Week 41: Programme Assignment Completed

Today I have completed the programme assignment, I submitted all my individual work such as the worksheets and evaluation and also our group folder. I finished my sample viewing results today, I wrote up the responses from my sample viewing questionnaires and represented them within graphs and placed in our group folder. The responses were positive from the questionnaires, although there were some improvements I could make to my programmes from these responses. Therefore I stated these changes within my evaluation.
Throughout this week I have completed the editing of my programmes, written my review of editing skills profile, completed my evaluation and carried out sample viewing questionnaires. Overall, I am happy with my final edits of my programmes and I have also submitted my Homework Assignment today. This included the booklet, the Research Dossier File and a Folder containing the tasks from the booklet.

Week 41: Group Work Completed and Programmes Burnt to DVD

Today we completed our group work folder, this included burning all of our individual programmes to a Group DVD. Kathleen created a DVD Menu in which we put all of our programmes for both the social action and factual programmes. Today we also organised our group folder for submission on Friday, we believe the folder is ready for submission but we will double check this on Friday and organise with a contents page and title pages. Within this folder is our programmes production work including production documents, group minutes, our proposal and also secondary research. As a group we have completed all of our work, including the filming, editing and production work. I believe we have worked well as a group, which is a point I will be discussing within my Evaluation.

Week 41: Evaluation and Sample Viewing

I have continued with my Evaluation for this assignment, I have nearly completed the Evaluation. I have included all points which need to be included within the evaluation. The points which I need to finish on this are the sample viewing results, how I responded to this feedback and what I would change if I were to repeat this project again. Through this Evaluation I have reflected on my process within this assignment, showing skills I learnt and the knowledge I have gained. I will complete the evaluation tomorrow and add the sample viewing results to the evaluation on Friday, ready for final submission.
I have started to carry out my sample viewing questionnaires. Within the time given I plan to ask 10 people to complete the questionnaires for both my factual and social action programmes. Although, I have 2 days until deadline for the whole project, I aim to get people to complete the questionnaires today and tomorrow. I can then write up the results on Friday Morning and I have then finished all of my paperwork for this assignment. I can then gain feedback from the target audience about my programmes and state in my evaluation what I could change if I were to repeat this project again related to the sample viewing feedback.
Over the next two days I will organise my folders for final submission on Friday and ensure all paperwork and worksheets are complete for my submission. This includes my Homework Assignment, Investigation Exercises and the Group Folder.

Week 41: Editing Programmes in Premiere Pro Completed and Final Production Work Update

Editing Continued in Premiere Pro: I have now completed both my Factual and Social Action Programmes in Premiere Pro. I have edited the programmes together and I believe they represent my skills and knowledge within Premiere Pro and the skills which I have gained throughout past assignments. I am happy with the Factual Programme, focusing on Gadgets and their Affect on Students, as I believe this shows a clear format of a factual programme. The way in which I believe I have been able to create this structure factual programme is from my research in pre-production stage. This shows how important the reports and research which I had to carry out at the beginning of the assignment is, as I needed to understand what a factual programme is and how it is structured. This is the same with my Social Action Programme, I am happy with my final Social Action Programme and I believe it portrays the message we wanted to show clearly. As with the factual programme, both programmes have a clear structure, with facts and figures, Vox Pops and Interviews and Archive Footage.

I will also be carrying out a sample viewing questionnaire tomorrow, I will be able to gain feedback from the primary target audience of students and also secondary audience of parents for both programmes. By carrying out these questionnaires I can gain feedback from the audience who the programmes are aimed at, I can then see what improvements I could make if I were to repeat this project again. I will therefore state these improvements and sample viewing results within my Evaluation.

