Review and Restructuring

Last week, my final project came up for review.

Review is good, as criticism and advice can go a long way towards cultivating media discernment. Experience is a good tool, and should be found in your toolbox even if you don't possess it yourself.

The Review

In reviewing my final project, the Mass Comm Faculty had a number of things to say. I got advice about all the deliverables that my project has... the video itself, the press kit, as well as a review of the project overall.

Video

I still have some work to do in order to present the visual effects the way I want them to look. In the draft version of the video, the effect was demonstrated, but not as clearly as I'd like. Going into the review I knew that this was a challenge that I'd have to overcome; however, I got some unexpected advice about how to overcome the challenge of showing "sound vision".

In another scene, a composite shot of a spaceship needed some work... the ship looked alright except that it did not interact with the environment the way it should have. I need to make sure that object in the background are sufficiently blurry if they are artificially added to the scene.

Another factor that was discussed was how I used titling. It was recommended to refrain from using a white shadow behind my title text as it is not aesthetically appealing. This should be fairly easy to remedy, and shouldn't require a too much time away from the challenges mentioned above.

Press Kit

With the press kit, I needed to pay attention to the conventions of drafting a press kit. If the logo of your production company does not fit the theme of you film, then it should be minimized. This was something that I didn't know, I had thought that branding was important to the press kit; however, it seems that the overall theme of the press kit is more important than the logo itself.

Another element that came to the attention of my reviewers was that my summary was too long. This was a mistake on my part as I should have presented a summary instead of a synopsis. The summary should be short and to the point because it is meant as a fast introduction to the story. If the reader wishes to continue reading, a synopsis can be provided later in the packet.