Grindleford Report

This module was to develop and understand moving image production skills, also as a introduce strategies for creative use of skills. When the module began, a group of four were given an assignment to produce a short film around one of the villages in Derbyshire, Grindleford. The task was to capture footage of the area and edit it together using software Avid Composer. The film had to have the duration of two minutes and also contain film effects provided by Avid Composer.

In the pre-production stage, the appropriate paperwork regarding filming and health & safety regulations were created by me. I believe that I created pre-production paperwork to a high and professional standard. As Grindleford is a place where it has unstable ground, I had to make sure that the correct procedures were taken so I and my team were safe from any harm. Before we left for Grindleford, everyone was allocated their roles and we discussed what responsibilities they have to undertake to successfully do the job.

Once we got to Grindleford, all four of us decided to recce each spot we watched to film in. We make sure that we were safe in the area and thought about what footage we could get from the area. As me and my other group member Jessy Busgeeth were the cameraman, we used our own knowledge and what we were taught in sessions to capture the best quality picture possible Originally we were only going to focus on Waterfalls & Walls but there were so many other objects in the area to make our film stylish and interesting. After a few hours of filming, we got around twenty minutes of footage and everyone was quite pleased with that considering the weather kept changing throughout the day. Afterwards, we went back to the Sheffield Hallam to upload the footage and watch back the rushes.

After analysing the footage, I felt that we had substantial amount of footage to edit a film. Majority of our footage was of object where we would pan across the area so we could edit all the pieces together to make a film that would have a pleasant flow to watch. We used cross-dissolve effect to cut to a different location so this did not distract the viewer on watching.

There is a few things that I would comment on which was my responsibility was the panning of the camera. I feel that the handling of the tripod could’ve been better because you can notice in some parts of the film that the panning stops for a brief second and carries on moving. In the future I will practice panning a camera, and also tilting up and down. I will adjust the parts of the tripod to loosen the grip of the tripod the next time. The best part of my role was the composition of the shots because they seem to look beautiful and this was intended by me and Jesse. The sound was recorded by Laurence and Oliver, which they recorded from a Zoom H4N. Unfortunately they did not record every location sound but recorded but had enough to cover our entire film.

I feel that the final product turned out to be successful, but does have minor parts that I would change if I had the chance. This is all professional practice and I believe I will take something away from the experience gained from this project.