For this area of the project we are now to plan and prepare to film a promotional video for the PE department. This video we create will be an addition to an interactive web site, which will be primarily aimed and targeted at the school industry.
We are to use our research and develop our plans for us to create, produce and direct our promotional video for sports. This video has to have many considerations taken within the planning and the video it's self. We will be graded on our team and independent planning, and how well we illustrate our ideas. We should use our intuitive and imagination to get us to the high boundaries of the grading criteria.
By over looking the project brief set by the PE department I have discovered that we are expected to take the opportunity of becoming developed students in digital media is whilst allowing our ideas to come out and investigate them further, even if we make mistakes along the way. We are to show our capabilities within this area, and it is important that we demonstrate these capabilities throughout group tasks and individual work- within the research and the video production.
The Chief organiser of the project brief provided by the PE department (Mr Huchinson) sent us a clear PowerPoint which highlights specifically what we need to accomplish within this project. He said the following: "Within the PE Faculty we want to raise the profile of sport both within the school but more predominantly with the wider public. We hope to showcase the good work and success that already goes on but to promote our ethos and vision of Sport and PE for future generations. We aim to show the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and fall in line with the deliverance of the Olympic legacy of using sport as tool to improve social and moral attitudes as well as being fun.
We hope to show this through an Interactive Media Platform that will use promotional and marketing systems (such as logos, slogans and other tools), social networking sites, current sporting news (RSS Feeds), student opinion, School Sporting Calendars, Results, videos and links with sports club in our community." So by viewing this comment I gather that we are going to get a good eyesight on the porfessional side of media, as we are now creating something which is wanted by another dpatment/ area, which is what you will have to do within the professional media industry.
To begin with our research, we worked on gathering ideas on what areas need to be covered. The following contents are the areas which we need to cover in our planning before we start to think about directing our videos:
1) Market research into existing videos
2)
Meeting with PE dept. to discuss their
specification and target audience (client meeting)
3) Select and evaluate which equipment and software will be used
4) Concept design of the videos
5) Risk assessments
6)
Decency – considering the possibility of
indecency when location planning
7)
Scripting/storyboard devising/ location planning
8) Legal rights – avoiding logos, product placement, music and familiar faces which are well known and copyright
9) Discussing the team roles and electing team members for such roles
10) Camera angles
Market Research Into Existing Videos
It is important that we get a full understanding on what is expected of us. We need to get a clear understanding on the varied techniques and styles used to create a professional promotional video. Therefore we opened up a research bank and began to make brief but detailed notes on a range of similar promotional videos on sports. We should consider many aspects of the video and not just what works and doesn't, but showing a clear understanding of the features what need to be considered within video production and digital video.
Some of the areas I have started to look at are; the target audience of the video, the purpose, the video quality, the audio quality, the different shot types and other analytical notes.
The videos I analysed were uploaded on YouTube. This was the best place to find promotional sports videos as I not only wanted a professional out-take on promotional material, but also views from user-generated contents. I have also considered the videos used within the recommended web sites by the PE department.
One of the videos I looked at was one which was created by a well-known sports brand- Adidas. This video caught my attention as it was very short in terms of length but had so many qualities despite the short length. This video was very professional, as you could tell so many aspects were deeply thought about. For example the different camera angles used added the dramatic impact to the video. The music used also gave of a dramatic feel to the audience. The use of the drum beat adds such a huge impact to the video, as it give of a dramatic effect. The producer has been very clever with the audio and editing as they have mixed the music with the sound effects.
The video has so many noticeable points. The backgrounds used not only give a professional look but it also symbolises that these two judo fighters are in their own world and it's just them and their opponents. This again gives of the dramatic feel you can achieve in sports. They have used high quality lighting which lights up in certain areas of the environment.
Even the fact that one of the characters is sweating so much just shows how much passion people have and can have within sports, and this reflects the whole concept of the video.
The producers of this video have thought about the various camera angles that should be used in sports promotion. They have used very close-up shots close-ups, mid close-ups and many more camera shots. They have used close up shots as this makes the viewer feel involved in the action. If long range shots were mainly used then the audience won't feel the tension, the action and the effectiveness in sports. I may consider this factor for when I start to think about the camera shots and angles for y very own promotional video.
It is clearly shown in the video that a lot of work has been put into the effects and editing after the video has been filmed. There is a lot of text added to the video when a close up of the characters is shown. The style and the way the text is presented feels like it gives the character robotic characteristic's which could imply that it doesn't take the mind of a human brain to do such excessive work in sport, therefore anyone is capable bringing sport into there daily routines.
In terms video quality, the video has been filmed at 30 frames per second This is so that the video has smooth transitions between each shot taken by the camera, therefore the video looks very professional.
If this video was filmed by a well known sports brand with a high filming and editing budget, why does this affect my work? Well, whilst it may be professional there are some elements which the producer thoroughly thought about, which gave of that pro effect For example some of the aspects they considered which I should consider it the story, the theme, the camera angles, the sound effects, the environment the audio an much more. These aspects therefore-lead me on to the next contents.
Meeting with PE dept. to discuss their specification and target audience (client meeting)
One of the main judges on this project will be the PE department They are essentially our clients, who are looking for the highest standard of work, with exceptional standards. Therefore it is important that we understand what is asked of us before we go and produce it.
To get a clear view and understanding on what is asked of us, we are to plan a formal meeting with the PE department. The subject of this meeting will be based on what they are looking for and what we aim to do as a production team and as individuals. It is herein this meeting that we shall discuss all the possibilities that could approach us within the project. For example, there could be a sports event which the PE department are hosting or involved in, which could be a chance for us to film some natural footage of this event. We will discuss these possibilities and decide which we could take advantage of in the near future.We will also discuss any ideas which any of us have, and share them with an open mind for agreement or disagreement. We will also make it clear what resources are available so the PE department know what our highest achievements could be with this and similar aspects considered.
Select and evaluate which equipment and software will be used
It is important that we choose the very best equipment for this type of filming. There are easier and some harder decisions to make in this area of our planning. For example, we will now straight away that we should not use a flip camera for this. This camera is not fit for purpose, as unlike the other available cameras you do not have as much freedom in terms of preference for options and settings as flip cameras have only the manufactured default settings. This therefore will have a poor video quality, poor lighting, poor sound and an overall unprofessional look.
An example of an harder decision we will have to face is if we need to use a tripod to hold the camera, and where and when we need to use this equipment. Whilst a tripod holds a camera securely and very still, we are making a sports promotional video and therefore we may consider having a close up of a sport in action. This will result in us having to move/transport the camera around whilst we try and keep up with the action. Having a tripod will ultimately make is hard to do this.
Once we have made the decision on what equipment to use, we need to have think about what software we will use to piece together the different scenes and what software we will use to generally edit the footage. There are few softwares available such as SerifMoviePlus which we could use to edit and change the order of the footage.
It is important that we consider these factors as we need to be sue that the equipment we use is useful and practical It will be quite time wasteful to use a camera which has a record of low battery life as this could take time from out shooting schedule. It is also important that we choose the right software, again it will be wasting a lot of time if we choose a software which either has a record of crashing or runs very slowly, in and outside the school grounds.
Concept design of the videos
By having a meeting with our client(s) we will get an idea on what the genre of the video will be and who would be our targeted audience. It would be easy to go out and start improvising our film, as we wouldn't be using time on planning, however, it is a well known fact that no one can produce a high standard video when no panning or considerations are taken throughout. This is why it is a good ides to design the concept of the video.
Our film will need a purpose. We already know that the purpose it to promote sports to students and the public, on the other hand, we need to know and plan how we aim to show this purpose and what impact we want our video to give of to the audience to enable us to achieve this purpose.
We will use the information we gather from our client to stimulate our concept design ideas. The concept of the video should not only demonstrate the clients needs but also it should validate what we have learnt from other projects. Many mistakes can be made by anyone especially in filming. Many mistakes may have accrued in previous projects and it is essential we learn from them. With my past experience within the media curriculum, I have realised some aspects which I could change within the videos I have created. For example I have noticed that I could of considered more camera angles within my work. The positive side of this is that I can learn from these errors and make sure that I don't make them in this project. With this in mind it is important that we communicate effectively within our teams to ensure no errors are made during the concept designing, which as a result, will allow us to produce a well thought out and professional video for sports promotion.
Risk Assessments
When working as a team or as an individual it is important that you consider the safety of yourself and others. Working in the media industry relies on you to complete projects and working a fast-paced environment There is no time to sit back, and everyone has to work consistently to get everything completed. Therefore when working on a project like this one, people can be rushing around which could cause safety hazards.
It becomes a challenge to set the equipment up properly in sufficient time, and sometimes if care is not taken equipment can be damaged, or possibly unusable. Within the professional industry, equipment can dramatically decrease the project funds and careless actions can not be tolerated. Therefore it important that we carry out safely and risk assessments, as this not only insures that no carelessness is around but will also save a money spent on new equipment if this was a professional project.
To ensure the team member's and myself are hazards free, I will communicate and collaborate on any safely precautions I feel we/ I should take. I will make notes on what could be a hazard and make sure that these are avoided. I will also make it clear if working in a team, that we should make sure that all equipment is set up safely and used appropriately. I will discuss with my team how to hold equipment and how to see up the equipment effectively- making sure everyone is clear on safety and the risk assessment.
Decency – considering the possibility of indecency when location planning and the views of others
Whilst it would be great to get as many people involved in the scene(s) of our video, we have to consider the opinions and the preference of other who are outside the production team. Some people may feel uncomfortable being on camera, especially when the video is to be watched by many people on an interactive web site.
Everyone has their own preferences-some don't mind being on camera, and some feel some-what uncomfortable. To ensure we don't make any one feel uncomfortable we we have to ask everyone who may be caught in any of the shots, if they don’t have any problems with it. If this is carried out effectively, no one should have any problems with being in any of the shots/ scenes.
Some people may have an issue with us filming them whilst they are participating in sports or PE. They may feel embarrassed being filmed whilst they do this participation, hence why we need to find out whom-if anyone, feels like this.
We also have to be careful on the location we choose to film. If we come to an agreement with our client, that we can film an event such as a PE lesson or school sports event we will have to carry out a speculation on decency. We also have to be careful on the location we choose to film. If we come to an agreement with our client, that we can film an event such as a PE lesson or school sports event we will have to carry out a speculation on decency. If we film in this type of environment, there may be cases where some indecency accrues. With this in mind, it is imperative that we certify that no one or nothing is showing any indecency in any manner. This could not only put people in uncomfortable situations but it also can harm the viewer experience and make our clients unhappy. For that reason, we will have to consider this when start our location planning
Storboarding & Scripting
This part of the planning stage links in with the concept design. It is here we start to get down any ideas we may have for the videos. We are to plan how many scenes we would shoot and we are to plan what will be shown in these scenes.
