Commission: Project Evaluation
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. Now having improved and developed my skills and proven I am capable I don't feel I have to fake confidence as much as I'm confident in my work.
Given this was an independent project, I was having to complete many industry skillsets on my own. this included planning, producing, organising, directing, filming and editing this project. This commission placement was a good chance to advance all these skills, and learn how to source external specialist help in complex graphics I am unfamiliar with. This is why it was important token a good client base and treat potential contributors just as I would like to be treated. "After years of intensive analysis, Google found the key to good teamwork is being nice" (Mohdin, 2016).
I have learned the importance of deadlines, and setting ones of my own. Deadlines are important to consider when filming because there are targets to meet, and the more time spent, the higher the cost. This is is fundamental for not just freelancing but also high end production companies, who are given a budget and a deadline in pre-production. This gives a structure and target to work towards. It is not just the media industry where deadlines are important, it applies in most industries. This allowed me to complete stages bit by bit, in a more organised fashion. "Deadlines directly impact your time (and everyone else’s). Therefore, they force you to organize your tasks in order of priority, so that you're only working on objectives that move you closer to your most meaningful goals." (Robinson, 2017).
Through this project I came across a number of obstacles and managed to successfully overcome them all no mater how big they were. Originally I wasn't even able to film due to accessibility restrictions. I equally struggle to get archive footage; the studios were owned by TVS (Television South), a separate company for the majority of its time, they have no access to old clips. Thus I was told I could only use pre-released footage form their websites or YouTube. Copyright is something taken very seriously in industry and I am working for a company with very close industry links. "Copyright law is one of the greyest areas on the internet" (Smith, A 2015). Thus I need to be especially careful with the clips I use to ensure I’m not infringing any copyright laws since its very subjective to what I can and can’t use. It’s always good to set the bar high, and I made a strong commitment from the very beginning to have a gate to filter through only high quality footage.
When I went to film the reception there was a huge Christmas tree in front of one of the windows, which wasn’t ideal. I had to come up with a way around this on the spot; it was a location I really wanted to include for its clean, elite aesthetic. However, if I had the tree in frame it would be confusing and look like its trying to be a seasonal video, and so I had to film around this. This is something I feel many people would neglect but to me it was a big deal and could've completely changed the focus of the video had I not taken it seriously.
I also learned in this project how to conduct professional market research by finding the companies niche and seeing what its competitors were doing. Its nice was its heritage, something that is well respected in business as its a sign success and trust. The Uk Market Research Society said “…one of the most useful tools in business, any business. It is the way in which an organisation find out what their customers and potential clients need, want and care about. “ (Bradley,2006). In finding what clients care about I looked into the studios competitors included the likes of Dock 10, Elstree Cent and The Bottle Yard Studios to see what they’re advertising to their clients. They had their own websites specifically for their clients including the BBC. The Bottle Yard Studios had a promotional video, which had some really nice features, that I really liked and took inspiration from.
I identified my target audience, which was southern decision makers in television and established what they would look for out of a studio.
I learned how to sub-contact in order to improve the quality of my video. Being at a creative university, I knew where to look for people who specialise in animation. I had a meeting with Fergus Maloney, a technician on my course to discuss my ideas and to see if they were possible. He was very willing to help and after speaking to him I could see he was as passionate about it as I was and he agreed to help show me how to animate this graphic. Learning how to sub contract and even going through ides with contributors. I gave Joe a briefing by showing him my Treatment Proposal so he had an idea on what the video is about and its themes. I also showed him other examples of a building breakdown, this way he would be able to hopefully visualise how I wanted it to look. I went through with him days we are both available so we could go through the graphic together. In professional industry I would probably have meetings every other week to check on progress and to discuss any issues/resolutions.
Overall, this unit has been a very good learning curve for me, and has enabled me to demonstrate a wide range of skills in one project. I’m especially happy with the skills I have developed in editing and animation, whilst improving organisational skills. I have managed to animate graphics I would have previously been to scared to even approach. I have overcome obstacles in almost every aspect in this project, being set a test to make a promotional video but I wasn’t able to film at one point and had no access to archive footage. I am satisfied with the final result and it has taught me not only skills in production, but the art of resilience, resourcefulness and perseverance.
