Evaluation of my personal project 16th May

I was very pleased with the finished project and I felt that it was a big improve compared to previous projects that I have done throughout the year as I feel that I have improved technically, for example my camera handling has improved as I have taken the Panasonic camera out on a number of occasions to get more practice this has allowed me to get some interesting and different shots that I have used in my project. Also my use of the tripod has improved too as I can set up the Manfrotto tripod more efficiently and without hesitation as I can properly level it and position it correctly.

Also I feel that my editing has improved I can now find my way around Final Cut Pro more easier, for example I can now do sub clips more confidently than had done previously and add more to the layout and the presentation of my work by using title sequences.

I felt that I presented my project well by displaying it and packaging to make it more professional as I felt that the packaging explained more about what the project was about as pictures helped display this.

I felt that the flow of my project went smoothly, however it might not have been necessary to add title sequences as the interviewee does explains the question well enough for the audience to understand as title sequences could also effect the flow of the piece as it would waste time and audience participation.

I felt that the variety of shots was good as it made it more interesting for the audience as some of the shots, particularly when my dad is running are handheld as this creates a more realistic feel to it also I did a variety of shots, for example some were low angle shots, shots of him running from and towards camera and also point of view shots and the "nostril" shot of my dad. The film RocknRolla inspired me to do that shot.

There are parts in the documentary that don't work, for example the music it does work well in the piece as it helps the documentary have a flow and it breaks the interview questions nicely however the problem with the music is the audio levels which are not as smooth as I would like it to be.

There would be a point in the documentary when my dad is talking where the music would rise suddenly to introduce the next question.

Paintworks Friday 14th May

Today we met at Paint works where "Deal or No Deal" is filmed. The aim of the meeting was to watch all of the previous work we have done throughout the year which included all the group projects and all the individual projects to decide which pieces of work we would choose to show at the showcase at the Little Theatre in Bath.

This was particularly challenging as all the projects were really good and also we wanted to have a mixture of both group and individual projects. Another problem was that we wanted to include everyone and made sure that there was piece of work that someone contributed towards.

When we sorted out which pieces of work we would show and put onto a DVD and in which order, we then decided who would arrange the credits and the intro to the showcase. By doing this we split ourselves into groups our group's job was to arrange the intro, in the end we decided to use stock motion which means taking an object and moving it and each time taking a still picture and by the end you speed it using Quick time.

We did this by making the letters CMP [Creative Media Practice] out of the DVD cases of the project and then building it into a tower and then taking a picture of the tower every time we removed a DVD.

Personal Project 11th May

For my personal project I did the vast majority of my editing on the 7th May which consisted of title sequences as this was a problem in some cases as there were times in the interview were the interviewee would answer the question fully specifying what he was about to say e.g. When did he start getting into running? and if he had done any races before?

I chose music which I thought would create the right atmosphere of the piece and basically tightening shots that I though would make the piece flow better. As this is now done all that was left to do was to export the file and make a DVD menu using IDVD.

This was a long process as it can be time consuming I created a DVD menu that contained a title menu that included a picture as the background of the subject that I was focusing on and the actual file that I used to convert my project which was Quick time Conversion which allows to set the project to wide screen if you wish to.

I previously created a DVD cover for my project as I though this would help with the presentation and make it look more professional. After this was done all that was left to do was to burn the menu onto the disc I found this to go much more smoother than the editing process as the menu did not take long to burn and I was overall very pleased with the finished piece.

Food for Thought 11th May

Today we focused on the evaluation side of the team projects as the editing is now done. This consists of all the team members coming together to have a discussion about who did what and what did that person contribute to the planning, filming and the post production work of the project. This could consist of the filming and the camera work, the sound, the work we did beforehand, for example who came up with the team project and name. Also the post production work that includes the editing and putting together the distribution of the project if it is on DVD, like ours was, who came up with the design of the packaging?

