Evaluation upon Practical Skills.

The practical skills I have managed to develop throughout the year I believe allows a professional insight into the production industry and how to create a successful production with thorough planning - allowing consideration for any factors that can affect any of the process such as filming and editing. This was thoroughly used with all of the productions that I partaked in, from the 4 Hour Film Challenges made at the beginning of the year to the final productions I have produced - using contingencies as a way to consider undesirable factors, such as bad weather on a shoot that was supposed to be forecast sunny etc. Combining all factors in my contingency has allowed me to produce content, without the need to compromise dramatically and overall, disturbing the workflow.

Example of Unit 36 Music Video Gannt Chart

Along the lines of planning, my process has changed practically throughout the course length, within the beginning of the year I would plan my projects within the one filming date, not taking consideration of the length of time the process of work that needed to be uploaded to the blog in the time constraint - this ultimately led me to be stressed with filming as I knew I had incomplete blog posts that needed to be completed and posted in time; causing my evaluations to be rushed. I did change my approach towards complete work within a time period by introduce the system of Gannt Charts, which were constantly open on my computer screen throughout the duration of a particular unit. The Gannt chart included the number of weeks from the day the unit started to the deadline, alongside a list of tasks that needed to be completed in an x and y format. I also started the gannt chart by colour coding the tasks I wanted to get done each week, allowing a sense of structure and stability to work comfortably before the deadline. I found this system work successfully - despite the odd blips here and there, where I took a break from doing work for personal reasons. To expand further, the gannt chart allowed me to keep track of all the work that needed to be completed, therefore I found myself not forgetting anything on the list - allowing me to achieve higher marks towards the end of the course.

The inclusion of equipment and health and safety was vital to my productions, as otherwise would have not been a professional and thought out plan. Within every production, I have created a blog post to explore the Equipment I will need for each shoot, alongside a contingency plan incase something out of the ordinary occurs - this will include: spare batteries if a camera dies, a back up tripod incase the one I have is faulty, or even a second shoot date in mind - to allow myself to finish anything that is incomplete. Within the Health and Safety requirements, I have developed my understanding by doing a location recce before shooting to consider all of the factors that could affect the health and safety of myself and anyone else that I am working with - this included factors of the weather and cables from electrical equipment such as lights etc. All this is included in the blog posts 'Planning' or 'Equipment List' so it combines with the recee/ anything that has to with H+S.

The research within coming up with ideas, played a role for each unit I completed. This variated within each blog post through the use of examples or stimuli to base my research - an example of this would be when I looked at music video theories alongside producing detailed examples of the theories being applied. Furthermore, I will expand upon my research by allowing qualitative and quantative results through the structure of a questionnaire or survey - this allows me to further expand upon ideas and evidence towards a final production. I have found doing this work successful for myself as it backs up my ideas sufficiently - however, I will admit, I do still struggle with constructing an accurate questionnaire without questions being too broad. 

Allowing consideration to combine camera and lighting techniques with other elements such as the exposure triangle has proven successful, I have managed to expand upon my knowledge from A-Level Photography to use the exposure triangle successfully but also developing this to use in the video format, I always ensure that the shutter speed is at least double the frame rate of the video to allow a smoother looking footage unlike a choppier looking one that would be achieved by not caring about such things. Aperture and ISO is considered in order to balance the light allowed in the lens, without the ISO being too bright - causing grain on the footage, whilst Aperture is only used when I want something to have a shallow focus, otherwise i'm not too bothered with results. The experimentation of other lenses in film has allowed me to achieve desirable results when focusing upon aperture, for example, I used the 50mil lens in my Promotional video to shoot a clip of the pool balls being broken out of formation - this turned out successful when using a low aperture and lower ISO (due to the vast increase of light due to the wider lens opening).

Overall I believe this year in regards to practical skills has been more than successful, due to my professional outlook upon the planning and development of productions throughout this year, if i were to change anything, I would most likely wish that I could have used gannt charts in my earlier productions, however it is all about the development and it clearly shows throughout the year of my work.

BINS & LABELS USED FOR ORGANISATION - PROMOTIONAL

1.

                                                            

                                                                           2.






3.    4.





The labels on each of the clips are colour coded.

KEY:
      - Clips that need stabilising/MAYBE will make it into final production
   
      - Clips that will make it into the final production

Editing Evaluation - Development throughout the course

The Development of my editing skills is apparent throughout the course of the year, especially comparing projects such as the 4 hour film challenges to my more recent final productions. I have allowed myself to explore various styles which account and accompany other genres in cinema, considering camera and lighting techniques and how this would combine in real cinematic productions.

From the beginning of the year, I established my editing capabilities through the combination of Unit 1: Contextual Studies, alongside the four hour film challenges. If we look back at the final production's of my Contextual Studies unit, we can see a distinctive difference in editing accuracy and style - part of this is due to the genre I was focusing upon, which was Wong Kar Wai's visual influence in Hong Kong cinema. However, I noticed that my editing did not match up perfectly with the voiceover that I did for my video essay, alongside the occasional stuttering of words which caused the clips to not align perfectly. If we look at more recent productions that involved a voiceover such as 'Mind.' (my Unit 11 - Film Studies, final production), we can see that the footage shot, alongside the audio matches perfectly, this is due to the thorough planning of the editing process, such as the script I wrote and prepped for, alongside filming based upon areas of what I have written in each paragraph - the process has allowed me to successfully produce a short film that considers audio, camera and lighting techniques; alongside a thorough editing process.

