Evaluation
Evaluate me my coursework, baby!
After completion of our as level media, we were given the briefing for our A2. This time we had much more choice in the purpose for our media, the technologies and skills we could use and the methods of creation, these were given in the form of 13 briefs posted on our teacher’s blog. This year I felt it would be a good idea to work within the same group of peers following our previous success also it would be beneficial to the completion and time management of the coursework; since we had all discovered our strong points last year.
After group discussion we had decided that the brief specifying that we were to make and design an advertising package for a new product, this entailed creating two compulsory television adverts and then the choice of two between a TV sequence, web pop up and a radio advert- in which we chose the web pop up and radio advert, we chose these two options due to Elliott’s skill in ICT and experience in making websites and working with the software, we also felt that the radio advert was interesting and a new creative challenge for us especially after the bad experience we had with filming we felt this option would be best as there would be left reliance on actors and locations.
Having decided upon our brief we assigned roles within the group based on our strengths, Elliott was assigned as editor and was in charge of creation of the web pop up, Amber was camera woman as last year she studied film studies and have performed the same job, she was also in charge of the radio advert, Christina was director and worked in unison with me to take charge of the production of the two TV adverts, I also performed the role of producer by ensuring that all pre-production and planning was complete for the coursework.
We decided to create a brand ‘Patelli’ this was based upon the last name of one of our team members; we came across this name by fluke but decided that it gave our brand a classy and elegant feel. We then produced to discuss what we advertise, ideas ranged from a clothes range to food products we even considered doing parody of an advert, however we decided we would make a perfume as this offered us a degree of creativity to act within the conventions genre of perfume advertising.
Following this we began our research, it felt appropriate to begin with theories that were applicable to the advertising industry, these discussed how the producers were portrayed by their audiences and how their audiences receive and interpret their messages, which we later considered when discussing and deciding on our target audience.
Further to this we assigned specific research topics for each member of the group, we felt by distributing and sharing the research that we would be able to have a more thorough understanding of what was expected of our adverts, despite this we all had our specific areas to research which was predetermined by our job roles. For example Christina and I conducted the most part of the TV advert research by watching and analysing adverts with similar concepts to what we wished to portray in order to recognise the conventions needed. Whilst Amber researched into the conventions of a radio advert and Elliott did the same for the pop up.
At the same time as this we began to piece the basic research together so that we could formulate some ideas as to what we wanted to create, we presented this to the peers in our class who discussed our ideas with us so that we could see potential flaws and the best bits in our creative ideas. We had a total of six ideas with varying audiences and concepts, these ranged from adverts with sexual connotations to ones with a feminine feeling to them. Eventually we chose to narrow it down to three ideas, however after much evaluation of the pros and cons we saw too many imperfections and ethical issues in our advert which included a male and woman play fighting in a bedroom, instead we felt that the ideas we were left with were more achievable whilst obeying the conventions. As a result we were left with our two chosen ideas: ‘Lost and Found’ which involved a male and female chasing/following each other through London, the aim of this was to display chemistry whilst creating a upmarket feel by the use of London landmarks, and our other advert ‘Bisous’ which involved a female applying her make up in the morning and her partner coming in to say goodbye before work, despite the simplicity of the idea we felt that we would create the intrigue by editing and lighting.
Also by doing the same with the radio advert and web pop up we managed to choose between the different purposes and channel into which advert we wanted them to relate to, to ensure we had continuity. The result of this was a radio advert which included a competition in relation to Lost and Found and a free sample web pop up also in relation to Lost and Found.
Having decided what we wanted to create (2 tv adverts, web pop up and radio advert) we began our research in full detail, Amber began to look into the conventions of radio adverts, this included finding out the average time length, content and persuasive features, Elliott looked into the graphology of web pop ups, the different types and methods of creation. Christina and I looked at six tv adverts between us so that we could cross analyse the conventions and reoccurring themes that we could apply to the creation of our advert, for example we looked into the lighting, actors and mise en scene all so that we could make an advert that is more realistic.
After completing our independent research we shared our findings and then assigned the specific topics to research in relation to each product. For the tv advert I had to look into perfume fragrances and how their categorisation has changed over the years, I did this so that we could pin point our audience much more easily. Christina looked into how to photograph perfume bottles as we knew that we would need to take pictures following production so that we could use them in the editing process. Elliott looked at how sex helps to sell in advertising, as we found it was a reoccurring theme within adverts since the narrative tended to feature chemistry between two characters. Amber looked into the clothes that they wore in adverts so that it could help us with the preproduction at a later stage. We also completed basic research into each topic to ensure we had the fundamental understandings of what each product entailed.
Thanks to the research we now had a clear understanding of who our target audience were, we had decided that they would be 21-25 year olds, who have enough money to buy an upmarket perfume (young professionals) and even wrote specific exposés for each type of person who would buy the perfume, we felt this was a good idea so that it would help us choose our actors so that they represented the audience much better. We decided that the male who would purchase ‘Lost’ is confident, striking and playful and knows how to get what he wants, the female who would buy ‘Found’ is also self assured, she leads a hectic life which means she neglects the romantic side of her life, and despite this she is still hopeful that she will find her soul mate. The female who wears ‘Bisous’ is feminine, genuine, innocent and enchanting.
