Evaluation (viva document)– FMP Bailey Haggan (level 3)
This is my evaluation for my final major project at Bradford College and my overall thoughts of the process and the project as a whole.
Evaluation Process
What methods did you use to maintain an ongoing evaluative and reflective approach?
For the methods to maintain an ongoing evaluative and reflective approach was to write a reflective journal every week telling the viewer of my digital space what I did during that week explaining to them how I edited and recorded the process that is what I did to keep a constant reflection and evaluative process of what I during that week.
What reflective model did you use if any
I used the gibbs reflective cycle I gave a description of what I did during that week I gave some feelings towards my work and evaluating the process of my work giving a few conclusions and I used this method for my actions when I came to editing my project.
Rate the thoroughness of your evaluations
So looking back at my reflective journals I really think I gave a load of details of what I did during that week when it came to writing my reflective journal however I feel that I didn’t give as much effort in writing my reflective journals and should of given a bit more details when it came to writing them so in my opinion I did give enough detail however I felt I didn’t give as much detail as I would of wanted.
Evaluation Influencing Your Work
In what ways did you use evaluations to influence your decision making
In my past evaluations of my previous podcast projects in both level 2 and level 3 I realized that I didn’t put too much effort when it came to doing the podcast projects so I looked back on previous podcast and realized that they were too short and were bland without a guest so I had to improve it for my final major project so I decided to conduct a lot more research and look at other gaming podcast and make notes by looking back at my previous projects by doing this I was able to improve on my work and make a better podcast than I did previously for my final major project.
How effective was your evaluative process in influencing your decision making throughout your project?
To be honest it was really effective like what I said above I looked back at y previous work and evaluations and realized that they were really bland in terms of guest and length and images so I looked back and made notes and used those notes to make my final major project look stand out by having a guest , better graphics , adding images and making it longer in terms of length so I think it was really effective when it came to looking back at my previous evaluations and previous project I have to say it was really came into use and was really effective when it came to creating my final major project for this year.
Project Development
Did you meet your stated aims
Looking back at my final major project I think I did I set out a target to release a 30 minute podcast which I did I also set aims of adding images , text and edit down the audio and the footage I really hit my goal and expectations I set out for this project and was happy to produce something out of it at least by reaching my goals , aims and targets for this project I set for myself.
How does your work compare with your professional research
I have to say my professional research does compare with my work as my final major project is a gaming podcast the research I conducted compares to the work I did on my final major project as I used elements of the research I conducted within my project by including it some parts of the podcast so yeah my research does compare to the work I do for my final major project.
Did you make any changes if so why and how did your concept develop
So yes I did have to make changes to my concept of what I wanted to do I originally wanted to do a talk show with props and video however I wasn’t able to book the tv studio for the day I originally wanted and had a few drop outs for camera operators so I had to use my back up plan of a podcast
which would the change the concept of my final major project however the whole concept was affected I wasn’t able to find a suitable guest from a games company so I had to change the script entirely keeping the first topic and changing the rest and luckily I was able to find a guest from my class to do it with me instead however despite that the concept developed nicely even if I had to change the whole thing and haven’t had further problems after that so yes I did have to make changes to my project and my entire concept but keep the same plot for my project overall.
Does the finished product appeal to your target audience
Yes I think my final major project appeals to my target audience of gaming lovers and general gamers alike as the topics I have for example the earliest gaming memories where me and my guest discusses our earliest memories of gaming and that really appeals to the listeners as they played games in the past and I think I have unlocked a few memories for a few listeners as well I also think the other topics my target audience would understand as well so technically I think my project did appeal to my target audience.
How well does the product reflect your skills and the things you have learned this year
So looking back I really think I have really develop my skills throughout my final major project as before I really didn’t know too much however reflecting back with what I learnt with previous projects I have to say I really improved overall especially with photoshop and premiere pro in terms of design however for the final product piece of my podcast I have really improved on the skills after my earlier projects and I was really able to put those skills I have learnt to the test and was able to develop a fantastic final piece for my final major project this year by demonstrating my skills within my project so I really think it reflects my skills and I think I would be able to use the skills I learnt this year in the future.
Is it an accurate reflection of your skills? Are you proud of it?
In answer to this question I think so I think it is an accurate reflection of my skills as I was able to able to learn them over a course of the year and I think they wanted to teach me the skills so that I would use them for the final major project and with those skills I was able to make an accurate product of my final major project and I am proud of how it all turned out in general compared to my other projects as this was my favourite subject to do overall and I definitely proud of how my final product turned out so yes I think its an accurate reflection of my skills.
What would you do differently next time? What did you learn?