To plan our scenes in detail, we will use design and create a storyboard, which will demonstrate each scene. Storyboards are very effective to use when planning for a video as they are simple to design and only tests your creativity and drawing skills to create a high quality one. Storyboard won't only illustrate each screen it also notes the sound effects or audio which will be added to the scene in editing. In addition to this, storyboards allow you to note down important information you may want to consider when filming, such as; camera angles and safety precautions.
A storyboard can really aid the affects of a video as it allows the producers to carefully plan and consider every aspect of the filming and the video it's self. If care is taken into the storyboard, then it is sure to allow the producer to create a good and quality video, hence why I am planning to make one for this project.
Legal Rights
In all areas of media including TV and digital video, it is against the law to used copyrighted or branded products in a video, without fully granted assess from the company where the product originated from. This applies to logos, brand names and brand slogans. If it is taken, then it is against the law to use any of them in a video you create.
In the professional industry you or the company you represent could be sued by a another company who have protected rights on something you have used within your video. This could not only effect the company's reputation but it also could significantly affect the financial side of the company.
Discussing Team Roles
When positioned into a team, it is important that we organise some team roles and share them amongst the members. This will allow the team to gain some organisation when the work starts to get more in depth and complex. Additionally, selecting team roles will allow every one in the team to have an equal amount of work between them and will allow everyone to effectively show what they are capable of doing in different areas of the project.
I personally believe a discussion is needed before giving out the roles as it is not fir to order someone with a role without them being 100% confident or happy with it. I believe everyone has a right to share ideas and for a project to work well in a group everyone has to support each other, and selecting team roles is no exception.
Camera Angles
In every video, there should be a range of camera angles used. If only one or two angles are considered in a video then the audience will soon get bored and restless watching the video.
A range of camera angles make a video look much more professional and entertaining. If you watch any video, which appears in your day-to-day life then you will notice just how many camera angles are used. This reflect just how professionally a video can look with the use of more than one camera and camera angles.
It is also important to consider the different types of angles. If a shot is needed for a screen setting then it is recommended that you use a long shot or an extreme long shot. If a shot is needed to show the facial expressions of a character then it is recommended to use a mid-close up shot or a close up shot. So whilst it is important to consider different angles it is also important you consider the right scenes they are used in, otherwise this could effect the overall viewing experience
Reflective Learning Log starts here:
Day 1- 20/11/2012
This is initially the first day we start to make progress in this project. At this stage we have a e-mail sent out to our client which has been drafted and clarified by myself and my partner in this project (Samuel Turner). This e-mail has includes information we request to get from our client for both this unit (unit 62) and unit 19. These two units have similar aspects in terms of what tasks need to be covered (hence why we have included information on both units in one e-mail), however, both units ask to present different areas in media. Unit 19 is more to do with the promotional video the client has asked of us to make, and unit 19 is more to do with the digital graphics such as roll over buttons.
We did face one minor issue, which was that we created two separate e-mails when we are only to create one between each group. To over come this I suggested that we simply merge the two e-mails together. However, Sam thought we had not enougth time to restart and expressed that he really believes we should just send his very quickly. I read his through, and it covered everything that needed to be covered, I did suggest a few changes, and to keep everything running smoothly I decided that we should just go with his. I have kept my e-mail for a backup just in case technology some how let et us down. Here is the final e-mail, which can be also seen in my unit 19 log too.
Dear Mr Hutchinson,
We are writing to inform you about the first stages of our project and what they entail.
As
you may know, we have been assigned to your PE
department project with the intention of re branding the department
through the medium of an interactive media platform. With the news of
this exciting development, we are both eager to schedule a meeting with
you to discuss the following elements of our digital graphics and
digital video sections:
- Project time frame
- The End products required by yourself
In
more detail, our meeting will be to discuss deadlines and release dates
as well as specific content that you would like to appear within the
final product. As a result of this meeting, we will take forward your
ideas in order to create sketch ideas, design ideas and initial designs
for the first instance of the project relating to the digital graphics
for the department.
In addition, we would like to discuss our
digital video production unit; we feel that some sort of digital video
would be an excellent way to demonstrate your ethos and to promote your
ideas. Therefore, our designs and ideas can also be discussed at this
time as well as the digital graphics.
We will mainly aspects of
digital graphics such as backgrounds, logos, colour schemes, images and
animations. In addition, we will be carrying out market research to
further enhance our choice of ideas so that the final product will be of
the highest possible quality to suit your needs. Similarly, when
discussing our digital video, we will also talk about the key content of
the video as well as any legal or ethical considerations which are
necessary.
Therefore, we would like to ask when would be a good time
to schedule this meeting in order to ensure that the entire process is
as easy and convenient as possible for you.
Since this is our
first contact with yourself, we would both like to take the opportunity
to invite you to contact us at any time if you require further
discussion on any aspect of the platform. More specifically, you can
find both of us on the following email addresses:
Sam: a07sturner@bluecoat.uk.com
Josh: w07jwing@bluecoat.uk.com
We are both very enthusiastic about the prospect of this project and are looking forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yours Faithfully,
Samuel Turner & Josh Wing – Giga X Studios
We also decided to make notes on the key areas we need to cover in the meeting which is to be organised once Mr. Hutchinson replies to the e-mail we sent. These notes included; considering what the target audience is, what theme he is looking for, what style (e.g documentary or new report) and what is he wanting to show in the promotional video. We discussed these areas and we went through each one and made sure we both was clear on what we was going to talk about. We also made it clear to one another just how long we can spend on this unit as a topic. We need to mention both unit 62 and 19 so we need to time our speech wisely.
Day 2- 22/11/2012
Tioday i was unfortunatley late. Thankfully when I arrived, Sam was sure to fill me in on what I had missed. He explained that he has been going around the school grounds and looking at possible shots or scenes we cold use within our video. He went to the the PE areas such as the gym and began to take pictures of the surroundings which could be used as a background for our video or used as an image. To help us remember these shots, Sam had took a camera with him and took pictures of what he thought could be useful. Whilst this allowed me to see what he has done, I couldn't really get a bigger enough imagination on why he choose certain places. Sam had worked really hard and had completed his picture taking with a bit of time to spear. With this spear time, Sam took me to the places he had been and was interested in and explained why he though we should include them in our video.
After this, we uploaded the images to the computer. We did this as we need a back-up copy of these images just in case they get deleted of the camera by another student (which was very likely to happen).
We then started to look more into the computer side of this project. We started to look at how to create Gantt charts and how to make them work correctly. To help us get a better understanding we made a cup of tea in lesson. This activity wasn't to give us a break, it was to show us how many stages there are in terms of the process of making a simple cup of tea. After we made the tea we then thought about each stage and we stared to categorise them into 3 different section. Similar to this, a Gantt chart needs each task to be placed in different areas. For example editing of the video would come under the "post-production" task section.
We used a different software to what we may of expected to use (this was Microsoft Project) so we had a slow start as no one was familiar with this software. Eventually we started to pick it up and soon we manged to create an effective and useful gannt chart based on the different stage to making a cup of tea.
With these skills we learn from making this cup of tea, we created a gannt chart based this project in hand. We listed every stage and step we need to cover in this project, and we managed to list them all with a start and ending date. We were able to see how many days we have to complete each task. This was interesting and useful as we are now able to effectively plan out time.
This may have been a challenging day, nevertheless, we manged to have fun and create very useful gannt charts. The charts themselves are very useful. They will allow sufficient time planning and whilst they may be difficult to create, they are very effective.
Day 3- 27/11/2012
Today I was unable to attend to, due to an illness. Nevertheless, Sam was onboard to ensure that everything was still running smoothly. Fortunately this was more to do with the induvidul side of this project, so I was oly missing work I need to work on, and my abscense was not affecting the group work. Apparently Sam learned about the different aspects we will need to consider in the Pre-production stage. Of ocurse this is important to learn about so I was a liitle annoyed i wan unable to attend today's session. To ensure this day was not completely wasted, I worked and tweaked a few things on my Blog.
On the other hand, Mr Hutchinson replied to our e-mail. He requested to see us on the following Friday, which to me was good news as this allowed me to gain wealth and prepare much more for this meeting. Myself and Sam was very happy with this date and were looking forward to the meeting.
30/11/2012
Today was the day we met with our client and prepared to sit down and discuss this project further. We gathered our notes and questions and headed to the PE Department for our first formal meeting with Mr Hutchinson.
We waited for Mr Hutchinson for when he was ready, as we did not want to rush him into this meeting. Once he was ready we began to ask him some questions about this project. We decided we would be more organised if we took it in turns to ask and reply to certain questions. The answers he gave were very detailed and gave us a much better in-depth of what he want and what he is looking for in particular.
We asked our questions we prepared and we decided to take it turns to ask questions-like we originally planned. Mr Hutchinsom was very talkative, in sense that he communicated very well with us throughout the meeting. In addition to alot of imput and ideas from Mr Hutchinson, there was also so a few points made by another teacher- Ms Jackson. She gave us mostly opinions rather than informaion, like Mr Hutchinson, and she gave us appreciated advice. Below are the questions we initialy planned asked Mr Hutchinson:
-
Well clearly, it is
important that we establish which target audience you have in mind so that we
can target the project at an individual age group or party. What are your
thoughts on this?
-
You mentioned that you
want to establish sports within the school and to promote you ethos and to
continue with the Olympic legacy. Could you at all expand on this , or do you
require this to be the sole purpose?
-
Specifically talking
about the video, what content are you expecting to be included within the video
itself and, similarly, within the digital graphics?
-
We know that Blue coat
is a very active school, so with this in mind would it possible that we could
attend any events or lessons in order for us to catch any sports in action for
the shoot?
-
In addition, getting the
right balance between content and length is important. What do you consider to
be a sensible length for the digital video?
-
Within the media
industry it is important to avoid indecency and any other ethical issues such as
balancing the races and genders that appear within the video. In order for us to
avoid any of these issues, are there any precautions or steps you advise us to
take?
-
In your brief, you
included a small range of recommended websites. Are there any of these websites
that you would specifically like us to base all or some of our ideas?
-
The video needs some
sort of theme. Do you have any particular input on the sort of slant we should
take with this? For example, comic, cinematic, documentary, action or commercial
styles?
-
We understand that the
school loves sports, so we were thinking of using any footage or images which
are free from copyright and royalties that we could/ should include? For example
you may have a video which you want people to see and would like to include this
in out video?
-
Finally, do you have any
suggestions as to what we should include in the video with regards to audio?
E.G. music, narration, dialogue or sfx?
-
Is there anything else
you feel you could add with regards to our digital video, or are you happy to
move on to discussing the digital graphics element?
Day 4- 28/11/2012 (Inset Day)
Due to the fact that I was not able to do enougth work on this project yesterday I was even more determined to do more today!
