Final Promotional Video - Client Review

This is a short video to promote Art Alert to people of all generation and let them know who they are, what they do, and the benefits of joining the incredible organisation that is Art Alert. Also there is a trailer for a DVD that Art Alert have produced, archiving the memories of those who had the pleasure of experiencing The Co-op Hall in Nuneaton. 

Final Promotional Video 

Evaluation Unit 32 and Unit 6

I met up with Mick Dabrowski, my client, who looked at and reviewed the promotional video that I edited for him. Mick made several positive and constructive points about my video. He was happy overall with the final video, commenting on the good quality of the editing "you really have a good eye for editing" is one of the comments he made that stood out to me. Also he said that he liked the music section the best, and that he liked the fast past of the editing; however the cuts could be sharper.

The Planning Process

Before I could start any work on a promotional video I needed to know what my client wanted from the production. To do this I met up with my client and asked him to fill out a questionnaire. As the questionnaire didn’t cover all the technical aspects of what the client wanted from the promotional video, we had a conversation to discuss these. I wrote down what he wanted from the video and also recorded the interview. I feel that by provided both a questionnaire for my client to fill out and discussing the production with him in more detail allowed me to create a rough idea and outline to the video, as well as obtaining more than enough information so that I would be able to create a video that my client will be happy with.

To begin with I started by reviewing all the footage that my client had provided. By doing this I would not only gain ideas and structure to my promotional video but I would also know what footage I wanted to use, cutting down the time it would take to edit. When watching the footage I wrote down the name of the clips I wanted to use, the time sequence of the sections from the clip and what was said during this section. I did this for all of the footage. From my first meeting with Mick I knew that he wanted the promotional video to be separated into sections; he didn’t specify what he wanted the different section to be so I decide to separated the video by common topics that I picked up on when watching the footage. These topics were: the beginning, where I would include comments about what the coop hall looked like, how people felt about the place, being there and the people there; the fashion, including comments about the male and female clothing, shoes and hair styles; the music; and finally the end. The end topic was split into two sections; the first talking about the accident on the stairs and the second, talking about their feelings about the closing and demolition of The Coop Hall.

I found that didn’t want to use all of the clips, so I created a new folder and dragged only the clips I was going to use into this folder, and then place this onto my desktop. By separating the footage that I wanted to use from the footage that I didn’t saved me time when editing as I didn’t need to troll through footage that I wouldn’t use.

To make the editing process even more efficient, before I started editing in Adobe Premiere Pro I opened a new project and named several sequence within this project to organise my work further (see Planning post for more detail). 

When reviewing my planning process I feel that if I were to have renamed every clip I used (for example “The Pinkertons – It’s a shame to see it go) I would have been able to save more time, due to me not having to keep listening to the clip, or trying to find what the clip said from my written log. Instead I would have known instantly what clip I was working on, and my editing process would have been more efficient and allowing me to receive my clients opinions in enough time to make any changes to the final promotional video.

The Editing Process

I feel that my planning before hand was at a good enough standard that I could start editing straight away. I knew what clips I wanted to follow another, I knew what interviews I wanted to use and had written specific times from these clips that I wanted to include. Also I had found all the photos/pictures that I wanted to use when researching The Coop Hall in more detail. By doing all of this before hand when it came to editing I was able to get through it quickly.

I feel that when it came to editing I needed everything to be organised and by adding sequences within my premier window I feel that I was able to work fast and efficiently to get the video finished in time for my client to view, review and tell me any changes that he would like done to it. By reviewing the clips provided before I had even begun editing and writing down the clips and sequences I wanted to include also help to organise my work and help me generate ideas.

Editing this piece together was different from any previous editing I had done as I was working to a client brief – although the client was flexible and not to worried if I didn’t stay to the brief, I wanted to stick to it as much as possible.

