Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Preliminary Task Evaluation


For this task, we had to think of an original idea for a short film, which could only last around sixty seconds. Using our current knowledge of camera shots and angles, we drafted a storyboard listing what was happening in the shot and what shot was going to be used. Alex and I thought of the story for our short film entitled “The Vending Chronicles” which depicts the main character finding him frustrated as the vending machine refuses to dispense the drink. All of our footage was recorded around the common room.
Considering I have not had that much experience using a camera, other than in the few lessons we have had, I still feel that I did fairly well. I quickly understood how to use the equipment and how to set it up, as well as the certain rules about using it. I didn’t find any problems using the equipment and I found the task relatively easy, however we did have to record a few takes of particular parts of the short which came to be rather time consuming and tedious. Deciding on the camera shots took up the most time for us as we both had some good ideas and eventually came up with some sort of common ground on the shots we were going to use. The easiest and most enjoyable part of the task, for me, was editing. I have always been interested in editing videos and wanted to try it for myself but never had the resources to do so. In the end, I think that the final result was of a good standard. We found that the filming process, as well as editing, went smoothly and that there are few to no continuity errors, which makes the film seem a little more professional, and aids with the flow of the film. This preliminary task will help me in the future when we do our final project as it has helped with my filming and editing skills.

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Opie Evaluation


As I previously had a brief understanding of Photoshop, I did not find this task particularly challenging. However, there were still a few problems I came across using certain tools such as the magnetic lasso tool. I found that it was not following what I was looking to select and had to try multiple times, in some cases, to get it right. Personally, I found that the hardest task was getting the hair and hair highlights correct as they ended up very rough and had to smooth the edges towards the end.  Also, the ears were a problem for me because, as I previously mentioned, I had some difficulty using the magnetic lasso tool. The easiest task to do was the face and facial features because they didn’t require much precision with mouse movements, as they were one of the main parts to the project. I found that the task was both interesting and enjoyable because I like to spend my spare time editing images using Photoshop and I also enjoy learning new ways to do different things, such as learning how to do an Opie project and what tools are appropriate to each specific task. Doing this task has not only interested me in furthering my understanding of Photoshop but has also shown me what else I could do using this program and motivated me to look into developing my Photoshop skills even further.