After
producing both an in-camera effect and a digital effect I found that I
appreciated the traditional process but enjoyed producing the digital effect
much more due to it being less time consuming and less limiting. Although
the in-camera effect was fun to make and required a lot of research and
thought, it just doesn't stand up and look convincing on screen. I found it
quite challenging to come up with a good idea/ technique to produce as to
produce a storm in-camera it would normally be better to go film an actual
storm on location.
When
filming the in-camera effect I found it challenging to get both the water
vortex and the background in focus at the same time due to the water and the
bottles distorting the background. When I uploaded the footage I did a small
colour correction on ‘Adobe After Effects’ as the bottles we used were green
and this did not make the tornado look convincing so I colour corrected it to a
grey/ blue hue to make it more atmospheric. When thinking up the idea for the
in-camera effect I found it challenging
to find a successful idea that would work on film and it was a good lesson in
time management as I should have spent more time on the in-camera effect and
given it priority over the digital effect. If I had more time to perfect this I
would have spent more time experimenting with different techniques of making
the water vortex and also figure out a way of having the background and
foreground in focus. It would have been interesting to also add ink to the
water and see what effect it gave when the water was moving through the vortex.
When
producing the digital effect I found that using the existing footage we filmed
then adding simple effects like rain and lightning along with sound really made
the footage more atmospheric. I found that using the sky replacement was a
tricky technique to master and also cutting the different footage together to
make an interesting composition with the right feeling and also adding sound
was an interesting process to go through. If I had more time to perfect this I would
have made the digital rain more convincing by making it less white so it would
blend more with the overall image.
As this was
a group project it helped develop communication skills and helped me understand
how to work on a practical project like this with other people. The project helped me to experiment a lot more
with traditional media and techniques and also helped me develop my
cinematography skills further such as learning more camera angles, soundtrack,
foley and lighting. Altogether I found this module very challenging and very
different from anything I had previously done. I believe all these skills will
come in useful in future as thinking up a digital solution is not always the
best solution to the problem as many traditional techniques look much better.
