Final Major Project: Evaluation

Technical Quality

Overall I am really pleased with the final outcome of my video, the composition of the shots I got and the way I edited I feel goes really well together. I think it definitely helped when I was shooting my clips that I was considering how I was going to edit them. I shot in 25 Frames per Second and 1080p so the clips came out really well! For some of the shots I used a 50mm Prime Lens which looked great, mainly for the audio clips where Jacques is speaking. And I also used external microphones for these clips so that the sound was as good as if could possibly be. I didn’t want there being too much interference with the back ground noise and by using the hand held microphones it enabled Jacques voice to be heard clearly and crisp but the majority of background noise to be quite dull and distant. By doing this I recorded the main shot on my camera so there was audio coming from the camera. And I also had one of my friends holding a hand held good quality recorder near Jacques so that when he spoke it would pick it up clearly. After this when I had finished all the recordings I had to find the correct audio for the correct clips and sync them together. I used a clapper board in order to get the audio synchronised perfectly. As the external audio was a lot better than the camera audio I got rid of the camera audio and just used the external.

As I am quite a frequent video maker I would say that I have never done anything like this before, I did go out of my comfort zone a bit. This is a good thing because it allowed me to try things out that I had never attempted to do previously. Like the whole style of the video and especially the way it was edited. I usually use I movie to edit on so using Premier Pro for such a long video was different and opened a lot more windows due to there being a lot more you can do with it. I have used Premier Pro in the past but not regularly. There were specific parts in the edit which I was really proud of; like the part where Jacques mentions about photography and I got some of the still images he had taken on his camera and placed them with all different positions and sizes and got a camera shutter sound effect so it was as though the pictures were being taken. I also did quite a lot of overlays with different shots, where I would have a basic shot then change the opacity so that you could slightly see another clip at the same time it just made it a little more pleasing to the eye. And also to keep it professional I used a bleep sound effect over a part of the video where Jacques swears, I just tried to consider through the whole of the video that it is a documentary and it needed to be kept as professional as possible. Also another thing which I planned to do was film in a number of locations to not keep the video boring. I definitely did this, there is so many different locations throughout the video it shows a good variation between riding locations and chilling locations. It paid of spending such a number of weeks filming to able me to get to each location. There are also minor cuts from 4 different songs in the video which is not what I would usually do. I usually would use full songs but to keep the video flowing I just used cuts from each song and edited them so they worked. Another thing I did during the editing stages which I was proud of was a transition between a song and live coverage of the same song. When Jacques is talking about music and his favourite bands he mentions that he seen one of his favourites live. So I merged some live footage I got at Manchester Academy with the actual song its self so they ran into each other, obviously the sound from the live clip is a bit distorted due to how loud it was but you can still hear it. There is a real mix of sound throughout the video as I edited it a lot where the original audio from Jacques audio clips overlaps onto other clips whether they be him riding or clips illustrating what he is talking about.

Again it keeps the video more interesting and anchors the audience due to the clips not being all the same.

Production Skills

Like I mentioned above about me being quite a frequent video editor I already had good production skills due to learning and improving myself. However using more complex editing software’s definitely helps improving when considering there is so much more you can do. One main technique I had acquired as I have never tried to do it before is the split screen kind of thing. There are numerous scenes in the video which feature 2, 3 and even 4 shots in the Mise En Scene. I thought it would keep it more interesting and would show a more varied number of skills and clips. In previous college projects I had briefly played about with the opacity of clips but not to the extent like I did in this video. I alternated it to go with the music by having one clip play raw then add another clip as like an overlay. Just thought I would see how it turned out and I liked it

so I kept it in.

