Overall Eval.
This project wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t bad either. It was in the middle. At times, it priorities my fmp just because I had come up with a few ideas, thought them through and picked one that developed the furthest and was the most exciting for me, at a quicker rate than fmp. I had times where i wanted to plan this one first just because everything i wanted to do was quite straight, and had alternative plans worked out if the first didn’t go as planned. There was some excitement to do the project but proper planning had to be put on hold for quite a while because of the dissertation unit and the major project unit.
I quite liked my idea; i thought it was different and it was something that interests me and always has. The concept of contemporary dancing has been something I’ve always watched and admired and the chance to make a project out of that admiration was exciting.
There was less panic and less urgency to get this project planned as i knew what i wanted to do and how i was going to do it. The only REAL obstacle i came across was the shoot location. The studio space i had originally wanted was booked for when i planned my shoot, even though i had tried to book weeks in advance. So i had to find an alternative. Luckily, I am part of a lot of creative groups on Facebook and they have ads for new studios being made quite often. I had seen one for a studio only 30 minutes from my house back in January and with luck, they were free on the day i needed and also reasonably priced, even without a student discount!
An original obstacle was where i was going to store my equipment when i first booked everything to use at uni, but that soon went away once there was no uni space to use.
Other than that, the project was pretty smooth in the location, equipment, the idea, the focus, the dancer and the style/vibe i was aiming for.
Printing was a bit of a hassle, but still not stressful. I opted to printing my booklet, inlay and cd label using my own inkjet printer. I didn’t really want to spend too much more on sending off for them all to be printed and possibly having to pay more for fast delivery service to get it on time after spending on a studio space, equipment use for the day, a shoulder rig for filming, and travel to and from the studio. All i had to do was order some label paper and double-sided gloss-like paper and some cd cases. I already had some cds at home.
I did some test prints on normal paper to make sure i was printing the right way. As i said before, the double-sided printing function on my printed wasn’t working at the time so i had to feed the paper back in the right way so it would print the right way up.
The only issues i had was that my inlay didn’t print the right size even though i measured it and used the template given, so my strip labels on the sides didn’t reach up very far in the case. The other issue, as i mentioned in the printing post, was the quality of the paper and the fact that the ink decided not to stay on the paper, but more so on anyones hands who decided to handle it! That can only be said for the areas that were all black or very dark, which were the cover and back of the booklet.
The cd labels were great. Again, trial and error to get it to print accurately on the sticker part just because I didn’t have the patience to work out the companies ‘free’ software. I took someones advice from the reviews section of making my own ‘template’ and winging it with the printing, making adjustments each time and only using up 3 of my 25 sheets, and printing on both sides to reduce the waste.
Of course, printing in gloss and uni was a success. Easy. Straight forward. No hassle. I sent my print in over the bank holiday weekend for me to collect and cut down on the morning of the hand-in and i even printed a second. I always do in case something goes wrong with the first!
The project was good. I feel i pushed myself to do things i haven’t yet. The cd booklet, inlay and poster gave me a chance to use my graphic communication A Level skills all over again which was fun. Once it all started to come together I liked what I had made. This project allowed me to push and have a go as filming all by myself for the first time, and a challenge in filming a dancer trying to keep the camera moving and make it fluent the way Olivia was moving. I also was able to sit down and have a go at editing an entire video on my own which again is something i’ve not done before, only watched and observed someone else do it.
So really, i did this project very independently rather than getting together an entire team this time like i have done on a previous unit project, and given myself challenges that didn’t stress me out, but only made me want to do more and practise all these new skills more.
I’m happy with what I have produced and see room for plenty of improvement in all areas, especially the filming and film editing!