Shooting Schedule - More Reshoots

Currently we have got the main bulk of advert 2 complete, it is now just a case of re-shooting a few shots, editing those re-shoots, adding voice overs and music, and final touches. After going over what we have, these are the re-shoots that we will be doing this week and why we are re-shooting that particular shot:

Date: Tuesday 25Th November
Time: Morning free periods
People present: Me, Hannah, Lucy & Ben
Task: Re shoots for advert 2 are as follows
Shot 1-Girl looking at her watch. Do this as a low angle shot.
We have changed to this because the lighting didn't work to our advantage, and it will be more effective if the audience can actually see the time and are looking more from the girl's point of view.

Shot 4-Boy walking into shot and sitting down next to girl on bench. Do this as a mid-shot.
We have changed to this because the shot we currently have is too much of a close up meaning that you don't see the male character enough

After shot 6-Girl's facial expression after boy has held her hand. Do this as a close up of her face.
We have changed to this shot because once the male character comes into the shot, it looks like its all about him (with his bad breath etc) and the girl is slightly 'blanked' out, therefore we will include her facial expression to emphasise her flirty actions and to remind the audience that the couple are going out and the girl in a way expects to kiss him. (until she smells his bad breath of course!)

Shot 11-Girl fans her face after smelling boy's bad breath when he leans in for a kiss. Do this as a close up.
We have decided to change to this because the shot we have now makes her looked shocked, however it needs to be made clearer to the audience that she is rejecting him due to bad breath, and this simple action will immediately show this.

Ending shot-Couple are on bench, they are kissing and boy turns to camera looking like a happy lad! He is holding the mint packet.
We have changed to this because we are cutting the shots where the girl stomps off in disgust because this was telling to much, therefore we need an end shot of the couple on the bench, but this time the kiss goes to plan for our geek!

Practice 'jingle'

Here is the first sequence that we did of our jingle of 'shake, click, fresh, ahh' We did this just to see what it could possibly look like and here it is:



Normally, in the final shot we would use a fan to create a 'wind' effect rather than the hands. Our aim was to find out roughly how long this part of the advert was going to be so that we know the remaining time left for other footage. We thought this was a good idea to test because we are using this in all three of our adverts as our 'jingle.' When we were filming this, we tried out different ways of 'shaking and clicking' the packet to see which was more effective. We found that the above (video) ways of holding the mint were the best because if there was logo or text then you can see it, meaning that audience knows what we are advertising. However, when filming the jingle within the actual advert we experimented with different angles in order to meet the codes and conventions of an advert by having a variety of close ups, which differs to the one above which are shots all from the same angle. It is important to consider that because we are making the advert, we will not be in any of our adverts and that in one of the three adverts, a boy will be doing the jingle, so we have to consider ways of showing the effects of the mint other than through the hair.

More editing

Editing
Last week we did more editing than filming. We have progressed in our editing as we now have our advert more or less put together. At the moment, there are several gaps in between because they are either the shots that we still need to film or we are not happy with the shot and want to re shoot that particular one. We have not yet added any transitions in into our advert, however due to the shots being too long and making the pace of the advert too slow, we have cut almost all of our shots using the software. This means that the advert flows much better, it gives us more time to work with (as we can include more shots) and it allows us to get rid of bad beginnings and ends of shots.

One problem that we are facing with the editing is that our advert seems to be getting too long. At the moment, it is longer than what it would actually be because we have left gaps in between some shots and not all the shots have been cut yet. However, once we put them all together, we will have to eliminate the shots which are not really necessary in order to make the advert much shorter. We have already started to do this by removing shots which don't really have a purpose in the advert or if we have a shot which is already similar to it. In our original storyboard we have an 'end screen' however we may have to remove this because our advert will be too long if we use this. Alternatively, we could remove some shots in order to make space for the 'end screen' because this would be selling the product to the audience perhaps more so than the shots of the couple. I think that we are going to try out both possibilities to see which is more effective.

There are some re-shoots to be done over the next week or so, however during the editing process, the shots which need re-shooting are still in the sequence so that we know what fits in where as well as it just being a temporary shot so we can have a rough idea of what it will look like. Whilst I was editing I noticed that you could change the colour of the clips by going onto the edit drop down menu, clicking label and then choosing the colour. This has helped us a lot because we have colour coded our sequence in order for us to find clips easily, and know which ones we are keeping and which are temporary. We have used a pink coloured label to identify those shots that we will be re-shooting, whilst the other clips are in a blue label colour, as they are the ones that we are happy with.

