Adam Butt

Essentially the process started off when we were told that we had to get into groups to plan and produce a radio show that included music and subjects of discussion of our choice. We could choose the percentage of music and the percentage of discussion, but we were told for the purpose of this project that we would have to have more discussion than music, but this didn't really happen in the end of our radio show as we ran out of time and didn't have enough subjects to discuss or expand on.

We obtained information about local bands and solo artists as well as ones that used to be local. This information was from various sources including the internet and the Bridgwater Mercury newspaper. My group was a group of four and the target audience were 16-35 year olds due to the type of music played and the topics of discussion would appeal mostly to that age group. We also listed some local gigs in the area. Our show was called 'Access to Avalon'.

A particularly useful source was lemonrock.com which is a website that lists gigs, bands, solo artists and DJ's. To find information about past and future gigs, bands, solo artists and DJ's in our local area we typed in the search term 'Somerset' into the search box provided on the website's home page and it displayed loads of useful information, some of which we used and other bits we didn't. This source was recommended by one of our group members. We also used Facebook to communicate effectively with fellow group members and to find local solo artists and bands and ones that used to be local.

To make sure there was a natural flow it was decided not to have a proper script for our show. Instead we used improvisation so it seemed like a genuine real conversation. We also used a combination of notes and my rough introduction that I typed up that developed into more of a rough outline of the whole show rather than the introduction. These were used as prompts and pointers to guide us so there would be less delays and pauses, and there would be less risk of people not knowing what to say.

We had limited resources at the location where we were situated so we had to make do with a newspaper and making notes as there were no computers whatsoever apart from the laptops which people brought in. I think our team worked well under pressure under the circumstances and with the limited time that we had, so we managed our time well and effectively, especially since this was the first time any of us had worked at a proper radio station.

The kit and equipment was hard to handle and I mucked up with the SFX as I played the wrong beds at the wrong times but my group members assisted me on changing them to the correct beds in the end. We didn't even get far enough to use a single punctuator (which separates songs) or sweeper (which separates commercials). We had a lowdown segment at the start before our show started followed by a music positioner which was a compilation of the type of music played on the station. We didn't have any promos. Another group member used faders to fade between the discussions and the music. He was operates the mixing/sound desk. He answered questions, added the occasional comment and talked about a recent interview he conducted with a local act. The whole show was hypothetical so it will never be broadcast on their radio station and the interview the group member conducted was made up as he has never really met the local artist and he never really conducted an interview with him.

My role was originally going to be one of the main people speaking into the microphone but I was demoted to the person who operates the touch screen (which has software on it which was especially created for the radio station) and the person who adds the occasional comment when asked questions. We had three microphones and two headphones as the third set of headphones was taken by a person recording in a different studio. We had two main presenters.

I didn't really 'get' the whole experience and it's just made me think radio is harder than I originally thought. It makes me not want to go into it more so now. People treated me like I was stupid but I never done anything much like that in my life. I felt like they expected too much of me and for me to know it off by heart. There was an issue raised of time wasting but I didn't think that was really my fault as it wasn't made clear who should go down to the studio to inspect the technical aspects where and when. It was really discreet with people just slipping off whenever really. We did swap roles and nobody was prepared for that and it wasn't mentioned whether we could swap roles or not so we did anyway as we thought it would be easier that way in the long run. It would've been better if all of us could have gone down in groups into the studio before the day of the actual recording regardless if whether your role was technical or not. They could've explained the technical aspects to everyone rather than just the technical people to avoid any mess ups or confusion so if the chance of a role change arised there wouldn't be an issue. It just seemed the whole thing was too much sitting around and not enough action just waiting for the studio to be available. We could've been doing something more constructive but we couldn't because of the lack of resources.

Essentially the whole project started off with myself getting into a group with two other people. We then had to come up with an idea for a film that would promote a local charity known as BIBIC who are low on funds at the moment so primarily it was to raise more awareness of the charity as a whole.

Our film and the films other people made in our class reflect what BIBIC does and what it stands for and how it has helped and touched the lives of so many people, mainly families. The main purpose of these films was to raise awareness of the many learning and neurological conditions the charity has to deal with on a daily basis. These include things such as dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, Aspergers, Autism, ADP and ADHD. Dyscalculia makes you get your numbers mixed up and makes you not be as good at Maths as some other people are, and not as quick and fast either. Dyspraxia and dyslexia effects the brain and certain body parts such as the arms, hips, legs and shins. Sometimes it makes people unable to walk as effectively as everyone else. It effects posture, balance and strength, some people get bullied and get called weak as their punches aren't a strong and some other peoples, but in fact it's the condition that is causing this. Some people with these conditions attend co-ordination groups to improve their strength, posture and balance. These two conditions are usually caused by a person's brain growing in a slightly different posistion to the everyday person.

In order to reflect as much of this as possible, we decided to make a documentary style film that we edited down to about 5 minutes long. In this film we have people with these conditions being interviewed and explaining their different experiences that they have each had and how it effects their daily lives. They also identify some of the positive elements about having some conditions. The people with the conditions we interviewed included myself, another person in my group and someone from Shapwick School which is a school just for dyspraxic and dyslexic people. Some of the positives of having these conditions include typing and reading really fast and remembering random facts and opinions, but at the end of the day it all depends on the individual.

