OUDF503: Evaluation

Evaluation



At the beginning of this course we were given an opportunity to explore and create our own digital artefact that would have a potential to have its use expanded, reused and remediated into other mediums. Though this was a self directed brief, it was tough for many of us to choose exactly what it is we wanted to do, it seemed we would have much rather be given a particular brief to respond to. After reviewing the brief, I struggled a little in finding out what I needed to do so I begun doing research. Research was going as bit slow as I had a different module at the time I was focusing on, so therefore it was a bit half hearted. When I finally had the time to give it my full attention, I ran through a couple of Ideas in which most of them received bad critic from my teachers and peers. It was good that I had to explore a few ideas but it was time to choose one that would work as time was running out. We had a month left at identifying a self directed project.

From the many ideas I had, I ended up choosing to do a vox pop type of interview with kinetic typography animated on the screen. I begun by drawing out my ideas on a story board on paper and reflecting back to it, the video looks close to what I originally drew. I then begun to search for fonts online and I was mesmerized by a font named Bebas Nueu, on the response proforma, I mentioned that I would only use two type of fonts. Those were Bebas Nueu and Pacifico, the fonts complimented each other though they were from different font families, it was very important for me to choose the right type of design for the two font rule. The fonts were originally made for print and web but in my case judging by the evidence, they look outstanding as animated texts.

The filming process had its ups and downs, I was glad that I chose to collaborate with my peers as it would have not been possible to have done anything without them. The problems I encountered were the fact that I was working in Photography studio to do film work. The studio was double booked, meaning that there were photography students in the same room as us, this meant that the noise levels were loud and it was impossible to film. Their slot was booked at the same time as mine, this was from 9:30 am-12:30 noon.



The main source of the noise was coming from the flush gun firing and the students communicating to each other, not only was it the sound but my visuals were also compromised as their camera triggered our lights. Acting upon this, we politely asked the students to keep their noise to a minimum, they politely agreed and we also drew the curtain that separated the Studio A in which we were in and Studio B. To act out on this learning, I ran and booked out the collar microphone as the boom mic was still picking out a lot of unwanted background noise. I begun preparing my actors which were also my crew to get in their positions and begin filming during the time the other students kept the noise at minimal. All the actors had an opportunity to have a second take just in case the first had some unwanted noises in the background. To a certain point this was a success but it was not to professional standards. When the other students had finished, we had a small window in which I had an opportunity to film those second takes. What I've learnt to do differently next time is to not do any film work in a photography studio, instead to get a pop out backdrop and set up somewhere I would be able to control the noise. Overall, I believe I did a good job in directing my cast and crew, handling the situation and also filming the project.

Post production is and is always exciting to me, for the first time I was going to explore animating kinetic typography while synching it with sound. I learnt a lot of new things especially working with the new package of Adobe. I used Adobe Premier Pro CS6 for editing the footage and Adobe After Effects CS6 for animating the visuals. I thoroughly enjoyed this process, overtime I've learnt that I enjoy using After effects and it is one of the tools I'm willing to focus on my level 6 area of study. A lot of the animation was done manually and not using presents that After Effects provides for you, I did this so I could further broaden my skills on it. Some problems I faced during post production were losing power on my computer and having to begin my work from a previous save that was done a while ago. This taught me to always keep saving my work every couple of minutes instead of relying on auto save.

In conclusion, contrary to popular belief, a self directed brief is much hard than one which is set out for us. It was hard to find guidance on this brief but It definitely taught me to be more independent in my own work. It also taught me how important it is to collaborate with others in order to come out with the best work.