Critical Evaluation

This is a critical evaluation of final creative media project...

Location
I decided i wanted to create my film at home as it was easier for me to do this than travel to liverpool each time i wanted to film. I finally decided on doing my filming at The Severn Valley Railway in Bridgnorth which is a historical railway open to the public. When filming I had to think about the risks of filming in public including our safety and not knowing when people could just walk infront of my shots and me wanting to film without being in peoples way.

Research
From the final outcome of my film i decided that i had not researched enough and i do think this had an effect on my final film. If i was to do it again i would 100% research more into films that are already out their on Triptych, as i watched only a few of these before making our mini brief project. I feel i also should of watched animal point of view videos to get a feel of how to make them as watching some in hindsight i could of used the camera in different ways and got a better final effect and outcome.

Storyboarding
With my storyboard i only wrote down a rough idea of the timeline i wanted to shoot, i  think i should of thought more about involving Triptych shots at this stage as my filming could of been more successful and it would of made my editing more successful too. However from planning and storyboarding my idea, i do feel like i got almost every shot i had planned and it helped me plan my day and ordered what i wanted to shoot.

Schedule
As this was an individual project i was keen to get it started as i didn't have the pressure of having to wait for other group members. It also meant i could fit it round my own individual commitments and i could do it when it suited me. When filming because it was in a public place this meant i had to throughly plan what shots i wanted and had to gain permission for some of my shots so i had to be organised when doing this. As i had to tell the person i gained permission off exactly what i wanted to film when and what time. I only could film the main part of my movie on one day as the train was expensive, i had gained permission for that day and the trains were only running regularly through the half term. I could do any external bits on a another  day which i did do. I am also really pleased that i planned, storyboarded and filmed early on in the two weeks we were given as i had a fair few technical problems i had to overcome when  it came to post production.

Sound
Over the top of my film i wanted to add sounds effects, and keep some of the sound from my videos as it was useable. But as i struggled with some of the editing i only had time to quickly put a overlay track onto of my film. Unfortunately when i came to export my film i found that it hadn't transferred any sound from my editing package and i could not work out what had gone wrong but i knew i had to get my film ready to upload on youtube. This is one of the main things that disappointed me about  my film, because it really let it down. If it had sound i feel it would of been more of a complete piece.


Editing
I decide to edit my movie at home with a free trial of after effects as it was easier for me than to commute to Liverpool. I did have my fair share of technical problems when it came to editing including uploading my film clips on the camera to loosing all my editing work at one point. i do think i over came most my problems successfully either by working them out myself through googling and watching youtube clips or dropping an email to my lectures for help.

Further Development
If i was to develop this project further i could imagine Alfred having his own series of 'Adventure' around the countries historic places and would make a good youtube tourist channel. I do feel my film was missing a point of view camera effect and this could of enhanced the journey he went on and i do feel i could of had more Triptych parts to my film but i wanted to do the few i did well and not loose the over all narrative of my film. I feel also my film missed sound and this had a massive effect on the final outcome which was unfortunate.
I do feel i was extremely organised and i stuck to my schedule and got on well with filming and editing and overcome any problems i had in a systematical way and I'm generally pleased with the outcome of this project.
Overall i am glad i tried working with an animal with my film as in my final documentary projected i proposed the idea of using animals and this has given me a chance to try it and for me to realise its definitely harder than it looks!

Presentation

Today is the day of my presentation, this is my finished prezi:

My Film & Conclusion

Conclusion
In conclusion I would definitely try to use a tripod to record better scenes also the need for an extra charged battery so there is always a backup.  I would have also allowed for extra time to re-cord and record extra scenes.I had gain permission to film Alfred from behind the bar in the Railwayman Arms (but permission was based on the pub not being busy) unfortunately I did not have time to go back and film this scene.
Allowing more time in my schedule for editing would also be essential due to the difficulties with appropriate technology such as the hard drive and the necessary software to edit the film. In my attempt in downloading software for the editing process I managed to lose 64 files and the actual film.

