Major Project Unit: Filming location

Whilst working on my WBL for the past few weeks I have also been looking for large empty rooms I could film in for one scene of my major project. A couple of days ago I had a light-bulb moment when I realized I might be able to use my local Village Hall.
I emailed the committee in-charge of the Village Hall hiring - they've just got back to me and I have been given the hall between 2:30 and 5:30 on Friday 16th November for filming.

There is a hire fee of £30 which I will give to the committee leader tomorrow.

I've also got the other locations sorted, I will be filming at my own home, Jane Lowe's house and in the village square and grraveyard at Lenham, just outside Maidstone along the A20.

Major Project Unit: After Effects

Today was our fifth and final workshop in using After Effects, after what we have achieved in the past week I am now more confident in making my own credits/intro for my major project than I was before.
These workshops have been very insightful.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I’ve applied the voice-over and exported the adverts so that I can check that nothing is wrong but I send them off to David Saunderson tomorrow.

I’ve looked at e-mailing them to David but anything bigger than 100MB would have to be paid for to send and given that each of the adverts are over 200MB e-mail is out of the question.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I watched the adverts last night and found that a couple of the clips that I repeat in each advert have gone fuzzy so I had to re-edit the adverts to fix the problem.

The scripting sounds fine and seems to fit the adverts well so I will record the voice-over tonight and apply it to the adverts tomorrow.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I finished off the soundtrack to each of the adverts and attached them. I have exported them and will view them to see if the scripting for the voice-over fits.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I finished the Home Improvement advert today, getting the video and audio transitions in the right place.

I also made a start on the soundtrack for the adverts in GarageBand. I want all six adverts to have the same soundtrack so that it is obvious they are one collection/series of adverts.

Tonight I am hoping to make a start on the scripting for the adverts.

I will also contact David Saunderson and let him know I will not be able to make all six adverts by the project deadline but I will carry-on making them after my deadline.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

We had another workshop/lecture on After Effects this morning but I did manage to finish-off putting the clips into an order I feel suits the advert.

We have another workshop/lecture on After Effects tomorrow afternoon and I have props to buy for my Major Project so I won’t get any editing done, fingers-crossed I will finish editing this advert on Friday.

Major Projects Unit: After Effects

Today we had our first of five workshops on how to use After Effects on the Macs.

If you follow this link you will see the outcome of today!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdtE8oBcs4

WBL Unit: Post-Production

We had a workshop/lecture on using After Effects for our Major Projects this morning so I haven’t had much of a chance to edit but I did make a good start with the time I had on the Home Improvement advert. I am part way through placing the clips and should finish that off tomorrow.

Major Project Unit: Audition

I have just auditioned my first (and only - so far) actor for the role of Michael. The young James Anderson.
It was a good audition, he seemed very focused and open to different ideas and opinions but I do feel that he is a little too young for this role.
Michael is ment to be older and wiser and I'm afraid to say that James Anderson seemed to "baby-faced" for the role.
But he definitely was successful at portraying a dark character.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I finished editing the Health and Beauty advert today apply a lot of SmootheCam to the clips. I had to do a majority of the recording in Pure as handheld because the rooms were too small to have two employees, two customers, myself and a camera on a tripod so a few of the clips are a bit bumpy. All the video and audio transitions have been done so I can make a start on the Home Improvement advert tomorrow.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

Due to a green screen workshop on Wednesday and group crit’ on Thursday I was unable to do much editing but I made a better start on the Health and Beauty advert today. There was one clip in this advert I had to spend extra time on editing due to the fact all the others are quite bright, whereas this clip was shot outside on a day when the heavens seemed determined to open and made the clip quite dark. Plus I had to reverse the speed due to the order I wanted to show the clips and I had apply SmootheCam. Sometimes rendering takes far too long.

Major Project Unit: Actors

So far I have sent out request for actors to several different Am' Dram' societies in and around Maidstone, and only today have I heard back from one actor. We have been communicating today and he is set to audition on Monday 22nd October at the studios, fingers-crossed this is the first of many.