We recieved an and email which directed me to a powerpoint which explianed most of the pre-production factors that need to be considered. This gave me an outline on what I missed yesterday. There was also a few task sheets which was to be completed. These tasks were media related, but wansn't designed for this in paticular. The tasks were helping us revise and get a better understanding about the pre-production stage, and the questions we answered had to have be answered related to the project/unit we are currently studying. Once we were clear on the different aspects within the pre-production stage, we then had to write about them in our blog. We had to explain the importance of each one, and explianed how they will be used in our project and how they are used in the professional industry. The aspects in mind include "personnel", "finance" and "timescale". This page is under the following title "Pre-Production considerations for Unit 62". Some of these would be considered more then others in our project. For example, we would need to consider equipment and facilites more than finance, although it us important that we consider all elements of pre-production as we need to understand how this would affect this project if it was to be taken into te professional idustry.
I didn't come across any major problem during this task and I beleive this task went quite well to say I was still recovering from my illness.
Day 5- 04/12/2012
Today's task was all about the pre-production stage. We started to think about what we have written in our blogs about this stage of the project.
We were all seperated form our project partners, and split into two groups. Once we were in this group we started to talk and discuss the different pre-production considerations we all mentioned in our blogs. We gained more information on some areas we were not too failar with ourselves and with these notes and finding from others, we were able to add them to our own blogs. This was basically a session of discussing points about the pre-production considerations, and taking eachothers points and putting them into our blogs...
We manged to get this task one effectivley, however it was difficult to concertnate at times in this lesson. Our teacher was off today, so we were left responsible for the amount of work we did in this lesson. Whilst we completed this task maybe I personally could work on not getting too distracted or distract others on future occasions as this may lead to uncompleted work. On the other had everyone worked effectivley and was not too disruptive, therfore I beleive the group was very successful in this task.
Day 6- 05/12/2012
In this session we started more pratical work. We created storyboards which shows each scene of our promotional video. We (Me and Sam) are not experts or even close to artists. This means that it was going to be difficult to demonstrate our ideas onto paper. However we need to do this to a near professional standard. Therefore, we can not expect to get high grades by drawing stick men and scribbles reprsenting trees and bushes!
We both emmidatley started dicsussing our scens and story. We decided a few weeks ago that we should base our video on an alien who visits the school and expolores the sporting activitites and enrichments available. This will be done in a documentary/ news report style with scenes of the alien like charachter being interviewed about his experiences. This will be a mixture of informailty and formality, which is a mixture requested by Mr Hutchinson, and is something which would attract a range of people to the video.
We manged to draw only the best we could possibly do, and I beleive that the drawings are clear enoutgth to show what is happening in each scene.
Once we had finished the scenes, we stuck them to the wall (similar to what they do in the professional industry) and we evaluated each scene. We mostly evaluated on the clearity of the sceness. Once we received this feedback we made some changes and tweaked a few images to suite all aspects.
Day 7- 12/12/2012
Today we started to think about the scenes and the storyboards we created earlier in the project. We need to know the different backgrounds and enviroments we will need to do our filming. To do this we collected the appropite equipment and gathered each sceen from the storyboard, and headed of to these places. We started to take pictures of each scene and decided that it would be best to team up with another group. We teamed up with D&M Productions as we beleive we have some similar shots we need to take and we may nest the extra personell to demonstarte the different charcters. We headed of to different places, most notably the sports hall. Here, we took a few shots of people playing differetn sports such as basketball and badminton. Once we took these shots we headed back to the romm to edit these pictures, to either compress them to add different features to give of a better affect. These pictures are to be uploaded onto a software which allows you to create storyboards electronically. By using pictures instead of drawings to show these secenes it makes everything alot clearer and much more professional.
There was no notable problems as this was a fun and successful session, which was complimented by some soothing music from another student!
Day 8- 18/12/2012
Today, we worked on Celtx once more. In the last session we finished our storyboards using this software. Therefore, we have now got more experience on Celtx. With this knowldge and experince we satrted to create a script for what is said and done by each chracter in each scene. We used Celtx as this allows you to create a script efficiently. If we were to do this using a different software such as Microsoft Word, we would have to waste time selcting the correct fints and underlining certain elements. With Celtx, this is all done for you, al you need to do is to select what you want to type and start typing in the script. Using Celtx, means we are not only able to create a script faster, we are also able to create a storyboard which has little mistakes.
Day 9- 19/12/2012
In Today's lessons we will be looking at risk assesments. We need to consider all the risks which may accure witin a project similar tot this one we are currently undertaking.
A risk assesment i s a procedure which organises risk mangement. It determines what could have potential to cause harm to any personell involved witin the production team. Risk assements are carried our within many indusrtires, however it is vital that a media production team carry one out as there are risks out there that may not be visable based on first views. The risk mangement team can thoroughly note down any potential risks or hazards. This allows the team to look at every aspect; including the make-up, costumes, props, equipment, food hygiene, fire hazards ect. They will be able to look at these elements and ask them selves; could this cause an allergic reaction? Could this cause suffocation? Could this injure the personnel or cause potential damage to other things? Risk assessments are an in depth observation made by the production team, based on objects.
Based on my web research I have found some important information about Risk assessments used within the media industry.
"Undertaking a risk assessment for a digitisation project is now usually expected as part of an application for funding. However, if it is not required for these formal procedures, it is still a very useful exercise to undertake and should be considered an essential part of the project planning phase"- http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/crossmedia/advice/risk-assessment-for-digitisation-projects/
“It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practical, the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees.”
“It
shall be the duty…..persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby
are not thereby exposed to risks to their health and safety.” - Taken from PowerPoint made by The University Of Glasgow...http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_145875_en.ppt
AAfter sifting through the Internet, I have found an interesting example of a risk assessment
Day 10- 08/01/2013
It may be the start to a brand new term, and we may have only just started back at college, however,
it is important that we hit the ground running in media studies. We need to make sure that we get this
project compketed on time, and as we know from previous projects, time controll is a key part in
media.
Today we paticualry worked on time control and mangment. To do this we were to open our celtx.
(prio to this session, we gathered all the seperate projects- storyboard ect. and put them into one big
project. This allows to keep everything in one place). Once we opened this we created something
called a "production schedule". In simpler terms this is basically a calender of important key dates
which includes the deadline line day for project submission and the dates and times we will be
filming eacch scene.
This was harder thant we first anticipated, not only were we not familar with this type of scheduling
in Celtx, we were also getting used to the new Apple Macs that have been installed. Most of the
class was unfamilar and stuggled to get around the Mac, it was something new and we had to get
used to the navigation on this computer. This took us a bit more time than it would normally do,
hwever we soon got used to the new systems and we were soon well into orgasninsation in terms
of time scheduling.
Another probelem I faced was the fact that my partner was unable to attend to this session due to
private matters. This meant that I had to oprganise our time and decide when and wehre to shoot
each scene on my own. This made it incrediabley difficult for me, and took me a significant
amount of time for me to complete this task. This was because I had to balence my time working on
the schedule whilst getting my head around the Macs whilst sending formal and important e-mails to
our client and teachers whom me may need in filming certain scenes. The e-mail I manged to send
was to our client enquiring about a fottbal match we would like to film. I also asked if it was fine for
us to an interview with him, and when (if he is at all) free to so this. Below is the e-mail I sent;
Hello Mr Hutchinson.
We are now at the stage of filming our promotional video. Thus, we are ready to look at potential matches and sports events taking place involving Bluecoat. Our team are interested in filming a football fixture due to be played on Friday 11TH January. We would like to know if it would be possible to attend this match. In addition to this we would also like to know what time it is scheduled to kick off at.
We would like to have a shot involving you. One of our scenes includes an interview with yourself. Would it be possible for you to meet with us during period 3 this upcoming Monday (14TH January 2013).
Please do reply as soon as you can. this would be extremely appreciated by ourselves.
Thank you,
Your sincerely- GigaX Studios.
This e-mail confirms that we are able to attend this football session in question. However, he is not
available to help us with our filming on Monday. This means we will have to re-think when we will
have this scene filmes
This was a difficult day, as I had alot of work to ccomplete. Nevertheless I manged to send 1 email
and I also manged to complete most of the schedule. Therefore, despite the problems I faced, I
beleive that I manged to quite well in the two hours that was availbale today.
Day 11- 09/01/2013
Today my partner of GigaX studios was available, this meant that I no longer had to work and make
desicions on my own. Prior to this day I sent Sam a message on FaceBook exaplaing the key
activities that I completed, and also the things I dint quite get round to finishing. This meant that we
didn't use too much time going throught the work when we could be finishing of the tasks
themselves. We finished of sending the emails, and we also manged to complete our schedule.
In addtion to this, we recieved an e-mail from our client below is the e-mail we sent
Hi Giga X
I don't see a problem with you filming on the 11th. K.O. is scheduled for 13:30 and I will confirm location asap.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend on Friday as I am teaching and have other commitments after school.
I also am not available P3 on Monday as I will be teaching. I am available in the afternoon though.
Kind Regargds
Dan Hutchinson
This e-mail confirms that we are able to attend this football session in question. However, he is not
available to help us with our filming on Monday. This means we will have to re-think when we will
have this scene filmed. I also noticed a spelling error in this e-mail. Our client put "Regargds" not
regards. However, I will not think he is unprofessional, as I beleive I may have made a few mistakes
myself. I won't dwell on his mistake.
After communicating with one another, our client and the GigaX team have decided to meet on the
Friday 17th January period 3. It is during this session we will film the interview between our
character Gerald and Mr Hutchinson.
Once we had decided out the schedule we set of for our first shoot. firstly we went outside and took a
few shots of the sky. This is for our very first scene, where our character falls out the sky.
We then headed to the Gym where we noticed a basketball lesson in progress. Despite some obscene
and disruptive behaviour from some immature student receptionists, we got some action shots of a
basketball session. We included close-ups of the basket, the ball and the students participating. We
used a HD camera, which was rotated between tripod and hand.
The equipment we used was high professional. However Sam wasn't happy with the quality of the
camera. Nevertheless we used these camera, and to say we were not happy at first, we managed to
use these cameras to our best ability, and the quality didn't tun out to be that bad after all.
Once we had collected the footage we then uploaded them to the macs. unfortunately the macs didn't
like the cameras we were using, and therefore as an alternative, we uploaded them to out teacher's
laptop and then transferred them to a older which is accessible on the Macs.
Again, the unusual feel to the Apple Macs didn't help us. Whilst they are good and very useful, we
were struggling to find out simple techniques.
Day 12- 10/01/2013
Today me and Sam set of do so more filming. We wanted to make the most of our time we have as
time flies by when you have so much to do. Thus, we thought we best get the camera as soon as
possible and start filming.
The scenes we concentrated on were the ones which include our character- Gerald. Unfortunately
there was no PE lesson scheduled at this time, this meant that we couldn't use other students as extras
playing the sports we want to include in our video. To over come this we decided to just film the
shots which are just primarily focused on Gerald and him talking. We managed to film 1 inside shot
and 2 different shots/ scenes outside. These scenes consited of indoor football and the school field.
