Major Project - Shoot Completed - Reflection

After completing my shoot I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it. Looking back at the footage I am happy with the amount of material I have but not so sure about the story or what I managed to get out of the contributors. Originally I was not looking forward to looking back at my footage, mostly the main reason for that is that I will critique my own work and not like it. Then again there is ALWAYS room for improvement, nothing is perfect. What I wish that I had done a little differently was really focus on the shoot and not to get distracted by the weather or my sickness. When I arrived in Poland I ended up getting really Ill and this had a major impact on my footage, that can be clearly seen! Because I was feeling under the weather and visited the doctors on location I was feeling very unmotivated to film but my crew kept me going. 

When I first imported the clips into Adobe I had no idea where to start, I filmed a lot of material over 90gb of footage. This made me very confused. What I was happy about is that I managed to separate all the footage into folders with their specific audio, this saved  me a lot of time with trying to find the correct audio and footage. What I've also noticed is that I was missing small pieces of audio from the Tascam that I couldn't sync, not a major problem that I can't work with. On the other hand I am very happy with the sound that turned out in the project, I was not expecting the sound to be this clear. 

I was very happy with how the shots came out, they look very professional and clear. In some cases I was let down by the lighting but then again it can be slightly fixed within the post-production process. The fillers that I managed to get on the first day look fantastic, very clean cut and the cinematography fitted in very well. Since I planned for most of the shots to be actuality shots and handheld shots they were shaky in some places which I had to cut out. I regret not having a gimble or a stabilizer on the shoot, this would have really improved my documentary and overall look. Me and the camera operator did see eye to eye but at some sequences I was not happy with. For example, when filming actuality shots or tracking shots I did not want the camera operator to circle around me and the contributor where as they wanted to go ahead and do that. Of course, I did allow for the camera operator to try his way but then I also made sure what I envisioned was captured. 

I have also noticed since playing around with the footage that the interview I did with Lama Rinchen isn't clear enough. The overall appearance of the shot I wasn't happy with, however when looking on the DSLR it looked fine, it's only when I had imported it into Adobe I noticed the fuzz and I wasn't pleased with it. Overall the interview seems cheap and too long, on the other hand when we filmed in another location the scenery looked much better and I was happier with the shot, despite the fact that Lama Rinchen did not give me enough information to include in my documentary. The background was very fascinating but the yellow tint and our presence was awkward. I did not notice this at the time and wish I could have re-shot this in a different way, originally it was supposed to be shot in a tracking actuality shot but sine it was storming we had to go inside - this would have worked better if it wasn't inside the temple. As you can see here on the second shot between the two shots the one above looks much clearer in comparison to the second one which I was not so happy with, it looks too yellow tinted and grainy which I'm not sure If I can manage to help in post. 

I feel like the reminder of the interviews looked great, some of the shots lacked in lighting and not enough stabilization but other than that I am happy with how the shoot turned out despite all problems I've come across. There were a few issues with the Tascam not having enough batteries and needing to clear the SD cards very often. When shooting inside Izabellas house the footage we got looked very professional and even without stabilization I was pleased with it.