Reflective Analysis

When it came to making a music video my ideas changed a few times before I settled on what I wanted to do and started planning. At first I had decided to create a music video for a local band but decided against this due to my timescale. After this I decided to produce a video for 'The Boredom is The Reason I Started Swimming, It's Also The Reason I Started Sinking' by The Front Bottoms, with the idea of a guy travelling the world whilst in some scenes a busker can be seen playing the song. I decided against this song and settled on 'Maps' by the same band and decided to combine the idea of the guy travelling and the busker by making them the same person so that it was actually the busker traveling. I settled on this idea as I felt this would be achievable within my time frame and I was only relying on two other people, which meant not as much could have gone wrong.

After I had decided on the song and the general ideas for the song, I got to work on planning specific shots and put together a shot/edit decision list, which included details of location, the shot type, camera angle and movement, shot length, a shot description and which lyric or part of the song that the shot would correspond to, this can be found here: http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/shotedit-decision-list.html
To accompany this, I also created a visual mood board and a still images music video, I believe these helped me piece together what the music video would look like in my head and I used this alongside the shot/edit decision list when I was filming, this way I could keep on top of the work I had already done and see what needed to be done, these can be found here: http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/visual-mood-board.html

When it came to actually filming, it went incredibly well and the majority of shots were done in one take, the performance shots were the hardest to film as the timing had to be perfect, I had my subject play alongside the actual song so that when it came to editing it would be easier to match the audio and the visuals. I feel like all of the shots I decided on were relevant and did a good job of illustrating the lyrics of the song whilst at the same time fitting with the band's image. The Front Bottoms take a very laissez-faire approach when it comes to their music and specifically promotion of themselves including their music videos, the majority of their videos are purely performance and are usually just them playing in their living room or garage, their own music video for the song 'Maps' is just the two band members travelling and messing about with each other, The Front Bottoms emanate the idea that they music because they like doing it, they don't care how good they are or how famous they get, they are doing this because it is what they want to do. I tried to replicate this love for music above all else by having the audience see a conflict between the busker and his girlfriend, within these few shots and a few lines we realise the busker is leaving a lot behind to pursue his dream, he has no guarantee that things will turn out well for him and yet he goes on this journey regardless.

After I had gathered all my footage, I got to work on editing, this task was a lot easier than usual as I had something specific to edit to, I knew exactly where I wanted certain pieces of footage and roughly how long each shot needed to be. I did find however that some of the dialogue within the visuals did not match up with the audio, I tried changing the timing of the visuals but could not match them up perfectly, to draw attention away from this I decided to include subtitles where the lyrics are being spoken on screen.

The subtitles I settled on were danish, and I used a very typical font with a yellow colouring, I felt they were aesthetically pleasing and very reminiscent of the french new wave. I also feel I could only get away with this because of the song and band that I had chosen to represent in the video, the song is called Maps and is all about his travelling plans so to use foreign language subtitles fits within the theme of the song, and as previously mentioned The Front Bottoms are a very playful band and I could definitely see them doing something similar themselves. One of my favourite techniques I used during the editing process was the double exposure, due to the fact that my lyrics and visuals are closely linked I wanted to do something to amplify the fact that there are multiple layers of lyrics.

Overall, I am very pleased with my final product, I put a lot of time and effort into research, analysis and planning and I think this can be seen in the final music video. If I had more time I would have added in some more shots, such as a cut in during the first shot just so the shot doesn't feel as long, I tried to deter from this by having the title still be on screen, in Danish, when this shot starts. There is also another long take of the busker travelling on the train and if I had more time I would have included some point of view shots from the busker or him on different forms of transport. I think the inclusion of just a few more shots would have made the video so much tighter but the sometimes slow feel of the video can be seen as amplifying the journey of the busker, he has a long way to go before he makes anything of himself and these shots do a good job of amplifying that. If I were to do this project again I would probably choose a more upbeat song as this would have made me gather more shots and the music video could appear so much smoother but for the song chosen I am very happy with the video produced.

Maps - The Front Bottoms

Reflective Analysis

Originally I was planning a short promotional video for a local band but having contacted the band, I felt that they were too relaxed about the concept and as such making a promotional video for them would be far too hard to organise especially to a strict deadline. I decided to then ask one of the trip coordinators for the creative arts trip if they were looking for a promotional video and thankfully they were. I received my brief and discussed in person some of my initial ideas with the client, these ideas were well received and so I started on planning my video. This was probably the weakest part of my promotional video, I didn't organise myself very well and initial planning only really consisted of me location scouting and determining that I needed plenty of shots with students engaging in the activities the trip provided. One of the points raised by my client was that she wanted the video to be from a student perspective, because of this I felt that thorough planning was not needed as what I would normally film or photograph is a student perspective.