When editing the promotional video together I came across the following problems:

-       Trying to isolate a sentence, word or comment was difficult

-       Deleting sequences that I wanted to keep (didn’t go/make Vid to long)

-       Creating the boards

(All of the previous are explain in more detail below)

The Editing

The constructive comment that Mick made about the cuts needing to be sharper was a general comment that he made throughout the video. When I was editing the video together I found that a lot of the time people talked over one another or that peoples words seemed to merge together, so when trying to isolate one comment or sentence I found it hard, without managing to include the start of the next word. However I didn’t want to cut the interviewee short in what they were saying. When speaking to Mick about this he told me that he would rather they were cut short and the end of a word missed rather than the next word heard. He said that doing it this way sounded better as you could still get the gist of what was being said. So with this in mind I went through the whole promotional video and cut the clips down frame by frame to achieve the outcome that my client wanted. Listening back over it myself I found that by cutting each clip this way did make the video cleaner and have a more professional sound and feel to the final video. Once Mick came back in to review the video again he said that the cuts were a lot cleaner and he preferred the video this way.

Art Alert Section/Interviews

This was the section I filmed by myself. I thought that it would be a good idea to promote not only the final DVD, but also Art Alert themselves, who they are and what they do. The arranging of where and when to conduct the interview was an easy process. I asked my clients when they were free as my schedule was very flexible. When they were happy with a date and time we then arranged a suitable location – Joanne’s home. I had been here often and knew that it would be a nice place to shoot the interview and would fit in nicely with the interviews Mick had given me (see previous post Art Alert).

The footage as a whole I was not pleased with. Trying to conduct this interview on my own was hard; having to control and monitor two cameras, asks questions and maintain visual and verbal contact with the interviewees. Because of this, my interview had a few mistakes. There were two major ones. One. The footage from the left camera is out of focus, an issue that I only noticed when going to edit the footage together. Two. The right camera was set on auto focus, and can be heard and seen focusing during the beginning of the clip, before I realised and turned it off. Another problem that occurred was that the left camera stopped after a few minutes, luckily the right camera continued to run, and when I noticed I simply pressed record again.

Audio problem. This was just a slight problem that has not hindered the interview footage outcome to any extent. I decided not to use the zoom microphone, as where I planned to film was very quite with not background noise. When looking over the footage, what was being said was audible however I noticed that it was quieter than the audio of the interviews conducted by mick. I feel that this is not a huge problem, as this footage is not being cut together with any clips with louder audio so it will not be noticeable.

Mick came in and reviewed the footage from my Art Alert interview. He picked up on the same technically problems that I had and offered some helpful advise. Mick said that the out of focus footage isn't too bad, however I shouldn’t use it if I could help it, although if I was to slip a few second into the promotional video he feels that it wouldn't be that noticeable. Also his comments on the footage from the other camera, regarding the auto focus, was that I can just cut those parts out; they don't really interfere with what is being said. When I showed my client this he said that it was find, not too much out of focus and the footage can be easily zoomed in on to cut out any unwanted background. Finally Mick picked up on a problem that I had not noticed. He said that the lighting is off, and the two interviewees are in different levels of light. However, Mick offered a simply solution. He told me to zoom in on Joanne and Corine separately so that the light contrast will not be seen.

If my client were not happy with the footage however, I would have arranged another interview with Joanne and Corine. This time I would have brought three cameras set up one with a close up of Corine, the second with a close up of Joanne and the third a two shot. Also I would have somebody along with me to help with the cameras, as this time I felt that it was too much for me to do by myself – watch both cameras, ask questions, maintain eye contact and encourage the interviewees with what they were saying.

Deleting Footage

Although I had selected all the footage I wanted to use I found that when editing the promotional video together not all of the sequences fitted in with the rest of the video. Sometimes they didn’t look right with the rest of the images. For example one of the clips I wanted to use mentioned several bands that played at The Coop Hall, however a student that my client had worked with filmed this particular clip and as they had little practice with a camera before hand the focus was not on the interviewee but rather on the background. When seeing the clip in isolation the out of focus interview looked useable, however when I edited this clip alongside the other clips it stood out, as all the other interviews were in focus. So in the end I decided not to use this interview.

Another reason why I ended up deleting footage that I had selected was because it disrupted the flow of the rest of the promotional video. This problem occurred mainly with the sequences I had selected for the beginning and the end topics. Some clips that I thought would add to the production, sometimes didn’t and slowed the pace down.

Extended edit 

First of all I ended up editing together a 15 minutes long video. The client had no problem with this video being this long, however when reviewing it with him we came to the conclusion that this is not a promotion video, and doesn't get to the point quick enough. So I edited together a short video which was the length of 8 minutes 41 seconds, which we were both happier with. When reviewing this with my client we decided that this was a more suitable promotional video and that the one I had edited together previously, he would use as a basis for the final overall DVD that I am creating the promotional video for, and that a lot of what I had edited together previously for him will be used in the final DVD. 