We also filmed an interview with a therapist from BIBIC called Graham Valentine and he talked about many things including his many job roles, what he does and what conditions he deals with and has the most knowledge about. We decided to zoom in on the shots of him talking so it was more of a mid/medium shot as opposed to the wide shot what it was originally. This was to make it look more professional. Plus we used the green screen and chroma keyed the BIBIC logo and an old paper background into the background. Graham was sat on a bog standard classroom chair during the interview but when we zoomed in you couldn't see the chair anymore.

We then edited in some footage from another interview that another group had filmed and this was of Simone Joyce who works at BIBIC explaining how wonderful BIBIC is as a charity and how much they helped her son who has one of these conditions. She basically calls them 'life savers' and 'angels'. For each person we interviewed we had a bit of text fading in and out stating their names and what they do/what their job role is. We have already exported one version as a Quicktime movie but hope to export another version that is much better quality and looks more professional. This will involve doing things like more chroma keying to get rid of and remaining purple and green parts and adding credits in. We will also create a survey on Survey Monkey to see how much people know about certain conditions and we will analyse the results and this can be used as research.

Before we did any of this though we came up with a proposal of our idea of what we were going to do, and we did presentations, mind maps, storyboards, shot lists, risk assessments and some of the other pre-production paperwork as not all of it was necessary for this particular project. We came up with a production schedule in the form of a calendar too and wrote in what days/dates we were going to do each task on. We made a list of cutaways too but when we came to filming them they didn't come out very good quality on the camera so we decided to disregard them and not include them in the final film so that it's more focused on the individuals who are speaking. As well as that we came up with a list of questions we would ask the therapist before we actually filmed the interview with him and the answers he gave to those questions became the main bulk of the interview we conducted with him we him expanding on every one massively and asking us to re-phrase certain questions. We needed to cut out quite of lot of what he was saying for the final film as he was talking for more than ten minutes. We took loads of notes during this project and made a to-do list of tasks we had to complete at one stage so we didn't forget to do anything (most of it was to do with the edit).

We created a question list for an interview we conducted and filmed with our learning support workers (Richard & Denise). None of this interview however reached the final edit as it was deemed unnecessary by our teacher as it was too much about the conditions and the college and not enough about BIBIC.

As well as chroma keying, in the edit we used loads of colour correction, cutting bits out and adding bits in, shortening and making clips longer, and cutting out a ton of footage where we thought people were just rambling and babbling. We added in loads of crossfades too, to both the visuals and the audio so it all ran much more smoothly.

As far as legal, ethical and moral obligations we can't have any content that is copyright or too offensive in our piece. Copyright infringement could lead to the college being sewed but also BIBIC and that wouldn't look good for a charity and it would have a bad effect on them as they are all ready low enough on funds as it is without having to deal with that. It could lead to them not wanting to work with the college again also, and that would leave us students in bad shape and give us a bad reputation. It's all about image, representation, appropriateness and how you present yourself to a client at the end of the day. It's not just appropriateness of the content of the film, but also appropriateness of image, body language and mannerisms. You also have to have positive and upbeat attitude and have a comprimising nature i.e. if a client suggests something and you don't like the idea of it just go along with it anyway, you never know it may turn out to look better than you expected in the end. You have to have a lot of enthusiasm and charisma too. You can't swear or be rude to the client either, and try to avoid swearing and rudeness in the videos as much as possible too. Try to focus more on the positives and not as much on the negatives, and don't film the babies themselves, just film people talking about them, as there would be a lot of paperwork involved with that that we want to try and avoid that we would have to sign and the babies parents would have to sign to give their consent for their child to be on camera.

During the Christmas holidays I discussed storyboards and shot lists with certain group members on social networking sites for the Bibic project we are undertaking in order to maintain group stability and communication throughout this disruptive period of time. One group member even sent me a detailed list of what shots we were going to use in our charity film and what was going to happen in those shots i.e. one person would move somewhere in one shot, then someone would speak in another shot etc... Through this I was able to create a storyboard by drawing rough sketches on the storyboard sheets and writing down most of the information the group member sent me underneath each sketch, meaning the appropriate information would be written under the corresponding sketch. The film itself will be each member of our group talking about his personal disability in different shots.

This is an update on what is happening with my showreel DVD that I am making to display all of my best work and the work that I am most proud of to examiners and potential interviewers and/or employers.

Well first off I started drafting some initial ideas in the form of storyboards and rough sketches of what I might want my DVD menus to look like. I came up with many ideas including a Crystal Maze idea, a Lord of the Rings dwarfes idea, a idea where people are standing outside the media block with different pieces of paper, a Burying the Past exploding van and gun firing idea, and finally a Death Star and Lightsaber idea from Star Wars. I decided to go with the lightsaber idea in the end, although whether I put the Death Star idea into it is yet to be decided as it depends if I have enough time to put it in there or not and whether there might be any copyright issues, but I doubt there would be as the clip is 10 seconds, maybe less.