I have also been continuing my Evaluation for this assignment. Now that I have completed my editing I can go into detail within the evaluation with my knowledge and skills I have learnt within Premiere Pro and how I have developed existing skills. This evaluation will focus and reflect on my process throughout this project, including the pre-production stage (with my group work and individual work), production stage and post-production stage of reviewing my work.
I have also completed my Editing Skills Profile Review, which reflects on the initial skills I wanted to gain in terms of editing. I have related back to my targets and explained if I have achieved these and how I have achieved these targets through this project. I have created a page on this blog for my editing skills profile and review of the skills I have gained.

Over the next two days I will completed my sample viewing and results and also my Evaluation. As a group we will also be burning our final programmes to a DVD for final submission.

Week 40: Editing Continued and Evaluation Started

I have been continuing editing both my factual programme and social action programme. I have imported the soundtrack to the opening title of the programme, this was added the animation which I created in Photoshop. This animation has the effect of type writing, which fits in with the theme of the programme as it is about gadgets and is called 'Tech-NO-Logic'. I have nearly completed editing the factual programme, I need to import one more piece of footage to go with a voice over which I have in the programme.
I have also continued to edit my Social Action and Community Programme, I have now added all the footage with the voice overs. I now need to concentrate on cutting the programme down, I have all the footage which I need and the programme is 1 minute and it needs to be 30 seconds. Therefore I will need to look at the programme and see which footage I could cut down, with the programme still making sense to the viewer.
I have also started to complete my Evaluation, within the Evaluation I am reflecting on my progress through this assignment. This includes working within a group, skills developed, knowledge acquired and what I would change if I were to repeat this project. I have started to plan out my Evaluation with the points which I need to include within the evaluation. Over the next week I will continue to complete this document and I will also complete my Editing Skills Profile Review and Sample Viewing.

Week 40: Editing Programmes in Premiere Pro Started

This week I have started to edit my programmes, as a group we have decided to individually create the 1 1/2 minute factual programme. Therefore we will have 3 different versions of the factual programme, we decided to create individual programmes instead of creating 30 seconds of the programme each.
I have therefore begun to edit my factual programme, this was the programme highlighting the affect gadgets have on students. This include video diaries, vox pops from students and experts. So far I have created a 2 minute factual programme, I believe this highlights the focus of the programme and uses the footage we have well. On Tuesday I did come over a problem, as within a Factual Programme there are names which appear under the person in the programme. I created these within Photoshop, but when I saved the file as a PNG and imported it into Premiere Pro it did not appear. I did resolve the problem, by clicking the box which said 'scale to frame size' the graphic then appeared above over my footage. I will update my contingency plan with the problems which we have come across as a group and individually. I have nearly completed editing the programme and I am considering whether to use a soundtrack for the introduction, which is an aspect I will consider for the programme.

I have also started to edit my 30 second social action programme, this highlighted the issue of the rise in student university fees. This also includes vox pops from students, experts and parents, I have also included some archive footage of the protests. I will continue to edit this on Friday and also finish editing my Factual Programme, by importing the soundtrack.

Screenshot of Factual Programme in Premiere Pro

Screenshot of timeline within Premiere Pro Project

Week 39: Editing Skills Profile Completed and Assignment Update

I have now completed my Editing Skills profile for this project. I have created a page on this blog and posted this skills profile. This skills profile shows my understanding and existing knowledge within editing for the three stages of production (pre production, production and post production). I explained my existing skills and knowledge surrounding the areas of editing and also set myself targets which I want to achieve throughout this assignment. The skills which I want to develop include my skills within Premiere Pro CS3 and Critically Evaluating my work in terms of editing so I now how to improve it. At the end of this assignment I will review this skills profile as to see whether I have achieved the targets which I originally set.

