Final evaluation

Evaluation
Time management and Problem Solving
On January the 5th
2015 we were commissioned with producing a project of our own in order to
demonstrate our ability to manage a devised production through the stages of pre-production,
production and post-production.
The final major’s project allows us to showcase the skills we’ve acquired over the last two years of
our course as well as providing us with first-hand experience of working towards producing an
industry standard product under the expected conditions that would be required of us. Therefore,
in order to adhere to this degree of standards and level of commitment we were first tasked with
producing a production schedule that we’d update on a weekly basis to keep us on track and in
control. Later on, once I’d decided what form my project would be taking I was able to expand on
this in order for it to suit me. A schedule was personally a great aid for me as it allowed me to
manage my project with effectiveness as well as keeping me motivated throughout the process. It
permitted me to see what I had planned on a week by week basis rather than straying away, as well
as providing me with aspirations, showing me when I’m being unproductive and informing me of
deadlines. By having a document that shows me what I have and need to complete, ideally it would
have allowed me to plan ahead and avoid wasting time, however this was not always the case.
The first stage of pre-production required me to attain a comprehensive understanding of different
types of briefs as well as the ability to explain the requirements of working towards one. I gained
indepth knowledge of the self-development opportunities each one would provide for me as an
individual and was able to provide an elusive example for each form of brief. They’re an important
aspect of the media industry and something that we should become accustomed to right from the
beginning, therefore by carrying out this particular task I was able to get a better understanding of
what to expect on a personal level and by the employers on a professional level. Defining and
summarising the types of briefs I found to be a fairly simple task as the skills required were
somewhat similar to that of secondary research, however when it came too discussing the
development opportunities that each one would provide me with I began to struggle, therefore
causing me to lose motivation in completing it. This led to the task overrunning by an entire two
weeks, meaning all other tasks had to be moved forward between 2-4 weeks; overall it was a rocky
start for the project and I had not managed to get into the drift of working to a schedule.
Following on from this I began the process of ideas generation; during the second week of having to
move the task forward, I decided that I would begin working on it alongside the brief task as I
didn’t want to constraint myself in terms of how much time I was leaving myself with. Although it
wasn’t completed for when I had originally set out, it was finished on time in accordance to the
altered schedule- this was largely due to the fact I knew it was a task that I was fairly confident
with based on previous experience of carrying out ideas generation. Overall by choosing to
accomplish this aspect of the project when I did, I personally believe it resolved the problem of
falling even further behind. The aim of the task is to originate and develop an idea for a product
showing creativity and flair, which is something I believe to have showcased in my work through the
range of techniques I’ve used.
Now that I had chosen an idea- in my case a
movie title sequence- it was time to organise
and prepare a pitch. As mentioned earlier
each of the tasks needed to be moved
forward due to the unstable start, this meant I
did not begin working on my proposal form
until three weeks later than expected.
However in order to avoid panic and
confusion, therefore making the situation
worse, I sat down and looked at my schedule
properly before making alterations that would

