I wanted my film to be informative and entertaining, without the content being too technical and complicated since I wanted it accessible to anyone who likes films, not just people who want to film. When I was doing my research, I found lots of videos about camera movement, but they were pretty technical. I like the way the Slo Mo Guys keep you entertained, often using various scientific things, but never make you feel like you have to be a scientist to watch them, just an " interested" person. And I feel that I achieved that with my film.

 

I also like the way Mark Kermode talks about films. He is good at giving you interesting information that you probably don’t know, but he does it in a chatty informative way. That is what I was aiming at too, and I feel that I attained that style and format too.

 

So, I feel that my film is successful and meets what I was aiming for, which is good.

 

However, it has evolved somewhat from how I originally saw it in my mind, but I feel that is with good reason. I was so excited about everything to do with camera movement that I could have put loads and loads of stuff in, lots of behind the scenes clips synced up with the clips they were filming (like I did do with the Saturday Night's alright for fighting clip from Rocketman (2019)). I found so many wonderful clips like that, that I really enjoyed watching, particularly when I could see the actual clip too, like many in Rocketman (2019) and 1917 (2019), it was fascinating. But I had to keep reminding myself that my intended audience was not me.

 

Part of my reason for my target audience not being me, is what I mentioned about Mark Kermode. His style is that he obviously knows a lot about the films that he talks about. So you feel that he knows what he is talking about, and he knows more that you, but he makes you feel like he is sharing the information with you rather that making you feel an idiot for not knowing. So, I wanted to be the person who knows stuff and is sharing it in an generous, entertaining way.

 

Going back to the content, one thing that stood out to me from the start of the idea was my idea of "filming me filming" the experimental camera movement. I didn't want my film to be so long that people got bored, and I wanted to be sure to have time for filming and then talking about my experiment, since that was the main USP, that would make it different to other videos, and I think this section works well, I have got good and very enthusiastic feedback from friends who I have asked to watch it. Other people do show using camera movement equipment and the shots they get, but it is usually in a "how to" format, with lots of technical information, rather than focusing of how it affects the audience which is what I wanted to talk about and show visually.

 

So, I had to be very selective as to what else I included. Maybe I should do a series!

 

Visually I am pleased with it. I'm not sure that I would have been so pleased if I had had to use the footage filmed in my garden, since I feel it would have given it a very amateur feel, and just one backdrop. With the woods I was able to get a slightly different variety of backdrops, but all linked and with a common feel, e.g. trees but different trees, sitting on a fallen tree, trees behind me etc. all the same colour palette and so linked. I think it even works better than if I had used the bench, although it's hard to be sure without comparing the two. But I am very pleased, creatively, with the woods backdrop.

 

I would have liked to be able to equalise the sound better, as the leaves did crunch when I walked. I think I did OK, making those adjustments using the pen tool in Premiere Pro, given that we are not in college which makes trying a new kind of method out with a tutor harder, and also harder to find out why it seemed to not want to work on my set up. But equalisation is top of my list to try to learn, as soon as I get the chance.

 

I was also pleased creatively with how the colour palette worked. I had deliberately chosen natural type colours for me (grey, bit of professionalism there too, and I'm wearing a hat so it's me) and my mum (blue – bright to differentiate against the background but still a natural colour, like a nice sky) to compliment the greens and browns of the woods. That is another reason why I felt the footage filmed in my garden jarred, since my mum had a bright pink/purply top on, which stood out too much. Visually it just didn’t work. The colours of the wood felt inviting, whereas my garden didn’t.

 

I'm pleased with how the downloaded clips part flows. I thought a lot about the order to put them in, so that, as well as visually, my commentary would flow. For example, the energy in the Rocketman (2019) Saturday Night's alright for fighting crescendos nicely into the emotion packed scenes of 1917 (2019)

 

One issue I've had with this project has been the focusing in some shots. I think that may be in part because I was trying to set up and focus shots that I was in, which was tricky. Hopefully it will not be so much of a problem when I am not needing to be in front of the camera. However, I'm looking into getting an external monitor for my camera (I'm mainly looking into SmallHD for a monitor) which should hopefully help me with any focusing issues in the coming year, since there are occasions when it can be useful to be able to be both behind and in front of the camera, as these last few months have shown.

 

Another challenging area that was new to me was lighting when outside. My other projects have been indoors, where I could set up lights in a constant environment. Natural light outside is far from constant. I would think that I had got my lights set up as I wanted to light me, then whilst I was filming a shot, the natural light changed. From research that I had done, it seemed that using diffusers, reflectors and even just a white piece for card would actually work better outside for managing sunlight. But the light still changes as you are filming and filmmakers seemed to prefer to have someone holding and adjusting the diffuser etc and unfortunately, despite my very kind parents helping me I didn't have enough crew to be holding and adjusting these items as well. But I think it could have made a difference to a few of the shots. Outdoor light is on my list of things to learn more about and experiment with for future films

 

An area that I am particularly pleased with, and have had several compliments about, is the opening title that moves across the screen with the track and vanishes as it crosses the tree boundary. It took a bit of fiddling to make it work, especially as the speed of the tracking slowed down toward the end and I had to match it to make it work. But I think that, along with the reveal as we track out from behind a tree, it packs a punch to catch you attention at the start of the video, making you watch more, as a good, strong opening always does

 

I also like the small touches that hopefully no one even knows are there, for example, after the pan and tilt diagrams are shown, I added in some footage that I shot in the woods, to illustrate the up, down, left, right camera movement that I voice, and in editing I adjusted the speed of the up, down, left, right camera movements to match the beat of my words. Hopefully this just feels natural and no one actually notices it, but I am pleased with it because it makes a difference to the original footage.

 

And to finish with, I am also pleased with my final shot. It references back to the opening of tracking out from behind a tree, to track back behind a tree coming full circle. I like including shots that link in this way. I knew I could use these principles in fiction films, but it has been interesting to see that they are just as effective in non-fiction.