Major Project Unit: Green screen test

This is the video I made using the green screen.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

Due to work on our Major Project yesterday with Kim Brooke I was unable to do any editing so today I finished off the transitions for the Pets advert. I did try to make a start on the Health and Beauty advert but I didn’t get too far.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I started editing the Pets advert today, finding the right clip and colour correcting as I go long do to some of the clips being brighter than the others.

I will keep the same format of video transitions so that the adverts look as if they come as a package.

I will finish-off the transitions for this advert next week.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I continued editing the Gardening advert and I now have all the clips in the order I think best suits this type of advert.

I was working on the video transitions and cross fading the sound to make sure it didn’t jump or overlay one another.

I was also looking at the best way to finish the advert and what details should be put at the end so that the potential customers viewing the ad will come to Newnham Court.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I started editing today.

The advert I made a start on was the one for Gardening. I’m going to use the same shots for the start and end of all six adverts.

This is going to take a little longer than I first thought given the amount of footage I have to go through to find the right clips to use.

Some of the clips will need colour correcting due to the fact that the weather was against me and was overcast when I was filming.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I’ve been ill for the past couple of days so have not yet been able to start editing the Newnham Court adverts.

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I spoke to David and he agrees with me that six are better than one. I labelled/named the clips today and put them into seven different folders, one for each advert and an intro folder.

The folders I created are Pets, Clothes, Home Improvement, Health and Beauty, Gardening and Gifts. I will start editing next week.

WBL Unit: Previous ads

I've had a look online and all I can find is this advert done for Easter, it seems very old, cheesy and short. I do not want my advert to be like that.

http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA3010

WBL Unit: Post-Production

I’ve been looking at the amount of footage I have for the advert and I think it would be a good idea to make six short adverts rather than one long one. I will run this past David Saunderson.

WBL Unit: Production Day 4

I had to wait for a camera today so I didn't get to start when I needed to, I've been waiting for some rain-free weather to film outside and it was sunny this morning but by the time I got my camera the sun had gone in and it kept threatening to rain. I did manage to finish filming though and the rain stayed away.

I started filming at Charterwood Mobility and NCSV Shopmobility and it wasn't until I got halfway through the record that I realized the image on the small screen had slight white showing where there was a change in light. I spent the rest of the day worrying that when transferred to computer the images would still show the white instead of light. Because Charterwood is at the back of the shopping village not many people visit it so whilst I was recording there weren't any customers. This is a shame because it's a large shop and my shots would look better with people in them but that is also the reason why I am doing this advert - so that people know that this place exists and where it is.

Whilst the rain was deciding to fall or not I went and recorded in Notcutts Garden Centre so I got all the exterior shots I felt I needed. Luckily, there were also a few customers perusing the plants so I had a couple of shots with potential customers.

FineLine Windows Doors & Conservatories is mainly based outdoors and is situated next to the Garden Centre so that is where I went next. Once again nobody was around so the shots are clear.

Behind FineLine - Johnsons Garden Buildings is located. There was a couple being shown but they didn't want to be part of the advert so whilst they were looking at the interiors of the cabins I was outside recording exteriors and then we swapped so that I could show the different sizes and the different uses such as a playhouse for kids or a place to put your Jacuzzi.

Granite Transformations was up next, it is quite a small area as a shop so there wasn't much in the way of products to record.

For the past week I've been trying to record at Noble House Chinese Restaurant but every time I'd get there they would be closed and nobody around. Today I got there just before they opened so I could do some shots of the interior - no customers but what's new.

To finish it all off I did a couple of shots of the car park and an establishing shot of Newnham Court which I couldn't do from within the Shopping Village, this meant I had to pull over into someones drive-way just off of the motorway stand at the top of a small incline. The owners thought my car had broken-down - the lengths I go to for a decent shot.

Because it was very late in the day when I finished I went home and will upload the last bits of footage tomorrow.