Observations from Project Presentations

For me, the "screening" of our projects was incredibly valuable because it allowed for me to view the entire clip from start to finish on something other than a computer screen, and I got to witness audience reaction. Watching how people reacted to both the photos and audio from the clip helped me to discern what should stay in for the final cut and what should be left out.
Hearing from the class after the viewing allowed me to hear specific critiques pertaining to my project and I was able to narrow down the problem areas. I found that the biggest areas for me to look at were the speed of the audio in the first interview, the placement of captions or a title, and the end of the project. I knew going in that I would have to work on both the ending of the clip, and the introduction. I had not placed any titles or background before the piece, so the audience was left to find out along the way what the project was truly about. I know that can be fixed with a few well placed slides and text, and the ending can be clarified by adding credits.
I enjoyed watching all of the clips because it allowed me to see how other people had composed their projects. Viewing the different narrative structures coupled with the varying audio and photo graphical techniques made me look at my piece in a new light, and I was able to stand back and see what I could do differently to make my piece move more coherently.
The group critique was by far the best way to go about preparing the project for its final cut, and there was popcorn. . . .delicious, sweet, kettle-corn popcorn.