Proposal and Pitch Phase
Description
So far in this project I have completed a breakdown of the brief, made and analysed a questionnaire, completed some initial research, written a project action plan and written a proposal.
Feeling
At the beginning of the project I felt excited about the project because I was interested in what we were doing and wanted to see how I could push myself to achieve the best I could. Throughout completing the pitch and the proposal I still felt excited for the production stage of the project, however I also felt slightly bored by all the writing we were doing.
Evaluation
What was good about the experience was having the chance to develop my skills in writing a pitch and writing a proposal, also it gave me the chance to see what it would be like to make something for a client. What was bad about the experience was my lack of knowledge in some areas so not completing things to the highest standard.
Analysis
One thing that didn’t go well was completing my pitch on time, which meant I was delayed moving onto my pitch. I think this was a problem because I didn’t have an idea for my ad so I couldn’t write up my pitch. I could have avoided this issue by starting to think about the idea for my ad earlier on in the process and asking my peers and tutors for help. I think that my pitch went well. I think this went well because I had a clear idea of what I wanted and had to do. I could have improved further on this by recording my pitch in college so that there was someone there to ask questions, so that I could have developed it further.
Conclusion
I could have done the pitch differently by completing it earlier so that I could have done it in front of other people so that I could have got questions from them. What stopped me from doing this was me procrastinating and not completing the work quick enough. Through this I learnt that I procrastinate a lot and need to make sure that I get work done on time. I also learnt that I work well under pressure and always get things done even if it is sometimes not quickly. I learnt that I am currently working at a medium level of knowledge and practice.
Action Plan
To be better prepared to face this experience in the future I need to find a way to focus more and get things done quicker. The areas I can improve in are not procrastinating and keep on learning so I gain more knowledge and can complete things to a higher standard.
Research Phase
Description
I started off the research phase by completing some further textual analysis where I chose two ads for different brands of tea and I analysed them, commenting on camerawork, sound and music, the text used, editing techniques and the theme/style of the ad. After completing the textual analysis I began my research experiments, I researched how to direct, continuity and how to get the best quality audio when two people are having a conversation.
Feeling
Before starting this work I felt quite nervous because I knew that it was going to be quite a lot of work and wanted to complete it to the highest standard I could. During the work I felt stressed because I had left some of the work until quite late meaning that I had to do lots of work in a shorter period of time which was quite stressful. After completing the work I felt relieved. I felt I had completed the work to the best of my ability and I was happy with the final product of this work.
Evaluation
During the work the experiments went well, this is because once I had planned them out I found them easy to complete and was happy with the results I got. I was also able to learn a lot from completing them which was very beneficial for me and my project as a whole. One thing that went badly was finding sources for my audio research, this is because when I started doing the research I didn’t have a clear idea of what the research was about meaning that I didn’t know what to search for to find the right sources. The work ended when I had completed all the work and had asked for feedback and acted on it.
Analysis
I think that finding sources for my audio research went badly because I didn’t think in enough detail about the research I was doing before I started it. When thinking about that piece of research at the start I knew that I wanted to find out how to record the best audio when recording two people speaking at one which I had never tried to record before. I did some initial research into how I could do this and then with the help of my tutors I came up with the experiment I wanted to complete and then after that my research topic became clearer and I knew what I should be looking for to find sources. I think that this could have been avoided if I had taken the time to fully think through my research topics before starting them. I think that the experiments went well because I knew what I was doing and what I was trying to find out by completing them, which improved my work a lot. I could have improved further on my experiments by doing more experiments with more research topics.
Conclusion
When completing this research I should have completed more of it earlier on so that I could reduce some of the stress of completing it all. The thing that stopped me from doing this was my lack of time management, I didn’t plan out my time well enough which meant I didn’t get enough done in the time I had free which meant I was rushing the work towards the end. During this research I leant that I work quite well under pressure and that even if I do leave things until late I always complete the work to the best of my ability. I also learnt that my current level of knowledge is quite good, when doing the experiments I knew what I was doing and could complete them to quite a high standard. My weakness was writing up some of the research because I couldn’t always get my thoughts into words.
Action Plan
In order to be better prepared for this work in the future I need to plan out and think through in more detail what it is I want to achieve by doing the research. By doing this I can know clearly what I’m aiming for which means I can complete the work faster and more efficiently. The areas I could improve on are time management and the writing up of research.
Pre Production Phase
Description
I began the pre-production phase by completing my script for my ad. After that I completed an AV Script, a storyboard, a shot list, a shooting order, a call sheet, a location recce, a risk assessment, a schedule and an equipment list. After fishing all these I was able to begin production.