I brought toy lightsabers into college and Alan (my teacher) bought in his force action one which lights up and makes sound effects, it's not a replica because you can still have duels with it, but it's close to one. The different lightsabers are supposed to represent different buttons on the DVD menu, meaning one of us would be corporate videos, the other would be multi camera productions, and the third would be single camera productions, as there were three of us stood there. If you select someone's particular button they would start dueling with one of the people stood next to him, and then it would go on to another menu.

The multi camera and single camera menus will be more lightsaber dueling and if I have time when a track is played on one of those menus then it will play the Death Star blowing up Alderaan sequence. The corporate videos menu will be different as I am currantly making a montage image of all of the clients faces that we filmed. You will basically have to select a clients face on this menu and whoever face you select will lead on to their corresponding company's corporate film and there is nothing in between.

We filmed the lightsaber dueling in the TV studio and we lit it with lighting and we had the green screen out, and I am currantly in the process of chroma keying out the green screen and putting Coruscant in the background (a planet on Star Wars, capital of the Republic). At the moment the lightsabers a disappearing but this will be solved soon as my friend is putting together some presets that I can use that will make them look like real lightsabers so they won't dissappear hopefully, basically special effects. We already have the neccessary lightsaber sound effects from Alan's lightsaber, and we might have some backing music on it, most probably 'Battle of the Heroes' by John Williams from 'Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith'. I am currantly in the process of putting the lightsaber clips into separate tracks and rendering them off and eventually they will all come together in the final DVD.

The two main programs I have being using for this project are DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro. I use Final Cut Pro for all the special effects, presets, rendering, cutting, the separation of tracks, chroma keying and adding in backing music amongst other things. I finally managed to work out how to have double ended arrows on DVD Studio Pro between menus and tracks, so you can get onto menus and tracks but you can also go back (return). Once a track has finished playing it goes back to the menu in which that track was played from.

I originally had my full length showreel that was 10 minutes long as my first play video (the first thing people see when you put the DVD in the machine). However, myself and the staff members decided it was way too long so I cut it down massively to less than 4 mins (3:53) to be exact and then put the cut down version on there as the first play video instead. Viewers have the option to watch the full ten minute version also in another menu called 'Bonus Content' and that menu will probably be more lightsaber dueling also and maybe the Death Star again. I originally planned to have a still image menu but I done away with that idea in the end as it seemed to make it far too complicated and it seemed a bit pointless. So the original 'home' button that would have been on the main menu that would have led back to the still image menu has now been discarded. This button would have been in the corner of the screen, but this button has now been replaced with a button that leads to the 'Bonus Content' menu.

Basically for this project I have been told to create a Showreel DVD that displays all the films that I am proud of personally and the ones that I feel will promote me the most effectively to potential employers. For the DVD I have been told to create moving image videos as the many menus. This would have to include ways of getting back and forth between each menu, and once a video has ended, a menu for it to go back to.

You would obviously have your main menu but then you would have all your other sub menus. You would also have a home/back button maybe in the corner of the screen to return to the main menu at any time, and this would probably be on all, if not most, of the sub menus. My sub menus include 'Corporate Videos', 'Multi-Camera Productions' and 'Single Camera Productions' and obviously I would have a play all button too.

My first play video would probably be a mini-showreel that combines clips of most of the media projects I have worked on over time, some of them feature as full films on the DVD, whereas others don't. This video will play before the main menu is even displayed. There might also be a menu that is just a still image that leads to the main menu. These might include options that say 'main menu' and 'play mini clip showreel'.

The 'corporate videos' sections would obviously include all of my corporate videos that I filmed for the SBA's (Somerset Business Awards), the 'multi-camera productions' section will include 'The Long Bearded Lamb Chops Chat Show!' and 'Xtreme Footage'. The 'single camera productions' section will include many things including 'Burying the Past', the 'We're Only Human' music video, the 'Feet In The Clouds' music video and an interview that I filmed with my late great Grandad Arthur about WW2.

This DVD will include films I have filmed on this course, but also on previous courses and ones I have filmed outside of college in my spare time. I have made rough templates on word that need tweaking a bit that show how the different menus, buttons and films link together. This is shown by me using arrows to represent how you would get back and forth between different menus, and most of them are two ways, meaning double sided arrows.

I have also drawn a mind map of ideas and drawn up rough versions of some of those ideas in my sketch book. These are like diagrams and pictures basically. These ideas include lightsaber dueling from 'Star Wars', select a crystal from 'The Crystal Maze', choose a dwarf from 'The Lord of the Rings' and show the gun firing and van exploding from 'Burying the Past'.

Once I had thought up some rough ideas I then created a new folder on my hard drive entitled 'Interactive Media' and within it I had many folders and files that were in an organised fashion. This includes many things including the finished films, compressed files and images that I am going to use on the DVD. For the 'Corporate Videos' sub menu I plan to have a thing where you select a different client's picture and that would play his or hers corresponding company's corporate film. I plan to do this by creating a montage of pictures of all of the clients faces that I filmed and then putting them together into one big picture. All the other sub menus will probably just lead to more lightsbaber duels happening in the background in the distance whereas the main menu has the duels happening in the fore ground after the viewer has selected a menu. Before the viewer has selected a menu it just shows people standing there motionless holding up their lightsabers in front of them. Each one will be a different colour I hope.