I am glad that the first promotional video I had edited together would not be wasted, as I did really like the outcome of this video. However I didn't like the length of the first video and found it to be too long and like I have said before didn't fit the brief of a video 5-8 minutes long. When I had finished the second shorter promotional video I was a lot happier with the outcome and length. 

The Boards

From watching and analysing pre-existing promotional video I noticed that all of them had information at both the beginning and the end of the video. I feel that I have done this successfully, providing information to the audience about the DVD exhibition and Art Alert. The client was very happy with the idea of including boards and liked how they looked. I spent longer on the boards than I would have liked to, as I felt that this was not the main part of the promotional video. However this did not set me back too much in developing the promotional video. I feel that the final boards created fit in with the rest of the promotional video and help to bring it all together. My client was present for the creation of the boards and this made the process much easier. Previous to Mick being there I found it hard to find a font, style and colour for the boards that fitted in with the feel and topic of the promotional video. By Mick being present he was able to tell me what he wanted the boards to look like and what font and colours he wanted, making the final outcome of the boards exactly how my client wanted.

What Makes It A Promotional Video

 Codes and conventions for a promotional video include aspects such as interviews, from either people who were a main part in the products creation or customers who have purchased the product, be between 3-5 minutes long and show the product being used.

Applying these conventions to my own promotional video I feel that my video does what it’s suppose to. My video include both interviews from the people at Art Alert (Joanne and Corine) and from those who experienced The Coop Hall; my video isn’t between 3-5 minutes long, however my client is happy with the length of my final promotion video. Also from analysing other promotional videos i noted that some of them were longer than 5 minutes so I don’t feel that this is too much of an issue. By including a ‘trailer’ of the final DVD I feel that I have shown what Art Alert (the product) do.

Also by including contact details and dates of the DVD launch I feel that I am promoting Art Alert to it’s fullest, giving the audience sufficient information for them to be able to get in contact with and become apart of Art Alert.

Working With A Client

As I had never worked with a client before or to a client brief I was nervous. However the client was very pleasant and helpful along the way. The client and I arrange several meeting during the production process, which I feel was a good thing. It allowed me to get to know the client, making me feel more comfortable as I had not worked with a client before. Also I feel this made the production process easier because the client could make criticisms along the way that I could change easily.

Client Satisfaction and Meeting the Client Brief

During our first meeting with Mick Dabrowski we gave him a questionnaire to fill out, allowing us to create the promotional video to how the client wanted. To ensure that the final promotional video met all the requirements from this questionnaire I asked my client to fill in a second questionnaire, asking questions about the client’s satisfaction. (See Client Satisfaction Post, for questionnaire). The client told me that he was very happy with the outcome of both promotional videos that I created for him. Mick has also informed me that some of my editing will be included in the final DVD, which I am very happy about. Finally Mick has said that he would be more than happy to work with me again, which I am also very happy about. 

What I Have Learnt 

From this experience I have learnt that more than one crew member should be present when conducting interviews. This will allow the camera(s) to be monitored continuously and technical problems to be resolved straight away; whilst another crew member is communicating with the interviewees and encouraging them to tell there story - especially with people who are not used to being in front of a camera.

Overall I feel that my final promotional video was a success. The final product fitted in with the codes and conventions of a promotional video, and provided information for the audience to get in contact with Art Alert. I also feel that my video was a success because my client was happy with the final outcome. He gave me feedback and I was able to make the changes to the video that he wanted.

I feel that because I was not used to interviewing people and had never done it before that my own interview footage didn’t come out at the best quality. When interviewing the clients I didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable so wanted to complete the interview as quickly as possible, (as they had also never been interviewed before). Because of this reason, I forgot the do the simplest of things, like focus the camera properly, causing my footage, like I mention before, to be at a low quality.

What I will take from this experience is that it is always best to have somebody helping with the filming or simply being on set with you. I know have some experience in interviewing people so I will be able to have a better idea for the future, however if I am asked to interview somebody again, I will have somebody there who has interviewing experience so that the interview runs more smoothly.