help me in the long run. One of the major changes being that I managed to gain three weeks from
not having to produce a draft and final script for the type of project I was producing. I’d initially
planned to complete the proposal form and pitch over two separate weeks, however in order to
save myself time it was a better solution to fulfil both task in the same week. A date had been set
for when I would be presenting my proposal, therefore it was impossible for me to overrun on this
task if I was to adhere to professional standards that would be expected in a working environment.
This meant that during the week leading up to it I stuck to a strict schedule that entailed
completing the proposal, planning the presentation and cue cards before carrying out the pitch. By
this point of the project my schedule began looking very packed and slightly delayed, however this
was not the case and I was still on track for completion on the deadline.
Carrying out research that was specific to my final major’s project was a slightly bumpy process.
Both the primary and secondary research was completed and uploaded to my blog within the two
weeks I had planned, however once it had been marked and feedback had been provided by my
tutor I discovered that the secondary research also entailed looking at print based sources which I
hadn’t done. Wanting to get my grade up to a better standard meant I needed to revisit the task,
however I had already began working on the pre-production stage meaning I did not complete the
task until nearer to the end of the project. This left me feeling slightly stressed as it needed to be
posted to my blog before I could begin my evaluation- if I was to carry out the project again, I’d
definitely have come up with a better solution to the problem.
When I first redesigned my schedule I did not realise quite how much work pre-production entailed,
therefore in order to avoid falling majorly behind, my best solution was to begin working on
multiple tasks at once. Although it was hectic and slightly stressful I was able to complete it all by
only falling one week over. Some of the task such as the storyboards and shooting schedules did
take slightly longer, however this was made up for with the location recognisance and risk
assessments that were completed a lot quicker. Overall, it was a fairly simple task that was simply
time consuming.
Having carried out a few test sequences during the pre-production stage, I was now ready to begin
filming properly. When I initially began filming it was scenes that did not involve any actors and I
was therefore able to complete it on time, however when I did get to the stage where I required
them and we scheduled a time they would continuously cancel at the last minute. At first I didn’t
give it much thought and continued to reschedule it, however after falling a week behind I realised
that I needed to put my contingency plan in too effect. This meant that the scenes simply needed
to be tweaked slightly so that they could be shot without the assistance of actors. Looking back on
it I should have put it into effect straight away so that I wasn’t delayed by a week, however it was
eventually completed and everything else from there on was completed in accordance to the
schedule, although not always how I’d exactly planned it.
When I began to sort through the footage once it had been uploaded to the computer, I came to the
realisation that some of it needed to be stabilised in adobe after effects, however after several
attempts at doing so the footage would not render out correctly. After careful consideration it
made more sense to reshoot those few scenes rather than waste more time. In order to do this and
avoid wasting time I came to the decision that I would stick to the schedule strictly and use one of
the three weeks I had planned for my rough edit to reshoot, leaving me with two to complete it.
Although it was a tight squeeze, I was able to put in a few extra hours outside of college which
made all of the difference.
Since I had put so much effort into my rough edit of the title sequence, I was able to complete my
final edit on the expected date, leaving me with two weeks to complete my evaluation. Overall I
would say that my time management skills definitely need to be improved, however I do believe
that I have adapted them over the course of the project and I was able to come up with long term
solutions that helped me in keeping on track and saving time.
Technical Quality of Final Product

Having now seen my title sequence finally come together, I have mixed feelings over the final edit
of it in terms of the technical quality. Based on previous work involving filming, I felt that this style
of project would best suit me.
When I initially began filming I was happy with the quality of the footage and the way in which it
appeared on my camera screen; the footage that wasn’t up to my expectations I was able to
reshoot so that I was satisfied. However once it was uploaded to the computer and I began editing
it was a different case- some of the shots could definitely have been much better. The first thing
that jumps out at me is how pixelated certain scenes appear. Having shot in a resolution of 1080p
24bit I expected all scenes to be of high-definition since they’re compatible with a widescreen
ratio. Although the camera I used- Nikon d3100- is a fairly basic and not specifically designed for
filming, from previous experience I have not had such issues, leading me to believe that I did
something incorrectly. My initial thought is the lighting in which I shot in; I chose to go for a natural
setting in order to provide a wholesome feel, however this appears to have distorted some of the
shots and added a slight hazy effect to the footage, therefore affecting the quality of it. As well as
this it’s apparent within the sequence that I have not used professional lighting, as the colouring is
continuously changing in shade which overall takes away from the high standard I was expecting of
it. Due to the fact that I did take more than one shot for each scene, I did have a variety of footage
to choose from as re-filming was not an option. Once the sequence was uploaded to You Tube, it
was compatible in HD making the quality slightly better. Due to the nature of my sequence all shots
were shot as close ups, although I initially believed this would make the sequence slightly boring,
I’m pleased with the way in which they turned out. Since the filming was done within a fairly small
space without much room for movement in terms of positioning, some of the shots were slightly
harder to capture making the quality of the framing poor.
Although it was the most time consuming aspect of the entire project, I found the editing process
to be a fairly simple task in terms of completing the rough edit. The opening of the sequence in
which we see the production company ident was produced to me prior even having set up the
adobe premiere pro project for my rough edit; this is because I wanted to get it out of the way so
that I wasn’t working on two pieces of work at once.
The inspiration behind the ident came from a You
Tube video I came across online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ3fbHGQVZQ
Initially I was going to gather stock footage from
shutterstock.com in order to fabricate something
similar, however the original creator had provided
all the resources and this was a much quicker option
based on how time I had left. Once downloaded,
with the help of my tutor, I set up an adobe after
effect project and began working through the
tutorial. I didn’t want it to be an exact replica and
therefore sourced a stock font of my own from
dafont.com, titled “whatever it takes”. The tutorial
was fairly easy to follow and simply required you to
place the sources provided in the correct order and
then make any technical changes in terms of opacity and positioning so
that it transitioned correctly. Other than the font the only other drastic
change was the colouring. This was simply done through the colour
correction tool by adjusting the contrast and brightness, as well as the
gradience, hue and saturation levels.
In my storyboard I had discussed using metallic gold, blue and green
colours, however after a lengthy amount of time attempting to achieve
the effect I came to the decision that I was wasting too much time- had
I had the chance to carry out the project again and a longer time

