MM Student self-evaluation report
Name & number: Tom Pearson – N0179991 Module/Pathway:Audiovisual
Project/ Assignment title: Soul City
Self-evaluation is a reflective process assessing and describing your learning experiences and the results you have achieved in your project. A transparent (fair, candid) and well-written self-evaluation will help you identify and recognise your strengths and areas for improvement. It will also help you become more familiar with your own working and design process for the purpose of improving and implement strategies for your future projects.
(word count- 500-800)
The main ideas and intentions that I was trying to express in the project were:
Initial ideas led us to that of a busker. We found it hard to come up with the idea in the first place and I felt we wasted a lot of time for the first half of creating our documentary. We wanted to show the life of a busker, why he sits on the streets earning money in the cold city of Nottingham. Do other factors affect his busking? and how we can translate that into a 4 minute story about this person.
The methods I use to develop my ideas were: (brainstorming, creating a concept map, visual research, storyboards, try different techniques etc)
I first used self brainstorming to come up with initial ideas. Each person in the group achieved this and we collaborated together to decide on 1 of them. After this we did a storyboard and initial concepts such as post-production filters and text to fit in with our story. We decided on main shots that we should use and what the content should be about.
I took a risk by trying something new. (Explain)
I decide to be director. Personally I don’t know a vast amount about the director. My knowledge is fairly good but it could be better on the subject. I realised that director entails the creative vision of the whole project and that was something I would like to try. To make the project more my own in a way. Although I did enjoy it I felt that I ultimately didn’t have enough control over editing and organisation of the whole group. I think that I would have been much better suited to producer or editor.
Some of the unexpected problems I had to solve while working were:
The irregularity of our busker who we had to interview: It was hard to get a hold of him on the phone. This was due to the fact that his phone was only switched on at certain times. This time was used as contingency as we wasted a day or two trying to contact him. Other problems include general technical issues with equipment. We later solved this by simply re-doing.
The decisions and choices I made to help solve these problems were:
Overall organisation of the group, when and where we meet. The booking of cameras and the collaboration with our subject: Sam Lindo the busker. I felt that I took on the producer role more then directing at times due to the amount of people in our group (we had a total of 3 ). Although this is bad as I wasn’t solely focused on my role I felt it necessary to progress our documentary and therefore had to take actions.
The most interesting or challenging thing that I achieved was:
Actually organising to make a documentary about a person is very interesting. I found that working with another person not part of production is very fulfilling in itself as well. Due to the nature of what we were doing there was a slight lack of control which made it more exciting because although we can shape and model what we want him to say, ultimately he is the one who is saying it and at the end of the day that is that.
The things I have learnt from this particular project were: (Specific examples should be cited.)
. Team needs to work fluidly
. Persuasion from the editor with which shot would look better/shorter/longer etc
. Getting everything organised at the right time is key to success
. Pre-planning is important, the more you do the better it will be
. Don’t fall out with team mates: there are quibbles but ultimately you don’t want the cogs to stop turning
. making sure equipment is setup extremely well before any shot/sound recording.
If I were to do this project again I would change or do differently:
. Find people that you know are good to work with. I could go about this by: word of mouth, research into work they have done, referrals, CV and previous work done.
. I would personally change the roles of some of the group members: we found we were better suited to different roles. I would like to be Producer or Editor rather then director.
. Much more pre-planning and research for a more interesting piece of work. Our documentary was very focused on a busker in Nottingham and the city itself. To broaden this and make the story better in the first place would have been better.
A new project that might grow out of my experience maybe:
Other short films relevant to my interests and those of others around me. I think working as a group has helped my networking and I feel confident in asking for people to help as a team for creating a new piece of AV. I feel that the next project I do will be more closely related to my own experiences. This will ensure I have a greater passion and knowledge which will in due course create a superb piece of work which i can be proud of.
I have achieved the following learning outcomes for this module and my evidence is:
. I recognise the roles required in AV production and feel that some have been done well and some not so. As I have mentioned earlier I felt that the organisation was important to keep things rolling. We did this by face to face contact of discussion, emails and also meetings.
. Choosing the role of director I had quite a command for the visual flow of the whole thing from beginning to finish. I took on my best efforts to fulfil the role of director. However at low points during production, I had to motivate and take action to organise my team to do the best that they could.
. By reading you understand, but by doing you know. Reading books has also helped in understanding the key roles in Av production. It helped focus my work as director and has given me a better understanding of other roles. As director this is necessary as you must command a whole production team. Fortunately for me my team was small during this work. Proof of this can be seen on my blog and older blogs alongside my library overdue loans . A book of great help was Directing, film techniques and aesthetics by Michael Rabiger. I bought this recently and it is the bible for directing.
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Wednesday 21 January 2009
