I can honestly say I’m quite proud of the outcome of my film. I suffered through many struggles attempting to navigate through both the programs necessary and my own mind deciding what to do and how to do it. Though I wish I could change things and make it more complex I reached my limit and didn’t want to over complicate the whole thing by trying to make it too showy.

Though it’s quite obvious I’m no Quentin Tarantino I am learning so much as I go along. In this particular film I believe that the ending of the film was a success. It turned out how I visualised it with a break from the interview to show a simple “By Grace Thomas” only to then have Rosalie pop back on screen and reiterate the point of the story, that she love’s her job. The main failures and areas that I wish I could have improved were the incorrect sizing of the found footage relative to the interview, and the flow of the interview. I disrupted the flow of the interview in editing as I went over the time limit and was forced to cut out the less important small responses that, I later realised, gave fluency to the whole thing, however I didn’t feel I could cut out any main information damaging the facts about Rosalie, so instead I made the decision to sacrifice the flow.

A learning discovery I made in the creative possibilities of self portraits was the filming technique itself and the importance of different shots. It seems like an obvious realisation but nonetheless it’s what I discovered. At first I did not intend on shifting the camera angle or zoom. I had already filmed a whole interview with a static shot that did not change and I planned on making the interview interesting through content and my found footage. However after discussing ideas with Brian in last weeks workshop I decided to give it another go. It was by pure accident that I left the filming too late and was forced to change my location due to a lack of natural lighting. This time I decided to zoom in on different shots and off-centre my interviewee, panning the camera half way through my second interview so she was on the other side of the screen. I realised that it would make the interview more interesting to watch and through editing I mashed the interviews together and created a much more visually appealing and intriguing portrait. So in future I know not be afraid of moving the camera or changing settings as it gives more complexity to the end product.

Through the process of editing this video I have learned that planning is essential, not only before filming but continuously planning. After watching the scenes from Mistaken for Strangers I had a go at using sticky notes to cut and order my footage. This worked out extremely well and saved me from further wasting my time constantly re-watching and trying to get the order right. I wrote each different section down (dot pointed) and ordered them. It allowed me to see my footage more clearly for the information given rather than the different shots i say this as I realised I was doubling up on a few points from each interview session but they were just being said differently. In future I will always use this method for short films as it helps me understand better and clarify the substance i have collected, which all in all helps me to deliver my video as close to how I visualised it as possible.