period I wouldn’t have rushed through it as quickly. I did however keep within the theme of blue
and simply overlaid a tint in the footage and reduced the opacity, before using the gradience tool
to adjust the highlights.
Once this had been completed and I was happy
with the result, within the same project I set up
a new composition and began working on my title
credits. I had again chosen a font through
dafont.com- titled “coalhand luke”- as this was
the closest I could get to the handwritten chalk
style effect I had envisioned both in ideas
generation and mentioned within my pitch.
Although to begin with I had a lot of support from
my tutor in order to gain an understanding on
how to create them, after the first few attempts
I had the hang of it and soon discovered it was an
easy task to get through. Each creditwas done
withinanew composition,howeversince the
effectsforthe firstone hadbeensetup,rather
than re-doingthemIcouldsimplycopyandpaste
themoverand replace the textdependenton
whichpersonIwas doingthemfori.e.director,
producer,setdesigner. The initialcompositionwassetupanddesignedtobe six secondslong;once
thishad beendone,byusingthe texttool Iwrote out the first
crewmembersname - in thiscase the actor- before usingthe
anchor tool to centre itand changingthe fontsize.Aswell as
applyingatypographyeffecttothe textsothat it swipesleftto
rightand back again,the onlyothertask wasapplyingthe time-
vary stopwatch in the correct placessothat it transitionedin
and outcorrectly.Thiswas repeateduntil Icompleted all fifteen
of the crew member’stitles;duringpre-productionIcame to the
decisionthattheywouldappearinthe same orderas youwould

see ona cinematicposterandtherefore thisisthe ordertheywere createdin. WhenIinitially
starteddesigningthemitwastrial anderror as to whateffectIwoulduse inorderto achieve the
handwrittenstyle thatIenvisioned,howeveronce Ihad chosenIdecidedtogo witha white
colouringinorderto replicate chalk.
Nowthat I had all the individualpieces thatwouldaidincreatingmytitle sequence Ibegantowork
on editingthe footage together;althoughthe rougheditdoesnotstaycompletelytrue tomy
storyboards,the shotsare verysimilartowhat I had originallyplannedintermsof setting,orderof
appearance andplacement. Unlike myidentandtitle creditswhichwere producedinadobe after
effect,the software inwhichIcreatedthe actual sequence is adobe premiere pro.Asmentioned
previously,Iagainhadhelpfrommy tutor inorderto set upthe composition;the footage wasshot
in1080p 24 bit whichreflectsinthe compositionssettings.
I wantedthe rougheditto act as a foundationinwhichIcouldadaptfromin orderto produce the
final sequence;therefore it
was fairlysimplesequence.
Priorto startingany of this I
had sortedthroughall my
footage andchosenwhich
shotsI believedtobe
suitable formyproject,
therefore Ididnotwaste
too muchtime looking
throughit all.The actual
editsimplyconsistsof my
chosenfootage placedin
the order I wanteditto
appear,as well asbeingcutdownto the rightlengthandthe creditsbeingappliedtothe shots.
Otherthan thisthe onlytechnical effectIhaddone wasapplyingthe pushandfilmdissolve
transition- eachshotalternatingbetweenthe two. AlthoughIhadchosena song inthe earlystages
of pre-productionIdecidedthatIwouldn’tapplythisuntil Ihadcompletedthe finaleditincase I
changedmy mindor itdidn’tsuitthe product. Althoughmytutor hadpreviouslyshownme how to
renderoutfootage,thiswassomethingIstruggledwithandthereforerequiredhisassistance in
doingso.
Before Ibeganworkingonmy final editof mytitle sequence,IensuredthatIhad twocopiesof the
roughedit- myoriginal one andthe one in whichI’dbe adaptingfrom. WhenI initiallybegan
workingonthe final editIwas strugglingforideasasto
whatI could dowithit,howeverIwas notsatisfiedto
leave isat itwas. Thismeantthat itwas trial and error
whenI wasapplyingdifferenteffectsandpayingaround
withthe colourings.Afterafewsessionof doingsoIfinally
decidedona style Iwas satisfiedwith- thisinvolvedeither
overlayingfootage, havingasplitscreenwithmultiple
shots,or the footage coveringthe entire frame.

