Evaluation for IEA 2017-2018

For the past 3-4 months of IEA, my designated role(product technician) has taught me many new skills that helped me go through the past months like organization and possibly teamwork. During this period of time, my main objective was to mainly film b-roll and a-roll footage for the IEA video and also to obviously learn new skills like camera equipment and methods of capturing better quality images or footage. In my opinion, I think that I applied some of the skills from last year like teamwork with others that I've never met before which is important because in the future everyone will have to at least once work with someone they have never met before whether they are older or younger. To my information, people like me have doing more complicated roles compared to last year as most people started from easy roles like the information designer and title sequence to a more difficult roles like editor and my role the product technician.

After starting to get used to working with new group members again, I noticed I felt more confident and open when it comes to group discussion which is very important because this means I have improved and became better compared to last year and this means that I can contribute to the group more confidently. I think that everyone in the group contributed a lot as we kept sharing ideas and in the end we never had any group members that were unable to meet deadlines, but in the end with groups like these there will always be some conflict around opinions which results in arguments, this can be improved if we listen to each other and not ignore other the ideas of other group members. This course is very similar to real life situations where you have to get out of your comfort zone and work with other people whether they are older or younger than you, because of this I think I should become more open-minded as well as being more confident.

In the end, if maybe I can do more extra work for the group, it would be a little bit more convenient for the group because since I do most of the recording, more b-roll footage will be better for the video. I have learned the effects of how confidence can help you work with stranger and get work easily done as without it the you contribute as much since you would be shy and have no idea what you’re doing. Overall, to improve I think I should do work early on before the deadline as sometimes this is an issue and can but a lot of stress in my life.

Originality and Creativity

The clips shown above are the B-roll footage I took, I have shown my skills in pan and tilt. I used these skills for the B-roll because it is more interesting than just a boring 5 second long video that is not moving at all but pan and tilt give it that effect of something new or interesting. In this case, audio besides music or narration won't be necessary because the object that is being filmed doesn't produce sound at all. I also used a tripod for stability because nobody wants to see unstable, unprofessional shots.

I didn't find a lot of changes during the shooting as me and my group have all the supplies and equipment need for the shoot but the only issue was that the room that the videos that were recorded in was very small so sometimes shoes were accidentally captured while recording. This can be improved by recording some place else.

During the shooting, I have shown my skills in filming when I used the following skills: Medium shot, pan and tilt. I have shown these following skills in my A-roll and B-roll footage. For my A-roll, I only just the medium shot because it is such a useful shot when it comes to interviews as it shows enough of the target we are filming(basically the person we interviewed)to engage the audience and also it doesn't the target too big or too small and this is proved by the A-roll footage that can be found above. For my B-roll, I have used the pan and tilt shot because even though they are very basic, they seem very interesting to most audience and it also captures the attention of the audience. The pan and tilt also are quite interesting to edit since it is a very basic skill and I think it is possible and not that challenging to coat it with special editing and special effects.

Overall, if  I had the chance to change anything during the filming I would maybe think of more ways to film. For example, a wide shot makes great B-roll as you capture so much background and this is even better if the device used to captured these types of footage captures it in high equality. Also the blur effect is pretty interesting as it immediately captures the audience's attention as they follow the blur effect to another object. A-roll wouldn't be needed to change as there aren't a lot of ways to make an interview very eye catching so maybe staying with the medium shot is the best. In the end, I would improve by using different methods of filming and maybe try to use light to my advantage like room lighting and a tool called a reflector.

Reflection Task

Reflection

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your own performance as a team member and offer targets to improve your performance?

My group’s action is to cut the usage of plastic cutlery in Island School and so far it's been proven that it is some what a positive change because we are using less plastic and therefore less plastic is going to waste but, this is a big challenge because this can only work unless chartwells agrees and us students don’t have a place to tell them what to do for us. Even though it might be possible with enough persuasion and further talk, this will take a lot of time and there will be many things that we have to do to achieve this.

What methods could your team use to improve the way that you have gone about planning to carry out your outcome/action?

In my opinion, we would have to meet up more often will each other to keep in contact so everyone is up to date with the plans and maybe set up a group chat on social media as we can communicate out of school. Even though my group does the group chat idea, it isn’t used as much so it is was commonly used, planning might be improved.

Highlight the challenges that you have faced with obtaining a broad cross-cultural perspective on your topic area and identify three ways in which your team could advance forward in this area of research?

In the beginning, we had trouble linking our topic area(food, water, agriculture) to our main topic plastic waste. Because of the fact that the topic area is very vague, it was hard to link up plastic waste so we ended up with talking about plastic cutlery waste which links with food, water and agriculture in some ways. We also have trouble contacting organisations as some won’t reply back so we couldn’t get all the information that we expected to get. To improve this, we could just choose a different topic area which might make life more simpler, we could ask other groups about we they asked in the past so we might know which organizations are willing to work with students and most importantly, not doing work at the last minute can make deadlines not issue and also it makes life easier for other group members

Examine what have been the benefits and challenges of working as a team?

