Promotional Video - Legal Forms

Below are a number of forms we had our interviewees sign to show that we had their permission to be involved in the video.

Promo Video - Health and Safety

The recording for this project will only be in and around college, therefore there will be minimal risks:

Recording around college: We need to be wary of students walking around college while recording, this is because recording equipment can be a trip hazard. We need to concentrate especially during peak times in college, such as lunch, as there will be more students moving around.

Be aware of surroundings: When using equipment, ensure you are aware of any obstacles and avoid them, to avoid injury or damaging equipment.

Music Video Survey Results (Primary Research)

Below are results from the survey I conducted for research for my music video. I chose these questions particularly to display as these informed my music video.

Q1: From the results, it is clear that people have their own personal preference on their preferred type of music genre, and that there isn't a majority choice, therefore I will choose whichever song I wish.




Q2: From the results, it is clear that the majority prefer narrative style music videos by a long shot, I will take this into consideration when planning which style of music video to create. I feel that a narrative style video gives me more breathing room in terms of how creative I can be with my ideas.



Q3/Q4: From the results, it is evident that the majority think the music video should connect with the lyrics to help connote meaning of the lyrics. This I will try to achieve in my own music video.



Q5/Q6: This question does not inform my own video as such, as I cannot include the artist in my video, but I believe it is an important question as it can create brand identity within the industry, and also a relationship with fans. However, because the majority agreed that the artist should be included, I aim to create a narrative with a relatable protagonist.



Q7/Q8: From the results, I can see that the majority think editing is important in music videos; therefore, when editing my own video, I will ensure that the editing is precise and polished, in order to make the video look more professional. The results of question 8 also reveal the the participants feel that the editing can help to convey the message of the video or exaggerate the music, which will be important when creating a narrative-style video.



Overall, I believe this research technique was beneficial for me, regarding its ability to inform my decisions on this project. The survey is a great method of conducting your own research, as it allows you to design your own questions in order to gather the exact data you desire. One weakness of this particular survey is that I did not receive many responses, and those I acquired were of a similar age group. As a result I was not able to gain responses from a wide range of people, meaning I did not have a broad spectrum of answers. However, certain answers (particularly to questions 3 and 7) did help me decide what paths to take with my video, and therefore I believe the research had a successful outcome.

Music Video - Gantt Chart

I have created Gantt Chart showing my tasks and when I plan to complete them. I have decided to use only two colours - orange shows that I still have yet to complete the task, whereas green represents a completed task; in doing this I can clearly see which task still needs to be complete. This has been helpful throughout the project as it has allowed me to manage my time effectively, and thus I will be able to meet my deadline with ease. 

Music Video Editing

During editing, I created several bins, into which I organised my footage according to which shoot it was captured in. This has allowed me easy access to all of my footage, should I need it. I have also used effects such as the Warp Stabiliser, in an effort to make my footage smoother and look more professional.

I also watched a couple of youtube tutorials in order to create effects in my video. The first was to learn how to create a memory-style effect, using white backgrounds, blurring, and fading. As a result, the transitions from past to present look as if the protagonist is reminiscing. Additionally, I downloaded a clip of film grain, and lowered the opacity as an overlay over the 'past' clips to further emphasise that it is a memory. 

Music Video Draft

Promo Video Editing

When editing the promo video, I placed all the clips I would use in to bins in order to organise them and put them into categories where they were easy to find; I also overlaid clips with transitions in order to make the clips transition more smoothly. With the audio, I lowered the volume of the backing music during the interviews so the audience can hear the dialogue more. 

HNC Promo Video Evaluation

During this unit, I decided that I would not be able to meet the deadline in the unit with the client's availability, this was due to his busy working schedule; and after discussion, we came to a mutual agreement that it would be best to discontinue the process. In order to accommodate for this, I decided to work with Aj, who was in the same situation. We decided to create a promotional video for the HNC course at KEC, with our client being Chris - the head of the Creative Arts department. In our research we analysed various existing promotional videos, and decided to create an informative video, with student and teacher interviews talking about the HNC.