More filming

Filming
We went filming on Wednesday 19Th and decided to do some of our re-shoots. We had already previously written down the shots which we felt needed re-shooting and used this to help us on the day. Luckily, the weather worked to our advantage because the sun wasn't out and it was more dull like the second time we went filming meaning that the shots won't have as much of a 'light' contrast between them! One problem that we did face was the battery on the camera. When we went to book out a camera earlier in the day, most of them have either a very low battery, or a completely empty battery. We a battery to charge however this wasn't really useful because we had planned to go filming there and then, so we didn't want to waste time waiting for the battery to be charged. Next time, we are going to make sure that we book out a camera the lesson before we want to use it (only if we can quickly pop up to the office before our lesson) in order to give us the maximum time to film. Luckily, after a lot of rummaging through batteries and camera's, we found a battery with about 45-55 minutes left on the battery and used this. It was really annoying however, because when we were trying to get the shot angles right, we couldn't leave the camera on for too long because we didn't have much time left on it before it would die meaning that some of our shots seemed a bit rushed. Another disadvantage was that we couldn't film the end of our advert like we had planned because by the time we had done our re-shoots, the battery was more or less dead and there was no point in starting to film the end part. We overcome this problem by switching off the camera after every shot that we filmed in order for the battery to not be wasted and the fact that we knew what we wanted to re-shoot made it a lot easier because weren't having to worry about what shot we had to film next. We planned to upload and edit the new footage onto the macs the following day, on Thursday, however ended up not doing this, so we plan to do it on Monday of next week. In addition to this, despite feeling like we had to rush our shots, on Thursday we watched the footage on the camera, and the majority of the shots turned out the way we wanted it too, however we aren't getting our hopes up because when we upload onto the Mac's we always have to criticise what we are seeing!!

Editing

We have uploaded all the footage that we have filmed so far onto the Macs. We aim to upload the footage the same day we have filmed it or ASAP in order to avoid us from filming over what we have already done and to allow us to edit what we have whilst we continue filming the rest of the advert. So far, we have put together and edited some of our shots. Me and Hannah are happy with our improved shots because there are more close ups and they look much more effective that the long shots which we originally had. Unfortunately we cannot use any of the footage from shoot 1 because we changed the clothing of the characters, the characters were acting more than there were camera shots and the shots did not meet the codes and conventions because there were more long shots than close ups. We have found that we need to shoot some extra shots in order to make the sequence flow better and re-shoot some shots which we are not fully happy with. We have filmed and edited the 'jingle' of our advert with one of our actors, however we want to try it with him saying the words 'shake click fresh ahh' because at the moment it seems a bit bland. We have not yet decided if we want him to say the words over the microphone or whether to re-shoot the shots yet. We are going to continue putting together a sequence for the advert and editing it to fit our needs. We are also going to experiment with the programme in order to do our 'end title screen' and we are considering using photo shop to achieve what we wanted it to look like.

Advert 2 - Shoot 3 & 4

Yesterday (Tuesday 12Th November), and today (Wednesday 13Th November) we went and continued filming for advert 2 and have uploaded the footage that we have done over the last two days onto the macs during our last free, period 7.