Obviously, working together is much more easier than working independently because while working in a group, work is accomplished faster and ideas, plans are thought of more quickly as well. Even though the stereotypical problem of constant arguing and conflict might come upon the group sometimes, problems like this are easily solved and through my time at school, I found that working in groups is usually better than working by yourself

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your own performance as a team member and offer targets to improve your performance?

I think I been doing alright as a team member so far in the year, I have done most of my work on time as well as helping out around the group if necessary. Honestly in the beginning I thought I would not accomplish anything because controlling the camera isn’t one of my strong points but I found that this role is quite fun and I have learned a lot of skills and ways to use a camera. I think I can still improve because I am still trying to keep up with my blogs and blaming on the fact that upcoming tests is not an excuse so I have to keep working hard to fix this problem

Technical competencies - Pratical

The videos shown above are the B-roll footage taken during the special role lesson. During the lesson, we were taught how to use some of the basic equipment and also when to use some of the exposure methods of photography. Basically the lesson was trying to make us prove that we understand these methods so groups were sent out around the campus to capture A-roll and B-roll footage, this isn't the hardest challenge because us students have used the camera many times in the past and most of us know the basics of how to function a camera.

During this task, I have encountered many challenges like unable to record audio with the microphones supplied and also unable to record audio in general. Because of this, me and the group I was working with couldn't do anything and this is also why there are only two clips shown above since that was the only videos that was recorded successfully. 

As a whole, my group never finished the main task because of the amount for errors we encounter which lead to the fact we failed to record A-roll footage since we had trouble recording audio. Lucky enough after the lesson we found out how to record audio with and without microphones, which resulted me having the ability to record my official A-roll and B-roll footage for the documentary.

  

Technical Competencies- Exposure

In today's lesson, I have increased my knowledge based around my role for IEA(Product technician) by learning about the exposure triangle and all of its aspects. As a whole, exposure is the measurement of the amount of light which is absorbed when taking a photo. This can be differed by ISO, Shutter Speer and Aperture.

ISO

ISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor to light while taking the photo. The higher the ISO, the finer the grain of the image, the lower the ISO, the photo is seemed to look fuzzy or grainy. Usually, photographers take low ISO images in areas with little light because with low ISO, it can absorb more light due to the increased sensitivity.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the the amount of time the camera shutter is opened while being exposed to light during taking photos, shutter speed is usually used to capture object in motion or motionless. The higher the shutter speed, the more motion is seemed to be captured, the lower the shutter speed, the more it seems to make the object motionless

Aperature

Aperture is the stage before ISO. Before ISO happenings, there is a lens that can change its size which affects the amount of light that reaches the sensor. The higher the aperture, the lower the depth of field, the lower the aperture, the lower the depth of field. Depth of field means the focus range of the image meaning more of the background is captured, this is a wide depth of field and narrow depth of field means that less background is captured but the foreground is the main target of the image.

Planning and Research - Planning Interviews

Time	Interviewee and Location	Useful B-Roll Shots to be taken	Questions to be asked of interviewee	Technical Issues and Actions to take
Wednesday 25th October 3.30pm	Dana Winograd Plastic Free Seas 21/F Chun Wo Commercial Building 23-39 Wing Wo St Central	Everyone working (ask permission) Footage of any materials they may have, or examples of the different types of plastic waste they find, i.e. microplastics, macro plastics and so on.	Why did you choose to work for plastic free seas? How is plastic free seas tackle this issue? What are some things children our age can do to help solve this issue? How are you incorporating these solutions into your daily life? What is the extent of this issue in Hong Kong? What do you think the future holds for us locally and globally? How do you approach this issue when speaking with a younger target audience? What goals have you achieved since joining plastic free seas?	Issue: room is small so may struggle to fit in the whole group. Action: only have a certain number in (i.e. the production technicians and director). Issue: background noise from streets may interfere with sound quality. Action: use a microphone and do a couple of test runs to see if the sound is okay.
N/A - unable to interview as it was too difficult to get a hold of her (did not reply to emails.)	Eve Kwan Chartwells Island School	Students throwing away plastic cups, cutlery, bowls, plates etc. in the bin after eating food.	What is your take on the issue of (single use) plastic waste in Hong Kong? Is Chartwells doing anything to help solve this issue? What further action do you think Chartwells could take to improve the issue?	Issue: students may be loud during snack and lunch times Action: good quality mic should be used and the interview should take place in a quiet room, the library would be convenient.