To make our video more professional we decided to use our camera to take different angles of the
same scenes. this will allow the viewer to see the scene from a various amount of angles, which
allows them to get a better idea of what is happening and of the environment.
Overall we were very successful in our filming, despot the sports hall being full with exam tables and
a couple of students we managed to make the most of the school field. Once we filmed the scenes we
managed to upload them to the computer like we did with our previous videos. We arrived on time
however the uploading took some considerable amount of time, and therefore we had to stay a bit
longer after the lesson than we first anticipated.
Day 13- 14/01/2013
At this stage we are well into out filming stage of this project. Today, like usual we worked on the
Macs. Whilst the rest of the class used the opportunity to do some work on these Macs me and Sam
wanted to make the most out of out time, so we decided to continue with our filming.
We still had shots to complete and we were aware that there was a few PE lessons during this time. It
all seemed like a good plan, however we encounter just a small problem. This problem was the
snow. There were layers of thick snow all over the school premises and there was no signs of the
weather getting any better. We wanted to get some ourdoor PE lessons (in paticular football). We
also wanted to film the sand pit scenes. However the snow, cancelled the outdoor games and the
snow covered the pit so we had no idea where it was.
This in fact was a big probelm, we both like to keep on top of things and letting this filming
schedule slip today because of the weather was something that we both didn't want to do. To over
come this we decided that it would be best to film the badminton scenes and indoor football as a
consolation. This turned out ot be very sucessfull as we manged to get a range of professional and
action shots of the two sports.
In addition to this, we asked for a rake from the PE department and we headed outside to rake up the
snow from the sand pit. Once we did this, we started to film. Thi was very difficult as we had to do a
rnage of tasks; rake up the snow, set up the camera and tripod, protect the equipment from the snow
and tart filming a sport in action on a slippy surface. We risked the equipment, however we were
carful and clever, and we managed to get what we wan't form the sand pit, without any equipment
damage nor injuries. This was therefore a successful day, and shows just how committed and
determined we are to this project.
Day 14- 15/01/2013
Following on from yesterday, we decided to go out and do some more filming. Today we were
concentrating on Gerald and his scenes. Once we booked out our camera, we headed of to the main
school reception. it is at this location where there is a trophy cabinet presenting and showing of the
trophies Bluecoat Academy have proudly won over the years. We thought this would be a good idea
to include this display as a a background during these scenes with Gerald as it will reflect the school's
sporting ethos.
Also in today's session we managed to film some learning support students. At first we struggled to
find someone who was willing to take time to be questioned about their views and opinions on the
Bluecoat PE department. We asked for volunteers from a numerous amount of PE classes however
we were not able to find a confient and enthusiastic person to be filmed about this topic. Just as we
had given up on all hope on finding a volunteer, two people from Learning support gave us the
chance to be filmed. We were greatfull for their volunteering and we were soon filming the two
people. Alot of time had already passed before we were given this opportunity, therefore we could
only ask 1 question to these two people. They answered confidently, one even elaborted on his points,
this was a great sucess and we were happy that we were able to film different peple in different PE
environments. This gives the audience who is watching our promotional video, a range of views and
opinion on this topic.
Overall I feel toady was a sucess. We may not have got as much filming done today compared to
previous sessions, however we manged to get as much as we could, and I believe what we did create
was enougth and very importnat for our video.
Day 15- 16/01/2013
Today we were taking more time on our filming. Last week we found that the sports hall is available
period 1 today, so immedialtey we set off to start filming. Yesterday Sam had signed the camera out
for the whole week as we already know that we will be using it at those times. This saved us a bit
more time, which could be vital dor more filming time.
Once we arrived at the sports hall, we started to film the scenes involving Gerald playing
badminton. There was no distractions from other students, or background interference from students
or ongoing lessons, so this was out time to take controll of the room and be as creative with the
camera and the PE facilities as much as we want and can. Whilst there were no interference from s
tudents or lessons, there was a sound echoing around the room, which we beleived to be coming from
the air vents. This noise was quite loud, and distracting, but we couldn't afford to waste any time
waiting unitl someone turned it off the next day. Instead, we carried on filming, and we decided that
it would be best if we spoke louder so the microphone on the camera can clearly hear our speech.
This turned out to be a great idea, once we played the footage back the audio was cleare then wee
excepted.
We were very creative in this session, and I put this down to the fact that we are getting used to the
equipment. Sam enjoys exploring the different and complicated settings on cameras, and with his
experimenting he figutred a way of making the picture quality slightly clearer and less grainy.
An example of where we were very creative waas where decided to take a shopt of the badminyon
net, which was in clear focus, with Gerald, in the background, playing the sport, whom is not in
focus. This looks very unusual and very creative, as you would expect a person on screen to be in full
focus. We thought this shot would be very usefull and effective in our video as it shows the varied
qualities and capabilities we can achoeve with one camera. By having similar shots and angles
throughout a video will not only look boring, but also unprofessional.
This session seemed to go very quickly, however, this was not a problem as we manged to gather and
create the scnes we intended to film during this session.
We also managed to film an additional scene for our video. We have managed to keep well on time
with our schedule and have near enough finished our filming. Therefore we have had a bit of spare
time to film this extra scene. This scene is of Gerald pretending to have a shower. This may
seem strange however this will give the video a lighter and funny tone to it if it was actually used. We
thought we could have an alternative scene as a back-up incase any of the footage we have already
created isn't suitable or what we are looking for.
By having a back-up/ alternative scene we have more freedom in terms of what we show in the
video, and shows just the professional thoughts we have put into the projects.
Day 16- 17/01/2013
Today we set to film Mr Hutchison for an interview like we arranged with him via e-mail. We
gathered our equipment and found Mr Hutchinson.
Everything went well, and according to plan. He gave us very detailed and quick responses, which
was exactly what we were looking for from him. We think maybe his answers were possibly a bit too
long,however and easy option to sort this is to simply edit the video and make them slightly more
concise.
At this stage we have pretty much finished our filming with the potential of one more scene to do,
however this is not a necessity. This means that we have plenty of time to ensure we have every last
piece of footage uploaded and to a high professional standard.
Day 17- 18/01/2013
Today we had to film just one scene. This was an interview with a member of the PE teaching
department. Originally we wanted to have an interview done by a male and a female. We have
managed to film mr hutchinson prior to this filming session already s all we need was a female
member of staff. We have politely informed Ms Jackson about this interview, however she wasn't
available when we were.
This was a problem for us, so we had to go to the PE office and hoped someone other female teacher
in PE was willing to give up any spear time they may have. Unfortunately there was only one
female teacher we could ask to film. This was fine as she had some spear time, however she seemed
to be a bit camera shy and wasn't comfortable being on the internet. she was very apologetic, however
we were not in anyway disappointed as we completely understand that some people feel
uncomfortable in situations like that.
This meant there was no way of us getting an interview with a female teacher. We had
this planned in the script and if we just allowed this scene to slip out of the script, there would simply
not be enough footage to make a long enough promotional video with. We had to make a decision on
what to do here, and soon enough we spotted Mr. D'. We approached our project calmly
and politely towards him and he was more than willing to answer our questions in front of camera.
Without a doubt we filmed him answering our questions.
When watching back the footage, i thought he didn't look at the camera at all and seemed very
awkward in front of camera. This is a very unnatural position to put someone, we know that it is hard
to talk in front of a camera, so this didn't bother us as we did after all put him on the
spot. With everything considered we are going to use this footage instead of filming a female teacher,
as we believe this would still be great to view despite the fact that we are unable to give
different prospective from different genders across the PE teaching Depo'.
Day 17- 21/01/2013
Today was a very unique and exciting day. Today we received a FREE iPad from school for us to use
productively for our school work and our media projects. We have these iPads until sometime in
march which means that we have a lot of time to use these to aid us in our project.
An example where we may use these iPads will be for using an app which allows you to crete a
digital clapper-board. In previousshots, we used a piece of laminated paper with a printed outline of
a clapper- board. Now we are able to use something that gives our video that extra
professionalism. We are very happy to receive this experience as this could enhance our media work.
available to help us with our filming on Monday. This means we will have to re-think when we will
have this scene filmes
This was a difficult day, as I had alot of work to ccomplete. Nevertheless I manged to send 1 email
and I also manged to complete most of the schedule. Therefore, despite the problems I faced, I
beleive that I manged to quite well in the two hours that was availbale today.
Day 11- 09/01/2013
Today my partner of GigaX studios was available, this meant that I no longer had to work and make
desicions on my own. Prior to this day I sent Sam a message on FaceBook exaplaing the key
activities that I completed, and also the things I dint quite get round to finishing. This meant that we
didn't use too much time going throught the work when we could be finishing of the tasks
themselves. We finished of sending the emails, and we also manged to complete our schedule.
In addtion to this, we recieved an e-mail from our client below is the e-mail we sent
Hi Giga X
I don't see a problem with you filming on the 11th. K.O. is scheduled for 13:30 and I will confirm location asap.
Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend on Friday as I am teaching and have other commitments after school.
I also am not available P3 on Monday as I will be teaching. I am available in the afternoon though.
Kind Regargds
Dan Hutchinson
This e-mail confirms that we are able to attend this football session in question. However, he is not
available to help us with our filming on Monday. This means we will have to re-think when we will
have this scene filmed. I also noticed a spelling error in this e-mail. Our client put "Regargds" not
regards. However, I will not think he is unprofessional, as I beleive I may have made a few mistakes
myself. I won't dwell on his mistake.
After communicating with one another, our client and the GigaX team have decided to meet on the
Friday 17th January period 3. It is during this session we will film the interview between our
character Gerald and Mr Hutchinson.
Once we had decided out the schedule we set of for our first shoot. firstly we went outside and took a
few shots of the sky. This is for our very first scene, where our character falls out the sky.
We then headed to the Gym where we noticed a basketball lesson in progress. Despite some obscene
and disruptive behaviour from some immature student receptionists, we got some action shots of a
basketball session. We included close-ups of the basket, the ball and the students participating. We
used a HD camera, which was rotated between tripod and hand.
The equipment we used was high professional. However Sam wasn't happy with the quality of the
camera. Nevertheless we used these camera, and to say we were not happy at first, we managed to
use these cameras to our best ability, and the quality didn't tun out to be that bad after all.
Once we had collected the footage we then uploaded them to the macs. unfortunately the macs didn't
like the cameras we were using, and therefore as an alternative, we uploaded them to out teacher's
laptop and then transferred them to a older which is accessible on the Macs.
Again, the unusual feel to the Apple Macs didn't help us. Whilst they are good and very useful, we
were struggling to find out simple techniques.
