Practical Skills Evaluation

Practical Skills Evaluation

Throughout this course, I was tasked to develop different practical pieces of work in correlation to the units I was working on at the time. I developed a total of 2 final pieces for my work as well as a few short film challenges set to me that did not correlate towards my other units.

I started this course researching into DSLR cameras and how to use them, although I had basic practice before, this element of my research really helped me develop my understanding of the different features the camera I would be using had such as finding out about different iso’s and how it increases the lighting while also increasing the grain allowed into the shutter meaning I would have to have my ISO set to a lower level with sufficient background lighting to make up for the low light allowed into my shutter to help give me the best-looking shot. Other elements I researched were the F-stop value and the Shutter speed. Through this research, I found that Appature/F stop Value controlled how much light was allowed into the lens with every time the F-stop value halves, the lighting area quadruples, during this time I also discovered that a camera's lower F-stop value correlates with a shallower depth of field witch determines what in the shot is in focus whether if its just a face or a full background. The research I did into Shutterspeed helped me learn about how this affects lighting and shots with the shutter speed and lighting correlating at a 1:1 ratio, for example when the exposure time doubles, the lighting in the shot will double. Following on from this I began to research different lighting techniques that are used within film and media production to help improve my understanding of the importance of lighting as well as the different ways I could incorporate these techniques into my practical work. The different styles of lighting I researched were: Rembrandt, Edge, Butterfly, Highkey, and Lowkey. Not only did I look into these different styles of lighting I also experimented with them too, for this I took to the studio and photographed some of my peers. 

Once my researching into the practical side of film was complete I was tasked with creating short film challenges to help me get used to the controls of the camera and to develop my skills with my chosen editing software. For this, I created 3 short films, my first short film I was tasked with using different camera angles in a unique way to help me develop my skills and to get me to think about different shots. The next short film I developed was based around the Wii sports music,  in this video, I edited towards the beat helping me develop my skill editing in a unique way. The final short film I created was editing based, in this short film I had to use footage found online to edit together a music video, this short film drastically developed my editing skills allowing me to be as creative as I wanted and not limiting me with footage that I could shoot. Overall I believe these short films I created, although looking back now maybe basic, helped develop my skills allowing me to create better content further down the line. What I learned during this was how to properly use the camera and edit, although I already researched into these topics I believe allowing myself to use them in a practical environment helped develop my knowledge more.

Moving on to one of my first practical tasks, the creation of a new wave film, for this task I planned out a shooting day so that I knew what sort of footage I was to gather, The day of the shoot came round and I headed to Bradgate park, during this day I ran into a few issues when shooting, the main being I forgot to turn the camera off in my camera bag, thus causing me to have very little battery, any other time this would not be too much of an issue however due to the shoot location being a 40minute drive from my home I couldn't turn around and come back. This complication meant that I could not gather as much footage as I would have liked however, I still got some pretty good shots that I managed to use within my work. Adapting to these problems that I faced during production, I used some of my previously unused footage to help patch together my new wave film that was based around the similarities between nature and the deers that I shot with the behavior of humans. To improve this task I would have set out more time for shooting and take spare batteries for the camera with me as to help plan for the unexpected. However, the elements that I felt like I did well were the shots of the deer I managed to take.

The next practical video I developed was a music video, for this task I had to choose a 3minute long song without a music video as to not influence my ideas. The song I chose for this unit was "Summer" by imagine dragons. When planning this music video I analyzed 3 videos and studied the codes and conventions within them. from this, I also created a questionnaire to ask audiences what style of video they would prefer. Once I gathered all this information I started planning my video opting for a very warm style of video, to bring this idea to life I gathered extra lighting equipment that helped give my shot a very warm feel to it. Filming began and I gathered a good portion of the footage. moving on from day one of shooting I threw my footage into premiere pro and started editing, this helped me develop an idea of what footage I was missing helping me plan out my next shoot. Some ideas that I thought worked well were the clapping to the beat of the song, I feel this was edited well and matched up, giving my video a professional look while showing off my editing skills and how they've developed. With most of my video edited I went on to shoot the remaining footage, this leads on to one of my weaknesses for this task, this footage from shoot 2 has a different tone to that of shoot 1 because of my lack of lighting equipment this time around, to change this I would make sure I had the equipment I had in my first shoot as to create the same visual style.

Finally, one of my final units of this course and the last opportunity to be able to show off my practical skills came around, in this unit I was originally tasked with developing a promotional video for a real client, however, due to unforeseen circumstances this could not come to fruition and the unit was changed. The new unit that I was tasked with was fairly similar to the previous one with exceptions that I would not be shooting and instead I had to fully plan out a series of videos for a specific client my teacher set to me. This change of unit although preventing me from expanding my portfolio, helped me understand more deeply the importance of planning my shoots in every step such as storyboards screenplays and budget management. I feel like forcing me to look at these areas of production planning really helped me understand the importance of them as now I feel more comfortable with the ideas I planned out and I feel like if I had to shoot them then I could very successfully. Another element that I got to experience within this unit is the communication between the client and me as I was having to work towards their set needs while questioning everything I had planned to see if it would be suitable for them, I communicated with my client through Microsoft teams in which I would ask them questions about what style of video they wanted or what a certain element of the brief meant, I also had weekly meetings with my client over a voice call to go over what I had produced so far while working with them to find areas I could improve on to meet their needs. This gave me plenty of professional experience and I believe this being my strongest area of work during this unit as I worked ways of promoting towards the client's target audience into my plans and treatments such as through the use of psychographics and how I can target audiences through them. My weakest part of this unit I believe is my health and safety and legal and ethical research, although I don't believe this part of my work to be bad I do believe if I had spent a little longer researching it I could improve it maybe through providing more examples for example.

In conclusion, I believe my units were a success in showing my gradual improvements within practical skills, going from not being able to use a camera to fully shooting and editing together a music video. Areas that I would have changed during this course was maybe because of not being able to shoot a promotional video due to certain circumstances maybe instead testing myself by creating a short film for my film studies unit that I decided to write an essay for instead. I believe this would have helped show off my practical skills however at the time I did not realize I would not be able to shoot a promotional video. One of my strengths throughout this course would be my in-depth planning throughout the promotional video unit, I believe this was my strongest piece of work as I worked towards client requirements effectively trying to target a specific audience through my research into psychographics. The weakest area of my work would be the continuity between footage, I believe this would be my weakest areas throughout my music video and new wave film it is clear what is part of the reshoot and what isn't to improve this I would need to make sure I use the same equipment and cast between different shoots as to make my finished product look better and to hide the different shoots that are obvious in my work. I believe I could have improved on this if I have the opportunity to shoot again such as if I made a short film for my film studies unit or if I got to shoot my promotional video. Overall I am very happy with this unit as it showed my development throughout the year with each piece of work improving on the last, whether that be through planning or production as I feel like my skills have been nonstop improving and will continue to improve through the lessons I learned during this year.