In this blog post I will analyse strengths and things that I need to improve about some of my corporate films that my group (JASAR) filmed and edited.

The strengths of the M5 Glass one include the fact that it had good cutaways in it and the audio related to the visuals quite a lot. We could improve the looking space of the client as he looks in the wrong direction in the video. We could also cut out the slight pause towards the end of the video as it seems to cut off the clients voice over for a too long period of time.

The strengths of the SouthWest Peninsular Training one include the fact that they had nice cutways just like the M5 Glass one, and just like the M5 Glass one we had the audio relating to the visuals again. It's sort of a good recurring and repetitive thing in our videos. The things that we could improve include an echo sound in the background and the fact that it is over exposed so we could try colour correcting it slightly more so things don't happen like the client's logo disappears on his shirt.

The strengths of the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance one include the facts that it has good shots, a good flow and pace and a good mix. The things that need improving include the introduction, the bit of an echo, the music quits towards the start/to start and the voice needs to be lower as it is too loud.

Yesterday we finished most of the paperwork and finished editing all of the SBA films that our group have been working on.

The editing process went really well as a whole, and we exported them all as full HD quality QuickTime Movies onto the media drive. Basically some of them were the MP4 file format and some were MOV so we could get the appropriate quality for each video. We had to make sure the parameters and the frame rates were correct before exporting them, amongst other things.

They played back perfectly on some computers such as Apple MAC's, but on my Windows 7 laptop the playback was terrible as my computer couldn't handle the quality and they were really laggy and the visuals were still going when the audio stopped. To put it bluntly, the audio was out of sync with the visuals, and the people's mouths were not moving at the same time as the word they were saying.

Today we made a list of all the companies videos that the other groups hadn't edited yet as we have already edited all of ours. There are 50 companies in total that had to be filmed and edited, and 23 still need to be edited. The deadline for all the films to be filmed, edited and submitted on the media drive is today!!

I suggested things to James and Shaun about what they could change about certain segments of their edits, and certain things they acted on and changed, whereas other things they left as they were and they explained to me why it was like that. I suggested cutting out pauses, but James insisted keeping them in so we would hear the background music more clearly, see more cutaways, and ultimately make it feel like the client wasn't rushing when he was speaking. I suggested lengthening the laughing of certain clients too as we saw examples of what previous students has produced in previous SBA films in past years and the clients laughs were quite long in them. I also suggested re ordering certain clips.

We also added special Effects into certain films using Adobe After Affects, such as putting a tie and a pair of glasses on the dog in the ADPR video. This could be considered CGI I suppose.

The EvoSite shoot went really well and good and hardly any of it went bad. In previous shoots we had just been told to do any shots we wanted, but in this company James Shakespeare, the person we interviewed, gave us directions of what he wanted filmed and we didn't really get much chance to film what we wanted to film as we were told to comply with the client's needs and specifications and not to question them too much. We did get a few shots that we ourselves wanted but not many. The client mostly wanted tracking and panning shots of the offices but also he wanted a shot of one of his employees on the phone. This company uses social networking much more than any other business we have filmed so far. There company would literally fall to pieces if it wasn't for the social networking, so it's a major part of their business and establishment and they use things such as Twitter and Facebook.

The interview with James Shakespeare went really well except he tended to give much longer answers than all of our other clients so far and so therefore he kept stuttering and breaking off all the time so we had to reshoot certain answers and questions and do more run throughs than we did with the other clients. James had more time to prepare and rehearse for his interview as EvoSite was the only company that we sent the questions to in advance via email as they were the only company who has requested this so far. Having more time to prepare was probably the main reason why he gave much longer answers than the other clients.

James requested previews of the corporate video so we uploaded it a unlisted video preview to You Tube and sent him the link via email so he could look at it and suggest any changes to make to it before we went ahead and exported the final video. Obviously James Greene edited it massively before we sent the preview to James Shakespeare, but he's going to edit it even more in the final version.

They generally use iPAD's, computers, phones, screens, iphones, MAC's and projectors in EvoSite a lot. In the final version, James Shakespeare wants the establishing shot to be in the interior of the premises in the reception area, whereas the version we have at the moment has an establishing shot of the exterior of the premises displaying things such as the companies logo. James Shakespeare wants this changed so it makes the company look more professional and he feels it would portray what the company is about more. James Greene will obviously change this in the edit to suit James Shakespeare's needs.

We had an issue with screen flickering, including the back screen and the iPAD. We sorted this out as best we could but there is nothing further we can do about it. Sometimes the iPAD screen would go black as it would go on stand by as it wasn't being used, so basically what we did to solve this was to put a picture of the website over the top of the black screen, as a motion video of this was displayed when the iPAD was not a black screen.