It was then time to begin our preproduction, this involved: finding actors, location, music, writing narratives, completing story boards, purchasing props, risk assessments, gaining permission from the appropriate people so that we could film, researching into music. This process allowed us to spot faults in our ideas and possible ways to get round these technicalities for example, due to the nature of the brief we weren’t allowed to use copyrighted music so as I producer I researched into who to contact to try and gain permission to use the tracks on our adverts, however without much luck, so as a result we acknowledged the song in the adverts instead. We also experienced difficulty with actors as per usual, we felt it would be better to use our peers to act for us as we believed they would be more reliable and easier to contact them when arranging the production, however we held auditions as a fall back option so that we could see if we could find someone more suitable to the roles. It seemed that although the turnout was poor that we had found some potential for our adverts, we were soon to be let down by these people therefore we resorted back to our original idea of asking our fellow peers; this left us with Lauren Owers and Ben Slater for ‘Lost and Found’ and Samantha Swingle and Lewis Conventry for ‘Bisous.
Another hurdle we had to overcome was in relation to our filming and location, since we wished to film in London we discovered that we needed to apply for permission to film in whichever borough we chose to film in, although the regulations did specify that it was ok for small crews of five people to film with a hand held camera we still felt it was best to inform the council just in case we were asked on the day of filming or had our footage seized from us.
But before we could even chose our location there were many other items to complete, firstly the narrative to the adverts which the director Christina took responsibility for, once that was completed I could then create the story boards which for Lost/Found featured the a rough idea of which London landmarks we wished to include for examples a train station, a park and somewhere with stairs and a fountain, for Bisous we knew we wanted it to be in a bedroom therefore it was far easier to draw the story board more realistically, Amber also aided me when it came to the creation of these. As Camerawoman she informed me of the angles she felt would work best or how she wanted the camera to move and even a rough idea of editing techniques which Elliott could incorporate. Following this we completed the camera shot list and began to consider location scouting, this entailed further form filling in which as producer I completed and then uploaded to the blog and group photobucket so that we all had access to it. (http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu110/cakemedia/ )
As a group we went to investigate London for Lost/ Found, Amber had already formulated some previous research into the areas to visit based on the group’s opinions. Christina had been assigned as the group’s photographer for the coursework therefore it was her job to document the places we found so that we could pick between them and find the best place. We looked at St James Park, Buckingham Palace and Westminster station, which we found enabled us to recreate the story board with ease. Whereas for ‘Bisous’ we already knew we wanted to use Christina’s home as from previous experiences we already knew she had suitable scenery, so there was less research for this area of preproduction for Bisous.
Bearing our locations in mind I had to complete risk assessments for each location, London was a far more riskier place to film than Hertford which had to be taken into consideration when completing the forms. I found that due to the fact we were in the city and there would be many people around that was a high risk to us and the possibilities of the equipment being stolen was also a risk, however for Hertford there were less risks and all of low risk which pretty much made no impact to our film, we just had to be aware of working in confined spaces with many people.
Finally, having found our actors as I discussed previously and them completing talent release forms permitting us to film them and then use the footage, I had to collaborate all the information into a call sheet so that the actors knew where they needed to be, when and how to get there. We decided to film Lost/Found at the end of November as we wanted to film it before the Christmas rush began in London and we filmed Bisous on the first Saturday of December so that we had the lesson in between the two so that we could ensure all preproduction was ready.
By completing the preproduction it meant we had signatures from our actors, the proprietor of the buildings we wished to use, completed risk assessments and spoken about what action to take concerning issues we came across, therefore we could begin to film. We decided to use my camera as we felt this would eliminate the risk of not being able to use the camera to edit as other members of the class may need to use it, so we only needed to collect a tripod from our teacher but little did we know that he hadn’t given us the platform to connect the tripod to the camera which we didn’t realise until we were standing outside Westminster station wanting to set up equipment, this proved a problem to us, however we knew we would have to film otherwise it could have messed with our deadline and also we had all paid fees to come to London so to go home without footage seemed pointless. Amber tried to work around the problem by filming everything through steadicam; however being as it was November the temperature wasn’t that warm so it was very hard to obtain steadicam all the time.
Despite the problem at the beginning the filming was of average success, the other elements worked out well such as our actors; we felt that they filled the roles really well, acted without faults and dressed perfectly to meet the criteria we had for the advert, especially Lauren who had to walk around London in a dress, however between shots we took care of our actors by giving them our coats, gloves and scarves and purchasing them hot drinks so that they didn’t get too cold and when it began to rain we gave them our umbrella not only so that there would be continuity of the film but so that again they didn’t get to cold.
During filming I was responsible for ensuring that we knew which locations we wanted to be in and followed a schedule, I also made sure we followed to story board although some improvisation was made if we felt there was a better way to film for the advert, also between Christina and I we positioned our actors correctly whilst Amber and Elliott worked together to film the production.
The following week we arranged to film for Bisous, in the lesson previous to it, we discussed purchasing perfume bottles which I did for Bisous in our lunch break, I also listed other items we would need to purchase or find at home so that we knew what we needed, I checked with our actors to make sure they were available for filming still and Christina checked to make sure they knew exactly what to wear. Like most of the features of our coursework another flaw crept up on us, Elliott couldn’t get the day off work and Amber was ill so they both couldn’t make it to filming, Christina and I decided we would be ok to film it between us as we knew how Amber wanted us to film it, Elliott was editor so not necessarily needed as he wouldn’t have much of a role to fulfil when filming. Also thanks to last year Christina and I had previous experience so we knew how to work the equipment and set it all up.
