Reviewing my Production Work Part 2

As a result to our Group Meeting discussion, we had decided to produce Jacks Lion King Homage and Connors 'Gangnam Style Lucozade' Advert.
It took us several days to film and two weeks for the footage to under go post-production.

During the production of the Lynx Africa commercial, I was given the role of assistant Director and as a performer to play the female interest of the advert. During this time, I have learned that I am very critical thinker; since I was always being confident when it came to questioning whether things were being done right and whether or not the shots would look professional (in a non-antagonistc way)

The only issues I would declare were that more Direction was needed when it came to other students and their individual job roles; I realised that on several occasions some people didn't understand what they were being asked to do and felt like the instructions given weren't as clear as they could have been.
Also, a contingency plan should have been constructed in the case of mishaps taking place. For instance, the main performer did not show- so we had spent a couple hours, wasting time trying to resolve the problem. If a 'plan B' had been put together, I feel as though we would not have wasted time. In future, for all my productions I will be constructing contingency plans. This is something I have learned quite strongly to do.

On the other hand, I can quite honestly say that once the issues were resolved, producing the commercial was a delight. Everyone as a team pulled together and volunteered for job roles, which weren't originally theirs.

By the end of production, it was time for the post-production stage....

Usually, I find this process a bit daunting; due to my lack of knowledge and experience in using editing softwares. Compared to last years production work, this years first assignment has been quite successful to my surprise! Hopefully my grading on editing skills will have improved in comparison to last years.
I feel as though I have worked more confidently and independently when it comes to the editing process of my production work.

In addition to this, the technical quality of the commercial is fairly adequate; since it meets all of the codes and conventions needed to make a successful advertisement.

It is evident in other blogs, that I have spent several weeks studying the various codes and conventions commercials have and which lines of appeal can be used to persuade individual viewers to purchase the product or use the service that advertisers are advertising.

This is one of many rememberable Lynx Commercials, the one here is the 'Lynx Dry' advert. It was typically aimed at men who wanted to attract good looking girls, without premature perspiration getting in the way. It was basically an overactive drama narrative used to get mens attention and allowing them to relate to the situation.

Other well known Lynx Advertisements are also well known for surrealist narratives set in realistic environments. Take for instance the Lynx Dark Temptation Advert, a man uses the Chocolate scented spray and literally turns into a desirable piece of Chocolate! As a result of this, he attracts all kinds of different women who are trying to get a taste of him.

Pack Shot of the Lynx Africa Products

So, in effect- with the Lynx Africa being a Lion King Homage, this too will have the same impact as the other Lynx Commercials.

Whilst editing, I had decided a would use a colour  theme of yellow, red and orange: sunset colours! And by accident, I had chromakeyed out the original colours of the Lynx Africa theme and replaced them with African Sunset colours. This turned out to make the products look even better than the originals (in my opinion) as it blends in more with the background.
 Further more, you can see that I have used the conventional catch phrase 'Get the Girl' and I have used a special font to create a modern urban feel to the advert.

Nathan Taylor as the Talent. 

Print Screen of the Slogan

At the end of producing my commercial, I was asked to conduct a peer evaluation meaning I had to ask what other people thought of the Television Advert. The three main aspects, which were considered were:

• The well chosen use of intertextuality (using the Lion King for a nostalgic effect on the audience)
• The pace of the commercial
• And how well it was produced, it appeared to be very professional. 

There were no negative comments revolving around the commercial and I too have nothing negative to say about the production. Only, I wish I had more time to use the footage we captured to create a longer 'cinematic trailer' for the Lynx Product.

Reviewing my Production Work Part 1

This is the final stage of my project for the television advertising unit, where I have to analyse my own production work. I will be discussing what I have done, what skills I have learned, what issues were notified, what went successful and what I would do differently if I had to the project again.

I will also look back on whether or not my production fits the purpose of the project, whether it is appropriate for the audience, whether the techniques I used were effective (as well as the contents) the impact my work may have had on viewers and how professional it were.

First of all, I am going to mention that the idea of a Lion King homage for the Lynx Africa Commercial   belongs to my classmate Jack Rowlandson. His idea for this advert, was to produce a commercial which will have a nostalgic impact on those who have seen the classic Disney movie and for it to be rememberable. Those who have most likely seen the Lion King movie would now be older adolescents and young to middle aged adults, since the date of release for the Lion King was in the year 1994 (on the 7th of October) so, males (and females) aged 18 and over in 2012 will be able to recognise the significance of this Commercial, since this is who the target audience is.

