Filming and editing Friday 30th

On Friday 30Th January, we completed all the shots that we wanted to achieve according to our plan, as well as have an almost finished edited sequence on the Macs. Both me and Hannah focused our whole day on completing as much of advert 1, couple and the cat, in order to meet the deadline and give us enough time to complete re-shoots and final touches the following week. We found the process of constructing this advert a lot easier than the first advert we did because we had learned from the mistakes that we made when filming the first advert therefore made sure we did not make the same mistake. We also planned our time well, meaning that we could get on with filming and editing in order to finish the advert.

Filming
To begin with, we spent Period 1 in the Mac room in which we looked back on the opening sequence which we had already filmed. We used this time to improve the shots through editing as well as focus on which music we could possibly use for this advert. When going over the music we came across for the first advert, we thought that 'The One' by The Ting Tings would fit much better with this advert due to the pace and the light hearted feel that we wanted. The music has a 30second introduction which fits perfectly with the length of time that we have to work with, and the fact that it is intrumental means that we can afford to have diegetic sound in the advert which is what we originally wanted when we drew up our storyboards. During Period 1 we also organised ourselves and booked out a camera and tri-pod in order to avoid disappointment for filming later during the day. It also meant that we could fully charge the battery whilst we were editing on the Mac meaning that we can get straight on with filming.

During break and period 3-4 we met up with our actors, Lucy and Ben, and set off to Hannah's house and begun filming the rest of the advert. We progressively followed the storyboard and list of shots in order to ensure that we did not miss out any vital shots, as well as to have a set order which will make it easier for us to find when uploaded onto the Macs. When filming this advert, we took some similar ideas to that of the previous advert such as the close up of the hands touching. This is a way of further linking the adverts together because they follow a similar plot line and all revolve around the couples affections.

From the early shots that we did for this advert, we knew that the shots with the cat in were going to be much harder to shoot. To overcome this, we left the camera running whilst we set the cat into position. This meant that we didn't miss the shot and we can pick the part that we want to use when it comes to editing it on the macs. It also saves us time especially when the cat becomes restless and acts unpredictably!

Unlike the other advert, according to our storyboard, there was a lot more diegetic sound in this advert due to the speech between the characters. Whilst filming we did a variety of shots in which the actors would speak and ones in which they didn't. We found that we did not want to have too much speech as this could bring the focus away too much, however we wanted to keep dialogue in the vital points of the adverts such as when the boy says 'you smell gorgeous' because this is the key 'joke' of the whole advert.

Editing
Once we had finished all the shots that we needed for our advert, we went back to the Mac suite to upload the footage and start putting it together. Firstly, we put all the shots that we wanted into an order without editing them so that we could get a rough idea of how it would look like and follow. We were pleased that we had all the shots we needed meaning that if any more filming needs to be done, it would be re-shoots. We were also pleased that we had a variety of shots, from mid shots to close ups, meaning that we are meeting the codes and conventions of an advert. One problem that we found was that the lighting was slightly different to some of our earlier shoots due to the sunlight being brighter and/or lighter. The change in lighting is especially evident in the jingle part of the advert because it appears much darker than the rest of shots. We have however, decided to keep it like this because these shots are all together in the same place and it isn't drastic enough to change it.

Now that we had a rough layout of the sequence of the advert, we began editing it by making the shots much shorter than the original. Without the editing, we had more than double the amount of time that we needed, therefore we had to do a lot of editing in order for the advert to flow and fit into the 30-40 second time that we have to work with. Due to our variety of shots which we did during the filming process, we had more than enough shots to work with meaning that when cutting, we could have several different shots which would tell the story, rather than having one shot which is too long meaning that the actors are telling the story, not the camera. For example, we have split the 'handing over the drink' shots into two different shots: one is a mid shot of the girl handing the boy a drink, the second being a close up as the hands touch in the drink exchange. Another example is the kissing part of the advert which begins with the boy leaning in as if to kiss the girl. This is then followed by a shot of the girl leaning in to the kiss from a different angle, followed by another shot of the boy bending down to get the cat, and ending with another shot of the girl being grumpy. We found that by doing this, it is much more effective because the camera tells the story. Furthermore, it allows us to squeeze in as many shots as possible meaning that it engages the audience much more. In comparison to the first advert we did, couple on a bench, this advert has much more shots and includes a lot more than the previous one without it being over complicated.

After spending time getting the sequence together, and watching it over in order to make it fit well, we moved on to adding the voice over. This was less time consuming than before because we already had the voice over saved onto Itunes from the previous advert. Importing the voice over was simple, however once we added the voice over into the sequence we had a problem of fitting it in with the action. This is because, unlike the previous advert, the shots were quicker meaning that the beginning part of the voice over did not fit. Me and Hannah therefore added the 'Shake, Click, Fresh, Ahh' to fit with the action, but left the rest of the voice over to finish for another day. At this point, we may either make the shots slightly longer to fit the voice over in, or re-do a new voice over to fit with what we already have.

Once part of the voice over was put into place, we then had to find the diegetic sound. The reason why we had to do this was because when we uploaded the footage, the sounds for each clip went faulty meaning that the sounds did not match the correct clips. We therefore found the clip in which the 'you smell gorgeous' sound was on, and had to extract the sound in order to put it onto the right shot in our sequence. To begin with, it was a bit of a problem because of the lip syncing, however we soon managed to make it match.

After doing this, we decided to add in the music 'The One' by The Ting Tings from our previous discussions of the song. We uploaded the music and put it against the advert, and surprisingly it fitted really well and did not need much editing to it, except for the end due to the instrumental part ending too soon. One problem that we encountered once we added the music was that it was too overpowering meaning that the voice over could not be heard very well because it has to compete with the sound of the music. We therefore, on Adobe Premier, made the soundtrack slightly quieter, but not so quiet that there is a drastic change with the rest of it. We then went onto Sound booth and imported the voice over into the programme. Using this software, it enabled us to made the sound louder so that it can be clearly heard over the music. Once we editing the volume of the voice over, we imported it back into Adobe premier and put it back in place accordingly.

After all the time we spend working on the advert on Friday the 30th it left us with the following things to do for the following weeks:

-Make the beginning of the voice over fit with the action
-Edit the end of the soundtrack so that it doesn't cut off too early
-Show what we have to teachers/students for opinions on improvements