Evaluation

The process.
We did quite a lot of planning, in past posts you can see the planning we did, we came up with questions to ask in interviews and what to ask the ranger, we made lists of shots and equipments we need, we planned a lot of the shots which helped us when setting because we had a general idea of placement and close ups. However sometimes the planning doesn't go to plan for example we wanted to capture some wildlife, however we couldn't with the cameras we had, so those wildlife shots that we had planned didn't happen. I think what we did well during the process of making the promotional video was that we managed to get everything we needed to get, we got in contract with the Hartshill Hays (although it took a few tries) to get permission and followed what they said they wanted in the video. We managed to get good shots and footage, including several interviews to use in the video. What we could have done better is filmed more, we did leave filming the project quite late, if we had managed out time better we could have given ourselves and extra week or so of filming and editing. W couldn't film on quite a lot of days because the weather wasn't always in our favour, even if it was sunny the day after it rained, because we are filming in the woods, the mud gave the shots a less desirable effect. When we were doing our last interview with wildlife Kate, we did the interview in the woods where there was a lot of unsteady ground, so we found it hard to keep the tripod upright and in a stable position. We used the tamron lens which was very heavy and because we had a thin tripod, it wasn't well balanced, in the end we had to move from our original position somewhere with flatter ground. If we did this again then we would make sure we are well prepared with a good tripod, lens and camera, as there were more than one time, where we were under prepared and had to make do with what we still had, however we did try to always have two cameras and two Sd cards. Sometimes we didn't have a tripod when we needed one, so next time we know to have the right equipment with us when filming even if we have a plan that doesn't include a tripod, take one just in case. I think we could have been more prepared on the one off sunny day, if we thought it was going to rain and didn't plan on filming but it turns out to be sunny anyway, we should have been prepared to go out a film anyway. Although we managed to get all the shots and interviews we needed to put into the video.

Editing.
We had some trouble originally with the software and the files because we lost some of our clips when transferring the files from SD card to the Mac computer but we had backups so that it was easy to get the clips back. We did waste a whole day trying to put files imported to premier pro, because we originally was just working from a hard drive, we then had to put the files onto the computer then to premier pro because working of the hard drive slowed things down. When going back through the footage and sound, mainly with the interview with he ranger, because the mic was constantly being moved we had a lot of unwanted sound that we couldn't fully edit out. Because we didn't use a tripod in a lot of the shots we had to use the warp stabiliser which in some shots didn't fully work, so we had to be brutal with some of the shots so that only the best possible shots were left. When editing the interviews we found that we had to cut out a lot of fillers, when people spoke there were lots of "errs" and "umm" so we had to do a lot of chopping in order to have what they are saying flow. We didn't realise how long the interviews were going to be, so first we edited and hoped to what was usable and we felt like we needed to include. We then later had to cut more of the interviews out to keep the video shorter. If we did this again, i would make sure to label and organise the clips before we start editing because when we were editing, one of the hardest things was going through the clips to find which one to use, we should have labelled and sorted out to get a general idea of what clips we could use when to add more structure to the process and possibly save us more time. We also found when editing that we had to colour correct a lot with he clips because on one of the cameras the white balance was off this also slowed us down because we had to make sure that the clips matched with he exposure and colours. What we did well was cutting all the unimportant clips that, although was nice didn't add anything to the narrative and would have made the video longer than it should be and the music that Willow wrote went really well with the video, as it set the right mood for the video with was calming and relaxing. During the edit we also checked that we had everything that the client asked for, like logs, fonts and that we mentioned certain parts of the Hays. We had a lot of technical difficulties, during the several days of editing we lots some clips and so there are parts in video where we had clips over the interviews, which no longer exist, so we submitted a second draft to meet our deadline, we are able to re-shoot and salvage footage for a final draft when our client comes back from holiday in 2 weeks.

We made the interviews the main component in our video, this is to show that Hartshill Hays is a place for people and to get different insights of the different age groups around the hays to give a more realistic insight. We also had people walking around or playing in the park as apposed to just showing the empty spaces because it makes it more realistic and better to show the parks main spots being used, so it looks better than just empty spaces when people are talking about them. We had a lot of footage, so in order to shorten the film to a watchable length, we had to cut out a lot of it, which include cutting the umms from the interviews as they added more time and made the interviews more boring so we edited them out. We adjusted a lot of the colours so that all the footages white balanced match to make it look more professional and so that no shot stood out because it was a different colour that didn't go with the rest of the video. We each had our own ideas for this video, in order for the ideas to be shared and listen to we assigned jobs roles in which we could express our own ideas within the set job role, mine was filming (this allowed me to take shots that i felt would work within the video, it helped in the previous years at college that i took photography so i was well experienced with the camera and experimenting with different angles), Conner was directing and communication and Willows was Music. We all assisted with the editing as it was a big job, too big for anyone to do alone, so we worked as a team when editing taking it in turns and listening to each ideas and trying them out to see what would work and what didn't.