My own idea, which I had explained in an "Idea Pitch" using a powerpoint presentation was revolving around an anti-piracy campaign aimed at a younger demographic, who are downloading unofficial contents from Interactive Media Resources (i.e. the Internet)
A lot of the research, which I carried out in order to give me some background information for my presentation, was Secondary. I used News Reports supplied from Google and the BBC, which reinforced the idea that the downloading of unofficial content, means that a negative impact has occurred for the Creative Media Industry (in both Distribution & Exhibition sectors)

My commercial would be the conventional time length of 30 seconds long and would involve two young actors aged between 17-21 (one female and the other male) to perform the role of a couple who are on a date, watching a movie together at home for the first time. However, their evening would be spoiled by the boyfriends suggested use of watching a pirated DVD of a movie, which had no sound and a fuzzy visual. The Boyfriend is then to be seen to start fretting and thinking that their relationship is having a bad start due to a bad quality date. The girlfriend appears to have an official DVD of a different movie, they watch this one instead and the date increasingly gets better. The idea behind this is to persuade a younger demographic (who at the time are starting an interest in relationships and so on) that having better quality products will lead to a better quality of Life.

Here on your left you can see I have taken a print screening of some of the slides, which are from my powerpoint presentation. All of this information is also included in a proposal, which I was asked to construct.

The powerpoint and the proposal had information enclosed about who my target audience was, what background information I had researched and which persuasive techniques I was going to use if my idea was picked.

Unfortunately, my idea was not picked. However, if I was to back and do it again I would have perhaps elaborated more on what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. Maybe even some examples of other advertisements used in anti-piracy campaigns could have been included.

Moving on from this, as a group we were asked to conduct a meeting to discuss which advertisements would be the most successful to produce. We analysed each idea, reviewed all of the issues and how we could resolve them (if we were to produce a specific idea) and discussed the time scale on how long it would take to
                           
 accomplish producing the commercials.

06/12/12 Editing Techniques for Lion King/ Lynx Africa Advert

I have met two of my objectives today; I have reviewed my Lynx Africa Advert and I have shortened the commercial to around thirty three seconds long.
I have also created more variations with the shot.

Moving on from this, I have even been editing during the 'editing tutorial' lessons and I have learned several different effects, which I could use for my pack shot, since I didn't remember how to chroma-key this was an educational experience for me, as we got to learn how to apply different effects to our individual films.

In the end, I asked how to chromakey; as the blue was starting to look un-proffesional and boring...

06/12/12 Action Plans and Targets

From my last blog, I had mentioned that I was going through my footage and reviewing the clips, hoping to finally finish the post-production part of my Television Commercial Task.

However, the first thing we did in class was a starter activity to see if we could identify five different conventions a television advert needs.

The five conventions I thought of were:

1. The advert must have a message
2. It must have an impact on the viewer
3. It must be persuasive, using the basic lines of appeal and needs
4. It must be around 30 seconds long
5. It must contain a variation of shots.

After, we looked at another starter activity in order to help us remember the shot variations, durations and the transitions, which are in a Television Commercial.

I have now realised, that within a thirty second long advertisement it is around 18-19 different shots, which can be counted. Each shot will be on the screen from 3-6 seconds long, an establishing shot to set the scene is usually 4 seconds long and an average shot is about 2 seconds long.

Average shots consist of long shots, medium close-ups and close ups. There also should be a pack shot, if the aim of the commercial is to advertise a product the viewer would want to purchase.

The transitions used between the shots should really only consist of straight cuts, however jump cuts can be used to speed up the narrative on the screen.

We have all been given a sheet to note down our individual action plans. I have wrote down three objectives, which I wish to accomplish by the end of the lesson:

1. To look through the footage, review each individual shot and to shorten it down to make my 1 minute commercial, a 30 second long one.
2. To check the variation of shots I have used and to notify the duration of each shot, in order to make changes if necessary, so that I can meet the usual conventions of a TV Advertisement.
3. To maybe finish post-producing the Lynx Africa Lion King commercial. 

In conclusion to todays blog, I hope that I will have met all of my target aims and that these blogs will be used as evidence as sort of a log/diary notifying of all the things I have done for the Television Advertisement Unit. 

