Unit 62 Point 4 - Micro Life in a Day Review

Micro Life in a Day Review

Intro

We were assigned to do a 3 minute documentary about life in a day, as we document our or someone else’s day. Our tutor put us into two groups. My group was Keilan Braithwaite, Josh Coleman and Keifer Hutchinson. We can only shoot a maximum of 20 minutes each on a flip camera.

• Original intentions: My original intentions were to film my Dad when he woke up from his alarm, but I didn’t get a chance as I woke up a few minutes late. I did get a chance to film the alarm clock. I wanted to film the sun rise, but I didn’t wake up for that, also I wanted to film the sun set but I filmed 20 minutes of footage so I couldn’t film anymore. I wanted to film Dad working at night and film a shot of the night sky but again I ran out of film as I filmed 20 minutes. I wanted to film more of Dad’s jobs and talking to his customer but it yet again ran out of footage after 20 minutes.

However, I got most of what I wanted to film; Dad talking on his phone, watching TV, driving, talking to his taxi mates at the taxi rank, the alarm clock, the time in the Taxi, having his breakfast and sleeping on the chair.

• Fitness for purpose: My goal was to show four different lives in a day by showing the start of the day of people getting up by using the alarm clock shot, the blinds coming up to see daylight and the bathroom light turned on representing the start of the day. I wanted to let the audience know who the people are by using the text for their names. The problem is couldn’t put a text for Keifer’s name as it doesn’t suit from any of his fours shots. I got what I wanted by showing a sequence of the people having breakfast, going out, and doing different activities. I showed that my Dad is a taxi driver and is working. I show that Keilan is more active and with his friends also his band. I show Josh being lazy, staying in by watching TV and playing on the games. I couldn’t do a story for Keifer because there was no narrative in his shots, so I took the best shots I could use in the video. To finish the video I used Keilan’s shot when he talks to the camera and his friend is with him summing up the day and saying it’s near the end of the day (midnight) and that they won’t be going to bed another two hours. The next shot is my Dad asleep on the chair and wakes up looking at the camera and laughs to show he is tired, ready for bed. The last shot is Keifer switching the lights off in his bedroom knowing it’s the end of the day and time for bed. My other goal was to have the sun light to represent to start the day but only Josh filmed it and it didn’t look good over the title of the video as the image kept on moving. Instead,  I had the title ‘Micro Life in a Day rising up and stays in the middle to represent sun rise and the start of the day, overlapping the sound of the alarm clock. The colour of ‘Micro’ and ‘a’ is orange as that is the colour for the sun meaning start of the day. The colour for ‘Life’, ‘in’ and ‘Day’ is white as that is the colour of the moon meaning end of the day. At the very end I show the title again in the middle of the frame and this time it scrolls down presenting as sun set at end of the day.    

• Technical Qualities: The quality from both Josh and Keilan was really good, with a variety of different shots, a lot of steady camera work and good footage to use. Keilan’s footage was different to ours as he talked in front of the camera. With Keifer there is a good shot of him turning off the lights in his bedroom to represent the end of the day and him opening his blinds from his window to represent the start of the day which I could use in the video. The quality of my video I think is really good and easy to understand as I put music from the start when people are getting up, then show they are having breakfast, then some people going out although Josh stays in all day. I show Keilan’s friends which is also his band talking about their next gig and I cut to a conversation with my Dad to his Taxi mate at the Taxi rank.  I keep cutting back from each conversation to show that there are different conversations, showing the young, (a band), and the adults, ( taxi drivers). I show near the end of the day by Josh on his Xbox at night, Keilan summing up the day, Dad falling asleep and Keifer turning the lights off which represents the end of the day. Overall I think I made a very good structure story/narrative in my video showing different characters in one day. My one issue is that couldn’t do a story/narrative for Keifer as lots of his footage couldn’t be used.   

• Time Management: I think my time management has been good, capturing my Dad going to work, falling asleep, being with his friends and picking up his customers. But I should have woken up about 7am to film the sun rise and my Dad getting up from bed but I didn’t because I was tired and woke up about 8am. I should have gone to bed earlier so I could film those shots. I think my time management during editing was good because I edited at college for 3 days and got it done. The first day of editing it takes ages for all our footage to be converted and pass on each other of our footage, although the last two days of editing was easy and looking at the footage I could see how it could  be put together.  

• Teamwork: Looking at the footage of Keilan’s and Josh’s is really good. There is a variety of shots in their day and their activities are very different. We all filmed on the same day which was good.  I was bit worried about Keilan as he was ill in some days but he did it on the same day. I was disappointed with Keifer’s footage as he didn’t film much. He only filmed around five minutes and most of the footage couldn’t be used as it’s out of frame, has very shaky camera and some didn’t make sense. I only used about four shots of his in the video which was when he opened his curtains for the morning to wake up, getting his shoes on to go out, walking outside and switching the light off to represent the end of the day. I think Keifer could have done better. Other than that, I think we were a good team and that Keilan and Josh did really well. I just felt that Keifer didn’t pull his weight for this project.

• Technical Competence: The final Video looks good, it makes sense and has a good story following four people’s lives in a day. Keilan talks to camera, tells you what the date is describes his plans for the day. At the end of the video I show a shot of film saying the end of the day nearly midnight. I show that my dad is working and also show he has free time, where he watches the TV and falls asleep. I show that Josh stays in all day, being lazy playing Xbox and watching TV. I think it’s really good because it makes sense from beginning to end, although I couldn’t  do a narrative for Keifer. The title sequence I think works really well and I am happy with the choice I made for both music and graphics.