Evaluation

I have now reached the end of the module, and this is my last blog entry to complete all the assignments required.
In this blog entry I am going to evaluate all of my work that I have done for this module, commenting on my strengths and weaknesses, feedback I have received and how I feel I have worked.

There are some pieces of work within the module that I am pleased with and some other pieces that I am slightly disappointed with.

One of the pieces of work that I was pleased with was the Power-Point Presentation on Protecting Under 18’s within the T.V and Radio industry. In this Power-Point Presentation I looked at the different roles that OFCOM, the BBC and the BBFC play in protecting people under the age of 18. The reason I was pleased with this piece of work was because I had spent a lot of time researching different areas and I thought the Power Point was put together well. However like anything there is always room for improvement and one thing I would improve is making some of the logos on the slides a little smaller because then there would be a little more space to enlarge the text, it wouldn’t be so much of a squeeze.

Another piece of work that I was pleased with was my soap vox pops because although I hadn’t used Pro-Tools a great deal before I thought they ended up sounding quite good. I thought I had collected and edited together a variety of answers. I also received some good feedback on this piece of work. Some of the feedback I received was I had edited the answers in a good order. The answers started off short and snappy but got longer towards the end. Some of the negative feedback I received was the volume noises altered slightly in some areas of the audio.

A piece of work that I was slightly disappointed with was the Interview with Tom Cholmondeley. I personally thought it was the weakest piece of work I completed within the module. When I was editing the interview together I found it extremely difficult to try and cut it down to around two minutes but keeping content that was interesting and understandable. The interviews were conducted in groups and some of the questions asked were too quiet which meant the audio levels were all different and sounded a little odd when it came to editing them, but I think this was to do with the sound equipment we were using when recording the interview.
Some of the feedback I received from this piece of work was the questions didn’t really flow and the edits were noticeable.

The Interview I did with Kim I was quite pleased with I managed to cut her answers down so they were short but gave some interesting information. Within this interview I managed to fit in four questions, which was good because each of the answers were detailed. The thing I liked about the interview with Kim was I was able to structure it as a time-line of her career. Some of the negative feedback I received was the audio quality wasn’t great there were some faults and I could have shorten one of the answers a little more.
Overall I think I have worked well during this module I have managed my time well by attending every lesson, continuing with work outside of Uni and meeting deadlines on time. I have also been organized in getting the work done.

During this module I feel that my editing techniques have improved quite a bit. Although there are still loads I need to learn I am now able to get on with editing without thinking “OH MY GOD I don’t have a clue.”

I think one of my strengths throughout this module has been research and my blogs – research is an area I would like to go once I have completed the course. So I have particular focused on this when completing assignments.

TIMED EDIT

This Tuesday we had to complete our assignment two for the module BC1002, which was an assessed timed edit. The content in which we had to edit together was ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. In a previous seminar an actor had been arranged to come in and work with us. During this time we all went into the recording studio and each acted and recorded the voices of characters from the radio play ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. This was then the content in which we all had to edit together by cutting out mistakes, long pauses, adding some Foley and background music.
To be honest when I saw the amount of audio content there was to edit, I started to get really nervous because we had a time limit in which it needed to be edited and put on CD; but also because I haven’t used Pro Tools a great deal I began to panic that I wouldn’t know how to edit everything using all the tools. But I then found out we could choose out of three sections what section of the play we wanted to edit. Once I began editing my section it didn’t seem to bad, and I began to relax.
I still find some areas of Pro Tools difficult to use, and there are still areas of the programme I don’t have a clue how to do things but having done a variety of editing tasks throughout the beginning of the course I’m starting to know more about the programme like where things are, how you use them etc.
Throughout the assignment, the bit I found more difficult was trying to include the music. I was unsure of what music would work but also how long the music should be. In the end I did find some music from the music file given to us but I’m not too sure that the music lengths are right in some areas I they couldn’t have probably been longer and in others possibly shorter. The beginning piece of music I used was very short because I didn’t want too much music if it’s the middle part of the play. I personally think the Foley sounds better.
Before I began the course I knew nothing about Pro Tools and to be honest Editing didn’t really appeal to me. Although I have used some editing programmes like ‘Final Cut Pro’ in the past I haven’t particularly liked editing and therefore don’t particular want to be an editor when I leave the course.
However completing this assignment it made me realise an editor’s job can be extremely stressful and tiring especially if they have a tight deadline to meet, like I had on Tuesday.
It was a good opportunity to practice editing and to see what an editors job can be like. But personally I don’t think that’s an area I want to work in.