Reflection

In Creative Media the last few weeks, I have been in charge of creating the music. So far I have found this task both challenging but quite enjoyable. I am very proud of the work I have done so far and I hope to have the music completely finished by the end of the week.

Since our film has some horror and suspense elements in it, I decided to create a mixture of music. I have suspenseful, horror and sad music. I decided to create some suspenseful music because there is a scene in the movie (Elena finding the spell) which I thought was quite suspenseful. I created horror sounding pieces after researching and watching dozens of horror films (mind you I watched so really scary ones and found out that they don’t really use a lot of music but mainly focus on sound so that was something else to consider) in order to make sure the music was suitable for our film. With the music I have created so far, I am very happy with my work and the others had liked it as well so that’s more encouraging.

The only problems I have faced during the last few weeks is with GarageBand. This is because there has been several (annoying) cases where the file has somehow gotten itself corrupted and therefore, won’t open. It is very annoying because this has happened more than once and I can’t say I know why it’s doing it. The only other problem I have faced is that GarageBand did not have the sounds I wanted. In order to produce the type of music I wanted, I wanted really scary vocals or piano and string sounds. GarageBand did have some piano and string sounds but most of their loops were all happy and cheerful...this is a horror film so happy and cheerful aren’t really what I need. I managed to solve this problem by recording one of my friends singing and playing what I wanted on the piano. My cousin then helped me combined the music on his sound editing program and the piece turned out really well!

During this unit of work, I have learnt one major thing. I have learnt how to use GarageBand! GarageBand is not very hard to do but it is very hard to produce decent music from it. There is nothing wrong with the loops but I find difficult to put music together by ear. I am very impressed with my skills in GarageBand because with the help of Mr Andrews and through self-taught, I have discovered how to actually use the program!

The time management for my group has not been the best. At first, we were not organised at all! Everything was rushed and the film just looked crap. When we did it the second time and went over everything in more depth and more carefully, the film turned out pretty good. However, I believe we would not be as stressed if we had been way more organised and gotten most of the filming right the first time.

The only changes I would make is the group’s time management. As I mentioned before, the group was not organised. We had not fully committed to this film and this shows in our earlier filming. However, in the end we did get our act together and ended up filming some pretty good stuff. The only other thing I would change would be the film itself. Yes, the film looks really cool but it has taken so long to do and has caused so many problems that I regret not asking the others to do my film because my film was all school based and we did not need a lot of props. However, I am kinda glad we kept with this film because it is turning out really well!

Elena and Zhierleen have been really fun to work with. Yes, we have had some issues with each other but that was based on different ideas of what the film should look like. Both of these girls, especially Elena, have worked really hard on this film and I am very glad I got the chance to work with girls as hard working as them. After we got our act together with the filming, these girls put 100% effort in all the time. I am extremely happy that I got the chance to work with these nice and very hard working girls.

Overall, I am very happy with how everything has turned out. I think time management has been a major issue and I think if we had spent our time more wisely, then we would not be as stressed as we are now. However, I have learnt how to use GarageBand and I have even managed to solve my own problems. So far, we only have one scene left to film and when I get the rough copy from Elena, I will be able to put the music to the video and then we are done!