Now that we have finished our Synoptic Project I can evaluate how it compares to the brief and how the team worked together during this project.
Firstly, during the Pre Production stages everything went smoothly, the team had agreed on job roles and work was getting done (for now). My role in the group during this stage was filling out the risk assessments, VFX blocking, camera research and the beginning of the modelling and animation tests. I personally did my role well and got everything done on time, I even did different versions of the 3D models and began testing what textures were going to be used. As a group during this time period we worked well, we went location scouting and began getting familiar with the cameras beforehand. We did have some communication problems with the story line ad it did change every week, but we did sit down and clarify a few things. For the most part I was by myself as the team left me to do what I do best, I came up with the model concept art and everyone agreed on the designs.
However, during production is where things took a turn. I had to balance rigging my robot arm, modelling and filming. We wanted to get the filming done as quick as possible so we had time for any re-shoots and to get the VFX going. Filming as a team was difficult, with myself and Emma on the camera (and me doing the Panorama when needed) and Brandon acting in every scene there was one team member who had one job during this process who managed to mess it up every time. Whilst me and Emma was busy changing the settings on the camera and discussing shots this team member would quickly set up the tripod (unbalanced) then go off and do nothing. Every time we ended up having to fix the uneven tripod and he would often ask what was wrong in the first place whilst staring at the tripod that had one leg extended whilst the rest were at the shortest length they could go. It would have also helped if people knew their lines before shooting so we didn't have to wait around for another 10 mins for them to learn them.
Moving on, my job during production was to fully model, rig (if needed), texture, animate, light and render out the scenes with 3D models in. This also meant I rotoscoped my own scenes if necessary and added in my own sounds. Emma had also taken on alot of the work as she was doing 95% of the VFX elements like the matte painting and hacking scene. Before we had begun the leader Brandon had admitted he was not as polished with After Effects so he got he TV Presenter shots which he did a good job on and did them on time without any issues, not only that but for the majority he was acting so he couldn't do much behind the scenes. Our last team member Frank had to make Emma into a hologram on top of my scanner model and create a glow effect in one of the shots. These two tasks took him around 4 weeks to finish, then whenever we asked if he could speed things along as the end was coming near he got very rude to one team member and not doing his work. Another piece of work he was given was to rotoscope Brandon in front of a wall, he refused to do this (nobody knows why) and so it was given to me and I had 24 hours to finish it before Brandon needed it for lighting.
Apart from the team problems I had a few personal ones of my own. The bane of my existence, the 360 panorama. I did teach myself how to use PTGui the software to stitch the many, many photos we took of the scenes where there are models. My biggest issue was Brandon's room, every single time we went something went wrong. This then delayed me even more but thankfully by this point the models had been fully animated and textured so I was just waiting to light them.
Furthermore, post production went far more smoother than the other stages. Apart from compositing my models and rotoscoping areas I didn't do much for this section. Although I did have to go back and change the drone chase shot so that it was more fluid when Brandon was running. As a team things were looking up, apart from someone not telling us that in one shot the sound was messed up so we had to go into the recording studio and dub it. It was after this that things went back down again, with a certain team member once again refusing to do his job that he was given months ago we were back to square one. This team member at this point had not done alot and tried to palm off his work to another and ask "well what have they done this entire time". After a brief discussion with this member from me they finally got their work done. With this team member finally doing the lighting and Brandon compositing everything we had actually finished it without ruining any friendships.
Overall, I believe as a group we did very well with what we managed to accomplish in the end. The VFX elements look good and there are no bad scenes minus our terrible acting. I think everything could have gone alot smoothly if we were taught how to use cameras beforehand, although we got a quick crash course from Sam we ended up using a different camera every time and had to relearn. The majority of us got on with our work and didn't need any help, it could have been easier if one member wasn't constantly letting us down. But, as a team of friends we worked well and knew each others strengths and weaknesses and played that to our advantage we also weren't scared to judge each others work and put in our opinions. We could however, have communicated better as that was where our problems were.
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