Evaluation of production skills across all units.

Evaluation of production skills across all units. 

When looking at my production skills throughout all units I feel that my strongest skill for production was the amount of planning I used in order to create an effective product at the end. The most effective time that planning helped my production was when it came to the production of my music video as if it wasn’t for effective planning, I wouldn’t have created the final product that I did as the first plan didn’t work out. During the planning process for the music video I came up with a contingency plan that meant that if the first plan didn’t work out, which it didn’t, I still had another plan to fall back on, another narrative that could work just as well as the first. Planning also ended up being an effective production skill when it came to creating my promotion video as early planning meant that in the first meeting with my client I was able to show some ideas to them rather than going to the meeting being unsure of what I wanted to achieve, early planning was also effective here as it meant that I could focus on filming in more detail as I was aware of exactly what I wanted to achieve. 

However, one production skill that could have been improved was the filming process or more specifically the equipment that I decided to use. During most productions I decided to use a DSLR camera and a tripod and usually only stuck to these two pieces of equipment. If I had decided to use more pieces of equipment for all productions, they could have been more effective and high quality if I had used more lighting equipment or particularly things like gels for my music video instead of adding a colour overlay in the editing process it could have looked more effective. I know that gels are effective as they had previously been used in a four-hour film challenge applying Lacan’s mirror stage theory where a purple / blue gels was used, if I had done this for my music video it could have looked more effective as I would have been able to connote the feelings of the scenes in a more effective way.

Another production skill that got better developed across all units was the ability to research beforehand in order to find out what had previously worked in similar productions vs what didn’t. By doing better research I was able to make better decisions when it came to my own production as it meant that I could create a final product that worked well for audiences and was effective overall. A particular unit where research helped improve my production was in music videos as I used both primary and secondary to influence my production e.g. using a colour overlay similar to a music video from the 1975 or by choosing the song Laughter Lines by Bastille as it was the most popular choice in my questionnaire. 

Time management also proved to be a very useful skill when it came to making any productions as it was developed very early on when completing the four hour film challenges as learning how to stick to the time frame given meant that when I produced more productions I was better able to keep to the time restrictions and understand what needed to be done by when. Time management I believe became one of the most useful skills when it came to production as I knew when I would have things done by and was able to have spare time to add anything extra to the production if needed. This skill also proved to be very effective when it came to making my promotion video as I was able to show the client when I expect to have certain things done by e.g. drafts and was able to help them to feel more confident in what was being done as they knew they also had time to have their own improvements added in. This was also very effective for the client as it meant that production could be carried out more effectively without them worrying. Within developing my time management skill, I also created multiple gant charts as it allowed for me to know when I needed to compete certain things by and keep track of what was happening and when. 

Overall I feel that my productions skills from the first unit to the last have had a great improvement as I have managed to create productions that were increasing in quality and was able to take constructive criticism on board to create productions that would better appeal to the target audience’s. Although some skills could still use some developing such as experimenting more with the filming equipment used I feel that the skills I have developed defiantly helped in allowing me to create effective productions that appeal to target audiences, the client and to encode the right messages into my productions for the audiences to decode. If I was to complete some productions again, I would try to make sure that I used some of the same productions skills such as planning and time management to my advantage while experimenting more with how certain things are filmed in order to create more interesting and appealing productions.