Final Presentation

Here is my final presentation –

I have handed in my updated CV as a hard copy because of my personal details.

Team work

I think the best thing we done well together as a team was enjoyed ourselves. I enjoyed my teams company and we all got on well which made working as a team much easier. I felt very comfortable and could say what I thought about a shot or an idea because I knew it would not be taken personally and my idea would be listened to. There was only one issue whilst filming and that was when we were filming the statues. I was filming and knew we wanted a shot of all of the statues standing together but did not think you could fit them all in by doing it from the side, so decided to try to film from straight on, but there were cars in the way. Richard came over and said he did not like the shot and I agreed, but did not know where else to put it and he had not suggestions. Emma had been walking around the statues and came over to say I could fit them all in sideways instead of getting the cars in the shot so I moved to do this. Richard was unhappy because he had told me he did not like the shot but I did not move it, because we both had no suggestions but Emma did have a good suggestion so I moved the camera. I told him this and he seemed to be back to normal soon after. We had a few problems with the camera but we all had a look at them and between us we fixed them. Whilst in Tenerife, Emma and I shared everything and us four were almost always together. This gave us quite a good team spirit and has made us close friends. We had to take it in turns using the cameras and editing software and if I done this again I would defiantly want more cameras and editing software. I could have helped Jake out with the editing of the beauty of Tenerife because there was quite a lot to do. I think I shared the camera responsibilities well and made sure we were out the door on time most mornings. When walking up Mt Teide we had to work as a team to make sure everyone was OK. Emma had hurt her leg so we all walked at her pace and I kept checking how she was and calling for breaks. When we were half way up I was starting to struggle with the pace because I am use to walking at a faster pace so I walked off for a bit. This was not very ‘team work’ of me and I probably shouldn’t have done it, but I felt like I needed to walk fast for a while or my legs were going to seize up. Overall, considering only Jake and Richard had worked together before, I think we got on extremely well and completed our tasks as a team. I have enjoyed working with this group of people and really hope to work with them again in the future.

Here is our beauty of Tenerife video –

Learning Development and Creative Work

As told in my presentation, I have learnt how to create a time-lapse and am much more confident using the D90 and capturing fast movements steadily. I had not used one of the lenses we rented out before so learnt how to use this and when it was an appropriate time to use it. When filming, I began to think more carefully about the shots I took because I realised it was somewhere new and pretty so I was just getting average shots so had to think more creatively about my shots. I used the Marantz to record atmosphere sounds and had to really think about where to place the microphone because most of the places we needed to film had other sounds we did not want to pick up. I have a huge knowledge on world issues which I have been talking to others about. I have mentioned a few of these in my daily blog posts and they are things I did not even think about before I completed this work experience. For example, I knew it was better for marine mammals to be in the wild but I did not realise how bad it is for them to be in captivity. They get skin infections from being kissed/touched too much and their life span is cut by over half because of the stress of hearing the noise from various places such as the audience or water filter. I learnt many world issues which have changed my views and made me realise how few people know about these issues. My communication skills have improved by putting my view across in terms of ideas of shots and coming up with an idea. This improved throughout my work experience and I became much more confident talking to new people and made some good friends and contacts. I enjoyed getting to know people from different places from around the world and learnt how different things were in Holland than England from the Dutch people there. All I learnt in Tenerife is transferable so I can use my new knowledge and skills in the future.

 

Contacts

Dan Barnes – Graphic design – It is always helpful to have someone with a good knowledge of programmes such as After Effects and Photoshop to ask for help with if needed for future projects.

Joe Fox – Zoologist – Is interested in creating Wildlife documentaries in the future, could use his knowledge of animals and my media skills in the future.

Jorn Martens – Falcon trainer – Birds are my favourite animal and it is good to know someone who works with them. Could create a documentary in the future.

Johnny Bradford – Graphic Design – Again, it is good to know people who I could collaborate with in the future. Johnny made a book in Tenerife which is going to be published so I know he is a hard worker and his work is to a professional standard.

Ed Bentham – Founder of the AWF – If I want to work with the AWF in the future, I can get in contact with Ed.

Agata Paraszczak – Zoologist – It is helpful to know people who are going into the wildlife industry because it is something I want to be part of.

Johnny Rickard – Presenter – Hopefully I will be able to film Johnny interviewing his next celebrity.

CVTV project

I was supposed to be filming a variety of interviews with C-list celebrities for a show reel for Johnny Rickard. This did not go to plan because I was supposed to be filming two out of four days but both of the interviews I was meant to be filming were cancelled for one reason or another. One of the interviews is being rescheduled for next week so I will hopefully be filming that. I helped put up the set last Thursday which was quite difficult because we had to hang black material over boards double the size of me so we used chairs to reach up and pass the material over. Some of it them fell down so we had to put it up again ready to be selotaped in the morning.

