Evaluation Activity 4 - 9 Keyframes

The titles that I have used at the very beginning of the film were there as part of the typography and visual effects that I have used in my film. Showing a variety of ideas for each of the production logos. Also the Titles in the whole film show each of the actors as their characters appear on scene. I chose the effect where the text has the black border because that way I could make sure that there was enough contrast between the text and the background so the audience could read them easily without having to strain their eyes to read and understand them.

The lighting I had for one of the scenes (Shot 6 - 8) was very useful, although I did not deliberately aim to use the lighting that I did, I was driving around with the actor trying to find to a location to shoot, and by the time it came to me and we had gone back to the house to pick up the rest of the equipment needed and then gone to the location that I had decided to use, the sun had gone down enough and so had given me a nice lighting set to film with.

The settings and locations that I used, although rather limited in themselves, are well used I think, Particularly for the scene of the detective on the roof top killing someone, and the last shot of him looking out over Cambridge. (Shot 9). Also the scene with 'Gregs' character, I think that the location suited the shot well, and I was able to get allot of cool angles with the camera.

I had allot of fun when trying to frame different things, and also trying to move the camera and still keep everything in shot. Especially Shot 4 on the picture above. I had to have a few different attempts at this, first of trying to get over a small area of broken up tarmac was difficult on my skateboard, and I almost fell off once or twice. I think that all in all, I managed to frame each of my characters in their shots, and keep all of my motion shots as steady as possible.

In term of transitions in my opening, I used mostly basic cross fades, to either black or the next shot. Which I think work well where I have put them in, other times I have used a simple cut to black, on these occasions I have used them because the voice over clip ends with something dramatic enough to cut strait to black, and add emphasis to the voice over. I think all of my transitions worked well.

Visual Effects were scarcely used in my film opening, the most effects that I used were in the titles, where they were completely computer generated. Using various textures and lighting effects I managed to achieve something that worked well and fitted in with my film opening.

The narrative in my film opening came in the form of a voice over, and although you can't actually see it in my 9 frames, it is there the whole way through, describing what is going on, and keeping the audience interested. Without the voice over, the whole video would make no sense, and the cuts to black would seem very out of place. I think that the voice over is an essential element of my film opening and so I am proud that it is in there.

Evaluation Activity 3 - Invoice Cloud

On the whole, with this cloud of people that invoiced me, I cannot really tell much about any relationships between the people and my feedback to them, because I only recieved one invoice from each person that did invoice me. And the feedback that I gave was all fairly similar in all instances.
Although in this one I can notice that the one person that I invoiced more than once gave worse quality feedback than the rest, usually a simple "It was useful" or similar. This could be because she was getting tired of writing feedback to me after the second or third time. Other people gave more feedback that I could take in mind and feel good about.

I think in for this project I would like to develop my skills in advanced camera work, and some more interesting after effects work. I think the only way that I could organise this for next time is to just keep practicing between now and then. Spending time on after effects at home and practice other effects.

Three people in the class that I did not help this time around are: Matt L, Philippa and Joe. Perhaps next time I can help them by doing simple things like helping them out with the camera work, and perhaps helping them with a few ideas for their editing, giving advice on their editing, and how they could improve it.

Evaluation Activity 2 - Pictures of me and my work.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?



Here is a picture of me doing some filming. Camera - Headphones - Tripod - HD tape. Using them for all of my filming, setting up different static shots with the tripod, and some tracking shots with either one of the cars' in my scene or my skateboard. Learning lots about how shots are set up, and recorded in a suitable way. I also had to learn how the tripod worked, and how I would use it to move the camera so I could get motion shots and track the car.



Here is me doing some editing in Final Cut. Using it to most of my editing and cut all of my shots up so I could arrange them all and make them fit with their surrounding shots. Also using it to add all of the titles one by one. What I learnt from using this software was about all the different transitions that I can use in my video, fading into black, and fading into the next shot.



And some editing in After Effects. Here I was using it to add all of the special effects to begin with, but after several test shots I decided that they weren't neccesary and took them out, in the end all I used from this software was the title that I made for the film. I learnt that everything that I do in after effects has its price on the system that I am using, the more I add to it the slower it runs and the longer it takes to render and preview it all.


And here is the blog where I post all of my work as I do it, Uploading everything that is relevant and every piece of planning that I do for my project. I used this to keep a record of everything I did, and everything that I planned to do. I learnt that this is a good way of keeping track of everything I do and everything I want to do. By keeping a schedule on my blog I managed to get everything in order and keep everything on track, enough so that I could get my work completed on time.

Overall I think that all the software and hardware that I used all ties in together, without only one of the many pieces that I used, I would not have been able to complete this project. Because each piece of equipment, hardware or software, played a part in the creation of my final piece. Using each of them was a great opportunity to use a range of techniques, and ideas. I could have used some substitute technologies to achieve my goal, but the ones that I did use would be my first choice again.

Learning a large manner of thing about the equipment that I have used in this project, I feel that next time I will be able to achieve what I want allot quicker than I did this time around, because I had to spend time learning about what to do, now that I know allot more techniques about the equipment, next time I will be able to make sure that I get everything done allot quicker and be able to get it done to a much higher standard so I have more time to focus on the special effects and editing. Refining my video much more.

By planning on the blog, shooting with the cameras, Editing in final cut and after effects, and then finally posting the finnished project on my blog, it all goes round in a nice circle, ending up at the same place it began.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Directors Commentary

Although this is not something that is exactly a directors commentary in which I talk about the film and how it was made, it is a commentary about the production companies involved and my ideas about how it might be used by other production companies.