Evaluation

Overall I think that this project has ended being pretty successful considering the rocky start that I had at the beginning of the project. I found coming up with a solid idea quite a struggle and it took me quite a way in to the project to come up with something that I was happy with. 


I'm surprised that my finished film was one of the most successful parts of the project considering the struggle I had with it, but I am really pleased with the final result of it and the comments that I received during crit gave me the confidence I was lacking during the making of it. I found I had slightly better time management as well, which is something I am not overly good with. I was able to show a finished product for crit which I found to be much more helpful especially with receiving points, but also with finishing off the entire project. I tried to keep up to date with my blogging, however there was a slight gap where I didn't fill in as often as I should have done and that is something that I will sort out for the next project. I am aiming to blog at least every other day, I think this would perhaps be easier for the development in my next project. I think that my overall film fits with my chosen speech and it captures the emotion and feeling of it.


As well as the struggle of coming up with a solid idea, I found using the software quite a challenge. I feel that I might have been a bit more at ease if we had gone through a few tutorials on effects and the basics right at the beginning of the project, rather than an odd tutorial a week before crit. Although I had a basic idea from using it during another project, this was one piece of software that I found quite hard to use. Looking back, however I think that I have managed to develop my skill in some way, which I think is reflected in my film.


For the next project I think that I need to aim on improving the use of a sketch book. I found that out of all the projects this was one where I used it the most, however I am still finding it quite hard to use it for development and ideas as I am still not use that way of working. As my time management is beginning to improve, I am just going to develop on that and aim to update my blog as often as I can.

Changes to My Film

After receiving crit, I then went on to make the necessary changes in order to improve my film. The first thing that I needed to do was change the font. During crit I was advised on having a more elegant font that looked like it was flowing, which would then go with the emotion of the speech. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Md1snXO4o

I was shown this clip, which contained some font which was simple and some that was flowing and elegant, this was very helpful for me to see what effective results that I could get from the simplicity of different fonts.

Left: Gill Sans     Right: Snell Roundhand

After watching the clip, I decided that I would change my font to Gill Sans and Snell Roundhand. The use Gill Sans keeps to the simplicity that I was after and at the same time having the Snell Roundhand adds the elegant aspect that was needed. I'll have the beginning of each keyword in the Snell Roundhand font and will have the rest in Gill Sans, I think that if I had the Snell Roundhand for a word people might struggle to read it and it may not look overly clear on the screen.

The screen shots above shows what my text now looks like with the different text. I now need to export this and place in Final Cut.

This screen shot shows what clips now look with the different fonts. I am really pleased with the results and it definitely changes how the clips come across and it fits with the emotion and feeling of the speech. I have also added some new bits of text at the beginning of the speech.

My second change that I made was the clip of the Jenga blocks. I decided to replace this clip with a vase with some sticks being dropped in it, I thought this looked less literal than my original clip. The screen shot below shows the new clip and also what it looks like with the text from the film on it.

Crit

After making my film, I wasn't really sure about what worked and what didn't. I was hoping that crit would be a useful thing in order for me to know what needed to be changed. I was surprised with the points that I received, which were mainly all positive and there was only a few things that needed to be improved. From receiving these points, it gave me the confidence that I didn't have before, as I was doubting as to whether everything that I picked worked effectively.


These were the points that I received:


- Like it in black and white
- Change the font - Elegant, Sans Serif - flow, the text that is in bold - handwritten style
- Music works well
- Jenga perhaps to literal
- Like the lava lamp clip
- Change the Jenga blocks
- Sort out the transitions
- Maybe have some text at the beginning 


From this response I am now going to apply these changes. The first thing that I am going to do is sort out the font, I am then going to move on and change the Jenga block clip and finally sort out the transitions and finalise any finishing touches.

My Final Film

These are just a few clips that's in my final film. I would upload a copy of it, however I am struggling to get it to upload!

Adding Text in Final Cut

To finish off my film I just need to include the text that I edited in Motion. Back in my Final Cut project, I dragged and dropped the text into the section on the left hand side and then onto the timeline.

You can see in the screen shot above the text in the timeline.

These are just some of the clips in my film which include text. Now that this is completed, I now have completed my video. I just need to export my movie into a .Mov format.

To export it, I clicked on 'File', 'Export' and then 'QuickTime Movie'. From here it came with a window, which you can see on the right, I renamed it and then clicked on save. My film is now in a .Mov format.

Using Motion

After editing and putting my clips together, I then moved on to add some text. To do this I used Motion and then exported it and then added to my Final Cut project.


To begin I opened up the audio of the speech in Motion and dragged it into the timeline, which I opened up using 'F6'. The screen shot below shows the audio at the bottom in the timeline, what I need to do now is to start adding some text. I need to listen to the speech and stop at the point just before he says the keywords that I want to use.

At the point in the speech where Earl Spencer says 'Her particular brand of magic' is where I included some text. In the timeline at the bottom I paused it just before he said 'Her', then using the text tool I inserted the word 'her' I then did this for each word that he said of this phrase. You can see in the screen shot above the each word is staggered.

I have taken screen shots of each word coming onto the screen. I decided the layout of the text from doing some drawings in my sketchbook. I did the same steps for each bits of the text that I put into my film.

The screen shot above shows the timeline and where each bit of text is located on the timeline. After I had completed this, I then went on to export it so that I could move on and add it to my Final Cut project.

To do this I went on 'File' and 'Export', it then came with this window on the right from here I just pressed 'Export'. Now that it is a .Mov I can now edit this and put it in Final Cut.

Using Final Cut Pro

Before I started editing, I made a new folder which is where I saved my project. In the folder I put in all my clips, the music and the speech that I wanted to use.

In the section on the left hand side I dragged and dropped the clips, music and speech that I wanted to use. From here I can now go on to edit my clips and come up with my film.

This is the order in which I decided to put my clips in. I have put them in this particular order because they link or I have tried to relate to what he is saying with the clips. As you can see they are all in black and white, I decided to do this because I thought that it would the emotion and feeling of the speech. The darkness of the clips creates quite a gloomy look and is complimented with the music.

To change the colour of each clip, I went on 'Effects', 'Video Filters' and then on 'Colour Corrector 3-way'.

The screen shot above shows what I changed in order for my clips to be in black and white. I was aiming to get the clips darker, I thought that this created a more sombre atmosphere. 

This is the timeline of all my clips. You can see there are some lines within the clips and some dots, these are made using the pen tool. By having these it means that each clip will fade in and out and the transitions between each clip shouldn't look as messy. Whilst putting all my clips together I did try out different filters and played around with changing the speed of the clips. I found the speed change quite a cool thing to experiment with and found that it didn't quite work with all of my clips, however with the clips it did work with I found that it look really effective.

The screen shot shows what my timeline looks like with all the clips, the music and the speech.