Final Analysis
What Worked?
The way each clip work alongside each other when transitioning and merging together worked really well and seemed a lot cleaner and easier to watch more than I first originally thought. I didn't edit/colour grade my clips too much as I wanted most of them to stay natural and have a over exposed sky for effect which I believe has helped keep my film personal too me and helps guide the film along with the added music that places an extra calming part to my short film.
I felt as though I kept the theme the same throughout the film focusing on nature with hints of me at the start and ending of the film to show that I was basing it all on how I used nature to cope with the lockdown and the surrounding scenes. I kept my camera on my tripod without moving it at all throughout the film which worked so well as it allowed the landscape and close ups to come to life themselves without me forcing them to do so and with every clips, something was moving either a lot or ever so slightly. The ending clip worked so well at making sure everything linked together and made sure than the audience new it was coming to a close which is what I planned on doing from the start as I didn't want to end on a cliff hanger than didn't make sense at all.
The final music audio that I decided to use throughout my film worked really well with the flow of each clip and actually helped to make the flow a lot neater and brought a calmer tone overall which is more positive than I originally had thought when adding the audio at first. The audio I chose was a lot calmer and gave a better feel to work with a poetic documentary film rather than some of the other background audios that had a very loud bass and really didn't work.
What didn't work?
I feel as though the sound hasn't worked as well as I would've liked it to work due to using a free sounds library rather than a mic and my own raw sound footage due to complications and it was hard to try and find the right sound clips for my own video clips due to it not being the right style sounds quite a lot.
Also, even though I was using a tripod at all times when shooting, before I cropped my clips, some of them were shaky due to the wind having a slight impact on how everything was recording which meant that some clips were cropped more than I wanted them too but it wasn't a massive problem. My tripod wasn't very expensive which may be why it moved at times when the wind hit it as certain angles but it didn't completely impact my clips and I was able to help stop it from moving at times.
What would I do differently next time?
Next time, I would possibly plan when I would shoot a lot more due to the weather having a massive impact on the days I was shooting and at some points I had to cancel and try and squeeze it into a day where I had training or other busy days. As sound wasn't a compete positive part of my film I would make sure that I purchase a microphone or a special app that doesn't pick up too much background noise and works well alongside my raw movie clips better that the free sound MP3 ones were. I think with sound, I would also experiment with voiceovers as that may have also worked as part of an audio with the sounds being quieter and would also connect to the inspiration I have had throughout a lot more.
Overall, I feel as though the project turned out to be very positive and brought me outside a lot more than before due to becoming a lot more determined to finish the film whilst keeping to the restrictions. I kept to the theme throughout the whole entire project and made sure than even though nature was the main part of the film, I was incorporated into the film to show that I am being surrounded by all the nature recorded and shown.
