1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production
Games Design
Final Major Project
Production Log
Name Stuart Doherty
Date
04/03/2013
Comments
20/02/2013 Draft Production log created, demographics research begun. Data difficult to find due to the overwhelming nature of the internet, information provided in the initial specification
proved invaluable to my initial research.
27/02/2013 Psychographics research begun, still problems with the demographics research, able to expand upon information given to us and apply it to my market.
04/03/2013 Demographics and psychographics research concluded, ready for conversion to digital files. Survey created online.
08/03/2013 Survey results collected and analysed, Ideas generation begun, production log uploaded to moodle. Online survey proving to be an innefective method of gathering data,
resorted to hand-out questionnaires to gather my data
13/03/2013 Pitch concluded, ideas generation 2/3rds complete
14/03/2013 Storyboard created, numerous tweaks and versions created
09/04/2013 Schedule updated + uploaded, planning for live action sequence begun, need to think of methods of filming, planning, and how the flash animation will run
15/04/2013 Filming of live action sequence re-scheduled after attempted 1
st
take did not merge correctly due to a problem with an improvised blue screen
17/04/2013 Flash animations completed, ready for combining with live action sequence. Animations created faster than expected, allowed me to allocate some time to a secondary unit
23/04/2013 Film shoot carried out, required set-up of specialised equipment i.e. greenscreen, lighting and cameras, difficulty in set-up paid off in production as the green was of a solid
colour and could be keyed out easily in Adobe After effects. 15 takes were recorded, 11 of which were the first scene, 4 for the second. Re-takes were needed to experiment
with different angles and zoom, and pick the best ones. Actors occasionally giggled/ did not follow guidelines, forcing more takes. Footage recorded and, with some difficulty
2. involving faulty card readers, ported onto the computer and uploaded to my cloud storage for easy access. Learned the basics of Adobe After Effects and how to navigate the
program, footage and animation are now ready for editing together.
25/04/2013 Editing started, slightly unfamiliar with after effects, game myself some time to become adjusted to it’s functions i.e. experiments with lighting, colour keying, FPS. Program
interface eased with use, production well underway.
30/04/2013 Production log lacking in information, devoted an hour and a half to amending mistakes and creating a clearer overview of my progress. A few setbacks regarding the size profiles
of my footage resulting in flash animation becoming pixelated. This was fixed by converting the document from 1080P HD to DVPAL in alignment with the flash animation.
01/05/2013 Upon review of the footage, I decided that I wanted the shooter to be behind the duck to give the shooting a better perspective, to achieve this, I re-opened the flash animation
and changed the background colour to a bold yellow, this allowed me to knock out the background in after effects and provide the perspective that I desired.
02/05/2013 Started editing of the first section of my sequence (now possible with greater experience in After Effects) Had to re- review footage to find the best take. Encountered some
problems with providing a still of the flash animation as a backdrop for the animation, resorted to creating an SWF with an incredibly low frame rate to function as a makeshift
background. Imported additional evidence into my production log.
07/05/2013 Rendered out the two sequences as SWFs, this saves time (swfs can easily be ported in, and do not take up as much memory as other formats), slight bridge animation needed,
will achieve by taking frame of sequence showing the duck on the gangsters arm, which will zoom in leaving only the duck for the next part of the sequence.
3. 14/05/2013
Due to constantly switching computers and using various methods of data storage, the live action sequence became lost. To rectify this, I imported another take of the sequence
by proxy. After considering my options involving the script, I decided to include sentences depicting the script moving across the screen. I chose this over using a voice profile
because of the unavailability of the correct voice profile.
21/05/2013 After concluding the effects and transitions in my animation, I ported the project over to Adobe Premiere, this allows me to add sweeping text into the sequence. I inserted my
script, a revised version of the brief that I was given into the project using said sweeping text. After discovering an issue regarding two different versions of the duck shoulder
patch, I decided to fade one on top of the other to save time, however this footage requires resizing as it is stretched when imported.
22/05/2013 After adding the text, I faded out the end of the first clip over the second using an opacity tool to blend the misaligned shoulder patches together. I then added the music that I
selected from the internet and rendered out my project. After review, I decided that this render was acceptable as the final draft.