Task 4 Final Evaluation

The experimental video I created called "We are all the same" explored the difference in people’s reactions when they view different words. How people associate different words, actions and emotions with different genders. And how everyone is equal it’s just lifestyles and cultures that separate us. And my main plan was to show this fact in a creative and unusual manor.

Before I choose to exhibit my final piece, I wrote a questionnaire for people to fill out once they have viewed my video. They were a simple set of questions that ask what people’s opinions on the video. The questions were;

What did you think the video was about?

What is your opinion on the video you just viewed?

Did you like the video Yes/No?

What did you like or dislike about it?

What did you feel when watching the video?

Which words were in the video?

What do you think the words meant?

Did the feelings towards the words change when you saw them on the male and female?

Describe the video in three words Are you male or female? Any other comments or questions?

With these questions I hoped that I would get a wide range of responses from the audience. Whether or not they were positive or negative responses, they would still be a wide range of feedback. Feedback which would be helpful for me to evaluate myself and the work I have produced. It would also be a clear indication of if the audience understood the message I was trying to put across and if they actually paid attention to what they were viewing. An example of me trying to find out if the audience was paying attention was the question "Which words were in the video?" The answers given to this question would show how many of the 18 people I showed the piece to were actually paying attention. I was glad to find that the majority of audience members did remember at least three quarters of the words that featured in my experimental film. Unfortunately, a select few of the audience members found it apparently hard to remember the words they had scene, and only put a few of the words down when answering. The two conclusions I have made about the lack attention show by some of the viewers were; they were too distracted by the human forms in the piece to remember. Or, they were not fully engaged into what they were seeing on screen.

I wanted additionally to see if people understood the overall premise of the piece, of everybody being the same, regardless of visible differences. I planned to find out this by asking the question "What did you think the video was about?" This question was important in finding out if the message I was trying to put across actually made a significant impact, or was just lost on the audience. When I had received all the feedback questionnaires I looked through them and found that most of those who saw the installation piece got the idea of everybody being the same. This told me that I had succeeded in creating a piece which will show the similarities of human beings.

Another thing I was hoping to do was record the different feelings that people were experiencing when watching the experimental video. The question I asked to record this was "What did you feel when watching the video?" This question was a simple way of find the feelings of the audience. The range of responses was between confused and depressed to confused and cold.

In conclusion, when I had completed the pre production plans, carried out the filming, edited the footage, planned the installation space and showed the video to an audience. I had made an experimental video which had a clear cut and relevant meaning to today’s modern world. I feel that the piece was well made; I thoroughly enjoyed the production process and have learnt a lot about how different camera angles can creates different affects. The opinions of the audience matched my own. All of the people who viewed my video said that they enjoyed watching it. However, I did not just receive compliments about how good the video was. There was a question “Any other comments or questions? “In the feedback questionnaire, where there were some criticisms. The main criticism was that the video was slightly to long and it dragged on a bit too long. I do agree with the comments that it was a bit long at 4 minutes 9 seconds, but I feel that in order to truly make an impact the video had to be slightly repetitive and longer than only a couple of minutes. A second criticism was that the camera movements were not smooth and did not flow well. However, this was the effect I was planning to create with the camera. I wanted the movements to be slightly jumpy and less flowing than what is known in film making. I have used unconventional camera movements to create an experimental feel to the video. Finally, I feel that the end product I have created is very similar to what I originally planned to do. This is pleasing considering I have not had much experience in directing and film making. The only thing that changed through the post production process was that I had to change one of the female shots into a male shot. The shot was of the eye lid of the male where the word "sex" is written on it then the eye opens and closes again it has the word "fear" written on it instead. The reason for changing was, the eye lid of the actress I used was too small to write a word on clearly. I therefore changed the plan and wrote it on the actors’ eyelid because it was bigger.

I have chosen to take the fair criticisms on board and I now see that some of the techniques I used when filming could have been improved if I were to ever reshoot the video. With all things taken into consideration, I feel my experimental video “We are all the same” was a good quality piece of work, for a first video assignment. And it is a strong foundation on which to build my skills and confidence from in the future.

