Evaluation- Stephen

Skill area	Your evaluation of your own skills in this area – strengths, weaknesses, and things to work on. Be precise, giving examples or evidence  (eg on camera, discuss particular techniques such as focus pull)
Digital Technologies: how skilled are you in these areas?	In terms of camera use I am still adequate, I still need to keep focus in mind whenever I take a shot- however, I am good at all techniques such as focus pulling- as seen in one of the final shots in the thriller film opening we did- where we went from a long shot of our protagonist to an extreme long shot of the antagonist with a switch in the focus. I have grown confident in the use of editing; especially final cut pro. I found the title sequence to be easy to create for the film opening and I hope to make an even advanced title sequence for the A2 project. Blogger has also been useful in documenting editing and all other aspects of the filming process; though it can be a pain at times. Blogger is a useful tool for us because it shows our past work and keeps it all in order, so when we need to check back on our research it is all easy to find- our writing skills make it easy to read as well.
Creativity: In what ways did you try to be original?	We implement a ‘weak’ protagonist, someone who has suffered greatly and isn’t in the business for revenge. By doing this the character is more relatable, and we feel sympathy and maybe empathy as well. The mood and sound were both stereotypical and un-original; though they definitely contributed to the overall thrilling opening.
Research and Planning: How thorough and effective was your research into real media texts? How actively did you use your findings to create your own ideas?	Our research was used and referenced constantly during the making of our film opening; a film we constantly referenced was ‘Europa Report’ a very unique film. Our research from this film mainly consisted on the camera angles and the way the thriller is filmed and edited. It’s edited to look like the cameras inside the space craft were filming and not another person; giving a very isolated vibe. We wanted this unique feel to it; so our camera angles and shots were all done to make it look like someone was watching the person in the frame.
Post production: This refers to the entire editing process (sound and vision). What specific skills have you individually developed in this area? What do you need to work on? How successfully did you work on sound and vision together?	I think we need to work on our sound editing: specifically picking appropriate tracks to play at different times- one example that I didn’t like was in the short action sequence in our opening; where it suddenly went from an enigmatic sound to booming drums; it really broke the viewer positioning and I think it could have been improved by the crescendo of the music instead. We have all developed a lot of skill in editing the visual scenes; we made the flashback scenes whiter to show that they were in the past. Our title sequence was good and finally all transitions were flawless, with no gaps in plot caused. Apart from the above mention, all sound was decently edited- using Foleys for the ending scene was a somewhat difficult task but we made an effective sound by lightly connecting our fists and legs together and boosting the audio. Most of the sound was edited well together with the visuals; a scene that perfectly shows this would be where our female protagonist is running through the wood with her friend behind- the Foley footfalls are in synch with the feet touching the ground; and the ambient sounds are in tune with the surroundings.
Using conventions from real media texts: Which specific conventions of the thriller genre did you choose to use in your product? How successfully did you use them? What were the reasons for not being able to use them?	We took the stereotypical detective and made him look a lot weaker, throwing that convention on the head a bit. We did this to make the film look original; not having a detective that already knows how the story will end- a thriller like this would be Luther, so we took the idea of Luther and made him weaker. Looking back at the fil it was a great idea and it was greatly implemented. We also took the graveyard convention from many thrillers; this gives the film the eerie ambience that all thrillers need to have. The cold morning atmosphere only added to this affect; causing the opening shots to show the cold morning breath with the dew on the grass. Again, this convention was greatly implemented and our opening looked somewhat professional at that point. The use of a kidnapping is also a thriller convention; commonly seen in thriller films such as Taken.