05/12/12 Advertising Footage Review

Today I have been doing the final editing of my advertisement and have made the finishing touches to my production. I have asked for feedback on how I can change anything in my advertisement and I have taken the tutors advice and gone back to re-arrange and shorten some of the clips; in order to make the conventional 30 second long advert. I have also gone back and changed the colour of the background gradient. It was a green fading to black, but since I lack skills on chroma-keying I have just decided to keep a blue and black colour theme through the commercial. This looks quite professional, considering the main male character wheres a black suit anyhow, so it blends in well.

By the end of the day, I am hoping to have done a little colour correction and to have captured the commercial.

23/11/12 Editing Skills!

Today, I feel as though I have accomplished quite a few aspects, which I have found challenging. Since post-prodction usually is one of the departments on this course I don't feel confident in, I feel like I have improved in many ways. I have found that I have grown to be more confident and independent as an Editor.

I have now completed the post-production process for the Lynx Africa: Lion King Commercial and feel as though the final product is very efficient.

I also feel that the tutorials provided by Final Cut King has benefited me very well; since they have taught me how to improve the visuals of my recorded footage.  The clip on the right here is one of F.C Kings Tutorials, which I have used to apply a 'Gradient' to my Lion King Video to make it more visually 'African' & 'Sunny'.

So, if there is anybody out there who feels like me: not so confident and don't necessarily enjoy editing, Final Cut King do provide some excellent sources of information, which you can learn from. They're very clear and they're in no way confusing, so you won't feel panicked if someone says 'it's time to edit!' 

In conclusion, now I am feeling more confident with the editing stage in the post production process, I am now enjoying altering videos.

22/11/12 Post-Production Continued

Here you can see a screen shot I have taken of my post-production work, using the Final Cut Express Software. I am currently in the process of post-producing the Lion King Parody/ Lynx Africa Advertisement, as you can see there is a pack shot of the Lynx Products, we are trying to "sell".

So far, this commercial in the screen shot is 56 seconds long and this will most likely be the one to be shown in a tariff on the television; as it's the closest to the conventional 30 second long advertisement.

In total, this has taken me two full working days to edit a 56 second long footage. And I have still not yet finished, since editing is the most time consuming of processes for a product to be created, I conclude that it will most likely be another full working day to finish the post-production stage.

21/11/12 Post-Production Notified Mistakes

As a part of Post-Production, I have been asked to review every single clip for continuity errors and defaults, which could bring my marks down if I were to use them in my final product.

Here on the left, you can observe how there is a coat left on the bench on the left hand of the screen. This was in the frame at the beginning of the shoot as we were filming over Nathans' shoulder for the tracking of the crowd, who claps and cheers when they see him.

This screen shot on the right hand side shows how the camera equipment shows up in the frame. This is after the tracking has taken place travelling from the left to the right hand side of the bowing crowd.

These mistakes can be corrected, with the right amount of cropping the picture size, we could cut these errors out of the shot.

However, these things can be refrained from happening by filming (at the time of production) correctly, taking the time to check the framing of each shot.

21/11/12 Post-Production Preperation

Today in lesson, we have been assigned several tasks, which we must complete:

• To label & store the footage of the commercial we wish to edit
• To check the materials for any mistakes and the correct continuity
• To capture the clips and set up the the capture scratch on Final Cut Express
• And create bins with names to help organise the editing, according to what the shots involve.

I have chosen to edit the Lynx Africa Parody of the Lion King, since usually editing and post-production is something I need to improve my skills in, I have chosen to challenge myself with the more complex production.

So far I have been reviewing the footage and re-labelling all of the shots, since there was a complication with starting up the Final Cut Express programme. I have named them all according to what shot or angle has been filmed and who is starring in the footage.

The next stage, will be importing them into Final Cut Express, now that the problems with the editing software has been resolved. I will need to set up the capture scratch and create bins, which I will put various shots into them to separate them into groups, according to their type of shot.

But, before I do this I am going to review each individual clip to check in great detail, whether there are any mistakes or faults, which could bring my editing/ producing marks down, since this is going to be marked for my editing unit and the unit on Television Advertising.

I will be posting another blog, with further updated information to show that I am evidentially completing the tasks at hand :)

16/11/12 Completing Jacks Commercial

Today we were aiming to finish the producing of Jacks Lynx Africa Advert.
We have been filming outdoors for several hours and the winter weather has made it very cold, making our enthusiasm come to a bit of a stand still.

However, we did pull through and each individual completed the tasks they were given to do. I feel that    working together as a team has made it all the more an easier process. We all worked together well and we have achieved what we set out to do at the beginning of the day.

