PLANNING - Comic Strip Soap + Evaluation:

A2 Media Comic Strip Soap – Evaluation:

The first project in the A2 Media Studies coursework project was to create a section of a soap, using a still image comic strip.

• Choosing a comic strip:

I decided to pick one comic strip, as it helped maintain continuity. However, this meant that my video was fairly short. If I was doing this project again, I would probably have chosen more than one comic strip, and found a way of linking them together in a narrative. This would have made the video longer. The comic strip that I chose was titled ‘Betty’. I chose a school corridor scene. I chose this particular scene because there were a lot of characters, so there would be freedom when choosing the dialogue.

• Dialogue and Sound:

I chose to use my own dialogue, so that I could add my own element to the scene. I had to choose this dialogue carefully as it needed to be relevant to the comic strip – a School corridor. I tried to keep the dialogue simple, so that the scene would not seem too over – complicated. I decided to record the dialogue whilst filming, so that it would all be on one file. The problem with this was that there was a lot of background noise, due to the environment – a classroom. This meant that when I uploaded the video to a computer, the background noise was very prominent and I could hardly hear the dialogue. If I was doing this project again, I would have solved this problem by recording the dialogue separately to filming, in a quiet environment, so that the sound would be clear.

• Filming and camera movement:

I encountered quite a lot of problems during the filming process. Firstly, the camera didn’t seem to fit on the top of the tripod. This meant that the camera was at an angle throughout the whole filming process. If I was doing this task again, I would have chosen a different tripod or a different camera so that the camera would be flat. In terms of camera movement, I used a simple pan across the comic strip, as it kept the video steady, and is conventional. If I was doing this task again, with more comic strips, I would probably use some more technical camera movement, as it would make the video more interesting. I found using the camera quite easy, as I had used a video camera before.

• Editing:

The next task was to edit the video, using Adobe Premiere Elements 8. I found the editing process quite difficult, because the actual video was probably too short. This meant that the amount that I could edit was limited. I managed to fit one edit into the video, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t look very natural. I also decided to put a title card in at the front. This is because I think that it is a convention of soaps, and set the scene well.

• Uploading to YouTube, and to my blog:

I then uploaded the video to YouTube, so that I could then upload it to my blog. I had to create a new YouTube account as I did not previously have one. The process of creating a YouTube account was quick, and I found it simple. I found the process of uploading the video to YouTube fairly simple, as I did this directly from Adobe Premiere Elements 8. The menus were simple to navigate, and it did not take long to upload. The next step was to upload the video to my blog. I also found this simple, as I embedded it straight into my blog from YouTube. Despite this, the video seemed fuzzy when it was uploaded to YouTube. To stop this happening in the future, I would probably pay more attention to the settings on the camera that could have stopped this happening.