Since we were without our camerawoman we changed the roles around for this production, I filmed the footage whilst following the story board, whereas Christina set up the equipment, arranged the scenery and told the actors where to sit. This filming was also a success we had the platform to connect the tripod to the camera so that everything was steadicam and the setting was very fitting to the atmosphere we wished to create.
After filming both the adverts, Elliott began to fulfil his role of editor; he uploaded the footage to final cut pro and experimented with many techniques to make the best possible adverts out of the footage we had collated whilst following the ideas portrayed by the story boards. He also added in the music we had previously discussed so that he could adjust the tempo of the advert, he changed Lost/Found to black and white as we felt it gave the advert a much more upmarket feel. Also for the completion of the advert we had to record voiceovers for each advert, we used Amber and Elliott’s voice for Lost/Found and my voice recorded in French for Bisous so that it would add to the continuity of the French theme.
Whilst Elliott was doing this, Christina, Amber and I completed the preproduction for the radio advert, this involved using the research which Amber had conducted and discussing how we were going to meet the conventions and our audience. We had decided that we were going to do an advert for a competition with Lost/Found and felt we should use the theme of London and how we had represented it and our audience in the advert for the radio advert, to do this we discussed what time the advert would be played on the radio, what time of prize they’d want to win and the area of the UK we wished to target. We decided that the advert would be played in the morning on the morning shows and late afternoon when our young professionals would be returning home from work and listening to the radio either on their commute or in their car. We decided that our competition would be more aimed at girls but was applicable to couples as it involved a thousand pound shopping spree and a stay in a top hotel in London for a weekend. Christina created the script and since Amber was in charge of the product of the radio advert as a whole she reviewed it to ensure it met the research she had done.
Having completed the preproduction we set about arranging the filming, this involved going over to the national diploma area in the college and arranging with their technician to borrow his equipment so that we could set it up in a studio format, we used a boom mic, camera and a stand which was connect to the microphone. First of all we used Elliott to read the advert as we felt he had a lot of enthusiasm in his voice like a radio presenter, then we all recorded our voices so we had the opportunity to use different voices, unfortunately Christina wasn’t present on that day so we couldn’t use her voice, also during the recording we felt to make the radio advert more authentic we should record a jingle to go with it. We decided that for it we should introduce the presenters and the radio station and add a slogan.
This was also uploaded to final cut pro which Amber and Elliott worked together to edit, they changed the pitch of the voices and used both mine and Elliott’s voices for the presenters. We had already discussed using music that gave the advert a classy feel so they incorporated slightly jazzy music to do this, and for the jingle they used light hearted guitar music to add personality of the radio station to it.
Finally the time came to create the web pop up, we had already decided to link it to the competition however when it came to the production we chose to do the conventional ‘free sample’ pop up. Also from editing Lost/Found we found footage of Lauren doing a hair flick and looking back we felt this met the conventions of a perfume advert due to the nature of her pose. To complete the rest of the preproduction for it I created some mock ups and we discussed colour themes, graphological features such as font, colour scheme and placement of objects within the pop up, where the advert would be found (social networks and online chat programmes) and also the format in which we would have to export it, in which Elliott informed us would have to be a jpeg, therefore it would have to be created on Photoshop.
Elliott created the pop up in one lesson and we worked closely with him so that we could tell him our preferences for the advert, Elliott decided to use a background which features Big Ben which shows that the advert features London, we gave the advert a purple tint and kept Lauren in Black and white and gave her a slight glow, we also used the brand name which Elliott had designed whilst we completed preproduction for the TV adverts and a super imposition of the perfume bottles which had previously been photographed in the post production of the TV adverts.
Finished Products:
Bisous:
Lost/Found:
Radio Advert:
We experienced troubles when uploading this video as the version we got to upload didn’t have all the music on it, we tried many formats but without much luck, we informed our teacher and he told us that he would put it on a DVD for us instead.
Web Pop:
All Photos:
http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu110/cakemedia/
Having completed our coursework, we needed to gain peer feedback to ensure that we had met conventions, our narratives were made clear and to gain opinions in general. To do this I created three survey monkey questionnaires and asked people to fill them in despite this only a few people did them, in the questionnaire we asked for the audience to rate the music, editing, camera angles, actors, audience and narrative, from this we found that the audience appreciated how we had named our male and female perfumes lost and found, some people thought the camera work was poor which we agreed with but there was a reason for it being of that standard, however they did feel the angles used were good, they didn’t really appreciate the voiceovers but felt the soundtrack was appropriate, but overall the audience understood that we wished to portray that two people were Lost and the Found each other by a sort of hide and seek through London and liked the way we had done it through a black and white format. One particular comment from a peer was that they could imagine seeing it on television.
The feedback for Bisous was similar; the audience enjoyed the atmosphere the editing had created and to improve it we should have shown the perfume a bit more and used music that was more upbeat. They thought that we represented our audience well by using a young actress which portrayed the age of our audience, they felt that we used appropriate actors, location and that the sound and camera work were rated as ‘good’.