Feeling
Before starting this phase I felt excited because I knew that I was getting closer to the production phase and that I was able to get down my ideas for my ad in detail. During completing this phase I felt quite confident because I was able to get my ideas down well and by planning things out I began to feel prepared for the production of my ad. After completing this phase I felt happy because I was ready to start production and felt confident about what I had completed.
Evaluation
One good thing about this experience was that I was able to develop my skills in pre production and planning as a whole, this is useful because I will be able to use this knowledge in the future. On the other hand a bad thing about this experience was that I didn’t complete it with enough time to go over what I had done before starting the production, this meant that I wasn’t able to change things like my AV Script if I didn’t like something I had put on there. This phase ended when I completed all the pre production documents and was prepared to move on to the production stage.
Analysis
I think that what went badly was the quality of my work because of the time scale I completed it in. I didn’t leave myself enough time to complete the work meaning that I wasn’t able to look through my work in detail after completing it, this meant that the work I completed wasn’t to as high a standard as it could have been. I could have avoided this by leaving myself some time at the end of the phase to go over and check my work, and by asking my tutors to go through my work as well. One of the things that went well was the consistency of the standard of my work, meaning that I complete the work to quite a high standard despite not going through it again. I achieve this by spending time making sure what I’m doing is good whilst completing the work. However I could improve further by going over my work again.
Conclusion
Something that I should have done differently is written and drawn my storyboard in more detail, and thought about where camera movements would have been effective. The thing that stopped me from doing this was time limits and a lack of skill in drawing. Because of this I wasn’t able to develop my storyboard as much as I could have, meaning that it wasn’t as good as it could have been. During this experience I learnt that I can plan effectively and to a good quality. I also learnt that my current level of knowledge and practice is quite high meaning I can complete my work to a high level.
Action Plan
In order to be better prepared to face this experience in the future I need to develop my skills in time management and also to plan my time better so that I have time to complete my work to the highest standard possible. Although this experience was mostly positive and I feel like I completed the work to as high a standard as I could have, I could improve in areas such as time management and also storyboard making.
Production an Post Production Phase
Description
Firstly on the day of filming I had the actors read through the script and explained the plot in detail to them so that they knew what to expect and what to do. After that I set up the camera and the tripod and set up all my props making sure that the shot looked how I wanted, then I positioned the lav mics on my actors and connected them to the marantz kit and adjust the volume to make sure I was recording the audio in the best quality. Then I filmed all the scenes that I needed to, doing multiple takes where necessary to make sure I was getting what I needed. After finishing the production stage I imported all of my footage and audio off the camera and marantz kit. Then I was able to move onto post production, first I created a project on Premiere Pro and imported all of my footage and audio onto it, then I found a song that I wanted to use and imported that as well. Then I edited it all to create my first version and then went onto Adobe Audition to edit the sound, I exported it and showed it to my tutor to get feedback and then went back and adjusted anything that my tutor felt I could improve on. Finally I exported it again and posted it on youtube.
Feeling
During the production stage I felt happy and excited because I enjoyed the process a lot and this was the stage I was looking forward to so to finally be able to complete it was enjoyable. During the post production phase I felt happy because I could see my ad coming together and I thought that it looked good. It also felt good because this is what I had been working towards for this whole project and to have created it felt good.
Evaluation
One thing that went well during this process was the editing of my ad, by using all of the knowledge I gained in other projects I was able to edit effectively and without needing to ask for too much help. One thing that went badly during this process was the audio recording during production. For example, one of my actors’ voices was the correct volume and could be heard clearly whereas the other couldn’t be heard very well and was too quiet. The experience as a whole was complete once I had finished my edit and exported it.
Analysis
I think that the audio recording went wrong because I was using wireless lapel mics which I haven’t used before, and because I couldn’t adjust the volume of each mic separately because I was using the same marantz kit for both mics. By using one marantz kit it meant that any adjustments I made to the volume were applied to both mics, this was a problem because one of my actors was quite loud whilst the other was quite quiet, meaning that I couldn’t get the volume right for both of them.This meant that my audio for one of my actors was too quiet and was hard to hear. I could have avoided this by doing research into recording with two marantz kits at the same time and if I had practiced using wireless mics beforehand. I also could have improved my editing by pushing myself to try more complex editing techniques which would have improved the quality of my ad.
Conclusion
In conclusion I could have improved on the quality of my audio recordings and what stopped me from doing this was a lack of experience in using the equipment and not enough planning or research into the equipment I was using. During this experience I learnt that I can complete the production and post production of a product successfully and to a reasonably high standard. I also learnt that I need more practice in some areas of production to improve my skills further. My current level of knowledge is quite high but with practice and experience it could be better.
Action Plan
In order to be better prepared to face this experience in the future I need to gain more experience in production and develop my skills in editing. The areas I can improve on are the audio recording and the editing techniques.
Laura Altman 