New Unit: Evaluation of project

My Role; My role in this project primarily focused on post production but I helped out with the writing, directing and overall branding of the package. So within these roles  that included me learning how to create graphics, understand the importance of colours, fonts, branding. Also included assisting with sound at times. I found this project  very interesting because it allowed me to learn  A LOT of new skills and tackle a variety of challenges.  

What went well? 

• The majority of what went well would be mine and Saskia's ability to push through the edit. It was a very grueling job at times but it was rewarding towards the end because we got to see how an idea can really comer to life with the right preparation. 
• Another thing that went well was the group's ability to find great characters for the package. It just so happened that the idea we went for allowed us to use students that were readily available and not too far away. This created an easy shooting experience because we were able to make contact quickly and also get to them quickly.
• How we were all able to agree on the paper work. This includes the script mostly as we did not take too long to find the right words to say and to create a script that would take our story somewhere. We managed to eliminate any sort of waffling that was unnecessary and get straight to the point.
• Being able to create a package that brings awareness to serious issues without "scare mongering". In my opinion this was a challenge but the use of our simple illustrations helped this along. It is so easy to scare people with gruesome images but in my opinion it shows more skill when you can illustrate the same points in a similarly effective way.
• Great shots on camera and great lighting for both studio presenting and pictures. I was really proud of my group for creating such good lighting, which in turn created good footage and images that looked really professional.

What didn't go well?

• The sound was a major issue for our Live segment and its something that I feel could've been avoidable if we were on the ball just that little bit more. All the clip mic needed was the gain turned down a little bit to stop the reverb from Amy. And to avoid the quiet second half of the live footage, all we needed was the extra long XLR chord to allow Imogen to move around freely and also equally pick up both contributors.
• One of the most major set backs I have ever experienced was losing the fine cut that we had created. Saskia and I sad down from 4pm til 3am the next day trying to do all the editing and making all the necessary changes. Towards the end of the edit the programme crashed and we lost the entire thing. I will never allow that to happen again as I will no longer be counting on the auto save feature. always manually save work! We learned the hard way.
• The communication between the group was not as great as it could've been at times.
• Towards the end I noticed that the final edit had lost a drastic amount of quality. This is because when editing we edited from my iMac and Saskia's hard drive and so the clips were separated. We already had some quality loss since a few parts had to be exported and transferred onto the imac to edit from. And so, upon showing Helen the fine cut, we were notified of some changes that we had to make. But since it was on the deadline day we didnt have time to go home and edit on my imac (where some of the clips are sourced from) We had to use the MOV file andd create another edit from that. By this time there are some clips that have now been converted to mov files around 3 times over. In the end we ended up with standard quality 460p on youtube which was very disappointing to say the least. 

What have I learnt?

• Preparation. I learnt how important it is to be prepared for your shoots. That means going over the necessary paper work over and over again to allow yourself to be extra familiar with what you need to do. Its no good creating a shot list only tot just revisit it on the day you want to shoot because you wouldn't be as prepared as you could be. 
• Communication is key. whether that be between crew members and contributors. Everyone needs to know what they are doing and what is expected of them otherwise everyone will be very lost and unprepared.
• Always make a list of what kit you need and check it on the day. When we weren't given lighting stands and it was really our fault in a way because we did not pay attention to all the kit we had. We just assumed that it was all there and that really isn't good enough because one day we might be in a situation where we wont be able to create alternative light stands or any other kit for that matter. 
• Continue to do SWEFF. When our sound came out terrible it made me realise how important it is to get it right because something like that can bring down the whole production value and create an unprofessional look.
• I've learnt how much of an improvement my work ethic has become over time. Balancing 2 jobs and creating packages hasn't been easy but I learnt how much I actually want to succeed in this class.
• I have learnt a ton of new things on after effects. My confidence for that programme has seriously grown as I was always very intimidated by it but now I feel like I can go away and create things from scratch and I am very happy about that. I want to continue to improve myself within this field. I realise how much I love editing but towards the end it became less enjoyable because of the rush. Although it was due to unforseen circumstances, I now know that I need to stay on top of my editing and my work in general. However, I can proudly say that my work ethic has severely improved in comparison to how I was in first year.  I am very proud of that. 

All in all I am pleased with the progress that the group has made. Seeing an idea that you had come together is a very rewarding feeling to say the least. My next steps will be to remember how important it is to consider all the issues we had and make sure it never happens again. We can only get better from here and I intend to try my best and do so.