Construction 9: My Technical Learning Curve (Production and Post-Production)

Things I have learnt in:

Production:

• How to effectively set up and light a scene
• How to use a camera jib
• The importance of being aware of the scene - minor continuity mistakes can easily appear
• The necessity of important time management. It took very long to gather footage in our earlier shoots as we had not yet had experience in setting up our scene.

Post-production:

• How to create a gunshot effect in Adobe After Effects
• How to edit a sequence to create continuity
• How to effectively grade a sequence
• How to place a special effect made in Adobe After Effects directly into Adobe Premiere Pro

My strengths:

• I have a good understanding of framing and how each shot should look
• I can create and stick to a checklist in order to get a piece of work done
• I am very experienced in using Adobe Premiere Pro - I was able to produce a high quality cut in a short amount of time

Things I need to improve on:

• Communication - I have a tendency to take responsibility of a task, which can be problematic when others try to approach the same task without knowing this. I should take more time to inform the rest of my group when I take on a piece of work

• Controlling our actors - Whilst this is something that the whole group should be responsible of, there were times when the majority of our actors and even other members of our group were becoming disruptive. Although I did make a great effort in trying to focus everyone on the task, there were other ways in which I could organise everyone else which I will take into consideration in the future

Adobe After Effects is still a very new
program for me, which I hope to be able
to use again in the future

• Adobe After Effects - Although I have learnt a lot about this program that I did not know previously, there is still a lot that I have yet to learn. I hope that I may be able to use this program again in the future.

I believe I have made great progress towards my learning throughout the creation of our opening sequence. Before the project, the only areas in which I was really confident of my abilities was camera and editing. The project has given me the chance to develop my understanding of camera operation and editing beyond what I have achieved in my own time and in previous projects. Furthermore, I have been able to gain valuable experience in setting up and lighting a scene; something which I had not done prior to the project. As well as this, I learnt how to insert basic special effects using Adobe After Effects; a program which was entirely new to me. I made great progress in learning how to use Adobe After Effects thanks to our school's technician and a Youtube tutorial I found.