Client Project: Evaluation

1. Client Project: Evaluation
Ewan Wild

2. Pre-Production

3. Research
My research definitely had its up and downs. Towards the
beginning, I had no idea what to do for this project, but I later
decided I wanted it to be about York, since the point of the project
was to advertise York in any way we wanted. The only problem
here that I ran into was the age range we were given (16-25)
didn’t have a lot to do in York, so I limited myself with what I could
show. In the end, I chose to put a lot of focus on pubs as (most) of
that age range enjoy going at on the evenings. To research some
more into this, I created a survey to get some primary
information. This turned out to be be very useful to me because of
one particular question. I asked people what places they thought
had a good aesthetic. Since I got 45 answers back, I had plenty of
choice for where I could film. I also analysed some products that
are similar to mine on Youtube. This gave me a good idea of what
travel videos try to show, as well as how I could be different from
the others. So from these videos I not only used as inspiration, but
also used it to find things to avoid.

4. Research
I think I could’ve researched locations better, and that’s
something I could improve upon next time. For each
different location I only had a couple of bullet points each
for pros and cons and I feel like I could’ve written much
more. On the other hand, using these slides I still managed
to narrow down my locations so it did help a little bit, it just
could’ve helped even more if I used more detail.
Discussing which techniques I could use also proved to be
useful. It allowed me to think beforehand what I wanted my
final piece to look like. This could have also gone in my idea
development PowerPoint, however I did some research on
different techniques so I thought that it also belonged here.
I didn’t end up doing everything from this slide, however I
did use a lot of it, so it ended up being useful to me.
This PowerPoint definitely wasn’t my most useful one,
however it definitely ended up having it’s uses, and was key
to helping me develop my idea for this project.

5. Idea Development and Planning
This PowerPoint went much better than my research did. I
managed to really get a good idea of what I wanted to do
for my production due to the variety of different idea
development tools I used. The mindmap, for example, let
me pin down a specific idea as to what would work best.
Another technique was lists. Although it seems simple, just
making a list of the pros and cons, in this case with the
instruments, really helped me decide which ones I should
and shouldn’t use. A con of this however presentation
however, has to be that I still didn’t have a complete idea
with what I was going to do going into production. I
created a shotlist but it wasn’t nearly enough to get over a
minute, but I did have a solid production schedule which
kept me on the right path in production, so even though I
had these setbacks, I still came out at the other end with a
decent, finished production.

6. Idea Development and Planning -
Experiments
My experiments went quite well in the end. Both of
what I attempted eventually went on to be used in my
production. Experiment one was a success due to
what I learnt. I was trying to add blur to make it seem
faster, however I found out that this wasn’t really
possible in the time frame I had. This therefore saved
me a lot of time in production as it meant I didn’t
have to waste a lot of time that I didn’t have on it.
Experiment two also had a similar outcome, it
mentions perhaps having to fix the colour to make the
transition seem smoother which is exactly what I did
in my production. Although this experiment didn’t
turn out great, I used what I thought I needed to
improve on, and improved it, which is really what
these experiments were about. Because of this, I think
the experiments were a success.

7. Production

8. Production - Pros
There’s a lot of things in my production that I liked, mostly
to do with the editing. A lot of little things that make it
unique really make it seem better. For example, at the
start the little record symbol turns into my logo. It isn’t a
big thing but it gives my project something extra. As well
as this, I utilised what I learnt from my experiments and
made a variety of different cuts, such as quickly moving
the camera down, and then back up into a different shot.
As one of the tables was brown and the other was grey, I
also changed the colour gradient to make them both more
of a brown colour, without changing any of the colour on
any other part of the shot. A variety of transitions is
definitely a pro and you can tell that I have come a long
way with these, another example of this is how I cut
sections of the screen on beat from one shot to the other.

9. Production - Cons
There were some big cons of this production as well. The first
being the whole idea. Although I had an idea for shots and
editing techniques to make it different, the base idea is still
unoriginal and has been done so many times before. The
reason I went for this was at the beginning of the project, I was
really struggling for ideas, so I played it safe. Even though I
learnt a lot of new editing techniques through this project, I
don’t want to play it safe when it comes to my FMP, as I know I
can make something much better. Another con was how I
stabilized my footage. I don’t have the steadiest hand on the
camera (which is something I’m trying to improve upon), so I
used the stabilizing tool to help make my project look better.
This tool isn’t perfect though, and so it created an even
wobblier image for a second on the flower shot. I tried
changing it so there was no stabilization but that made the
whole shot look bad, so it was the lesser of two evils in the
end.

10. Aesthetic Qualities
Throughout my production, I wanted to make my finished video look as good as
possible. To do this I made sure when I was filming to move around the focus a lot.
Making everything in the background look blurry can make my project look much
more cinematic, as shown below. Next time I would want a wider variety of this, such
as having the background only in focus, and that’s something I can do to improve for
my FMP.
To help the look, I also did some things in post. One thing I particularly liked was the
gradual black and white look on some houses. Not only does the mix of black and
white actually work with the dull browns of the brick, it shows a contrast between
what York is now and it’s historic roots. There were some parts I wasn’t too pleased
with though. I didn’t have the steadiest hand when shooting, so some shots have
come out more wobbly than I would’ve liked, however some of it was fixed by the
stabilization tool fixed some of it, it couldn’t fix it all.

