In this post, I will be evaluating the process of the final video. This will help me reflect on the work I have done and also help me write the reflective journal for the overall project. Evaluations are important to make as they allow you to look back on what you did and reflect on what could have been improved, added or changed.
Analysing the chosen poem
As I’ve mentioned before, the whole project is based around creating a visual poem. I decided that ‘Human Interest’ by Carol Ann Duffy was the poem I wanted to base my video around because I thought it was interesting to read and really caught my attention out of all the other poems I read.
Once I had found out which poem I was going to make a video for, I decided to go through each line and analyse it. Luckily, I remembered the majority of what I analysed in Year 10 English, so it wasn’t too difficult to figure out the story line since it’s pretty straight forward.
Once the poem had been analysed, I highlighted where I wanted some scenes to be separate from others. I already had the idea to do a confession scene somewhere in the video so this was also another reason why I highlighted the text. I also wrote next to each line what I thought the video clips for those lines could be – sort of like a rough story line idea.
Evaluation of poem analysis
I find it interesting to analyse text because it gives more insight to what the author of the text was intending to do. in this case, Carol Ann Duffy wanted to make the reader feel uncomfortable reading this poem about a man killing his partner over jealousy. This process didn’t take long to do as I found it was a pretty self explanatory poem. However, if I could go back to deciding on a poem, I would have chosen a slightly longer poem to analyse. This is because my final video is just under 2 minutes which is something I would’ve liked to reach higher for.
I found that highlighting and marking where I wanted certain things to be really helped me map out what I wanted to include in the video at that point in time. Compared to the final project I did last year, I believe this project definitely had more of a thought process and structure which really shows in the video I managed to create.
Filming and editing process
I began filming the first week back of Easter. I had the whole week to film which I thought would be more than enough time to get enough footage to edit together. Ioan and Daisy worked very well together which really made the filming process run as smoothly as possible. Each day filming with Ioan and Daisy went very well, they both listened to my instructions and even suggested their own ideas to include in the video which was just as helpful.
My main aim of the video was to make Ioan seem like a normal person who just made the wrong decision. I wanted to go for a Norman Bates inspired character. For example, the final scene where Ioan looks up at the camera – I wanted it to look somewhat inspired by the eerie smile Anthony Perkins does near the end of psycho.
The rest of the week was followed by me taking extra shots for an intro / outro. I did this because I wasn’t sure if I had filmed enough material for a video. I found out that just the story alone only made it to 1:20 or so, therefore those extra shots I took throughout the week pushed the length of the video to 1:50.
Recording Ioan’s dialogue was somewhat challenging as we were trying to find somewhere in my house to record with the least amount of echo and background noise. Another thing that made this step difficult was that my dog was running around the house and crying because she wanted to be in the room with us, so it took a while to distract her downstairs to get absolute silence in the audio recordings.
The week after filming I started editing. I followed the shot list and story line which really helped me keep on track of where clips had to be placed. It didn’t take too long to import all the good clips since I had sorted out all the video clips into good and bad folders. This allowed me to shift throughout the useable shots without having to look at each clip individually in Premier.
Just like what I did with the video clips, I arranged the audio recordings into good and bad folders to import onto premier. I found it easy to line up the recording to the video because Ioan made sure to pause before each sentence.
The most difficult task was manipulating the audio recording to create a phone conversation. I did try to record Ioan over the phone, but there was an awkward buzzing noise that was too distracting. I wanted Ioan to sound as though he was speaking over the phone because in the countless crime documentaries I’ve watched (especially making a murderer) the inmates talk over the phone for an interview. I thought I could use that idea in my video.
Once I had done this, I showed what I had done to my lecturers and they suggested adding more into the video. I decided to use those extra shots as an intro to the video. I put a faint police siren in the background as well as a tap dripping noise to build up the tension and sinister feel to the video. Once I added the intro, the video was still just under 2 minutes. My lecturers suggested that I get more shots of Ioan and Daisy but neither of them were available to help out. They then suggested I do more cinematic shots, but my issue was that the fake blood I used stains surfaces, so I wasn’t allowed to streak blood on the floor or the walls. I also didn’t think I had enough time to go and film more shots for the video because I was struggling to keep my blog up-to-date.
Evaluation on filming & editing
During this time, I was surprised at how well everything turned out. I managed to plan everything beforehand which in return made the project run as smooth as possible. There are a few things I would have done differently.
During my week of filming, I should have done a few extra shots with Ioan and Daisy just to make the video a little bit longer. I also would’ve tried to get better direction on the studio shoot – Ioan was confused at times because I was having a hard time trying to explain what I wanted him to do. I should have made a plan the day before of how I wanted Ioan to act and what his overall presence should be like.
Another thing I would have changed was recording the dialogue with Ioan. Because my dog was running around in the background at some points of the process, it was really distracting for both of us to concentrate on what we had to do. Although I did solve the problem, I should have tried to find a place that was quiet enough to record without disruptions.
The last thing I would do differently is frame some of the shots differently. My least two favourite shots in the video is the words on the mirror and the necklace being shown. i feel as though these could have been framed better. For the necklace shot, I would probably have a shot of Ioan gripping the necklace in his hand covered in blood to make it look like he ripped it off her neck during the attack. The writing on the mirror looked fine, but my bathroom is quite narrow to get good angles. I should have just moved the mirror to a different location so that I had more space around me to variate the framing and angles.
Despite these flaws, I’m really proud of what I’ve managed to create in 2 or 3 weeks. I was really worried that I was going to have a lot of set backs like my previous projects, but luckily I managed to avoid many of these by altering what I was already doing or coming up with different shot ideas altogether. Ioan and Daisy worked so well together which was a huge relief as I was worried their relationship downfall on screen wouldn’t look believable. Considering Daisy has no background in acting, she did very well and I’m pleased with the chemistry between the two characters. I also managed to keep the sinister/eerie feel throughout the video. Everyone that I showed the video to all agreed that it gave them an uneasy feeling and that the little amount of sounds really added to that effect.
Now that I’ve completed everything needed to be done for this project, I will now start writing my reflective journal for the entire project. I managed to document everything on my blog which is essential for me to write my reflective journal. I can jog my memory on what happened on tasks and explain what i would have changed or done differently for each job.
FINAL MAJOR PROJECT 2019 