Planning and Research: Shooting film on a phone

Planning and research: Aims and Objectives

Interview filming:

• Watch behind the scenes of a typical interview
•  To understand angles which work for interview

B-Roll filming:

• Find examples of B-Roll used in interviews 
• Practice B-Rolling

Organisation and Preparation of equipment:

• To know the equipment used in recording footage
• To borrow equipment from I.T
• Know what equipment is needed and which isn't 

Audio Recording:

• Use good quality microphones to achieve the best audio possible
• To know how to use a microphone
• Know the basics of a microphone

In this task, I had to make aims and objectives for myself based around my role, product technician. As shown above, I have listed some basic topics on filming and simple objectives under each category. As usual, I hope these aims and objectives help me in the future and make me aim higher.

 

Planning and research: Microphones

This task was mainly based around information on microphones, I found out about microphones proximity as well as different types of microphones. Firstly, distance between a person during a shoot and the microphone can show obvious differences as the further away the microphone is, the more background sound is captured and also the audio isn't as good. Secondly, there are mainly two types of microphone, dynamic and condenser. Each of them are used in different conditions and both have their pros and cons. For example, the condenser is more high quality but less durable than the dynamic.

Planning and Research:Framing, Focusing, Camera movement

In this task, I learned about Framing and focusing techniques such as different types of shots like wide shot and medium shot, different types of angles like high and low angle and the types of focusing like the blur effect and also the camera zoom effect. During this task I have also learned about the basics of camera movement. For example: Pan, Tilt and point of view.

The skills I have learned in this task will be essential when I do my interviews because these skills can make a difference to my results by making it more professional and usually better quality, I've been told many times to strive to record high quality footage for my group as no one wants to see poor and unprofessional recorded footage when we finish our project.

In my opinion, I did not find a lot of challenges during this task as most of this task is based around a simple test the end but what I did find was that the test at the end was quite hard because it was either me not concentrating or  

Planning and Research

Activity 1

For my first task, I am learning about my role is in the group and what my responsibilities are as a production technician. During this task I have learned that I will need to learn about different types of video shooting like A-roll and B-roll, technical aspects like focus and lighting, the use of a microphone and so on. I have also learned about the fact that I will mainly collaborate with the Editor because the editor will have to perfect the footage I shoot.

IEA award 17/18 Introduction

Introduction

This year for IEA, I am taking the role of "Production Technician" and my main focus is recording footage for the final outcome and to be in charge of audio and sound. This year will be completely different as I am mainly going to use the camera and I will spend less time on my laptop but this might change because I hear that this role contains a lot of individual work. Starting from today, second year of IEA starts and I will work harder than last year to achieve better results.

Team Project Aims: What does your team aim to achieve through the investigation of this topic area and issue?
Aim 1: (main aim) Reduce use of plastic at school.	Join WANBO club to get a better understanding on how the environmentalists in school help make it a greener place Can help with our research and data collecting/analysis of amount of plastic wasted in school Brainstorm ideas on how to stop cafe from providing free cutlery with food Raise prices on forks and spoons Make students bring in own cutlery Have one day a week when there will be zero plastic used and everyone has to bring their own cups, plates, cutlery, etc
Aim 2: Create a solution that is sustainable and will enable students to be more conscious about how much plastic they use on a daily basis at home or at school.	Make an effective outcome that will last even after the project is finished
Aim 3: Reduce use of plastic at home and outside school.	After seeing how much plastic the school uses with food and drinks, we can take this thought home and pay more attention on how we can reduce plastic use with our families

The table shown above is my group's aims and objective, we are trying to achieve each and everyone of them throughout this course hoping that these goals will help us gain success in our project.

Evaluation

So far, I have finished everything that needs to be done. For the past few months I have acquired many new skills of video editing and what an information designer should be capable of and thanks to my group members for the help I have got and now I am at the point where this journey ends. I have faced many obstacles to reach this point like finding out last minute that my animation doesn’t link to our group’s topic and accessibility of my animation after it was sent to the editor and so on but all in all, I think that everything went good as my info-graphic looked good and all the text played out really smoothly and the info-graphic wasn't too fast or too slow. Even though I had made a new version of my animation which should be better than my pervious one, this was a last minute change which can lead to the fact that my work with not be on the final draft again because my work wasn't on the last draft because my editor couldn't access my work. So as a target, I will double check my work before sending it to my editor. But if I were to make this better, I might learn more skills on power point info-graphics or maybe change to making videos on biteable.com or find other software and maybe ask other groups on what their information designer used.

Here the link to the final draft
https://youtu.be/hputjQvyh1c

Originality and creativity/ Final Result (UPDATE)

This post isn't supposed to be made but it is because my animation that I have made wasn't link to the topic that our group was focusing on food waste when I mistakenly wrote about poverty. In result, this means this is now the final result of my work(shown below)

Comparing to my previous result, there isn't much improvement but I have changed the spacing of the info-graphic as the previous one looked a bit spaced out so the one is more compact, everything else is more or less the same like the way I shown emphasis to selected words, boldness of words, size and font and so on....


Stages of development