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| Studios Project Feedback |
I have learned the importance of deadlines, and setting ones of my own. Deadlines are important to consider when filming because there are targets to meet, and the more time spent, the higher the cost. This is is fundamental for not just freelancing but also high end production companies, who are given a budget and a deadline in pre-production. This gives a structure and target to work towards. It is not just the media industry where deadlines are important, it applies in most industries. This allowed me to complete stages bit by bit, in a more organised fashion. "Deadlines directly impact your time (and everyone else’s). Therefore, they force you to organize your tasks in order of priority, so that you're only working on objectives that move you closer to your most meaningful goals." (Robinson, 2017).
Through this project I came across a number of obstacles and managed to successfully overcome them all no mater how big they were. Originally I wasn't even able to film due to accessibility restrictions. I equally struggle to get archive footage; the studios were owned by TVS (Television South), a separate company for the majority of its time, they have no access to old clips. Thus I was told I could only use pre-released footage form their websites or YouTube. Copyright is something taken very seriously in industry and I am working for a company with very close industry links. "Copyright law is one of the greyest areas on the internet" (Smith, A 2015). Thus I need to be especially careful with the clips I use to ensure I’m not infringing any copyright laws since its very subjective to what I can and can’t use. It’s always good to set the bar high, and I made a strong commitment from the very beginning to have a gate to filter through only high quality footage.
When I went to film the reception there was a huge Christmas tree in front of one of the windows, which wasn’t ideal. I had to come up with a way around this on the spot; it was a location I really wanted to include for its clean, elite aesthetic. However, if I had the tree in frame it would be confusing and look like its trying to be a seasonal video, and so I had to film around this. This is something I feel many people would neglect but to me it was a big deal and could've completely changed the focus of the video had I not taken it seriously.
I also learned in this project how to conduct professional market research by finding the companies niche and seeing what its competitors were doing. Its nice was its heritage, something that is well respected in business as its a sign success and trust. The Uk Market Research Society said “…one of the most useful tools in business, any business. It is the way in which an organisation find out what their customers and potential clients need, want and care about. “ (Bradley,2006). In finding what clients care about I looked into the studios competitors included the likes of Dock 10, Elstree Cent and The Bottle Yard Studios to see what they’re advertising to their clients. They had their own websites specifically for their clients including the BBC. The Bottle Yard Studios had a promotional video, which had some really nice features, that I really liked and took inspiration from.
I identified my target audience, which was southern decision makers in television and established what they would look for out of a studio.
I learned how to sub-contact in order to improve the quality of my video. Being at a creative university, I knew where to look for people who specialise in animation. I had a meeting with Fergus Maloney, a technician on my course to discuss my ideas and to see if they were possible. He was very willing to help and after speaking to him I could see he was as passionate about it as I was and he agreed to help show me how to animate this graphic. Learning how to sub contract and even going through ides with contributors. I gave Joe a briefing by showing him my Treatment Proposal so he had an idea on what the video is about and its themes. I also showed him other examples of a building breakdown, this way he would be able to hopefully visualise how I wanted it to look. I went through with him days we are both available so we could go through the graphic together. In professional industry I would probably have meetings every other week to check on progress and to discuss any issues/resolutions.
Overall, this unit has been a very good learning curve for me, and has enabled me to demonstrate a wide range of skills in one project. I’m especially happy with the skills I have developed in editing and animation, whilst improving organisational skills. I have managed to animate graphics I would have previously been to scared to even approach. I have overcome obstacles in almost every aspect in this project, being set a test to make a promotional video but I wasn’t able to film at one point and had no access to archive footage. I am satisfied with the final result and it has taught me not only skills in production, but the art of resilience, resourcefulness and perseverance.
References:
Mohdin, A. (2016) [online] At: https://work.qz.com/625870/after-years-of-intensive-analysis-google-discovers-the-key-to-good-teamwork-is-being-nice/ (Accessed 12th December 2017)
Robinson, R (2017) [online] At: https://www.thebalance.com/reasons-why-entrepreneurs-need-deadlines-4118723 (Accessed 2nd December 2017)
Smith, A (2015) [online] At: http://tubularinsights.com/copyrighted-music-in-video/ (Accessed 26th November 2017)
Bradly, N. (2006). Marketing Research: Tools and Techniques. United States: Oxford University Press.
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