Visual Media

Context/Planning and Production

Contex/Planning and Production

For this project I have been asked to create a video targeted towards either 6-11 year old's or 16-18 year old students. This video will be for the charity Stone Pillow, who we will be working with, which is a local charity to West Sussex and Chichester. We will investigate videos, advertising/promos campaigns for charities and websites of charities. We will work as a team to film this and create this video however at the end we will all have our own final production. The theme will be homelessness and once this project is finished Stone Pillow will likely use some of the videos we have created.

We are researching music videos and effects as these are often very intriguing. This will help us in our final video as we can get inspiration from music videos and use it in our own work as a lot of music videos use many different effects and this makes them interesting, if we use effects similar in our videos they will will interest people, therefore making them more interested in Stone Pillow and therefore, donating.

Stone pillow have requested that we use the influence of music videos like Lyrical Lemonade as many teens relate to these videos or associate with them as that is what teens are interested in. This will intrigue teens and actually draw there interest into the charity.

Here is the first storyboard I have done. I didn't have a pen or a pencil when drawing this so I took a photo of the storyboard template and edited it on my phone. I personally think this is a good substitute as it saves paper as I can use the same photo, saves ink and I am using media to create my story board.

After creating this I have realised that I may not do it in this order and have clips in between, obviously meaning I'll have to sort out what clips the writing goes on.

Here is a sort of mind map that Aaron and I came up with for ideas for our project. These are the ideas that could be in the final project.

Visual Planning

Locations

Storyboard location shots

A problem realised is that these photos are portrait and the video is landscape. This is something I will have to change in future projects. I will obviously not use all of these shot ideas as some of them are in the same locations as others. As there is only four locations here I will probably try and finds more when out shooting however these are still enough for a 30 second promo. I want to use a tent as a prop however I am not sure if that will be possible as I would probably have to bring in my own tent to do so. I think using a sleeping bag as a prop would also be a good idea and this would be easier to use than a tent as a prop. I could get some board most likely cardboard to use as a bed which would work with a sleeping bag as i can put the sleeping bag on the cardboard. However all of these props I expect I would have to bring in myself apart from board as I could probably find some wood or most likely cardboard somewhere around college and as we're in E-block which also has art and design I'm sure I'll be able to find some cardboard somewhere.

Risk assessment

Project Proposal

Script

Instead of speaking this is going to be text in the video.

First shot:

“Would you say this is a home?”

Second shot:

“Because to people like Nick

This is their home!”

3rd shot:

“Between 4,000 and 5,000 people sleep rough in the UK”

4th shot:

“Stone Pillow help the ones sleeping rough in West Sussex”

“But they need your donations”

This is “nick” he had to live like this every night for … years, stone pillow helped nick get off the streets.

"Would you say this is a home?"

"Because for thousands of people across the UK"

"This is their home!"

"Between 4,000 and 5,000 people sleep rough in the UK"

"Stone Pillow help the ones sleeping rough in West Sussex"

"But we need your donations"

Location Recce

This shooting schedule is the first one I did before I found out that we had to shoot on campus.

This second shooting schedule is the one I made for shooting on campus.

Mood Board

Contexual Awareness

Sound effects

I have decided to not use sound effects in this project as there wouldn't be many we could use with the shots we have and I think music in the background would probably just work better. Although you can mix the two I don't think it would work well with this project. However, we still recorded a few sound effects just in case they would be useful and it is still always good to record them so we get experience recording and we could always use them.

Instead of a voice over I have decided to have text on the screen so the viewer gets to read it themselves. I also chose this option as I didn't think I would be great at trying to story tell or do the voice over for this.

My plan for 30/01/2020 is to get the contextual awareness work done and then keep editing my stone pillow production

Contextual Awareness

My on my stone pillow project refers to real world issues as it refers to homelessness. Although Aaron and I don't look very homeless it still shows that it is cold for people living on the streets and shows the kind of areas they live in.

I have chosen to represent the issue of homelessness by showing where they live which Aaron and I have shot in 3 alleys and I have used 2 in my final production. Alleys are not nice places and we have shown that by shooting down them and they are often quite grimy.

I have also added snowfall and rainfall effects to show that a lot of the time they have minimal shelter from these things and that obviously rain and snow are cold weather so showing this emphasises how cold it can be for people sleeping rough. Aaron and I used boxes we found around campus as props to show that these are the kind of things people have to sit on and use as beds. We flattened most of them out and unfolded them so we could sit on them.