The song I chose to use for my edit is ‘home’ by Gabrielle Aplin; in order to avoid any copyright
issues I chose to use a copy of the song in which the tempo had been slightly altered so that when I
uploaded my edit to You Tube the sound wouldn’t be removed. The song was sourced from You
Tube before being converted into an MP3 so that it would be compatible with the adobe premiere
pro software; due to this factor the quality of it is not the greatest and a certain points slightly
grainy. Had I had longer and managed my time more effectively, I would have found out how to use
an original song legally in order to avoid copyright.
Newly Acquired and Existing Production Skills I have Further Developed
Coming out of this project I came to the realisation that there are a multitude of both existing skills
and newly acquired skills that I have developed that I will hopefully carry with me throughout the
remainder of my time in education and professional career.
Going into the project I was fairly confident with my existing research skills and believed it to be a
task that I would get through quite quickly, however once I actually began the process this was not
the case. I became so accustomed to using the internet to carry out research that it became an
effortless way of doing so, I never gave a second thought to any other method and therefore fell
short when I received feedback from my tutor and found out that to increase my grade I was also
required to conduct print based research. Initially this was a task I struggled to get my head around
as I was not sure where to begin, however after a lengthy discussion with my tutor he was able to
guide me and provide me with a head start. It had been decided that I would carry out an indepth
analysis of a book that had also been adapted into a movie- in this case ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect
Snogging’ as well as ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. By doing so this allowed me to adapt my literacy
skills, in terms of knowing what to look for within a text and being able to decipher what I’m
reading as well as having a clear understanding of what it is I’m setting out to research. The most
valuable skill I believe to have gained from this entire project is learning how to complete a
referencing guide for my research- something which I had never done before; I know now what to
look for and how to document all sources I use.
The most rewarding aspect of the final major’s project and the skill I hope to expand on during my
time in education was my ability to stand up and present my proposal during a short three minute
pitch. This was personally the most daunting aspect of the entire project and the one area that I
feel I gained the most confidence as well as
gained new skills- the first one being in oral
communication. I was able to cut down my
densely packed proposal form to a length that
was absorbable as well as adjust my language in
order to suit the topic I was discussing.
Although my tone of voice in terms of volume
and my eye contact with whom I was
presenting too wasn’t fantastic, it’s something
that I feel drastically improved in comparison to
a similar task last year. My one concern going
into the pitch was that I would either overrun or
not speak enough, however I learnt that by

