Self Analysis: A Final Full Sail Discussion Board Post

Did the finished piece come out as you envisioned? Was it better or worse?
​For the most part, the piece came out as I envisioned. People gave the answers I was hoping they would, which would create the narrative of the film. As far as B-roll goes, I thought I had a lot of great shots to work with. One Vote is a really beautifully shot documentary and the footage I got from the festivals will, I hope, help build hype for the film. The interview footage was okay. I really like the Hiser family and Brenda Williams footage. I’m pretty proud of that. On the flip side, the Bondy family’s footage still drives me nuts. It’s just a little to yellow and hot for my liking.  I wish I had had time to interview Christine Woodhouse instead of just using her footage from the Q&A. No one is as good as her when it comes to speaking about the film and what it means. She’s done a great job selling this concept to people, including myself, so I think she would have been great to interview, even though she is always hesident too.

How did your attitude, logic and behaviors influence your performance?
This definitely had an impact on the performances. I think the shoots went smoothly because of my ability to plan and use logic. I always try to over prepare. One of my main goals is to never make life difficult for my talent, especially when they are working for free. Once Bob sat down, (I interviewed him first), I should have changed the lighting a bit, but didn’t until he was done because I didn’t want to inconvenience him. I thought,  “I’ll fix it in post” In the next round of interviews, the Hiser Family, I fixed the lighting in between the switch off. I need to learn to be more pushy. Had I been more pushy, I also would have Christine’s interview.

What worked? What didn’t?
Outside of the Bondys’ interviews, I’m very proud of my lighting, especially considering what I was working with. I was sick at the time as well. I used to be pretty shy, so I’m impressed with myself for doing friendly, hopefully comfortable interviews with people I had only met briefly before. I thought my use of B-roll was impactful. Finally, I’m very happy with my audio mix.

What concepts/techniques do you still need to learn?
Audio levels is something I hope to learn more about as well as making footage broadcast safe. I do feel like this class helped with this a lot, I just feel I won’t really get it until I practice it several more times. Even just while making the Video Resume for this class, I felt like I knew what to do, more than ever before. I just need to practice it until it’s second nature. My plan is to eventually make a demo reel of my color corrections.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?
I do still have a little bit of an “I’ll fix it in post” mentality. This is something I want to work on getting rid of and I’ve made a lot of progress. Some of my strengths are logistics and planning that go into a shoot. I enjoy pre production and post production, which I think are often viewed as less fun. I have a never give up attitude which is very important when it comes to getting film related stuff done, as well as breaking into this industry.

If given more time, what could you have done differently to improve the outcome of your project?
With more notice, I would have got more interviews with the cast and built a better story. I only had one day to shoot. Omaha and Chicago are not represented via interviews in my behind the scenes look because they couldn’t attend the Nashville film festival. This interviews would have made it more interesting and longer.

How will you approach similar situations in the future?
It will be nice to not be as rushed in future projects, like it was being in school (of course, there will be exceptions). I think I will approach similar situations like I did this project; with lots of planning and creativity. The only difference is I think will be that I will buy a clapper. Then I can set the whites and blacks at the time and if I have an issue, it will be so much easier to fix in post, since I’ll have a black and white to reference. I think Full Sail is a lot like a boot camp. If you can survive it, you’ll be ready for almost anything.