Although we created a questionnaire for the radio advert it was hard to get people to fill it in as we had so much trouble uploading it to YouTube, however when people within the class saw it, they generally liked it and said how it sounded realistic, someone even commented on how they show have done something similar for their own radio advert in relation to the jingle.
We didn’t conduct a formal review for the web pop up however our peers did comment on how it looked nice and professional and they liked the use of the London background as it showed continuity.
Personally I feel that this coursework has generally been a success we’ve came across problems and flaws in our plans but we have worked as a group to meet the deadline and produce coursework that is as close to the plans we had in the beginning and to the highest standard we could as a group. I feel we assigned roles appropriately which aided to the time management and completion of the coursework. I’m proud to say that I can see how over a year we have improved immensely in all areas from our AS to A2 coursework and our work has a much more knowledgeable and professional approach. I feel that thanks to our extensive research we have ensured that we met the criteria of the coursework and conventions of our advertising package, I particularly love the editing in Lost/Found, I like the way Elliott created a montage of images on the bridge, I feel it adds to the narrative and I like the way we’ve managed to maintain continuity throughout the coursework by use of colours, fonts and themes, which combined as a whole create a feeling of synergy through one brand name. I feel if I were to recreate this coursework the only thing I would change would be to go back to London and re-film Lost/Found, however I understand it was impossible due to time restrictions and outside involvements of the group.
Production- Web Pop Up
26th February
On this day we reviewed the preproduction Christina and I had come up with for the pop up, we had chose either to use Lauren’s hair flick image or Ben peering round a tree and the basic image for it, We then worked together to choose how we wanted the advert to appear and the steps we needed to take to make it such as which programmes to use and how to get the pictures from the footage.
Elliott decided that we would use photoshop initially to create the caption screen then flash player to make it active. Christina selected the picture from the footage so that Elliott could work with it, I then sat next to him whilst he began to work with the image as i created our online surveys for our already completed products (posted in another post), from time to time he would ask me what colours to use or where to position an aspect of the pop up, so far we have decided to give Lauren a purpley glow as it goes with the already black and white picture, however we are yet to decide whether we want to place this on a grey, purple, black or white background.
11th March
Elliott continued to work on the web pop whilst Christina and I worked on a questionnaire for our focus group
As far as the web pop was concerned we progressed into the production, as a group we had decided on the colour of the background, the pictures of the bottles and actress, Elliott then experimented with tone, shape and the opacity of each feature until it had reached a state that we agreed upon. Amber researched into fonts to see which was approriate and gave the right connotations for our product.
Post Production
PERFUME ADVERTS
RADIO ADVERT
Click here to take survey
ALL PHOTOS FROM PRE TO POST PRODUCTION:
Production Radio Ad
4th feb 2010
Today we planned to not only finish all editing but to begin to record the radio advert, especially as we have only a short while before the deadline is upon us. Elliott carried on with Bisous as he now had the picture of the perfume bottle from Christina, he experimented with super imposing it and making a caption screen for the perfume, he attempted many ways of doing it with Amber and I advising him on colour etc. We finally settled on a pink caption screen with the bottle in the centre but when we put it with the footage it was awful. Elliott then continued to try different effects, as to which i am unsure if he has found one yet.
In the end we decided for a white caption screen, with a kiss mark over layed over the writing,we used the voice over of me over the top of it and it all flowed well.
Also today we booked equipment with Brendon to record the radio advert, he said he would set up a room for us which we could use after lunch (including the boom mic and cables for the camera). After lunch myself, Elliott and Amber (christina wasn’t present today) made our way over to the media diploma area with the modified script from Amber so that we could practice and record the advert. First of all we used Elliott as we felt he had a good radio presenter voice, I then had a go and then we did it simultaneously as we felt this would give it a more fun and group feel. After doing this we felt we should make a jingle up to give it a more authentic feel to the advert so we did this we also included Christina’s name in it, despite her not being there.
I feel our recording went well and we had a lot of fun doing it, once we returned to the mac rooms Elliott and Amber uploaded the footage and began to work on it.
Half term- 18th feb
During the half term Elliott and Amber came into college to edit the radio advert, Christina and i were both busy, however we had already made our input in the advert by planning the beginning so that Amber could check it. They experimented with the pitch of voices and different types of music to create different feels to the advert and manipulated the voices to reach our target audience. More information about the editing is on Elliott and Amber’s blogs [( http://ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/friday-19th-january/ )http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/post-production-radio-advert/ ]
They used many different sounds to create connotations to go with the theme of the perfume, the swanky jazz music creates a classy air, which is continued on from the TV advert which was filmed in London, the question is also related to London which shows further continuity. They incorporated the jingle we recorded into the advert to give it a quirky and friendly feel, which obeys the conventions which christina and i researched into.