I will also in the future name the clips that I am editing together; so that when it comes to editing I will know exactly what clip I want where without having to keep watching the clips. This will help my editing process be more efficient and because I would have done a shot long and storyboarded before I will know exactly what clips I want where; once again speeding up the editing process.

Finally, by doing these units I have been able to gain experience and practice with dealing and communicating with a client(s). Although my client this time allowed me to edit the promotional video to how I wanted it, I know that future clients may/will want a promotional video to be exactly how they want it. When listening the Jim Hickey, I have come to understand that you can only advise a client, however if they do not want to take this advise, you still have to complete the project how they want it.

Extended Edition

Art Alert Interview - Planning/OH&S/Footage review

Planning the interview
One of the requiments for unit 32 and 6 was that i needed to film and collect my own footage and audio. As my client has already provided all of the footage for me concerning The Coop Hall, i decided to take my own filming in a different direction.

I decide that as this was a promotional video unit instead of just promoting my clients end DVD about The Coop Hall i would promote the people behind this archive project which were Art Alert. As Art Alert is how i came about promoting Mick Debraski Coop Hall DVD, i already had the connections to Art Alert.

As I not only wanted to promote the Coop Hall project that Art Alert were doing, but Art Alert itself, I felt it appropriate to do an interview with my clients, who are apart of the Nuneaton and Bedworth Art Alert team.

Joanne very kindly gave me her personal mobile number at the start of this production so, I texted Joanne Lole, who is the organiser and head of the Coop Hall Archive Project and asked her if she and Corine Davies (who is also heading the project) would both be willing to be filmed, answering questions about Art Alert, what they are and what they do. Both Joanne and Corine were more than willing.

I didn't want to do the interview in the college as I wanted Art Alert to feel, warm welcoming and impersonal, and doing it in a formal place like the college or with a plain white background does not give off this vibe. Joanne offered her house to stage the interview. I was happy with the idea of this location, because when I was reviewing the interviews provided by my clients I felt the most appealing ones and most relaxed ones were the ones recorded with more than one person in the home.

                      

I found that this interview in the house setting to be more relaxed. I also think that because the interview is with more than one person the conversation flows more that with just one person. Whereas I found the interview with one person in a set location - which is dull - to be more stiff and ridged. No only do I feel that the second interview is less relaxed due to the setting/location I also feel that it is because there is only one person being interviewed. 

When looking through the rest of the interviews that Mick, my client provided me I found that the best interviews were the ones with two to three people. This was because a conversation broke out, making the answer flow more, and giving the interview a more relaxed feel than those with one person. I found that the interviews with one person were stiff and not relaxed. I noticed that they seemed nervous and always waiting for the next question. Unlike the interviews with two to three people who sometime diverted away from the question, and reminisced more about their Coop Hall experience. For the most part this was a good thing, as additional information was added that information to questions that may have not necessarily been asked by the interviewee. Sometimes this was a bad thing as the group went way off topic. 

There was an interview with five people sat in a living room - the interview of the Pinkertons. I found this amount of people to be a bad thing. More often than not people would talk over each other, and cut them off mid sentence. I also found that when one person was talking some others would have their own conversations. This would have not been a problem if not for the boom mic used, which picked up their whispers and amplified them. Also in this interview I found that there were three dominate conversationalist, who prevented the two others from offering their thoughts, opinions and memories of the Coop Hall. 

When planning my own interview with Joanne and Corine I decided to interview them together for the pervious reasons mentioned. I think that interviewing them one their own would not provide relaxed interviews (as neither of them have ever been interviewed before). Also by doing it this way I feel that they can converse with each other, which will also help to add to a more relaxed interview setting. 

Before I went to the interview I made sure that I had a list of all the questions I wanted to ask both Corine and Joanne and had made a note of any additional information that I needed to obtain from both of them.

Question List 
What is Art Alert about and what do they want to achieve?
How did it get started?
How did you get involved?
Tell me about why you decided to archive the coop hall?
Do you have any memories of the coop hall and/or its demolition, and how do you feel about it being gone?
What is the end product, regarding the coop hall?
Do you have any future projects planned?

Additional Information Needed
A website,
Contact number,
Email address, and,
DVD and exhibition dates, times and locations.