I have managed to learn and expand upon my knowledge during the year with various editing techniques/styles - to extensively improve my editing language between non-linear editing softwares. An example of this would definitely be the use of the Colour Key tool in Premiere Pro, that I used for my Unit 36 - Music Video. I wanted to imitate the use of a green screen, but instead on a white background to imitate the post modern/early technology of the green screen, commonly used in the 80's. I did complete a blog post on the full instructions to how I managed to achieve this (under the Editing label, alongside Music Video), however, this is the before and after:

                        

before .    vs .     after 

color key

I did also experiment with the colour balance of clips, allowing them to appear either lighter/darker or desaturated. I did this with my Hong Kong new wave production, where I imitated a short film of the isolation of the Hong Kong residents during the handover of the nation from the US to Mainland China. I used the Color HLS tool to do this, decreasing the saturation and adjusting the hue to a colour to emote the mood of the film, just like Wong Kar Wai does in his projects. 

Editing on the beat to a song was vital for my music video production, however, despite doing this successfully in that unit, it was not the only time I have practiced such methods. Within one of the 4 Hour challenges, we had to edit a production using stock footage. I did this with the song 'Dreams' by the Cranberries, allowing me to portray the messages of Love, Freedom and Youth which connotes throughout the song. 

Applying theories to editing was limited, although there is a few examples that can be taken from my blog. The Kuleshov, reaction theory was used in one of my 4 Hour Film Challenges - 'Behind the Door V2', conveying the character of Charlotte to be frightened when a cupboard door opens by itself, despite having a blank expression initially - creating an allusion to what she feels in that sudden moment. 

To conclude, I believe the editing skills that I have acquired throughout the year have allowed me to produce projects reasonable to a cliental standard. It has allowed me to create and experiment with new styles of editing, allowing me to widen my horizon but to also engage with various demographics. I believe that the projects I have produced throughout this year, can be successfully decoded with the intention of the directors subliminal/connotation messages that they wanted to portray, thus being myself.

EVALUATION + FINAL GANNT CHART OF SCHEDULE (Promotional)

The bar when filming on second day, closed off
with no key accessible.

After completing production on my promotional video, I finished off the editing by adding a royalty-free soundtrack, to avoid any copyright strikes or lawsuits that the company could go under, as a business would not have permission to use this. I then lined up and followed the editing tutorial(linked to my blog); matching the transitions with the beat of the song. I chose an upbeat song for the promotional video as Mr Barlow discussed in our initial meeting how he wanted to appeal to a younger audience at the club, as the demographic currently withheld is 40 years+. I believe the editing process worked out successfully, as my time management was consistent - as shown by my gannt chart, leaving me less stressed and allowing me to make mock-ups of what i want the final production to look like. I also found the custom transitions a vital part of the video as it portrays a more professional & modern feel towards the audience, it also approaches the product launch sub-genre that I planned to conform too.

Within Editing, I also had to consider such things, like typography and legality information + any requirements/information that needed to be added. My client did not have any specifics when it came to such things, besides asking, all that was required was the highlight the new pool room and preview the new diner complex which is still under construction. I chose the typography that consists within the majority of the final product to have a Bold font; named: 'The Bold Font', which was 100% Free, meaning that I could use this commercially, without any legal issues. This font was coloured white with a black outline, alongside a gold outer glow - as this allowed the font to stand out without contrasting with any main colours displayed in the footage, such as green from the pool tables. I took the opportunity to also include a chalk board like font, to coincide with the chalkboard footage I shot whilst I was at the Sports and Social Club, this was to promote any offers - and to also enforce a visual aesthetic to the audience, allowing them to feel intrigued and relaxed when watching. Within legalities, I knew from previous projects that I would have to include the 'drinkaware' logo for responsible drinking as I was advertising for a business which sells alcohol. Furthermore, this will also reinforce the place/product that I am advertising for the consumer.

Shooting itself, was okay, I managed to organise the filming of each clips by doing focusing on different angles of an area in each time slot. I did also film quickly the rest of the club quickly per shoot, so I had a back up if anything did go wrong. I would, however, change some of the footage, as I found some of the preparation from the club itself unsatisfactory. I am thankful I had two days as my contingency to film, however, I found certain facilities that I wanted to re-film(i.e: the bar) not available, and not being able to film - such as the Bar area, as the shutters were down and the person running the club for me to film during did not have the keys. It made things difficult, but to get over this I should have spent more timing on this during the previous session.

In conclusion. i’m very happy with my final outcome, I believe that I have conformed to the Product Launch sub-genre successfully, allowing successful promotion towards the newly refurbished Pool Room and new launch of the pool room, with the facilities and accessibility I had when filming. I would definitely refilm for a third day if I were to improve this process in the future, shooting in specific areas to allow a wider range of film. I would also improve my time management also to be consistent as I found during the middle of the timeline, I was lacking in productivity, this is a personal issue that I will work on in preparation for future clients, to prove my reliability.