Task 10 - Production Diary

Production Diary

Name: Gemma Carr Production:  Single VS multi camera essay

Team: Gemma,Bethan,Rachel And Demi Sheet no. 1

Date: 20/09/2013 Location: College

Time (from – to): 1:00pm – 4:30pm Activities: Completing the essay

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I researched into single and multi-camera settings and had to find the descriptions, advantages and disadvantages and the places that they are usually used. I then had to write up an essay about both of them also stating the similarities and differences between the two. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) I didn’t encounter any problems when I was researching or writing my essay, we didn’t work as a team so I did it independently. I learnt what single and multi-camera settings were and how they were used in the media industry.

Date: 27/09/2013 Location: College

Time (from – to): 1:00pm – 4:30pm Activities: Presenting moving image formats

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I researched into the different types of moving image formats and had to state the description, advantages and disadvantages to that moving image format. I presented this as a PowerPoint presentation and included images. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) The only problem I encountered was finding the correct image format. This was an independent activity. I learnt about the different types of moving image formats

Production Diary

Date: 04/10/2013 Location: college

Time (from – to): 1:00pm-4:30pm Activities: Making a video to show camera movement

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: As a group we had to demonstrate different camera movements by using a subject to demonstrate zoom in and out, panning, tilt, track in out and out and some more camera movements. I wasn’t in the session to do the filming but I edited the descriptions and the video. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) We struggled to find a subject to practice the camera movements on so we used a staff member. We worked well as a team as one person filmed and the other directed the staff member on what to do. The other two members edited the video to fit descriptions of the camera movements. We learnt how to use the video cameras and how to demonstrate different camera movements.

Date: 18/10/2013 Location: College

Time (from – to): 1:00pm-4:30pm Activities: Making a mind map

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: We first decided on a song to focus our video on. When we decided on the video we then made a mindmap of the props,actors,locations and shots we were going to use to produce the video. I was the writer and came up with our final idea for our video. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) We found it hard to decide on a song as not all of the group was here, once we had decided on a song and planned the mind map we changed our minds so that gave us more work to do and we were behind. We learned how to mindmap an idea in detail and to work as a team

Date: 15/11/2013 Location: College

Time (from – to): 1:00pm – 4:30pm Activities: Music video pitch

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I made the whole presentation on our ideas with props, actors, Locations and the types of shots we were going to use in the video. I mentioned the inspiration and also the sort of clips we would be including in the video. I then presented it to the class with another team member. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) It was hard to put together a pitch when not all of the team was here and it was a group decision so that was a problem. We learnt how to present a pitch and also how to improve on our pitch after the feedback was given.

Date: 15/11/2013 – 21/01/2014 Location: College

Time (from – to): Activities: Pre production documentation

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I put together a children’s permission filming form in order for us to have permission to film the karate class if we gained access to the dojo. I also completed the risk assessments for every location we filmed in and got the actors and tutor to sign them all. I also created the storyboard adding all of the text and coming up with the idea of drawing the images which another team member did. I also produced the detailed breakdown of each minute of the video with another team member. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) Again the only problem was the other group members not turning up for sessions, we had problems gaining access to a local dojo and also to film people under the age of 18 which we didn’t manage to do.

Date: 17/01/2014 Location: Millennium bridge and college

Time (from – to): 1:00pm – 4:30pm Activities: Filming more clips

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I arranged the video clips and also the actors who were involved in the video and I also filmed the footage on my phone camera. I then also arranged to shoot more footage in the drama theatre at college using the same models, again I also filmed this footage. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) It was hard to arrange the clips and see if we had enough time in the day to finish the clips.  When filming outside we also forgot the battery to the camera and brought a broken tripod so we weren’t able to use a camera.

Date: 24/01/2014 Location: College

Time (from – to): 1:00pm-4:30pm Activities: Editing

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I edited the start of the film by getting help off Gary so knew how to mark in and out to stop and start the clips of the video that were set to the music. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) It was hard to get the hang of the editing programme but once I did it was easy. There wasn’t much teamwork as the editing was only done on one computer.

Date: 31/01/14 Location: College

Time (from – to): 1:00pm-4:30pm Activities: Final editing

Personal Roles & Responsibilities Undertaken: I edited the final bits to the film and made sure everything was in time and fitted right within the video, I then imported the video and added it to my blog. Brief Description of Experiences: (including problems encountered, teamwork, & what had been learned) When I went to import my video onto my blog it kept appearing with an error and I was unable to add the video without restarting my computer and when I logged back on I had to add the video again.

Task 9 - Evaluation

Evaluation

For this unit we were required to produce a music video to a song of our choice. The first time we were told about this project, we were given songs by our teacher that we had to produce the video to.  We were given ‘Schools out’ by Alice cooper. We started to come up with ideas for the video but then we were told we could think of our own music to make the video too. After discussing it between the group we decided to do ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas.

