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Today is the final day of Unit 1. I'll be honest, my relationship with this unit has been a little bit temperamental over the past few months. I started out hating it, progressed to tolerating it, and finally to enjoying it (enjoying parts of it, at least). So I suppose I'm not particularly excited to leave the comfort of Unit 1 and adapt to the alien world of our next wave of units, but I suppose I'll have to live with it.

My day began by finishing editing Samantha's video. I had more or less finished the edit yesterday evening but we just didn't have time to render and upload it. So we applied the music, cleaned up some of the transitions, and submitted it. This is the third video I've edited for this unit, the other two being my own and that of Kat Albiston, to whom I owed a favour after they let me use their microphone for my audio recording. I know I probably shouldn't be spreading myself so thin by offering to help so many people, but I've found the process of editing to be quite a therapeutic thing, so I don't mind it as much as I would if I didn't enjoy it.

The rest of my day consisted of finishing off the checklist, finishing off the self-assessment sheet, and getting my QR code sorted out. I am yet to complete my evaluation, but I intend to do so on the bus and (if necessary) also at home. I also need to rewrite my Location Visit Sheet, as I noticed it was outtdated, featuring information from my original intended filming location: the motion room. I managed to get the necessary information from Brendan, and should be able to fill that out relatively quickly. It's a good thing I noticed the mistake now, rather than the assessors noticing it halfway through grading my work.

In conclusion: the end is nigh, and I am so very, very satisfied that all of this horrific paperwork is finally completed. It's been a laugh, Unit 1 -- see you when I see you.

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Today, we started our final evaluation sheets. We were given the option of either writing a document or recording a 4 minute audio version of our evaluation. I'm aiming towards completing an audio version of my evaluation, as I enjoy the process of audio/video editing. However I fear that because I have so much information to get across, I won't be able to condense everything into 4 minutes, so I may have to resort to just writing a document to get my point across.

Perhaps more excitingly, we also went into the lecture hall of the UCH to do a screening of all our tutorials today. After each video was played, the class would collectively give feedback on the video that they saw. This was fantastic -- it felt like a particularly large focus group, and a lot of people (me included) got some very valuable feedback. After this, the person who made the was assigned a peer to give feedback on their work for them. This was great as well, as it gave us a point of reference to work from in black and white, allowing us to refer back to it later on when making the necessary edits to our videos.

My video was pretty well received by the class. They loved the editing, and liked how thorough the video was, but there was a pretty big issue in the pacing of the video. The issue is that the the video attempts to condense a lot of information into two minutes, meaning that the steps are run through rather quickly, making it difficult for the viewer to understand what's going on.

Overall this exercise of the screening was initially quite fun, but it got a little bit stale and boring near the end. It was definitely helpful, it's just that by the end we had expended so much mental energy on delivering a critique of the videos that we were exhausted by the end of it.

Next week marks our final day of the unit. I'm pleased to see that the end is around the corner, but at the same time there are still some revisions I need to do to my work before I'd consider it passable. Here's hoping it all works out in the end.

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Today, we completed our self assessment sheets. I more or less had mine done from last week, so my time was spent making slight revisions to my existing document. We also received our formative assessment results today, and the according to that the grade I'm currently working at is "Good" (the equivalent of merit - don't ask me why the wording is different). I'm pleased with this result, but I still hope to improve it. I think that considering I've never so much as touched the process of video production before, "good" is a damn fine grade. At the very least, it's nice to know my work isn't all for nought. Speaking of production, mine is pretty much done. I brought my laptop into college so that I could finish editing my video, and I'm happy to say that it's finished, save for a single annotation which I didn't have time to design. The editing mainly consisted of editing in zooms to emphasise what I'm saying in the narration. I did this by using keyframes, a feature of editing software which allows the editor to animate various aspects of a clip simply by entering some data. I will complete this at home, and render and upload the video to the Padlet that Delta made to compile all our videos. This Padlet entry was necessary because we need a place to store all of the videos so that they're easy to access for next Thursday, in which we will be showcasing all our videos in the Lecture Hall of the university building for the rest of the class to see. This is great, because it serves as an opportunity to get feedback on our work while we still have a chance to revise it with the goal of getting a better final grade. All in all, today was pretty good. I really enjoy editing, so it was refreshing to have a productive day whilst also not finding it frustrating or boring. I'm confident in what I have made, and I look forward to seeing the work of others next week.

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Today, we were scheduled to have formative assessments carried out throughout the day. This assessment is carried out with the goal of giving us an idea of how our work might be graded in its current state. It gives us a point of reference, and it allows us to get an idea of what we need to do in order to improve the grade we get at the end of the unit.

Unfortunately I was unable to undergo formative assessment today, as I had to revise a lot of the paperwork that I had already completed due to a change of plan relating to location, crew, and equipment. I will complete this work in the week, and have my formative assessment next Thursday. I also intend to complete my filming during the week, so that I can enter the post-production phase of my project.

Speaking of post-production, we had an editing workshop with Jack today. I'm pretty familiar with the basics of editing software as it stands, but it was still interesting to learn about some features I wasn't aware of that will be very handy in post-production: keyframes specifically.

Also, since I wasn't here for the last lesson before half term due to being ill, I was given a tour of the TV Studio and editing room in an attempt to catch me up with the activities that I missed in the lesson prior. I found this to be a very interesting experience, and I enjoyed it very much. Attached is an image of the editing station.

Overall I think today was pretty successful. I'm starting to feel a little more confident in my work now that everything's beginning to come to a close. The end is in sight, and it feels good.