I had arranged with Joanne to do the interview on tuesday 16th April 2013, at 1pm. this time suited myself, Joanne and Corine. with the date, time, location and questions set all i needed to do now were the occupational health and safety checks and make sure i knew what shots i wanted - angles and consider the lighting - and what equipment i needed to take with me.

Occupational Health and Safety Before 
When thinking of the OH&S i have to consider both on set problems and traveling problems.

OH&S problems when venturing to set:
As i will be walking to the set from college with the equipment i need to take into consideration that there may be a chance of violence, gangs and criminals on my travels that may pose a threat. So to prevent any harm to myself or damage to the equipment I will make sure to walk to the set with another person. This will not only help if any violence does occur, but it will also help to prevent any damage to the equipment when carrying it to set. Damage to the equipment when moving it to location is another OH&S issue that i need to consider. By having another person walking with me to set, i will have another set of hands to carry the equipment, as it is quite a bit for me to carry safely on my own. 

OH&S problems when on a studio set: 

When on set i need to consider the following OH&S problems; cables, wires, liquids, fires and any object that may be hazardous.

Cables and wires
I know that on set there will be little to no manoeuvring; the clients will be seated and i will be stationary behind the cameras. however i will still need to made to sure that no cable or wires can be tripped over. In this particular incident i will not need to have any wires across the floor as i will not be connecting anything to the camera or plugging anything in, like lights. so when it comes to cables and wires i have to make sure that the charger cables were away in the camera bags and that any pre-exsisting wires and cables that are there already will be pushed back out of the way and taped down. 
by doing this i will prevent any damage to the equipment and any potential harm to the interviewees and/or myself. 

Equipment not being set up properly 
this can cause damage to equipment and risk of harm crew member. i will avoid any damage to the equipment by weighing it down, if necessary. i am only having to tripods with cameras on top, tha twill be stationary. so i don't think that i will need to weigh any equipment down, however anticipating this dilemma before it happens will help be on set, and i will be prepare for this OH&S problem if it occurs. by ensuring that the equipment is secure the crew members and anybody on set will also be safe from injury and risk of any equipment falling on them. 

Equipment
I will need :- Canon 600D Camera x2
                   - Tripod x2
                   - 4GB SD Memory Card x2
                   - MacBook

Before i left for the shoot i made sure that both cameras and macbook were fully charged. this will not only save time when on set, and prevent any unnecessary inconvenience, but also this will reduce the number of wires and cables that need to be present on set - reducing the risk of accidents and injury. I also made sure that the memory cards were empty, giving me maximum memory and, once again, increasing efficiency.
I also typed up and printed out film release forms for Joanne and Corine to sign.


Shot Planning
I want to keep the same feel and look as Mick has done in the interviews he has supplied me. i want to do this because i feel that this will make the two sections blend together more naturally. I plan to have two cameras set up; one from head on and the other from another angle. By doing this i will be able to cut between different shots, questions/answers and comments, without any visible jump cuts. Doing it this way, will make the interview seem more professional as the ones that i had analysed do not have any jump cuts. Also to keep to the set up that my client has done in his interviews i will use static shots when interviewing the clients.
(Hard copies of story boarding available)

All of this makes my planning easy, the only thing i need to consider when setting up the cameras is the lighting, as i am planning on using natural light - like Mick has done - i will need to make sure that i am in a well lit room and that the light bounces off the clients at the right angle.

Occupational Health and Safety After
Traveling to Set 
When travelling to set i had another person walk with me and help me carry equipment like planned. fortunately there was no violence and no gangs present when walking to set. All the equipment was manageable and carried safely between the two of us.

On Set 
Cables and wires
On set i made sure that all wires were safely out the way and/or taped down. I also found that i had to make sure that the camera bags were out the way and their handles were tucked away so that they would not be tripped on. i hadn't anticipated the camera handle to be a OH&S, however now i know for the future that this should be included as a trip hazard.

Liquids
Joanne very kindly offer me a glass of water. i made sure that the drink was as far away from the equipment as possible. Due to is being in a glass it could easily spill onto the equipment, or even just the floor and cause injury to any person in the area, that may not have seen the spilt liquid. for the future i will bring my own bottle of water to sets and locations, as this will prevent any chance of spilling and in turn stop and damage to the equipment or any injury to the crew/actors/interviewees/etc.