Another production skill would be the use of variation with the locations. It shows that u tired my hardest to vary it out in the terms of where I shot my clips. I just thought that you wouldn’t tend to see a documentary type video about someone that was all filmed at one location. It would just be too boring in my opinion. So during the 2 week Easter Holidays I travelled to a number of locations around Manchester with my friends to gather the majority of footage. I had to also have to keep to my production schedules. By using the Production Diaries and Schedules helped keep me on track and made me fully aware whether I was taking too long with a certain part of the project. This allowed me to take an educated guess on how long I thought it was going to take me to do a certain part of the project. I have never used proper time keeping strategies before now because I’ve kind of just gone with it but after using the ones for this project I would say it is useful and constructive. Also on the lead up to the making of the video I did a lot of pre production and research. I actually created a survey which I had never done during the process of creating a video project before. It allowed me to find out whether people would be interested in a video of the style I wanted to create. I got a few responses to it helped when I was evaluating my findings. Also I didn’t just use the internet for research. I got a few magazines about extreme sports and read a few different articles which were about people interested in the sport. They were like interview styles so they helped me get a slight feel for the structure of my main script for the video. Also I would say that creating a video which is as long as this was is an accomplishment. It was a lot of work as the video is just a little over 10 minutes; that is a lot of editing, but I enjoyed every minute of doing it. The length of the video also made me more eager to keep it interesting so the video would keep the audience hooked and not bored which then lead onto me trying new things with it.

Original Proposal Intentions

Originally I had a very clear picture of how I wanted my video to be. When I first thought about it I was going to do it as more a ‘Day in the life’ kind of video but It wasn’t really too different to what I usually do. So in order to one up what I have already done I thought a documentary video would be better. I have never done a documentary before this one so I was excited but nervous as I really didn’t know how it was going to come out. I had planned my video very detailed as I knew how I wanted it to be. I pretty much had visions for it, scene by scene. I knew what styled shots I wanted for different sections of the video but didn’t know how they would’ve been ordered. So doing my story boards definitely helped during my pitch. The first part of my pitch was explaining the media format. Everything I mentioned in this section was exactly how I have done it. It is a Documentary/film project which I filmed on my own Canon 600d. I also briefed on the use of external microphones which I then went on to use. And then I mentioned that it was going to mainly feature Jacques Laycock. That I was going to be asking him questions about scootering and other things he does in his life; all of these points I stuck to when actually creating my video. The next part was the Synopsis of Idea. I wanted the video to be informative but entertaining. And like I have mentioned previously I wanted to vary out the content in the video. In my pitch I mentioned that I didn’t want it to be all the same sort of stuff and that I did want it to be varied. Then I discussed how I wanted all the information to be passed through a series of interview questions and that I wanted the audio from the interview to go over other shots so it helped people understand what was being discussed a bit more. The use of different locations was also brought up. One thing that I had spoken about in the pitch which I sort of changed was the fact I originally was going to have it as though there is no narrative just day to day life. However it does have a narrative to it as Jacques explains his story. It isn’t just a video randomly filmed of him during a day, it was filmed over a number of weeks and everything about the video was relevant to his life story. The next part was the Target Audience which obviously did not change at all. It was always going to have the same sort of audience due to it being quite significantly based around scootering as a sport. However the adults that have seen the video have enjoyed watching it and like it. So I suppose it could be relevant to quite a wide audience. In my pitch I mentioned about my video not really falling into the demographical scale due to the main audience being like teenagers which mostly won’t work. But if it did have a demographic it would be E and D as most will be late teens with retail & bar work or Apprenticeships. I did discuss about the video being male dominant due to the sport genuinely being a stereotypical male sport. However there was going to obviously be female consideration as it isn’t just a boys sport. Then it was how I would meet the needs of the target audience. I just basically explained that as it is a scootering based video then it would obviously be relevant to anyone interested in the sport or any extreme sport. Also with the target audiences ages being quite similar to Jacques and myself I wanted the main viewers to feel as though they could relate to the video. That also would be a good factor for people that aren’t interested in scootering to watch and enjoy the video as he lives quite a typical teenage life which most people could definitely relate to and hopefully feel inspired by. I definitely feel that I met the needs of the target audience with the video as it isn’t just completely revolved around the sport it has other things within the video which are interesting and gripping. I stuck to the variation of content so that it would be relevant to a wide audience. Then the final part of the proposal was the Production Techniques. This obviously closely matched to how my video came out. The way I planned my video is exactly how it came out. The storyboards, time keeping, risk assessments and location scouting all was very clear when you watch

my video. If you looked at the pre production and research before watching the video you would see obvious similarities between it and the final outcome of my video.

Time Management and Problem Solving

For time management strategies I used an excel type schedule sheet which allowed me to plan how long it I thought it would take me to do all the different parts to my project. This was massive help as I really tried to stick to it and I got worried if it took me longer to do a certain part of my project that what I had on the sheet.

