I really enjoyed the entire process of the assignment Portrait of a Person. The pre-interview was very helpful to develop a topic and direction for the interview. The freedom of the pre-interview allowed for a natural and enthusiastic response during the initial interview.
Editing the audio may have been the most stressful and nerve-wrecking task of the entire project. To cut over 20 minutes of audio below 5 minutes while maintain a concise theme and story was a challenge. Every edit I felt may cut something beneficial to the story. I let friends listen to it over and over again and I received some great advice: K.I.S.S. (KEEP IT SIMPLE-STUPID). I decided to give faith to the listener that they would be able to grasp the concept without hearing the complete back-story. I continued editing the audio even after the second phase of the assignment. Mainly because adding visuals to the audio altered my approach to the story line.
If I had the opportunity to complete the process a different way I would only to save time from excessive edits. I would prepare my audio to be accompanied by visuals by adding them as I went along. Rather than making my audio piece stand alone then trying to find visuals to add to it. However, I appreciated the way the process was arranged because now I have two semi-independent pieces.
I don’t believe I learned anything “unexpected” in regards to making a film. I welcomed the challenge with open arms. It was pretty exciting to see how multiple elements contribute to a segment of viewing time- it was awesome. I wanted to learn how else to make that second or segment even more fascinating. After learning how the target tracks worked adding additional clips exactly where I intended them to be was a breeze. Actually, I did find a problem in exporting my project. The clips I originally chose were not the clips that played, and some clips did not play in its entirety.
I am happy with the overall flow of the audio piece and how some sounds worked perfectly with the visuals. I could improve on my transitions and my use of text. I would want the text to appear and then dissolve and for them to be a tad bit slower so that the reader can comprehend what is being said. In some critiques of my project I was told that the text were a slight distraction, because they were trying to watch and listen as well as read, which caused a challenged for some. I agree. After re-watching “The Idiot Box” it became a challenge for me as well. I assumed it was easy to digest because I was able to do so in post-production of the piece because I knew what to expect. I had to place myself in the viewers seat and see it “for the first time”.