2.3 Post Production

On the 24th of November 2008, I began the vital process of post production. I began at 9 in the morning when I started to import the clips I had filmed the previous day. I imported them onto the editing program I was going to be using. When I had finished importing the saved clips onto the program, I reviewed them and began deciding which shots I wanted to include in the final piece and which I needed to cut or edit. I then started to drag the clips I needed into a timeline order. The order of which will be in the finished video. After that was complete, I choose to experiment with different screen effects. First I tried putting a blue filter across the screen. This would create a cold dark affect. When I viewed the shots with the blue filter, I felt that the look of the affect would make the video seem to cold and detract from the hope, love and compassion themes of the piece. So I then decided that a black and white affect would be suitable for my video. The lack of colour and the only difference in colour being light and dark would highlight the theme of equality and that everybody is the same. At the start of the second day of post production (the 25th November 2008), I decided to started to think about adding a soundtrack to the video I had sequenced the previous day. I had an idea of what I wanted in the soundtrack; A heavy repetitive beat, with calm and slightly disturbing lyrics. I searched through a number of CD's I had in my collection and eventually found a song which had the things I was looking for. This song was "Lucky you" by Deftones. I listen to the song a few times before I added it to the video, just to make sure it would fit. When I was finally convinced the song fitted in with the piece, I imported it into the editing program and imported it to the video. Once it was added, I listened and watched the edited video. I was happy with the contents. Then I moved on and added credits to the video. By the end of the day I was satisfied with what I had created and I knew that I would this complete version for my final product. After a good night sleep and a good deal of thinking, when I got into college (on the 26th November 2008) I started to consider experimenting with the soundtrack. My reason for wanting to try different soundtracks was that I wanted to see if the meaning and feel of the video, changed when the mood and type of music changed. I searched through the songs which I had on my ipod. I was searching for songs with a different tempo, tone and beat. I created a shortlist of tracks which were different in interesting ways. I experimented with a track which was quite dramatic, and had lots of volume changes. Another song I tried was a cover of the song “hero” After about an hour of listening, improving and deciding whether or not to really use the new soundtracks. I finally decided to not use the new soundtracks because; the first was to dramatic and it subtracted from the chilling and affective shots being seen on screen. The second was essentially a love song, and it just didn’t fit. So I just decided to keep my original soundtrack.

2.3 Production Diary

My video production took place on the 23rd of November 2008. Before filming I went out and brought the body paint and paint brushes which I needed for production. Then I prepared the shooting location, by clearing all furnishings and large objects from the room. This just left a clear white wall and a plain wooden floor. After I had set up the shooting location, I checked and set up the camera, tripod and lights in preparation for filming.

The actor and actress I had asked to film arrived at 11.30. They first got changed into the costumes in which I needed them to wear for filming. The costumes were a black bra and shorts for the actress and black shorts for the actor.

At 12 Noon, I started to paint the words I needed on the actors. I had done the actresses words as I would be filming her shots first. The painting took 30 minutes to finish. At 12.30pm I white balanced the camera. Once that was carried out, I shot the first part of the actresses’ scene. When filming I had to reshoot some shots, because the lighting was poor or the camera movements were poor. The shooting of the actresses’ parts took one hour. I then moved on and started to shoot the second half of the video. This was the scene with the male actor. I filmed the required shots with relative ease. The shots took another hour to shoot.

After the shooting process was finished, I rewind the tape and watched the footage back. I then removed the tape from the camera and packed up the camera and the tripod.

In total, the production time of the video was three hours and went without any major problem throughout the filming process.

exhibition space photos

the first photo is the viewpoint of a audience member would see when the room was sealed. the second photo the viewing space when nobody was inside the room. and the thrid picture is the point of view an audience member had when viewing my video.

Task 2.2 part 1 Synopsis of instalation

The premise of my experimental video "We Are All The Same" is what are a person perceptions when different words are read. Then when an audience sees that the words are written on a females and males body, do thier feelings and reactions to the words change.


So when i exhibit the video to an audience of my peers, I plan to use; A small square room with only one door and no windows. Cover the the walls and large objects within the room with black plastic bin liners. Cover the back of the door too, so that no light can enter the room once the door is closed. In the a corner of the room, will be a black laptop computer, setup ready to play the piece i've created. When inviting audience members to view the piece, I will only allow two people at a time into watch. This is to make sure that the two people look at each other in a different light. different in the sense that they could realise that the people around them are capable of the range of emotions and feelings i have shown in the video.



Hopefully, with the blackend room and enclosed environment, the audience will be more inclined to pay attention to the video because there will be a minimul number of distractions, to split attention. Also with the room being changed into an unusual environment, audiences members may feel disturbed by the change or intrigeed by the change. i feel that if an audience member is durstured by the installation space, they will be disturbed and feel sickend by the content of the video.