Day 12- 10/01/2013
Today me and Sam set of do so more filming. We wanted to make the most of our time we have as
time flies by when you have so much to do. Thus, we thought we best get the camera as soon as
possible and start filming.
The scenes we concentrated on were the ones which include our character- Gerald. Unfortunately
there was no PE lesson scheduled at this time, this meant that we couldn't use other students as extras
playing the sports we want to include in our video. To over come this we decided to just film the
shots which are just primarily focused on Gerald and him talking. We managed to film 1 inside shot
and 2 different shots/ scenes outside. These scenes consited of indoor football and the school field.
To make our video more professional we decided to use our camera to take different angles of the
same scenes. this will allow the viewer to see the scene from a various amount of angles, which
allows them to get a better idea of what is happening and of the environment.
Overall we were very successful in our filming, despot the sports hall being full with exam tables and
a couple of students we managed to make the most of the school field. Once we filmed the scenes we
managed to upload them to the computer like we did with our previous videos. We arrived on time
however the uploading took some considerable amount of time, and therefore we had to stay a bit
longer after the lesson than we first anticipated.
Day 13- 14/01/2013
At this stage we are well into out filming stage of this project. Today, like usual we worked on the
Macs. Whilst the rest of the class used the opportunity to do some work on these Macs me and Sam
wanted to make the most out of out time, so we decided to continue with our filming.
We still had shots to complete and we were aware that there was a few PE lessons during this time. It
all seemed like a good plan, however we encounter just a small problem. This problem was the
snow. There were layers of thick snow all over the school premises and there was no signs of the
weather getting any better. We wanted to get some ourdoor PE lessons (in paticular football). We
also wanted to film the sand pit scenes. However the snow, cancelled the outdoor games and the
snow covered the pit so we had no idea where it was.
This in fact was a big probelm, we both like to keep on top of things and letting this filming
schedule slip today because of the weather was something that we both didn't want to do. To over
come this we decided that it would be best to film the badminton scenes and indoor football as a
consolation. This turned out ot be very sucessfull as we manged to get a range of professional and
action shots of the two sports.
In addition to this, we asked for a rake from the PE department and we headed outside to rake up the
snow from the sand pit. Once we did this, we started to film. Thi was very difficult as we had to do a
rnage of tasks; rake up the snow, set up the camera and tripod, protect the equipment from the snow
and tart filming a sport in action on a slippy surface. We risked the equipment, however we were
carful and clever, and we managed to get what we wan't form the sand pit, without any equipment
damage nor injuries. This was therefore a successful day, and shows just how committed and
determined we are to this project.
Day 14- 15/01/2013
Following on from yesterday, we decided to go out and do some more filming. Today we were
concentrating on Gerald and his scenes. Once we booked out our camera, we headed of to the main
school reception. it is at this location where there is a trophy cabinet presenting and showing of the
trophies Bluecoat Academy have proudly won over the years. We thought this would be a good idea
to include this display as a a background during these scenes with Gerald as it will reflect the school's
sporting ethos.
Also in today's session we managed to film some learning support students. At first we struggled to
find someone who was willing to take time to be questioned about their views and opinions on the
Bluecoat PE department. We asked for volunteers from a numerous amount of PE classes however
we were not able to find a confient and enthusiastic person to be filmed about this topic. Just as we
had given up on all hope on finding a volunteer, two people from Learning support gave us the
chance to be filmed. We were greatfull for their volunteering and we were soon filming the two
people. Alot of time had already passed before we were given this opportunity, therefore we could
only ask 1 question to these two people. They answered confidently, one even elaborted on his points,
environments. This gives the audience who is watching our promotional video, a range of views and
opinion on this topic.
Overall I feel toady was a sucess. We may not have got as much filming done today compared to
previous sessions, however we manged to get as much as we could, and I believe what we did create
was enougth and very importnat for our video.
Day 15- 16/01/2013
Today we were taking more time on our filming. Last week we found that the sports hall is available
period 1 today, so immedialtey we set off to start filming. Yesterday Sam had signed the camera out
for the whole week as we already know that we will be using it at those times. This saved us a bit
more time, which could be vital dor more filming time.
Once we arrived at the sports hall, we started to film the scenes involving Gerald playing
badminton. There was no distractions from other students, or background interference from students
or ongoing lessons, so this was out time to take controll of the room and be as creative with the
camera and the PE facilities as much as we want and can. Whilst there were no interference from s
tudents or lessons, there was a sound echoing around the room, which we beleived to be coming from
the air vents. This noise was quite loud, and distracting, but we couldn't afford to waste any time
waiting unitl someone turned it off the next day. Instead, we carried on filming, and we decided that
it would be best if we spoke louder so the microphone on the camera can clearly hear our speech.
This turned out to be a great idea, once we played the footage back the audio was cleare then wee
excepted.
We were very creative in this session, and I put this down to the fact that we are getting used to the
equipment. Sam enjoys exploring the different and complicated settings on cameras, and with his
experimenting he figutred a way of making the picture quality slightly clearer and less grainy.
An example of where we were very creative waas where decided to take a shopt of the badminyon
net, which was in clear focus, with Gerald, in the background, playing the sport, whom is not in
focus. This looks very unusual and very creative, as you would expect a person on screen to be in full
focus. We thought this shot would be very usefull and effective in our video as it shows the varied
qualities and capabilities we can achoeve with one camera. By having similar shots and angles
throughout a video will not only look boring, but also unprofessional.
This session seemed to go very quickly, however, this was not a problem as we manged to gather and
create the scnes we intended to film during this session.
We also managed to film an additional scene for our video. We have managed to keep well on time
with our schedule and have near enough finished our filming. Therefore we have had a bit of spare
time to film this extra scene. This scene is of Gerald pretending to have a shower. This may
seem strange however this will give the video a lighter and funny tone to it if it was actually used. We
thought we could have an alternative scene as a back-up incase any of the footage we have already
created isn't suitable or what we are looking for.
By having a back-up/ alternative scene we have more freedom in terms of what we show in the
video, and shows just the professional thoughts we have put into the projects.
Day 16- 17/01/2013
Today we set to film Mr Hutchison for an interview like we arranged with him via e-mail. We
gathered our equipment and found Mr Hutchinson.
Everything went well, and according to plan. He gave us very detailed and quick responses, which
was exactly what we were looking for from him. We think maybe his answers were possibly a bit too
long,however and easy option to sort this is to simply edit the video and make them slightly more
concise.
At this stage we have pretty much finished our filming with the potential of one more scene to do,
however this is not a necessity. This means that we have plenty of time to ensure we have every last
piece of footage uploaded and to a high professional standard.
Day 17- 18/01/2013
Today we had to film just one scene. This was an interview with a member of the PE teaching
department. Originally we wanted to have an interview done by a male and a female. We have
managed to film mr hutchinson prior to this filming session already s all we need was a female
member of staff. We have politely informed Ms Jackson about this interview, however she wasn't
available when we were.
This was a problem for us, so we had to go to the PE office and hoped someone other female teacher
in PE was willing to give up any spear time they may have. Unfortunately there was only one
female teacher we could ask to film. This was fine as she had some spear time, however she seemed
to be a bit camera shy and wasn't comfortable being on the internet. she was very apologetic, however
we were not in anyway disappointed as we completely understand that some people feel
uncomfortable in situations like that.
This meant there was no way of us getting an interview with a female teacher. We had
this planned in the script and if we just allowed this scene to slip out of the script, there would simply
not be enough footage to make a long enough promotional video with. We had to make a decision on
what to do here, and soon enough we spotted Mr. D'. We approached our project calmly
and politely towards him and he was more than willing to answer our questions in front of camera.
Without a doubt we filmed him answering our questions.
When watching back the footage, i thought he didn't look at the camera at all and seemed very
awkward in front of camera. This is a very unnatural position to put someone, we know that it is hard
to talk in front of a camera, so this didn't bother us as we did after all put him on the
spot. With everything considered we are going to use this footage instead of filming a female teacher,
as we believe this would still be great to view despite the fact that we are unable to give
different prospective from different genders across the PE teaching Depo'.
Day 17- 21/01/2013
Today was a very unique and exciting day. Today we received a FREE iPad from school for us to use
productively for our school work and our media projects. We have these iPads until sometime in
march which means that we have a lot of time to use these to aid us in our project.
An example where we may use these iPads will be for using an app which allows you to crete a
digital clapper-board. In previousshots, we used a piece of laminated paper with a printed outline of
a clapper- board. Now we are able to use something that gives our video that extra
professionalism. We are very happy to receive this experience as this could enhance our media work.
In terms of filming today, we didn't have much of it to do. In fact I do believe we have finished our
filming. Of course this is earlier than we anticipated, however we will use this time to correct our
blogs, to get used to the mac and iPads and to get everything (such as footage) organised (in to
folders Thus we used this period to get used to the iPad and explore the different apps that could help
us in media in the near future.
Day 19- 25/01/2013
Today it was announced by our teacher that ADOBE Premeire has been uploaded onto the Macs for
us to start our video editing. This was great news as me and Sam really want to start our editing as
soon as possible. Whilst this was good, it was quite overwelming whne we opend the programme. It
all looke very confsuing, and I didn't know where to begin. There are so many options for different
areas of editing, which is great if you know your way around the programme, but if you don't it can
look very complicated to get through.
Thankfully, we were given this lesson to get used to the software. We were able to explore deeply
into this, we looked at how to import your own media into the programme, and we looked at how to
use the timeline window effectivley. It was very difficult for me as I had no idea what was what. I
tried to get around it, and I did mange to piece together a couple of videos to make a scene. However
the main struggle for me was the editing of the audio, the audio in one clip was horrific and could not
be used in the video. I wanted to delete or replace this audio without doinmg the same to the footage.
I knew there was a way of unlinking the footage from audio, I just didn't know how to. I knew that
this was only a pratice, but I also knew that it is likely that we will use that footage for our actuall
video.
Overall I manged quite well, althought I still have alot of learning to do. Our teacher has recently sent
out a youtube link to a totorial that gose thorugh this pregramme. Ihaven't manged to look at this yet,
maybe I could learn alot form this video?
Day 20- 28/01/2013
After trying to get my head around ADOBE last lesson, today I wanted to learn even more before I
set of to start editing my video. We have been set a number of tasks whih have to be completed by
the 8/02/2013. One of the tasks has asked us to talk about the post-production considerations. There
are many considerations to think about during this stage of the project, and it is important that we are
able to talk about them in our blog. In addition to this they considerations we have to research upon,
will help us with ADOBE. We hve to reasearch on some key terms, such as "audio mixer tab" and
"workspace". These are elements that you can find on ADBOE and are ones that we may use for our
edting. So, despite the fact that we are were not paticually concerntrating on using the programme we
were still learning about it and writting out our findings.