When filming I made sure that I shot a variety of items such as location shots, panning shots in galleries, tracking shots of students and plenty of shots of students either interacting with one another, taking pictures of exhibits or discussing artwork they had just seen. The shots produced were a variety and I felt this allowed the audience to get more of a feel of the surroundings, hand held tracking shots were used very effectively in the video as I feel they make the audience feel almost as if they were there in the galleries in Madrid with me. Placing the audience member into my shoes on the trip is the best way to encourage people to go. One thing I did feel I was lacking in were establishing shots, Madrid is absolutely stunning and although I feel I did manage to capture some of it's beauty, a few more location/establishing shots would have really brought the video to life. Due to the fact that I was doing a promotional video for the Creative Arts trip to Madrid, all of my filming, minus interviews, was done whilst in Madrid, and as such meant that they only had one chance to get the footage I needed. This made me more organised whilst I was actually on the trip and after reviewing my footage from the first day I found that I needed more shots of student engagement and could focus less on scenery and artwork. When back in the UK I decided to shoot some interviews with students who had gone on the trip, I contacted both an Art and a Photography to show the different subjects that could lead you to this kind of experience. I originally intended on having 4 interviews, the extra two being with an Art Foundation student and a Creative Media Production student, unfortunately I didn't have time to get these two interviews but in editing I spaced out the interviews I did get so that absence of the other two interviews wasn't noticed as much. The questions I asked in the interview were very simple as I just wanted to know what their favourite part of the trip was and how they've benefited from the experience. These two me were the most important things in determining whether the trip was good in terms of student engagement and if it did actually benefit their work.

When it came to choosing music for my promotional video I had to make sure that I chose something that was royalty free for legal reasons and also suited the production piece, the music I went for was 'Brazilian Samba' by BenSound, which I was legally able to use as long as I credited BenSound in my final production piece. The song was very uplifting and fast paced which gave me something to edit to, the cuts in my video are very quick and precise to match the rhythm of the music, and even though its technically a Brazilian piece of music, the song still suits the lively, happy go lucky atmosphere of Madrid. It was after selecting my music that I felt more comfortable editing, I needed something to edit to and the fast up-beat 'Brazilian Samba' was perfect for this. I feel I did a good job of editing in time with the music and just with editing in general, this was probably due to the fact that editing is where I am most organised, making sure that the relevant footage is in the right folders making it far easier for me to locate footage that I need and that I know I can use.

After completing a first draft of my video, I watched it with my client to gain some initial feedback. One key point raised was that they're wasn't enough student engagement in the video, as I had filmed in Madrid it was practically impossible to reshoot and so instead I spoke with another student who had also been on the trip and she was happy for me to use some of her footage. This made the video a much more student lead video and I think this was key in meeting my client's brief, the main thing they wanted from this video was that it was from a student's persecutive and how the student's engage with the activities on the trip. Using the feedback I altered my video and when it was completed, I again sat and watched it through with my client and she picked up on the alterations that I had made and seemed happy with the finished product.

I think the video produced does a good job of giving the audience a feel for what the Creative Arts trip can be like and I think this is down to the fact that a student produced it, the target audience are students and it was key to get across to them the benefits of such a trip. Watching the video through, I am grateful that I got the opportunity to go on such a trip and as shown from the interviews other students were just as happy to go on the trip. Overall, I am very happy with my promotional video, I just wish I'd been more organised in my planning so that I got more interviews and more student engagement on the trip but I still believe it is effective in 'highlighting the creative arts faculty and the student engagement in the trip' and it also 'demonstrates how rewarding and enriching trips abroad are for students and the multiple activities that take place' which is what my client was looking for, according to their design brief. After completing the video I watched it through with a few fellow students and some of them made comment about how they wish they'd been able to go and others saying that they would definitely try to go on a trip like it in the near future. A few students I watched it with said that they could see the educational benefits on the trip but were worried that they might not get much freedom to explore and as such wouldn't enjoy the social side of the trip much, I could have asked questions about this in the interviews so that students could hear directly from students on the trip that the social side of the trip is just as good as the educational, or also included more footage of students engaging with one another rather than just the activities and artwork. Obviously the only way for sure to know whether this promotional video has succeeded in it's job is to compare numbers from this year's trip to next year' trip, for this data I'd have to wait another 7/8 months to find out, so students already saying they wished they'd gone and that others are hoping to go on the trip next year is the best indicator I can ask for.