The only aspect I would say that needs to be improved was the communication between the Director and the rest of the Production Crew and the Talent. Handling the extras wasn't necessarily as big as a problem we thought it would be. But, their motivation did decrease as they felt they weren't being told clearly enough what to do (and the cold weather didn't help) Perhaps filming on a day where there is better, warmer weather would help improve the situation.

At the end of this, I learned that I am well driven when it comes to completing a task, even if it's not necessarily something I want to do.

14/11/12 Producing the Orange Wednesdays Ad.

Ryan Shawcross, from Group B had an idea for the Orange Wednesdays 2 for 1 deal on going to the Cinema. His idea originated from the other Orange Wednesday Advert revolving around the Wicked Witch of the West (from the Wizard of Oz) since the deal is a '2 for 1' offer meaning one person pays and the other goes free to the Cinema...and Orange say that you can take any kind of friend with you, even if it's the Wicked Witch.

 

This is the commercial I mentioned beforehand.

Ryans idea is not revolving around the Wicked Witch, but the famous 'Gandalf the White' from the Lord of the Rings.

He wanted Gandalf to be living in the realistic world and to be working in two part-time jobs. One was Gandalf being a 'Lollypop Man' where he exaggerates the famous 'You shall not pass!' quote from the movie.

The other part-time job is Gandalf working for an Orange HelpLine Service, where he answers phones all day and answers customers questions. We see him perform in both of these part-time jobs and during the Orange Help-Line, we learn about the 2 for 1 offer for the Cinema, which takes place on Wednesdays.


The last bit we need to shoot, is the scene of Gandalf and his friend going to the Cinema, enjoying their 2 for 1 outing.

15/11/12 Jacks Lynx Africa TV Commercial

Today, we were set to produce Jacks Lynx Africa advert. Inspired by the opening sequence from the Lion King we attempted to create an adaptation of the Disney movie.

The actor who was supposed to be attending to portray the main characters role was ill, so we had to rearrange everybody's job roles to overcome the problem with having missing a major vital player to produce the TV commercial.

 Nathan Taylor had to play the main male leading role in the commercial as Ash Helm was absent due to illness. He did a splendid job of playing the main character, since he did not fully want to do the job but was very driven to do it since there was no other way of doing it and it was needed to be done.

Jack, the main director appointed me as his assistant Director, meaning I gave second opinions as to whether camera shots were good enough, whether anything was needed to be improved, etc. I also was given the role to be the female interest in the commercial (since there were no other girls that could perform for the advertisement) Personally, from this experience I have learned that through doing specific job roles I have grown to be more confident in myself and that I can be quite headstrong; and that if I have an opinion I think is valid then I will tell people what I think.

As a group I believe we have pulled together well as a team, stepping up for job roles that we don't particularly like, but still being eager to complete tasks and meet our target aims. The only aspect I would say we would need to work on is producing a contingency plan, since the problems we face seem to be repeated often without learning from our mistakes. Perhaps in future we will be able to come up with contingency plans (to save time stressing over how we're going to overcome our obstacles) and consider using a different member of the group or external actors to perform in our productions.

15/11/12 Re-shooting Connors Commercial

After we had filmed Jacks Lynx Africa Commercial, we had decided we would re-shoot Connors commercial since after reviewing the footage, we realised that it did not looks as professional.
The main problem with the footage was the lighting and Connor had mentioned that he was unhappy with the narrative.

As a result of this, we planned to film the advertisement one more time to ensure that the final product would look the best it can.

To improve the production, we had decided to extract the dance sequence, which takes place after the main character drinks from the Lucozade and shot a different sequence (which we'll have to edit to be split screened) where the character drinks from the and splits into two different emotional characters; one being happy relaxing whilst the other speedily finishes his work a minute before his deadline is due.

In the last footage, Connor wanted it to be shot with a dim light effect, which seemed to be emitting from the Apple Mac screen. However, the footage looks too dark and the illusion of it being set in night time is completely amiss. So, this time we kept the lighting of the classrooms set and this seemed to improve the footage on a grand scale.

All in all, the footage now looks improved and Connor is happy with his video production. The next step now would be to go into post-production, editing it.

09/11/12 Producing Scott' James Bond/ Lynx Excite Commercial

Scott O'Rourkes' idea was generated for the 'Lynx Excite' Campaign for selling the ideal perfumed spray, made for men, so good- that 'even Angels will fall'.