In addition to this, I realised that Sam had such great experinces with this software, adn he knew this
programme quite well. Fortnunaltey Sam was able to talk through some of the key features on
ADOBE Premeire. He gave me a walkthrough and a guide on different areas, that he thought would
be useful for when we start editing. I was greatfull for this guide as I have learnt such alot from it.
Despite this, I still feel like there is alot more work and practice to be done on this prgramme before I
can say for sure I am comfortable using it. As the saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day" and I
certainly won't learn ADOBE Premeire within one day either.
Soon we will start our editing, this could be as soon as tommorrow....
Day 21- 29/01/2013
Today we started to import our footage into Adobe Premiere. This importing took little time to do so,
which was pleasing as we do not have time to waste. I still had little knowledge on this software, but I
simply do not have enough time to get used to it and then start my editing.
I realised that the first scene for our video will involve a lot of editing and tricks, that I don't believe I
will be able to achieve at this early stage. Therefore I decided that I will move onto the next scene for
editing. The scene I was editing was the football scene just after Gerald arrives. I managed some basic
editing techniques and managed to get most of the scene completed.
There are many faults I have found with this scene. The first thing I noticed was the length. The scene
lasted around 3 minutes, which will is way too long for a documentary. The audience will simply get
bored. In addition to this, I also noticed that I was trying to show a full match, from when the students
enter, to when the final whistle is blown. This is unprofessional and very boring in all honestly. It lasts
for too long and usually in a short video, you only get roughly 1minute and 30 seconds of one scene
before it moves onto the next.
This is something I need to work on. I need to sort my techniques to suite the audience and the video
itself. I plan to use this footage in my video, but only parts of it. Tomorrow I will start on a different
scene, make them concise and snappy. I will then link the scenes together.
Day 22- 30/01/2013
Today we immediately worked on our videos. This was much more successful then yesterday. In two
hours I managed to create one scene....the badminton scene. This included adding effects, changing the
volume, trimming videos and slowing down the speed of the videos.
During the lesson we also shown each other our work in progress. This allowed us to gather feedback
for the future, and also allowed us to see where we are all at. I would say currently we are all in the
same position. Not many of us are familiar with this software, so we are all going to struggle to pick up
the speed.
Overall I was pleased on how well today has gone so far.
Day 23- 31/01/2013
Once again our task was to continue with our editing. With more experiecne with Adobe Premeier, I was
able to pick up the pace and work on numerous scenes.
Today's lesson only lasted 1 hour. However, I was derteimend to finish the work I started today, so I stayed
for an additional 1 hour and 15 minutes. I was determined to get this scene completed as I did't like the fact
of starting, then stopping then staring again, I just simply wanted a long session of editing. This turned out to
be more difficult than I first thought. The most difficult part was Mr. Hutchinson's interview scene. For my
video to look professional, I have decided that Mr Hutchinson will talk over some other footage, and then
flip back to Mr Hutchinson spekaing. For example, you can see Mr Hutchinson talkin, but then there is a
cut-away to a football match whilst he is still speaking. Not only is this professional, but also allows me to fit
more footage in a certain amount of time. The probelm I faced was that I was unable to get the audio to go
in line with the footage. For example, sometimes Mr Hutchinson would be clealy seen talking in the footage,
but in the audio, he is having a pause in speech. I had to line it up correctly for it to work and have that
professional look. This was very difficult and took most of my editing time. This is why I wanted to carry on
working until I was satisifed with the quality.
I managed to complete this scene sucessfully and I was eventually happy with what I had achieved today.
Day 24- 01/02/2013
After yesterday's long session, I was still buzzing to get as much editing done as possible. This time next
week, our promotional videos are due in, so we had to get our heads down working. To help us with our
editing, our teacher set us a task to complete in addition to our work. We were requested to learn about
induvidual editing tools and techniques on Adobe, and use the knowledge we gain to present and teach the
rest of the class. We all completed this and gained a much better understanding of Adobe. I got mixed up
between two tools so I manged to present and teach everyone a bit of knowledge on two sperate tools.
This has helped me for this session as I am now using different tools that I wasn't using before. I ma now
adding differnt effects such as titles, colour correction and much more. An example where I have used one
of these tools is the long-jump scenes. This was filmed in the snow, so to give it a wintery feel, I gave the
footage a bluish feel using the 3-way colur corrector. I changed the shadows, outlines and highlights to do
this.
Unfortunatley I faced another problem. Because I had been working on two different Macs, Adobe
premeire was uanble to source where my footage was coming from. This meant that I had to re-import
some of the videos back into Adobe Premeier. This resulted in a lot of editing time being lost.
Despite this problem, I manged to continue and again complete the eidting I planned to complete.
Day 25- 04/02/2013
Today we arrived and worked on our videos. Unfortunatley the Macs were running slow, so I had to wait
for it to load properly. Once I was able to access my project, I started to work on the last scene- Gerald's
conclusion to his experiences. This was a very simple scene to put together compared to the rest I have
done so far.
The only problem I faced was that Adobe took a long time to render my video. Rendering is basically the
computer laoding my recent edits, so there is no lag when I play back my project. Fortuntaely it was
break next so I left it to render whilst I was having a break.
Day 26- 05/02/2013
The deadline day is getting really close now, and the pressure is on to complete this project to a high
standard. Like usual, we wasted no time getting stuck into editing. This session invoved hard and complex
editing. There was a moment in my video that was not nesasery and I could do with my video being shorter.I
delted a section, but this messed up my oreder of footage and audio. I had to make a big decsion. Do I
delted this section and work on geting the order right ( which is something I struggled with) or do I keep this
is in, but run the risk of my video being too long?
I decided that I should delete the section and I worked in today's session getting my footage back in theright
order. Whilst I manged to get this completed today, I feel I havent really made much progress as I have'nt
technically added to my video.
Day 27- 6/02/2013
My priority of today was to complete my titles completed. In addition to my ideas during the pre-
production stage, I have included titles just before certain scenes. I have done this because this will
guide the audience to a better understanding of my narration.
Above, is an example of a title that I have added, to my video.
In addition to today's lesson we were able to watch everyone's else's work. This allowed us to give
each other ideas on how, what and where we could make improvements. The feedback I received from
the class, was that my video is too long and doesn't suite the speed and style for a promotional video. I
agree with this, and believe that I should take the time next lesson, to make this my priority to sot out.
The class also picked up on the fact hat they could hear me and Sam talking within the audio. this
makes my video unprofessional. Again this will be one of my priorities tomorrow, and to sort this out I
will use a tool called "add/remove keyframe".
It was also suggested that I add an narration on the top of my video, either as Gerald speaking about his
arrival or someone else talking about how Gerald has coped in Bluecoat. Whilst I would want to do
this, I am cautious of the little amount of time remaining, and I want to insure what I have now is at it's
best, before I start adding additional footage or audio. This is something i could possibly add if I was to
do this project again?
In addition, Sam has helped me with the first scene. This scene is where Gerald falls out of the sky and
into the school. He helped me with this scene, and with his amazing Adobe skills, he help piece
together the scene perfectly for me.
This shot show what Sam created, he managed to add lightening effect and combined some of our
footage to give the audience the effect of him falling out of the sky.
I am impressed by what has been achieved with this scene, as it wasn't easy to do.
Day 28- 07/02/2013
Tomorrow is our deadline day, so it is important that we hit the ground running today. I started to work
on the problems mentioned yesterday, which seemed to be very successful. I managed to complete to
cut my video down from 5 mins to just over 3 mins. I was pleased that I managed to keep may narrative
flow whilst cutting down on my length. Also today, I managed to delete the audio where me and Sam
can be heard talking. In future, when we film, we will have to make sure we are considerate about the
audio as well as the footage to avoid this issue completely.
Like usual, my video took along time to render, so this was the only aspects I was able to work on.
Despite this I feel confident (with tomorrows session) I will finish this video on time to a high standard.
Day 29- 08/02/2013
This is it. Today is the day that our videos shall be handed in.
For this session, I have used the time to make a few tweaks and changes to make my video look
professional. For example, i have now added the names of the teachers who are speaking in certain
scenes at the bottom of the screen, and I have also changed the names of the titles i added earlier this
week.
I now had only one ting to think about and that was changing the loudness of the audio. I t was said by
viewer, that the audio was too loud even when they change the Mac's volume themselves. I noticed the
audio was too loud as they pointed out that the bar towards the left hand side of the timeline was
moving into the red area, this simply mean that my audio is too loud. To change this, again, I used the
keyframe tool, which is located in the toolbox tab.
*The two green bars (on the right) indicate the loudness of the audio
I can safely say that I am overall proud of my achievements and success within Unit 62. I beleive my ]
video matches the project briefs requests, and I am especially proud of my credits, and the chosen piece
of audio soundtrack throughout the video.
Although I did not use all the footage we filmed I beleive that I have varied the scenes to keep the audience interested in the video. We filmed two students in an interview about the PE department. They were from Learning Support and it would be good to get a view from people who participate in this area of PE. Whilst I would of like to used this footage, it would of meant that my video would if lasted another 2 minutes or so, resulting in a 5 minute video altogether. My video was origonally 5 minutes long when I showed it to the rest of the class on day 27 (6th Feb), and was notacbly lengthy then. Therefore I had to leave this footage along with other scenes such as the shot-put. Whilst this meant that I wasn't able to show everything, these two scenes were not noted down on the storyboard or even in the pre-production stage itself. So on the other hand I have stuck to the storyboard and the planning we put behind this promotiional video.
Market Research Stage
At this late stage of the project we are now looking into our market research. Within this research we wil find out what the public the audience and above all our client thinks of the video we have created. We will ask them to asses us on the use of effects, audio and much more.
This may be one of the last stages of the project, however, it still has importance and is vital that we work professionally to get the very best results possible.
Day 30- 12/02/2013
We have been asked to upload our videos to dropbox so we are able to show our video to students and staff in and around school. However, the problem we had was that this would take a very long time to upload to dropbox. Therefore, me and Sam decided to upload our videos to youtube as a quicker alternative. In addition to this we have decided to create a survey using Surveymonkey. This means that we will be able to get responses from people face-to-face and also from sending surveys (which will allow us to gather more feedback from more people).
Here is an example of how we created a survey;
Surveymonkey is easy to use as we both have experince using this site from previous projects. It is simply and quick, as all you need to do is to simpply add/ edit questions and add/ edit the number of pages.
In terms of our client, We have sent him an email requesting for a meeting to discuss and present our video. we would wan't to meet his objectives for this video, so it is important to get his personal opinions on the video, seems as he is our client. Below is the e-mail the GigaX team sent to Mr Hutchinson;
Dear Mr Hutchinson,
We are pleased to inform you that due to the setbacks in our digital graphics production, we have been able to complete our digital video project for you somewhat earlier than expected. As a result, we would like to schedule a meeting with you some time this week in order to show you our two finished products. During this meeting, we would like to ask you for some general feedback.