On both days we continued filming for advert two, and are on our way to having completed the filming, although of course there is more than likely going to be a few re-shoots. One problem that we are facing with the filming is that due to our advert being set outside, it is important that the weather is similar every time we shoot otherwise it looks weird and you can tell that we have been shooting on separate days. On Tuesday we had a problem because the wind was really strong and this means that you can hear the sound of the wind on almost every shot. This is a problem because if we want to have an aspect of realism in our adverts we will not be able to use the original sound because it doesn't fit with the action/advert and it sounds really bad. To overcome this, we may have to re-shoot the shots or we could alternatively use the sound from another clip and add it on to the footage which we like because this will avoid us having to go out and re-shoot. On the other hand, the sound which we replace the original with may not fit in very well with the action.
The other problem that we had was also weather related. On Wednesday is was quite sunny whereas on the other days that we went filming, it was a lot more misty. This caused problems because it made the shots appear too bright, and our actors kept squinting at the sun. We tried to over come the problem by attempting to make shade on the 'set' by using an umbrella and material/coats to block out the sun, however this wasn't always successful as in some of the shots you can see shadows which makes the shot look even worse than when the sun was shining on it. This is really frustrating, as despite us having filmed several of the same shot, it is limiting the ones we can use due to faults like that.
During our filming, we filmed the same shot twice and kept it going for longer than what the shot would really last for on the advert. We did this in a lot of shots because we felt that it is important to have enough for us to choose the best shot, and in case something ruins the shot, we have another one to use. The reason why we also keep the shots long is because when we press the record button on or off at the beginning and end of each shot, we tend to shake the camera a little meaning that it ruins the shot. However, by making the shot last longer, we can cut this on the Macs and only use the part that we want to use.
During the filming which we did on these two days, we have noticed how we have experimented with different shots meaning that we are slightly going off what our original storyboard looks like. We are still following our storyboard and scripting as a guide however as we do so we keep thinking of other ideas which look better than the original. Another reason why we have changed some shots when filming is because when we upload footage onto the Mac's it does not always come out the way we want it to, for example the long shot of the couple at the beginning of the advert did not meet the codes and conventions and was not effective at all, therefore we have to think of alternatives to improve the advert.




We plan to continue filming for advert 2 next week, and also continue planning days for re-shooting, editing, and the start of filming advert 1.

Our mint packet

We have got to the point where we are needing the mint packet in order to continue filming the 'jingle' part of our advert therefore today the finishing touches were made to our packet. It was quite easy to do, we simply got a large empty tic tac container, covered the pack using card to suit our liking, stuck it together and finally added the name of our mint. Here it is:







We have used green as our main colour sceme mainly because it has connotations of freshness and indicates the 'mint' flavour. We also felt that it would look odd if we had a combination of random colours so decided to stick with different shades of the same colour. The black writing is used to stand out, and the word 'new' is in red in order to attract people to the new product. As you can see, there are little images or specific detail because we want to emphasise the simplicity of the mint.

5th November - 'Tester' Jingle on Mac's

Today (5th November) me and Hannah used one of our free's to go onto the Mac's and begin to put together our 'tester' of our jingle. ('shake, click, fresh, ahhh') We have managed to cut some of the clips and put together a small sequence however we stil need to add transitions, voiceover and/or music to it. This 'tester' will aid us when we create our actual jingle, because it is present in all adverts therefore it is important that we experiment, as well as to help us work out how to use some of the tools on the adobe premier software because it is a programme that neither me or Hannah have worked with before. We stuggled to use the software at the beginning however the more we play around with it the more we learn from it and the easier it becomes to use. :] Once we have completed this little 'tester' i'll upload it onto this blog.

Advert 2 - Shoot 2

Today (5th November) we went out and did some more filming. We were really organised today as we fully charged the camera which we wanted to book out so that there was no risk of it going dead half way through filming and we also organised to go out filming with our actors well in advance to avoid disappointment. We noticed that this organisation made the overall filming a lot easier because it meant that we could just get along with it.

Unlike the first shoot, despite the depressing weather, we spent more time filming different shots and shot angles in order to get a variety for us to choose from when we edit. The filming went well as we got more footage than we did the first time and we filmed more CU shots in order to allow the camera to tell the story rather than the actors and hopefully these will be much better than the first ones we did. In some cases, we got slightly diverted from our storyboard and began experimenting with different shots because when we were on location we began to consider more potentially effective shot angles etc.

Originally, we planned to upload the footage from today's shooting onto the Mac's however we failed to do so because we had problems getting the camera connected to the Mac and onto the software. We also had a huge crisis when we thought we had the tape stuck in one of the camera's, but after about 15 minutes worth of investigating the camcorder, we found out that the tape was stuck because the battery on the camera was too low to operate. We have learned from this incident that rather that wasting time trying to find out how something works we should either move on to something else or try and find help so that we don't waste editing time as well as get less stressed out!!

Plans for tomorrow...
Seeing as we didn't upload the footage onto the Mac's today, me and Hannah are going to use our free's (either P2 or P3) to upload the footage.

