Danny Hewitt's Television Production Blog

I have thoroughly enjoyed this unit and definitely learnt a lot in terms of production and editing. This is the first time I have ever had to adapt a poem into a film, and this for me was the most difficult part. Poetry is not my subject at all, so having to make a film out of one turned out to be very challenging. The part I found the hardest was incorporating the words of the poem into my film, and making it relevant to what is being shown on screen. Next time I will definitely do more research into the actual poem so I know exactly what it's about and where it came from, as I believe this would have helped with ideas.

In terms of filming, I was very happy with how both days went, however the first day was very slow due to not being prepared. This was due to the fact I didn't give myself enough time in-between script feedback and production week to confirm my ideas and be happy with them. Next time I will definitely give myself more time to prepare, and not rush into filming as soon as production weeks starts.

Editing was a very long process due to adding a lot of sound effects as well as struggling to cut some parts due to not enough coverage in some areas. Next time I will make it a lot easier for myself by using more natural diegetic sounds, and shoot plenty of shots so I don't feel limited. I will shoot the same shots from different angles and sizes, as this would give me a lot more to play with in the edit.

Overall I am happy with how it all ended up, especially with the problems with actors and time constraints, therefore I feel proud to have achieved a video that fits the task given. I have learnt a lot of new skills, especially with editing, which has injected me with a lot more confidence in myself and my work. I will definitely use these new skills I have developed in future projects.

Here is the final video for my fiction project:

I am very happy with how this unit went as I believe we created a very successful website with good quality videos. I am very proud of my team as we all worked tirelessly to achieve our goals in good time. For the future, I would definitely be more organised before shoots as that means we would not waste time (which we did slightly for this unit). Shot lists and good communication within the team before the shoots would have helped this, so these will definitely be used in the future.

Overall, I couldn't fault my team with their effort. Helen worked extremely hard as a producer, and Chris worked his socks off with the edit. I am happy with my own performance too as I worked well under pressure on the days, and helped with the organisation as well as the edit afterwards. It's nice to see my ideas come together and be displayed on screen, and this is down to the effort and determination of our team.

Here is our final video for our Digital News Unit:

Here is our website for the Digital News Unit:

Home Page:

Videos:

Editing is going well as I have found all the sound effects I imagined when I was filming the shots. The clips link together nicely, and the voiceover is just the right speed and tone.

I am struggling slightly with certain cuts, as I want them to cut in time of the sounds, and this has become a tricky task.

More time and patience will help me complete this edit with 100% satisfaction.

One of the main aspects of my film is the use of sound effects. I want to reinforce the idea that my character is an ex-army servant who is suffering from a mental health problem due to the experiences he had fighting for his country. This means I need realistic "war sounds" to make it obvious to the audience what's happening; therefore I have searched for different sound effects on youtube and found ones for each of these:

• Gun shots - for when he is experiencing the flashbacks

After filming the car scenes, I realised I needed a song to be played on the radio therefore I looked on this website:

As you can see in the link above, the songs are royalty free so we can use them in our films without any worry of copyright laws. This website turned out to be really handy as it gave you sub-categories so you could narrow your searches down to exactly what mood/genre you wanted. I wanted a song that used classical instruments as well as having a quite calming tone (as my character tries to use the radio as a form of peace). After searching for a while, I came across this one:



As you can see above, the song uses the instruments I wanted to enhance the genre, as well as having the calm tone I desired. The name of the song "Funeral March For Brass" also links in with the subject of the film, so I was very happy when I found this piece of music.

I was in charge of profiles, which will be part of our write up on our website. Here they are: