Evaluation

Over the past few weeks we have created several presentation day videos for the various colleges that are part of the Hadlow group. They are to be shown to the students and parents at the final presentation day, where everyone receives their official qualification. This means they have to show what the students have been doing throughout the year, as well as advertise how great the college is. 

This is the first year that students of the college have created the presentation day videos, as they have previously been done by professional film crews. The college doesn’t want to pay so we made it into one of the units this year. What this involved was filming at all the different colleges, and collect as much footage as possible. To do this we were split into groups by our teacher, based on our own skills and preferences on roles. My group was made up of Emily and Ester. I was the director, so was in charge of filming for my group. I also had to make sure that the footage we were collecting was good enough to use. This was difficult because of the people in my group who were often not cooperative or didn’t have the eye for good shots. 

The first time we went out to film was at West Kent in our original groups. My group’s task was to collect general footage of the college to use at intervals throughout the production. Some of the footage Ester collected wasn’t that great. Even with me telling her to film certain shots, the footage that was collected was poor, and couldn’t be used in the final edit. I had to go out on a different day with Tim and Jake to re-film this footage. The issue with the footage was that there wasn’t much variation in the shots. When creating the video, you need close-ups and long shots instead of just long shots. It makes the video look more interesting and will give a better final production. I had a better idea of the shots need at this point because I was mid-way through the edit. 

As well as the general campus footage, I also filmed the cookery classes, music, hairdressing, art and science. The issue with some of the footage that had been filmed by other people is that it was awful. It would ruin the look of the video, so some of the footage had to be re-filmed. This was my job a lot of the time because some of the students couldn’t be trusted to do a good job, and I wanted to make sure I had the footage I need. Fortunately, we did get enough footage to create sequences. 

The sequences were made up of the best bits of footage that were collected from each area. I had to decide which the best shots when sequencing the footage were, but I could also refer to the log sheets that people had written up for their footage. These gave a brief description of the footage and the name of the file. I used these to highlight the useable footage before putting it into the sequence. The footage that was included in the sequence were they shots and clips that I thought could be used in the final video. They were chosen because of the content. The issue with some areas was that the content was so poor. This made editing and sequencing very difficult, and was one of the main reasons for re-shooting a lot of the footage. What I was looking for in the footage was mainly variation of the shots. Some of the students only filmed from one angle, and one distance for the entire filming session, which meant the sequence that I could produce from that is very repetitive. Some of the sequences like the cookery have a lot of different shots and perceptions which made that sequence much more enjoyable to watch. Another issue with a lot of the footage was that it wasn’t in focus. This would often ruin a very good shot and make it unusable. The reason for this was sometimes that they had left auto focus on. The camera might then focus on different points throughout the film. There was also a big issue with people moving the camera during a shot before it could be used. This also ruined a lot of perfectly good shots. 

I created several different sequences, all are made up of the best footage from that area of the college. One of the areas that I filmed was the hair dressing. It was actually one of the more interesting areas of the college, despite the lack of students at the time. I sequenced this footage because I knew there would be a lot of good footage, as it was filmed by Tim and myself. We focused on getting a big range of shots with would show close ups of their work, as well as allowing the audience to see the students faces. The eight shots that are shown in the hairdressing sequence were all used in the final video. The opening image is focused on the model that is being groomed. While this isn’t the order that the clips were included in, this clip does make it clear what the section of the college is. We did have some issues with the lighting, as the window was right behind the students and models. This meant a lot of the shots were very over exposed and didn’t look that great. The second shot is very simple and shows some of the facilities they have at the college. The smooth pan is very satisfying, and while it doesn’t include any students, was an interesting shot to include in the final edit. The next is a close up of a hair crimper. What makes this shot great is that it is a close up of the hair, and you can see the effect that the crimper has on the hair, but you can also see the steam that comes off, when it is released. This gives a really nice effect and make it much more interesting. You can also clearly see the West Kent lanyard around the student’s neck. This is good advertising for the college, and will allow it to be used to advertise in the future. It then cuts to a shot on the same girl, who is spraying hairspray on the crimped hair. The spray looks very nice in the video, and is very visible. You can also still see the girl’s lanyard, which is very important to the higher members of the college. There is then a change of student, and while the camera is focused on the hair at this point, the student is very clearly in the background. The different depth perception makes the shot look interesting for the viewers and shows what the students are working on. The next shot is the same student working on the same person. She is not the focus of the shot. This is important as the students should be the focus of the entire production video. Afterwards there is an extreme close-up of the student brushing the hair of the model. This is another dramatic change in shot. All the changes in distance and zoom give the audience different points of view, and engages them with the production. The final shot is similarly close, and shows the students doing more detailed work on the models hair. I think the hair and beauty sequence was very good. We had issues with the amount of footage, because there were only three people doing work. This was almost all the footage we captured, however, as all the footage is in focus and everything is captured, it is all useable. This was one of my favourite sequences. Not just because I oversaw the filming, but because the content is much more interesting than a lot of the different places and classes in the rest of the college. I believe what the shots include look like they could be included in a professionally created promotional and corporate video. 

My main input from the entire project was creating and compiling the footage for the whole West Kent Campus. This major role in the production was very time consuming but very satisfying when complete and I am entirely satisfied with the end production. The main issue when creating the video was the quality of footage that had been collected. As it was so bad, I was struggling to comprehend how I was going to make the video into a 4-minute film. Once I had looked at all the footage we had, and it had been put into sequences, me and my group created a list of the places that we wanted to re-film. This was done mainly by the people in the class we knew to be good at filming, so the footage wasn’t bad for a second time. Once this was done for as many subjects as possible, I started creating an order for the footage to be included. I also wanted to intersperse the video with clips of the college, which was going well to begin with but had to be changed at the end as the production was to lengthy. This unfortunately, make the video seem very full and without rest, but it was necessary and requested by the clients. The video footage was put into the final sequence and edited to cut to the beat. I thought this would seem the most professional for the corporate video format. This did make it very simple to cut and include the clips. The choice of music also worked well with this as there were regular beats that could be cut to. As it was so simply done, I wanted to make sure that each transition was perfectly timed. This took a lot of time to perfect, but does make the final edit look very crisply finished. There wasn’t any variation of shot type because it would not only look out of place, but also add unnecessary time to the video. It was so important not to do this because there was so much to include. 

I spoke to my tutor a lot throughout the project, as she was the one liaising with the clients. I think I worked closely to what she wanted and exceeded her expectations of most of the members of the class with my contribution to both the filming and editing of the video. This wasn’t what I had expected to have done at the beginning of the project. It was due to the work and filming produced by the others which resulted in my larger role in the production. I felt that my tutor was comfortable relying on me to lead others in the class when filming, which is why I was involved so much. I also had a view of what I wanted the final video to look like, which is what I tried to keep in mind when filming myself. I personally had very little interaction with the client, other than our initial meeting and when he came down to see the video in its early stages of production. This meant he had little to go on at that point. A day later after I had worked on the video for the entire day before, there was a much better indication of what the video would look like. Other than a few points about the college logo being more prominent at the beginning and the exclusion of sport at the college, his feedback was very positive. Afterwards, I added the ‘West Kent’ logo at the beginning of the video as a fancy transition, which I was very happy with, although it took a long time, as it is very smooth. I also included footage of the college gym, which does ruin the look of the video, in my opinion, as the footage is very poor, and there wasn’t an opportunity to refilm it. I also meant some of the campus footage was excluded. If I were to re-edit the video, I would have different sport footage that really shows sport at the college, as I don’t think the gym was that representative of it. If the footage had been properly logged, there would have been less of an issue as the footage would have been viewed, and if needed, re-filmed. 

The groups for the production also were not very well controlled as they were changed mid-project which resulted in people not contributing at all to the videos. There were also people that weren’t able to, or good at giving instructions and recommendations throughout the filming process, resulting in a bigger job for people towards the end. If it could be done again, I would want more detailed information about all the footage, and give much more clear instructions about the shots that are required to make a corporate video interesting and engaging. It was also not helped that this was the first time that students had made the final production video as there was little knowledge and experience with the setting up and filming. In future, it would be easier if there was more time, and the footage could be collected earlier in the year when people aren’t leaving. It would mean that footage would be easier to get, the content would be better and it would be possible to film all the different areas again. 

I received verbal feedback from my peers and tutor, who were all thought the video was very good. The main point they brought up was the opening, specifically the graphic of the college logo. They thought it added a really professional look to the video. I have seen it before in corporate videos, which is what made me think to put it in. They also like how the pace of the music fits well with some of the footage specifically with the drama students performing. Our lecturer noticed how well they link, the first time she watched it, and it set a good precedent for the rest of the video. What made it so good was that it linked up with the background music and made it look like the actors were moving to this music. This link as well as others are very professional, and I think this could be used as a promotional video. I expect that the footage will be used by the college for promotional purposes past the presentation day as it was free to make and it would be a waste not to.