Homeless people are often represented in media and movies as people who need help. However, there's the classic stereotype that homeless people are on drugs and although this is true for a lot of them, too many people think this about every homeless person and media and movies do not help this as they're often shown like this on social media and in movies. There are a lot of films where homeless people are not represented as drug addicts and the same for social media however, they are often portrayed as drug addicts which does not help people wanting to help them as then people (not everyone, obviously) do not want to help them.

Society's view on homeless people is confusing, this is because everyone knows that not all homeless people do drugs however drugs are a big issue with homeless people and societies view on homeless people is that a large majority of them take drugs. Many people give them food and drink instead of money as they think they will just spend the money on drugs which can be the case. So societies view on homeless people is mixed but everyone knows that at the end of the day we need to help homeless people.

Homeless people are stereotyped as drug addicts and often crackheads.

My work has been informed by looking at existing charity promos as I have seen what kind of shots they use and what kind of messages, facts, etc they tell you so I have taking these concepts and have put and am still putting them into my final production.

Research

Research into existing charity promos, websites and other stylised videos

A lot of charity promos, websites and other stylised videos ask questions sort of like "What would you do in this situation?". They do his so you can think about how lucky you are in your situation and so you can think of how horrible and unfortunate someone else's or something else's (animals, ecosystem, etc) situation might be. This is a good way of getting people to donate to charities as they start to understand better the situations.

Many promo's have facts telling you how many of something is effected, damaged, sorted, etc. This encourages people to donate as they know how much of something needs to be sorted or how much of something needs to sorted.

Websites have the same thing where they will tell you how they help and similar facts to the videos.

Websites, promos and other videos often tell you the way's you can donate so it is easier for people to know how to donate and it also means that people will more likely be bothered to donate as they may not be bothered to donate if they had to search up how.

A lot of these videos have sad music which makes people feel sad, which makes people feel sorry for the people in the advert therefore they donate.

This is similar as to why they have a narrative in a lot of them. Charities often get celebrities so people can associate the charities with someone famous and these people can also be role models so, people will support a charity because their role models do.

Most narratives in charity videos and promo's have a similar tone, it is a serious and sympathetic tone which makes the viewer/audience feel for the people, creatures, ecosystems, etc, more than if the video had no narrative or of the tone was different.

However, when a charity has a video where they're talking about how much they have helped something then they often have a different tone which sounds more happy and inspirational and this makes the audience want to donate as they can be left feeling inspired and passionate to donate to the charity as they have seen what good they do and how happy and the results of donating are. If the tone was not the happy tone then they may not feel as inspired.

Charities often use framing in their promos to add information and to draw viewers in to the video to show them how bad something is.

Here the charity has framed the video meaning this focuses on the state of the girls bedroom as it narrows down the image and they have also displayed information around the frame.

They also use rule of thirds in a lot of these as the child is in a third of the screen and the rest is the poor conditions this means that your attention is drawn towards the child and towards the poor conditions instead of only to one or the other.

Leading line is used in both of the shots above. The edge of the bed draws the audience into the shot and the bottom of the door also draws you into the shot. Leading line is used in charity promo's and videos to draw the viewer/audience's attention into the poor conditions or just what is occurring in the video.

Symmetry is also often oused where they mey have a child or homeless person in the middle iof the frame leaving the symmetry ogf both sides being a bad environment.

The intended audience is the general public but most likely anyone above the age of 13 as anyone younger will probably be less likely to donate as they wont have a job and may not understand it as much as anyone older and if not 13 then 10.

Although most likely it's targeted towards 16+ as a lot of 16 year old's and older have jobs so they will be able to donate.

It depicts the homeless by showing them as people who need help which they are, they show the poor conditions people have to live in and show them as though they live in and unsafe environment which is true a lot of the time. So they depict the homeless in a way that shows them as people too, as obviously they are still peple but a lot of people think most homeless people are on drugs all the time which is the case for a lot of them but should not be the image people have of them, so charity promos try to show what they're really like and encourage you to help them and donate.

Lyrical Lemonade - Cole Bennett

Lyrical Lemonade is a multi-media company created by Cole Bennett in 2013. They specialise in music videos especially for rappers such as Juice WRLD, YG, Lil Pump, Lil Tecca, etc.

He often combines drawings with video as seen in Juice WRLD's Bandit ft. NBA Youngboy.