When planning the promotional video, we watched existing college promotional videos for inspiration, and to understand the conventions of these videos, in order to be able to implement them into our promotional video. We drew up a basic plan and layout for our video, and organised an initial meeting with our client to discuss our plan. This meeting was beneficial for us as we prepared a clear powerpoint presentation containing our ideas, and the client also provided us with some insight as to how he would like the video to turn out, by giving us ideas of shots and interviews. After this, we contacted those who we would have liked to be in the video, mainly students and teachers, however this didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked, as some students were not able to spare any time on such short notice. In the future, to improve on this, we would ideally have more time to shoot, and therefore be more flexible with our availability to shoot.

During the production of our video, we managed to record most of the content we needed, we decided to capture footage in locations related to creative arts, in order to showcase what the department has to offer for students; though we did not manage to record  everything our client suggested, due to the reliability and availability of ex-students. We accommodated for this by asking the same questions to the students we did interview, in order to still get the information we needed. We also had some issues with how some of the clips turned out, particularly with the interviews. We had issues with the sound of the footage recorded in the studio, the sound is echoey and because the interviewees were sitting quite far from the camera, the speech was quiet. In order to correct this in the future, I would use a separate microphone to record the audio. Another issue we came across is the lighting in the HNC room, after scanning over the footage, we found that the lighting was underexposed and quite dim. To improve on this is the future, I would reshoot this footage perhaps in a different room, with more natural light, or even use some portable LED lights to create some artificial light. In the final cut of the video, we decided to only use one interview, involving Emily and Connie, this is because I believe their answers contained the right information about the HNC that we intended to capture and therefore didn't need to include any unnecessary footage. Additionally, the quality of some of the other interviews wasn't acceptable for the video and could not be used.

Regarding our target audience, when distributing our video, it would have been best to consider the most effective methods to appeal to our intended audience of students aged 17-19. this could have been achieved by creating a shorter version of our video, that would have been an acceptable length for publishing to social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram. This would have been beneficial for us as it would cater for our particular demographic, and therefore potentially receive a better response.

Overall, I am pleased with the final cut of our promotional video; I believe that we captured the essence of what HNC life is like within the college. This was achieved by maintaining an informal mode of address within the interviews, therefore keeping the responses natural. This was emphasised by the ‘unpolished’ feel of some of clips I used, as it added personality to the interviewees and represented the relationships and friendships formed in the HNC. An issue I came across in the post-production of the video is that the music for the video is quite loud in comparison to the audio of the interviews, despite altering the audio levels for the clips; it is quite difficult to hear at some points. In the future we could perhaps find some backing music that is quieter, or again use an external microphone to record the audio from the interview.

Shoots 5-6

Shoot 5: Students working

For this shoot, we have decided to film students of the HNC doing work. We will achieve this through a number of over-the-shoulder shots, displaying students editing and filming. These shots are going to be used as filler material over the audio of the interviews.

Shoot 6: HNC Life

For this segment of recording, we will place the camera at different points in the room  and left it to record the HNC room during a normal day. This will allow us to capture shots of the HNC environment in a natural manner, in order to limit the 'staged' feel of the video.

Shoots 1-4

Shoots 1-4

Shoot 1: Current Student - Joe Casey
We decided to shoot this interview in the studio, as we will be able to create a interview-style lighting setup, making the interview look more professional. Unfortunately, the lighting did not turn out the way we planned, and as a result we had to alter the camera settings to get a correctly exposed image; the higher ISO resulted in the video containing more 'noise'.

Shoot 2: Current students - Connie Bytheway and Emily Bliss
For this interview we decided to do a location shoot in the HNC room, using a shallow focus to focus on the interviewees; though this could have turned out better with a different lens. We had to shoot this interview twice, due to a problem with the audio recording. Feedback from our client also revealed that we could have altered the background in the interview to make the shot seem more appealing.

Shoot 3: Technician - Kayleigh Kendall
We decided to shoot this interview in the technician's office, as this allowed us to record the equipment in the office at the same time, in order to showcase what equipment KEC has to offer for students.

Shoot 4: Teacher - Yvonne Weatherstone
Similar to the previous shoot, we shot this interview in the media office, and this time took into account the background of the interview, and cleared the desk of clutter in ordee to make the setting look neat.

