Lessons learnt from foundation portfolio - Jacob

Some problems we found while planning and filming our foundation portfolio where that our planning of shots and our animatic was very different to what we decided on when filming and editing, this time I think that we should get a better view on our location and decide on some shots when location scouting.

Also in our group, we found it hard to find times that all of us were free to work, this time we will need to spend a lot of time working out side of college hours to complete the work.

I think that the last film we made was fairly simple and easy to create, with this project i would like to spend more time creating a more intricate narrative and producing a short film with a more creative idea which then will lead to a better quality final product. 

During the planning stages in our last film we decided on location and story fairly quickly and didn’t put as much thought into the short we used to explain our story and create a bond with our protagonist.

In our thriller film from last year we only used one example of Foley sound last year and it was a simple sound of a snapping stick which we used the video camera to record the sound rather than a proper sound recorder. If we want to create a sound to use this time round then we will need to take a sound recorder out with us so as to capture a quality sound.

I also learnt that when working in a group I need to allow other students to get control and organise factors of the planning and filming, this was learnt when working on the other film because one of the other members of the group spoke to me and said that they sorted out certain factors of the planning with the other member of the group due to my absence in a previous lesson.

When going to location and starting to film we all decided that we hadn’t thought about the shoot and shoots as well as we had first thought due to the amount of time in-between filming shots that was wasted by our lack of in-depth storyboarding.

In the editing process there were a few things that didn’t go to plan, such as choosing lessons that we could all go to the editing suit at the same time due to conflicting time tables and the lack of study periods that we shared. Also during editing we had to keep to the 180 degree rule and also try and create shots that create an effect that makes the audience less aware of the transition between cuts.

The main thing that I learnt from last year was the many good skills from the camera and from the editing software. But in the first couple of weeks I learnt how to use basic aspects of Final Cut Pro and Imovie HD to edit the visual aspect of our movie. Luckily I had already gained simple skills on the editing program Garage Band and this made the sound importing a slightly easier task. In terms of the camera I have now learnt how to change the white balance and other different aspects of camera work using two different types of video camera. I hope to use the skills I have gained from this previous project and use them to create a better final piece for this short movie.