Editing Radio Ad
Editing Radio Ad
25th Feb
Today we looked at the radio advert to review it, Christina and i felt that it was really good and met our target audience and obeyed the continuity rule, however we felt that the sound of telephones wasnt needed and that the voice was too quiete so Elliott changed the volume and then it sounded perfect. I really like our advert 
Pre-Production of Radio Ad & Web-Pop
21st January 2010
Today Christina and I began the preproduction for the radio ad and web pop up, Elliott and Amber were not present in our lesson; Elliott had an exam and Amber was ill, so Christina and I decided to draft up the work for them so that they could edit and apply their research to it. First of all we started with the radio advert, Amber had already told us that she wanted to create an advert that featured a competition in conjunction with the perfume launch, so with this in mind we came up with a draft script:
noise of the city- horns/ hustle bustle
voice and music simultaneously:
would you like to win a weekend stay in London for you and one of your friends, with £1000 spending money?
Well you can, with Lost and Found the new fragrances by Patteli, all you need to do is answer this question: ‘Which famous London monument has just celebrated its tenth birthday?
a. The London Eye
b. Big Ben
c. Canary Wharf (repeat answers)
If you think you know the answer call this number 0208 554 877, thats 0208 554 877, calls will be charged at standard network rate, calls from mobiles vary, please ask bill payers permission before calling,standard terms and conditions apply
For more information visit our website www.cakeradio.com all entrances must be made by midnight 17th march 2010. Godd Luck!
To create the script we researched by using these websites:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2002075_write-radio-ad.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2182432_write-successful-radio-ad.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2125778_do-radio-ad.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2125778_do-radio-ad.html
These websites showed us that we needed to not only entince our audience but to entertain them, we needed a question to invite our audience in, a slightly deep but warm tone to the voice, yet it needs to be friendly. The information should be short and factual at rapid fire.
We then planned different aspects of the advert:
Audience:
- perfume buyers
- Females (due to the prize)
- Couples
Perfume:
- Male/Female
- Mid-range perfume- £30
- 21-25 years old
Length:
- 15 secs
- 30 secs
- 60 secs
Radio Audience
- Unisex
- Herts/Essex area
- Time 8-10am and 5-7pm, this is as our audience will be travelling to or from work at this time
- 21-25 years
Continuity from adverts:
- mentioning of the perfume
- Same location
- Music- hometown glory, hustle bustle of London
Will show these findings to Amber next lesson and get her approval and allow her to make changes as she wishes, then we can formally write the script and potentially record it and then pass it on to Elliott to edit it.
The script will state the client and time its going to be aired at the top, then the page will be split into two, on the left hand side the source will be written whereas on the right the dialogue of noise will be written.
After the completion of this we started on the web pop up, by listing specific features we need:
Where the pop up will be seen:
- General advertising space
- Social networking
Noise/Music features:
- Perfume spritz noise (if poss)
Purpose:
- Free sample
- Win!
Who/What?
- Lauren hair flick
- Ben by the tree
We also discussed what the advert would look like, we decided to have the name of the perfume at the top of the frame with the actor in a medium close up shot (taken from the advert) with a hyperlinked ‘free sample’ button and a picture of the bottle at the bottom of the screen. We will then pass this onto Elliott so that he can use this in the way he has decided.
28th January 2010
Amber was back in lesson today so Christina and I showed Amber the script we came up with, she mostly approved however noticed that we didn’t include an age that the applicant and further to this she wanted to go back to her research in order to see if we have followed the conventions correctly.
http://ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/radio-advert-construction/
Post-Production- Adverts
3rd December
In this lesson we decided to edit Lost/Found, however I felt as producer it would be a good idea to leave the editor to do his job and if my opinion was needed I was nearby to be asked. I also ensured that all preproduction for Bisous was complete to do this I listed the specific features and potential problems that could occur and then came up with a solution for them (see previous post), I also bought the perfume bottle for Bisous during our lunch break. Amber and Christina aided Elliott with the editing process by carefully selecting the good footage from the not so good and then using the story board they created the advert.
During this process they came across some problems such as the shot being too wide, so they had to crop it, also at points the footage goes fuzzy so they had to adjust the timeline. We had agreed to use as little transitions as possible which they followed by only using a couple of dissolves as this shows time lapse and helps the story to flow.
10th December
Elliott and I had had the chance to add a bit more to the footage during our Tuesday lesson whilst the rest of the class had a mock exam, in that lesson Elliott rearranged some of the footage and changed the lenght of some of the shots, whilst I experimented with the sound using the website supplied by Christina, I felt that maybe revelry by Kings of Leon would go or Breakeven by The Script but with the footage these seemed to depressing or just didnt go, so instead we went back to our original idea of Hometown Glory by Adele. In our Thursday lesson we took a copy of the backing track from YouTube and converted it to an MP3 so that we could use it, we carefully listened (as a group) to the song to depict the more intense parts so that we could change the starting point of the song to go with the events in our advert.
We continued to edit, during this we found two pieces of footage which we loved but were unsure on how we could use them as we knew they really added to the advert, we attempted to put them at the end but it didnt flow right, but we couldn’t find anywhere else to put them. Fortunatley Elliott had the idea to create a form of montage using these clips and overlaying over our actors walking towards each other on the bridge, this added with some transitions created a really professional perfume advert feel, even one of our peers commented, ‘I could picture this on TV’ which was a good indication that all our research had paid off and we are on our way to producing good quality work!! 