Weighing down equipment
Like i anticipated the equipment didntn need weighing down, and all the equipment was set up safely and securely, on a flat hard surface. this prevented any instability and damage to the equipment and crew.

Interview Review

Trying to conduct this interview on my own was hard; having to control and monitor two cameras, asks questions and maintain visual and verbal contact with the interviewees. Because of this, my interview had a few mistakes. There were two major ones.

One. The footage from the left camera is out of focus, an issue that I only noticed when going to edit the footage together. Two. The right camera was set on auto focus, and can be heard and seen focusing during the beginning of the clip, before I realised and turned it off. Another problem that occurred was that the left camera stopped after a few minutes, luckily the right camera continued to run, and when I noticed I simply pressed record again.

Audio problem. This was just a slight problem that has not hindered the interview footage outcome to any extent. I decided not to use the zoom mic, as where I planned to film was very quite with not background noise. When looking over the footage, what was being said was audible however I noticed that it was quieter than the audio of the interviews conducted by mick. I feel that this is not a huge problem, as this footage is not being cut together with any clips with louder audio so it will not be noticeable.

Clients Review 

Mick came in and reviewed the footage from my Art Alert interview. He picked up on the same technically problems that I had and offered some helpful advise. Mick said that the out f focus footage isn't too bad, and that I should use it if I could help it, although if I was to slip a few second into the promotional video he feels that it wouldn't be that noticeable. Also his comments on the footage from the other camera, regarding the auto focus, was that I can just cut that those parts out; they don't really interfere with what is being said. Finally mick picked up in a problem that I had not noticed. He said that the lighting if off, and the two interviewees are in different amounts of light. However, Mick offered a simply solution. He told me to zoom in on Joanne and Corine separately; the light contrast will not be seen.

What I Have Learnt 

From this experience I have learnt that more than one crew member should be present when conducting interviews. This will allow the camera(s) to be monitored continuously and technical problems to be resolved straight away; whilst another crew member is communicating with the interviewees and encouraging them to tell there story - especially with people who are not used to being in front of a camera.

Ken Burns - Pan and Scan

Ken Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs. Burns often gives "life" to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. 








The Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery. The feature enables a widely used technique of embedding still photographs in motion pictures, displayed with slow zooming and panning effects, and fading transitions between frames.

The technique is principally used in historical documentaries where film or video material is not available. This is ideal for my promotional video and there is little to no video footage of the Coop Hall in its prim from 1938-65, however there is little footage of the demolition of the hall, but this is also scarce, to by using this technique on the photographs provided and taken by the public, i will be able to use this on images to keep the audience intrigued.  

Action is given to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. The effect can be used as a transition between clips as well. For example, to segue from one person in the story to another, a clip might open with a close-up of one person in a photo, then zoom out so that another person in the photo becomes visible. The zooming and panning across photographs gives the feeling of motion, and keeps the viewer visually engaged.

Here is an example of where i used pan and scan and zoom in my own promotional video:-

                       

Copyright

What is copyright?
copyright gives control to creators of the way their material is used. these right start from the minute the material is recorded in writing or any other way  the rights cover, copying, adapting, distributing  communication to the public by electronic transmission, renting or lending copies to the public and performing in public.

copyright protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, published editions of works, sound recordings, films and broadcasts.

Ownership and length of copyright
The author is the first owner of copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work. in the case of films, the principal director and film producer are joint authors and first owners of copyright.
the length of copyright differs with the type of material.

copyright protection in the UK is automatic, so there is no registration system, there are no forms to fill in, and no fees to pay.

in literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work (including a photograph) copyright lasts until seventy years after the death of the author. for films, copyright lasts for seventy years after the death of the last to survive of, the principal director, the authors of the screenplay and dialogue and the composer of any music specially created for the film.

Using copyright material 
like physical property, copyright material cannot be used without the consent of the owner. within the copyright owner rights they may decide not to give permission to use their work.

to get permission to copy or use copyright material, normally you must contact the copyright owner. however there are several organisations which act for groups of copyright owners in connection with particular rights and which may offer blanket licences to users.

A blanket license makes it possible for radio and television stations, DJs, musicians, and public businesses to play music without having to acquire rights each time they play a song. The blanket license makes the playing of music easy and convenient.

