Evaluation activity 8

What targets will you set yourself for G324 next year – when you make a trailer?

Although we have made vast improvements since the start of the year, gaining knowledge in the film industry as well as improving our skills in camerawork and editing techniques, and also creating a very successful opening two minutes, there is still room for improvement. Growing in confidence made us realise how much more we could put into the course to give ourselves an even better insight into the media industry. Admittedly at the start of the course i had no clue as to what half the content was that i know now, everything was new to me and despite being aware of very basic knowledge and technology, i had never thought to research them into further depth or put them into my own practice. While learning throughout the whole filming and editing process i have enjoyed every bit of it and now feel proud and motivated to work even harder next year at A2.
When looking at my downfalls and how to improve them, it was obvious that over complicating situations left me to become overwhelmed with tasks to complete. Even though this may have been stressful, i have no regrets as my stress motivated me to push on and i am proud that i did not take the easy route, especially when editing as i faced the problem of my opening two minutes not rendering. However this was a huge learning curve, realising that over complicating the situation would only make things less enjoyable for myself and when sticking to a plan over a routine, the tasks will be completed.
During A2, we will be given the task to complete a trailer, so even though it will be different to completing an opening two minutes, our main task will be to make sure we plan in advance, giving ourselves less chance of becoming stressed out. Even if we are not sure on some thing, planning them in advance will make sure we won't end up leaving it to the last minute, which is another thing i struggled with over the course. For example, even though we were held back by weather conditions, we left filming to the last minute as we procrastinated with finding a male antagonist actor. This wasted time that we could have spent going over and completing more research and planning tasks which could have easily been avoided. This caused unnecessary stress due to the high approaching deadlines. A target for next year would be to film in the shortest amount of time possible as change in weather or lighting can causes issues for our trailer, as it did for our opening two minutes.
I think it would be interesting to research into different genres next year, as it will give us an even bigger insight into the media industry when taking our skills into the business world. Even though looking into the horror genre for our opening two minutes was very suitable, i think other genres would be more exiting to use for a trailer.

To make progress when moving into next year, focusing on elements such as sound would be beneficial for our group as even though it was easy to incorporate different soundtracks into our work, they weren't edited and used to the best of our ability. I would like to learn how to record the sound in a way in which it would be suitable to use without having to spend a lot of time correcting it as i found when editing, some shots towards the end became slightly muffled and difficult to hear due to a mixture of all of the background noises which could be heard when filming. We found that elements such as mise-en-scene and camera composition were relatively easy to pick up on and was easy to conform into the stereotypes and conventions for a horror film.
Next year, i would like to focus on targets specifically aimed at the four most important technical areas of filming, mise-en-scene, camera composition, editing and sound. By setting this as a main target, i feel it would be most beneficial for helping improve my knowledge and understanding of the the subject, producing better quality work. In camera composition, looking into more technical areas such as match on action and the continuity rules would be most beneficial as in the film they were quite messy and could definitely be improved. I definitely feel that editing is my main battle to win as i haven't yet felt like i have grasped the technology that would push me further. By the end of our editing process we all felt a sense of achievement having grasped the equipment, and were certainly more confident using it however I feel like I need to experiment more in order to get full use out of all it has to offer.
Despite all the targets i have made for myself i am extremely proud and happy with the opening scene we have produced, it shows me how much knowledge i have learned and how far i have come since September, knowing how much more success i have yet to come. The most important thing I have learnt from this process is to have more confidence in myself, knowing that as long as i keep working hard and am dedicated to the subject as well as giving myself time to relax, everything will work out fine.