Here are some pictures of the editing process:
In this lesson we also required the perfume bottles so that we could put them on the advert, to do this Elliott and Amber went out and bought the bottles from £ land, then Elliott stuck his labels on there. Christina, being in charge of all photography then asked me how I wanted her to take the picture, I suggested a digital camera or the SLR that many of our peers have, however the only available one was taken for the next hour and we needed the pictures now, therefore I asked our friend James Clothier if we could use his camera and he offered to take the pictures for us, Christina, Elliott and Amber made a mini studio for him in another room, where they taped white sheets of paper to the wall and floor, then told James how to take the picture. After this Elliott edited the images and put them into our advert .
Bisous bottle
Lost/Found Bottles
After half term Elliott completed the first advert, we have since published this to Facebook so that our peers can see it and review it, despite the flaws we noticed ourselves, generally the feedback has been positive, one friend of mine commented on how it followed the conventions of the genre and he could imagine seeing it on the TV but on the other hand we did reieve some criticism such as how it was hard to work out what it was about in the beginning and that maybe we could have included more footage of our female advert. We are yet to publish the advert to Youtube as Elliott wishes to see what he can do with it in After Effects, more information about the editing is on Elliott’s blog, such as the techniques and descisions he took in the creation of the advert.
However, in review, i feel despite the flaws in the footage (wonky cam and lighting) this advert is good, it would hold so much more potential if we had had the platform to connect the camera to the tripod, but this has not happened, we could at a later date revisit the location and re-film some shots, however this could interfere with the continuity of the piece, especially in relation to the weather conditions as on the day the weather changed from sunny with clouds to rain and a rainbow, therefore it would be very difficult to re-create the rainbow scene. I’m very happy with the music we used as it gives the right atmosphere and the black and white gives an air of sophistication to the footage .
14th January 2010
On this date we began to import and edit the footage recorded by Christina and I for our second advert ‘Bisous’, Amber Christina and I imported the footage and made a skeleton advert for Elliott (as he was ill, but came to lesson in the afternoon), to do this selected the clips we felt were appropriate for the advert, then Elliot could choose to use or discard this and change the clips length etc, after this I began the Pre-production for the radio ad and web pop up, preferably i would have rathered of started this as soon as Elliott began editing but there were conflicting views within the group.
Edit bisous
Editing Bisous
11th February 2010
Today was our final day of editing the film footage, we only had bisous left to edit and there were only basics to touch up small things and finish the caption screen, we took much deliberation in deciding which colour, text and positioning we wanted for all the features of the caption screen, we tried pink then tried white which we finally decided on, elliott then did the final render and posted it on youtube and facebook.
Production- Two Adverts
26th November- Lost/Found
This was our first of two filming dates, we decided to start with Lost/Found on this date as it’s nearing Christmas and London will be getting busier. To begin the day Amber and I went to collect the battery and tripod we had borrowed from Andreas, he also checked my camera to see the make and whether it was appropriate for our filming (whether we could connect it to the tripod etc). We then awaited Christina and left to meet Elliott and Lauren at the bus stop.
There was a small delay waiting for Elliott but this was due to a lack of communication/misunderstanding- we knew Elliott was in the town and assumed he’d meet us at the bus station. We then got the train to Westminster where we met Ben at 1pm, the crew had something to eat whilst waiting for Lauren to get into her costume and then we began to film.
We went to our first location which was the entrance to the train station, we chose a fairly quiete and small one, assuming that not many people would be using it, therefore we wouldn’t have to stop and then start filming repeatedly. This is where problems started to occur, Amber began to set up her equipment and then realised that Andreas hadnt given us the platform to connect the camera to the tripod, an air of dissapointment was cast across the group, we now knew we wouldnt achieve our full potential for this advert and after all our planning and effort to get this shoot organised we could hardly go back home, so we decided everything would be shot on steadicam, much to our dissapointment, but we had to make the best of the situation we were in. We then experienced problems with the natural sunlight in shot causing a glare to go across the screen, although from reviewing the footage it appears that Amber has worked around this and also the glare may not look as bad when we edit it into black and white.
For each shot it was my job to brief the actors how we wanted them to behave, direct the cast and crew to our next location, I also told Amber what was happening in each shot and she decided the best camera angle to film it from- for some a tripod would have been very useful! Elliott couldn’t preform his assigned job as we didn’t require sound for this, however he assisted Amber and worked with her, Christina positioned the actors and told them their cues. Throughout filming we all shared our opinions on how it should have been filmed and how to capture specific landmarks in shot, so overall although we all stuck to our roles we crossed over to ensure that we all produced a good piece of work we were proud of, we all also took a role in caring for our actors this involve getting them tea and lending them extra clothing whilst walking from location to location.
In reflection of the day I feel we eventually got the right actors who will give our advert the right atmosphere, we also got some good shots despite the lack of tripod and I also feel we all stuck to our roles which improved the overall efficienty of our filming.
5th December- Bisous
Today we intended to film our second advert, unfortunately Elliott couldn’t get the time off work- it being so close to christmas and Amber had been taken ill and could no longer participate on this day. Taking this into account Christina and I decided we should carry on with the filming as I had all the story boards, we had our actors and both know how to use all the equipment, Elliott is required more for the editing side of the film and sound which we didn’t require and Amber had done all the pre-production for it with me so we knew exactly how she intended it to go.