12-05-2011

Today was our last day! I done all my packing after cleaning. I spend the majority of the day blogging and doing coursework on the terrace whilst Jake edited the beauty of Tenerife. It was quite sunny so we sat on the terrace and an hour before we left, I sat outside with a few people. We then loaded all our suitcases into the car and waited for Agata to come back to drive us to the airport. It was quite a long goodbye, Emma, Joe and I went on the wall because Joe wanted to hide us there so we were not allowed to leave! We then went to the airport and the flight home was fine.

 

11-05-2011

I woke up expecting to ache like I have never ached before, but in fact, I did not ache at all! It was very strange, it was only my ankles that slightly ached. I think my body thought it was doing the Duke of Edinburgh again so healed very quickly. It was mine and Emma’s last day on the boats today so we went on the Maxicat in the hope of getting an interview. When we arrived we went straight to the boat because we could see the captain aboard. He told us the woman who said she would do the interview had the day off which as typical. He said we would be OK to get on the boats today and to come back at 10am. When we went back there was the lady who owns the boat letting passengers on. We asked her if it was OK to get on but she said it was a private function but there was a normal public trip going out at 2pm. I thought we should get a shot of the Maxicat pulling out of the port so we could use it in the promotional video. We found a high up point where we could film the Maxicat but before we got there we got called over by the boat called Freebird One For You. They wanted us to go on because they did not have any volunteers on there so we went on but just after we got sat down the crew got told it was also a private function so we had to get off. We then filmed the Maxicat leaving the port then went to the beach til 2.

We went on the 2pm Maxicat trip and within 10 minutes of leaving the port, someone was already being sick. It was quite rough and one of the crew members said he felt sick on the morning trip which is never a good sign! The crew were all very friendly and tried their best to find whales and dolphins but unfortunately we did not see any. Pilot whales like to ‘log’ which is when their brain is half asleep and cannot do this in rough waters so we think they must have gone looking for calmer seas. Instead we worked at the bar, spoke to the crew, asked people on-board for their signature on the anti-whaling petition and gave sick people sick bags! In the evening we had a long meeting where everyone was showing the project they have been working on for feedback.

Here is our final video of the Maxicat. We could not find an available crew member to create a voice over interview, so Emma scripted it and Jake read it out. Rich was the editor and I like how he has put the shots together and the sound works really well. The original soundtrack sounded like it was from a video game so this is a huge improvement.

10-05-2011

We took quite a while to reach the refuge on Mt Teide because Emma’s calf muscle was causing her a lot of pain so had to stop to stretch it often. I found the climb itself fairly easy because of the slow pace. I had a head torch so I could see fine, but we did not want to use all the torches at once in-case they ran out of battery so at one point I had to hold my head torch so others behind me and myself could see. We reached the refuge at 5am and slept for an hour. Our original plan was to leave the refuge by 5am but this was not possible. We left the refuge at 6am and continued walking. Emma and Richard started to feel giddy and sick from the altitude so they kept having long breaks in which Jake and I were getting cold so we continued walking. Emma and Richard told us they do not think they will be able to make it to the top in the time we have left but Jake and I were determine to reach the top. We were suppose to be at the top for the sunrise but we did not make it in time but the views were still amazing from where we saw it from. We could not find the path up the summit so ended up scrambling up the loose rocks on the side of the volcano. The top was so pretty but smelt quite badly of sulphur. We were told it was very cold and windy at the top but the first thing we done when we got up there was take off most of our layers. It was sunny and there had been no wind throughout the whole journey. After having a snack on the top, we began down which took much less time! Jake and I thought we had somehow got onto the wrong path so were worrying about ending up at the wrong point. From where we were we could see the cable cars so decided to make our way to those instead of following what we thought was the wrong path. We were soon climbing over then down another mountain which looked like it was made out of smashed plant pots. These orange rocks were extremely sharp and loose and we fell over quite a few times. It took us an extra hour and a half but if we had just followed the path we would have came out at the right place. My legs were on fire then just felt numb but we had to film the forest on the way down. On the first stop on the way down, I did not get out of the car, instead Richard and Emma filmed shots of the trees and flowers. At the next stop I felt like I could move a bit better so got out the car. Here we filmed the view and the trees then got in the car to go back to the house. We went straight to bed when we got back.

09-05-2011

Today was our rest day in between Masca and Mt Teide. We were going to get dropped off at Teide at midnight so after packing all the stuff I needed and cleaning, we all had a nap. After our nap we went to the shop, double checked we had everything, arranged what clothes we needed to wear then had dinner and a meeting before going back to bed for an hour before leaving for Teide. I felt ready for this climb and the night seemed quite clear. I only ached a little bit from Masca but not enough to hurt or make a difference to my walking.

08-05-2011

We completed the Masca walk today which was based in Los Gigantes, the third highest sea cliffs in the world. The views were so pretty and there was a beautiful river which caused a few waterfalls. There were so many caves and the walk lasted approximately 5 hours. We needed some footage of this Masca walk for our beauty of Tenerife promotional video so had our cameras and tripod with us. We filmed the views, the strange shaped rocks, the flowers and the waterfalls. Hopefully the beauty we saw will be seen through the footage. The hardest thing about trying to film here was how uneven the rocks were throughout the Masca walk.