This makes the video much more interesting and intriguing. This is a good thing to have in the Stone Pillow video as it will intrigue people, which will result in them watching the video and then most likely, as they would have watched the video, donate or want to donate.

As it is an interesting thing to have in the video people may talk about it with each other or bring it up reminding them that they we're going to donate or something similar.

This sort of sketched look gave me an idea of drawn raindrops to add to the video to emphasise the conditions people have to live in. This is a good idea because it brings so much more to the shot. This shot without the sketched looking animation would be quite boring as it is just the bonnet, windscreen and badge of a Rolls Royce so you don't even really get to see much of the car in this shot making it even worse, so the animation adds interest to it a lot.

Gorrilaz - Stylo Music Video

This music video is by the band Gorillaz. Gorillaz are a British virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. The band is mainly four characters who are shown through animations often music videos. Their first EP was released in 2000, followed by their first single, "Clint Eastwood" in 2001.

Their albums so far have been:

Gorillaz (2001)
Demon Days (2005)
Plastic Beach (2010)
The Fall (2010)
Humanz (2017)
The Now Now (2018)

Stylo was part of the album "Plastic Beach".

The music video for Stylo has combined animation with real life. Three of the characters from the Gorillaz virtual band are in this video however as they're not real they have been made into what looks to be CGI characters. These characters are in a car which is in a real landscape, which looks as though it could be a desert in North America, however, the characters have been added into the footage. Then there is also a real life character in this video which helps shows us that animation and real life has been cimbined in this music video.

This music video uses conventions such as framing to draw in the audience. For example there's a lot of shots looking in through the windscreen or other windows of the cars in the music video.

They have also used the frame and shape of the car for framing, here the use of framing draws us into what the character is doing, here he is pointing a gun at the diver of the other car and is about to shoot. This shot is also rule of thirds as the character and the gun are in the middle third of the shot, drawing us into the action.

Leading line is also used in the Stylo music video. In the photo above the racing stripe draws us in as well as the outside of the car as they draw in on the car. In the photo below we are drawn into the video by the road, it draws up into where the car is as this is the important part of the music video.

Leading line is used in the photo above as the bubbles produced from the car/submarine draw us into the shot to the submarine and the submarine is central but not quite rule of thirds.

The frame of the video is very wide so they have used a lot of establishing/extreme wide shots to show the scene and location of the music video however they have also used a lot of close up and medium shots to show us the vehicles and characters.

One of the aspects I could take from this is the conventions as they are used very well in this music video and really draw you into this this video. Another aspect is the story aspect as this makes the video easier to follow as it is part of a story, I could use this in my own work to make videos easier to follow which will intrigue the audience as they want to know whats going to happen.

John Lewis Advert 2019

This is the John Lewis Christmas advert 2019. It was made by John Lewis to advertise John Lewis obviously however, John Lewis Christmas adverts are quite famous in the UK as they bring one out every Christmas and they are quite highly anticipated by people who are actually interested in them. John Lewis is a shop in the UK who are partnered with Waitrose.

The way they created Edgar (the dragon) they came up with loads of different drawings to see which would be the best dragon. They used a model of Edgar when filming as this most would have helped them see what it would look like and help them animate him into the final production. They created Edgar by initially using grey scale and animation to eventually adding all his details and creating the final product.

They used a lot of blue screens and other screens to change the background in a lot of the shots as the location was not actually covered in snow and they would have needed to remove anything modern and not part of the set or story.

A lot of the advert has leading line as the characters are often central in the shot, also the objects for example the long table where everyone eating. This could also be seen as symmetry but more likely rule of thirds as things are central which is the middle/second third.

There is a lot of close up/medium shots in this advert and it gives us a better idea of what emotions the characters are experiencing.

They use establishing/wide shots to show the locations and to emphasise whats happening in the scene. Below you can see that the children aren't happy with Edgar and Edgar's friend looks as though she probably feels sorry for Edgar.

Most the shots in this advert are about eye level or around what a person would see height however there are a few lower angle and higher angle shots but not many and these shots are used to set the scene.

The right image is still similar to eye level however, it is facing up at the tree so it is a low angle shot.

What can I take from this?

I can take the story aspect and use this in my own work as it makes it easier to follow. I can also use tracking shots as there's a few in these where the camera moves with the characters. Although the advert works with the camera angles it has got I personally would have used a wider range of shots although, there is already quite a wide range however, as I said nearly all of them are around eye level and I think they definitely could have used a lot of different angles in this, so what I'll take from this is to use a wide range of angles as I think this would make the advert more interesting.