I feel that not having a tripod has had a large impact on my film as the footage is unsteady. However I feel that if I was to do it again id know exactly what parts of the film have been let down by the wobbly camera and what parts it adds. I felt my film was let down by the lack of end footage to the end of his journey as the camera ran out of battery.

I feel that my movie is also lacking in sound effects as the soundtrack underneath is not very interesting. I think if I did not have as many technical problems then I would have been able to concentrate more on the audio aspect.

Finally I believe the narrative of using a dog to be the star character would give the story an interesting visual effect however working with animals in its self-caused few problems in filming the overall effect.

Editing

I was looking forward to the editing process of my film as during the last few weeks of the workshops I had really felt I had got the handle of editing and especially using after effects. Which I am pleased about because I know I have struggled with after effects with previous work. The only thing I was worried about was the editing of sound, as I was not sure what clips the sound was good enough to use or what I could put on as my backing.

Technical Issues 

During editing I came across a few technical issues, the first one was getting the footage off the camera and onto my laptop. When I went into university I managed to successfully get the footage onto my computer then to only find out I did not have enough storage space on my hardrive. I then had to use a university portable hardrive to store my editing and footage.  I then planned to complete the editing at home and plugging the portable hard drive into my laptop. Unfortunately when I got home I found that it did not have the correct connections for the university hardrive to plug into my macbook pro laptop.  

After some research and downloading a file converting software I did managed to eventually download the footage off the camera onto my laptop to start my editing all over again.

 I then had to download after effects and this took considerable time.After I had finished editing I had to research how I exported my movie as I was able to do it but then I could not find it on my laptop or had not saved properly. After viewing multiple videos on YouTube I worked it out. I also found uploading onto youtube was problem due to poor internet speeds where i live so i wish i had left more time for that. However when i did upload in university it uploaded straight away so that was one less worry.

Filming

I chose to do my filming a week and a half before the presentation date as this gave me time to re shoot anything that had gone wrong. I knew that the entire train journey shooting had to be done on the day due to only being able to travel on that day due to costs, time and the SVR scheduled timetable. I also had to make sure I had permission filming in certain places at the railway

Technical Problems

During filming I did encounter a few technical problems, the first being my camera work was not steady enough. If I was to do it again I would definitely use a tripod. However I do think using a tripod doing this film would have had its own problems due to having to look after the dog while filming and holding camera and tripod would of probably proved difficult. Another technical problem I had was the my battery suddenly drain on the outbound journey so the last few clips on the train I had to film on my iPhone, as a result loosing quality and the amount of footage I wanted to get of Alfie on the train. It also meant I could not really portray his return journey; this is why his journey is only to Arley.

Story Boarding and Planning Alfies Adventure

Today i planned out what shots and what i wanted to convey in my film heres my notes from this:

Change of Plan

I originally proposed to do a tour of where I live and use film and QR codes to explain about each destination. After talking it through with lecturers it didn’t really turn out as an approachable idea. I then went away and thought about how I could adapt it.
My next idea was to do a historical tour through my granddads eyes and how he remembers Bridgnorth as he grew up there.
Finally this started me to think about the town’s tourist attractions and in particular the Severn Valley Railway, which is a unique steam train railway that is situated in Bridgnorth.I then had the idea of creating a narrative that portrayed my dog Alfred going for a day out by himself. Bridgnorth is based in rural Shropshire, its main industry is agriculture and tourism.  For bridgnorth to grow economically it needs to concentrate on making the most of Its heritage, visional surroundings and tourism.  I believe this idea of filming Alfred taking a trip by himself on the SVR could be used as a promotional film for the SVR.  The film would give a different and fun visitor experience.

Proposal

Creative media practice project proposal

For my creative media practice project im hoping to do short video created with after affects with images and videos of the town I live in with QR codes with extra information while you carry on watching the information on screen.

young tourist information guide of bridgnorth(Where I Live)

-boutique clothes shops
-cute cafes
-useful places
-unknown places

 

These are just a few examples of where i want to explore in my video tour guide.