Ideas and planning

In the first stages of planning for our final music video we had decided on as a group, there was a lot of idea’s given by all of the people from the group. We came up with the idea to use a local dojo to film our video and planned out all of the moves we would do in the video. We designed an a3 mind map of all our ideas, props, locations and people we could use in the video. My role in the planning of the video was creating the mind map, choosing the location and agreeing to be a part of the video. The only problem with the planning and coming up with the ideas to our video was that not all of the members of the group participated because they were absent, so a lot was decided by text and over the internet instead of in class. I think we worked well as a team whilst coming up with our idea but more teamwork should have been put into the designing of the planning.

Pre-Production

Before we even began thinking about filming our video, we had to complete a lot of pre-production documents.  Which included: storyboards, risk assessments and permission forms for the children we intended to use in the filming of our music video? The making of the storyboards were allocated to Demi which she did a great job of electronically drawing the images and pasting them into the storyboards, I then made the text for the storyboards and sent them to the rest of the group. I solely did the risk assessments and the permission forms for the children from the karate class we planned to use and again sent them to the rest of the group.  We then had to pitch our ideas to the class in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Bethan and I were the only members who did this as the other two were absent. I created the pitch with the help of our ideas board and then Me and Bethan shared responsibility of presenting it to the class. There were no problems except from not all of the members were here so it was hard to input their ideas.

Production

The filming of the video was a spur of the moment and not really followed as we had first planned it. We couldn’t use the Dojo that we had wanted to do as it wasn’t available at the time we wanted to use it and there were too many risks to filming children at a karate class. Instead we just filmed as and when we could. The first thing we filmed was the beginning and end of the our video as they were similar, Bethan was given the responsibility of filming, I was in the video, Demi helped with makeup and Rachel supplied clothes, makeup and got a hold of props. The filming took a few takes to get right but once it was done we were happy with it. The second bit of filming was spontaneous as we did it without planning. We used a classmate and a friend of mine to film some clips on the bridge, I had the responsibility of recording and Demi and Bethan came to help with idea’s and pose that the boys should do. There was only one problem as the camera we took to the bridge didn’t have a battery or a tape in but we overcame the problem by using a mobile phone, which the video was just as good. The last bit of filming again was done without planning, we used the college theatre and again used the same people and my boyfriend Matthew, we told them to bow, do karate moves and a bit of freestyle karate. Despite not planning for the clips, I think they worked pretty well.  Again I was given the responsibility to record the filming, using the shots we wanted and Bethan and Demi came to observe and help with ideas for the boys to do. Overall I think the filming of the video was done well despite not following our initial plan.

Editing

When we started to edit the film, we had no prior knowledge of how to edit the image. In our initial plan we decided to use a green screen and edit an image into two of the clips of our video, which was a complex editing technique we had not done before. Overall the editing took about three lessons, I edited the majority of the video, marking in and out of the clips, deciding what should be in and took out. Bethan then edited the green screen part in with the help of Gary. When we edited all of the video together, it wasn’t long enough so we had to go back and repeat and slow down some clips to make the video longer. It still wasn’t long enough so Demi came up with the idea of using signs to introduce the ‘fighters’ and rounds to the fights during the clips, once we did that it was the perfect fit to the video, we watched it over, made some more adjustments and once we were happy with the video, we imported it to our blogs. The only problem for the editing was that it was a quite long time consuming task which took quite a few lessons to complete.

What worked well

I think the overall planning of the video worked well as we all agreed on the plan of the video, it was just a shame we couldn’t follow the plan due to circumstances out of our control. The pre-production was done well and in detail but I think I was given a lot of responsibility with doing all of the risk assessments and permission forms by me because other members were absent.  The filming of the video also worked well even though it wasn’t to the plan, we had an idea and went and done it and got the majority of the filming done in one lesson which was good as we were behind.

What didn’t work

I think the only thing that didn’t work was following the initial plan of using a better location, more people and more props but again it was out of our control and we quickly had to think up a new idea. We did work well as a team but it would have worked better if the entire group was here to film, edit and evaluate our film together as a group.

Summary

I learnt quite a lot of skills doing this project as when we started the project I had no prior knowledge of filming or editing a video together. I learnt how to use final cut pro, how to film correctly, learning all of the correct camera shots and how to work as a group to produce a final outcome.  If I were to do this project again I would make sure that all off our ideas and planning were possible and to think of a backup idea if our plan was to be compromised which it was. I would also make sure that all of the filming was shared by the group because Demi didn’t get a chance to film because we allocated one person to do the filming but it should have been shared out equally which I think the same should have been done with the editing also.