Evaluation

Short Sharp Shock Evaluation

Assignment brief

With this assignment we were given a brief which stated that we had to make a 15-20 second film sequence with a minimum of 30 edits and this sequence had to portray some type of journey or process within the narrative. One of the other key parts of this assignment was to exaggerate sound through the actions within the sequence by enhancing the sound effects to create a bigger and more exaggerated impact. We also had to create detailed storyboards along with this 15-20 second sequence, as well as research in edits through films, adverts etc, and also log our progress in this assignment.

Worries

When I first looked at the brief I was excited to do a filming/editing project as I thoroughly enjoy editing along with cinematography and mise-en-scene and film in general, so I was first looking forward to starting the project at the time. When I looked at the dates for the deadlines for the pitch presentation and the final deadline I was slightly worried as we have a very short period of time to brainstorm ideas and present them, and not that long to shoot, edit our work along with getting feedback of our final piece and then make improvements according to the given feedback from the class. So at the time I was slightly worried about getting this project done in time to the deadline but was up for this project and was planning on getting it done in time no matter what.

My idea

When our teachers were suggesting ideas of what our sequence could be based on, they mainly said something that’s simple and easy to do for example, cleaning room, finding keys etc. At first I couldn’t really think of a good idea that I’d enjoy doing, but then thought of a sequence of me setting up the recording equipment for recording. This idea is based from one of my hobbies I do in my spare time with me and 3 other friends where we record ‘LP’s’ or ‘Let’s Plays’ which are game play videos where people record them playing a videogame and commentating over it, whilst they are playing the game.

Basically I and my friends in some of our spare time hang out round my house and we record us playing games and commentating over it, with the use of a Blue yeti microphone and a Hauppauge HD PVR which is what records the game play from the TV. With my idea for this project is me having to set up the recording equipment before my friends get round my house like I usually do when I record with them. 

So the process would be grabbing the a piece of the recording equipment like the microphone stand for example then going downstairs, setting it up, going back upstairs grabbing the next piece of equipment and so on and just finishing it where there is then a knock at the door, being my friends ready to record. I feel like this idea is different from a lot of typical ideas some might have for a project like this but different is good and it also gives an insight to how I set up my recording equipment when recording with friends.

Shooting

When it came to actually shooting my sequence I spaced it between the weekend in two days, one day to record shots by myself that I could shoot and another day that my older sister had off from work so she could shoot for me for certain shots where I was either in the shot or needed someone else to help me with shooting.

 The first day of shooting was pretty good as I was able to shoot about half of the shots by myself and got what I wanted of the shooting with the shots I had originally thought of from my original storyboards. The second day of shooting I did with my sister as some of the shots needed me to be fully in the shot so I needed someone else to control the camera which is why I got my sister to lend a hand as she had the day off and wasn’t busy. Again on this day I was able to get all the shots I wanted. After these two days I had all my main shots done for my main sequence, however because I wanted to have an introduction I was planning on having some shots in the introduction to set the scene before the main sequence started.

With the shooting for the introduction I wanted to establish the scene by having a shot of me getting a text from one of my friends saying they were on their way round mine to record. This would give the audience an idea of what the sequence is about and why I needed to hurry and set it up in time before they get round my house. I originally shot a range of different angles and shots to explore what I could use for the introduction but taking in account that text would display on screen so it needed to be composed and placed well against the shots I decided to go for.

Editing

With the editing, because I don’t have Final Cut Pro at home what I first did was after shooting did a draft edit in Sony Vegas Pro 12 as it’s also a video editor and it would help me to give a brief idea of the sequence and how its going to be edited along with the shots I was going to use as when I first shot I had a lot of spares and repeats of the same shots. When I went to college and edited in FCP I knew what shots I was going to use based off practising the editing in SV, so it helped me to know how I was going to approach the shots and editing them together.

The process of editing for me in FCP was good, as I have used the software before I knew how to work on it and edit along with importing sounds and uses filters etc, so I didn’t really struggle with the editing part and because I love editing I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was hard to get the video to 20 seconds but with the use of shorting shots and speeding some it helped to give a very rushed and swift feel to the sequence I edited which is what I wanted to achieve.

Time management

I would say that I did manage my time well as I was able to research, brainstorm and present my idea to the class in a good structured way which helped them understand my concept for this project. The shooting was managed well and was done in time, along with the editing as well. The only thing that I think I could of done with time is to of thought of my introduction concept earlier and shot it when I first shooted s it would have saved me more time and made the project feel more organised and structured for me.

Improvements

I made a number of improvements to my final sequence after critting t the class. Some comment suggested certain things like shortening the phone clip for example and other people suggested making the tick at the end sync with the knock at the door. Other improvements i made were myself looking at any more improvements i could make, and one of them being making the intro text bolder to stand ou more which looks more eye catching readable. 

With the critique from the class i did comprehend the comments they were making but discussed with them the issues of those comments. For example some people said to shorten the text shot, however some people are not fast readers and i made it the length according to how quickly i could read the text when i was editing it, so i felt like it was fair to keep the length of that sound the same as other people agree after listening to my point.

Overview

Overall i really enjoyed this project, the shooting, storyboarding, editing etc all of it was very fun and overall would probably say it was my fav project so far on this course. The reason being it was made up of my fav elements of design which are film and editing.  really enjoy editing video and using sound and mise-en-scene, cinematography etc. So with this project i was able to get on with this project a whole lot more as i can edit very well and enjoy it so it helped me engage and not really struggle with this project. I've also used FCP before a lot so it wan't that hard to use the software for this project.