G321 - Steph Webb

Tuesday, 6 May 2014

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

I think that my overall first edit of my opening came out better than I expected it too. The only issue with my shots were the continual change of natural lighting which differed from shot to shot. This meant that I had to edit a few shots using the 'Brightness and Contrast' video effect in order to make it look a little better. I still think that changing the brightness of the clips resulted in a more realistic outcast of the opening.

When putting the video clips in order of how I wanted them, I was able to notice that there is a section within the opening that hasn't been correctly shot. Towards the beginning of the opening, my actress is seen leaning on her hand and then the next shot that I tried to use was of my actress when she wasn't leaning on her hand. This change in movement wasn't documented within the opening and was easily recognisable when put next to each other. In order to make it look like there is no movement error, I added in the title between the two shots. I decided to use fade to black with the title 'Love Never Dies' and then fade it into the next shot. When the class watched it back, they were not able to notice this movement error which therefore resulted in me not having to reshoot this shot because it was not recognisable.

I think that the shots follow better than I was hoping for as they seem to match up a lot better than I thought they would when I first started editing. I think that taking more than one of the majority of the shot was a good idea as it meant that I was able to decide between the different clips in order to get the best result for my opening. I also think that my zoom in and panning shot was better than I expected when editing my first opening. This is due to the fact that when I was recording, I thought I was having difficulty keeping the same speed and timing, but when I looked at these two types of shots when I was editing they came out better than I had previously thought. I was happy with the end result of my first edit practise because I tried to make the shots flow one after the other, which they appeared to do within my opening.

Although the overall outcome of my film opening was good for my first edit, when I compared it to the storyboard that I created it wasn't quite the same. The overall timing of the videos meant that there wasn't much time for the flashbacks so it had to be extended and the ending reduced. This meant that there were no shots about how the couple first met, as it ended when the woman read the letter where the flashbacks would've occured. Although it didn't follow the storyboard towards the end 100%, it still had the basic storyline in which I intended in the first place.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel like I have learnt a lot from the progression of the task to the full product. I feel that my final product is a lot different to that of my preliminary task. The overall appearance of the two are contrasting and are very different in how they're presented. I learnt a lot more doing my full product as I had a lot more work to do on my own that I had with my preliminary task. Although I worked on the preliminary task on my own as well, the depth of my planning and research of the full product was a lot more intense and therefore I learnt how to work hard on my own and use time management well - compared to the preliminary task which didn't take as long.

From the outcome of my preliminary task to the development of my product, I think that I learnt a lot regarding the shooting. For my preliminary I only took one shot of each and therefore the outcome wasn't as great as it could've been. I therefore decided that my full product should have a lot more shots of the same in order to be able to pick the best possible one. I learnt this from the outcome of the preliminary task. I also learnt about camera movement during this process. During my preliminary task, my camera movement was quite sloppy and when I looked it over, I wasn't 100% satisfied with it and therefore learnt that it was important to take your time when doing camera shots - especially if it uses tilts, pans or zooms. This new information that I had gained was put into consideration when doing my product and therefore I took my time and ensured that I had the correct camera movements I needed. This therefore made my full product look a lot more professional than my preliminary task.

I also think that I have learnt how to maintain the best flow throughout when it comes to the camera shots. For my preliminary task, the shots didn't follow each other 100% and therefore didn't continuously flow (as actions did not match one another very well). I thought that this didn't look very good in the outcome so I therefore decided to ensure that the movements within each shot followed one another for my final product. I learnt to ensure that the shots flow in order to create consistency. This made the overall outcome of my full product a lot better than my preliminary task as it looked more professional and smooth. Overall, I think that doing the preliminary task helped me to develop my understanding of shooting and therefore enabled me to feel more confident when I was shooting the final product. I think that this was important as it gave me a sense of direction as to how I envisioned my final product. This therefore gave me the knowledge and experience I needed to ensure a good outcome.