PROPOSAL vs FINAL PRODUCTION

Do you think you have achieved your aims?

Overall, I feel that I, in fact, did achieve most of my aims, however, I do also feel they weren’t completed to the standard I had hoped they would be. There was quite a lot of alterations made to the first draft of my proposal, and thus my original idea was not achieved, though this wasn’t always my fault. That being said, I wouldn’t say my final project was a complete disaster, I actually really liked my final music video, I am really proud of it and all my peers around me thoroughly enjoyed it too. I made sure to actually include the editing techniques detailed in my proposal too, all of which were very successfully used.

I aimed to have a fully completed music video, complete with opening dialogue and main video, and this was finished to a high standard. Despite this, I probably won’t be as successful as I had hoped due to my lack of effort put into my blog posts.

However, it is important to note that, although not detailed in my proposal, I wanted to be as efficient as possible during this project, and this is where my downfall lies. I aimed to have all my work done in the allotted time and to a high standard and I feel as though I have failed to do this.

Where do you feel you didn’t achieve your aims? Why?

I originally aimed to create a “BlogTheWeek” post every week, detailing the choices I had made, what was done to achieve them and how I was going to move on from it the next week. For the first few weeks, this worked for me and I found I was able to do this, but as I slowly started to neglect my blog work, these dwindled into nothing. I feel as though I can only really blame myself for this, I kept procrastinating and putting off my blog posts until it was too late and I simply didn’t have enough time to do them well. But, I have also been moving house during this FMP and have had to focus on that as well as, and in some cases more so, than my blog posts.

Not to mention, I had mentioned that I wanted to try and learn some new techniques for creating a glitchy effect in my videos, however this turned out to be unnecessary as the skills I already had were enough for the effect I wanted.

What areas do you feel you could improve upon in the second year?

For the second year, it is very clear that I need to work on my time management, hopefully the stress and panic I’ve put myself through to try and get this project completed in the last few days will be enough to scare myself into managing my time better next year. In doing this project, I have discovered a way of timetabling my blog posts and next year, I hope to put this idea to good use.

I also need to try learning new techniques and not be afraid to try new things and experiment.

Evaluate your use of time, project ambition, aims, and skills gained. Be honest, cover each of the bold points above.

I can safely say I definitely didn’t use my 12 weeks wisely. I have a nasty habit of leaving everything to the last minute and procrastinating. Which when paired with my anxiety and my stress induced migraines, made for a very hard 12 weeks. I definitely feel as though, if I had given myself the time to do my blog posts, I’d actually be a lot more relaxed and might not feel so inundated with work now. That being said, I feel I spent an appropriate amount of time on my actual production, I started filming early on in the project which meant for more time editing; I didn’t feel like I was pushing myself too far with my creative work. Honestly, I could have done with putting more time into my blog posts than my production.

Personally, I’d say my final production was quite ambitious, I put a lot on my plate to do to begin with, which made me feel as though I was pushing myself. However, I slowly began to realise that maybe I could have pushed myself further in the sense of creating a more compelling plot line for my video. The story of revenge is quite basic, and considering I take a lot of personal influence from the likes of Charlie Brooker and M. Night Shyamalan, I could have spent more effort and time creating a more interesting story.

I wish I had set myself more targets in terms of my blog posts; only towards the end of the project did I actually create a timetable for my blog posts, but due to commitments outside of college (moving house and family troubles) I neglected this idea.

Truthfully, I did try one or two new techniques, one of them being the glitchy titles, but I don’t think I really pushed myself hard enough to improve my skill set. I did use more cinematic camera angles, used Adobe Audition to create a Foley track and worked with new people, but considering my original plan was to learn new editing techniques, I feel like I haven’t truly pushed myself.

Give an example of how research has informed your project, discuss how this helped you.

Towards the beginning of the project, I created a survey in which I asked members of the public to give their opinion on music videos, specifically one that include opening narratives. I also asked for their opinion regarding the song I chose and what sort of vibe it gives off. It also gave me an idea of what sort of demographic my video would be aimed for based off the song choice.

This was so helpful in helping me understand what to make my video about in order to make it appeal to the masses. At this point, I didn’t really have much of an idea about what to make my video about but the survey opened up to loads of ideas suggested by people who listened to the song. This boosted me right to where I needed to be in terms of planning, as I was able to begin planning my film shoot and shot list.

What was the hardest problem you had to face for this project? How did you overcome it?

I had so many problems to face during this project, although I think the main one might have been the actors I chose to work with for this project. Above anything else, this is what stressed me out the most during this whole project and was honestly unavoidable due to the situation at hand.

To begin with, I had an actress already chosen out before I had even done my proposal. She is a close friend of mine, and knew she wouldn’t let me down on the acting side of things. However, and due to no fault of her own, she had to step down from the role and take sometime away for herself. In order to overcome this, I turned to social media to find people who would be confident enough to act in my video. I was overwhelmed by the response and casting the video took an hour at most.

Now, here is why I have decided to work on my casting next year. I wish I had done an audition process (I probably would have done if I had the time to) as the majority of the actors I chose, did not take the role seriously. This is, of course, with the exception of Esme, who really impressed me as the lead role.

I feel that my final piece suffered due to the competency of my actors, without assigning blame entirely. The plot wasn’t conveyed as convincingly as I had hoped it could’ve been. The entire ordeal has left me questioning my career path, as I am not sure now if I would make a good enough director.

Next year, I hope to work from my mistake and think more carefully about my choice of actors. My friend is a theatre student at City College and I think it might be a good idea to ask them next time, if they’d be up for it. It will not only look good on their portfolio, but also I can improve my chances of creating a more compelling piece of film.