Permission is needed for mass copying of material. also an acknowledgment of the name of the copyright work and its author needs to be included.

Royalty Free Music
In a nutshell Royalty Free Music refers to a type of music licensing that allows the purchaser to pay for the music license only once and to use the music for as long as desired. For example you purchase a Royalty Free Music license for a video on your website. You pay one single price whether you have 100 visitors or 10,000 visitors, and whether you use the music for 1 month or 10 years.

Applying this to my promotional video

throughout my promotional video i have included the song 'When you walk into the Room' by The Searchers and 'Stop your Sobbing' by The Kinks; these will both require copyright permission. The client has informed me that some, if not all of the promotional video i am producing will be distributed with the Art Alert DVD. The DVD is being distributed in the Nuneaton Library, The Heritage Centre in both Nuneaton and Bedworth, The Fish Bowl Gallery and Corine is hoping to display it at George Eliot Hospital and the foyer of Sainsbury's. Because of this vast distribution the copyright permission for the music will be needed. 

I have spoken to the client about this and Mick has informs me that at this point the copyright isn't too important as the promotional video will not be seen just yet. Mick has also said when viewing my promotional video to leave the music as it is for now. 

Planning, Storyboarding, Editing and Boards

Planning

Before I could start editing any footage together I needed to review the footage that my client provided and wanted editing together - as I had never seen it before. When I started watching a few of the clips I realised that in all of the interviews with different people had the same themes and topics were mentions. This gave me the idea to divide my promotion video into different distinct sections. This would not only allow me to display the vast topics that will be seen in the full documentary in my short 8 to 15 minute promotional video (length of promotional video discussed with the client), but will also make the topics clearer to the audience, and allow them to grasp everything that will be mentioned in Art Alerts final DVD.

To make it easier for myself when it comes to editing the clips together and finding the relevant sections that I need, I decided to, when watching the clips, make a note of the footage that I wanted to include in my promotional video.  I wrote down the name of the full clip, the time of the section I wanted from the clip, what was said in this section, and highlighted the quote according to a key.

                                  

                                                                               
                               
                                 
                                 
                                    

Storyboarding

After i had a good idea of what topics i wanted to included and the general layout of my promtional video i storyboarded my ideas. For the most of it the shot were already planned out for me, however the introduction was not, where i wanted to include footage for members of Art Alert and promote this side of the project. (Hard copies of storyboarding available).

Editing

This allowed me to quickly and easily, cut the sections I wanted from the mass amount of footage. And by highlighting each topic in different colours I was able to organise my work. Not only on paper, but also when it came to using premiere.

I chose to use different sequences for each topic, because I felt that it keep my work neat, and as I was planning to separate my work with boards anyway, I could just copy each sequence into one final one and they would still connect because of the boards.

After having looked through all the footage provided by my client, i went through and cut each section that i had written down, and placed them under the appropriate sequence heading in Premier. Once i had done this with all the footage i wanted to use, i started editing the clip together.

I found that when editing some of the footage i had selected did not fit in with the flow of the rest of the footage in that sequence. when this problem occured i chose to delete theses clips. i found this to be unfortunate as the clips where interesting, however i had to be harsh with the footage i used, so to keep on topic and remember that i was simply promoting the DVD, not trying to make the whole documentary DVD. Also i realised that i had too much footage selected so had to also delete some clips that fitted in with the promotional video but didn't really add anything to it.

When editing the clips together i found that some of the words that the interviewee said overlapped, especially in interviews with more than one person, the others seemed to talk before one had finished. i found this to be a problem. with some clips when i wanted to include what one person and said, but not what the person following had said you could just caught what the second person had said. i felt that this didnt look very professional and gave an untidy finish to my promotion video. when i asked my client about this, mick told me that he'd rather they were cut short on a word than the next word heard (for full promotional video client review see Final Promotional Video - Client Review post).

With this in mind i went over the whole of my final project and cut the clips as mick advised. to make sure that i cut each piece of footage as close to end of the word as possible i edited it frame by frame, by zooming in as much as possible. i found that editing my footage like this was time consuming however the end prodct was cleaner and more professional. doing it this way i was able to limit the number of cuts that had over lapping speech.