With this in mind Christina and I took on roles within the production, she was in charge of taking care and preparing our actors and the scenery, whilst I was in charge of setting up the equipment and filming the advert with the advice of Christina. Overall this worked well, however we did encounter a few problems with the size of the room restricting how much movement we had for shots, but we managed to work with it and obey the 180 degree rule, also the lack of lighting proved an issue for some of the shots we needed by the window the camera was drawn to the sunlight, thus making the room dark and our actress barely visible; however this issue is hard to work with as there isn’t really the facilities to take lights of the premisis and we certainly don’t have the strenght to carry them round for our production. Other than that this advert seems to be yet another success, but it is the editing that will really make sure it fulfills it’s full potential.
Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)
Fantastic Mr Fox is a stop motion animated released in cinemas in october 2009, it stars George Clooney as the voice of Mr Fox and Meryl Streep as his partner. The director of this film was Wes Anderson, he was involved at many of the stages within the production by taking part in producing, directing and screen writing for it.
The companies that produced this film were Indian Paintbrush which is owned by Wes Anderson and Regency Enterprises; internationally the film was distributed by 20th Century Fox and in the Netherlands it was distributed by Warner Brothers and Odeon. The advantages of using these companies include that they both have sub sectors that deal with other media types such as; 20th century television or AOL time Warner, these factors have aided with the vertical and horizontal synergy of the film.
The special effects of this film were done by Lip sync post and stranger and many other companies were used for specific needs within the production such as; Production Copier Company who supplied the equipment to use and ABKCO Music Records who made the sound track.
Below is a diagram of how these companies have contributed towards the synergy:
Horizontal and Vertical Synergy
Although these companies have the ability to use the internet to distribute the film, I have noticed that most of the advertising has been done through visual and audio adverts, there is also a website which has been created for the film which is interactive and allows the audience to find out more about the cast, film, download and play games related to the film.
Pre-Production- Two Adverts
In order to complete the production of our TV adverts we have to combine all our prior research we have found and formulate the story boards, script, narrative/script, find actors and locations and fill in the appropriate sheets.
We all took on our own roles within the preproduction these can be found on my previous post http://kimriw.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/research-perfume-analysis/ and the work carried out by each team member can be found on their blogs:
Christina:christina1200.wordpress.com
Amber: Ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com
Elliott: Elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com
Before beginning my role of creating the storyboards I made a miniature mind map for each advert involving the type of location we wanted, the actors, costumes, props, and narrative, I did this so that I knew everything was in one place so that I can reference back to it throughout the preproduction and production.
Bisous
Lost and Found
To create the story boards I need to work with Amber to find out which camera angles she felt she would like to use for each shot, I also needed the help of Christina as she created the narrative/script, after combining the two and creating the story boards pasted below I filled in a camera shot list. Although these have been completed it is likely on the day we will experiment with the angles and find that some shots don’t work the way they have been drawn.
Bisous page 1
Bisous page2
Lost and Found
Lost and found p2
Lost and Found 3
Next we needed our actors, as a group we decided that we would use Samantha Swingle, Lauren Owers and Mat Steer, we didn’t hold auditions as we felt it would be easier to ask the people we know and can rely on, also we felt they were the type of people we needed for our adverts. For locations Amber researched into different areas of London we could use, such as Big Ben, a tube station, a park, a fountain and steps by Buckingham Palace, to further this research herself and Elliott intend to visit and take photos in the half term. Following this I filled in the needed forms to go ahead with shooting, these included, talent release, location release, location scouting, camera shot list and risk assessment forms and once combining all this research and planning I can inform the appropriate person to acquire permission to film in London and once we return from half term we can organise our equipment and actors and begin.
Bisous
BisousLost and Found
Whilst doing this Elliott has been working on the brand design and the labels for the perfume, this can be found on his blog <http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/creating-the-brand-image/>.
5th November
On this day we all took a trip to London so that we could location scout, we already had a rough idea of where we were looking due to Amber’s prior research so we only had to take a few pictures and discuss how we could use each area to its full potential. From this trip we decided to use the exterior of Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Park, below are some pictures we took, in total Christina took about 29 and the pictures will vary on each blog but these are the ones which show the places we are going to use to film in.
Location Scouting
St James's Park and
Buckingham Palace
St James's Park
Big Ben
In the following lesson Amber emailed the royal park police a copy of this email can be found on her blog <http://ambermediaharlow.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/permission-to-film/> this aspect of pre-production is also be mentioned in my research into technicalities post. With the location chosen and story boards drawn we now need our actors so to do this we are going hold auditions , previously we decided we weren’t going to but we need one or two males to act in our adverts so the easiest way to find them is to audition for them, Elliott was in charge of creating the posters and we all gave our opinion on how attractive the poster was and whether he had worded it right so we would find the ‘right’ people for our advert, the finished product can be found on his blog <http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/10-november-2009/> we then placed them around the college where people would see them so that hopefully we will have some potential actors audition on thursday 12th November.
12th November 2009
In this lesson we spent our times updating our blogs and preparing for the auditions we were holding at lunch time, to do this Elliott printed off arrow posters and more audition posters, Christina began to look into the costumes we could use for the production (http://christina1200.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions-121109/) whilst Amber updated her blog with the story boards and shot lists we worked on together and I filled in the risk assessment form for both adverts. 