I am emailing EvoSite more than any other company, and they are emailing me more than any other company also. So it's not just social networking that is a key part of their business, but also the email system too, basically anything to do with computers, phones, iPAD's and other hardware. I had to email his colleague Ollie sometimes as James was out of office.

We got given two new companies and we did the research and paperwork for them, then we filmed interviews and loads of cutaways with them, and James has started editing both of them. At South West Peninsular we filmed loads of cutaways of things including pressure valves, boilers, gas canisters, tools, certificates/awards, the logo and machinery.

We also filmed loads of cutaways at ADPR that included a dog that we used as a mascot to represent what the company is about. It is one of the only companies out of the 50 companies in total that actually involves animals with a few exceptions such as Monkton Elm. Other cutaways included awards, certificates, clothing such as boots and jackets/coats, staff members working, bean bags with pictures of pandas on, tracking/panning shots of the two rooms, shots of the logo, shots of booklets, magazines, posters, montages and other creative and artistic things.

ADPR is obviously a PR (Personal Relations) company and work for a massive number of clients, some of the people they work with they have been working with for years, whereas other people they work with not so much. Some projects they work on are small, whereas others are massive.

We filmed these interviews with a Panasonic HD camera and we picked up the sound using an SD-60. We used a DVX-100 and a boom pole for the sound as well at South West Peninsular but we didn't at ADPR as there was something wrong with the cable and all we were getting is static and no proper sound so we couldn't even if we wanted to.

The shoot at the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance offices went really well as we got all the neccesary cutaways we wanted and ultimately the staff were very co-operative with what we wanted to do. The person we were interviewing did struggle sometimes putting the questions in the answers and we couldn't film certain things for security reasons but apart from that it went fine.

Well first off both the M5 Glass shoot and the Air Ambulance shoot went really well. So far we have only filmed the Helicopter landing in Wells Cathedral though and not the headquarters and the helipad yet. We are hoping to film these other locations next week some time. Also next week we will probably be given many more companies to research and film.

The main thing that went bad in the Air Ambulance shoot was the fact that it was raining and the helicopter got called to loads of different emergencies and everyone thought it wasn't going to turn up and the health and safety people had all packed up and left by the time they arrived. We all packed up of cameras and tripods and got back on the mini bus only to discover that we had to get off again and set the cameras and tripods up again because some mis-communication caused it to be late, the only other reason it was late was because of the emergencies. Some FDA students managed to get some footage of the helicopter tending to an emergency in another location, and they managed to get some shots inside the cockpit too. Me and James however were filming right near the helicopter and right near the Cathedral using a HD Panasonic Internal Memory camera and there was a mass of wind when the helicopter landed obviously. Rob and Shaun were using either a DVX-100 or a SD-60 to capture some shots from a different angle so we could combine them with our shots in the editing process. Obviously we would have to do some colour and sound correction to make the quality of the picture and audio seem like it came from the same camera. I filmed as close to the cockpit as possible, and I also filmed the logos on the helicopter and the people who were inside the helicopter when they came out of it. I filmed the rotor blade. James also filmed all those things too.

Another thing that went bad during the Air Ambulance shoot was the fact that Jake put a camera inside the helicopter and it took off with it still inside and our group got the blame for it even though we had nothing to do with it and we didn't even know about it until we arrived in Wells. We managed to get it back in the end but it was still bad as people were jumping to conclusions about us and it was down to bad communication again, not just between teachers and students, but also between the Air Ambulance people and the College.

At M5 Glass a thing that went well was the interview itself as the manager answered are questions perfectly to out specifications, but a thing that went bad was the sound as we filmed the interview from two different angles and with two different cameras, so basically we had two run throughs of it. The sound we got off the Panasonic HD camera was actually clearer and louder and much better quality than the sound we got off of the boom pole that we had plugged into the DVX-100. We are going to use all the footage from the Panasonic HD camera and none from the DVX-100. We are probably going to use a combination between the DVX-100 audio and the Panasonic HD camera audio. We will turn up the sound levels on the DVX audio during the editing process. I think the issue was we had the cable plugged into the socket on the camera too far in and we should have took it out a little bit. Plus Shaun was probably holding the boom pole too low down so we didn't get it in shot but the audio generally comes out clearer if we hold the boom pole low down instead of high up as the mic is closer to the person's mouth.

We started off at M5 by having a tour of the factory which we didn't film and then we did the interview after which we did film. We then commenced for scouting the complex for cutaways, first of all in the reception area by filming things such as mirrors, mugs, leaflets, glass, stained glass and key chains. We filmed signs of M5 Glass inside and then we went outside the front to film more signs and a shutter. We then had to re-enter the factory and this time we did film things. When we were in the factory the manager had to be with us at all times because of health and safety. We filmed things like control panels, various machines such as heating and cooling down ones, some work hats, the glass itself, some employees working and the manager operating a crane. We then went out the back of the factory to film the rubbish glass tips and the side of their lorry/truck which had logos, mottos, slogans and the name 'M5 Glass' on it. We also filmed a shutter out the back. Another thing that went bad was that some of our crew kept getting in the shots because of the reflections in the mirrors and we tried to avoid it as much as possible but it was very unlikely that we would be able to avoid it altogether. Fortunately, there was only one crew member in any one shot at any one time. We tried to edit it out as much as possible but we couldn't edit out all of it.

