500 word individual evaluation

I started this project by generating some visual idea's in my sketchbook for a possible how to video. I wanted to go with something interesting, maybe even a bit bizare, I had some idea's along the lines of how to catch an alien,  how to annoy a cat, how to be a samurai etc. I decided to go with how to loose weight, thinking of those silly weight loss adverts on the shopping channels as my inspiration. However as i went along the darkness crept in as usual and i ended up making the whole thing a little dark, and during the animatics it got a little abstract toward the end so i aimed to try and keep it simple for the live-version.

I started by creating storyboards, scanning them into photoshop and then piecing them together as an animatic using Final cut pro.

This gave me more confidence in using final cut and proved to be crucial to my overall work during this brief.

The first half of the brief was to create the animatic which realisticley can be done in a day, I think i did get the first one done in that time but then instead of moving onto the live-video i wanted to do the animatic again not happy with it's visual style after seeing some of my colleagues work.

For me i'm glad i did this, because i'm much happier with the second animatic, although the key element in it was the sound which is the same in both, the visuals are more pleasing and have a more professional look as a pose to the scruffy and random images used in the first animatic.

For the second half of the brief, making the live-video i feel i could have done alot better but am still happy with the outcome due to the sound and editing involved. This was alot harder than it needed to be due to the amount of footage i had recorded, for example, I had hoped to film each scene individually from different angles, and then they would be edited together to form the full film. however my partner in this case was not the most patient of people and being the actress in the video also i found difficult to direct them, finding that they would go straight into the next scene without pausing, therfore some scenes did roll on when i would have preferred them to be individual.

I had forgotten most of the settings on the camera by the time it came to filming, but to be fair i was only talked through this once before and did not get the opportunity to take notes.

This resulted in some very poor quality shots in some cases- especially with lighting as i did not know which setting to put the camera on and because i had limited time with actors i just had to film whilst they were available.

for example the scene where the postman is delivering a package, that was a random person i saw outside and asked them to do the part, i didn't have time to get the lighting right or anything as they literally had to stop what they were doing and play a part in my film for 2 minutes, i could not ask them to do it again and again so i had to use the first and only shot, i also missed them knocking on the door as i should have hit record some seconds before the knock! 

I enjoyed the editing process, i found it very redeeming as i felt the footage could have been better i tried to make up for this by putting as much time and effort as i could into editing the clips to go with the sound, and trying to make them flow a bit better.

One scene worth mention was the eating scene at the start, when filming i had a fit of the giggles, and could not stop laughing, we tried this scene 5 times then the actress lost patience and refused to do it again, as a result of my laughing of course the camera was shaking and kept getting put down as i just couldn't film at one point for laughing. during editing i had to pick out all the bits that seemed "sturdy" and put them together, i like the overall effect this has given, as it starts with her eating on the beat of the music and each eating clip comes in and out with the sound.

I am happy with it as a piece of experimental student work definitely, as i feel i did the best i could with what i had and my time-limitations plus the fact i started the course late and didn't have a partner, as a professional piece of work- no, it would need to be alot better, but i feel i could easily achieve higher standards if i were to do this type of work again which no doubt we will be!

If and when i do this kind of work again i will plan a work-flow and make sure i get the shots/footage i want as this is vital for later editing!