Overall, this week our group has worked well together to film both of our programmes. I believe we have worked well and that within the first part of the production stage (filming) we have evenly assigned shots which we will film. I have also completed the Shot Log, and have written this up as this shows the shots which each person has filmed on each day, for both programmes. An advantage which we had was that the people who the subjects were about for both programmes were the same, therefore we could interview the same people for both the factual programme and social action community programme. We have now got all the rushes to start editing our programmes within Premiere Pro CS3, we have also got voice overs to add to the programmes as well. Another consideration for the editing process is creating PSD's for the names which will appear by the participants name in the programme, the PSD is then imported into Premiere Pro. Next week I will start editing the programme together and we will also have another group meeting to discuss how our editing process is going. We also to make sure we have all the correct planning documents for both programme for our group folder for both programmes.

Week 39: Programme Update and Problems which have Arisen and How we Dealt with them.

Today we finished filming both our Factual Programme and Social Action & Community Programme. We had a few more shots to film today for our programmes, these shots included the facts and figures which will appear in our Factual programme. We decided to create a different and 'low tech' effect of having the figures for the programme written on a board and this will be shown within the programme with the voice over. We also filmed one final shot for our Social Action programme, we tried to create the effect of money falling, to show the fact that this programme is highlighting the rise in tuition fees. Therefore this will clearly show this with the money falling, although the shot did not turn out as good as we expected, therefore when we edit the shot we could use slow motion so it is clear to the audience.

Problems which have Arisen:
Today we also downloaded and converted our footage from our camera using the programme, AVS Video Converter 6. We had a slight problem for the 1st Hour of the lesson as we did not have the correct settings for the footage to convert correctly.Therefore the converted footage was just sound, so we resolved this problem as quick as possible and changed the settings on the video converter. Once we had done this we realised how time consuming this had become and that we did not realise how long the footage would take to convert. We did have enough time within the lesson to convert all of the footage, so we have converted the footage to AVI's ready to use in Premiere Pro.
On Friday we need to copy all of the rushes from the hard drive onto our other hard drives so we can all start editing the programmes. As a group we also need to record our voice overs for both programmes, I have written voice over guidelines, and we will record these to use with the footage we have filmed.

AVS Video Converter Logo

We also had a group meeting today and discussed some other production documents which need to be completed. At the beginning of the assignment we were unsure whether we needed to create a script and shooting script for our programmes. Therefore today we decided to complete the script and shooting script, this changed our initial tasks which we would complete:
Shooting Script: Factual Programme: Hannah (I decided I could complete the shooting script as I had already completed the script for the factual programme, therefore I could create the shooting script as well)
Script: Social Action Programme: Kathleen
Shooting Script: Social Action Programme: Ben
We have had many changes to our production schedule throughout this assignment, as we were unsure about the script and shooting script we decided to split the risk assessment and call sheet documents between us. This has been shown on our production schedules which we have kept record of throughout this assignment as a group and as individuals.

Week 39: Film and Video Editing Techniques Worksheet Completed and Homework Assignment Completed

I have now also competed my film and video editing techniques worksheet. This worksheet asked me to research and show my own knowledge surrounding film and video editing techniques. I created a timeline with the key dates from 1900- 2011 in terms of editing techniques. Through creating this timeline I have gained more knowledge about the different techniques and gave me ideas of the techniques I could use within creating my programmes.
Within this worksheet I also had to highlight and explain 5 main editing techniques. These included: 180 degree rule, Jump Cuts, Continuity, Cross Cutting and Point of View Shot. I explained each technique and showed examples of these techniques being used in existing movies.

Homework Assignment Completed:

I have also completed the 3rd and final task of the homework assignment. This task focused on my future career plans, the tasks which were included were:

• CV
• Covering Letter
• Portfolio of Existing Relevant Work
• Career Path Document for the Next 15 Years
• PowerPoint showing Steven Spielberg's Career

I have completed these tasks for the final task and within the work for the portfolio I have included, current College Assignment Work and GCSE Media Production Work. Through completing this task I have a clearer idea of the career path and how I would achieve my future goals. I have researched into the the job of a journalist and what qualifications I need. I have also seen how a successful director has followed his own path, without the best qualifications and has created many memorable movies.
Within the whole of this homework assignment I have gain more knowledge into how the media industry works including:

• Different Companies such as ITV and The Walt Disney Company with how much they own and what companies they are in corporation with.
• The legal and ethical regulations within the media: Different regulators such as TV and Film.
• Different Media Acts such as The Broadcasting Act 1990 and Human Rights Act 1998.

