1. Final major project evaluation Justin fox-rothwell
For my final major project I did a photoshoot of Manchester’s youth culture a lot of people talk
aboutManchesterand it’siconicvenuesbutIfeltthere wasa lot of credit not given to the youth art
culture side of Manchesterandthisis whatmy projectwasabout,in essence Iwasaimingto capture
the hiddenartpiecesmainlygraffiti andthrougheditingbringthemtolife and try and get people to
take notice of them.
Sadlydue to circumstancesIcouldnot keeptomy original brief andproposal form however I feel in
the end this was a better choice for me in the long run and there a descaling in the amount of
organisationIhadto I am still pleasedwiththe projectI have produced as I believe I still took some
goodqualityshotsandstill managedtopromote somethingthathasa lot of close meaning tomyself
that doesn’t get a lot of recognition, which one the biggest point I set out to make during my
proposal form, so I am pleased with that aspect of keeping to the proposal form.
Pre-production and planning
My first original idea was a sports documentary but due to complications about meeting up times
and alsobad weatherpostponedittoofar intomyschedule soI hadto change projectsand chose to
do the Manchestergraffiti art,I had to organize locationscoutingandalsorisk assessments to make
sure that I wouldn’t be putting myself into any danger and also to make sure that if I required
permission to shoot something or somewhere I had that in advance before I shot. I feel this is
probably my biggest weak point during such lengthy projects as I do start to worry about getting
thingsdone andthenletthingsbuildup,howeverdue tomy productionscheduleI was able to keep
to a deadline to some extent when it came to shooting footage. I really enjoy the pre-production
side of things when it comes down to formulating ideas for possible projects I find it easier to go
with things I have already have a deep rooted passion and knowledge in, I feel that these kinds of
projects allow me to open up and be more creative with what I can present as an end product.
As a resultof thisdiscoveredanewwayof learningandteachingmyself Idiscoveredthatmindmaps
are reallyhelpful tome asa tool as I can collaborate andlink between all the ideas that I had in this
instance my love for sport and photography and graffiti and photography, I find this a much easier
way than doing mood / story boards because I’m not good at drawing I prefer to communicate my
ideasthroughwordssoI foundthisreallyhelpedthroughthe entire project.Ididn’treallyencounter
any problems throughout the creative ideas stage as I normally pick projects that I can relate to
something I have a deep seated interest in.
Time management
Time managementwasandisprobablymybiggestdownfall whenitcomestolengthyprojectsI tend
to lose interestand tryto move ontosomethingand I do realise this is something I need to address
thisiswhy I feel the extensive use of production diaries and schedules has been a massive help at
firstI struggledtokeepwithpartlybecause I’m notconfidentwiththe software butmainlybecauseI
do findithard to keeptoschedule,butthe pre prepared layout was a huge help it just meant that I
had to keep update production wise
All the way through the pre-production I had no problems I was on time and it was only when It
startedto come to the time of getting people ready to be in the documentary did problems star to
2. rear people hada fear of being on camera so I was being put behind because we couldn’t agree on
times on when to do the shoot because of commitment s from both sides, I was trying to put off
cancelling for a long as possible because I really wanted to do the documentary because it was
somethingpersonalbutinthe enditjust gotto close to the deadline so in the end I switched to the
Manchester graffiti art project.
I think the best way I overcome my mismanagement of organising my time and planners was by
havingeveryMondaysetaside dotype up all the stuff I had the previousweekandall the stuff I was
going to be doing in the week ahead this way I had a clear vision of the tasks I had to complete
withoutthismytime managementwould’ve beenall overthe place but it is something I do feel has
improved over the two years and now I have a way of doing it and will be continuing to do so.
Production
Previously for photography shoots I have struggled with production but that’s because working
cameras was something new to me but I have been putting a lot of practise in so when it came to
doingmyshoot inManchesterI knewexactly what kinds of angles I was looking for and I also knew
whatto do whenshootinginmanual andcontrollingthe framespersecondandthe F stopto keepin
control of the amount of light I would be letting get through.
I think also I now have a better eye for when I to comes to waiting for an opportunity to take the
shot e.g. waiting for someone to move out of the shot or coming into the shot to give it a more
humanfeel.Alsomyplacementof where Iputmyself hasimprovedvastlyInolonger just take shots
headon I try to be creative withthe anglesthatI have I especiallyuse tightportraitanglestocapture
my shots in my project so that they look different and gives the feeling I am comfortable around
trying new things.
Alsomypatience whenshooting hasbecome betterbefore I used to rush and never check my shots
but I wastakingthree or fourshots of the same thingjust fromdifferentanglesdifferentheightsjust
so that I couldlookback throughmyshots and have a variety to pick from I think has made my final
imagesbetterbecause the qualityof the imageswasfarhighertopickfromthan inpreviousprojects
I have done and now I understand why the rule of thirds. Is such an important tool for
photographersasitgivesa focal pointto yourimage that issomethingIfeel Ididverywell duringmy
project. Overall Ienjoyedthe productionforthe project I ended up doing I would have like to have
done mysport documentarybutinthe endI thinkit was for the best because I learnt and improved
on some vital camera skills which are something I want to carry on in university.
Editing to get final production
Editingisone of my strong pointsIfeel comfortable withthe software so even though I was slightly
behind schedule I knew I could make up the time due to being good on Photoshop now with the
varsity shots I got I had a lot of different ways I could edit each picture I wanted to highlight the
typical redbrickfeature of Manchester yet bringing to the forefront the modern graffiti so this was
one of key jobs in the editing process, I had to change a lot of the colour saturations as so to keep
the strong colours that I wanted to dim the background colours this was my way of making the art
and the brick work stand out as key features.
3. Alsobecause a lot of my work was of pieces of art work were not at eye level they were high I also
had to use the cloningtool andcopy tool so that I couldeditoutpart of buildingsthat got in the way
or people whohad only half a body had to removed but I could sometimes do this just by cropping
the image thisremovedanyunwantedattentioninthe pictures.Overall I enjoyed the editing of the
picturesjustwishIcould’ve spentalittle longeron it as there were a few minor details like lighting
that you would’ve liked to changed.
Target audience
I won’thave reachedmyoriginal targetaudience asitwas todo witha sports documentaryhowever
highlightingthe pointsof somethingthatneedstohave more recognition than what it does so I still
hopthat somewhat resonatesstillwithmyaudiencebutmychange inprojectdidlead me to change
my focusgroupfor whenI wasgatheringfeedbackthroughsurveymonkey, I made them aware that
they were not the original target audience but they were for the new project.
4. It’s clear although I didn’t reach my original target audience the people I got feedback off still
thought it was a good project that I had put forward so I am pleased with that aspect of the
feedbackandI see the criticismasconstructive andthe things said were mostly things I had already
identified as things I could’ve improved on.
In summaryI enjoyedthisprojectIjustwishI would’ve been able to do my documentary however I
am still happy with what I produced and in future projects I would probably pick something to do
with the radio as I feel using my voice is where I am most in my comfort zone.
