Evaluation

Introduction

I was asked to make a montage with whatever theme I wanted. My intentions were to create a successful and effective montage that showed my theme clearly. My initial ideas were to try something different from what I had done before, by making something with a darker theme. Creating this montage will help me in the future because it gives me experience with filming and editing so I can improve these skills and make my future projects better quality. My skills in filming and editing before starting this unit were quite good, I had had practice with them in past units and this was a chance to improve my skills.

Research/Planning

The first task I completed for this unit was theme analysis, first I had to choose my theme (loneliness) then after that I made a mind map thinking about things associated with loneliness, then I made a mood board and finally I looked for examples of shots that showed my theme and wrote about them. This was useful because it allowed me to explore my ideas for my montage and helped me see how to show my theme clearly. The next task I completed was research, I started by researching two different montages and seeing how effective they were and how they achieved that. Then I researched the locations that I wanted to film in, however I only filmed in two of the locations I planned to because on the day of the shoot I decided it was better to stay where we were. The final task before filming was planning, first I wrote a proposal to outline exactly what my montage would be. Then I filled in a shot list, a storyboard, a call sheet, a shooting order and a risk assessment. The shot list and storyboards were useful because it meant I could plan out exactly what I was going to shoot. The call sheet, shooting order and risk assessment were useful because it meant that I was fully prepared for shooting and didn’t have to worry about what I was doing on the day. 

Creating your montage

I found Adobe Premiere Pro easy to use, I’ve used it before in other units so I’m used to using it so don’t find it difficult to use. If there’s ever anything I get stuck on I can search online for answers or ask a peer to help me. My final product isn’t very good, the shots are very shaky, the lighting is too dark in some shots and the editing doesn’t flow very well. I could improve it by using a tripod so that the shots weren’t shaking as much, filming in lighter areas for some of the shots so that you can see more clearly what’s happening in the shot and by practicing editing to improve my skills. I think that my montage gets across its theme quite clearly and the idea of the film was quite good, but I think that the execution of the shots and the editing doesn’t quite work. What makes a good montage is all the shots flowing together and being interesting to watch, my montage doesn’t flow in the way that it should because the editing isn’t good enough. I could improve my editing by watching videos on editing and seeing what I can try and recreate and in general just practising more. When I was shooting I changed some of the shots because of what felt right on the day and what was working when we were shooting. One issue I faced when editing was controlling the effects that I added like the fade to black, I overcame this issue by asking my peers for help. I think I met my original intention of making a montage, I’m just not sure how successful it was. 

Feedback

 The feedback I got from my peers was positive they said: “it was shot really well”,“I liked the dark colour scheme and how the fire acted as a contrast in a way, whilst still being destructive.”, “well thought out and clear message”,“Great story-telling through visuals”, “Love it, great shots” and “The shots were really good and so was the editing and the music brought it all together in a really good way”.