SWOT Analysis

Targets

1. one thing I could do to develop my blog is try and use  more ICT apps consistently when appropriate when presenting my ideas. This will then make the blog more visually appealing and stad out in the sense of a different way of presenting information

2. Another thing I could do is try to be more efficient with my time so I could post regularly 3/4 times a week instead of posting required blogs in one day.

3. Lastly I will try my best to be more consistent in the level of detail in each blog and if I don't understand what to type in a certain blog post then hopefully I could ask others around me to expand or use a workshop.

Rough cut 1- Analysis

From the rough cut of our title sequence called Apex Arachnid, I have been able to identify the strength and weaknesses of all the scenes that we filmed and put together, therefore I understand and know what additional stuff such as effects, sounds and transitions could be used to create our final edited versions of our title sequence.

A strength of the rough cut is that all the scenes fit together and so we would not need to re-shoot anything. Another strength of the rough cut is that there are different types of shots and they all work well with each other. Lastly the  camera was fairly still when filming scenes where we did not use the Tripod.

A weakness in the rough cut is that in some parts of the sequence there is different lighting but to fix that we could change the brightness and contrast levels. Another weakness is background sounds e.g the wind, as it blocked out speech that was needed in that scene. But it can be fixed by editing the sound and adding the relevant sound needed e.g voice overs to make the speech scene more clearer and prominent.

Evidence Audit

Blogging Health Check 2

I agree with the feedback given to a certain extent. I agree with the strengths that were pointed out in the blogs. I agree with the strengths that were pointed as they were points that I would make about my own blog e.g I had good evidence of planning, filming and creating certain props that would be needed etc. 

 However I disagree with certain weaknesses as e.g. with time management, as I do post regularly in the week but on a given day.  This is because in order for me to perfect the blog tasks to my level of understanding and my own satisfaction, which why I end posting quite a few blogs on the same day. Another weakness pointed out was the consistency in the level of detail in each blog. I agree that it is a weakness as some blogs have sufficient depth, while others not so much. The reason for this inconsistency is mainly due to the fact that I sometimes find it hard to articulate what I’m thinking and putting it into my own words, this is results in having blog posts with different level of depth in information. In consequence most of my recent blogs have been fairly brief, therefore reducing my marks. To rectify this I intend to add a bit more detail into my future blogs. Lastly another weakness is the limited use of different ICT apps. The reason why I disagree with this is mainly because I don’t know how to incorporate different ICT software to certain blog tasks, as the content that blog may require is vague and hence can become hard to expand on excluding stating the obvious. But from the feedback given I know have a better understanding on what I can expand on.

 From the health check I agree with the target that has been set and therefore intend to act on it so that I could increase my marks before the 3^rd health check. 

blog screenshots - evidence, to be edited and put on media drive

Evaluation - putting the film together

Plan for day of filming (add date)

Refection of first day of editing

The editing for our film so far seems moderately good and smooth, we've been able to set out the title sequence in chronological order. We've assessed our film as a whole and we've contemplated reshooting a few scenes as they didn't turn out to be what we intended it to be.

Evaluation of filming - Day 2

For day 2 of the filming we travelled to Woodford and decided the film at Ray Park. We shot our scenes this past Saturday (2/12/16) and we captured the first time the audience would see Helena in the film for the first time and she is seen to be encountering Alexis. We also shoot the scene where the radioactive slime makes contact with Alexis therefore signalling the beginning of his superhero powers. There were certain risks when filming near the slime as it could've possibly lead to a potential injury like someone slipping on the slime. We familiarised ourselves with our surroundings to ensure we do not endure any injuries at all. Overall, it was a successful day of filming and we hope to shoot this upcoming Wednesday (7/12/16).

Making the slime

Evaluation of filming - Day 2 (U add evidence)

On the second day I traveled with both the fig rig and stand to Woodford in order to film a vast majority of the scenes, mainly focused on the bedroom waking up scene and scenes that were outside such as the falling into the slime                                                                                                              

Evaluation of filming - Day 1

I thought that the first day of filming (30/11/2016) was successful, however if Daniel was present during our first filming, I do believe that we would've been able to shoot more scenes. Having said that, we managed to shoot the scenes in the college featuring the protagonist and the extras and which were doing pretty well. For constructive criticism towards my group, I thought the filming of the scene where Alexis was running down the corridor of the college, could have been done better. The camera did seem fairly unstable and didn't quite make the shot look particularly smooth. Also, at some point during filming in the corridor, Arthur stood on a chair, which isn't safe as she could've fell which could've lead to an injury. As a method of prevention to this risk, we got a small step ladder to allow Arthur to film in a stable motion and it was much more safe that way. The shots below display the scenes where Alexis aims to rescue a girl who was bleeding to death.

