Excite Us Project - Vauxhall Bridge

Brief 
This was the welcome task,  we were given a place. Our group got Vauxhall Bridge, we had to make a project that got the group excited.

Aims:
- To excite the class with a project that is based on a location that we have been given.
- To learn how to work in a group
- To get to know people
- To get to know the area that our collage is located in.

Video

Evaluation 

Coming up with ideas 

The great thing that we identify with our place that was given to us, was that it had a lot of history. This meant that we based our ideas around the theme of merchandise. These are people that pay money to other people for things that they don’t like or want to do.  From this a couple of the members on the group started to develop an idea, that we would dress up as the statues on the bridge and start to jump out at people. However, I really disagreed with this idea. I liked that they were trying to connect the past to the bridge and tried to incorporate into our project. However this idea I thought just sounded really anti social.

As a group we then developed the idea of the history future, and we were thinking about getting people to do something that they don’t want to do for money.

I thought that strength with this was that we were in a group so there was 4 of us. We all came from very different backgrounds, which meant that we came up with loads of different ideas. This meant that we could have gone in lots of different directions. The down side of having a very big mixture of styles, was that sometimes, ideas and people didn’t click, this some times caused a negative atmosphere with in the projects at some points. I felt like there wasn’t a clear direction at some points, which meant that this might have had an impact on the final pieces as it might have not been clear what we were trying to communicate.

A weakness I thought  with this area of the project was that as a group with coming up with ideas, was that I felt that the group split. I felt that there a couple of the members who were very conceptual and want to do something quite out there, that was stupid and made people laugh. As I felt the other half of the group, were less out there but just wanted to create something that that was of really high quality and looked beautiful on screen.  I think that this had a impact is a negative way as half the group where kind of working of different ideas and things. However a positive impact is that at the end they could be drawn together to pull together our final pieces. 

1st day of filming 

We went a head with the idea that we developed, to give gold chocolate coins out in exchange of them doing something they didn’t want to do.

The weakness with this day was that the weather was really bad and we didn’t think about the location and what type of people it would hold. It was raining and cold. This meant people did not want to stop to talk to us, because they wanted to get out of the rain. Also the type of people who were on the bridge were business people who were crossing the river, to grab lunch and then get back to there busy days. The mixture of these 2 elements, had a massive impact on the project as no one would stop and interact with us, or if they did they were simply rude and got annoyed, as it was quite a stupid thing that we were doing, to an outsider who didn’t understand the project. This had a massive overall impact on the project as in the end we didn’t get video footage of a random people. Which meant it didn’t reflect the true interaction that we wanted to get across, as the people we asked in the end were art students, which meant that they did it because they understood it was for an art project and they were helping fellow students.

2nd day of filming 

We split into two groups for this day. Half of the group went and tried to get footage of people reacting and the other half, which I was in, went to the bridge to try and get some shots, so that it would enhance and give a better understand of the location.

I thought that a strength in this part of the project was that as a group we split up to what our interests were. I really enjoyed my self and I thought I was learning a lot about the location and all the skills that relate to filming. I thought this showed though in the clips as all of them were thought about, they were clear and pleasant to watch. This would give an impact to the overall project as it would clearly set the location in the viewers head where we were talking about. So it means they would understand the other half of the project more.

I thought a massive weakness in the project was the video footage that was taken from the other group. I am not being mean about them, I am just being critical of the work that they produced. The video footage, was shaky, bad quality, awful sound quality, not in frame and I just felt it didn’t capture the moment perfectly. It felt like the footage some one hadn’t realised that they had there iphone on record. I wanted to get other people opines and they said it felt like a 4 year was just messing around with the camera. The impact was that it made the clip really unpleasant to watch and that meant the information that was trying to be conveyed was really hard to understand and the viewer would not get it.

Editing 

I thought a massive weakness in the project was the video footage that was taken from the other group. I am not being mean about them, I am just being critical of the work that they produced. The video footage, was shaky, bad quality, awful sound quality, not in frame and I just felt it didn’t capture the moment perfectly. It felt like the footage some one hadn’t realised that they had there iphone on record. I wanted to get other people opines and they said it felt like a 4 year was just messing around with the camera. The impact was that it made the clip really unpleasant to watch and that meant the information that was trying to be conveyed was really hard to understand and the viewer would not get it. How we got over this problem was that we change every thing to black and white, muted the sound and then put a bright yellow type face, to explain what the sound was saying.

Overall Evaluation 

Overall I am happy with how the outcome ended. For the presentation people laughed, which was the main point of the task. However because we used people from around university, I don’t think that our project had a real depth of the real world. If I was to do this project again, I would have defiantly gone to the bridge on a bright sunny day, at about 10 – 11 O clock when business people are in there offices working and not in a rush to get lunch. This means we might get to interact with more layback people who are up for a laugh. Also I would make the other team hire out and use better cameras, so that the quality of the film is better. The impact that this would have is it would have made the video a lot more easier to understand and communicate our idea.

Taking the brief further 
I filmed most of the video clips of the Vauxhall bridge and the surrounds. However in the video that we presented, a lot of the footage that I shot, didn't go into the project. So I though I would develop this further as a personal interest in mine is filming places and capturing small beauty that most people walk by each day.