Evaluation

The concept for our work was developed through mind maps and discussion, with some ideas failing, we started to think about places we visit everyday, so simply my kitchen automatically came to mind. With this, Chris and I went in and looked around, obviously the usual utensils and appliances were there, but we saw the fish bowl that my flat mate was bought for his birthday. From this we kept developing the idea, thinking about what does a fish see throughout the day, Does it care?

Is it actually aware of anything?
How does it see things?

What does it hear?

How does it hear?

From these simple questions we formed an idea, attending Debbie’s tutorial did help with the idea processes, Debbie suggested the film Rumble Fish. We had a look at it, In one scene everything is black and white apart from the fish. This sparked ideas about editing a film.

The project has small hints of humour, all though not intended, this isn’t necessary a bad thing, some would say it comes with the territory of fish. With the editing it is clear that it is a experimental film/sound piece, I feel an audience of 18 – 30 would enjoy it the most, due to the technical sounding nature of the piece, plus the use of students in the film and sound piece does narrow the audience range. When researching fish, and how they have been filmed in the past, I found that the animated Pixar film, Finding Nemo was useful. In this film one scene that I blogged about previously was useful (the dentist scene), to my surprise, this film inspired me a lot, in some ways it motivated me.

In terms of my sound work, I feel Chris and I should of planned it more in advance, instead of turning up and 'winging' it. This would of made for more time on our film piece although I am happy with the film. I feel one thing that worked especially well in terms of the sound piece and the sound in the film was the effect that was applied to the sound in Sound Track Pro, it really does give that atmospheric effect we wanted, I feel it amplifies the sense of space you get, making the audience more aware of the initial aim of the piece. A thing that if I/we could do the project again would to do with the colour correction. When editing the film we wanted everything to be monochrome apart from the fish, this would be fairly easy to do if there weren’t objects of the same colour as the fish around it. As you edit the colour for this you have to select a colour to 'highlight' for it to become visible through the monochrome background, but during filming, there were bright orange Sainsburg's bags in the background, as well as red chairs. This made it very hard for us to get the perfect colour effect we wanted. One thing that when especially well on our shoots are the shots that we didn't expect to get, at times we would let the camera roll, even by accident sometimes, from this we found that we would get the most out of the fish. Stereotypically, fish are quite boring, but with the zoom lens we hired from stores, we could really capture the details of the fish, it's gills, mouth and tail were main focus's for us. These aspects of the fish were something we never considered in the pre production stages of the project.

On our first sound recording session, we started to experiment in terms of how to create the distinct underwater sounds we were looking for, firstly talking to the editor, Chris, he thought he could create effect in after effects. After recording some sound, Chris tried manipulating the sounds but they turned out every echoey, and wasn’t the sound we wanted, it had a very extraterrestrial sound. We met and discussed whether we could make these sounds in the actually practical process of recording. Researching sound in films such as,Finding Nemo, The Abyss and Jaws we found that we could use a hydrophone, after experimenting with this, we came to the conclusion that that wasn’t the way forward, it just sounded very 'deep water' sounding, with the sounds that we were trying to produces not being picked up.

After more research, we found an article discussing how other sound technicians have created sounds similar to the ones we were looking for, so we tried this. There ideas were based around using a condom over a general use microphone, and putting this in the fish bowl and interacting with it. To our surprise this worked, we experimented with fish food, splashes and conversations underwater.

In terms of the film, this was a little harder to produce, obviously with us already having the sound track, it was a little pressure off us, but the aim was the realistically portraying a room through the fish. The problem was establishing the fish as a character that the audience could somehow connect to. We decided on using some Point Of View shots with some close ups of the fish. The issue with Point Of View shots was that when we put the camera in the fish bowl, you couldn’t actually see the glass so it was pointless, so we decided just to film hand held then apply an after effect to create the effect of the action being viewed from the point of the fish. I was officially the camera operator, but as a team Chris and I both contributed to the practical filming of the piece, two of us were needed on the shoot to assemble the jigs to allow us to shoot extreme angles, for example a particular angle were you see the water pouring in the bowl. This was shot from below, so we balanced the bowl on two chairs, although this was a risk, it worked and created a great shot.

From this project, I have learnt many things, with it being our first real project with ideas created and developed our selfs there was many things that went wrong, from this I have learnt more things than if it went perfectly. Firstly I have learnt that planning is key, one thing I regret from this project is jumping straight into it without a thought of 'How are we actually going to film (or record) this?'. After experimentation I feel we could of planned the sounds clearly, this would of saved us a lot more time in the long run. The same applies to the film, even more so, if a detailed storyboard was produced, and stuck to, outlining every shot, it would of saved so much time on the day of the shoot, leaving is more time for editing or experimenting. So one major thing I shall apply to later projects is the importance of planning.

Secondly, although I was not the editor, I feel I have learnt skills to do with post production. With the nature of our vision and the practicality of it, it was important as a team that we understood were we both stood, as Chris was the editor, he had his ideas and methods of doing things, I on occasions I watched his work and contributed with ideas, I technically learnt out to apply colour correction and now have a rough idea of how to highlight a colour, it is definitely something to consider looking into and experimenting on my own with. Throughout the stages of experimenting, one thing I have learnt is to never dismiss an idea without trying it, this may not be a skill, but in terms of the sound piece, we got the best results by putting a condom over a microphone, and the results were great in my opinion. In this project, we really have gained the best results through trying out ideas, no matter how tedious or stupid they may seem at first glance. As I mentioned before sometimes by accident we would capture shots that we didn't think would normally work, but these led us to greater shots, I have learnt that accident can lead to great things, so I shouldn't dismiss them without a thought.

As a team, overall I feel Chris and I worked well as a team, in the early stages of production I feel we could of planned more, but that isn’t really a criticism of our teamwork. Generally we both contributed equally, at times Chris did some camera work, but this was key to project our ideas and vision into the camera. Our weaknesses when it comes to team work are that when we stuck with an idea, we would not take verging or altering from it lightly, this made for a strong team in some aspects, but whether that trait is a good one for a team, I do not know. I feel I, as an individual could improve my teamwork skills by considering others ideas more, before dismissing them for my own. I do feel as if I listen, I just think maybe its the thinking about an others idea and developing that before putting my own onto the table and forcing that into play maybe more than I should.

Overall I feel the project was successful, with no major problems in terms of team work. We created in my opinion, some great work, experimenting with methods I wouldn't normally approach. This project has definitely taught me things to apply to later projects, and reflect onto my peers when creating other films or pieces. With the planning being partly rushed but the experimenting being quite thorough, there are parts of the project I would of changed but saying this, the outcome has successful portrayed our vision.