So if I had to go back to the start of the project there would be a few things I would change for example I should of started as a podcast to begin with rather than a talk show that way I wouldn’t of had the hassle of booking the tv studio and finding crew for it and saved me time however I did eventually change it to a podcast however I felt it was too late and should of done it from the beginning rather change it midway through and that what I would of changed if I did next time.
Another thing I would change is I should of instead of finding a guest from a games company I should of found my guest from the same class as me as it would of saved me a lot of time and energy from writing emails to games companies and not getting a reply and not having to change my script a few days before recording the podcast to reflect the change of guest in general and I think doing from the start would of prevented issues like this and if I did this in the future I would do it from the start rather than change it at the latter stages of the project.
Those were main things I would change if I started it from the beginning rather than changing it all mid way through production these are what I would of changed so would a few other bits and maybe would of finished the project slightly earlier if I did those things earlier rather than later.
What would you do differently if you had a larger/unlimited budget?
If I had a larger or unlimited budget I would make it into a series of podcast with some regular host of three people and a guest per episode and discuss games per episode and have camera’s recording clips to upload to YouTube of certain parts that what I would do if I had a larger or unlimited budget.
Another thing I would do if I had a larger or unlimited budget is I would make the game podcast into a tv talk show which was my original idea before changing it into a podcast and it wouldn’t do well as it’s the same concept as with the podcast version set in a studio with an audience that is another thing I would do if I had a larger unlimited budget for my final major project.
There are other things I would do if I had a larger unlimited budget however those would be the main things I would do if I had the budget to do it all and probably would of pulled out all the stops to make it a stand out final major project compared to others.
Final Product
Rate your commitment to and engagement with the project
So looking back I have to say I committed and engaged with the project very well I did a lot of research , developed ideas , writing scripts , recording and editing it and I have to say I focused really well on this project and spent my time recording it and taking my time on that part normally it would take me 5-10 minutes recording the podcast without a guest however I spent my time looking for a guest I did eventually find one however I had to change a few things round however I got it sorted in the end resulting in the 35 minute podcast.
I also spent my time editing the podcast by cutting out certain parts and awkward silences from the podcast there were a word or two that I had to remove as they were inappropriate for the podcast after spending time I had edited out seven minutes of audio in total by focusing on it and I had spent roughly a week editing the video part of my podcast by adding images , text and effects and by doing this I was able to go back and fix any mistakes I had made during the edit process however there are still a few bits that I forgot to edit after uploading however there are bound to be some mistakes and will learn from these mistakes that I forgot to edit out.
However I committed and engaged with this project from start to finish and have to say I did rather well with how I engaged and focused on this project and that I maintained and updated it throughout this project so I have to say I focused really well on this project overall and liked how the final product had turned out due to my commitment and focus on this project.
What professional qualities have you demonstrated during this project
For professional qualities I think I was able to demonstrate that I can reach deadlines on time and keep on track of things and I was able to plan ahead with what I wanted to during a certain week and focus on that thing before moving onto something else a week later and I think I was able to maintain that during the project as a whole so I think timekeeping and planning are the professional qualities I have demonstrated during that week there are others however those two are the main things I have managed to keep a track of during this project and course.
Discuss and assess the success of your final product/performance
Now looking back I have to really say that my final product was a great success in my opinion even though there were obstacles I had to tackle and even changing my project due to unavailability I have to say I have gotten through the project with ease and was able to quickly solve any problems I may have had and as a result gave me the final result and I have to say its been successful with how all it turned out in the end and im quite happy with the final product as a whole.
In terms of performance I have to say that I performed well and maintained it throughout it was slow and fast at times however I was able to push past that and perform through my expectations and reach my goals so I have to say I have performed well and delivered well on my expectations.
Evaluation FMP personal – Bailey Haggan
Here is a personal evaluation of the work that I did for my final major project, and I will reflect on each progress of work that I have made for my final major project.
Ideas & Presentation
So for task 1 I had to come up with ideas and make a presentation of the idea I was doing with I had to do was create a mind map with ideas for example so of the ideas included making a documentary , a tv advert promoting The Simpsons and designing posters for tv and film corporations those were some of the ideas I came up within the mind map looking back some of the ideas I came up with they were really interesting and could of probably went with a few more ideas to make it more interesting however I am happy with the ideas I had come up with for the mind map.
Another thing I had to was go ahead and choose three ideas from the mind map and had to make a paragraph of what I would with the idea and write about the strengths , weaknesses opportunities and the threats that came with the ideas I came up with the three I went with was a documentary about being autistic in Bradford , make a podcast about the film and tv industry in Bradford and a talk show about the games industry. Those were the three ideas I had chosen from the mind map and reflecting back I could of added a few more details and could of added why I went with those ideas in the first place instead of any of the others I had come up with for the mind map I should of included that for more an understanding why I went those ideas compared to the other ideas I had come up with for my project in the first place.