being overly prepared beforehand allowed me to have the appropriate notes going in as well as
time to rehearse what I was going to say. Although the new skills I acquired through the planning
process are beneficial to me in terms time management and adaptability, the most prominent
factor is the communication skills.
Having worked on a video based project before I was fairly confident with the pre-production
aspect of the project in terms of creating the storyboards, shooting schedules, risk assessments etc.
However the final major’s project was a chance for me to learn about creating work that was of
industry standard by looking at pre-existing professional documentations and applying the methods
to my own work- particularly my storyboards. The most difficult aspect for me was not updating my
project schedule, but ensuring I stuck to it on a weekly basis, therefore making time management a
skill that I believe has taught me the power of adaptability.
Production is the one area of the entire
project in which I learnt a multitude of
new skills; the first one being in filming
and the camerawork that is involved.
Even though I have carried out a filming
project before, it’s definitely outside of
my comfort zone and not something that
I’m overly competent with. Throughout
the process of the final major’s project
I’ve learnt a multitude of skills in terms
of camera techniques, such as framing,
set up and the handling of the camera in
order to get the best possible results. I
knew the basics of using adobe premiere
pro- my chosen software to edit my
sequence- however it was the first time
that I had experimented around with it.
One of the main techniques I had
acquired was creating the spit screen effect in which you see a couple of different shots appear
along with the credits. I learnt how to make basic changes such as reducing the opacity, using the
colour correction tools, overlaying footage and even resizing and cropping it. The aspect that I
definitely struggled with the most was the rendering out of the footage as well as setting up
compositions; although I’m now fairly competent with the latter one, I still struggle with the first
part and do require assistance throughout the process of doing it.
How Closely Final Product Matches Original Intentions
In comparison to my proposal form and the project format I discussed within it, I stayed fairly true
to my original intentions with only slight changes being made along the way. The most prominent
aspect being that I kept along the lines of reflecting the theme of family and the everyday life that
comes along with it.
I had initially planned for the sequence to only be a minute long, however once I had completed
filming and designed all the credits, in order for it be of professional standard and include all those
that should be it needed to be extended by a minute. I kept in mind what respondents had said
during primary research about the perfect length being two minutes or less and therefore still kept
it within this time frame at 120 seconds.
I had originally intended to produce a fairly simple sequence that consisted of close up shots
transitioning one after the other with a cut edit effect; at the time I thought the simplicity would
suit the style I was trying to achieve, however this wasn’t the case and in order to fix it I needed to
apply more eye catching effects. Therefore within the sequence we see both film dissolves, push
transitions as well as split screen and overplayed footage which were never mentioned within my
proposal form or my storyboards. I also mention that I wanted to go with a wholesome feel in
regards to the lighting and whilst I did keep to this, a lot of the lighting was fixed during the editing
process with the use of colour correction tools in order to reflect it more which was also never

discussed. The footage overall stay very true to the storyboards and my original visioning, however
due to some framing issues in regards to the space I had to set up the camera there are very small
changes; the only drastic difference within the shots is that the scenes to not appear in accordance
to my storyboards. I wanted the credits to be the most visually stimulating aspect of my sequence
as they are the most important element of the entire project, however due to the issue with
lighting within certain scenes they’re not as visible as I’d like and I therefore had to reposition
them and change the colouring slightly rather than keeping the a bright t white colour as
mentioned during my pitch. Overall my final product matches both my original intentions and vision
closely, with only small changes needing to be made due to issues that arisen along the way and
could not be helped.
Reaching the Target Audience
On the 5th
June I set up a closed Facebook group and sent out a survey as well as a copy of my final
sequence in order to gather audience feedback and determine whether I reached my intended
target audience. Overall I had 14 respondents which I believe to be a fairly positive number of
people in order to come to a conclusion. Since my targeted audience is families within the C1-E
band on the social scale these are the people in which I gathered responses from- including a few
media students in order to also receive a more technical analysis from them.
Overall I’m satisfied with audience responses as 71% said that the sequence left them wanting to
watch the movie. Although this question may not have seemed to concern my particular project,
it’s an important aspect as it shows that I followed the conventions of the genre I was trying to
represent- which this particular audience enjoys- therefore implying that I met both their needs
expectations.

The above screenshots are a range of quotes taken from my audience feedback survey; the most
common aspect that they seem to enjoy are the visuals and it’s relatability which is one of the
things I had originally set out to do as mentioned in my proposal form, therefore I’m satisfied that I
have met this criteria. Although I had a lot of concerns about the final quality in regards to the
footage, I’m pleased that it hasn’t been picked up on and that respondents have complimented this
factor as I wanted my sequence to be as of a professional standard as possible.
The most negative responses I received concerned the music in which I had chosen to use for the
title sequence- respondents believed that it could have been more upbeat, however I was trying to
create a nostalgic feeling which may have not come across in the piece I had chosen. Therefore if I
was to carry out the project again I’d consider using a more upbeat song that has a cheerier tone to
it.

Final evaluation

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