Despite the number of obstacles and dilemmas that my partner and I encountered during the course of our creative project assignment, I’m satisfied with our final product. I feel that the approach we took for the theme of ‘sense of space’ is one that not many would’ve thought of and is something that has the potential to be a unique and experimental piece of work. Although we encountered a few problems with Protools, I definitely feel that our audio piece was our strong point as we were able to really experiment with our recordings and were able to successfully render them to give a haunting and eerie ambience. I do however feel that we could improve on cinematography and footage.
With the project theme in mind, I firstly suggested that we draw inspiration and ideas from the story of Alice in Wonderland, to which my partner Fatima confidently agreed on. After thorough research and several spider diagrams and shot list ideas, we were able to successfully draw influences and ideas from the themes and motifs present in the story and felt that it had potential to be visually captivating and memorable. With our thought-our and in-depth planning, we were able to record and edit our sound easily and smoothly with only a few problems involving Protools due to our unfamiliarity with the software. We also had problems where audio files would go missing and glitches with the delay and reverb plug-ins made it difficult to work with. Although this had been frustrating, I do feel that my past experiences with sound editing were able to help me a lot with how we were able to shape and create a certain tone and ambience to the final audio piece.The filming process however was rather challenging, as setting out to Grindleford with heavy equipment whilst battling the harsh weather and racing against the clock had made our final product different from what we had initially planned.
I’ve come to realise the cruciality of communication when it comes to planning and giving ideas as well as the extent of organisation skills required during pre-production planning. Back-up plans are needed if an actor fails to cooperate and this set back has made me realise the importance of time management and planning. Although Fatima and I made detailed plans and arrangements at the beginning, it was surprising how one set back was able to effect our final product as a whole. We were able to counter the problem quickly, although the solution resulted in being one person short of recording the footage and having the shots not being as we visually depicted. After many hours of familiarising myself with the softwares, I can confidently say that my editing skills on Avid and Protools have improved drastically and significantly. Editing our footage was a long and challenging process, as our experimental film required strange and bizarre transitions and tools such as colour correction and slow-motion editing.
Due to our similar personalities, I feel that Fatima and I were able to work productively and efficiently despite the obstacles and dilemmas we faced. With Fatima being more experienced with camera and recording and me with my previous experiences working with sound editing, we were able to establish our roles quickly and stick to them as well as contributing and helping one another when needed, making it an equal contribution of teamwork. We were able to comfortably communicate and bounce ideas off each other naturally.