Well first off our class was split into different production groups so that we can all film different companies in these groups. We decided to name our group JASAR because it is the first initial of each group member's name. We were assigned the companies M5 Glass and Somerset & Dorset Air Ambulance, but we will most likely be given more companies to film in the future too. We had to conduct basic research first of all into the companies e.g. their fax numbers, their post codes, their locations, their addresses, their contact numbers, their email addresses, their boss/manager's name etc... and then we moved into more detailed research afterwards e.g. When the company was made, formed and founded. We found out that The Air Ambulance company was a charity and it is much larger and busier than other companies we are going to film, even though this is obvious anyway. Also we found out the charity has celebrity patrons that support it including Jenson Button, Sir David Jason and Andrew Caddick.

We got some screenshots from Google Maps of the different locations of the two companies. M5 Glass is either in Highbridge or near it, and the Air Ambulance HQ is in Wellington but the helicopter is based in Henstridge Airfield between Sherborne and Shaftesbury, so we are assuming the helipad is based in the same place as the helicopter. We also have to visit the city of Wells and their Cathedral as a helicopter is going to land outside it before we go to the Helipad and the HQ. We contacted both companies by mobile phone and they were both very polite to us and we tried to act as professional as possible over the phone and succeded. It was easier to get an appointment with M5 Glass as they are a smaller company, they are less busy, and they are not a charity, plus they aren't an emergency service either. The Air Ambulance company is a registered charity, they are a large company, they are really busy, and they are an emergency service so it wasn't as easy with them. The M5 glass one we only have to go to one location on one day, whereas with the Air Ambulance one we have to go to three different locations on two separate days, one location on the first day, two locations on the second day.

We are going to use either a DVX-100 and a tape or a SD 60 and an SD card to record these companies and the interviews depending on what the group wants to use. If we use a DVX-100 we are going to take with us a microphone and a boom pole to pick up the greatest sound quality possible and some head phones to monitor the sound. Also some batteries that we plug into the camera. We plug the microphone/boom pole and the head phones into the camera too. We will use the wind shield/guard so we don't get interference with the audio from wind or anything else.

If we use a SD 60 however we will take with us different types of batteries, and a different type of microphone that isn't a boom pole. We probably won't need to take headphones or a wind shield/guard if we use an SD 60. We actually used a HD Panasonic Internal Memory Camera in the end instead.

We compiled a rough script and a list of questions for a fake interview we had with a teacher in the college who is based in the Health & Beauty Block. His name is Richard Bell. We just used this a practice run before we go out and interview the people who are really nominated for an SBA as Richard was just pretending that he was nominated. We will make a proper script and a list of questions for the real interviews too. In the rough script and the proper script we must have a list of all that is said in the film, a list of shots and the duration of each shot (how much time each shot lasts on screen). Usually each shot lasts about 4 seconds and the whole film has to be about 30 seconds but we will probably tweak it a bit to suit our groups needs but also the needs of the clients. We are allowed to make it a bit longer but not too longer e.g. we will make each shot last longer than 4 seconds resulting in the whole film being more than 30 seconds. We won't probably do this in reality that was just an example because really we will probably make some shots 4 seconds, some under 4 seconds, some over 4 seconds etc... So it doesn't have to be exact.

Analysation of a Section of a Script-Merlin

The script I have chosen to analyse is from the hit BBC TV series Merlin. The script is for Series 4 Episode 3. I am analysing the first section of it. First of you state the name of the project and the name of the first writer. Then if it is based on anything whether it be fictional or non-fictional, then you must state this at this stage. Sometimes it can be based on more than one thing. It could be based on true events or past productions or both. In the case of Merlin it is based on legends and myths, and some of it could be true such as the whole King Arthur business, but I doubt the magic part of it is true, Merlin himself was probably a real person, but it is very unlikely he could produce magic. He probably fooled people who were less intelligent than him into thinking it was magic, because people were much more gulliable and religous in them days and they didn't understand as much as we do now. You then have to state who revised the script e.g. subsequent writers. You would have to list these writers in order of their work performed. You would then have to list the writer who is undertaking the current revisions and the date. Finally, you have to state the name of the company if this is applicable and the address and phone number too. It then goes into the first scene on the next page, because all of that information has to be displayed on the first page and nothing else, those are the rules. The information you have to state on that first page probably will differ considerably for a hit motion picture. Obviously before that you would probably have another page in front of it that just has a bit of text in the center that says 'Merlin' and whatever the episode title is and possibly the writer's name. Those two first pages are not classed as 'proper' pages and they don't start listing the page numbers until the first scene comes in. So basiclly we are on the third page now but really it is page one as it say '1' at the top on the right and it is on the right for every page number.

