2. Evaluation for researching existing productsFor this particular project, i came into my research very overwhelmed due to the subject that i
was doing my project on being rather broad. This partnered up with the fact that my previous
projects had sub-par research that left me stranded when it came to practical, left me feeling
rather daunted by this task. Despite this, i believe that my previous knowledge and interest in
video essays gave me a headstart when it came to understanding both the premise and basic
structure of one. For example, i already knew that video essays typically had an open ended
question to base their essay on allowing them to display their opinions in great depth. Due to
my previous knowledge, i was able to quickly differentiate which video essays will be
beneficial to me and my research as they fit a similar style and structure to the essay i was
planning to make.when looking at the video essay’s themselves, taking context into
consideration was crucial for me to understand why anyone would make a video essay, but
more importantly what effect it has on the viewer, both intended and unintended. This added
layer of research was missing from my previous work as i never questioned WHY certain
aspects were put in place, i merely thought of the effect on the viewer, not why the creator
wanted to create that effect on the viewer. This deeper level of understanding gave me great
confidence and knowledge when it came to planning and creating my essay as i could create
a more in-depth plan that i knew the purpose of each different aspect. If i was to do my
research again, i would research more into detail of each video to give a greater
understanding of different styles of video essays, and not just video essays as a whole. This
could have affected my practical but my research still applied to the style of essay i was
creating.
3. Evaluation for the planning of my practical
The planning for previous projects was rather basic due to subliminally covering the planning
inside the research. This has been a recurring issue and it has effects on my work as i am left
stranded during my practical work. Despite this knowledge of it being an issue, with this project i
didnt alter my approach as much as i had hoped. I still had very basic planning, but this may have
been due to the style of practical i chose, and not much planning was even needed. Overall the
planning that i did i believe was sufficient, but thats all. I did the bare minimum planning for each
aspects of my video essay and that left me with limited knowledge for said aspects such as video
clips.i planned for my script, the music i was going to use and what scenes i wanted to include.
These were all detailed and helped me to understand what i was doing with each section of my
practical, but in some areas i still struggled due to some areas not even being touched by
planning. Overall the planning on my practical was decent when i focussed on individual areas but
not understanding which areas needed planning let me down when trying to do my practical.
When doing this project again, id definitely took a broader look at my chosen field and see which
aspects need planning so i dont mismanage my time and plan an area that doesnt need it.
4. Overall evaluation of the practical side of my work
My previous practically work on past projects varied greatly and showed just how much
my chosen area to work in affects my work ethic. I knew that when coming across areas
i wasn't interested in within the practical, i would lose effort and inspiration which would
decrease my standards. But because i had only done video games before, i figured Film
and editing would be different due to that being where my interests lie. Throughout
practical my focus and interest was far greater than on video games which led me to
have a much better practical product. Despite this enthusiasm, editting and film were an
area i wasnt as experienced in so hadnt grasped some of the techniques and basic
understanding that i didnt realise i needed. For example, i decided to get the clips for my
video and edit them in sequence before recording my audio which made the process far
longer and more tedious than it needed to be. My audio was also very subpar as my lack
of experience with an audio recorder led to my audio feeling lifeless and having my
stutters throughout my dialogue. My planning would have helped me cover the
knowledge needed to make sure these mistakes dont happen again. Overall the
practical side was very good and gave me alot of undersanding in how editting works
and the audio work gave me a basic understanding of how to incorporate my own audio
into a video.
5. Time management evaluation
Time management was a very difficult aspect of each past project due to my habit of
procrastinating, especially in important sections of my project. With this in mind, the swap from video
games to film made a lot of sense since film was where i had the most interest and knowledge in. i
decided to allocate much of my time the practical piece and use my project as practical experience
for my FMP as i was planning on doing it on film, and i had minimal experience on the subject.
Because of this, my planning and research in this project lacked when it came to quantity as it
focussed on broader aspects of the practical so for individual sections of my practical i was left
feeling stranded and unsure of what to do next. When it came to my practical side, as it was the
main focus for this project, i didnt have this struggle and actually handled myself quite well under the
time limit. Different sides of my practical such as the editting or the audio recording were handled in
decent time and i didnt spend too much on any particular section, the order of doing these though
was what i struggled with. Overall my time management on this project was a great improvement
from other projects and showed that my interest is a big factor when trying to get the most out of my
skills.
6. Evaluation of technical quality
The technical aspect of my video essay was something difficult for me to evaluate as since it
was my first time choosing this area for my practical. For my first time doing a video essay, i
believe it to be rather technical and has many techniques within it that i wouldn't have done
before. This is because i had certain sequences i wanted to implement within my practical, but
didnt know how to so i researched and found out how to do so. An example of this is masking
an object over text which despite not look aesthetically polished, it was an interesting addition to
my title screen and helped me add it to my list of skills to add to my FMP. my editting was also
sufficient and worked well with my audio, featuring different techniques to help the video go with
the audio better. This made my video seem sleeker and cross together better and not have as
big a contrast. I also had some useful animations on screen that help to clarify what topic i am
talking about in each segment. Overalll i believe that my essay was technically advanced for my
skill group and definitely taught me many things that could help with my fmp, and have
enhanced skills i already knew.
7. Evaluation of overall project
This project was one that i had wanted to do for a long time, but was daunted by the fact i didn't
know much about editing or audio recording so stuck with video games. This turned out to not be
the case to some extent and i had a real drive to learn new techniques and to create some of my
ideas i had before. Throughout the project there were issues that had come up in past projects but
due to having more interest in the style i was working on, i had more enthusiasm to overcome
these issues and try to fix them. My finished practical piece was also far better than i anticipated
as i put plenty of time into it and tried hard to push myself to include techniques i haven't used
before. Different aspects of video were taken notice of that i hadn't before, such as colour and
sound. Within the practical piece i explored these aspects and tried to experiment with them and
to see what effect they had on the finished piece.this excitement i had to work was due to my
enthusiasm to find out new knowledge about my chosen topic, but also because i could see my
practical work going well. Overall my project was a success to do right before my fmp, as it was
treat like a much needed trial run for fmp. As i was finding out how interested i was in this field and
if my knowledge of films could help me, which it did.
