COMTECH EVALUATION:

Unlike most students in Year 2 Visual Communication this was my first Communication Technology brief. Having moved from advertising I hadn’t experimented with much technology so far. My main interest has always been photography however at the start of this year I became intrigued by the video production process. This then became my main group for this brief. I hadn’t used video in a few years and therefore felt that I needed to renew my existing skills and built some new ones too.

I initially chose to go down a documentary route and collaborated with other students in my group to create a short film with a subject matter that we were all interested in. The IOU campaign was something that effected me as a student and this was important to my work as I had a strong interest in the project. I have learnt from this brief that when creating self-directed projects I must choose something I am very interested in as I will loose attention quickly. Unfortunately this project seemed initially to grab me however the technical aspects of it were not what I wanted to be experimenting in.

After feeling quite lost from my interest in the technical side of documentary film making becoming obsolete I decided to take on Christian’s idea of ‘How to make a cup of tea’. This was not one of my own ideas however I feel I created something that represented some of my interests in the editing process. I was able to learn filters used within Final Cut Pro and about frame rates, all of which will help me in future projects.

Much of what I learnt in this brief was not centered around the tutorials I attended but more interaction with computer technicians. For instance throughout this entire assignment I have received much help from Matt in the AV suite and have learnt Final Cut Pro, After Effects and filming techniques, which is much more than I leartnt in the Photoshop or Final Cut Express tutorials I attended.

Filming itself on this brief came back to me very fast as I have used DV and AV cameras before. However the most trouble I had was getting to grips with the software involved. From this I have learnt that a main factor in a brief where you will be literally throwing yourself into things you’ve never done before is to use time management effectively. This is something I have always struggled with, this brief proves that as my final piece wasn’t at the standard I would have wanted it. I feel I underestimated the lengthy processes when using advanced software like After Effects.

Within this brief I was able to play around with other areas of technology like the use of the different lenses available on still film cameras and very basic web design. The web design came as a out of college brief. I set myself to create a homepage for my blogs however when I realised how much I had learnt from it I though it appropriate to connect back to the Comm Tech brief.

Research within this brief was extremely helpful and as a person who has always disliked this aspect of a project I found that researching around self-directed briefs was much more interesting as I was obviously already involved in these ideas. I felt learning was almost sub-conscious as the briefs I set myself were centred around my interests already.

Within each of my briefs that I set myself I got something wrong and at times it could be quite frustrating, however earlier into the project I was able to go back and correct myself. Although as my time management skills were not nearly up to scratch the last week or so before the deadline I found myself making big mistakes that would involve much work to correct, work that I didn’t have enough time to do. Therefore unfortunately I am not at all happy with my final piece, the idea was changed a lot and was only filmed a week before the deadline, I’m glad that I waited long enough to get the idea and storyboard perfect as this meant that the filming went much smoother. However I had completely underestimated the time consuming editing process. Having not used After Effects before I would leave myself much more time for such an intricate program in the future. Despite all these disappointing experiences of slipping up and getting things wrong I have learnt not to make the same mistakes again, which I think was I fundamental learning curve in this brief for me.

I feel much more educated in the field I chose and am able to understand the processes of many things much better. This has been a very helpful brief in learning things. When I started this assignment I felt I would have things to put in my portfolio at the end, this unfortunately did not happen and I feel that the final pieces created in the Comm Tech brief are not up to the standards I wish them to be. However what I have gained from this is much more important that a final piece as I am able to, in my own time, bring my ideas to life through the medium of video and this, in my opinion, is a much valued talent. Overall with the disappointment of my final pieces I am happy that I am now competent enough to go back and do what I need to do to make them portfolio pieces.