Evaluation

To evaluate OUDF603, I would say it has been one of the toughest modules of my three years on the course. Thats not particularly down to because the aim I had set out for myself was too ambitious but because half way through the module I went through a bit of tough time in my personal life. To explain it briefly, I hit rick bottom so to speak! Although I have had a bit of a set back and had to apply for an extension during this project, I feel the rest of the project has run rather smoothly.

The major down fall of the process was that my initial idea, to create a documentary with three 15 minute sections to it: legal, illegal and gallery, didn't actually end up happening. This was down to bad judgment and organisation of questions. Once I had been to London to visit the Graffiti Life gallery and got bad to review my footage, I realised that I had asked completely the wrong questions compared to what I had planned to ask everyone else I was due to interview. The frustrating thing about this was that I could easily go back down to London and re-shoot with David and Rosie and I didn't really want to change the questions I has for other people because they seemed to be exactly what the documentary needed. The problem was that the question I had asked Graffiti Life where more to do with the company and not their opinions on graffiti its self. If I was to re-edit the documentary in the future, I think I would defiantly look at trying in some way to use the footage I have got from Graffiti Life as what the guys down there had to say, was very interesting and a different take on graffiti itself. Overall though I am pleased with the outcome of the documentary, I feel it is still a free thinking and not an opinionated documentary which is what I wasted to achieve from the beginning.

As I mentioned before my tough time that I went through really did effect me during this module, not just with the process but with time management. After all that came about and even before I realised I had received my extension, my time management for myself was rather good, I has a calendar all drawn up of what days I was doing what and it went rather well. The only issue was other people! Their where a fair few times where I would organise to either have a meeting with someone about he documentary or I would have actually arranged to go and interview someone for the documentary and they would just pull out last minute or they wouldn't return my calls and other attempts at contacting them. Luckly I feel I managed to get enough footage, as I still have a lot left over but still it was just adding to the stress tat I already had when people where just cancelling on me last minute.

Overall though I am very pleased with how I have turned this module around as at one point I felt like just giving up, but thanks to the support of my family, friends and people at university, I have been able to produce what I think is a good 10 minute documentary. I feel that even though the structure of it has changed from what I wanted it to be originally, it still delivers and open opinion on graffiti and leaves the viewer contemplating whether or not graffiti is actually vandalism or art.

Editing and Post

Editing and post-production both have gone well. Although editing has been rather tedious I finally got there in the end! The most frustrating thing about the whole editing and post process has been blurring faces, dubbing and adjusting the audio on some clips.

Below is a screen trap from when I was attempting to increase the audio of one clip but cancel out the mic hum:

As I am no sound editor this was a learning curve for me as I though just adjusting the levels on the clip would solve it but it only made things worse. So after looking around on YouTube I found a quick tutorial on how to properly use the EQ and De-Hummer effects in Premiere Pro.

The only other main issues I had while editing was my software crashing numerous times and to begin with, I wanted to just carry on my main documentary from the teaser I had created below:

But all the soundtracks and audio lining up had gone to pot so I had to start completely from fresh! Like I said this was an issue but I think the documentary has come out better the second time round anyway.

Interviews

So after going down to London to visit the Graffiti Life gallery, the main filming of my documentary got underway. Everything went well in terms of filming but the only issue I came across was people letting me down. For instance there was on guy called Ben who I wanted to interview because he was turning his experience in the illegal scene of graffiti in to his own clothing brand called On Point but, unfortunately after speaking with his friends about my documentary he decided that it was too risky for his to be apart of it.

Here are some images of the the people I interviewed below:

Cross Colabaration

I offered to help Ben, my best friend, out with his PPP project so he was able to document his process in a video form. My part in helping and collaborating with ben was simply filming his process, asking him questions to answer so the viewer is able to understand the idea and other related information behind his final piece. I used my GoPro camera to get some POV (point of view) shots while Ben was creating and putting together his final piece, I decided to do this so the audience felt more involved in the creation of the final piece. I also edited together the videos and edited the audio together for the best outcome. Ben was present with myself while editing was underway so he was able to distinguish which clips he wanted in and taking out. Ben studies on the interdisciplinary art and design course at college. He passes this studio brief. 

Below is a screen shot of the editing process of the video:

Below is a shortened video of the video I made for ben to hand in for marking, this is just to give you an idea of what the video I originally made looked like:

I also offered to help ben out with is final major project by filming and editing him together another making video. Below is the finished product:

I really enjoyed making this video because I feel I have been able to explore my cinematographer side more and experiment with the different cameras I use, GoPro's and Cannon 5D's. I also used my Sony Handycam for some of the shots in this video. Overall I am very please with how the video turned out and even more pleased that Ben decided to ask me again to make another video for him.