Also at the top of the page there is a bit of text that you probably wouldn't see on a film script, and if you did it would differ. It says 'Merlin IV ep 3 Amendments 08.06.11' and this is on every page from now on. The 'Merlin IV' means Merlin 4 or Merlin Series 4. The 'ep 3' is episode 3 abbreviated. 'Amendments' means changes and finally the date states what date the 'Amendments' were made on. It then goes down to the next line and their is a '1' on both the left and the write and this means Scene 1. Every time a new scene starts there will be the number of whatever scene it is on the left and the right.

At the start of each scene you have to state whether it is set interior or exterior (inside or outside). You do this by stating 'INT.' or 'EXT.' 'INT.' is an abbreviation of Interior and 'EXT.' is a abbreviation of exterior. You then state the location, so in the case of this Merlin script it is 'Camelot' and if it is a specific area (which it is in this case) then you should state what the specific area is in brackets, and in this case it is '(Main Square)'. You should then state what day it is so Scene One usually starts on 'Day 1' and it does in this case, but sometimes if you have flashback or flashforward scenes it can start on a different day and then cut back to 'Day 1' afterwards. Usually it is quite a few scenes before it moves onto 'Day 2' but on the rare occasion it moves onto 'Day 2' in 'Scene 2'. Finally, you state the country that it is filmed in e.g. the first part of this scene is filmed in France as it is abbreviated 'FR.' and then the second part of this scene is filmed partly in the UK and partly in France as both 'UK' and 'FR' are used as abbreviations. It is done so cleverly that it is made to look like the same location, Camelot, probably by using a range of special effects and camera trickery. It then goes into the description of the scene, and this includes descriptions of the location and the characters most of the time. It describes the characters images, clothing and personalities most of the time. Descriptions in TV scripts are usually more than 10x shorter than ones in movies because there isn't as much to descibe as there isn't as much going on in the scene and not as much special effects as sometimes they describe them in the description too. Sometimes movie script descriptions can go on for 6 pages maybe more, whereas on TV scripts the dialogue starts on the same page as the description (page 1), that's how big a difference it is!! Plus movie scripts have to be more professional as movies have always been considered more professional than TV shows. Also companies that are in Hollywood such as Universal and Warner Bros. have always been considered more professional than the BBC and ITV.

If part of the scene is outside and another part is inside then when the outside part finishes you have to introduce the next part of the scene by stating that it is inside, and obviously you have to state the different location too. This could require you to have another description of the characters and the location as this could change from place to place. If another character or more than one character comes into a scene half way through it, then you should describe them too and state that whoever it is has entered. Similarly if someone exits a scene you should state that whoever it is has exited the scene. Very rarely does the day change during a scene as it usually becomes another scene if it changes days. However, in the event that this happens, you would have to state that it was a different day e.g. if it way 'Day 1' before then you would have to state that it is 'Day 2' now. If the day stays the same however you should just state the same day, 'Day 1'.

Obviously i've already stated that this first scene of 'Merlin' begins as an exterior shot but that is all just description and no dialogue, the dialogue begins when it moves into a cross between an interior and exterior shot. This is explained by stating 'INT./EXT.' Because it is the second part of the same scene it has '1a' stated on the left and right instead of just '1'. This is so that people don't get confused. Because this scene has Merlin and Arthur standing in one location and them looking out at people in the main square, it cuts between two locations. Merlin and Arthur are stood in the King's Palace (Arthur's Chambers) and they are looking out at Camelot (Main Square). This is stated on the script using a '/' It's still on 'Day 1' and it's still a combination between France and the UK, and this is stated in the script as 'UK/FR.' It then states Merlin and Arthur's actions and emotional reactions to things before it moves into the dialogue. It cuts back to descriptions of reactions and actions Merlin and Arthur make in between the dialogue. An example of this would be 'Merlin and Arthur look down into the Main Square. Merlin’s impressed, Arthur less so.' The part of the scene before this one that was just 'EXT.' had descriptions of people and what they were doing and some vehicles/carts and the location, here is an example of this 'The square is a hive of activity. A caravan of colourful carts is being unloaded by ACROBATS, DANCERS, JUGGLERS, STRONG MEN and JESTERS.' 'An ACROBAT back flips off a wagon and lands on his feet. JUGGLERS practice their routine, sending batons high into the air.' The fact that this part of the scene cuts into another part is made clear by the 'Cut To:' piece of text. Examples of other reactions and actions that Arthur and Merlin do and have in the second part of this scene include: 'MERLIN takes in ARTHUR's mood', 'ARTHUR pulls a face', 'ARTHUR Heads Out' and 'ARTHUR doesn't look around as he calls out'. Then after the dialogue and descriptions of emotions and actions have finished, it then explains what scenes it cuts to using the 'Cut To:' piece of text again and other informations relating to the scenes too.

Pre-Production Paperwork includes: Risk Assessments, Call Sheets, Contact Sheets, Storyboards, Scripts, Shooting Scripts, Cast & Crew Lists, Google Maps Screenshots and Location Recees amongst other things. Sometimes they could include treatments and proposals too.