To confirm that we contributed what we said we did, all of us had to go round the group stating what we did and if other team members agreed with our points. Then it was up to Mike to give the end result. We then had the opportunity to comment independently on other members of the group if we chose to, for example how we thought they contributed to the team and whether or not they were an effective team member.

I felt that our group worked really well as we were all reliable and each did the individual tasks that were set each week, whether that be booking equipment or writing out the minutes [which includes who was present or absent at the meeting, what the agenda was for that particular week and what tasks to carry out for the next week] for each meeting we held.

We were all punctual when turning up to shoot interviews or cutaways for our project. Also another reason why we worked well was planning as we filmed most of the interviews and cutaways before Easter which only left us then with the editing to do.

I also felt that we supported each other really well and helped each other out if we had any problems, for example checking to make sure that the interviewee is in the the frame when filming and that there is good headroom, and someone would make sure the sound is properly leveled and that it is not too low or too high.

Also we all kept in contact very well and made sure that we planned and reminded members of the group when we were shooting and remembered to tell them if any thing changed if anyone was unable to make a certain day.

Editing Food for Thought 4th May

Today was the deadline for our group projects and our documentary "Food for Thought" we had the whole day to make sure that there were any other mistakes and if there were we would have time to alter them. This was the hardest part of the process as we found that every time we exported the Final Cut Pro file into Quick time Conversion we would find spelling mistakes and problems with the picture as we wanted it in wide screen and it didn't except the right settings.

There was also problems with the iDVD which was the software we had to present our documentary on a DVD, we found that the choice of menus was a problem as you can customise the menus using your own pictures and certain menus had bars that would block out an important part of the picture that contained the logo of Anna's food. We found that these couldn't be deleted so therefore we had to find ways around it.

Again the other problem was burning the exported Quick time file onto the DVD as this took several attempts for us to get the picture the way that we wanted it as there were issues with the picture size and some exposures with the shots we took so we found that it would take several attempts to get it right.

Another problem we found was the pictures we used in our documentary as these kept being deleted. We had to keep rendering the files and and starting the procedure again by bringing them back in to final cut. It took us the majority of the day to get the file exported and the DVD organised but in the end we were happy with the final piece.

Editing Food For Thought 27th April

Today we continued editing our documentary "Food for Though"we are at the finishing stages now we just added the credits and the title sequences for some of the interviews as some of these had to be rewritten. The main focus we found when writing credits and titles is that the writing needs to be within the frame of the screen otherwise some of the text would have been cut off. We had to make sure that it was positioned correctly and made sure that we had the right font.

We hen added the credits at the end of the documentary, for example who the the director, producer and editor of the piece is and we finished by adding in fad ins and out of the piece to make sure that the piece flowed well and it ended in a professional way and it did not just end with a fade to black..

We also had to find a beginning to our documentary that would help introduce the audience into Anna's [the nutritionist], interest of food and what she has produced for different restaurants and friends that she has helped through healthy food over the years.

Editing Food for Thought 23rd April

Today we continued to edit our documentary "Food for Thought" we focused on piecing together the piece using sub clips and photos as cross cuttings to illustrate what the Nutritionist was saying, for example food that Anna has prepared before in her workshops.

Also to make the documentary flow easier and make it more interesting we added fade in fade out transitions which helps make the documentary flow easier and helps link into the next point that the interviewee is making. This was a useful exercises for me as I learned new skills and techniques that helped me to understand when and how transitions are necessary and when they are not.

Another way of making the documentary flow well is the use of title sequences that can also be used to make the documentary more interesting than just having an interview that is constant as titles explain and set up the next point that the documentary or the interviewee is covering. For example we had shots of Anna sharing her food with members of the public and a title sequence came on before explaining to the audience what is happening next "what did the public think..."

The difficulty with today's editing was deciding whether or not to use clips or photographs to break up the interviews as we found some clips worked well but had faults within them, for example some shots were not steady and therefore shook a lot as these therefore had to become photos.

Another technique we covered was when adding photos we could decide whether the shot of the photo would start by zooming in or out of the to give it a more stylish feel.