When we got to lunchtime we waited for people to arrive, however not many people did so we took the initiative for Hayley Dutton and I to go into the canteen and approach groups of people during their lunch break, this approach sort of worked, many people asked us how much they’d get paid and what the advert was about some even asked if they’d be on TV. In total we managed to get 8 auditionees and some friends who offered to help if we didn’t find anyone. After reviewing the pictures we chose to use Samantha Swingle and Paul Zuna for Bisous which we intend to film on saturday 5th December and Lewis Coventry and Clare Holland for Lost and Found however if Lewis is unavailable Ben Slater will take on the role instead, we intend to film this on Wednesday 25th November.
Following the auditions we felt it would be a good idea to join an online photo sharing website so that we didn’t have to post every picture to the blogs; just the most important ones, the albums can be found at this link
http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions/ (this is where the pictures of auditionees are)
http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu110/cakemedia/
We now needed to inform the actors when we would need them, to do this I text them all saying that they had got through and that we would need them on a specific day and whether they could make it or not, then we can make plans for their costume and props etc.
19th November 2009
Since our last lesson a few things hadn’t gone to plan and it began to feel like we wouldn’t be able to complete our task on time, due to cast members jobs, actors not replying/not being available and just trying to move forward with the whole project in general, due to this I took time to share these issues with our tutor- Andreas, he told us to create a list of problems and to then think of solutions, our first problem was dates of filming, I decided that maybe it’d be better if we changed actors so that we could film on a thursday in our media lesson, so to do this I text all our chosen auditionees (that hadn’t replied) to see if they were still interested, Clare replied that she couldn’t participate anymore, Paul didn’t reply and Lewis couldn’t get time off college that day. So instead of using people we didn’t know we turned to our back ups, which were people we knew we could rely on. These were Filiz Hassan and Ben Slater, who were both free on Thursdays so it’d be easy to film them, we then found out that Lewis was free on saturdays so we switched him to our Bisous advert with Samantha. Another problem was the weather, so for this I checked the weather and found out it should only be cloudy on the thursday we intend to film so it shouldn’t be too bad.
To summarise, we are now filming Lost/Found on 26th November using Filiz Hassan and Ben Slater and intend to film Bisous on 5th December using Lewis Coventry and Samantha Swingle. Follwing this I could fill in the Call sheets, so we can inform our actors how to get to our locations, fortunately Lewis can drive so all we need to do is give him the address and postcode, Sam knows where Christina lives so she will be able to get there, Ben lives near the central line, so we just need to arrange a meeting place, but we will be travelling with Filiz to London, however I will still fill in the forms with all our cast in mind.
Whilst I did this, Christina looked into costume and Elliott made a budget, however there will be further dicussion on the budget as it is rather a lot of money to be spending for just a piece of coursework. This information can be found
http://elliottbasselliottbasselliottbass.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/19-november-2009/
http://christina1200.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/auditions-121109/
I also decided seeing as we were nearing the date of filming and still hadn’t heard back from the email she sent to the royal park police, I chose to send another email, this time to the email I found and posted in a previous posting about filming in London, I informed the appropriate person about the size of crew, dates and times and our purpose and now await an email back, I also printed a copy of the email to take with us when we film just incase someone asks us about us filming.
During the week leading up to filming we came across some problems, Filiz could no longer be our actress, she had to revise for an exam instead, so whilst going into melt down we set about finding another actress. I asked my friend Grace, Elliott asked friends in his AS classes and Christina asked her two friends, we saw a glimour of hope when Christina’s friend Katie said she would do it, however soon after she declined due to other commitments, we then returned back to Lauren Owers whom we had originally chosen but she had informed us she was only free on Mondays and Tuesday however with some negotiation she accepted and was our actress. Christina then continued on to tell her what we wanted her to wear and how to do her hair and make up, whilst I ensured Ben knew where to meet us and at what time. Instead of using a college camera we decided to use my own one as it would be easier for the group as we would be able to use it at anytime we want whereas with the college cameras you have to book them out. We booked a tripod from Andreas and a battery.
Pre-production following Lost/Found:
Bisous:
Having completed the filming of Lost/Found, Elliott began to edit footage with the help of Amber and Christina whilst I continued to complete all pre-production by making a list of all the potential problems that could arise during the filming.
Costume: Ensuring our actors have the appropriate attire, hair and make up was the duty of Christina, after consulting her she assured me that our actors knew exactly what they were going to wear, therefore this was no longer a problem.
Perfume Bottle: After much discussion we have decided on a bottle, it costs £3 in New Look which we will stick the label onto for use in the production
Location: We intended to use Christina’s home but since then we have occurred some problems with her sister not being to sure on whether she wants us to use the house, however until confirmation we cannot find another location
Props: Our props include net curtains, tissue paper, a hand held fan, lights and a dressing table. Hopefully at home I have a couple of hand held fan at home which we can use if not, if we look in ASDA or £ land it is likely that we will find one, a net curtain can also be found in ASDA as can the tissue paper. However we are encountering more problems with the dressing table, firstly Christina doesn’t own one, getting one to her home would have financial issues. We could possibly use boxes with a cloth and a mirror, a table and a mirror or maybe even look around into shops that sell them and see if there is anyway of using them.
Equipment: For this shoot we need a tripod, camera and the platform attachments and we have booked all of these with Andreas and are collecting them at the end of the lesson.
