The theme of my project was about the COVID lockdown that started back in 2020. The main reason I went for this theme as my project is because it was a global pandemic so everyone had experienced the same event but in different ways. I liked the fact that I could go into such a varied amount of topics with in one main one and also use my creative skills towards it.

For my research, I looked at a few different things. I looked into different surveys that focused around mental health and COVID especially as I knew that mental health was heavily impacted to those in my target audience. So this had to be a topic I looked into. They mentioned that the students did not feel great about COVID lockdown so I knew that I had to focus on the bad sides of it. Additionally, these tests were conducted in 2020, the main time focus for my project. This helps me get more time accurate data compared to my primary research. For my primary research I asked about people's experiences from this time but obviously they would not be accurate as 3 years later not many people remember the time. However people's feelings about the lockdown was more positive than negative so I also realised that at the time it was seen as bad but now it's seen as a positive thing. So that also made me realise that I should it should have a balance of both good and bad.

Throughout my project I had times where I had to develop my ideas even more. It started out with the idea of wanting to create a 'house' where people are edited into it and are split into good and bad sides. And ended with me creating a photo series where I displayed the sides of both positive and negative emotions. The way I had come about with this was because I realised that creating the house idea without access to many houses would be a struggle especially as many were reluctant to shoot in their own homes. Then whilst doing test shots for what was meant to be my secondary outcome of a surreal photo series, I noticed that there wasn't much for me to edit with so thats where the idea of face paint came about. It incorporated my hobby of art which I felt before it didn't really include it but now it does.

The outcome of the project was to be a photo series highlighting the different emotions that people had gone through during the lockdown. It would be shown on a website where each part is on different pages so that it just focuses on the one. This was is a hidden message I wanted in my work as I know that people often focused on mainly one part of lockdown which was either the good or bad. The pages are assorted in a way so that it goes from good to bad. The second outcome was to make a podcast as I have really been enjoying watching them as of late and I wanted to have a go at making my own. I felt that I could definitely make a podcast about the COVID lockdown since it was a big issue that happened during my life.

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Before the project, I felt a bit nervous. I knew it was a big part of our final grade since it has been mentioned multiple times. It also worried me a bit as I knew I'm indecisive person so I was preparing to change my idea multiple times. I know that with me changing it multiple times throughout the project will be an issue as it means I will have little time to do it. Despite this, I felt that I was going to enjoy this project a lot as I knew I would have a lot of creative decisions in this and that I can decide what I want to create whilst using the brief.

I think overall from when I started to when I finished my project became even stronger as time went on. Before doing any sort of production work, I felt that my work was weak and that it wasn't really going anywhere. When I started the production phase however, I realised that it wasn't all so bad and after taking the shots it would all come together. This made me realise that I need to see an idea happen rather than write it up so that I can 

I felt relieved when the project was over as I knew that I had completed it to the best of my ability. Although I will say that my body felt stressed towards the end of it as I started to get stress headaches but I managed to get through this and finally finish it all. I kind of wish that this lasted longer so that I could still do this as I enjoyed it quite a bit.

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I think the main good points about the project was that I was able to include my hobby of art by creating my own character and also designing the different emotions onto each person's face by using face paint. It allowed me to understand color theory more but in relation to emotions. Another thing that was good about the project was that I was able to use photoshop more so that led to me learning more about software and what type of tools it offers. Despite the photography project we had done before, I felt that I didn't really learn how it worked, but since I have completed my FMP using photoshop I now know more about what it has.

One challenge I did face during this was that I had to change my primary idea at a month before the deadline. This was because the people I had asked to help out was reluctant to shoot in their own homes and my house is quite far compared to where the majority of people live. So because of this I decided to scrap the house idea, and change it to something else. I knew I had to think of something quick as I would have less time to shoot and edit it. After watching my music video inspiration playlist on YouTube - there was a video that stood out to me which was the InXanity music video directed by Cole Bennett of lyrical lemonade. The neon effects used in the beginning was intriguing to me and I wanted to create a similar effect with my project but it highlights the emotions instead. I also realised that to do this I will need to use face paint so that I have a base color for each of them.  

I think one bad point of the experience was when I felt burnt out at the end of March/the first half of April. Looking back at this time, I think the main reason I had felt burnt out was because I thought that there was a lot more to do compared to our typical projects. It took a while for me to get through this burnout as a few days I would feel fine but then go back into it. This may have also been because the idea wasn't really a strong one for me and I didn't really feel attracted to my original idea as much, because once I had changed my idea I didn't really feel the burnt out feeling anymore. To prevent this from happening or reduce the amount of time that I feel burnt out, I think I will make a day to day timetable where I do a certain amount of work each day and if I start to feel the same way, I will take a step back from the project for a few days and then come back to it with a fresh mindset.

For this overall project, I would rate it as 'Good'. The reason I gave my work a rating of 'Good' was because I felt that the product of what created was what I had aimed to achieve. I wanted to show the different emotions and use the glow effect which worked well in my opinion and then the presentation of the website was also how I had imagined it to be even after a bit of a struggle to get it in the way I wanted it to. The podcast I feel could have been created slightly better as I didn't really use much of my time towards that and the animated character idea was scrapped after I didn't have enough time to be able to put it together. I think the main parts that was successful within my project was the editing as the photo's that I had edited had come out how I wanted them too and I think I really represented the 'love' emotion really well even with the challenge of editing the effect around the glasses. Along side with taking the photos, the majority of them had come out clear and clean so that none were blurry or out of focused. This was a good thing as it meant that I could use all the photos if I had wanted to.

