Through-out the start of the project, I was confused on what to do this final project on, I had some small ideas for a trailer or even another music video, but at the time I was super excited to do a small documentary on what I enjoy the most, photography, but not just any ordinary photography.. Virtual Photography. Which is photography within virtual worlds such as video games.
After this idea, I quickly set it up into 4 segments, I had a clear vision of what I wanted at the start, the first part will introduce what virtual photography is and how it became, then I would go into another segment introducing myself, my photos, my development, style. So it being some what of a retrospective. Then the third segment showing interviews from people online in the community, showing off their work and their thoughts on the subject. Then it switching it to a thing I am very proud of. One of my photos went into an actual photography exhibit in Birmingham in the Virtual Photography section, and there were many people who complimented the shots and idea. People from Sony even came in and checked.
After talking with tutors, they thought that the idea was cool, however they said the video doesn’t follow a main story, or even a character, and I wasn’t planning on putting myself in the video. I thought for awhile of what to do, to get an actual traditional photographer in it and see their thoughts on what it was, to follow a story of a virtual photographer themselves, and it needed a question. Which I thought for so long and by the end I went with “Why Virtual Photography?” which I would’ve hoped that would explain itself in the video. I thought for awhile and that leads me to where I am now.
The video is a short documentary on my character, Cameron and his story of what he has done through-out the topic. What he did in the past, what he thinks of it, how he changed, what made him change, how he found his style by experimenting and showing off some of the photos he has taken and edited. At the end of it he did an interview with a friend about Cameron’s work. He asked him a few questions that proves Cameron’s point.
What I think of the video is that after recording I was super worried. I was worried that it would turn into a big disappointment. Which had me worried for awhile. But when starting to edit, I thought that it didn’t look so bad, I started to like it more and more, although not too much. After doing the first voice overs I was really unhappy of how they turned out, I was super uncomfortable talking about this in the studio and asked Zak if I were able to take a microphone set home to do it there, so that’s what I did. I did it there and to be fair, thinking back on it, I should’ve re done it in the recording studio. The voice quality sounds good, but my tone is very off compared to the rest of the camera footage, but I tried to mix it well and separate the two.
I think that the video is pretty good, I really liked the way I edited it and the pace of each section fitted well with the tone. I like the style I brought to it where I always cut to footage of me. my shots and game play of me taking the photos. It was always constantly changing to engage with people, and after feedback, that’s what it seemed to be, they really enjoyed how it was edited. The issues I have with the video is that the audio really makes it worse, I have tried multiple times to even it out but using headphones doing it doesn’t help it for the computer speakers, so I have refined it as much as I can but although it can definitely be better. Also I have heard that the video doesn’t seem to have a proper conclusion, which I agree on. I really didn’t know how to end the video and I just originally thought that ending it on the interview was the best way to do it. Next time I do something like this. I will make sure to have a proper ending.
The filming itself went good. I had a clear mindset of what scenes I wanted, what I wanted to say, what angles and shots I needed. Then actually coming into it, I wish I did a proper script on it, or that i went off the entire script as I said to myself I will build a foundation script and base it off that while improvising, but instead I couldn’t think of what to say so that’s why I had to cut out a lot of scenes since I was blabbing along, but the footage I did end up using was really good, it was well shot and flowed well in the video.
Doing the production diary went good, I did everything I was meant to add into it, the research log, the inspirations, weekly evaluations, the reflective write ups, the BTS shots and Test shot write up and did them all in good detail.
I wish I did a lot more in terms of the research part as I didn’t do as much as I would like to do, I did enough of it but I think more research and having a better interest in the documentary style would’ve helped a lot.
Saying this now, as I have everything done. I do wish I did a trailer or music video instead, after being the DoP in the Usher music video has made me think about it a lot, and that’s what I want to focus on really. I think that script writing, story telling, all the things evolving around that just aren’t for me personally. Which is also mainly why I did this documentary to see that, it was to go outside of my comfort zone and to see what i am able to achieve other than filming, and although it was fun, I just am not as happy with it like I was with the music video.
Thinking about next time, I will focus on the story aspect much more. I will do a lot more research into it and make it as good as I can.
After having some feedback, a lot of people have said basically the same thing, that the pace is good, that the audio is a bit off and needs working and that the video didn’t have a proper conclusion to it. Which I agree on all of them, which next time I will make sure to improve on them all. I will focus more on each part other than the camera shots and how it will be laid out as I think they were the best aspects of the video.
TV and Film Production 