What I have learnt from COP

Overall this has been a really great module for me personally. This has been the first time in the three years of COP that I have really felt positive about the module. I have been excited about it throughout, especially the practical side. I have loved being able to create a short film and using it for a survey has been really useful for the project and helpful to my own personal skill development.

I am really looking forward to pushing my CG and visual effect skills in extended practice and I think it will be leaps and bounds better due to the things I've learnt from my research in this module.

Survey Results

I shared the survey on all my social media accounts throughout the last week to try get as many responses as possible. I'm really happy that I got 49 responses overall. The general consensus is that the version without visual effects works better, however less people found the VFX version immersive than they did told the story better. 
This shows how while the visual effects may show you what you need to see better, it takes less effort from the viewer, therefore potentially immersing them less.

With the film being very suspenseful, the responses are more based around the way the difference in visual effects changes the mystery. While this is still useful evidence, I was hoping for more of a comparison of the use of visual effects rather than how to keep up suspense. I could have avoided this and potentially got some more relevant results if my film wasn't as suspenseful.

Eran Dinur's Filmmakers Guide to VFX

I just recently found this book online and requested it into the library. Thankfully they did buy it in and it is really interesting. The book is a very technical book on many processes used within the VFX industry, however there is a lot of theory as well. As this is the most recent in-depth book I've been able to find, I finally have some research about TV rather than just Hollywood film.
Some of the key quotes I have used so far are:

“Visual effects are like magic tricks - the magic only works when the trick is hidden. It is of course the responsibility of the VFX team to create the perfect magic, but it is also the responsibility of the filmmaker not to overindulge in the use of this magic.”

"Television is now on par with movies in terms of quality of content (some say even better, at least in the USA). And as far as visual quality goes, the gap between TV and film has narrowed down considerably. Most home TVs are now HD resolution (or higher), and the same digital cameras are now used to shoot TV and cinema. The level of complexity and the quantity of visual effects in TV programs has increased significantly, with TV series such as HBO’s Game of Thrones pushing the quality bar ever higher."