Shots Project Review

Shots Project Review

Earlier in the month I completed and uploaded my Basic Shots Project. My overall opinion was that it was sufficient in helping me to train my abilities with camera operation. I would like to look at certain individual aspects of the piece on their own in order to see where I stand with my abilties.


Distance Shots Project 2013 from David Smith on Vimeo.

First off I would like to discuss the positive aspects of this project; this will include both the production of the piece and the end product itself.

Positive aspects

1. The piece itself was actually completed relatively quickly, the shots for the piece only took about 45 minutes to shoot and so I actually had plenty of time to spare which I could utilise in a number of different areas, namely editing and footage review. With this time that I was given I managed to locate a couple of different issues with some original footage. The shots shown weren’t the only shots that I had, for example, there are approximately 3 different versions of the first piece of footage because of where I was looking to start Anthony from in relation to the frame.

2. In terms of editing, the addition of music to the scene was a nice touch and it makes the viewing slightly more interesting. One interesting thing about the piece is that it was originally incredibly bright and so I edited the light levels with Premiere Pro with effects like Luma key which helped greatly to remove a large portion of the glare.


Luma Key has been a very useful tool, both here and in previous pieces.

3. Each scene has a nice Swap Transition that really helps to carry on the scene without a very jagged and rough effect commonly found in a simple cut. The use of this transition in particular helped with training in the use of effects as the Swap effects requires being set to start between the two clips instead of the default of starting at the Start of the footage.

Negatives

There are just as many issues with this as their are positives

1. Some of the shots could be interpreted as being labelled as incorrect and I am fully aware, this is a simple slip up on my behalf. The other issue connected solely on the shots is that the day in which I shot gave the camera a monumental amount of glare at times which caused me something of an editing requirement.

2. One of the shots in particular was taken, but was too short and as a result, I edited it to a freeze frame as opposed to being in motion, the issue here is that this one shot seemed out of place and it really causes something of an issue with the overall flow of the piece. It really appears mechanincally edited here and it shows a mess up on my part with the use of the recording itself.















3. The piece is just a simple selection of shots, given that last year I did the same, I'm thinking that with a full years recording experience, I should have attempted something a little more difficult or interesting.

I will take this into consideration for later pieces of work.