The example above is the first one I did, as you can see everything is quite spaced out and for most things I only had a week to do them. However this changed quite a lot as something’s took longer than expected. At first when we were told that we had to use the schedules I was anxious and it stressed me out quite a bit how you had to really think in advance about everything. Don’t get me wrong I like to know where I’m at but I just like to get on with it and go with the flow. I was aware of how long I had to complete the whole project so was just going to go with it and get it completed. But using this actually helped quite a lot. I have stuck to it till the very end. We updated them at the beginning of every week so we properly knew what we were meant to be doing during that week and if you felt that what you had planned to do that week wasn’t going to be done in time then you could extend and work around it to try and fix the problem.

I would say that all together if I was doing the project again I would try and stick to the time management table a little more. I ran over with little things that shouldn’t have took as long to do as they did. Like task 1 which was researching all different business brief types. It took me so long to complete it. It was quite a hard piece of work I suppose but it took me longer than any other process during the whole of the project. I stayed on track with the harder more time consuming parts like filming and editing which I was happy with. They were originally my main concerns but they ran quite smoothly. Throughout the whole of the project a lot did change, I re-arranged it a bit but

managed to get everything completed on the end. This is the final one I posted to my blog. As you can see in the one above a lot has changed. Surprisingly the most drastic changes were within the research

stages and more surprisingly hardly anything changed during the production and post production. As I mentioned above them sections ran quite smoothly.

Reaching the Target Audience

So on Facebook me and a few of my fellow class mates created a little group with our close friends in so we could post our videos and get their feedback. As my video is targeted at teenagers, students

and people interested in the sport it was ideal to post it and gather feedback from the correct target audiences. I added a couple of my skatepark friends to the group so I had varied responses.

This is the post I put into the group. Up to now I have had 3 responces. I have also had 2 brief commments on YouTube and a couple other brief comments on a public Facebook post.

First response in the private group:

This response was from one of my friends which don’t do media so she doesn’t really understand all of the media terminology and techniques. She made quite a few positive comments about the video. She said she likes the beginning clips, how they go with the music. And that she likes the action shots towards the end which is the main burst or riding footage throughout the whole of the video. She mentioned she liked the part here I bleeped out Jacques swearing. She said exactly what I wanted people to think, she said she thinks it’s very professional. I wanted this to come across as though I had wanted to try and keep it as professional as possible. And I also considered that there would be younger ones that will watch the video and so not promoting swearing is definitely more suited to the target audience. She also liked the scooter close-ups I shot when Jacques is talking about his scooter; she said it helped her understand it a bit more as she doesn’t know anything about scooters. The only slightly negative point she made was that she thought the video was quite long. But then she explained that if it was shorter you wouldn’t get the same feel and wouldn’t understand Jacques life properly. So I would say that my video is relevant and interesting to people that first of all doesn’t know Jacques and that aren’t interested in the sport. I really wanted people that aren’t interested in the sport to watch it and hopefully enjoy it as it really does broaden the audience.

Second response in private group:

This comment was made by one of my friends from the skatepark and from someone who doesn’t do media. He didn’t really go specific with his response but basically claims he likes it. He said he likes the parts where everyone is enjoying themselves, I think this is because he is in the friendship group and it’s nice to reminisce about good times. He says he doesn’t have any bad comments as he thought the video was professional, again I’m glad another person has said they think it is professional. He doesn’t think I need to improve on anything as he enjoyed it and says I did a good job. This comment shows how people interested in the sport feel about the video and it was positive so shows a more varied out audience.

Third response in private group:

This is the third comment in the group; this one was posted by one of my media class mates. The first thing she mentions is how the music goes well with the clips and talks about a couple of clips she likes within the video. One thing she mentions which I am glad she picked up on is the fact I played clips over the audio of Jacques to help the audience understand fully what he is talking about. That was the whole point of me doing that so it wasn’t all the same and too boring. She also states that the fact not all of the audio clips are together is a good thing. She thinks that the use of the fade transitions break it up well rather than the clips just abruptly cutting off. Then she briefly mentions the fading between the music to the live shot I got at Don Broco, again im glad she picked up on this as I planned this shot so far in advance and really wanted it to work. I feel it does work and obviously so does she. One of my most favourite technical parts of the video where the photos come on screen with the sound effects was a good point she said. She thought it was clever. And like the others she has said that all together it looks professional and well edited and she can’t see any room

for improvement. I am so pleased with this comment as she is a fellow class mate and uinderstnads the process into making a video. She liked it as well even though she isn’t interested in the sport which is a strong point. It shows that my video must have excelled because when I was researching whether people would be interested in a video like this not many people said that they would definitely watch a documentary video which may not be to their interests. Well I think that the varied responses show that people of different interests enjoyed watching my video and thought the content was good in different ways.

