Evaluation about my group's media product 'Outcast'

1. Looking back at your
preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full
product?
Katrina Orlans

2. The shots we have used
 In our prelim, we were required to use certain shots that would help us pass the
prelim. However, compare our shots that we used in the prelim and our media
product. We have developed the skills. How? By being focused on how the
camera should be positions and had types of discussions that would help benefit
our media product. The discussion also involved the comparisons that we did
between our prelim and our media product.
 What I mean by comparison is that we would look at our prelim and we would
see where we went wrong and would try to improve it. For example, for our
prelim we got two different position footage of the same scene that would be
edited when we finished filming. We used different type of shots. Such as, close
ups, mid shots, two people shot, tacking shot and long shots. We experimented
in different types of shots that would make our prelim look like there was a lot of
time taken into it (which a lot of effort was put into the prelim).

3. Editing
process
 If you compare the editing techniques we used in our media product to our prelim editing
techniques, it has improved significantly in my opinion.
 In my eyes, it changed significantly because with the prelim, the editing seemed messy.
And by messy I mean that there was a lot of jump cuts, the audio from the background did
not match and when the actor and actress was talking you could hardly hear them
because the background noise was overlapping their dialogue.
 In our media product, we made sure there was not enough sound complications that could
possibly disrupt our filming. For example, we made sure the central square was not too
crowded so that we won’t have to keep re filming since people would decide to get into our
footage.
 We also learned how to edit footage to make it look like match on action or a shot reverse
shot. It helped us a lot for our media product. After testing out how to use editing skills to
create a match on action, we decided to try and fit it into our media product once it was all
planned out.

4. Plot
 From our prelim, my group and I learned that we should not over think the
narrative of the media product. My group and I were struggling quite a bit
because we had to keep changing the plot/narrative of the prelim since we
kept thinking it was either too complicated or too simple.
 For our final media product, we did have to change a couple of things,
however, that was only because one of our team members did not take
enough responsibility. We learned that we should make the plot/narrative not
too complicated but can not have it too simple.
 So instead of overthinking about the narrative, we made simple.
 It helped us with our plot for our media product because we decided to have a
serious talk about what will be in the film, how it will go into the film and also
how it can all be played out. By played out, I mean that we need to know that
the plot would make sense, not only to us but also to the audience.

5. What else have I learned?
 Another thing that I learned from my prelim would be how we arranged the whole filming.
 What I mean by that is the timings that we had to meet up in case we couldn’t do it certain
times. For example, say if two people were available after school however, the third
person is not able to make it because of reasons. Then it somehow it affects the whole
filming process. So my group and I learned that we need to plan in advance rather than
waiting last minute to ask each other if we are available on that day.
 Another thing would be the editing of the sound. When we were editing, I was confused on
how to make the sound level with each other. What I mean by that is when we did the shot
reverse shot in the prelim, there was construction happening on the day we filmed. Once
we edited the scenes that had close ups of both actor/actress, there was a problem with
the sounds. One shot had construction noises in the background whereas the other shot
of the person had no construction noise which made it very difficult for us.
 For our media product, before we would move onto the next scene, we would all look at
the footage we got and see if the sounds are able to match with each other which we
learned to do after our prelim which helped a lot.