Major Project: DVD Cover

For the major project, I designed the cover for the DVD. Here is the finished version.

Professional Practice: Commission Piece: Reflection

My commission piece was a three minute promotional video for Zeroth Clinical Exercise Centre in Maidstone, Kent. In order to ascertain what sort of video the manager wanted. We had a meeting where we discussed what sort of style, look, music, and so on he wanted. Then I began to script it, and showed the script to my tutors and my commissioner to make sure they were happy with it. Then once everyone was happy with the script, I proceeded to book out a camera. On the day of the shoot itself, things didn't go as well as I would have liked, as we got stuck in traffic on the way to the filming location, so we had less time that we should have done. Also, when we got there, because I was flustered and hurrying a bit, I forgot to direct my camera operator to shoot everything three times, in wide, medium, and close up. This meant that I was very limited regarding the choice of shots when it came to the editing process. Therefore in the edit I had to resize and reframe a selection of shots to give the video more variety and make it at bit more interesting. The music in the video was chosen from an online resource that provided royalty free music. I chose the music because I wanted something calm and relaxing, in accordance with the commissioner's wishes. Another aspect I had to capture for the video was a voice over/commentary. To this end, I brought in the services of a friend of mine, because I felt he had a distinguished and clear voice. I did have one slight drawback when recording it, which is that his eyesight isn't what it was, so he had some difficulty reading the script. To overcome this, I re-wrote the bits of the script he had to read on single lines, so that he could read it. Despite doing this, there were still an awful lot of gaps and pauses in the voiceover. I did a lot of work on this in the editing process, closing gaps and adjusting the volume, so that it now sounds clear, concise, and makes sense. I did notice during the edit, that the shots I got of the manager for the interview were a bit too low angle, so it looked like the camera was looking up at him. I managed to cure this to a certain extent in post production by reframing the shot and making it a close-up. I also positioned him off centre, so that there was room for the aston containing his name. Overall from producing this video, I have learnt a great deal, mainly to ensure I get plenty of coverage when at the shoot, make sure that I frame shots correctly, position the camera correctly, and ensure that I direct my camera operator correctly to ensure I get the shots I want.

Professional Practice: Commission Piece: End Result

Well, after more work following my commissioner viewing the original version of my video, here is the finished article. I have done a lot of work on reframing a selection of the shots to give it more variety, and have also corrected a few sound and sync issues. Enjoy!

Professional Practice: Commission Piece DVD Cover

Now that my commission piece is completed, I have designed a DVD cover for it.

Here it is:

Professional Practice: Commission Piece: Risk Assessment

Before shooting my commission piece, I undertook a risk assessment to ensure that my crew and I, as well as the clients of the exercise centre, would be safe while I was shooting. The main risks I highlighted were trip hazards caused by cables from the camera, or the tripod being in the way. These issues were overcome by simply placing the tripod in a more suitable location in the exercise centre so that it was not in anyone's way, and the issue of tripping over cables from the camera was overcome by running the camera on battery, and ensuring that one of the crew had a hand on the cables at all times, to avoid them dropping on the floor.

Professional Practice: Commission Piece: How I decided on the style

Before shooting my commission piece, which is a promotional video for Zeroth Clinical Exercise Centre in Maidstone, I had a meeting with the manager, Jim Maynard, to discuss how we wanted it to look, and the message we wanted it to convey. We agreed on the following:

• It would have a calm and relaxed tone
• It would show that the centre is a vibrant, happy and safe place to exercise
• It would inform people viewing the video about what the centre specialises in
• It would give a brief history of the centre and how it came to open
• It would promote the centre and highlight why people should attend
• It would use testimonies from existing members to help promote it and help accentuate it's strong points
• It would give an accurate representation of the centre and the services they offer

Overall, having shown the video to Jim, we have both agreed that it meets all the criteria set out at our original meeting, and Jim is happy to include it on his website to show potential new clients.

Professional Practice: Commission Piece: Music

In trying to locate music for my commission piece, I came up against the barrier that is copyright. To overcome this, I searched online for royalty free music, and came across the website www.incompetec.com. This has a massive library of royalty free music to choose from in all genres. For my piece I decided on something that was calm and easy listening, entitled Local Forecast. Here is a link to the song.

Local Forecast

Professional Practice: Commission Piece: Script

Here is the script for my commission piece for Zeroth Clinical Exercise Centre.

Zeroth Clinical Exercise Centre Script

Professional Practice: Commission Piece

After having a tutorial with my tutor, it was decided that my commission piece needed a bit more work, as it was rather bland to watch. So now, I have changed the order of shots, and resized a selection of shots to give it more variety. Here are a couple of screenshots from the finished article.

Commission Piece: Editing

Now that I am in the editing stages of my commission project, I have realised the importance of coverage on the day, as I am lacking a few shots that in an ideal world I need to make my project flow properly. However, I am showing my client the version I have made now, and I will see what his opinion on it is before I take any further action.

Major Project: Locations

In researching locations for the project I came across the website 28 Days Later. This is an urban exploration website that contains photos of derelict locations that will be suitable for our homeless scenes. Here are a couple of examples:

Here is the link to the website that I found this location on: Rochester Shorts Tunnels

Major Project Unit: Actors

This is one of our actors, George Haynes. He was very enthusiastic about the role, and couldn't wait to get started.

Here is his profile on Casting Call Pro:

George Haynes's profile on Casting Call Pro

Major Project Unit: Revised Script

Me and Jamie have revised the storyline slightly for our project, including a different opening scene and reducing the amount of voiceover in the film. This means we are able to tell the story more through the pictures, and less through the voiceover. Here is the revised script.

Diamond in the Gutter

Major Project Unit: Editing Script and getting more actors

Today I am at the studios with Jamie editing the script for Diamond in the Gutter, as well as hopefully holding a Skype audition with another actress for the role of Lucy. We held auditions on Thursday 31st October, and we thought we had our actor and actress, as they were both excellent and said they were happy to fill the parts, but our actress later decided the role wasn't for her, so now the search is on for another actress. However we have another couple of actresses waiting in the wings who couldn't make it to the auditions last week, but who are happy to do a Skype audition for us. Happily, we still have our actor to play the male character, which is excellent, as frankly, he was simply superb.