Overall, this homework assignment has given me a clearer understanding of how the media industry works.

Week 39: Filming Started: Factual Programme and Social Action & Community Programme

Yesterday (6th June) we started filming our programmes, we have booked the camera out for 3 days from 6th June to 8th June. We managed to film most of our Social Action programme yesterday and the elements which this included were:

• Student Vox Pops: Their opinion on the rise in University Fees
• Expert Vox Pop
• Parents Opinions on the Rise in University Fees
• Introductions to the programme and the Vox Pops
• Images of Students holding signs with their opinion on this subject

As a group we have filmed and participated within the filming of this programme, this is the 30 second social action and community programme for this assignment. Therefore in terms of how many people we asked to participate in terms of students was 5, this was because we figured we could gain enough footage for the Vox Pops with 5 students.

Factual Programme
We also began to film our factual programme showing the affect gadgets and technology has on students. Whilst filming students for the Vox Pops on our social action programme, we also asked the same students to participate in our factual programme. The reason why we asked the same students was because for both programmes the audience is the same and both programme subjects affect all students. The elements which we have filmed for this 1 1/2 minute programme include:

• Student Vox Pops
• Expert Opinion
• Diary Entries from the experiment
• Footage of students using gadgets

From this we now need to concentrate on other element, which is photos of new and old gadgets, this includes the old mobile phone and the newest mobile, such as the iPhone.
We have also filmed links for the different parts within the programme, we believed this would benefit the programme, by having ourselves talking to the camera. We will still have some voice overs within the programme, when still images are being shown and for the summary on the social action programme.
I believe as a group we have worked well within the production stage of filming and tomorrow we will complete our filming and download our footage to the computer and convert the footage ready to import into Premiere Pro CS3.

Week 38: My Individual Group Tasks Completed and Homework Assignment Completed

I have now completed all of my group tasks for our factual programme and our social action and community programme. The tasks which I have completed include:
Factual Programme Tasks:

• Script: (Although we do not need a script for the factual programme, as it will mainly be voice overs within the programme itself.)
• Treatment

Social Action and Community Programme:

• Shooting Schedule
• Risk Assessment and Securing Resources: I have completed the risk assessment for the social programme and we have also booked out the camera for next week (6th June- 8th June), which shows the securing resources for the camera.

Proposal Research:
I have also completed my part of the proposal, we gave each other set tasks to research into the final product. We have decided to combine both programme ideas into one proposal, as the guidelines for both programmes is similar and has the same aspects within the proposal. Such as: Target Audience, Similar Existing Products, Legal and Ethical Considerations and Budget. As a group we are writing the proposal, the tasks which I have completed are:

• Target Audience
• Techniques- Filming (location and editing)

Homework Assignment Completed
I have also completed my Homework Assignment booklet. I have completed the final task which includes my Personal Career Development, the tasks included: Researching into a well known figure within the Film Making Industry, my own Career Development Path for the next 15 years, Creating a CV and Covering Letter in response to a job advertisement along with a portfolio of my current work.

• I have researched into Steven Spielberg's career and how he became such a well known director and created a PowerPoint to graphically represent his career.
• Created my Career Path Document for the next 15 Years: Goal: To become a Journalist for a well known magazine.
• Created a CV and Letter in response to the Job advert for a Junior Production Assistant in a Television and Film unit. I have also gathered my current work in relation to media studies, which will be attached to the letter and my CV.

I now need to complete my Video and Editing Worksheet and my Editing Skills Profile, which will show my skills within Premiere Pro and editing so far and the skills I would like to gain through this project.