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.