Feedback on Final Piece

 I asked for peer feedback on my final piece and here is what I recieved:

Complying With Regulatory Bodies

Ofcom 

Broadcasting Code:

Protecting Under-Eighteens

The involvement of people under eighteen in programmes:

1.28 Due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under eighteen who take part or are otherwise involved in programmes. This is irrespective of any consent given by the participant or by a parent, guardian or other person over the age of eighteen in loco parentis.

1.29 People under eighteen must not be cause unnecessary distress or anxiety by their involvement in programmes or by the broadcast of those programmes.  

Harm and Offence

2.1 Generally accepted standards must be applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material.

2.2 Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience.

Fairness

7.1 Broadcasters must avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes.

7.2 Broadcasters and programme makers should normally be fair in their dealings with potential contributors to programmes unless, exceptionally, it is justified to do otherwise.

7.3 Where a person is invited to make a contribution to a programme (except when the subject matter is trivial or their participation is minor) they should normally, at an appropriate stage:

• ·         Be told the nature and purpose of the programme, what the programme is about and be given a clear explanation of why they were asked to contribute and when (if known) and where it is likely to be broadcast
• ·         Be told what kind of contribution they are expected to make, for example live, pre-recorded, interview, discussion, edited, unedited, etc
• ·         Be informed about the areas of questioning and, wherever possible, the nature of other likely contributions
• ·         Be given clear information, if offered an opportunity to preview the programme, about whether they will be able to effect any changes to it.

Taking these measures is likely to result in the consent that is given being ‘informed consent’.

Privacy

8.9 The means of obtaining material must be proportionate in all the circumstances and in particular to the subject of the programme.

8.20 Broadcasters should pay particular attention to the privacy of people under sixteen. They do not lose their rights to privacy because, for example, of the fame or notoriety of their parents or because of events in their schools.

8.21 Where a programme features an individual under sixteen or a vulnerable person in a way that infringes privacy, consent must be obtained from:

• ·         A parent, guardian or other person of eighteen or over in loco parentis; and
• ·         Wherever possible, the individual concerned

Why are these relevant?
My video consists of mainly children who are under the age of 16, so they need to be protected, since the video will be public and will be able to be viewed by anyone who visits the Eaton Primary School website. Also, I want to make sure that the audience is not mislead about the challenge approach and that all information is portrayed in such a manner that it is easy to understand and does not give the wrong impression. Finally, I want to be fair to all of the contributors in the video, and I don't want to unfairly treat someone different to someone else, so as to not offend anyone and to make everyone as comfortable as possible during the making of the video.

Closing Statement and Evaluation

My time working with Eaton Primary School has been extremely enjoyable, and I would definitely like to work with them again. I feel I have managed the project quite well, and was able to keep myself organised during times when I thought I might not make a deadline. Meetings with my client were always very informative, and I felt like I knew a lot about the project and what they wanted, but I also had creative freedom to do what I felt was right. They were an extremely good client, and gave me all the help and everything I needed to work quickly and efficiently.

My client’s main aim was to portray their ‘challenge approach’, which is a system that allows the children to take control of their learning and choose something that will help them rather than hinder them in their work. Overall, I think I achieved this well as I chose to use the students and allowed them to explain in their own words what it was like to use the challenge approach, rather than just the teachers. I feel this project will have quite an impact on the school, as it will allow parents to feel more involved with their child’s learning, and it will show future students what kind of services they offer, as well as the hard working ethic that the school has.