Gin and Teacups Boutique and Tea Room

 

My video would be aimed at a youngish audience who have moved to bridgnorth or dont really know the area and would not know where all the local gems are.

Youtube Annimation

Our final brief was to create a youtube interactive video. our idea was to do a lift that when you pressed the buttons to go to a floor it took you to different places instead of university (what you were expecting) As a group we thought through what we needed to film before putting our animation together
What we needed to film:
- Coming into university
- Going through university gates
- Getting to the lift
- Looking at the lift
- Pressing the Buttons in lift
- Doors in lift opening

We decided to source the videos that we were going to put in on the floors from the internet, by doing this we could go anywhere in the world with our lift. As a team we all picked a couple of videos to source and download to make our process and editing successful and quick.
The videos we wanted to source:
- New York
- Cows
- Boat
- Rain Forrest
- Mountain
- Volcano
- Desert
- Sky
- Taj Mahal
...Etc.

Our original idea was to have the lift take you somewhere different each time you pressed a floor, even though you had already been on that floor it took you somewhere different again. this is why we had such a long list of images and videos we wanted to source.
However when it came to editing and putting our film and sourced videos together we felt we were over complicating things for a mini brief so left it to 5 floors.

During editing we first found it difficult to work out how we could open the doors of the lift to reveal the video behind, we kept having it the wrong way round. We finally worked it out and i felt it had a really good effect on our final film.

When it came to adding the animations on youtube we found it fairly simple as we had created one long video so it meant we didn't have to keep finding the links to other youtube videos. The animating process consisted of drawing boxes to create the link to the time in the video it will cut to, depending if it was a sourced video or the options menu.



When it came to presenting i think people liked our idea as it was quite original but creative and interesting. People especially liked the floor with the field of cows and the boat deck.

Isadora

For this session on Isadora i knew i would not be able to attend due to being at my best friends wedding.  I decided to research what it is so i could catch up in my next session. i found that Isadora was initially created to realize the performances of Troika Ranch, a media intensive dance company co-directed by Isadora's creator, composer and media-artist Mark Coniglio. Isadora allows userts to manipulate images in different ways to create 'Media Intensive Theoretical experiences' often in synchronisation to music shown in concerts and night clubs.

Filmmakers are also coming to embrace the narrative possibilities of Isadora. Francis Ford Coppola used the software for his film project, TWIXT

"Because cinema is now electronic and digital, it is no longer a long strip of celluloid that has to go the way it was determined... Because a film is made up of digital files it means the director, if he   were there and wanted to take the time to go to each show, he could essentially change the experience to suit the audience."

When i returned to uni the following week i shadowed a group while they carried on with their isodora project. i was told that we were given the theme of halloween so they were basing they project on the film Psycho. At first i didn't quite understand how the concept of Isadora worked but as the group did more i did get the hang of how to do somethings and realised it was about interacting with it. 

QR Codes

Our next task involved using QR Codes and how they can be used to tell a story. As a group we were set a brief to 'Concieve a plan and build a narrative using a minimum of 5 QR Codes that can be placed within a location and may link to a website, youtube clip, google maps location, twitter page, Facebook page, etc.

Within our group we decided to do a tour of Rodney Street and show the ghosts and part of their stories when you scanned the codes when you got to different points in the street. We thought our tour could be used on a ghost walk, by putting the QR codes up on where the tour guides would stop and talk about the ghosts. people would scan with their smart phones to reveal images and videos.  To show where our QR codes we placed them onto google maps, instead of having people running round Rodney Street scanning them, We would of also had to gain permission to place QR code stencils on buildings if it was used.

We created a voice note that told people what our QR Codes were about a selection of images of the ghost and also scary video of Rodney Street that we had sourced from Youtube to create an idea of how QR codes could be incorporated into a ghost walk.