The slime prop

For the "radio active" slime that causes the protagonists powers and abilities we used bath slime. I purchased it from Amazon for it is a safe an reliable website.        

Purchasing such a large amount of slime enabled it to be much more visible in the scene and gave us extra if a scene reshoot was necessary.

The slime came out a lot thicker than expected which was a much welcomed result for it made the overall effect of the slime much better. Being biodegradable meant that the slime had no negative impact on the environment or animals by our filming.

Proof of filming day 2

Evaluation of filming - day 1 (U add evidence)

Although unable to be present for the time filming i was able to help the group by providing relevant information and help with after analyses and shot retakes such as the "shocked scene" making it realistic also reviewing footage and providing critical feedback.

Evaluation of filming- Day 2

Our second day of filming was good and successful.
We managed to film the scenes we needed to film outside of college.
We were able to film without any accidents happening which means no one got hurt or no camera equipment was damaged.

An advantage from our second day of filming is that we were able to shoot most of the scenes we needed for our title sequence. Furthermore the scenes we shooted would help in adding more context to the storyline once we have finished the editing process.

There were risks involved e.g we carried a bucket full of slime, which was bought online and made at Arthur's house, which we then carried to Ray park so we could do the scenes that we needed to film there.  This was an issue as if we dropped the slime then people could've slipped.

Another issue was one of the actors slipping and hurting themselves in a scene that involved the slime.  So to overcome it we needed to make sure that we were doing it safely so the actor did not get hurt during the process of slipping for the scene.

Other than that our second filming day was successful and we hope to start editing soon, once we've done a few other scene.

Evaluation of the Filming- Day 1

I think that our first day of filming in creating our title sequence was successful. We were able to film quite a few scenes that we needed to film in the college, as our main character is a school boy. We were were able to film the scenes we needed successfully without having any distractions or being side tracked even though one of group members wasn't in and he was meant to be a character, we managed to overcome it as we replaced him with any character.

We also made sure that when we were filming everything was safe to do so, so no one would get hurt or any equipment would get damaged. At some point during filming Arthur stood on chair, which wasn't very safe, so we then got a small step ladder to make filming a certain scene more safe.

Other than issues mentioned above, the period that we had to film in the college was successful, and we intend our second filming day to be on Saturday.

Evaluation of Pitch

I believe that our pitch was successful, as we were able to convey our ideas clearly so that everyone could understand our ideas behind our title sequence. We were able to collate our ideas into Prezi so that the audience (the class) who was listening to the pitch would see something visually pleasing and gather more information from the slide if they did not hear or understand something properly. The slides contained a mixture of of detailed writing and other forms of media such as a video that was used to gather or response from the target audience based on their favourite genre that was based on our title sequence genre. We found out via a website called YouGov which we found out about the type of target audience that would watch our film. During our interview research we asked the interviewee if they would watch our film.

Our ideas was different to the other groups as we are the only group to not be doing a horror/thriller based title sequence.  This makes us stand our from the other groups as our idea in some way is unique to the others as there is not a common theme.

Lastly from the positive and constructive feedback we have received, we know what we need to work on e.g updating our research schedule, adding a few more risks that we forgot to add to our risk assessment and finally upload our sounds that we would be using. We also know what are strengths are and how we also need to focus on it to make it perfect.

Sound intentions with links

Music - Danny Elfman - Spider-Man 2002
Running footsteps - Apex Arachnid running
Heavy Breathing - Apex Arachnid breathing whilst running?
Busy Streets - Vehicles and people muttering (conversations)
The birth of the power - Danny Elfman -Spider-man 3 (Youtube + 1:14) + Post slime scene (Soundcloud + 1:14)
CANDI scene - Running in the corridor/Running in the corridor 2
Alexis' Ringtone (Alarm) - Alarm goes off
Slime scene - Alexis falls into slime

Costume for Apex Arachnid

Evaluation of pitch

I thought the pitch went smoothly and efficiently. We expressed our general ideas in an organised way through the Prezi presentation and set out a clear representation of our intentions and ambitions with this task. We offered thorough detail in possibly all slides, although we could've developed our character representations. For example, with the main character being Apex Arachnid (Alexis), we could've explained more as to why he possesses the desire to become a super-hero. Additionally, we really could've extended our character representations of the Mother (Gwen) and Helena as the audience are not really given a lot of information as to why they're in the film and in general, there wasn't enough about them. We lacked in a few more areas like the intentions with the sound. I thought we provided quite a detailed summary of the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds we would utilise however there wasn't any examples as to what they may sound like so that's certainly a downside. Finally, we could've developed our production schedule as it is not clear what props or who exactly would be acting on those specific dates. Ultimately, I thought we created a well-presented presentation with thorough information. The feedback we received was relatively good as the common positive was that our idea was unique and intriguing and I'd say that eclipses every other downside to our presentation.