Ultimately I had decided to go with my gaming talk show idea as my final major project the reason I went with this idea as it is easier to do rather than a documentary or a podcast and because of this I had to start creating my presentation for my gaming talk show and in total created ten slides for what I was going to do for my gaming talk show. However looking back I should of made it less detailed and with less slides but with more images that what I think I should of done when creating my presentation to make it more clearer and stood out without it being messy in my opinion however I felt happy with how my presentation as I felt I presented it well and will use the feedback that I was given such as made I made it too detailed a bit wordy and the clarity was not great and with the feedback I will use it to make a better and clearer presentation for any of my future projects.
Reflect
So reflecting back on task 1 I have to say that I really did well with the ideas I had come up for the final major project and felt I should of expanded more on those ideas a bit more with the stuff I had already written however even though I should of added more I felt that I have written enough already and for the presentation I could of made it better and less detailed to present to the class however looking back I felt the work I did was just enough for the first task of my final major project and with the feedback I was given I will learn from that when it comes to making another presentation.
Task 2 – Research & Pre-Production
For task 2 I had to conduct research into the topic that I was going to do for my FMP I decided to give a brief description of how the gaming industry started and how it is going in today’s world I also conducted research into the roles and the jobs of the gaming industry discussing three jobs there are in the gaming industry and what that position offers within that role , why people should get a career in gaming explaining the career paths , salaries and much more and also conducting research about video game communities for research into the target audience. now looking back, I could have added a bit more research for example could have looked at two video game podcast and analysed them however overall, I could have conducted a bit more research as I felt I didn’t do enough at the time.
After completing the research, I started the pre-production process for my final major project I had to write up the proposal using a template and give a brief description of what I was going to do and wrote up the action plan and timetable for my final major project. After writing the proposal I had to start writing the script for my gaming project and wrote around four topics to discuss for my gaming show looking back when writing the scripts I didn’t know at the time that I would have to change the scripts and if I had knowledge beforehand I wouldn’t had to make multiple versions of the script to reflect the changes I had to make later down the line if I had known earlier if I had to make changes to my final major project.
I then had to change my original concept of gaming talk show due to unavailability issues of the tv studio and had to change it into a gaming podcast it would still have the same concept as with the talk show but in podcast format looking back I should have had it as a podcast from the start this way I wouldn’t of made the changes mid-way through the project however I was happy I changed it as I think it made things easier for me in terms of planning and organizing and I was able to record quicker and get the main part of the project over and done with so I could focus on the editing part of my project.
During the pre-production process I decided to start designing concepts for my intro and outro for my project I designed a total of three concepts which was an arcade machine , super Mario style titles and one featuring a tv and consoles with the host and guest in the form of posters as pixel characters in the end I decided to go with the arcade machine idea and expand upon it looking back at the concepts I enjoyed designing them for my podcast and I could of made more however I felt three was enough as I didn’t have many ideas at the time as I was focusing on other parts of my project at the time.
During my project I was looking for people from gaming companies that would be interested into doing my podcast with me for my project in total I emailed around eight games companies however none of the ones I had contacted had got back to me I was really disappointed as that meant I had to change everything from the scripts to finding a new guest for my podcast. however luckily I was able to change the scripts and was able to find a new guest from within my class to do the podcast with me instead now looking back I should of made a back-up plan if I wasn’t able to find a guest from a games company that way I wouldn’t of changed things round so quickly putting my project into doubt but I was able to move past those obstacles that was in my way and was still able to do my project even if it wasn’t the original idea I wanted to go within the first place.
There were some other bits that I did during the pre-production process for example the floor & lighting plans , hiring crew and a risk assessment however when I did these was when I was going to a talk show in the tv studio before I had to change the plans to a podcast however I decided to keep them in to show the changes that I had to make to reflect the change from a talk show to a podcast that is why I kept them in to show the changes I had to make for my project.
Reflect
Looking back on task 2 overall I have to say that there were loads of things I could of changed for example adding a bit more research however with the research I already conducted I felt it is enough to get me a good grade for my project there were quite a few things I had to change as I was no longer doing a talk show. but instead a podcast and reflecting on that if I knew I had to make changes I would of went back to change the project I was working on and this would of saved me time from changing the whole concept midway through the project I was working on and I think things could have been a lot more different if I had just had as a podcast instead of starting it as a talk show then changing it into a podcast midway through so overall reflecting on task 2 it was very difficult to get through with the changes I had to make for my podcast and the obstacles I had to go through along the way but I pushed through it in the end and was able to continue with my project even though I had to change the overall idea midway through task 2.