A risk assessment basically explains all of the risks involved by filming at a particular location and how to overcome  them if something goes wrong and possibly stop them happening in the first place. You need to fill one out for each location you film at, as each location will have different risks. Also risk assessments usually have information about emergency services on them too. A proposal is basically what you propose to do during the project, and a treatment is very similar to that. A contact sheet is a list of crew members job roles and their phone numbers, and sometimes they do the same for cast members too depending on what production you are working on. A call sheet has really detailed information on it such as actors names and who they are playing and their phone numbers, location information, catering information and sometimes emergency services information, although it doesn't go into much detail about that as more detailed information about that is located on the risk assessment.

A script is basically your whole film in word form. It has massive descriptions explaining the locations and the characters and their images and personalities. It also explains whether it is night or day, and interior or exterior in each scene. It also states everything that each character says and states the name of the character before each thing they say. Scripts don't use speech marks and film scripts use a similar system to theatre scripts or plays. A shooting script has all the same elements that a script has, except it has very detailed camera information on it as well, such as where they are positioned in a particular location, how many there are and what shots each one is taking. A cast list lists all the actors and who they are playing, and a crew list lists all the crew and their job roles. A storyboard is basically drawing what happens in each shot and then writing a brief description of what happens in the shot underneath each drawing. You also have to right what type of shot it is underneath each drawing too.

A location recee is basically going to a location and taking down information about it as well as photographing it and maybe filming it. This is to decide whether a particular location is suitable and appropriate for your production and whether it is available at the time you require. If it's private property you will have to get the owner's permission to film there, and you have to consider whether the location is available in the day or the night or both too. You can also take a screenshot from Google Maps of the location to use a part of the location recee too, and you need to do a location recee for every location you use or have considered using.

Slating is when you have a clapper board and you say 'marker' and slam it down. This is important to check the sound/audio quality before beginning filming. It is also to track what slate, scene, frame and shot you are on and what camera(s) people are using. This information is usually written in chalk on the clapper board along with other important information too. Continuity is important to make a production and events make sense and to also link the history of a program or film series to the currant version of it. If continuity is wrong it is known as a movie mistake. Sometimes they can be deliberate and used for humour but sometimes they are not. E.G. if a mug or phone is on the other side of the table than it was in the last shot.

Today we recapped about how to use the features and settings on a DVX-100 camera. Some of the things were easy to find whereas others were not as quite a lot of them were abbreviated. We started off by switching the camera on and we made sure it was in Cine mode and the focus was set to manual. We made sure it was set to function 6 or 'F6' for short. We then used the manual settings to check if the audio was set to record at 48k 16 bit (Recording Setup). We then made sure at least one zebra detect was set to 100% by using the display setup and the Zebra button. We then had to change the display aspect using the display setup to 16:9 instead of 4:3 to get the right look of film on the camera screen.

We then made sure the iris was set to manual and the camera was in focus properly before white balancing the camera and changing the zoom to servo. We then commenced with resetting the time code by resetting the ITC Sel (I think 'Sel' is either short for 'Seal' or 'Select'). We had no tape throughout this as this is only a camera competence but we still managed to reset the time code without one. We did however need the tape for the next task that was shooting a shot that was overexposed. We then had to apply the 1/8TH ND filter half way through. Finally we set the camera to playback mode before ejecting the tape.

Most of the things i've stated above are new to me, but obviously I knew some of the more basic things about the DVX-100 and it's kit beforehand, such as how to put the tape in, how to press record, how to attach a battery, how to set up the tripod and boom pole and how to plug the headphones into the correct port as well as the boom pole.

A whole host of pre-production paperwork has to be filled out before the filming of any corporate video can take place. This is done in the real world and will have to be done by each production group as part of our assignment. Each production group in our class will be tasked with filming, making, producing and editing their own SBA film each, each one will be a different company with different bosses and a different set of employees being interviewed. Some of these will be up for the same award, others will be up for different awards, so it's totally different types of companies and they each do totally diffferent things. So Pre-Production paperwork needs to be filled out in each production group for each seperate SBA film. The same equipment is recommended to be used for each one, but that probably won't happen, but it will probably result in some groups having higher quality videos than others. But it's not all about the picture quality, it's also about having the shots at the right angles, getting all the relevant information into the videos, and having the videos the appropriate length too amongst other things. All these elements will be considered when choosing which one is the best coporate video, but the best company will win the award, and that won't neccessarily be the one that has the best corporate video. It also depends whether a production group cares about winning or not, as some groups will care whethers others won't so much, and it is usually ones that care and are the most dedicated to it that come out on top.

Pre-Production Paperwork people would have to cover include: client liason, ideas development, treatments, proposals, storyboards, scripts, shooting scripts, scheduling and health and safety amongst other things. Some of these things will be a whole group effort, whereas others would be allocated just to certain member(s) of the group in an attempt to get them all completed quicker. An example of the difference in picture quality would be say if someone used a tape instead of an SD card or vice versa, or someone used an SD-60 instead of a DVX-100 or vice versa. The basic equipment that everyone would have to use includes: a camera, a tripod, some batteries and a battery pack, an SD card or a tape and maybe some microphones and a boom pole.