Problems and Proposed Solutions

Problems

• Children looking at the camera
• Not getting enough footage to fill the video, such as over the interviews and to hide jump cuts
• Limited time at the school
• No location to film
• Not getting participant release forms in time

Proposed solutions

• In the post-production process, use shots that don't include this, or make sure if it is a problem in the video, that it's minimal and hopefully not noticeable 
• Go back and film on a separate day to get general views of the classrooms, teachers in their lessons, various locations around the school
• Use my time wisely, go back on more days to film and get interviews if necessary, make sure I'm fully prepared to film when I am there so I don't waste time setting up and figuring out a plan for the day
• Find a quiet place that's not being used, for example a hall or a library
• Sort out with client to make sure they are filled out, and make sure all releases are in place before the video goes on their website

Content and Audience Research

Audience:

• Parents of children currently attending the school
• Parents of potential students 
• Aimed towards people aged between 20 and 40
• Located in the Norwich/Eaton area
• Interested in social media
• Interested in taking part and improving on their child's education
• Any religious background
• Social grade brackets of C1 to E
• Any parent looking to send their child(ren) to Eaton Primary School

Content: 

For content research, I studied a few different videos that were centred around schools and education. I found out what kind of techniques they used to convey the information about their schools, for example student testimonials and showing the interactions between the students and the teachers.

The main message of the video that I will be producing is to showcase the challenge approach that Eaton Primary School are now employing. The content I use will reflect that in such a way that I want it to be informative and easy to understand. I have used the children to conduct the interviews so it's simple to follow and it shows that they are enthusiastic and upbeat about their education. This is appropriate for the audience, as the parents would be thrilled to know that the school takes their child's best interest to heart and helps them to enjoy their learning. 

Client Feedback - First Edit

I sent my client my first edit of the video, and here was their response. This was contact via email. 

Call Sheet - Filming day 20/03/15

Peer Feedback From Screening

The rough cut of my video was shown on 16/03/15, along with everyone else's first edits of their videos. I feel this helped a lot, as I was able to get some feedback from my peers as well as my lecturers. Here are some of the things that they pointed out that I could improve on:

• Sound bytes: some of the children repeated the same thing at the start of their clips, and these could have been removed to make a string of responses to the same question. 
• Stability: some of the shots were shaky, for example chairs might have hit the tripod or I might have shuffled over the camera a bit during the shots. 
• Audio glitches: there are some places where there are children shouting and you can hear footsteps or a crash in the background. 
• Length: too long, some parts were unnecessary for the video, and some children stumbled over their words a little too much.

Filming Day 3 - 20/03/15

My third and final filming day was primarily unsupervised, as my contact at the school was busy teaching a class of her own. I was sent to various different classrooms to get the footage that I needed for my project. This filming day was last minute planning, and was after I had edited together the interviews I had gathered during the filming days before.

I think this filming day went the best, as I was able to freely move around the school and film people as and when I saw fit, and I wasn't restricted to one area of the school with the teachers. It allowed me to get as much footage as possible as general views and cover ups, and allowed me to really push the quality of my final piece to the highest that it could be. I arrived at the school at around 10:00 and finished up at around 13:00.

Distribution and Exhibition

I will be uploading my video onto either YouTube as an unlisted video, or onto TeacherTube so that people outside of the school can't access it unless they go onto the clients website.
The client will be uploading or embedding the video onto their website, so it will be available to anyone who visits.  Since the video is for a primary school, it would be inappropriate to distribute it in an alternative way, as we'd want to keep the children's identities safe.

Form and Style Development

For my project, I am making a video for a school, which is under the branch of Social Action and Community Media. My client, Eaton Primary School, first gave me a brief idea of what kind of video they were looking for, and pointed me in the direction of a video from The Wroxham School. After studying this video, I was able to pick out a few techniques that they had used in the video and implement them into my work as well.

First off, there were interviews with the teachers and the students, and clips of teaching in the classrooms. After seeing these techniques used, I decided to use these in my own piece. I also noticed that they made a conscious effort to match clips together to create a vague narrative structure, for example they’d show one of the children getting interviewed, and would then cut to a clip of that child working in class and interacting with the teacher. One of the main messages in this video, was that they were passionate about letting the children choose their own challenges, and letting them be independent in their work and take control of their own learning. I hope to be able to portray this message in my own video too, by following some of the techniques that the original video used.

