I had a very helpful 1 to 1 with Tom with my partially edited film. I wrote underneath it details of how far edited it was.
Even though there is still a fair way to go to finish it off, Tom's feedback was that it is very good, the cuts are good and it is polished, which is great feedback to get and very encouraging.
I have found feedback very useful during this project. When we are at College, in class, I am very happy to ask a tutor what they think about whatever I am working on. But this project has shown the importance and value of really making feedback part of the whole production process. Previously I had thought that I was asking for feedback. But I now realise that actually I was doing 2 things that are similar to asking for feedback but are not quite the same. I was either asking about a specific issue that I had gt stuck ono and not managed to find a solution, which is OK, and is part of the process. Or I was effectively asking for reassurance that it was going well, as opposed to feedback as to what could make it even better. In the future I will be careful to ask more specifically for feedback, not just reassurance.
Tom picked up on some points, and over the weekend I acted on them.
For example, he spotted something that my parents had both spotted too when I asked them each for feedback. In the section where I show the behind the scenes of me filming my Mum with the stationary camera on a tripod, nothing much appears to be happening. So, the clip that I chose to edit in of me filming has me jiggling from one foot to the other, my logic being that it shows that it is not just a still image. However, Tom said it looked like I needed the loo! Which I didn't. Both my parent had said the same thing, and I really didn't think they were right. But, when Tom said it too, I knew that I had to change it, so that other people didn’t get the same impression.
Another area that Tom picked up on was that the crunching of the leaves in the first shot is rather too loud. I have discussed in my Filming Day evaluation the issues I had with the "crunchy" leaves. Tom suggested that I tried equalisation to see if that would fix it. It is a new thing for me, so he told me what I should do. Here I made a mistake. While I was still talking with Tom, I did go into Premiere Pro with my video that I was editing, and I did bring up the screen with the equaliser options on, so that I would know how to find it. But what I didn't do was actually try to apply the equaliser. And when I tried it later, that was the part that wouldn’t work. In future I will check that I can make the whole thing work while my tutor is still there.
I did research on YouTube about equalising in Premiere Pro, to see if I was doing something wrong. But I was trying it just like it said to. I am wondering if it is because I am running Premiere Pro on an Apple Mac Mini, since that has given me a few problems before.
I managed to fix the audio using the pen tool instead, and I think it sounds OK.
Tom had said that Nargess was great at Premiere Pro and to ask her on Monday if I had any problems so I decided that I would ask Nargess on Monday if she could see anything that I'm doing wrong with the equalising, since I would like to be able to learn how to use that tool, It sounds really interesting. I will also ask her if she thinks what I did with the audio is OK.
Mostly finished video
On Sunday I decided that part of my video where I say "Up, down, left, right" referring to the moves of pan and tilt, would benefit from seeing the camera follow those moves. So I went back the woods with just my Dad's camera and a tripod, to film those moves. I have edited them in, and I think they work well. Keeping the theme of the woods gives a consistency which I like.
I have now colour graded, white balanced, added music, added birdsong, added words and added a title. I am particularly pleased with the title since I have made it start on the tree, then as the camera moves on the slider to reveal me, the title moves towards where I will be standing but the parts of it which are beyond the tree disappear until it has all gone, and I come into view. I am pleased with that effect.
There is only one part left that I am unsure of, it is when I am talking about me trying using a tripod as a monopod to get camera movement and I have the screen go black after I have shown the film of me trying it but I am still talking. I couldn't think what to put there. I had asked my parents' opinion and they both thought I should maybe take out the monopod part. I decide to upload a version with it in and one without it and to ask Nargess what she thought.
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