| Crew Evaluation Stacey She was undoubtedly committed to the task, writing the cues and doing paperwork that should have been done by the producer. In the end it’s the directing that she should be judged by, being director and all. I don’t suppose I’m the best one to judge her direction in terms of shots as I was on the fringes of the action, often concentrating on my role as unqualified soundman. But she clearly had an image in which she wanted the production to look, although I felt at times she cared too much about what we thought and was in constant need of assurance, which is understandable. Paul Again Paul was excellent. His camera work was assured and steady, he applied himself to tasks that were technically out of his area. He may have left the camera rolling every now and then and not quite white balanced some of the shots but we’ve all been guilty of these errors and it’s hardly the basis of a damning report. He was full of ideas throughout for shots and how to put the product together. Some of the music (the ‘heartbeat’ and the cellar reconstruction). He was very handy to have lurking around the edit suite too and we found him a great help. It was the first item I’ve been asked to edit and we called upon his experience several times. The only slight thing that would vaguely resemble criticism is that sometimes he was on the verge of taking over the direction of the piece. This was because he was full of ideas and almost developed his own image of how he’d like things to be done. However I think this is ultimately healthy as he always had the presence of mind to pull himself back from this position a moment later and say ‘What do you think Stace? You’re in charge.’ Heather I’m afraid to say that Heather doesn’t come out of this with that much credit. The damning fact is that the worst sound we got was when the sound person was actually there. It’s cruel to say but, as editor, I’m secretly glad she only did that one shoot as working with the sound in the edit suite was frustrating and almost impossible. It was at a really low level, so we had to hype up the levels somewhat and do the high/low frequency tuning to try and rid the inevitable buzz. Judge for yourself at the result but it’s apparent from the raw material that the mike must have been closer to the crew than the interviewee as when we talk the levels are fine. I suppose we could have used her knowledge of clip mikes when Stacey was walking behind the poles in the graveyard but we seemed to manage without her. She was only at one of the four shoots (she missed the first one due to a good reason - her Mum being ill). Dan Dan played the part of ghost really well, but had a hand in producing the product aswell. He sorted out the probation service location and was present at the other main location shoot. I don’t suppose there’s much point in evaluating him really as he’s dropped the module. Myself There were two of me in this project. Fraser the editor and Fraser - substitute soundman. It’s always hard to assess yourself but I think the sound part of my role was filled adequately and I managed to pull it off without being trained for that whatsoever. Ironically Fraser the editor didn’t make the most of this sound and the levels are inconsistent throughout the piece. I found this very hard to judge and the whole area very confusing. I’ve learnt to check the levels against the ones shown upon the video down below, and judge . I think this would be the best policy from now on to pay more attention to these indicators, aiming for a more even level of sound throughout. Although Heather’s sound was recorded at a much lower level, this was partially compensated through the high/low frequency device on the mixer and I suppose in the final piece is easier to listen to, despite the lower quality because of the overall higher level. The main criticism of myself has to be the big mistake of not checking the SVHS button on the machine was turned to on. This is really bad from my point of view as it’s my area, so I’m responsible for it. It’s a mistake I’m desperate to avoid next time. But, overall, I’m reasonably happy with my efforts. I would be a lot happier still if the sound was at a equal level throughout. Derek He was crap. |