In the mean time, we would like to thank you for your support in allowing us to capture the relevant footage for our project and for making our shooting as smooth as possible.
Other than that, is there any particular time that a meeting would be possible, taking around 20 minutes?
Thank you,
GigaXStudios.
As you can see we have kept a high formality between our client and ourselves even though this is one of the last e-mails we will probably send. We have to a continuous formailty throughtout. Another thing that can be noticed is the fact that this e-mail was sent by the GigaX team and not induvidually. Me and Sam decided that it would save time for both of us to meet with Mr Hutchinson together but collect our own feedbak on our own videos during this meeting. You could say we were killing two birds with one stone.
He has replied recently and is only available at a time Sam will not be available. As a result Sam has sent an additional e-mail to our client with links to our video.
I have recently spoke to him on the way to my lesson and he told me that he has seen the video and is very happy with the "quality" and the fact "that he is now famous". In addition to this he said that he has yet to decide when we can meet to discuss the videos in detail, and will let us know in the near furture. For now, I will just have to work and gather the research from the other people.
Overall the responses we recive from our market research, we expect to be a mixture of positive and negative feedback. Some will probably dislike the ideas we have put together whilst other will believe they are creative. The results we collect should be reliable data when getting it from face-to-face. In terms of the data from the surveys, we are expecting less reliable data as some people do surveys half heartedly.
Im expecting overall good responses. I believe that I have met the project briefs demands, although the market research may say otherwise, this is something I will find out pretty soon.
Day 31- 13/02/2013
Today we decided to head up to the PE department to see if any one was available to view our video. Unfortunately there was no one there, so we decided that we could try ad see if anyone was in our common room. Fortunately Sam managed to get a student to look over his video whilst I managed to get 2 members of staff.
To record this, we decided to use each others iPad. I came fully prepared with an app which allowed me to record audio quickly, in small enough files that can be sent via e-mail. Sam wasn't aware of this app, so alternatively he video recorded mine. Below is the recording of what the viewers of my video thought...
From this feedback, it seems that my video has ticked the right boxes. They were ingadged throughout the video, and never got distracted.
Once I arrived back in the class-room I recived feedback from my fellow class mates about my survey (who I aksed to fill out for extra data). They pointed out some errors I mae in the questionaire and I have now realised that there are spelling mistakes in my survey. This is something that I cannot change unless I delete the current data received for the questions. I am disappointed with this as this doesn't reflect the professionalism I have carried throughout this project. I have also put biased options for answers. For example, I have asked the audeince to tick the words that they associate my video with. I have provided options which are postive words such as "entertaining". The class told me that this comes across as slightly biased of me, despite the fact that I have provided an option for them to put their own choice of word. In a way I agrre with this point, as overall I am not happy with the quality of my questionaire. I rushed it too much, and I should of looked over the questionaire before I sent it out. Nevertheless, I still beleive that I will gather decent data to analyse.
In the mean time I have been checking up on my latest survey responses. There is some decent answers however, some people have either skipped or put irrelevant answers for a question. Some have decided to put random answere such as "ghfgd" which of course isn't even an answer.
I currently have 13 responses which isn't enough to produce reliable data for my market research. I hope that I get more response really soon.
Whilst this is a setback, the good thing about using SuerveyMonkey is that I am able to look at charts and graphs produced by this web site which tells me the data in a simple way.
Here is an example;
Day 32-14/02/2013
Today I recived more replied to my survey. This is great news! I now beleive that I have enougth numbers to start collecting and analysing my data. SurveyMonkey has provided charts already, however they have a watermark "sample" written all over them, so unless I pay money to upgrade my account, the charts are very difficult to read. A cheaper and sufficent way around this is to copy the numbers into an excel spreadsheet, as I am then able to create my very own charts, ranging from pie charts to pie charts!
I have chosen to do my charts in a pie format, as I thought they allowed me to see the difference in numbers for each answer.
Before I looked at the data I thought that people will have a mixture of feelings towards the video. I was expecting some negative responses, some god and some irrelevant and unreliable.
Here is the full version of the video. As you can see this video has been directly taken from my youTube channel. This means that my video is suitable for web use.
Of course I had to compress my video to ensure it was the right size suitable for web use. Once I compressed my video to suite my needs, I managed to export it as a MPG. It was important that I did this final task, to not only ensure I get closer to the near professional standards, but as it is something all producers should do to ensure their video is suitable for the audience and on the web.
filming. Of course this is earlier than we anticipated, however we will use this time to correct our
blogs, to get used to the mac and iPads and to get everything (such as footage) organised (in to
folders Thus we used this period to get used to the iPad and explore the different apps that could help
us in media in the near future.
Day 19- 25/01/2013
Today it was announced by our teacher that ADOBE Premeire has been uploaded onto the Macs for
us to start our video editing. This was great news as me and Sam really want to start our editing as
soon as possible. Whilst this was good, it was quite overwelming whne we opend the programme. It
all looke very confsuing, and I didn't know where to begin. There are so many options for different
areas of editing, which is great if you know your way around the programme, but if you don't it can
look very complicated to get through.
Thankfully, we were given this lesson to get used to the software. We were able to explore deeply
into this, we looked at how to import your own media into the programme, and we looked at how to
use the timeline window effectivley. It was very difficult for me as I had no idea what was what. I
tried to get around it, and I did mange to piece together a couple of videos to make a scene. However
the main struggle for me was the editing of the audio, the audio in one clip was horrific and could not
be used in the video. I wanted to delete or replace this audio without doinmg the same to the footage.
I knew there was a way of unlinking the footage from audio, I just didn't know how to. I knew that
this was only a pratice, but I also knew that it is likely that we will use that footage for our actuall
video.
Overall I manged quite well, althought I still have alot of learning to do. Our teacher has recently sent
out a youtube link to a totorial that gose thorugh this pregramme. Ihaven't manged to look at this yet,
maybe I could learn alot form this video?
Day 20- 28/01/2013
set of to start editing my video. We have been set a number of tasks whih have to be completed by
the 8/02/2013. One of the tasks has asked us to talk about the post-production considerations. There
are many considerations to think about during this stage of the project, and it is important that we are
able to talk about them in our blog. In addition to this they considerations we have to research upon,
will help us with ADOBE. We hve to reasearch on some key terms, such as "audio mixer tab" and
"workspace". These are elements that you can find on ADBOE and are ones that we may use for our
edting. So, despite the fact that we are were not paticually concerntrating on using the programme we
were still learning about it and writting out our findings.
In addition to this, I realised that Sam had such great experinces with this software, adn he knew this
programme quite well. Fortnunaltey Sam was able to talk through some of the key features on
ADOBE Premeire. He gave me a walkthrough and a guide on different areas, that he thought would
be useful for when we start editing. I was greatfull for this guide as I have learnt such alot from it.
Despite this, I still feel like there is alot more work and practice to be done on this prgramme before I
can say for sure I am comfortable using it. As the saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day" and I
certainly won't learn ADOBE Premeire within one day either.
Soon we will start our editing, this could be as soon as tommorrow....
Day 21- 29/01/2013
Today we started to import our footage into Adobe Premiere. This importing took little time to do so,
which was pleasing as we do not have time to waste. I still had little knowledge on this software, but I
simply do not have enough time to get used to it and then start my editing.
I realised that the first scene for our video will involve a lot of editing and tricks, that I don't believe I
will be able to achieve at this early stage. Therefore I decided that I will move onto the next scene for
editing. The scene I was editing was the football scene just after Gerald arrives. I managed some basic
editing techniques and managed to get most of the scene completed.
There are many faults I have found with this scene. The first thing I noticed was the length. The scene
lasted around 3 minutes, which will is way too long for a documentary. The audience will simply get
bored. In addition to this, I also noticed that I was trying to show a full match, from when the students
enter, to when the final whistle is blown. This is unprofessional and very boring in all honestly. It lasts
for too long and usually in a short video, you only get roughly 1minute and 30 seconds of one scene
before it moves onto the next.
This is something I need to work on. I need to sort my techniques to suite the audience and the video
itself. I plan to use this footage in my video, but only parts of it. Tomorrow I will start on a different
scene, make them concise and snappy. I will then link the scenes together.
Day 22- 30/01/2013
Today we immediately worked on our videos. This was much more successful then yesterday. In two
hours I managed to create one scene....the badminton scene. This included adding effects, changing the
volume, trimming videos and slowing down the speed of the videos.
During the lesson we also shown each other our work in progress. This allowed us to gather feedback
for the future, and also allowed us to see where we are all at. I would say currently we are all in the
same position. Not many of us are familiar with this software, so we are all going to struggle to pick up
the speed.
Overall I was pleased on how well today has gone so far.
Day 23- 31/01/2013
Once again our task was to continue with our editing. With more experiecne with Adobe Premeier, I was
able to pick up the pace and work on numerous scenes.
Today's lesson only lasted 1 hour. However, I was derteimend to finish the work I started today, so I stayed
for an additional 1 hour and 15 minutes. I was determined to get this scene completed as I did't like the fact
of starting, then stopping then staring again, I just simply wanted a long session of editing. This turned out to
be more difficult than I first thought. The most difficult part was Mr. Hutchinson's interview scene. For my
video to look professional, I have decided that Mr Hutchinson will talk over some other footage, and then
flip back to Mr Hutchinson spekaing. For example, you can see Mr Hutchinson talkin, but then there is a
cut-away to a football match whilst he is still speaking. Not only is this professional, but also allows me to fit
more footage in a certain amount of time. The probelm I faced was that I was unable to get the audio to go
in line with the footage. For example, sometimes Mr Hutchinson would be clealy seen talking in the footage,
but in the audio, he is having a pause in speech. I had to line it up correctly for it to work and have that
professional look. This was very difficult and took most of my editing time. This is why I wanted to carry on
working until I was satisifed with the quality.
I managed to complete this scene sucessfully and I was eventually happy with what I had achieved today.
Day 24- 01/02/2013
After yesterday's long session, I was still buzzing to get as much editing done as possible. This time next
week, our promotional videos are due in, so we had to get our heads down working. To help us with our
editing, our teacher set us a task to complete in addition to our work. We were requested to learn about
induvidual editing tools and techniques on Adobe, and use the knowledge we gain to present and teach the
rest of the class. We all completed this and gained a much better understanding of Adobe. I got mixed up
between two tools so I manged to present and teach everyone a bit of knowledge on two sperate tools.
This has helped me for this session as I am now using different tools that I wasn't using before. I ma now
adding differnt effects such as titles, colour correction and much more. An example where I have used one
of these tools is the long-jump scenes. This was filmed in the snow, so to give it a wintery feel, I gave the
footage a bluish feel using the 3-way colur corrector. I changed the shadows, outlines and highlights to do
this.
Unfortunatley I faced another problem. Because I had been working on two different Macs, Adobe
premeire was uanble to source where my footage was coming from. This meant that I had to re-import
some of the videos back into Adobe Premeier. This resulted in a lot of editing time being lost.
