Ben Smith's Blog

Job Roles  My job role throughout the promotional video is the cinematographer/ camera operator and once production is completed, I will begin editing as an editor.  A cinematographer/ camera operator is a very important role to play as this is the main part the viewer sees.  A cinematographer is like a director of photography, who works alongside directors to see what the best shots are for what you are shooting, by managing the camera crews and lighting crews, to get the effect the director and producer want. Cinematographers get involved throughout the entire production, they need to know what equipment is available to use before the shoot, depending on what film they are working on, as well as overseeing the equipment.  The cinematographer needs a wide knowledge of the equipment that will be needed to shoot the film. Also, he/she needs to feel comfortable with each type of equipment needed for a parti...

Promotional Project Proposal  Our task was to create a promotional video for an external client, as a class we had to choose who we wanted to work with. My group included myself, Patrick, Remmy and Jamie. As a group we had to think of an idea for our promo film; I thought of and idea which was a gaming shop in Sutton that has recently opened, and this would be the perfect time to create a promo video. As a group we had to write an email to get permission to film, this is the email below.

Promo Deconstruction Today I will be deconstructing a retro video game store that uses the style of Talking Heads. This is when people are talking over the video and in front of camera. I have decided to deconstruct a game shop promo video as it's our groups first potential idea on a new shop that has recently opened in Sutton. The target audience are teenagers and gamers.  During the promotional video there was upbeat positive music in the background throughout the duration of the video. The volume of the music lowers when somebody's talking, then when they're not the volume raises to its normal level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJdrlB_NYg This is the opening shot of the promotional video. It displays a logo of the company. By having a logo it makes the viewer aware of the company, and by having it before the video starts the viewer is instantly engaged. 3".  This is the second shot of the promotional video of a mid-shot of a staff assis...

Secondary Research/Codes And Conventions For my secondary research I analysed the codes and conventions of different promotional style of video, This is to give us ideas for when we make our own promotional video. I found two promotional video from media companies linked below; Open Eye Media and BrumTours.  1st Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_O-Is3otc0 I will be talking about the 5 codes and conventions of this video. The video uses music throughout, which has a soothing and mellow tone. By using music the viewer can focus on the company's editing skills. The next main code and convention is the use of "quick cut edits" throughout. This is done to showcase their work and the different video styles. At he beginning of the video and at certain points, factual information was included text, mainly on a black background. This draws the viewer to read the text without distractions. The video also features the company...

Production Sound  What does the term production sound mean? This is creating the sound for the film. This can be captured on set, in the studio, or on location.The main types of production sound are- Dialogue, general movements of action, ambiance, and wild track (sound of room/outdoors). Where do we capture production sound? On set and on location. How do we capture production sound and what equipment do we use?  Zoom recorder Audio recorder XLR Cable Portable method of storing audio files (SD card, USB , External hard drive, etc. ) Blimp Shotgun Mike Tripod Boom pole Lavelier mike What issues/problems might there be with production sound? Unwanted sounds (People talking, animal sounds, cars etc.) Wide shots would mean that the mike may be further away which would reduce the sound quality. With a Lavelier mikes it may pick up too much movement noise. There could be issues with the positioning of the mike.

Primary research methods;  In today's lesson, our teacher gave us a worksheet "primary research methods", we had to watch examples of clips of questionnaires, focus scripts, etc, we also had to write down the pros and cons of each example. Questionnaires The strengths of a questionnaire are; Its very easy to distribute them to people at college, work or neighborhood to get the response quickly. The weakness of a questionnaire are; you can't ask long and complex questions, they have to be straight forward so the reader can understand them. Focus groups The strengths of Focus groups are; this means you can ask long and complex questions to get an in-depth response to the question. T hey can be tricky to analyze the data after as you will get different responses. It can be difficult to encourage a range of people to participate. The weakness of Focus groups are; its very time consuming as the person has to source a room, the people and creating the quest...