Induction Task

 When making our promotional video for our initial assessment tasks our group, made up of three people thought it would be a good idea to give ourselves each task to be in control of. We chose the roles based off what we were comfortable doing, one member of our group was comfortable using her phone to take videos and another was fairly confident using the editing software. Unfortunately, they had forgotten that I was in the group and excluded my input from the filming and editing of the video, so I separated from the group to present my work separately. My group didn’t want to push themselves too far out of their comfort zones in the first task so they opted to use software and equipment that they were comfortable with using like iMovie and a phone to film and edit the video. They wanted to learn new skills along the course and not challenge themselves learning how to use new equipment with the limited time frame which was also quite the challenge for us in the end, as we had forgotten to use sound for the video due to the push to finish it. Pre-production we opted to decide from the start that we wanted to shoot it in POV to get across our intention to make anyone watching it feel like it was them in the video.

Using a POV shot to make it feel like you were walking through the college’s door and the campus we wanted to use natural lighting from the buildings and places outdoors where we were just to make it seem that bit more professional. Editing wise we opted to use transitions to blend each clip of video we took separate so it would flow a bit better. We also included slow pans to give more of a natural feel to the video, plus it was the most natural way to work with them as it just made sense instead of just walking and shooting centre. Unfortunately, we didn’t use sound as we had ran out of time to sort it out, as we were sorting out the editing and the video until the day it was due using a phone instead of a camera came with its downsides: we found it difficult to pick up sound and make our shots steady, with the phone being so light when outside it got pretty hard to control the movement, we didn’t feel it very comfortable to operate the cameras yet as they were an alien concept to us at this point. To edit the video iMovie was used to make sure that the product looked as we intended. Premiere Pro would have been our preferred tool to edit but since no  When making our promotional video for our initial assessment tasks our group, made up of three people thought it would be a good idea to give ourselves each task to be in control of. We chose the roles based off what we were comfortable doing, one member of our group was comfortable using her phone to take videos and another was fairly confident using the editing software. Unfortunately, they had forgotten that I was in the group and excluded my input from the filming and editing of the video, so I separated from the group to present my work separately. My group didn’t want to push themselves too far out of their comfort zones in the first task so they opted to use software and equipment that they were comfortable with using like iMovie and a phone to film and edit the video. They wanted to learn new skills along the course and not challenge themselves learning how to use new equipment with the limited time frame which was also quite the challenge for us in the end, as we had forgotten to use sound for the video due to the push to finish it. Pre-production we opted to decide from the start that we wanted to shoot it in POV to get across our intention to make anyone watching it feel like it was them in the video.

Using a POV shot to make it feel like you were walking through the college’s door and the campus we wanted to use natural lighting from the buildings and places outdoors where we were just to make it seem that bit more professional. Editing wise we opted to use transitions to blend each clip of video we took separate so it would flow a bit better. We also included slow pans to give more of a natural feel to the video, plus it was the most natural way to work with them as it just made sense instead of just walking and shooting centre. Unfortunately, we didn’t use sound as we had ran out of time to sort it out, as we were sorting out the editing and the video until the day it was due using a phone instead of a camera came with its downsides: we found it difficult to pick up sound and make our shots steady, with the phone being so light when outside it got pretty hard to control the movement, we didn’t feel it very comfortable to operate the cameras yet as they were an alien concept to us at this point. To edit the video iMovie was used to make sure that the product looked as we intended. Premiere Pro would have been our preferred tool to edit but since no on the team actually knows how to use it we decided against attempting to use it since for practicality reasons, learning how to use a completely new software would have been against our allotted time we had to complete the project. A key tool that we used when editing the final piece was iMovie, we used it to layer text over certain parts of the video to provide information to our audience about what they needed to know- so like the college’s contact details and up coming events. Our only issue in this stage was with our inability to use premier pro so we substituted and opted to use iMovie instead as it was familiar to us and easier to use. Our full group didn’t exactly effectively contribute to editing the final product as I had no real say in what happened to the video while filming or editing which was an eventual downfall to our group. 

When making the promotional poster for our initial assessment task I separated from my group to make the poster by myself as the poster wasn’t a main priority for them in a way so I decided to do it myself as I wasn’t being included in the group anyway in the editing or the filming process so that was my task. However, my group already made a poster quickly while I was off making mine which frustrated me a lot judging as I had already told them that was why I wasn’t working with them. This frustrated me a lot and tore a rift in the group as I felt they didn’t typically care for me. To make my poster I used photographs that I had taken around campus during the process of filming which avoided the problem of potential copyright issues if I had used ones found online. I compiled these together in a collage like format on photoshop and used layers to put black text on top and the Sunderland college logo alongside the necessary contact details for the poster. I also used a filter on every single I used so that it was consistent throughout the poster and so that one picture wasn’t necessarily darker or less lit than another. I wanted it to appear professional so consistency was key during making the poster. I just used my phone to take the pictures and imported then into photoshop via a USB cable. I had never used photoshop before and was quite pleased that I figured out how in such a short amount of time by myself, the poster went through several first drafts but in the end I figured out to use it to the best of my ability at the time. Obviously only working on it by myself without the group I would have had, had we not split apart it would have taken a shorter amount of time and I may have been able to work on other areas like helping with the video. However, my group also made a poster without me, they used images found online and layering to accomplish there’s, using a layout and brightly colored purple text. Their poster looked good, but for them it was a short task and didn’t take much time to complete as it was more of an inconvenience than anything to them.

Overall I have learnt quite a few skills that I think will become very useful in the future such as how to use photoshop and use iMovie to a standard, obviously compared to the rest of my group I don’t have the knowledge about editing videos like they do but I have substantial knowledge to get me by, however I will probably learn how to use premier pro. I will be able to apply these to up and coming video editing tasks. If I were to do this again I would probably pick another or a better to group to be in so that I would have a completed task instead of just a poster and no video which is frustrating and I would have wanted to learn more from other people than what I have had to teach myself. As some have been on the course the previous year, it would make me happy to know that I could get help from those who have done it before.