Scott (from group B) had already researched how he wanted to create an iconic and relatable television advertisement.

At the end of his idea generation, he came to the conclusion that he would use an intertextuality styled commercial, in order for his audience to keep engaged and perhaps even encourage them to purchase the item.

The intertextuality used in the commercial is the use of the recently released James Bond movie 'Skyfall'.

This sounded to be a good idea, with the well known Bond action movie producing another story to add to the sequel, a James Bond related advert would have fitted well with the other mainstream commercials using the same style of intertextuality.

Scotts idea was that he wanted a 'geeky' sort of character to use the Lynx Excite spray and be seen as a James bond sort of character through the point of view of other observers, thus giving the message that if you were to use the spray you will be seen by others as James Bond.

The filming/ production day of the commercial started off quite well, as Scott was well prepared with paperwork and was quite organized. However, the talent was running late. Although. even though this was a problem it was also an obstacle we was able to overcome; as whilst we were waiting for the leading star to arrive, we began filming the scenes, which did not involve his presence.

After the talent had arrived, we then began to film all of the scenes, which he was involved in. This went splendidly; as we all contributed towards the project and remained motivated through out the filming process.

The only aspects we needed to improve on was time management and perhaps further organization.

08/11/12 Filming Connors Commercial

Today, we have begun producing Connors Gangnam Style Lucozade Advertisement. We were all given job roles, in order to produce it.
My job role originally was to be the camera operator, but due to a headache I asked to switch jobs with Nathan. My role was then to be the camera assistant.

The production of the advert was fairly successful, as we worked together as a team and managed to meet our target aims.

The only aspect we needed to work on was keeping to date with the log sheets and making sure that we   get enough various camera angle shots.

This was in the first half of the day of producing, the second felt as though it was much more achievable.

When we filmed the other scenes we were in the green screen room, this felt a lot more sustainable as were able to move around more and do our individual jobs.

Tomorrow, we will be looking at producing Group B's Lynx Excite James Bond intertextuality advert. This seems as though it will be more fun than todays producing, since there's going to be more of a challenge.

07/11/12 Group meetings

On this day, we were split into two different producing groups: group A and group B (I was placed within group A)

We were asked to discuss, which of our ideas would be more of a success to create depending on whether or not the idea applies to the R.O.C.K.Y acronym.

The acronym stands for:

R - Relevant
O - Orignal
C - Commitment
K - Kash
Y - Your access

All of these individual factors need to be considered, in order to create a successful advertisement.
So, as a group we analysed each of our individual ideas and assessed, which would be the most effective.

Jacks idea, for the 'Lynx Africa' commercial is completely original, inspired by Disneys Lion King Movie he has came up with a sort of humorous parody. Since the Lynx Spray is an 'African' scent, it is quite apparent that the Lion King is also set in Africa. He wanted the deodorant to be iconic, as in the first scene of the movie when a young Lion cub is born and lifted for all to see. This will be mimicked with the Lynx can and will give it a powerful meaning. However, in the commercial it will be lifted by a young man, which other people have followed to see how 'cool' this guy is once he sprays himself with it. Budget isn't really of concern, since the commercial will be produced in college facilities. But, if  this was to be produced in a studio or on another location then the budget would be quite high. This also goes for the talent needed, we will need a large amount of extras and these will all be performing arts students. if these were professional actors supplied by Talent Agencies, the cost would also be a lot higher. Jack has notified us, that we will be filming outdoors. So, weather could be a problem, as if it rains we will be unable to film. this, we have decide to film Second.

Connors idea, is for a Lucozade Energy Drink Commercial. Personally, this was my favourite idea because of the synergy with the mainstream song 'Gangnam Style', which is widely known amongst a younger demographic audience. Plus, I can visualise how the TV Advertisement would look once it is edited. Connor has decided that he wants his advert to start off like a realistic narrative: an office worker  has a limited amount of time to finish his work brief, but he is too exhausted. Then, he drinks from a bottle of Lucozade and we see that he becomes two different people. One speedily finishes his work and the other relaxes, since his work is being done at the same time. This seems to be the most achievable idea and it doesn't need many actors to perform in it. However, if we were to produce this officially as a working professional the budget may have been a problem, since a large amount of money would be needed. The location, which Connor would like to film is quite accessible; as he would like to film in a computer room for the office scene and in the hallway, where there's a couch for the relaxation scene. We will begin to film this on the 08/11/12.