The comments bellow is off the actual video on YouTube. I don’t know the person at the bottom but he has commented stating it is ‘professional’ and commented on the trick compilation towards the end of the video. He doesn’t look like someone who is interested in extreme sports and for someone to say that is good because it contributes to the evidence of people not interested in the sport enjoying watching the action clips and the video as a whole.

Summary Conclusion

Overall I am very pleased with the final outcome of my video. I feel I captured it just how I wanted to and quite professionally. I definitely preferred working on this project alone as I could do exactly what I wanted to do and do it all myself. Sometimes when working in a group you can have so many ideas that you want pass through to the project but other people involved with the project have their own ideas they may feel are better and want to add their own ideas; which obviously is the point in working as a group but when you have such strong visions and ambitions it is better to do it alone. When you work alone it is all your work and no one can hold you back from doing it how you want. There is a few bits I feel could be improved. One part is the organisation of the clips I gathered. I collected so much footage over a long period of time, some even dating back to February 2015. I renamed all of the clips so that it would be easier when editing them when they’re in the project on Premier. However there was a lot of clips I forgotten about because they were named differently. I feel that if I had of sectioned all of the clips into folders before adding them into my project it would’ve helped so much more. I don’t regret using any of the clips I used but there were a few clips which I didn’t use that I originally wanted to. For example if I’d of named all the clips to its specific area I wouldn’t have forgotten about any. Like the riding clips, they were named relevant to the trick or Skatepark they were at. If I’d have named them like trick clip 1: then the trick name it would’ve been easier as they would all have been together. And even in premier pro you can actually create folders for clips, if I’d have done that it could’ve made a huge difference as to what clips I used. Most people would think that the organisation of clips isn’t a big deal but it can literally mean so much. You may completely forget about some amazing clips you captured and use most as good alternatives. Also during this process I lost a few clips as I couldn’t find them, I think this is due

to what I named them. Being organised is so essential when creating any form of video project. Especially with my video being very long there were an awful lot of clips.

Another improvement would be the Audio clips. There were around 14 clips I got of Jacques answering the interview questions. These clips completely structured the video and without them the video wouldn’t have been or meant anything. I mentioned above about the equipment I used during these clips to ensure I got the best possible outcome for them. However at the beginning of some of the clips you can hear the clapper board being put back onto the floor. Jacques doesn’t look settled as he is just preparing himself and getting ready to answer the questions. If id of paused a bit just after all the equipment was set and he was perfectly ready it would’ve looked more natural. As you can hear they clapper board being put to the floor it adds a tiny bit of unnecessary noise at the beginning of some of the clips. But I couldn’t try and cut this bit out as the talking had already started in the clip. It was just simply getting the timing right in the clips. But as there was a lot we had to film during this shoot it just flowed and was quite repetitive from clip to clip. Also as the more time we took whilst filming these clips the location started to get slightly busier so it made me quite pre-occupied as I was trying my hardest to make sure that the background noise and events weren’t going to completely ruin the shots. I don’t feel it did ruin them as there isn’t a lot of interference within the clips they just maybe could’ve been improved.

Also with the audio clips of Jacques there was another slight issue. As I used the external audio equipment in parts my voice is quite quiet due to the sound recorder being pointed towards Jacques. I was obviously based behind and a little to the side of the camera so Jacques could look at me when answering the questions. I didn’t want him to feel awkward and accidently looking directly into the camera. So when I asked the questions my voice sounds quite distant as I was a fair distance away from the recorder. This could maybe have been improved by enhancing the audio in the quieter parts.

So maybe if I had a redo at creating the project I would improve on the above points. But other than that I feel that the project went really well and I am so very happy with the outcome of it.