Equipment List

Things needed for each shoot:

- 5D Camera
- Tripod
- Sound kit (radio mic/5D mic)
- Notes on ideas for video
- Space for filming - using library at school as well as classrooms

No costumes or props are needed since we are performing interviews with the students as well as a fly on the wall style filming in the classrooms and on the outside grounds.

Music Cue Sheet

Annotated Edit Timeline Screenshots

Assembled all clips together and edited them to the right length. Added some effects to the video such as brightness and contrast and sharpening.

Examples of effects I added to the clips. I added these so that all of the clips would look the same, and none were over exposed.

Camera Rushes Screenshots

Clips of the interviews I did with the children. These are the contents of the 'Eaton Primary' bin as shown in the below picture.

Clips of extra things I filmed, along with the music that I planned to use and titles that I made in Photoshop.

Production Schedule

Recce Checklist

Risk Assessment Form - Eaton Primary School

Filming Day 2 - 06/03/15

I filmed again on the 6th of March, and arrived again at the same time of 10.30 am. This time, I was able to set up my equipment and get started much sooner, as the filming space wasn't being used and there was nothing in the way of quiet filming. I stayed in the filming space and one of the teachers went and collected groups of students from some of the different year groups.

Once we'd finished, I took some various shots of the school and I got the opportunity to capture the choir singing in practice for a school performance. Overall, the second filming day went down without a hitch as I knew securely what I was doing and was confident in setting up my equipment and talking to the children. 

Filming Day 1 - 27/02/15

My first day of filming was on the 26th of February at Eaton Primary School, and we encountered a few hiccups. I arrived at 10.30 and met with the head teacher of the school. We discovered that the space that we were planning to film in was taken up by their book fair, consisting of 3 large trollies full of books. This would be a problem because a lot of the children were interested in looking at and buying the books and there would most likely be a lot of traffic through the area, therefore creating a lot of background noise.

Before we could get down to filming, we had to move the trollies out into a different place in the school which took us around 15 minutes. Afterwards, I had to set up my filming equipment and find a suitable background for the footage. We then walked around the school and asked some of the teachers and students whether they would be willing to join in with the filming. I ended up being escorted around with a different teacher as the head teacher had to leave due to a family emergency.

We successfully filmed 14-16 students, from a few different year groups. I made a technical error when I first started filming as I forgot to turn the microphone on, so we had to make some of the students redo their parts again.

Apart from a few mistakes, the filming went well and I am pleased with the quality of the footage that I was able to obtain.

Call Sheet - Filming day 06/03/15

Call Sheet - Filming day 27/02/15

Contingency Plan

If my original idea doesn't play out, I have a back up idea of a skateboarding group called Mythic Skateboarding who are looking for promotion. I have already contacted them and asked them if they would be interested in a promotional video, and they have agreed to this. I will be able to call on them again if my original idea doesn't pan out, and I have already discussed some ideas with them.

Intended Audience

My intended audience is the parents of the children that currently attend the school, but also the parents of the potential students who are thinking of attending the school. The video is aimed at informing the parents and other schools of what Eaton Primary School's challenge approach is.

As it's aimed towards parents of younger children, my audience will consist mostly of people aged 20 to 40 years old, and of both genders. They'll be located in the catchment area for Eaton Primary School for example in Norwich and the surrounding areas. They'll be interested in using social media such as the primary school's website and other social media pages run by the school.

Hopefully, the audience will also be interested in their child's education, and will be actively looking for ways to improve it, such as new approaches like Eaton Primary School have adopted. Education status and religion of the audience aren't an issue, as the school caters for students of all backgrounds, and I am planning on including a range of students in my video.

Social class isn't an issue, but Eaton Primary School is a state school which offers free education to children between the ages of 4 and 11, so the parents would most likely be in the bracket of C1 to E: lower middle class to casual/lowest grade workers. Overall, mainly parents of all backgrounds and ages, who are looking to send their children to Eaton Primary School.

