Ashley Gunshorn

Extended Project Evaluation

AO4: Review the Project

Time and Project Management

How did you plan your time?

Originally I produced a Gantt chart to show clearly what processes I will be carrying out on a particular date. This made it easier to plan my time effectively and complete tasks. I have also been filling in a reflective journal every week, in this journal I have been writing about what my progress in the previous week had been, how I felt about the progress I have made, what I found challenging in the week, if I had experienced any learning barriers, what strategies I used to overcome my problems, what I would consider to be successful progress in a week, what skills I have developed that week and how motivated I felt about the work I had completed in past week. I found this useful because it allowed to review all of the I have completed throughout the extended project.

AO4: Review the Project

What difficulties did you experience and how did you overcome them?

I experienced many barriers to completing my Extended Project, the first barrier I experienced was that I changed my idea about a month into the project which set me back. I also suffered from a mental barrier that left me unable to generate suitable ideas for the project, perseverance paid off in the end as I eventually came up with the documentary idea. I struggled to find accurate information about the individual units on the Creative and Media Diploma, I eventually found the correct information on the OCR website which helped a lot. Due to lack of experience on Adobe Premier Pro I struggled making smooth transitions throughout the final sequence of my final outcome, I managed to overcome by simply practising adding and editing various transitions. The most serious factor that affected me in completing my Extended Project was a networking issue with the college computer I had been working on. The computer continually crashed and stopped responding also the computer was extremely so is loading up the adobe premier pro file which wasted a lot of vital time. I had to maintain the audio levels of the music so that it didn’t play over the speech of the staff and pupils used in the video I did this by inserting key frames where necessary to ensure the audio levels were correct throughout.

Time and Project Management AO4: Review the Project

Time and Project Management

How thorough is your research?

My research has touched upon the basic entry requirements for a student considering studying the Creative and Media Diploma. The research breaks down the various different types of diplomas and the 3 different levels although I think I could of researched into a little more depth as I only touched briefly on the course overview. I have carried out detailed research into the video editing software Adobe Premier Pro , I have annotated a screen shot of the programmes interface and used a table taken from a web based source display what features have been added to each version of the software. I carried out extensive research into the framing interview of interview shots and the various interview techniques that journalists use.

AO4: Review the Project

AO4: Review the Project

Are your final outcomes what you originally intended or are they different?

My final outcome isn’t that different to how I imagined it would be. I do think I should of alternated the gender of the students through the video though as most of the students are males but this isn’t a major issue. I tried to include some diversity into the production by having a student of a mixed race background to demonstrate the college isn’t just based around one certain race of people. An unexpected bonus was that I had a coronation street actress appear in the video, Sacha Parkinson a student at the college volunteered to film a couple of scenes due to her professionalism this made it easier to film them and was carried out quickly and to a high standard. The locations used aren’t the ones I had pictured when I was thinking up the idea, especially the few scenes at the start of the video but as the video progresses the locations visually improve for the audience. I thought I would of edited the clips together a little better than I did, I don’t think I achieved the smooth free-flowing transitions I desired.

AO4: Review the Project

What skills have you developed through doing the extended project?

Through the duration of producing my Extended Project I have greatly developed my project management skills , this is the first major project I have produced individually so I had to learn quickly in doing so I understand the importance of planning thoroughly before attempting a project of this magnitude. My research skills have also developed immensely, as for this project thorough research is vital to get the higher marks. I have also developed my researching referencing skills because any research prior to this I didn’t give credit to the source of the information therefore dropping marks. My Production skills have dramatically improved as I can sequence and edit a series of video clips effortlessly, the hard part is deciding when to insert a suitable transition. I have also worked on the operation of the camera, by doing this i achieved better quality shots, this is evident as the video progresses as some of the shots are more visually stimulating. I used a sound recorder to gather feedback from a focus group that viewed my video I asked them a series of question and captured their responses on the sound recorder. I feel i have developed a variation of new skills, I have acquired new skills in all of the assessment criteria's project management, research, production & reflection.

How have audiences responded to your final outcome?

There has been a mixed response from the audience, I received some positive feedback but the majority of the feedback was negative as the audience who viewed the final outcome felt I could of improved the final outcome and gave me various details I could have improved. One member of the focus felt I could have adjust the volume of the music to suit the speech of one of the interviews a little better another member of the focus group suggested that the video lacked pictures of the creative and media students working in a classroom environment . One of the focus group members disliked the students talking straight into the camera on the video, he stated he would rather of had an interview style rather than a talking directly at the camera. I received some positive comments about the montage of images in the opening sequence and how I used various different people instead of using the same person continually throughout the video. One member of the focus group stated that he thought the script used explained the course very well. The focus group recognised that it is a promotional video for the Creative and Media Diploma.

AO4: Review the project

AO4: Review the Project

What would you do differently if you were to do the extended project again?

If I was to do the Extended Project again I would plan a lot more thoroughly as I feel planning is a particular weak point for my Extended Project. It lacks detailed planning although there is some planning there I don’t feel that there is a substantial amount to get me into the top marks. I would definitely research a lot more in depth and use far more sources such as books, magazines and newspapers as I have limited myself to only using the internet I feel I will lose several valuable marks. I think I should of explored more locations when filming as I think some of the ones I have used in the final outcome are a little boring for the audience, by changing the location it could make the video seem a lot more appealing. I would leave myself more time to gather feedback as i only managed to hold a focus group, i would of liked to create an online survey to gather many more peoples opinions about my final outcome . I would also take on board more of the advice my tutors gave to me throughout the project as they had warned me previously that the locations I was using were not suitable enough.