11. Aural Qualities
The aural quality of my project, specifically my music,
went fairly well. The finished product had a clear beat to
it which was very useful as it makes editing on the beat
easier, as well as making it more clear on the finished
piece. I wasn’t 100% pleased with it however, I think it’s
quite repetitive, but I couldn’t have too much variety due
to the straightforward style of the video. The main reason
I made my own music was to avoid copyright and when I
tried to search for some royalty free music, I couldn’t find
any that I liked, so I made my own which I am much more
happy with than I would’ve been with any of the royalty
free stuff.

12. Production – FMP comparison
As my FMP was an animation, there isn’t very much I can
compare between the two, they’re just so different, however
I can compare the editing. My FMP was a lot more simple in
this respect, the transitions between scenes were either
done before editing started, simple cuts, or more complex
ones that didn’t turn out as good as I wanted them too. For
example, on the left we see two of the more complex cuts in
each project. For the current one we see how I used cropping
tools and masks to create a different and new transition,
something I’ve never done before, whereas for my FMP I just
used fade cut and zoomed, which didn’t look great. However,
it is unfair to judge both purely on editing as my FMP is so
much more than that, and the main focus is the story and
how I drew everything, so I can’t say one is better than the
other completely, but when it comes to editing, the
differences show I’ve come a long way in that regard.

13. Post-Production

14. Time Management
My time management started off rocky, but eventually I got on track. The beginning is
slow due to the fact that I started off with very few ideas, so I had trouble doing my
research. I got it finished in time, however I could’ve completed more slides if I had
more ideas, and therefore not using my time as well as I could’ve. As I moved onto my
idea development however, my time management got better. I think my proposal
helped a lot due to being able to make a step by step guide as to what I’m doing over
time. As I began getting more ideas I started working faster and you can really tell
from the detail of some of slides, and the wider array of ideas. By the time I got onto
production work, I was managing my time really well. I finished my production with
time to spare, so I was able to start my evaluation earlier, just like I planned to do in
my proposal. From this project, I have definitely learnt how important it is to have an
idea from the start as how I’ve managed my time is a reflection of how much of an
idea I have had.

15. Audience Appeal
“My audience doesn’t interest either gender. As it is basically an advert for York showing off all the best looking places,
it could appeal to anyone. My target audience is trying to interest 16-24 year olds, however the majority would be 18
or over as I have a lot of focus on pubs and bars. I don’t have a target for any particular sexuality either, however as it’s
wanting people to come to York, the majority of people who would see it are heterosexuals, as they make up 95% of
the population. York is also a kind of expensive place. This is important as it affects the social grades for my audience
classification. Because of the price of the city, my audience would be a majority of C1/B classes, both middle class and
lower middle class if they’re not students.
Of the seven main types of Psychographics, Belonger is the type of person I would attract, as they are most likely living
in a small city, one like York so it wouldn’t be a big move. As they are brand loyal and prefer UK made products, York
could be for them. York has many independent businesses that would attract this psychographic.”
Reading back what my target audience was, I think I hit my intended audience. More
than that, I think my video would appeal to an even wider age range than that. The
mix of bars and scenery would, in my opinion, be for more people than just those
within the 16-24 age. I think it could also work for middle aged people, most probably
males as they have more of a stereotype with drinking than females. As well as this, I
think my project is tailored towards my targeted classes. I also think my targeted
psychographic was a success as I didn’t advertise York as a large city, I made it look
quaint and nice rather than large.

16. Production Diary
My production diary was really just following what I did during
production, however it still has it’s uses for after I have
finished this project. Writing down what I did during the
project allows me to go back to it in case I have forgotten how
to do something while editing. As there’s a lot of editing for
this project, there’s a good chance of some crossover between
the techniques I’ve used now and techniques I will use in the
future. Although I feel like for some weeks there wasn’t too
much to write about. This means that some of my slides will
be rendered useless for future use as they don’t have very
much information on them. As well as this, the PowerPoint
doesn’t look very good, and makes it seem like I wasn’t doing
much work, even though I was just doing a lot of the same
thing so there wasn’t very much to talk about.

17. Conclusion
To conclude, although I had a rocky start to this project, I think it ended quite well. My
first PowerPoint wasn’t as good as it could be due to my lack of ideas, but I think by
the end my actual finished piece has made up for the lack of ideas. It isn’t the best
thing I’ve ever done and there were moments where I struggled, however my finished
product really does show that I’ve come a long way in my editing. I have learnt a lot of
new things in doing this project and this feels like just a step towards making a really
good FMP, so this project ended up being really useful.