Where we are up to...

We are currently doing the final touches on advert 2. We have completed all the filming and all the shots in our advert are completed and we are happy with all the shots that we have. In order to be fully completed, we need to sort out the voiceover by editing it to fit perfectly with the action and by choosing the voice that we are happy to use in all three of our adverts. In addition to this, we currently have backing music on our advert, The One by The Ting Tings, however due to our advert not having much diegetic music, we wanted to have a song which has suitable lyrics that has a natural pause in it so that the voiceover can be played over the top. The song also needs to fit with the pace of the advert in order for it to flow well. We are also at the stage where we are organizing times to meet up with our actors for us to begin filming our other two adverts. Me and Hannah plan to use a similar work plan as we did for advert 2, because we felt that the way be went about making the advert worked well for us, because we were both able to have an equal amount of input towards the work meaning that we were both happy with the progress. Ultimately this resulted in us having an almost finished piece of work which we are happy with.

We thought we would meet the deadline, however because we did not find the music that we wanted, we have not been able to fully complete the advert. The reason why we did not meet the deadline was because were unable to find music that fitted well with the advert. In order to sort this out, we both need to do a lot more research of music, and also need to pick out a selected few and try it against out work because this will make it easier for us to establish whether or not we like the music for our advert or not. The voiceover has also caused us to be a bit behind with meeting the deadline because we did not leave enough time to do the voiceover, meaning that we had to rush when it came to learning how to use the Edirol and experimenting with it and ultimetely finding someone to use for our voiceover. We do have voices that we like, and therefore put them into our advert to see the effect that it has.


Plans for January

In January, we plan to get the filming for Advert 1 and 2 underway as soon as we get back from our Christmas holiday. Our aim is to film both of them at the same time because they are both at the same location so it makes it easier for us to do so. Once we have some footage for the adverts, we want to edit them on the Macs like we did for advert 2. The thing which we will do differently this time, is that we are going to edit advert 1 whilst continuing to film for the other advert. This will makes things much easier because whilst we are editing advert 1, the rough cuts of advert 3 will be on the Mac's meaning that once advert 1 is completed for our next deadline, we will already be ahead when it comes to working on our final advert.

Advert 2 so far

This is a video of Advert 2 so far. Excuse the low quality setting!



We are not far from finishing this. The main thing which we need to do is sort out the music. We also need to edit voice overs to fit exactly with the action (especially towards the end where it is a delayed 'ahhh') We have other voice overs which we are going to try as the one we have now is a bit too quiet.

There is also one shot which we are going to replace/edit as we've just noticed that there is a shadow of the tri-pod! We have literally just added in the shot of the geek walking into the shot and sitting next to his girlfriend. The end of this shot needs to be edited in order for it to fit nicely with the shot that is immediately after it. However, this is the shot with the shadow of the tri-pod in it, so we will end up using one of the other shots. :]

The music is also going to change. We have decided to change our original idea of having only an instrumental song, to having a song with a combination of instrumental parts and vocals. We have decided to do this because the characters in the adverts do not speak therefore we need to have some sort of lyrics. In addition to this, we will also have to include some diegetic sound, preferable in the reactions of the characters and the jingle part of the advert in order to achieve and aspect of realism.

In comparison to our original storyboard, it has changed a lot. We were originally following the storyboard however as we were carry out the shots, we didn't feel like it was flowing very well and the shots did not match the codes and conventions of the advert. We had too many long and mid shots meaning that we had to change this so that we had more close ups instead. The jingle part of the storyboard, from when the geek takes the mints out of his pockets onwards, is still the same as our original storyboard and we found that this worked well even when we came to filming it.

Re-shooting problems & Voiceover/Music

Our original plan was to do our last 2 re-shoot last week, however we had to prospone this to the following week due to problems that kept occurring on the days that we wanted to film. We were originally going to film on Tuesday, however the weather was so bad that we couldn't film the re-shoots because the rain was too heavy meaning that the shots would have been completely different to the shots that we already have. Due to our failure in re-shooting, we used our time to continue editing our sequence.

After Tuesday's shooting being a disaster, we planned to film either Wednesday or Thursday, however due to drama rehearsals and exams, we couldn't find a time in which one of our actors was free at the same time as us, therefore we had to again cancel the session and arrange to film the following week.

Rather than wasting time waiting for the re-shoots to be completed, me and Hannah decided to move forward with our advert by experimenting with the voice over and music. We searched the Internet to find suitable music for our advert. It is important that the music fits with the pace of the advert, as well as give a light hearted feel to it. We also do not want to use too many lyrics within the advert, however we may have instrumental and lyric parts to the song due to our advert not having much diegetic sound. Two of our favourites so far which we have experimented have been Scouting for girls-Heartbeat and The ting tings-be the one. We are in the process of searching for more love related songs.

In addition to this we tried adding a voice over to the 'jingle' part of our advert. Using the Edirol we recorded people saying our 'jingle' and then transferred it onto the Mac's and put it as audio against the sequence. We had some problems when doing this, because the pace in which some of the people were saying the jingle did not match the action. Even though we can edit this on the macs, we made the recording process easier for our volunteer voice overs by showing them the advert as they say the jingle. This allows them to understand the pace a lot better, meaning that the way they say the jingle is much clearer and understandable. Our favourite voice so far is that of Mr Michie and Atia. The voice over fits well for a first attempt, except for the part right at the end which will need a bit of editing. We are still going to try a variety of voices and pick the best one. We want to have the same person for all three adverts, so we have to make sure that whoever we choose is easy to get hold of when we need them.

Voiceover and music

We are in the process of listening to a variety of different 'love' music to fit with out advert and have decided that we want to use an instrumental version. The best way for us to decide which music to use is by playing it alongside the action and see what sounds most effective. We also need to bear in mind that the music has to fit in with the pace of the actions.

Me and Hannah are looking for someone to do the voiceover. We are preferably looking for a male voice, however if we can fine a female we will give it a try. The voice has to be confident, persuasive, and trustworthy in order to sell the product to viewers.
If you would like to do it or know anyone who would like to do it, then please let us know ASAP!

MORE re-shoots & Filming for Advert 1

This week we are going to re-shoot another two shots for advert 2. (couple on the bench) We need to shoot the very end shot of the advert where the couple embrace in a kiss/hug after the geek has taken the mint. This portrays the effects of the mint and shows a confident, happy boy/couple. The other re-shoot is when the boy is entering the shot. We have already done a re-shoot for this, however the shot was not effective because their heads were cut off meaning that the shot didn't really have any real purpose, we are therefore going to re-shoot this as a long shot.

In addition to this, we are going to film advert 1 (couple and the cat.) We aim to get a couple of shots from the beginning of the advert, and perhaps make a start on advert 3 (couple meets the parents) in order to have some rough cuts of the two remaining adverts.

We plan to do these shots this week, mainly on Tuesday 2nd December during our morning frees as these are the days when everybody is free and it won't clash with any other events happening that week. We are going to do the re-shoots first as this is a priority for us to complete this advert and get it out of the way. However, it will not take long to do the final 2 shots for this advert, so we will have enough time to start on the other two.

:]