8th February, 2009

Today was a single lesson and Ms. Wong decided we should all watch each other’s work that was done last week and give comments on it. The main focus was a recap of what we’ve learnt last year.
I thought each group presented themselves in a different way, which I find quite interesting, I like observing these details because it shows the different personality of the cameraman through the perspectives and angles they use.

For the group Ella, Catherine, Sarah and Adrian, I thought the strongest frame in my mind for them was the gritty, documentary shot, because it didn’t lose complete focus, and the framework was nicely done as it was a little bit shaky which proves they’ve given thought about the documentary part. The frame is not sharp but yet not out of focus, which presented the gritty part of the shot. I learnt a lot from this frame. Their color shots however were too extreme, it was either too blue or too red, and they can improve on the editing techniques for that shot. Overall, the sound effects were satisfactory; the emergency sound effect can be less obvious. And they needn’t show the frames. However, the others were quite good.

For the group Andy, Henry, Chris and Raphael, I thought through their work, I didn’t have the confidence that they fully understand what they were suppose to do as the filming skills didn’t exactly meet the requirements and it didn’t seem they put the effort to any of the tasks, so are the editing skills. They could improve a lot more by showing different levels during the shots and not moving the tripod too fast as if its held by hand. But their sound effects were nicely done; I liked it because it was almost as if they portrayed an image of the sound effects.

For the group Elliot, Xiang-Yi, Justin, Jing-ting and Joyce, I thought their first task which was to look at a paper then scrunch it up and throw it on the floor was quite well thought. It showed the effort by the shots, they started with the ear first and then zooming out to the whole body, I thought that was pretty clever. Also their color scenes weren’t too blue or too red, which showed just enough expression for the shot and showed their editing skills were quite good. But I enjoyed the sound effects the most, I thought the work sound was very realistic, it sounded like an office and I liked it very much.

For the group Hannah, Julien, Jeffery and Camille, I thought their frameworks had been planned well, it was shown because all the shots were very steady even though they were long. It was pretty cool how they linked each task to another task to make it seem like a storyline and makes it more interesting to watch. I liked how they shot the rule of thirds because it was straightforward and good effort. However, the sound effects were a little bit fake and they could improve on the emergency sound, overall, I enjoyed watching their work.

Lastly, for our group, Bernice, Ashley, Louise and me, our editing skills have a lot to improve on especially the gritty, documentary one. It was overdone and it looked like as if it was cartoon rather a documentary, also the shot wasn’t very shaky and seemed as if it was film on a tripod. However, the rule of thirds was done well and portrays it correctly. The sound effects were quite good except the work sounded a little bit too alone, as if it was telling a story rather showing a working scene, that we can improve on as well. Overall, the recap really helped me realize the areas I must focus more during this semester and should try to avoid them next time when we get another opportunity to do a similar exercise. I thought today I had been observing and thinking cortically, therefore, I am a thinker today.