George Wing Television Blog

For my professional practice unit, I was assigned to create a promotional video for Maidstone Television Studios. This includes a 90 second promo film for Maidstone Studios emphasising the new brand, prime location and large versatile studio spaces and post production facilities. Overall I feel the project has been a complete success and having received feedback form learning pack from my client (Carly Watson: The Maidstone Studios) I feel confident that I am capable of producing high quality content for a client. Amongst many skills in researching, organising, filming and editing, this practice has given me  one especially important outcome; it made me confident in my work. Prior to this project I was under the philosophy "Fake it till you make it" (Lilley, J.  2017) .  I hadn't made work for a client before and soothes was the first and I was thrown into the deep end with it being a promotional video for a Television Studio; the environment I am wanting to work in....

Researcher The role of a researcher within television is to develop programme ideas, using their understanding of the industry. They'll then give their findings to the producers and other decision makers within the show.  "TV Researchers originate or develop programme ideas, drawing on their knowledge and understanding of industry requirements, and present their findings to decision makers."  (http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/308_researcher_tv) Researchers also carry out interviews to assess potential contributors and their availability for inclusion in their project. During production they arrange transport for the contributors, greet them, brief them and escort them to the studio or location. When I was working on BBCs 'Watchdog' I found the researchers would speak to the contributors on the phone before meeting to discuss the issues they've had with a company. This was a relaxed, casual phone call and gave researchers the opportunity to invite ...

Given I've never really filmed with the Panasonic 4K camera before part form in a workshop, I am use to using the Sony EX, so I thought it would be worth my time doing a little research into filming with the Panasonic cameras. In order to further this basic knowledge, I wanted to find out how I could really make the most of filming with a 4K camera, and show it off for its true potential. Anyone can pick up a camera, but very few know how to use it to its full capability. So for example, when shooting outside, its important to turn the gain down.  "Gain is an electronic way to boost the brighness of your video images. When shooting in low light conditions (e.g. at night) the iris is will be fully OPEN at f1.6 but, the camera may still needs more light to produce a picture.  (http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/sonyz1/z1gain.htm) This will help prevent more over exposure. Also it's a good idea to make the most of the resources I have, that being a tripod. A fluid tripod he...

The edit for me was a strange process. I started out with a rough edit before I knew I could film, which mainly included graphics and animations. However, after filming, the style of my video changed so much, those graphics and transitions look out of place. Again, just like with my green screen shoot, I got a lot of coverage and needed to go through all my footage and organise into appropriate folders based on location and mark the clips I don't want to use (red), are good enough to use (amber) and I definitely want to use (green). Being my own editor meant working closely to my original plans as a director. Whilst editing would usually be a specific role on its own, I am covering all roles in my commission piece. This meant I could change what I wanted as editor, whereas if I had a separate director i would have to listen to them  "You'll usually work closely with the director to achieve the desired end result." (https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/fil...

Given I've never really filmed with the Panasonic 4K camera before part form in a workshop, I am use to using the Sony EX, so I thought it would be worth my time doing a little research into filming with the Panasonic cameras. In order to further this basic knowledge, I wanted to find out how I could really make the most of filming with a 4K camera, and show it off for its true potential. Anyone can pick up a camera, but very few know how to use it to its full capability. So for example, when shooting outside, its important to turn the gain down.  "Gain is an electronic way to boost the brighness of your video images. When shooting in low light conditions (e.g. at night) the iris is will be fully OPEN at f1.6 but, the camera may still needs more light to produce a picture.  (http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/sonyz1/z1gain.htm) This will help prevent more over exposure. Also it's a good idea to make the most of the resources I have, that being a tripod. A fluid tripod he...

It came to the day I had been waiting for since the start of this project, filming. It was something I wasn't sure I would be able to do due to the  restrictions of filming there and I had planned ahead in the event of not being able to film. However, now being able to film it meant I had a great opportunity for the video to really look good. I was a little worried about filming in 4K to begin with because of all the issues that come with it: There are very few places that you can actually see a 4K image. 4K footage requires much more media storage, which gets expensive fast. 4K footage requires much more computer power to edit and render (http://www.masteringfilm.com/the-problem-with-4k/) This could really slow down the post production process for me, especially if its so slow to work with in the edit. Also, there are some vey specific cuts to the beat of the music, which would require a lot of time in the edit to get right if it doesn't render properly, because it...

When researching into the world of becoming a freelance videographer, I cam across a video by a YouTuber called Jed Lilley. He discusses how he found starting his own business and building a client base. Its all well and good watching a video of a 50year old American videographer, but I really can't relate. This is why Found this video so interesting; the business founder talking the video is roughly my age and in a very similar position to me. In the video he gives some really useful tips I too could apply in my work: The Snowball Effect "you start working or free, you get more and more clients as time goes on, the business develops and by the end of it you're literally getting jobs left, right and centre." Confidence Confidence is key in starting any business. This comes with doing something you love doing, something you're passionate about. "Fake it till you make it" . This was good advice and I can completely relate. Whilst I know I am fully c...

