At the start of the academic year it was announced that 50% of the grade would come from a synoptic project where everyone is tasked to come up with a games, animation and VFX piece. Everyone had to present an idea and luckily enough mine was chosen and I was given the power to make it a reality. Since then I have chosen my team and gone through all the production phases so in this piece I will be going through them as well as giving an evaluation.
In the pre-production phase I feel me and my group got off to an amazing start. I had spent time before making a start on the scripts and the storyboards to ensure we had a good start when we came into this. After finishing the storyboards I saw some of the issues. When doing it I had drawn my frames off of existing images with the issue being I was the only one who understood that so it had caused some confusion between the group. After that I was able to think out the shots more and create the VFX list detailing the special effects that will be featured within the film. I was also able to quickly produce camera block outs detailing the scenes and how they will look as well as a prop and actors list. In terms of work the only thing I struggled with was the Gantt chart as I found it hard to assume and assign time periods and when the work will be completed.
Overall from the pre-production phase there were minimal faults. I had based my group on chemistry and it had shown to be an effective choice as we all knew what to do and was able to get on with it. This biggest issue was communication. Early on I had to backtrack my ideas as I hadn’t explained everything which was hard as I was the one with the idea I found it easy to forget what I had said and what hadn’t I. Even then the communication issue mostly stemmed from the fact I had been removed from my class and switched at the beginning of the year.
Production was where as a group I believe we were at our strongest as we were closer than ever due to the production shoots. During production the roles where different as it was all about acting and filming the shots out. We all acted in this as we knew we wouldn’t be able to bring anyone in but at times that is more of an advantage that we did mostly everything with some classmates being involved briefly. Even whilst we were filming we all managed to make starts on post production. Whilst filming I believe we only needed to re shoot once as we made sure on the day to make enough shots we could find some that work. The same cannot be said about capturing lighting which was an annoyance to everyone as we had to visit my house 4 times just to capture the lighting of it.
Overall with the production phase there were many issues but none our result of the group and I. The equipment was not satisfactory with most issues being related to the cameras. Additional issues appeared on days of production but we were all smart enough to face them and overcome them and that is what happened which I believe only made the group stronger.
Pre-production people were already familiar with what had to be done. During this my tasks relied on the newscaster shots, SFX and creating the final composition. This phase went well as we all knew what had to be done and delivered upon it. Backtracking issues was minimal in this with just some audio dubbing that was in need.
Overall I am proud of myself and my associates for what has been done in this project and would say we have been successful. Out of all the groups I’d say we have the strongest chemistry and that is what made us good and be able to push through this. I’ve never had any doubts seeing the quality that has been produced and couldn’t thank enough through sticking beside me and creating my idea. Our only downside would be not sticking to the Gantt chart but that is only due to it becoming obsolete as a result of us using Trello.
However If it were to do it again an I would want it done more in the manor that actual films are produced. For starters we didn’t have a budget so what was used was paid for by me and had to make do with everything. We received minimal training on how to use the equipment and even then it was not up to standards. The communication issues could have been solved if not for some meddling beforehand. The issues I believe didn’t come from me or my group it was what we had that was the difficulty but I am proud we all overcame it.
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