Promo Video Planning

Roles

Aj:

• Recording

• Health and safety vigilant 

• Personal releases forms 

• Gantt chart

• Shot log

• Communication with client 

• Client presentation

Ben:

• Recording 

• Editing 

• Storyboard 

• Gantt chart

• Shot log 

• Overlooked communication 

Shot log

• Establishing shots; college entrance / front staff/visitor car park  

• Talking head style interviews (waist up)  

• Over the shoulder shot – students doing work  

• Wide shot – HNC Room – 

• Media dept room - Lesson being taught 

• Quad 'Ben or Aj taking videos or photographs' 

• HNC Aj 'taking photographs' 

• Art foundation 

• People in college 

Equipment List

• Camera (DSLR)

•  Spare camera battery 

• Microphone 

• AA batteries (and spares) 

• Micro SD card 

• SD card 

• Tripod 

• Dolly

• Steadicam (if possible)

Locations 

• College entrance

• HNC room 

• Classroom within the media department 

• Technician office 

• College courtyard
• College quad
• Photography Studio

HNC Promotional Video

The Development of Editing Technology

The Development of Editing Technology

 The earliest films on the 1900s were all done through camera with little to no editing involved, therefore the entire film would just be one reel and seen start to finish.  James Williamson's 1900 film Attack on a China Mission' was one of the first films to involve cutting between shots. The film is 2 minutes in length and consists of only 2 shots.

 'The Great Train Robbery' is a 1903 Western Film directed by Edwin S. Porter, and it is considered as a milestone in film-making. This is because the film used a variety of innovative editing techniques, such as: cross-cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movements, and on location shooting. This film had a running time of 12 minutes, and included a total of 20 different shots and 10 different indoor and outdoor locations. Porter was a pioneer of the 'cross-cutting' editing method, which is used to show two simultaneous events occurring at different places.

   The first piece of editing hardware appeared in 1924 was the Moviola - a device that allows an editor to view the film while editing it. This allowed editors to cut strips of footage and attach them together in order to create cuts within the film. However, the moviola's functions were limited and the operation of the device was slow. Further developments in editing technology saw that flatbed editors were invented in the 1930s. Though flatbeds became the more popular option for film editing during the 1970s due to their simplicity and clearer images over the moviola. Flatbed editors consisted of two separate motorized disks, one for picture and the other for sound, the plates move simultaneously and as picture is projected onto a screen a magnetic playback head reads the audio tracks. The two most common brands of the flatbed editor were Steenbeck and KEM (Keller-Electro-Mechanik).

Moviola

   
  

Flatbed Editor

 This method of editing is called Linear editing, the process of selecting, modifying, and arranging images and sound in a predetermined sequence. The simple hardware such as the moviola means that this method of editing is inexpensive and quicker for smaller editing jobs. However, in 1971 the first non-linear editor was introduced. The CMX-600 was a digital console consisting of two monitors. The right monitor played the preview video, and was used by the editor to make cuts and edits; the monitor on the left was used to display the edited video. It wasn't until 1991 that the term 'non-linear editing' became officially formalized, when companies such as 'Avid' publicly introduced their device: the Avid 1. At this point digital products began to replace the classic editing tools such as the moviola. This form of editing was largely computerized and operated in a way the the original content isn't modified during the editing, therefore editors didn't have to start over if a mistake was made. This was a huge development it allowed editors to access any frame in a digital video clip and 'cut-and-paste' that clip to a different part of the sequence.

   Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing, where raw footage is copied and edited without affecting the original tape, and the offline approach has been in film editing since the start. Offline editing is essentially the whole editing process, where editors cut and piece clips together in order to tell a story. However, online editing is a process that is performed in the final stages of the production, and is the fine-tuning of the project. This focuses on aspects such as the quality of the picture, colour correction, visual effects, and other fine details of the project. The online editor will also ensure that the production is broadcast safe by ensuring certain aspect ratios and video levels.

Nowadays, film editing is carried out on modern editing software. Platforms such as Final cut and premiere pro allow editors to transfer video onto a hard drive, where it can be edited and converted in order to be output to a variety of formats. Premiere pro was one of the first computer based non-linear editing systems, with its first release in 1991. These platforms are the go-to for editing in modern times, as they provide editors with high resolution editing and the ability to access different formats.

References:

• https://www.filmcomment.com/article/game-changers-editing
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwin-S-Porter
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-linear_editing_system

Music Video Moodboard