Timetable

To aid us in our shooting schedule, we made a mini timetable of the days and times that hannah, our actors (lucy and ben) and myself have frees. This will help us plan our shooting schedule (see posts below) as well as find an appropriate time for re-shooting which is vital in the later stages of the production.

Below is a chart that I created which shows the frees that we all have. This means that when we are planning shootings etc, I can look at this and know who is available. The spaces marked with an X indicate the fact that we do not have matching and/or any frees and limited time that day therefore these are they days which we will focus on editing moreso than filming. :]




Drama Studio's
We also found out when the drama studio's are free because we want to know what we are doing by the time we come to film advert 3. Me and Hannah went to see the drama teachers to find out the days and times DS3 is available, however we have to consider that this free space is likely to change at any time.

P2/7 Friday
P6/7 Tuesday
All lunch times

As you can see, the times we can use the space is very limited therefore we may need to have an alternative location in the event of the drama studio's not being free.

Advert 2 - Shoot 1

Today we did our first bit of filming towards advert 2 (couple on a bench) and uploaded this footage onto the Mac's. We used our storyboard to aid us in the filming and for the first shooting, it didn't go too badly however a lot of work needs to be done and improvement is necessary as the shots were not perfect. We managed to film a couple of shots which are equivalent to shots 1-6 on our storyboard. Unfortunately, the lighting didn't work to our advantage on some of the shots because the faces of the characters appeared a bit bright in all the mid and long shots. When we next film, we will avoid this situation by not having so many mid and long shots except for the opening 3-4 seconds of the advert. This is because the codes and conventions of an advert would mainly consist of close ups and extreme close ups therefore it is important that we follow this in order to make ours as professional as possible. We followed our storyboard, however in doing so, we ended up having shots which were really long and full of acting. We didn't film enough shots from different angles, meaning that it goes against the codes and conventions. From this, we have learned that we need to rely less on the acting done by the actors, and focus more on using the camera effectively in order to engage and tell the audience what is happening.

In addition to this, some of our shots seemed a bit wonky/shaky due to us touching and/or holding the camera as it was filming. It is important that we do not let this happen because it makes the shot look unprofessional and rushed. We also have to make sure that in our next shooting, the tri pod etc is set up properly to avoid any sort of movement of the camera. I also noticed that there wasn't much sound in our filming apart from the natural surroundings. Originally, we just wanted a backing tune and a voiceover on the advert, however if we do not include a bit of sound from the characters, such as laughter or flirty sounds the make, then we could lack the aspect of verisimilitude.

Me and Hannah also made some 'tester' shots of our jingle of 'shake, click, fresh, ahh' In all three adverts we have a close up of the hand doing these actions and then consuming the mint to get freshness, therefore we have tried out our 'vision' of what we wanted it to look like today. Hannah took charge of the filming while I performed the 'jingle' sequence. This part of the filming turned out well, if not better, that the filming of the main body of the advert. The shots were clear, and with a bit of editing and an added voice over, it will be a good draft for us to work with. One improvement for this part of the advert is that the shots of the hand shaking and clicking the mints could be more of an ECU as this fits in with the codes and conventions more and it will make the audience focus on the mints.

Costumes

Me and Hannah have done a plan as to what costumes the characters will need for each advert. It is important that we know what advert we are filming each time we go out so that we can bring in the correct props and costume because the characters needs to look the same throughout the whole advert.

Male Character (boyfriend)

Advert 1: T-shirt, jeans, trainers, glasses
Advert 2: Black jacket, jeans, trainers, glasses
Advert 3: Shirt, bow tie, trousers, shoes





Female character (girlfriend)

Advert 1: Hoodie, jeans
Advert 2: Coat, jeans, ugg boots
Advert 3: Pink shirt, jeans, black shoes





Female character (mother)

Advert 3: Smart clothing, 'mumsie' clothes

The reason why have chosen these types of clothing is because it is what our target audience are most likely to wear, therefore they can connect to it more. We also wanted to keep the clothing quite simple and easy to get hold of. If we find that the costume doesn't fit with the action then we may change them a bit later on.




Overall, in Ad 1 we wanted the characters to look comfy and at home which is why the clothing is very casual. In Ad 2, they are outside on a bench therefore we have made the outfits more outside wear by making them wear coats and warm clothing. Finally, in Ad 3 we have chosen to have the character's look smarter because they are trying to give a good impression on the parent.