Task 3 – Production and Final Results
For task 3 I had to move on to the production part of my project and for the first part of the production I did was create the graphics intro for my gaming podcast project what I went with is an arcade machine which is one of the original concepts I originally came up with during task 2 and what I did was use illustrator to design the machine and made it a light blue colour. after designing the machine I started making the background and went with a pink and purple triangle background which would spin in the background I eventually added the arcade machine to the background and the game on text creating a still image of the intro. After creating the intro in photoshop I then made the intro move using premiere pro and created a moving intro and used different flashing colours to create the effect for the intro. Looking back I could of made the joysticks move however I am happy with how I made the intro and had no problems with it and I was happy of how it turned out during the production process.
There was a few changes I had to make in task 3 due to the unavailability of guest from a games company even though I contacted around eight companies none of them responded to the emails I have sent so I had to completely re-write the scripts of three of the topics however kept my first topic which was earliest gaming memories despite this change I was really happy with the updated script that I had created for my project. Looking back I should have had looked for someone in class to do the podcast much earlier and this would of prevented me from changing the scripts a few days before recording had took place however I was still able to write the script considering I only a short amount of time to write one up for the project.
For the next part of production is the recording part and I was originally going to record in the tv studio however unfortunately the date I wanted to record it in the studio was unavailable so alternatively decided to record it over teams instead and would record it on a Tuesday a day for which I am off for the day but before I recorded it with my guest I had to conduct a few audio test to see if the audio was loud and clear which I was and I was able to record a fourty-two minute podcast without any problems at all. Looking back I think I should of booked the tv studio a few weeks in advance because it would have been better in a way however I think recording it online was a great idea as that way I can begin editing straight away once the recording had been completed for my project.
For the next part of task 3 I had to start the editing process and decided to begin with the audio editing what I had to use was the software adobe audition for the sound editing and it was a lengthy process as it took me around a week to do I had to edit out the silences , the erms and a swear word and had reduced it to around 35 minutes worth of audio looking back on this part I could of spent a lot more time on the audio editing as there was still some silences now and again but not as frequent however as I only had a certain amount of time to do the project however despite this I think the audio turned out well and was happy with how everything had turned out for the audio.
After completing the audio editing I moved on to the video editing part of my project and I used adobe premiere pro to edit the video part what I did was include the intro I had made and the audio I had edited and dragged into the editing part I then added the game on image and that is what I would use throughout my project I then added a bunch of images which were relating to the topics that me and my guest discussed during the recording. I have to say I enjoyed the editing part as I enjoyed finding the right images and implementing them within the podcast. Looking back at the video editing I have to say that I could of added a bit more effects to it rather than the same effect with the images I also realized that there a black screen in one of the scenes however it only lasted for about a second and should of gone back and fixed it however I didn’t have enough time I also think I could of made some of the images look less blurry and better however I think I tried my best with the podcast to make it stand out and high quality however despite this I am happy with how the podcast had turned out during the video editng process of my podcast.
Also during production I had also did some promotional work to promote my podcast for example making a shortened version of my podcast to show at a showcase event in the science and media museum in Bradford , I also made some posters to hand out to people who would want to listen to the gaming podcast I have worked on for my project now looking back I could of done more promotional work by making tote bag and t-shirt designs however I think I had done just enough in terms of promotional work and was happy with how the promotion part helped with the viewership of my podcast.
Also during the production I had made weekly reflection journals to discuss what I did during the production and how far I had gotten and it really helped me develop this evaluation a bit better in terms of what I wanted to say for the evaluation.
Reflect
Looking back at the work I did during the production I have to say that it was very enjoyable compared to the other tasks I had to do for my FMP from creating the graphics to publishing the final video the production process was complicated at times however with the changes I had to make midway through the project however I had gone past those obstacles as I was still able to produce something even though it wasn’t what I wanted it to be there were a few things I could of changed during the production process however i am happy with how it turned out overall and I dont think I would change anything as it ran smoothly towards the end of the production process.
Evaluating The Project
Looking back I have to say doing this project over the last few months I have to say have been enjoyable I learnt a bunch of new things that I didn’t know about before I did my research and it was nice to go through the history of video games and conducting research for it and there is a lot of things changes I could of made to make my project better during pre production process I should of made a back up plan much earlier rather than later.
There is also a few things I was not happy with for example having to change my project mid-way through , having to find a guest from my class rather than a games company which resulted in a change to the script during the last few weeks of my project and I think I could done a lot more to prevent that from being the case however I was overall happy with the changes I had to make as I felt that the version I had completed felt much better than what I planned originally for my final major project.
There are a few edits I could of made during the video editing process by adding a few more extra details into the video and also removing a few extra part of audio to make it sound a lot better than it already was.
However despite this I really enjoyed this project and I am really happy with how everything turned out in the end even though I had to change the project mid way through I managed to get there in the end and reach the goals I had set out at the start and throughout this entire project.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.