EVE August

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At the end of the year we are finishing up all our projects with one big one our Final Major Project which we are all Four months to research, write, film and then edit. The first idea that came to my mind was a documentary or a short film on the subject of Social Media, why did I choose that subject well because social media is a big part of my life and I know I get picked on at times for always being on my phone but I know when theres a limit to how much time you need to have on social media so I wanted to show how good and bad it is. I didn't wanna make the video just to show how bad social media is and how we should get rid of it all because the wouldn't need to happen, it helps a lot in this world. At first. I thought of making a Poetic documentary but I struggled to find a poem that suited my behalf for this project. The type of videos I make always have many visuals to it so it would be a poetic type of video. Going with the types of documentary between an observational and reflexive since it is observing people around the world but with use of words behind it and with interviews of the peers in my college class. The peers in my college class had been asked a couple questions I have written down starting with the big question "Does social media make you happy?" I had gotten many different opinions which helped a lot in this project. Seeing that they were thinking more about the thought of social media more then just joking around and not knowing what to say. The first thing I did was research up a few videos on social media seeing a couple of short films made and documentaries on it. We decided to have a focus group for us all to discuss our ideas and see where everyone was at and give some feedback. I got some good feedback about the ideas even showing them the one youtube video I searched up called "Look up: by Gary Turk. The were putting good thoughts into my head saying I would be about to make a good video just like that knowing the type of videos I have recently been making and the visuals I have used. I went straight to my notebooks that I had bought for this project which I haven't done before since I have always relied on my computer but this time I felt I use paper more then I use computer I think more when writing on paper as you can see from my research essay, I had written it all in my notebook then transferred it to typing it up on my laptop. 

I was feeling happy about how quickly I found an idea to do and since it was a documentary that we hadn't even been taught this year I felt that it was smart of me to try something new. Two other people in my college class decided to make a documentary type of video which I have seen and think are very good. I learnt from watching the way the year twos had made there documentaries and what Julian would teach them during the time we were all in the same classroom together on that day. I already had a image of what my documentary would look like slightly similar to the look up video with a few visuals of acting like the people that meet, the one in my video is someone looking down at their phone whilst with someone thats one image I have had in my brain all the time with this subject. I had a feeling that I would struggle coming along with finding a script to go by for the video but I soon wrote a few sentences I thought should be recorded over visuals but I still had people to interview so that I could go either way using the interviews and voice overs together which ended up using a couple. I felt like my video needed more visuals to it about the world and serious social media, so thats why I decided to screen record news I found about social media and also a recording over searching up what social media is for the start of my video to make it show more of what the video is about. Near the middle of the project i did feel little stressed since I had trouble finding music which I should have searched for before the filming. it was a struggle I had during editing.In the end of my video I feel it does get way to epic which would be one of the improvements. In the end I felt like I could have filmed more but I didn't want the video to drag to much with two much visuals.

What was good about this project is I felt more organised with my notebooks and quickly finding an idea to do for my final major as I thought I would struggle to find what I felt would be simple to make for a last project of the year. I didn't want it to be to much paperwork for me to stress over but I did get a good amount of paper work done like pre production, risk assessment I did have a struggle with, mood board was easy just a few pictures of people being interviewed and then some people with there phones, social media etc. Location recce was not that hard since didn't really have a exact location except the studio and then around Taunton. Film shots and equipment was very a much needed piece of paper work made sure to have written down before filming. The information that everyone had kept saying in their interviews made me have a good feeling of how my video would go since they said some moving and what people would say "Thought Provoking" as a few people had said in some feedback across to the video. I could just imagine where about I would place the video. I think that the intro was something I already had planned since I like to have something at the start of the video to show a little snip of whats to come even though most of the interviews they didn't talk bout what they said at the start but gives them a idea of what they feel since the first question was asked about if social media made them happy. 

One thing that I feel went bad in this project was the audio for the interviews some were very clear I got some feedback about the audio as well "so some of the music was over the voice which you couldn't really hear much of what was said" which I feel my audio was perfectly fine in the editing but I may think that when you turn the volume up on your computer you can tell the music is higher then the persons audios. I didn't really check after the second time I change the font on the end credits but it seems that one of the last names aren't capitalised and one of them the I didn't really separate from the other words. but since I posted it and has so many views I didn't wanna delete it and watch me get not as many views on it. I know I shouldn't care about what views I get but its good to know how my video is out there and how many people decide to watch it and give feedback towards it. 

What I can make of the situation is that I had many things go good about this project it was more organised then the others I have recently done in the year. I can make of the bad problems I have to make sure I double check what I'm doing. What I feel might have helped is the research I found over the year from observing the year twos doing their documentary unit helped me figure out away I could make a good video for my end of year major. Although I couldn't look into the types of documentaries that my teacher had wanted to show us but I was able to have the help of the internet. Making up my research essay. Something that I feel I could have helped myself bit more was finding the right music track which I feel I should find myself pending more time on that but even though I did enjoy the music I had for this documentary I believe it was to epic near the end and the audio levels weren't accurate. 

Now I see that I have a lot of improvements I could make but I am glad about the way my project had turned out, I've had the best feedback from family and friends saying how its such a thought provoking and very well made video. I didn't expect if to get such good marks for it but I'm happy that what I had imagined before starting the unit that my video turned out the way I had imagined every single bit from the voice overs to the story behind it and the screen recordings. I wanted to make a video about the meaning of social media, the good and bad things about it, not just to make you stop using it but to make it known. 

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