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The aim of today was to finalise our storyboards and start putting together our Blendspace portfolio. We were also required to complete the various paperwork necessary for the project to proceed. These were the: Project Proposal, Equipment Booking Log Sheet, Contingency Plan, Location Visit Sheet and Production Schedule

This preproduction work is important, as it sets a foundation for the rest of the project. If we follow our preproduction work, we should have a clear path to follow with regards to completing the production.

Speaking personally, I started filling in the Project Proposal, but hadn't finalised it by the end of the class. I haven't yet completed the other forms, but will do so in the following weeks. Most importantly, I need to speak to Brendan about renting equipment for the production.

After the work was done, we had to upload our work to Blendspace. We were met with some problems here, as some of us couldn't upload. This was due to a number of factors, most notable of which being the lack of Microsoft Word on our iPads. I, and many others, used Pages, which for some reason or other didn't let us upload our documents to Blendspace. I couldn't fix this by downloading word either, as I don't seem to have an Office 365 account. This will need to be sorted out in future.

We did try Dropbox with Pages, but it didn't work in class. After the fact, though, I found out that it is possible to use Dropbox with Pages -- you just need to navigate through the menu in a slightly different way than one would expect. Hopefully this should no longer be an issue.

I'm not feeling particularly confident in my work at this point. I neglected to finalise my storyboard which has been holding me back, so I'll be nailing that down soon. I definitely need to develop my ability to keep on top of things, which is something I'll be working on going forward.

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Today we were given a template for a storyboard. We were told to sketch out scenes from our video in an attempt to create a plan for our end product.

It took me a while, but in the end I managed to get two pages down, and I'll be completing the rest at home. I am concerned that I won't be able to get screenshots at home for the digital version, so I'll have to be getting those done at college.

The purpose of this activity was to give us a framework to work from when creating our digital storyboards. It's a very rough outline, but it acts as a great guide for further work.

Unfortunately I'm (speaking lightly) not the best at drawing. This was an issue as even simple sketches as seen below take me longer than someone more capable than I.

Another issue was that I needed to be at a computer to complete the storyboard, as I needed a reference to draw from. We were on computers for most of the day, but at the end we moved to the motion room, meaning that I had no reference and as such couldn't complete the storyboard.

That's not to say that no value came from the exercise. I learned a lot about how the storyboard format works, a skill that will no doubt come in handy in future.

For the next session, I need to finish my digital storyboard. I may have trouble doing this, as I don't have photoshop on my computer at home and so cannot get images for the storyboard. Hopefully I can figure out a workaround.

As for confidence. I'm somewhere in the middle. The project is becoming easier to understand now that it's being visualised like this, but at the same time I find it quite daunting to have to write a script and figure out the durations of all the shots.

I think I definitely need to improve on staying on track in class, because after moving to the motion room I found myself distracted from the work. Granted, that's partly because I had no reference to work from, but it's an issue that I've observed in myself in past, which is why I think it's worth mentioning in this entry.

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Today we finalised our mind maps (see picture below). I found that the use of the mind map helped me to come up with ideas for the tutorial. The colour was very helpful, as it allowed me to associate various aspects of the production with the relevant colours. The branching system also really helped with coming up with ideas organically.

My lack of artistic talent became a minor issue in this exercise, but it wasn't too debilitating. The content is all there, it's just not necessary as visually interesting as it could have been.

Also, the lack of scissors/pritt stick became an issue when sticking stuff to the page. Eventually we compromised and used Blu Tac, but it would have been nice to have a more reliable adhesive.

We also discussed how we might present our tutorial, and about the different types of shots that can be used. We also learned about the various equipment available to us.

In addition, we also had an editing workshop, in which we learned about the basic functions of Adobe Premiere: such as chroma key (green screen), audio editng, transitions (crossfades etc.), and overlapping clips. All this information will doubtless be invaluable in future.

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Today we completed our mood boards and registered for Blendspace. After this, we were told to create a mind map based on our chosen subject. I chose Photoshop, and will complete the mind map within the week. Attatched is the first draft of this mind map.

The purpose of this activity is to ultimately have a document that helps us visualise the steps we need to take in the creation of our project. Today we were just sketching a draft of the final thing.

It was surprisingly interesting to learn about this, actually. The video we were shown, although slightly dated, described how the brain responds to the branching system of the mind map, and the colour coding.

For next week, I need to begin with my final mind map. This will need to include colouring, images, and links to various resources. It will also be more fleshed out than the draft that we've created today.

I do slightly worry about completing this final mind map though. My ability with drawing is less than ideal, so that may end up being an issue when it comes to structuring the thing. Thankfully the process of creating a mind map is designed to be organic, so I should be alright.

That said, I've never enjoyed arts and crafts.

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Today we were briefed about what Unit 1 would consist of. We were given a list of various technologies of which we had to choose three, and were told that we would need to create a tutorial explaining their various functions. We were also told that we would have to create mood boards, compiling resources that we may use in our projects.

When it came time to do this activity, I found myself facing what I can only describe as a mental block. I ended up producing two mood boards for Photoshop and for InDesign. I'm deeply unhappy with how barebones these mood boards turned out, and I plan to expand/improve upon them within the week.

On the positive side of things, I've become much more confident with padlet as a result of this lesson. I also found myself learning some new things about Photoshop and InDesign, which I don't doubt will be invaluable in future.

As for myself, I think I need to improve on not overthinking the assignment at hand and stressing myself out, to avoid a repeat of what happened today. Hopefully the work I hand in next week won't be quite as dismal.