Stourhead Evaluation
In this essay I shall being evaluating all parts of the Stourhead project, including the successes and failures, how effective the entire team were, skills learned throughout the course of this project, and so forth.
To begin with, I shall evaluate how well we worked as a team. Overall, I would say that the team worked to a fair standard and a good level, however conversationally I would also say there is also some, minor room for improvement. There was generally a lack of hierarchy in the group, which I feel would have been rewarding if there was one. As such due to the lack of this theoretical hierarchy within the team, I feel there was somewhat a small lack of coordination in the teams activities and tasks to undertake. Resultant of this, some of the tasks that we did as a team could have been somewhat improved if there was better coordination and clearer intentions of what we were required to do. Despite this, I still stand my my assertion that the team overall worked to a fair standard; in the end a satisfactory amount of footage and imagery was taken and to satisfactory standards as well. Everyone did enough in the team to warrant each members status as having worked adequately.
In regards to communication with the client, I feel that went about as well as it could have done; myself and the team were polite to all those interviewed and working on the site. As for what the clients will think of the project overall, I am yet to know, however I hope that they will be satisfied by our work and anticipate their approval.
In regards to skills that I have learned upon the undertaking of this project, I would say that some of these skills would include overall a better understanding of some of the challenges that surface due to a somewhat harsh climate, and in natural surroundings. The weather was in my mind utterly appalling on both of the days; despite no wind or rain on either outing, it was bitterly cold, especially on the first day we went. As such it was painfully uncomfortable working in those conditions. I have also learned that it is required of me to take more initiative, and better consideration into what shots I take. With regards of teamwork skills I would say in all honesty I have not learned much, only asserting that I require better communication skills with the rest of the team.
In terms of organisation, I feel this is one factor which could do with some form of improvement. I would argue that a somewhat lack of organisation was present throughout this project. However this is not too hampering and is only minimal in nature. Despite in some stages there being somewhat a lack of organisation, I would say overall things got sorted out quickly and as a result of this, things got done.
As a whole, I would say our group was moderately professional in our conduct, being polite and considerate to the members of staff at Stourhead, for example those who took us on tours and who we interviewed for various videos.
As for the entire Stourhead project on a whole, I would give it an overall mixed response. One one hand the final video in my opinion is completed to a fair, satisfactory standard. There were some good shots taken there in addition to this. I feel the main problem in Stourhead, at least for me personally was the what I consider to be appalling weather. For the most part, it was distractedly cold on both days we went to Stourhead, in particular the first day of the two in which the class and myself had visited the site. Despite the lack of wind or rain, it was bitterly cold, to the degree there was frost which although was aesthetically pleasing for the camera, this harsh weather was made my work more tenuous, being such a distraction for me. Also late lunches on both days made work from just beforehand weaker due to that also being a distraction, although this is generally a more minimal hindrance due to it only being an issue for a smaller selected period of time. I would therefore assert that it would have been far more sensible to have planned this project at a different time of year; somewhere around spring or summer would have personally been my preference, even the warmer parts of autumn. However the main solution that would have improved this project would have been better organisation on my part, but I would say no one, myself included are in the wrong at all.
My final promotional video for Stourhead in my opinion is done to a good standard. There are some parts I would label as fairly ambitious, and I would say that this has paid off. I wanted a more artistic vibe to my video than what was expected, and I would say that this approach has generally been a success. I used "khmlwugh" by the band Homeshake as the music for this video, however in order to avoid copyright issues, I remixed it so it was slower and of a deeper pitch. This has given the video in my opinion a more artistic, experimental and atmospheric appeal. I colour graded every individual clip within the video in order to give it a much smoother and professional aesthetic, as well as one which was nearer to my personal preference. With the combined effects of colour grading and warp stabilizing, I was able to make some of the less impressive clips look far better than before, with the video's aesthetics being to a higher standard than it was prior to the inclusion of these effects. In regards to fonts, I used a modern, neat and minimalist font at the beginning in white, with "Stourhead" written, placed in the centre of the video where it remains for a few seconds, throughout the entire first clip in the video. At the very end of the video the National Trust logo is placed in the middle of the screen, to denote that this is indeed a National Trust site and making the video more professional and corporate, whilst staying aesthetically pleasing. Overall these elements help add to the crisp feel I was aiming for in this video, and in my opinion has definitely made this ambition successful.
The video's contains clips of various locations on the Stourhead site, from the garden to inside the main building. I decided not to have separate phases within the video focusing on particular places, or even just with inside and outside; instead I decided to be more fluid and have a healthy combination of both throughout the entire video; this in my opinion offers enough contrast without being disjointed, and as such will stay more interesting to the viewer by not feeling to repetitive, and will create the illusion that there is "more to" the site, and more to explore, thus a greater motivation to come and visit. Finally, on the recommendation of staff members at the college, I decided it would be a good idea to add some audio of some people who work at Stourhead in order to help "break up" the video without being a distraction or breaking it up to unwelcome levels, staying in-keeping with the rest of the video. I like the video both with and without the audio, so I decided for the final video that I shall submit, it would be a sensible idea to include the audio, which I feel helps to add another dimension.
The reasons I aimed for the type of promotional video I ended up creating was to stand out from the rest of them; I wanted my promotional video to be artistic and unique, at least compared with other promotional videos. I also wanted this video to have a modern vibe, which I feel I have succeeded in; i believe that the music has helped almost entirely to fully define the tone of this video, any different music would have generated an utterly different effect which in my mind would not have been as successful as the final product.
In conclusion, I would say that overall this project has been a moderate success. The final corporate video, on my part anyway, in my opinion has proven to be a success, and as such from my perspective rendered the Stourhead project on a whole as a success.
