Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I believe I have learnt masses about technologies throughout the process of making this final media product. To say it bluntly, I was not the sharpest tool in the box when it came to computers and working with software such as Premier Pro or After Effects, yet I feel, being almost at the end of my final product, that I have become very much familiar with software, and indeed some of the hardware, involved in making my final media product.

To start with, the use of computers was never my strong point, and it was clear that, although ideas may have been radiating from my head, that I may find it difficult to animate them into the masterpieces which I imagine. Here are is my first attempt at an After Effects animation, in which we tried to re-make the beginning of the 'Teletubbies' opening sequence.

As you can see, there was plenty of room for improvement as transitions were jumpy and not in sync. However, from this I have been able to develop my skills and use them effectively into my final piece. One of the main aspects which I took away from this was perhaps the use of key frames which enabled me to control when and how images, and in fact anything on the screen, would appear, evidently becoming essential towards the creation of my title sequences of my final film opening, not to mention the creation of my company ident which would also be a crucial aspect of my film opening, Here is my final ident version, which allows you to see the development of my skills using the software. So, here is one area which I have learned and developed my skills.

I believe that, in order to get an idea of how I far I have come, we must go right back to the start to when editing was a new horizon. Here is my very first piece of editing, which involved an opening of a film in the genre 'Thriller', titled 'Homecoming'.

My cutting was dis-jointed and didn't really have a flow. I included little use of effects and no transitions between cuts, which I have been able to manipulate and use in my more recent pieces. Another area which I was inexperienced at was cooperating foley sounds into my work. As you can see in the 'Homecoming' piece, sound was a bit of an issue, especially when some sounds were louder than others, making listening to it a rather unpleasant experience. This is demonstrated more clearly in this clip which was made following an exercise using the 180 degree rule during a shot-reverse shot sequence.

Here, sounds was definitely an issue. However, I have been able to develop my understanding of the software to introduce relevant, balanced audio.

 This was a task set by our teacher to introduce foley sounds into our work successfully. This was definitely a learning curve for me, as not only is it something which I had never done before, but it would also allow me to improve every piece of work which I would do in the future. This task also allowed me to demonstrate some other aspect which I had developed; such as including transitions between shots, and my overall editing skills.

So, in conclusion, I have learned an awful lot about technologies from the process of constructing this product. I have developed my editing skills, animation skills, navigation of software and application of sound. Not to mention my handling of the camera (if you hadn't noticed).