Planning

The following equipment will be needed for my promotional video:

•   Canon 700D

•   Tripod

•   SD Card

•   Shotgun microphone 

Before flying out to Madrid, I had a look online at some of the places we would be visiting as a college but also looked at some locations that I felt would be good to film in, I decided to film at Centro Centro, Reina Sofia, Buen Retiro Park, the flamenco show we would be attending and then a few locations like the Plaza Mayor and the Palacio Real de Madrid.

I tried to get a mixture of photography and moving image for each of the locations that I visited and most importantly I got plenty of footage of students interacting with one another, with their camera equipment or with the art that they saw in the galleries. 

Whilst filming in Madrid I was working with another person and so we assigned each other tasks to do, whilst I took on the majority of the filming at locations such as the Reina Sofia or Centro Centro, my partner filmed at the flamenco show and between the two of us we filmed the streets of Madrid. 

At the end of each day I reviewed the footage I had got and after the first day found that I was lacking in a lot of student engagement with the trip and so the second day I focused less on the scenery and artwork and more on how the students reacted to this.

Health & Safety

Health & Safety:

While shooting this for the promotional video we had to make sure that we were shooting in a safe environment so that no harm was caused to our crew or to the people involved.

• When shooting on the streets of Madrid, I had to make sure I was aware of my surroundings so that I didn't knock into anyone or trip over and damage my equipment.

• When shooting with tripods we had to make sure that they weren't in danger of falling over and hurting someone or breaking something.

• When recording interviews I had to make sure that the weather was acceptable so that none of the equipment got water damaged and I had to make sure that wires were placed in safe positions so that people didn't trip over them.

• When shooting in the Reina Sofia and Centro Centro, I had to make sure that I had permission to film on the premises and what kind of filming/photography I could do, I also had to make sure I was aware of my surroundings as I was filming with the general public so there is more of a risk that equipment could be damaged.

Copyright/Legal:

For the music used in the promotional video, I had to make sure that it was copyright free music as my video is essentially trying to sell a product, the music I used met these requirements as I simply credited bensound for the music.

All of the people that featured heavily in my promotional video were students of King Edward VI College and therefore have signed forms at the start of the college year o allow themselves to be filmed or photographed in such a way that I have done, as such no talent release forms were needed for this piece of production.

Feedback

After watching the first draft for the promotional video my clint gave me some short feedback to try and help me improve my video. These were some of the points raised:

• The first shot is too long and as such can seem a little dull at times, something more dynamic that captures an audience's attention.
• The shot before the interviews was not necessary.
• The interviews would be better off being dispersed throughout the video coupled with shots that show location that the students are talking about.
• The music also needs to be quitter whilst students are speaking as at one points it is hard to pick up what they are saying.
• More shots of the students actually engaging in activities such as photography or drawing should be used.
• Titles should also be used to show who students are and the different locations and activities students engaged in whilst on the trip.

After watching the final video, I asked my client to fill out a short questionnaire to gain an understanding of what my client thought of my finished video.

Client Feedback Form

Please answer the following questions using numbers 1-5 (5 being excellent, 3 being average and 1 being poor)

How happy are you with the final product?	4
How happy are you with our response to the brief?	4
Would you agree that communication between you and me, the production team, was prompt, clear and concise?	Yes 5
How close is the final product to your expectations?	4
Any further comments: The final film shows how fun, engaging and most importantly how much of an impact the Creative Arts annual trip abroad has on the students work, to potential new students, as well as a good reflection for those that went, which is it’s main purpose. The interviews add a student voice and reflects on the impact of the trip on the students work, this as a result fulfils part of my original brief. It is also filmed to a high quality; the sound quality particularly is outstanding. You have been resourceful in gathering student work and images to add into the film too which highlights the range of activities we did on the trip, such as the night photography task. Again another big positive. Overall a good promotional video that delivers with quality footage on nearly all aspects of the original video brief. A very pleasing outcome. Well done and thank you for your hard work. Improvements that would have benefitted the final production of the video are as follows: ·      The use of font for the subtitles isn’t in keeping with the college branding. ·      The subtitles for the students interviews could have been better designed, such as those used in the Art show video last year that were shown to you. ·      More footage of a range of students, especially at the galleries engaging in the exhibitions. ·      There could have been footage included of Amber Jesson’s Madrid inspired art work too. ·      The beginning of the video could have been more dynamic if a larger range of footage was filmed overall.

Teddy Tennis Promotional Video

Teddy Tennis is a instructional program that inspires and teaches young children to play tennis and develop a love of the sport. This promotional video introduces the concept of “sport, music and fun for the very young” to parents, sports centres and potential franchisees.

