LO4: Evaluation

a) Outline the production process...

To develop our product, we needed to initially plan what we wanted from it, which we did through the creations of storyboards and ideas for different camera angles. For this we also had to talk to other people working on The Games Corner as a source for material (e.g. inspiration for set style of the show from the style of our peers work and equipment such as the camera, microphone recorder and the prizes were provided for us). Once we had collected and planned all essential assets we started recording, following our initial ideas as closely as possible. With our footage/recordings we were able to upload and edit them to create our final product.

b) What were the key decisions made? (e.g. locations, camera angles, sound, editing)?

Some of the key decisions made were the choices in where we would shoot certain images; Our original ones were shot on set, others were filmed at another location, but the background was not significant or noticeable for what were filming.

Matt and I also had large discussion on how we would film the prizes. We felt that the panning shots we created worked well for our segment, as it presented all the items at the same time without staying on a single still image. We experimented with different angles to create new and interesting visuals. One shot involved me filming a shirt, being held up by Matt, which was then dropped,  as we planned on reversing this to add a surreal, eye-catching image of one of the prizes.

We chose from the start that anything we filmed, the audio would be removed in editing so that it could be replaced with a voice-over. The voice-over was required to ask the question and give information on entering, meaning it needed it to be heard clearly so we didn't want to risk disrupting it with background noise from the other pieces of footage.

c) What changes were made?

Many changes were made in editing, such as clips being shortened, sped up, reversed, or removed from the final piece all together. There are multiple reasons for why these changes might have been made - It could be to make sure the segment doesn't take up any more time than is needed, or if the original recorded footage didn't look right or didn't work compared to the other recorded footage. 

One example of this is the shot of a falling shirt, which we reversed to add it's surreal rising effect. We then removed the resolution to change the clip to black and white as we could not adjust the lighting whilst having it maintain a professional quality in appearance. Finally, after editing it and placing it amongst the other pieces of usable footage, we decided to remove it from the final piece, as we felt it wasn't needed as we already had other footage of that shirt and it looked out of place compared to all the coloured footage.

All the shots had to be short or sped up, as the viewer competition is only a short segment of the show. These editing decisions allowed for us to display all the prizes quickly to suit the short time gap. The only used shot which wasn't edited to be shorter was an out of focus still shot of the prizes, which served as a background to the texts graphics of the question and information. We didn't use moving visuals in the background to avoid distracting viewers from the text.

Though we followed the storyboard as a shot plan, and had lines read directly read from our own original script, the final product is not how I envisioned it. Admittedly, I knew that production on this would be difficult at times, so I'm not surprised that it isn't perfect; changes had to be made along the way for different reasons, reliability on others can sometimes be an issue, and there's only so much we could achieve with our limited editing ability. Despite this, I am still satisfied with what we have achieved as although it is not how I imagined it, it still beats my expectations of how the final product would turn out.

Matt and I made sure that our segment, whilst remaining our own original product, matched the theme and style of the other segments and the rest of the show. For the voice-over we achieved the match is tone, informality and line delivery by getting Jordon Turner, one of the show's hosts, to record the lines.
We also took inspiration for visuals by looking at the graphics designed and created by another student. These graphics were based upon the 8-bit style of retro video games, which made sense for a show about video games. We included this graphic style into our own work, creating 8-bit graphics and text that appear in the foreground at the end of our segments.

d) What was the quality of the camera framing, editing, audio?

The footage appeared suitable, although we originally had an issue with it when we first tried to edit it as the fame size wasn't correct. However, we were able to correct this issue by adjusting the frame size in Premier. 

We sometimes had some issues with the audio when recoding the voice overs. So, to avoid error, had who ever was talking for the voice over to speak clearly so they could be heard and understood on the recording. We also had them repeat their scripted lines for multiple takesso that we had a selection, choosing the best to use on the final product.

e) Comparison of the final production to the original idea. Has it realised features of the script/storyboard?

Many changes were made when developing this product, but roughly, it is still the basic idea for a competition segment that we were hoping to achieve that features all essential information whilst still being presented in a creative and stylised way suitable for the medium that it was created for.

f) Related to target audience? prime time, daytime TV, appropriate for pre- or post-watershed 

So that our segment's appearance also shared a similar style to the show, we filmed the shots of the prizes on the Games Corner set; although the set wasn't visible within these shots, we were able to look at it close up and interpret the design into our own piece (e.g. the mixed up style of the prizes was based on the mixed up posters on set.)

g) Identify the areas for improvement, focusing on strengths and weaknesses.

We could have improved our final piece by including extra visuals that should have presented the prizes in a more spectacular style, making them appear impressive to viewers and therefore making them want to enter the competition to have chance to win the impressive looking prizes.

Again, to make the competitions more interesting and appealing, we could have also re-recorded the voice-overs to make them sound overly enthusiastic about the competitions/prizes. This would make it sound like an exciting segment of the show, and thus make viewers interested to watch and maybe enter.

However, I am still satisfied with the final product as it still presents the prizes through some fairly exciting visuals whilst experimenting with camera shot angles and editing. We also made sure that all required information was included, and that we developed our own graphics for the segment.