When creating our google maps tour we came across a few problems as we found that we were struggling to attach images as google maps had updated and changed since we had last used it. to over come this we decided to place the location marks on the maps and add the QR codes we had created later on.



When presenting our map i felt pleased with it as i could actually imagine it being used in a ghost tour even though we had problems attaching images through google maps i felt the idea was there.  I understood that it could be improved by adding our own filmed content and we could of created a print out book of our QR codes so everyone could scan them.

Editing and Presenting our Triptych

This morning we met and began editing our Triptych film. We began by sorting out all our clips deciding which ones we would need and the order we were going to use them in. This helped us loads when it came to importing our files onto After Effects. After we had been shown how to create the multiscreen effect we got on with editing successfully and managed to complete our film.
However the thing we were missing was sound, we had sourced a file of a instrumental version of Daniel Powter -Bad day (very cliche) but due to having to leave enough time to upload onto youtube before our presentation time we had to leave putting the sound onto our film.


When it came to presenting i think our film was received well but it was definitely noted that our video lacked sound and this was apparent compared to other groups. I do like the concept of Triptych though and its something i would defiantly like to use again, hopefully in my final project.

Creative Media Practice

Today was our first lecture of Creative Media Practice,  in this module we are having workshops that are introducing us to a variety of technologies and techniques, concerning interaction with and delivery of media artefacts that will allow us to engage in a number of themes..
Such as:
- Narrative
- Multi-screen/spatial
- Performance
- Locative Technology
- Mobile Technology
- Interactivity
- Play

In teams will will explore through a series of mini briefs, as selection of creative media technologies


Triptych

Our first lecture we was introduced to the notion of Triptych, this is best described as  a 'Window Montage'. Its a form of two or more moving images or still images shown on screen. By doing this it allows audience to focus on different parts of narrative while still having a good idea what the whole concept is about.

In a group we were set a mini brief of creating our own Triptych. After talking through all our ideas we decided to do a short film about someone who wakes up late and ends up having a bad day. I thought that portraying someone having a bad day through Triptych was a good idea as it could show the idea of a lot of things going on at once and the urgency of time.

When we had finishing story boarding our ideas we went off to film, we then planned to meet the next morning to edit our Triptych.

Blog

My Blog is due in today and I'm just going through and looking for any spelling mistakes or anything to improve on. Ive found this year i have struggled to keep up with my blog i think this is due to the fact  i find some work difficult to blog about. Im a very in the moment person so find it difficult to reflect after i have finished something, i prefer to note down in handwriting what ive done and where im at! i feel this has reflected on my blog this year unfortunately. i have however documented as much as i can on Applied Media Research and kept myself up to date blog wise as much as possible with that. ive also tried my hardest to write more detailed posts this year compared to last year.
I think over the summer i need to set myself a task to blog more regularly about anything then by my 3rd year i'll be a pro at it!

Convergence Media Teamwork

In this module Im in a group with Ceri, Sophie and Lois and we have decided to do our transmedia story on Red Riding hood, will update more when we have planned a little more.

AMR

Ive started to write the 3,000 word assignment for this module, 3000 sounds like a lot of words but now ive developed and gathered all my research and findings and throughly planned it im starting to feel like 3000 words isnt enough!
wish me luck1

AMR-Presentation

Today we did our presentation i think we did really well and im really pleased with my teams effort!
heres our presentation.. Enjoy!

AMR-Forum Research

We joined two forums and asked them questions about how they feel about storytelling.
these are the links and the feedback we received...

http://www.writingforums.com/writing-discussion/135842-storytelling.html

http://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=59094


Im really happy with the responses we have received so far and this has really helped us with our research

AMR-Our Findings so far

Today we gathered up all our findings together and created a booklet with what we knew about the digital fiction factory, articles we had researched and our focus group feedback.
combining all our information made us realise how much we had collected and found out over the last few months. we then began putting together our presentation. im really pleased with all our findings and how much work we have actually done, at the time it did not feel like a lot but now we have put it all together it really shows.