This video includes shots of the children participating in the Teddy Tennis program, all of the children shown look like they ae enjoying themselves and this is important for advertising their company.

The video also starts with some short testimonials from the children who have played tennis with Teddy Tennis, this is the best way to start a video that is aimed at parents or sport centres, this program is aimed at children and the importance here is how the children have reacted to the program.

We are also shown some of the ways that Teddy Tennis teach the children to play tennis through the use of pictures and music.

The video also includes testimonials from the cofounder, a coach and a headmistress who has used the service, all have great things to say about the service, and they all explain a little how Teddy Tennis works and how its helped the children become more active.

The video does a great job of showcasing what Teddy Tennis has to offer and also shows how much the children enjoy the service, it promotes the company itself by giving examples f their previous work and its clear to see that they really do help teach these children play tennis and just be more active in general in a way that the children really relate to, through music and imagery.

Emailcenter Promotional Video

Emailcenter are a company that specialise in making advanced email marketing incredibly simple to use. Using their own unique marketing platform they enable clients to engage with their subscribers via automated, relevant and highly targeted email campaigns. 

The video produced uses the animation style of a retro computer game and this adds a humorous touch the video an allows 'emailcenter' to get across the benefit of using their service in a much more lighthearted way than a lot of other companies would do. They use the levels of the game to show the extent of work which their company can do, including subscriber bars and posting emails to social page at a basic level to using dynamic content on their emails. dynamic content essentially adapts to a viewers preference, this allows companies to advertise specific products at certain types of people based on their internet history.

By the end of the video emailcenter has beaten off the competitors to showcase its place at the top, the end of the video shows the client information needed if people wish to use 'emailcenter'. The video produced is a high impact, humorous presentation that leaves the viewer in no doubt about the benefits of using 'emailcenter' over other competitors. 

Creative Arts Trip Madrid 2016

This is my completed promotional video for the Creative Arts trip at King Edward VI College, this year, the trip took us to Madrid.

Communication With a Client

After having some initial communication with my client, I set to work on producing the promotional video they had in mind, I consulted with them in person after making short drafts for the film and their feedback can be found here: http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/madrid-promotional-video-feedback.html

After I had finished making the promotional video for my client I sent them a link to the video along with a questionnaire to gain some feedback on what they thought of my promotional video, the results of which can also be seen at http://kechncjakobmorrison.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/madrid-promotional-video-feedback.html

Design Brief

The promotional video should highlight the creative arts faculty and the student engagement in the trip. It should demonstrate how enriching and rewarding trips abroad are for students and the multiple activities that take place.

In your filming I would like you to include the following:

* Student interviews about the trip (at least 2 interviews) with good quality sound.
* Film visits to the galleries
* Film other activities the students participate in during the trip
* An honest portrayal of the trip abroad from a student perspective
* Students happy and smiling
* Students filming, taking photographs or drawing in Madrid, to demonstrate them working on location and the impact of the trip to their work.
* Some stock footage of Madrid street scenes and landscapes. Creative shots of the main locations visited in Madrid.


You will be successful in the brief if you can film and edit a final promotional film about the Madrid trip. The video should be between 90seconds and 3minutes long.

If you have any further questions of queries please email me: jaskirt.boora@kecnuneaton.ac.uk

I look forward to seeing some of the footage you attain. I would like the first edit to be completed and viewed for Wednesday 24th February 2016.


Jaskirt Boora

Reflective Analysis

Heads or Tails is a short film that follows a young man through three similar yet very different days of his life, determined by the flip of a coin. If the coin lands on heads he follows his super-ego, he over thinks situations and if it lands on tails he follows his instinct and animalistic desires, or the coin is not there to flip and he must become the ego. I feel the coin idea was a good way of determining which aspect of his psyche that the young man follows and feel that the 'heads' and 'tails' of the coin can be attributed perfectly to the two different extremes. The idea behind this film was to narrate it as if the main character was telling you a story of his day and the audience is left to imagine his day, this explains the time jumps between the shots and how short a day is in the life of the young man. As such I used a non-diegetic voice over to tell the stories and no diegetic sound made it into the final film in the slightest, I feel this made it easier to convey the young man's troubles, as opposed to seeing what he's doing and being left to make your own mind up about the situation, the voice over gives all the exposition you could ask for.

The opening sequence of the film shows the young man before he has flipped a coin and we just see him asleep, when he wakes, everything is slightly out of focus and the title is shown and as the camera focuses, we see that the young man is staring directly at you, breaking the fourth wall, ready to tell you his story of 'Heads or Tails?'