I think my design of both the images and the website would definitely appeal to my target market. This is because I ensured that my website design was made based on people's preferences. I asked about the layout and made sure that whilst I was making it that I asked people's feedback about the stuff to which they had said that they like what is being made. As I also made a form towards the end and the rating I had gotten from my work was a 4.6/5 average review. This was particularly high as I expected to get around the 3-4 mark but this does mean that I managed to create something which did appeal to my target audience a lot more than I thought it would have done.

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I think that this project was very successful based on my goals I had created in my context page of: Manipulating portraiture photos to create a surreal photo, Creating an outcome with as many of my interests, and an outcome that I am proud of. The first one of manipulating portraiture to create a surrealistic photo work very well, especially with the peaceful and love sections. Although I did not really go down the path I had intended to go down with warping the eyes and facial features, I still managed to make something just as surrealistic. The second goal where I wanted to include as many of my interests was achieved quite well. I managed to use my interest in art/painting by utilising the use of face paint and designing my own character. Also by creating a podcast I could do this as I have listened to quite a few different podcasts since 2018. With my old outcome I was going to include a game to help with my creation part so that would have included my gaming interest if I did not scrap that idea. I feel I could have added a few more but considering what I was working with, I think this was achieved well. Lastly I can confidently say that I made an outcome that I am proud of. I love how the edited photos came out and that the raw photos with them were also taken very well. I feel as if I could have worked more on my podcast but as it was my first proper attempt at one, I can say that it was a good one.

I think with the project as a whole what didn't really go well was the fact that I jumped around too many different ideas. This impacted the project as I wasn't able to put much time towards editing the photos as much as I liked or even create all the emotions that I had wanted to. I had planned to be able to edit at least 80% of all the photos (about 30) but due to timings and having to re-record some things, it took a chunk of my time away towards this. I feel that if I was able to do this then the project would be even strong and it would show how well my editing skills work. Another thing that I think didn't really well within the project is the recording of the podcast as I mentioned before. I didn't really put much towards it as it was my secondary outcome but I do feel that I should have added some more towards it. Although it was my first attempt I could have perhaps added the character animation stuff I made into it, which I couldn't do due to timing. I also feel that I could have done this with another person but this wasn't possible as the person I had in mind to do this with had some issues with school, so I had to do it solo. 

One skill of mine that definitely improved during the project was that I was able to be more assertive. I managed to get all my shoots done within 3 days. which was quicker than I had planned to and also made sure that all my subjects and equipment were able to be used and for any back up plans I made sure that I had them in place just in case I forgot some things. Normally I leave things to last minute however I knew I couldn't do that with this so I made sure that all my subjects were available to do these and booked the studio for when people were free. Another skill I developed during this was being able to use photoshop. Before this project I didn't really have much knowledge of the software and how it worked but throughout this, I was able to learn and now I am more comfortable using it. Since I was using the software throughout the whole of the project and I used a varied amount of tutorials, I could learn the layout of it and what it has to offer. For example I never knew what the quick selection tool was or even what it did, but now I can say that I am confident in using the tool. 

For this project, the main message I wanted to send is that the COVID lockdown was a difficult time for some and the different types of emotions people had gone through. I feel that I was successful in conveying these emotions as I had asked a few of my friends whilst showing the edited version to which the majority had managed to get the emotions mostly correct. The one people struggled on the most with was peaceful, but after editing them people were able to get it easier. 

Based on the feedback I got, majority of people had liked my final outcome. The average rating I had got from my form was 4.6 (more about the form is below this section) which the rating was much higher than I was expecting. I thought the average would have been around 3.5 which is quite a bit lower than what I got. From teacher's viewing some of my work they had said that they really liked the concept of my final piece where I had different emotions and the editing foe some of them was high quality. Some feedback I had gotten from both teachers and my target audience, was that I should perhaps change a few of the face paint designs as for some you could either not see them (angry) or others thought that there was a bit too much (for example the pain one). Another had mentioned that the lighting was a bit off on the boredom one however I believe that for the lighting issue, I could have quickly fixed that with the brightness/contrast adjustment layer on Photoshop.

I think one main thing that I would do differently next time is put some more things towards my pre-production page. For this I felt that there wasn't much and I couldn't really think of things to put on there as I didn't really do much other than the documents a trial editing process(draft), some sketches, and the process of me creating my character. I could have added some more things such as a shot list, lighting diagrams, or floor plans. This section was weaker than the other parts as I typically don't do much for pre-production. In the future I will definitely put more things towards this so that it matches the level of the other tabs and that I can get the highest grade I possibly could. I also think in the future I will do another outcome than a photo series. As much as I had enjoyed this project I feel as if I want to experiment more with media and possibly create a performance video from my first idea. I want to be able to explore as many things I can throughout the course so by doing another pathway for next time it would allow me to explore new things.

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If I were to do this again what I would do differently is perhaps go with a different focal point. I focused this on the COVID pandemic that occurred in 2020 which was somewhat recent but there was areas that I struggled with, especially my research. I couldn't really find many articles that was focused on looking at all the different emotions during COVID as many of them were quite negative and pessimistic. I would change it towards something such as music photography or city life photography. The reason I would change it to one of these topics is because they are something that I enjoy and I would like to look into more of theses topics and understand more about it. 

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