Assignment 5 - Evaluation

I have chosen to write my formal review on the corporate video I created as I feel I will be able to look into the pros and cons of the video in detail and see where there is room for improvement.

During the process of filming my partner and I where able to get an insight into what it takes to produce a corporate video and some of the constraints that may come up. For instance in the planning process we found it was difficult to plan precise shots of students as they were more of a representation of students acting natural and doing their usual day to day things. Also, when organising interviews, all students have different timetables and so we had to rearrange some interviews as some students where able to make it.

When filming interviews, we found ourselves filming interviews more than once as the first time the lighting wasn’t bright enough or their was too much background noise, this extended the filming time more then we had planned.

Strengths and weaknesses

Looking at the final edit for the corporate video there are a range of strong as well as weak points that can be improved. firstly, our client mentioned that the sound in the video had room for improvement as it was too loud at some points and over powered interviews. we could have also included more interviews with staff and faculty members as we predominantly focused on students throughout the video. positive aspects off the video was it was clear who was being interviewed and what role they played in the college through the bold titles we chose to use, these were also colour coded giving an understanding of how the four schools come together. The use of students describing what they thought of the school was especially effective as it helps potential students relate and gives them an idea of the kind of people attend the school and the atmosphere in the four schools.

Strength and weaknesses compared with other corporate videos 
My video compared to the LaSWAP video that can be viewed on the sixth forms website, shows a range of similarities especially in the message it airs to the audience showing the college as a positive learning environment. The video includes a range of student interviews although they are on much more detailed questions, this is different to the type of interview my partner and I chose to film, the idea we came up with was to have short, quick interviews with students so that we could efficiently include more interviews in a sorter period of time and insure the viewer doesn't lose interest. The LaSWAP video shows a great range of shots of the different schools as well as their surroundings and delivers them i an aesthetically pleasing manner. The Westminster City video includes texts incorporated into the video satiating statistics of their success rates, this makes the video much more informal and helps to convince viewers, this is something that could have helped improve our video.

Looking at these two videos in comparison to my final product i feel i could have included statistics to help strengthen the video and the amount of knowledge people are able to take away from the video, similarly i feel i could have also focused on the amount of subjects available at the school and the opportunities that are open in more detail as this could be a key piece of information to help convince audiences that LaSWAP is suitable to them.

My role within production 
My partner and I worked together throughout to build an idea, that would be suitable and reflect that way we saw LaSWAP and what it is like to attend the sixth form. we split the pre-production work amongst the two of us and made sure it was at the same quality of work before completing and then beginning filming. once all pre-production was complete me and my partner went about meeting for our organised interviews and filming them as well as going on site to the different schools and getting the correct footage we had planned to build up our video. I feel me and my partner worked great together and were able to split jobs between ourselves so that we were both equally involved.

Teacher feedback 
Include more interviews with teachers and faculty members
Too much shots of the interview include more voiceovers
peer feedback 
Improve transitions from visual to visual to create a smoother flow
Include statistics and end of year results.
make some shots last longer

Legal and professional constraints
To bring the video together and give it a more professional look i added music, as this is a corporate video and is made to be shown to potential students i had to use royalty free music so that i didn't 't break the copyright act on using other artist work without consent. I went on searching for royalty free music that would suit my video and was able to find one i felt was fitting and didn't taken too much attention away from the visuals.

Another constraint i came across when filming was permission to film people as well as locations, so i made a permission form where i got my interviewees as well as people in my shots to sign so that i had proof of their consent to be in the video. I also had to make sure i was allowed to film at that time
i did this by asking a member of staff who was in charge of that area at the time and made sure i wasn't getting in the way of anything. 

Final edit of corporate video

After taking into consideration what my classmates thoughts on my first version and going over the different shots I had selected in detail I was able to come up with this final product which I feel runs smoothly and is the one that looks most professional. Looking at my Proposal and original idea for the video I feel I was able to produce a piece close to what i had envisioned that reflects LaSWAP in a positive light through the students.

First edit of corporate video 

This is my first edit of my corporate video once I finished this edit i then went back and analysed it bit by bit, looking at how it could be improved. I found that some shots lasted too long and others didn't seem fitting where they were placed. so I then went on making the changes necessary to improve the video. I also felt there was not enough interviews included so i went on incorporating a few more that we have filmed this then adds more information to the video and gives the viewer a better idea of how things are run and the atmosphere in the college from people who attend first hand. I also failed to include clear titles naming the people on screen this is something I needed to add and decided to colour coordinate the titles depending on what school they were filmed in.

feedback for first edit

when showing one of our clients which is the head of year 12 our first edit of the corporate video he was able to give us feedback on what he thought about it. 

he had a lot of positive things to say about the video he liked the presentation of the school and the way our final product came out 

although the said we should improve the sound as in some points the interviewees could not be heard properly and the music was overpowering. we took this on board and went on to improving the audio so that it would run much more smoothly. 

Radio package