Meeting Log 1

I met with my client on Friday 13th of February, at around 10:30 am. We first discussed our ideas for what the video would look like style wise and what we would want in the video. After a brief discussion, we figured out the filming dates and when I would show them my first edit. When we'd finished, I was introduced to some of the students that I would be filming, and we asked them to think about what they could say about their challenge approach. The whole meeting took around 45 minutes, and I felt I had a much better understanding of the project once it was finished.

Project Pitch Evaluation

My pitch was surrounding my project of making a promotional video for Eaton primary school, and I made a presentation about all the different aspects of my production. I talked about the genre, my general idea, my target audience, the visual style and how I’d distribute the video and get client feedback. I feel I presented my ideas quite well, but could have been more confident in my delivery. I was given a few suggestions on how I could improve my general idea for the video, such as show one student and the interactions they have with the teachers. It was also suggested that I think about framing and how I’d portray the students. Also, I should think about whether I’d want some background music on the piece, and from looking at the example video, what I could improve on. 

Overall, I am happy with my pitch and feel that my ideas were received well by the audience.

Plan for the next 2 weeks

1) Schedules
2) Fill out consent form
3) Research into client
4) Research 5D camera operation

Project Pitch

 Introduction slide

Explaining genre, and my understanding of what Corporate and Promotional Programming and Social Action and Community Media are.

Proposal for promotional video - outlining my ideas and message for the video

Outlining who my target audience are for the video

Project Proposal

Cloud Productions

Eaton Primary School

“We challenge ourselves.”

I will be producing a short promotional video which demonstrates the educational services that Eaton Primary School provides its students.

For this project, my main aim is to make a stylish, informative video about the education and services that Eaton Primary School offer to their students. The video will be around 5 or 6 minutes long and will feature both the students and the teachers. The product will be aimed at outlining what the children do on a day to day basis, and will bring to light the school’s unique way of what they call ‘challenging’ the students. It will include pieces from the current students and the teachers who work there, so as to show both sides of the learning process and the benefits that it provides.

Targets for 5th and 6th February

My targets for today and tomorrow are as follows:

• Write project proposal
• Make initial contact with client(s)
• Research into client 
• Research and develop ideas for project

Action plan for next week.

My plan for the following week is:

• Contact potential clients (first choice)
• Try to arrange interviews and discuss ideas with clients

Initial Understanding of Project

This project is focused on us working as an individual on a project for client in the real world. It’ll be a live, ongoing project and it’s aimed to make us look after a team of people and manage all of the important parts of the project. We have a choice of two different paths to take, we can either make a video that’s aimed at a community or that’s aimed at selling a product.

We must make sure that the project runs smoothly and that we carry out all of the necessary paperwork that is required, and that we run a team that knows exactly what they’re doing. We also need to take into consideration the codes and conventions of the two different types of video. A commercial video will usually have interviews, will have a voiceover and a piece of happy, upbeat music. With a social or community video, it’s usually just to raise awareness, and will be in a different style to a corporate or promotional video.

This project is designed to help us start out in the real world and experience what it’s like to work in the industry properly. It’ll help us with the skills we need to carry out projects on our own, and will give us the experience of going through all the stages of a production on our own. Overall, it’s a step into the direction of the world of work. 

Idea Creation

 Idea mind-map for Corporate and Promotional programming:

Idea mind-map for Social and Community Media programming:

From these, I further developed 3 chosen ideas. For each, I answered the following questions:
What is the basic idea? Who is the potential client? What is the potential issue, product or service I will be highlighting? Who are the potential audience? What platform would it go on and what length would it be?

Initial Research

Key Terms

Production Management

Production management is the planning, organising, directing and controlling of production activities. The main goal is to be able to produce goods at the right quality, quantity and cost.

A production manager is in control of the production processes, and they ensure that the final product is made efficiently, at the right cost and a good quality. They are also involved in the pre-production stages, not just the production stages. Mostly, their job consists of dealing with people, and working as part of a team. They are also expected to prepare production schedules and script breakdowns, and are responsible for the budgeting.

First Post

First post, do not delete.