Even the fonts used for the title are significant in showing what the coin toss means, 'Heads' is written in italics and appears very professional, this is similar to the appearance of the Super-ego, wearing a shirt and tie. This is in comparison to the font used for 'Tails', which looks like it has been quickly scribbled down with no effort, this shows the laissez-faire approach to the Id. This is emphasised by the Id's random t-shirt, interestingly this t-shirt actually has the following logo on, a key characteristic of the Id is their following of their primal instincts, this includes his sexual desires, rather than actually show this on screen, a small visual representation that not many people will pick up, works perfectly, as if this is a part of the young man's troubles but he does not wish to divulge on this and instead gives you a small clue as to another one of the desires he has.

The key difference between the three characters visually is what top they are wearing. I used the same framing and slightly high angle when showing the clothes for the day, I felt this made it easier to compare the three different outfits between personas and as such, showed in a more simple way that is the same young man we are seeing.

Day one follows the young man as if he were purely following his Id because the coin has landed on tails. He wakes, gets dressed into a random t-shirt and starts drinking and smoking, he doesn't go to college, he takes people's weed and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. The Id's day comes to an end when he passes out due to how much he has drank. I wanted to get across the idea that the Id is constantly drinking and smoking, as well as the line of dialogue "Obviously, I'm already smoking and drinking, I will be for the rest of the day", I also made sure that the Id is always seen with either a bottle or cigarette in his hands. To further stress this point, the Id can be seen dropping his finished cigarette but in the next shot he is already smoking again. The end of the Id's day is out of focus to give the impression that the Id's memory of the events is a little hazy due to the fact that he is highly intoxicated as seen by his staggering home and dropping his beer bottle. Similarly with the cigarette trick of replacing it straight away, the shot following him dropping his beer has him holding a beer again. I believe day one does a good job of portraying the Freud'd Id in that the character only follows his instinct and primal drives.

Day two follows the young man when the coin has landed on heads and so he were purely follows his Super-ego. He wears a shirt and tie as apposed to the random t-shirt, I believe this is a good way of visually showing the difference between the two extremes, one very relaxed and the other very precise. He prepares for college and makes his bed, which are very anal-retentive things to do. On his way to college he is offered weed by the same lads as seen before, he points out the future problems of such an action. He then attends college stressing that it will have consequences on his future, this dialogue displays perfectly the notion of the super-ego, he is concerned with consequences. The super-ego goes has the same opportunities as the Id yet decides to take the path that will have the best outcome for his future rather than giving in to his primal desires. In certain shots, the super-ego can be seen actively disliking some things the Id was perfectly fine with such as shaking his head as he walks past the smoker because of this, I think day two does a good job of representing Freud's super-ego.

Day three follows the young man when he can not find his coin and therefore must use aspects from both the id and the super-ego, this is the ego. Again he has the same opportunities as the Id and super-ego and essentially decides to do a mixture of the two. He attempts to make his bed but feels like it won't be that much of a problem if he doesn't and decides to leave college early but notes that it's only the once and he'll have to catch up at some point. I think was a brilliant example of how Freud believed the human psyche to work, we have desires presented by he Id, in this case wanting to leave college, and we rationalise those desires with our super-ego, the conclusion being that he can leave college early as long as he catches up so that it won't have bad consequences. Again he is presented with an opportunity to smoke weed and this time decides to have a little bit but comments that he wont do it much so that it does not have an adverse affect on his body. The same can be said of both drinking and smoking, he says that he'll do it but with moderation, he only has one cigarette and one beer. I also linked the smoking and beer back to the super-ego, he explicitly says he'll just have the one beer, this is due to him thinking that "even one episode of binge drinking can harm your health" and whilst smoking he notes that he "can afford to lose 9 minutes of my [his] life but I [he] won't be making a habit out of it." I believe the ego was represented well by the third day and felt like he was a good balance between the Id and super-ego, just as Freud believed it to be.

When it came to editing, I found that once I had both backing music and a voice over to work with the editing became a lot easier and I now had set timings for each of the clips, there was a lot of similar shots used for the three different days and just a lot of footage in general so I found sorting them into their respective days. When editing my film, I decided to make the best use of sequences in premiere pro and so edited the id, ego and super-ego separately before bringing them together in one sequence to make 'Heads or Tails?'

Overall, I think my short film does a good job of demonstrating Freud's theory of the psyche, separating the id, super-ego and ego but putting them through the same situations allows a perfect comparison between the three and allows you to see how each would act in a given situation. If I had more time and better actors at my disposal, I would have also included an extra situation involving a female, to show the different approaches each would take but for what I've produced I believe it is an accurate representation and I'm very pleased with the final piece.