In my commission project, among many other jobs I am directing. Something thats really inspired my directing was a masterclass I had last year where British award-winning director for film and TV is screenwriter Farren Blackburn came in and discussed his professional career in directing. I felt very inspired by what he had to say and it influenced my 'Directions Unit' Project at the time. When having meetings to discuss new projects, Blackburn often uses mood boards to show how he wants things to look like and refers to different movies, but he never uses stills from movies to say exactly how he'll do it. I too for my project designed a storyboard for how I wanted my promotional video to go, as it would help me visualise how I wanted my piece to look. Farren Blackburn  However, he doesn't use shot-lists or storyboards unless it's something big, visual effect. "I know my blocking and I know my action. I know what I want when I go on the floor and work ...

Filming Today was my first shoot day, and although it was a relatively simple shoot where I only needed to get one sot, I really wanted to make this shot perfect. Due to the filming circumstances in the studio, I'm not able to film a lot, so anything I do film I want to be spot on; well lit, well focused and nicely setup. This meant spending on average 45minutes just to set everything up. An issue I came across when setting up the green screen was the shadows from the lighting. This would be an issue with listing in any setup, but with the green screen this was particularly crucial as having shadows could alter the look of the entire scene. Whilst I wanted a shadow for it to look more realistic in a studio environment, I wanted the shadow to be even so it would trim out the colours nicely and cleanly in post production. Knowing I wanted to create this research, and having struggled with lighting when green screening in my last project 'News Production' I wanted to befall...

Although my promotional video isn't yet finished, I took it on myself to try and gain some feedback from different teachers at uni. I felt this sort of primary research would put a fresh set of eyes on my work and notice things that I yet haven't. Because I've been working on and watching back the video so many times, small errors or parts that can be improved I might not have noticed. Firstly, I spoke to Fergus. I asked him to take a look and see what his opinions were and where it may have needed improving. He was really pleased with he way it was looking and thought my animations and editing skills had really pulled the piece together after having so many problems. The only thing he criticised was exactly what Helen did, and that was the introduction; it doesn't establish the company. I did explain my idea behind the television screen with an animation of the logo graphic, which he then agreed would be a really good solution. I then went on to discussing with Ferg...

Maidstone Television studios has recently gone under big changes with it's branding. I asked Carly if she had any documents stating the branding for fonts and the logo etc, so I too could include this throughout my video. For example, I could refer to the document when wanting to include writing; it would suit the branding of the studios if I used their font throughout. Carly sent me a 'Brand Manual' which included many marketing details, which talks about the studios brand including fonts, logos, what the studios are all about and how they operate. This manual is for people working at the studio so I felt privileged to be given access to have this and look through it; it made this client work feel all the more professional. "A brand without guidelines can become diluted overtime" (More Than A Name: An Introduction to BrandingBy Melissa Davis, Jonathan Baldwin). 

After coming up with the up with the idea of having the montage playing through the logo at the start of the video on the old television as there is a slow zoom in, I decided to quickly give it a ten to see if it would be effective. This first draft was far form perfect, but it allowed me to see roughly how the design would look and if playing footage in the background of the logo would actually work. Testing ideas first is always a good idea and saves a lot of agro and time wasting i the long run.If you make mistake in the draft it doesn't matter because it can be improved in the final. Also, it is beneficial for time efficiency. If I was to spend a long time editing a graphic I chose not to use it it would mean I've wasted valuable time on perfecting something I won't even use. This gave me the opportunity to self criticise and have other people give feedback on what I had done. "That [criticism] means an opportunity to learn more about the person who you're ...

This technique is very useful when you're unable to film and all you have is photos or archive footage of stills that don't move. Because I only had images to include in the video, I thought it would be cool to animate them by moving layers and changing lighting. Something quite complicated turned out to be a simple change that made the video come to life a bit more. The lights flickering and image zooming out looks as though it could've been filmed on a camera. It was only after watching this tutorial that I was able to not only learn how to create this cool effect, but also inspiration with the possibilities of what I can do with one still image. At the start of the video there is a short montage of all different pictures he's edited and animated in order to bring to life. This light flicker is very effective and I had to actually improvise a bit in editing it. I had to actually edit the one image into two images. One where the brightness of the lights ...

My Locations for my commission piece are all in the same area: Maidstone Television Studios. The areas of filming include: UCA Base Room: This room is where I will be filming the television zoom. I initially wanted to film here because of the white walls which I thought would make a nice clean background. I then changed my mind and thought it would be even better in front of a green screen. This means I have more freedom in post production to decide what background I want and if worst come to worst I can chose a plain white background then. The base room is a good place to film this as its hidden away, has a large enough space to set up a green screen and requires no additional travel costs as I wold be going into uni anyway, which is cost effective to my budget.  "By improving efficiency a business can reduce its costs and improve its competitiveness." (BBC Bitezize, Business Studies).  Post production facilities (dubbing, gallery etc): The post production fac...