Boards 

As mentioned before i wanted to separate my promotional video with boards. i decided to create the boards in photoshop. From Jim Hickeys visit he informed us that if we were going to use text in our promotional videos, in either boards or titles, the text needs to all be the same, otherwise it can look unprofessional. with this in mind i set out to look for a font that suited the era i was focusing on - the 60's. 

straight away i went to a site called da font - i have used this site the past for fonts, and find it easy to use and it offers a larger range of unique and appropriate fonts to choose from. as soon as i entered the site i saw a font named Helen Queen K. i liked this straight away and felt that it reflect the era, especially the fashion. 

However when i entered the main title of my promotional video "The Coop Hall" in to the text box, i felt that it looked too over crowded. then i thought that i would change the font of the word 'the' to remove the overcrowded look. after searching through many fonts both on da font and the set fonts in photoshop i realised that there wasn't any other fonts or positioning that looked good. so i decided to look for another font all together.

When I spoke to my client once again he offered his opinion of the font. he said that a simple block font would look nice, it would reflect both the era and the font used on the coop hall sign itself. he also said that the text would look nice in a brown and the background a cream, as this were the main colours of the coop hall. when looking through da font once again i decide to look in themes to restrict my search. i chose the theme 'Retro' as i felt that this would reflect the era.




with Mick being there when i was looking through fonts allowed him to chose a font that he like, and match the font to the feel that he wants from the final promotional video. the font he chose was called 'Mouse Deco' - i personally feel suited the promotional video perfectly.

I then downloaded this font and opened it in photoshop. Before i started anything on my font in photoshop i needed to choose the colours. As mick said that he want the colours to reflect the colours on the coop hall itself, i decided to open a photo of the coop hall up in photoshop, then use the eyedropper tool to find an exact cream and brown seen in a photo of the coop hall. i felt that this was the best way to obtain the colours instead of trying to create my own.

When i had done this the colours were then saved to my swatches and i could create my boards. using the text from da font that Mick had chosen i typed the coop hall up and changed the colours to the brown and cream. 

This is the final outcome. 

When I shown this to Mick he really liked it and said that the colours and the font really worked well and gave the feel to the video that he wanted. I feel the simply text added more to the promotional video and fitted in better that the fancier text I chose to begin with.

I did this with all of my boards to keep them the same and the theme running throughout so that it looked professional, like Jim Hickey suggested.

The Logo Board

When i came to the opening board i wanted to introduce the company that the documentary and exhibition was being ran by. So I went online and looked for Art Alerts logo. this was easy enough to find. when i came to adding this to the cream background i had to use the Lasso tool to outline the Art Alert logo, then copied the background-less logo onto the cream background. 

When receiving a permission slip from Art Alert i noticed at the top that they had included, not only their own logo, but also the logo of their sponsors, The National Lottery, Heritage Lottery Fund. I felt that to keep my promotional video to the standard of Art Alert to include the Heritage Lottery Fund logo that they had on my logo board also. This would also give the audience more information about Art Alert an what they are all about straight away.

I wanted to still keep with the brown and cream colouring so wrote the text in brown and copied in the logo. This is the end product. 

End Board

Like in the promotional video i had analysed i wanted to include contact information at the end, as well as the location and date of the DVD release exhibition - as this is what i was promoting. I obtained all this information when I did my Art Alert interview (see Art Alert Interview - Footage review post).

Reflection

I spent longer on the boards than i would have liked to, as i felt that this was not the main part of the promotional video. However this did not set me back to much in developing the promotional video. i feel that the final boards created fit in with the rest of the promotional video and help to bring it all together. from watching and analysing pre-existing promotional video i noticed that all of them had information at both the beginning and the end of the video. i feel that i have done this successfully, providing information to the audience about the DVD exhibition and Art Alert.

I feel that when  if came to editing i needed everything to be organised and by adding sequences within my premier window i feel that i was able to work fast and efficiently to get the video finished in time for my client to view, review and tell me any changes that he would like doing to it.

By reviewing the clips provided before i had even begun editing and writing do the clips and sequences i wanted to include also help to organised my work and help me work more efficiently, enabling my client to see a finished promotional video way before the deadline, giving me enough time to make any changes to the video that my client was not happy with.

Overall i feel that my planning, when it came to the editing process, was very well planned out and organised - allowing me to edit quickly, and receive my clients opinions in enough time to make any changes to the final promotional video.