life of Connor was focused primarily on Connors actual life and how he would normally go amongst his day-to-day business. Because of this we didn't have need for props or to set-up scenes, which added to the realism and also helped to create the idea of the mockumentary being based around Social-Realism and the idea that this is how Connor actually lives. This idea was supported from the opening scenes where firstly we seen an upward panning shot of the apartments in which Connor lives at, Followed next by a panning shot of Connors bedroom. Which presents the audience with a massive pile of rubbish and empty takeaway trays with food still present in them. This image was not created by us, the producers, but was already how it was when we entered the room, which further presents the idea of how people we see around us at college are living.

Furthermore, as the film is a mockumentary our primary focus was to show Connors life in a funnier way and to further show that even though other people may see Connor situation as being quite bad. Connor is happy and he enjoys his life and enjoys being funny. This was presented to the audience through the mockumentary in scenes where we see Connor acting his usual dopey self. We based most dopey actions and things, in which Connor did in the movie, for example tripping up on the bridge and raging at it, on things that Connor has actually done previously before production of the film since we’ve known him to help present Connor in the movie as how we have always seen him.

To continue, throughout the production of our film, although we had a script to follow we were always thinking of new shots and things in which we could add to the mockumentary to further improve it. A first example of this was the use of voice overlays. We decided to include these as it helped to add context to the mockumentary and additionally added humour to the mockumentary. In addition we also decided to add more cinematic shots to allow further inclusion of more vice overlay, which also helped to add more context to what’s going on within the film, to clear any confusion audiences may have. To add on, throughout the editing stages of the mockumentaries production, we chose to add a colour correction on to the film. The colour corrections purpose was to create a grimier look on Nuneaton and to make it look a lot duller and vague to create the idea of Nuneaton town as being a wasteland. Although the colour correction still allowed for the audiences to make out the colours of the setting, making certain parts stand out more than others.