Despite this problem, I manged to continue and again complete the eidting I planned to complete.
Day 25- 04/02/2013
Today we arrived and worked on our videos. Unfortunatley the Macs were running slow, so I had to wait
for it to load properly. Once I was able to access my project, I started to work on the last scene- Gerald's
conclusion to his experiences. This was a very simple scene to put together compared to the rest I have
done so far.
The only problem I faced was that Adobe took a long time to render my video. Rendering is basically the
computer laoding my recent edits, so there is no lag when I play back my project. Fortuntaely it was
break next so I left it to render whilst I was having a break.
Day 26- 05/02/2013
The deadline day is getting really close now, and the pressure is on to complete this project to a high
standard. Like usual, we wasted no time getting stuck into editing. This session invoved hard and complex
editing. There was a moment in my video that was not nesasery and I could do with my video being shorter.I
delted a section, but this messed up my oreder of footage and audio. I had to make a big decsion. Do I
delted this section and work on geting the order right ( which is something I struggled with) or do I keep this
is in, but run the risk of my video being too long?
I decided that I should delete the section and I worked in today's session getting my footage back in theright
order. Whilst I manged to get this completed today, I feel I havent really made much progress as I have'nt
technically added to my video.
Day 27- 6/02/2013
My priority of today was to complete my titles completed. In addition to my ideas during the pre-
production stage, I have included titles just before certain scenes. I have done this because this will
guide the audience to a better understanding of my narration.
Above, is an example of a title that I have added, to my video.
In addition to today's lesson we were able to watch everyone's else's work. This allowed us to give
each other ideas on how, what and where we could make improvements. The feedback I received from
the class, was that my video is too long and doesn't suite the speed and style for a promotional video. I
agree with this, and believe that I should take the time next lesson, to make this my priority to sot out.
The class also picked up on the fact hat they could hear me and Sam talking within the audio. this
makes my video unprofessional. Again this will be one of my priorities tomorrow, and to sort this out I
will use a tool called "add/remove keyframe".
It was also suggested that I add an narration on the top of my video, either as Gerald speaking about his
arrival or someone else talking about how Gerald has coped in Bluecoat. Whilst I would want to do
this, I am cautious of the little amount of time remaining, and I want to insure what I have now is at it's
best, before I start adding additional footage or audio. This is something i could possibly add if I was to
do this project again?
In addition, Sam has helped me with the first scene. This scene is where Gerald falls out of the sky and
into the school. He helped me with this scene, and with his amazing Adobe skills, he help piece
together the scene perfectly for me.
This shot show what Sam created, he managed to add lightening effect and combined some of our
footage to give the audience the effect of him falling out of the sky.
I am impressed by what has been achieved with this scene, as it wasn't easy to do.
Day 28- 07/02/2013
Tomorrow is our deadline day, so it is important that we hit the ground running today. I started to work
on the problems mentioned yesterday, which seemed to be very successful. I managed to complete to
cut my video down from 5 mins to just over 3 mins. I was pleased that I managed to keep may narrative
flow whilst cutting down on my length. Also today, I managed to delete the audio where me and Sam
can be heard talking. In future, when we film, we will have to make sure we are considerate about the
audio as well as the footage to avoid this issue completely.
Like usual, my video took along time to render, so this was the only aspects I was able to work on.
Despite this I feel confident (with tomorrows session) I will finish this video on time to a high standard.
Day 29- 08/02/2013
This is it. Today is the day that our videos shall be handed in.
For this session, I have used the time to make a few tweaks and changes to make my video look
professional. For example, i have now added the names of the teachers who are speaking in certain
scenes at the bottom of the screen, and I have also changed the names of the titles i added earlier this
week.
I now had only one ting to think about and that was changing the loudness of the audio. I t was said by
viewer, that the audio was too loud even when they change the Mac's volume themselves. I noticed the
audio was too loud as they pointed out that the bar towards the left hand side of the timeline was
moving into the red area, this simply mean that my audio is too loud. To change this, again, I used the
keyframe tool, which is located in the toolbox tab.
*The two green bars (on the right) indicate the loudness of the audio
I can safely say that I am overall proud of my achievements and success within Unit 62. I beleive my ]
video matches the project briefs requests, and I am especially proud of my credits, and the chosen piece
of audio soundtrack throughout the video.
Although I did not use all the footage we filmed I beleive that I have varied the scenes to keep the audience interested in the video. We filmed two students in an interview about the PE department. They were from Learning Support and it would be good to get a view from people who participate in this area of PE. Whilst I would of like to used this footage, it would of meant that my video would if lasted another 2 minutes or so, resulting in a 5 minute video altogether. My video was origonally 5 minutes long when I showed it to the rest of the class on day 27 (6th Feb), and was notacbly lengthy then. Therefore I had to leave this footage along with other scenes such as the shot-put. Whilst this meant that I wasn't able to show everything, these two scenes were not noted down on the storyboard or even in the pre-production stage itself. So on the other hand I have stuck to the storyboard and the planning we put behind this promotiional video.
Market Research Stage
At this late stage of the project we are now looking into our market research. Within this research we wil find out what the public the audience and above all our client thinks of the video we have created. We will ask them to asses us on the use of effects, audio and much more.
This may be one of the last stages of the project, however, it still has importance and is vital that we work professionally to get the very best results possible.
Day 30- 12/02/2013
We have been asked to upload our videos to dropbox so we are able to show our video to students and staff in and around school. However, the problem we had was that this would take a very long time to upload to dropbox. Therefore, me and Sam decided to upload our videos to youtube as a quicker alternative. In addition to this we have decided to create a survey using Surveymonkey. This means that we will be able to get responses from people face-to-face and also from sending surveys (which will allow us to gather more feedback from more people).
Here is an example of how we created a survey;
Surveymonkey is easy to use as we both have experince using this site from previous projects. It is simply and quick, as all you need to do is to simpply add/ edit questions and add/ edit the number of pages.
In terms of our client, We have sent him an email requesting for a meeting to discuss and present our video. we would wan't to meet his objectives for this video, so it is important to get his personal opinions on the video, seems as he is our client. Below is the e-mail the GigaX team sent to Mr Hutchinson;
Dear Mr Hutchinson,
We are pleased to inform you that due to the setbacks in our digital graphics production, we have been able to complete our digital video project for you somewhat earlier than expected. As a result, we would like to schedule a meeting with you some time this week in order to show you our two finished products. During this meeting, we would like to ask you for some general feedback.
In the mean time, we would like to thank you for your support in allowing us to capture the relevant footage for our project and for making our shooting as smooth as possible.
Other than that, is there any particular time that a meeting would be possible, taking around 20 minutes?
Thank you,
GigaXStudios.
As you can see we have kept a high formality between our client and ourselves even though this is one of the last e-mails we will probably send. We have to a continuous formailty throughtout. Another thing that can be noticed is the fact that this e-mail was sent by the GigaX team and not induvidually. Me and Sam decided that it would save time for both of us to meet with Mr Hutchinson together but collect our own feedbak on our own videos during this meeting. You could say we were killing two birds with one stone.
He has replied recently and is only available at a time Sam will not be available. As a result Sam has sent an additional e-mail to our client with links to our video.
I have recently spoke to him on the way to my lesson and he told me that he has seen the video and is very happy with the "quality" and the fact "that he is now famous". In addition to this he said that he has yet to decide when we can meet to discuss the videos in detail, and will let us know in the near furture. For now, I will just have to work and gather the research from the other people.
Overall the responses we recive from our market research, we expect to be a mixture of positive and negative feedback. Some will probably dislike the ideas we have put together whilst other will believe they are creative. The results we collect should be reliable data when getting it from face-to-face. In terms of the data from the surveys, we are expecting less reliable data as some people do surveys half heartedly.
Im expecting overall good responses. I believe that I have met the project briefs demands, although the market research may say otherwise, this is something I will find out pretty soon.
Day 31- 13/02/2013
Today we decided to head up to the PE department to see if any one was available to view our video. Unfortunately there was no one there, so we decided that we could try ad see if anyone was in our common room. Fortunately Sam managed to get a student to look over his video whilst I managed to get 2 members of staff.
To record this, we decided to use each others iPad. I came fully prepared with an app which allowed me to record audio quickly, in small enough files that can be sent via e-mail. Sam wasn't aware of this app, so alternatively he video recorded mine. Below is the recording of what the viewers of my video thought...
From this feedback, it seems that my video has ticked the right boxes. They were ingadged throughout the video, and never got distracted.
Once I arrived back in the class-room I recived feedback from my fellow class mates about my survey (who I aksed to fill out for extra data). They pointed out some errors I mae in the questionaire and I have now realised that there are spelling mistakes in my survey. This is something that I cannot change unless I delete the current data received for the questions. I am disappointed with this as this doesn't reflect the professionalism I have carried throughout this project. I have also put biased options for answers. For example, I have asked the audeince to tick the words that they associate my video with. I have provided options which are postive words such as "entertaining". The class told me that this comes across as slightly biased of me, despite the fact that I have provided an option for them to put their own choice of word. In a way I agrre with this point, as overall I am not happy with the quality of my questionaire. I rushed it too much, and I should of looked over the questionaire before I sent it out. Nevertheless, I still beleive that I will gather decent data to analyse.
In the mean time I have been checking up on my latest survey responses. There is some decent answers however, some people have either skipped or put irrelevant answers for a question. Some have decided to put random answere such as "ghfgd" which of course isn't even an answer.
I currently have 13 responses which isn't enough to produce reliable data for my market research. I hope that I get more response really soon.
Whilst this is a setback, the good thing about using SuerveyMonkey is that I am able to look at charts and graphs produced by this web site which tells me the data in a simple way.
Here is an example;
Day 32-14/02/2013
Today I recived more replied to my survey. This is great news! I now beleive that I have enougth numbers to start collecting and analysing my data. SurveyMonkey has provided charts already, however they have a watermark "sample" written all over them, so unless I pay money to upgrade my account, the charts are very difficult to read. A cheaper and sufficent way around this is to copy the numbers into an excel spreadsheet, as I am then able to create my very own charts, ranging from pie charts to pie charts!
I have chosen to do my charts in a pie format, as I thought they allowed me to see the difference in numbers for each answer.
Before I looked at the data I thought that people will have a mixture of feelings towards the video. I was expecting some negative responses, some god and some irrelevant and unreliable.
Here is the full version of the video. As you can see this video has been directly taken from my youTube channel. This means that my video is suitable for web use.
Of course I had to compress my video to ensure it was the right size suitable for web use. Once I compressed my video to suite my needs, I managed to export it as a MPG. It was important that I did this final task, to not only ensure I get closer to the near professional standards, but as it is something all producers should do to ensure their video is suitable for the audience and on the web.
No comments:
Post a Comment