Reflective Blog
Week 1
This week we began the start of our final major project, to do so we each made a Who am I? PowerPoint to show a bit about ourselves within our likes and dislikes. We then went on to state the skills gained and improvements from the course including my strongest medium and work I'm most proud of. I then felt comfortable backing up my points with examples of my own work. I then moved onto coming up with three ideas for my final major project, using a mind-map to present these ideas to prepare for next week when I outline my final project idea. Over-all the skills I have improved this week were my generating ideas and organisation skills; the layout of my work.
Week 2
This week I finalised my final major project idea, to do so I asked 5 students to rate each idea between 1 and 4 as well as feedback on them too. I then sat down with a tutor to discuss each one gaining feedback and guidance on where I could take each idea. From all of this I felt comfortable enough to decide on what I wanted to do; which was combine idea's 1 and 2. This then enabled me to make a research plan, my aim was to have a mixture of primary, secondary, quantitative and qualitative research. Over-all the skills I improved this week were my decision making, and a skill I gained was a knew way of displaying data (a pie chart), both skills can be applied throughout the rest on my work.
Week 3
This week I completed my project proposal form, to do this I looked at examples of previous students project proposal forms to get an idea on what to write ensuring to stick to the number of words we were allowed as best as possible. From this task I managed to find some video examples I will look into for my research. I then felt comfortable moving onto my project pitch looking over the questions I was able to develop some of my own research questions. Making some initial bullet points enabled me to source images to make my PowerPoint more visual ensuring to reference. Over-all from this weeks work I was able to develop my referencing skills which will be transferred throughout all my future work when using images.
Week 4/5
Over weeks 4 and 5 I completed the research I had in my research plan, to do so I looked at relevant YouTube videos from this I gained knowledge on Wes-Andersons frequent shot types and colour schemes. I also discussed with people around me their thoughts on my final project from this I was able to adjust my plans an gain a clearer understanding of my target audience. I also gained ideas for my project through analysing similar media projects; a short film also inspired by Wes-Anderson really helped me to vision the shot types for my film. Over-all from weeks 4 and 5 I gained a better understanding on how to conduct research building on my skills of referencing all skills that can be transferred with future projects such as documentary's.
Week 6/7
This week I continued with my research, to do so I watched some YouTube videos on how to analyse colour in avid media composer from this I was shown how to colour grade. I then felt compfortable moving on with my pre-production planning, from this task I was able to fully plan when I wanted to film enabling me to book out the equipment and give myself enough time to edit. Overall the skills I improved this week were my organisational and research skills both skills can be used throughout future projects.
Week 8 part 1
This week my plan was to complete my storyboard, letter (scripts) an begin to experiment with filming. To be able to fully complete all of this I firstly wrote down every shot I wanted to have which made drawing the story boards a lot quicker and less room for mistakes as all changes had been made prior. This then helped me to understand how many letters I needed to write for each character which I then moved onto writing improving my organisational skills. From this task I felt compfortable working on experimenting with the different shot types down I was able to create my own examples see what worked and what did not, I could read out some of the letter to find a suitable place to record the audio for my short film, when doing so I decided the best place to record was under a quilt to sound proof. My aim was to get enough examples to be able to play around with the footage changing the colours and even adding audio/sound effects. Over-all the skill's I improved this week were my camera and editing, gaining a better understanding on the layout of my short film the practicalities of the shot types. I can apply my forward thinking and organisational skills to all future filming projects to make researching run smoother.
Week 8 part 2
At the end of the week I gathered the filming equipment and filmed my short film, to do so I booked out a camera, tripod and zoom audio recorder. I first began by filming all of the shots with the first actor I had available after filming a couple of shots I felt more compfortable directing the actor(s). I did however, come across a difficulty filming some of the shots therefor I had to adapt the storyboards slightly to fit better to the filming process, improving my problem solving skills. Once my second actor was available to make filming smoother I filmed the scenes I needed with the two actors together in the first location before moving to the second location to film. Over-all I managed to get all of the scenes I needed and some extra to be able to play around with when editing. I improved my directing and organisational skills during the process skills I can further improve on future projects, and gained knowledge on what to prepare for next time when making a storyboard.
Week 9
This week I edited my final project to do so I used Avid media composer, I first began by sorting out all of my footage labelling all of the clips the shot number this then made applying the footage to the timeline a lot quicker. I started by doing a chunk of clips at a time, adding the music, audio effects and colour grading, moving onto another lot of clips. I got some feedback as I edited to then make any changes that could be done to clean up the footage, It was pointed out improvements that could of been done when filming which I will keep in mind for my next project. I took screen grabs to document the process. When editing I did run into the problem of it being too long, I had to make the decision to cut out a lot of extra clips making the calendar motion quite odd to watch however next time I must keep in mind the length of each scene. Over-all I improved my efficiency when it came to editing and managed to edit in only 2 days, improve my knowledge on how to colour grade and edit as a whole which can only make my future projects even better.
Week 10
This week I wrote the evaluation for my FMP short film to do this I was given questions to answer in my write up, summary of my project, strength's/weaknesses, feedback, skills gained etc. This then helped me to write in full detail without repeating myself too often and get down everything needed to be summarised from the entirety of this project. I do however need to develop my higher level grammar skills other than repeating the same words. Once I was finished with my evaluation I moved over to the rest of my website, adding images where necessary to brighten up and make paragraphs more visual further developing my referencing skills, overall making my website tidy and presentable. From this week I was able to ensure everything was answered and laid out into the correct sections of my website ready to submit. Further developing my organisational skills for future websites.