Research into film making

An influence I have for media is Red Bull and the edits they make along with other sport's companies. Other influences are often the people in edits such as Brandon Semunuk, Brendan Fairclough, Fabio Wibmer. A film that has influenced me is DeathGrip which is a mountain biking film.

A key influence for my Stone Pillow project is Lyrical Lemonade as they do the drawing shots and animations that go around the screen and I have taken a big influence from this in my Stone Pillow project.

Some of the transitions I used are jump cuts however I made them into my own transitions by the shot turning to drawing then turning to a different shot then that shot turning back to video footage. I used a fade to black transition at the end where it then faded to the Stone Pillow logo.

I also used a cross zoom for the first transition.

I have used leading line in the alley shots as the walls and path lead you into the shot were Aaron is.

There is also an element of symmetry in the alley shots as the walls are the same either side. Rule of thirds are used in the shots I am in as I am central in the shots.

The best symmetry shot is when I am outside the door.

This shot annoyingly isn't properly symmetry, however, it is seen as symmetry and it does draw you into the shot as I am central in the shot. The bottom of the walls also draw you in, this is the leading line in the shot. Another thing is rule of thirds as my head is in the second third.

I was also quite inspired by Wes Anderson's Symmetry work although I wanted a symmetry shot anyway he definitely influenced the shot. Annoyingly I completed the video and if I hadn't have completed the project I would have shot a re-shoot.

I haven't really been inspired by many of the films we watched as spotlights however, I have done similar to Sin City as I have added colours that standout from the other parts of the video as the video is quite dark and is slightly black and white.

I was also influenced by the inbertweeners. The shots were it turns to drawing at the end of the shots are inspired by the end of the inbertweeners and when the first half of an episode ends where the shot turns to drawings. This photo looks a lot like graffiti or a drawing.

Reflection/Problem solving

A lot of the stuff in "Reflection/Problem Solving" could be used in "Practical Skills"

I did not write plans or reflections for every time I was working on this project.

I think I planned ideas quite effectively as a team with Aaron as we made our story board and then worked out a place to record where it would be quiet and less distractions. We chose the stairs near open access because there wouldn't be any wind disruption and not many people use those stairs so we knew not many people would walk past.

I personally didn't think I did great yesterday as I got kind of confused and all I managed to do was edit the photo but not much and add it to the footage I put together and the only thing I really took from research was the camera angles and distances as a lot of charity videos have close ups, medium shots and zooms.

However, now I have actually taken in the research I have done and made the edit a lot better.

I used my research to add the shelter logo and the "Text HOME to..." as their charity promos have this in them. I know that we are doing this project for Stone Pillow however, this is just a test.

I have used the idea from Lyrical Lemonade of combining drawing with video. I haven't actually drawn anything though, I added effects to the original image on Photoshop. Annoyingly as I shot this in quite a dark area on an iPhone (as it was just a test) the footage and image quality is quite grainy.

So far I don't think I have been that creative from my inspiration however, I have done the drawing parts (apart from the last) as though they're stop motion so they it looks like they move just at a very slow frame rate however, next time I think I will take a screenshot or capture the image so the video doesn't play behind the photo, meaning, you wont see the video moving behind the cut out image and it will be more like an actual stop motion video with the drawing parts as it will just be images. I think when I do my final production I will add drawings, done on Photoshop, such as rain to emphasise the harsh conditions homeless people live in. This is inspired by the fact that in a lot of Lyrical Lemonades videos there's a lot of drawing animations that move, so that is how I have been inspired by the idea of the rain. It also inspired and influenced the movement of the drawings as though they are like stop motion, I did have this sort of idea but Lyrical Lemonade helped influence and inspire this.

What could I do to developed my project?

I could definitely watch or look up software tutorials as I know there's a lot of features and effects you can do on Adobe software so this would be really useful for improving and developing my project.

I can research artists who create media similar to these or similar to Lyrical Lemonade.

I can also location scout meaning, I could go and look for locations to film for my project.

I could get peer feedback from my peers to see what they think is good about my project and what they think I could add or needs improving.

There's always the option of self assessing to see what I like about my project and what I could improve or add.

I could brainstorm ideas.

Peer Feedback

Effective use of imagery and other screenshots.

Maybe try to record from the front on to have a better angle so the window is all in and straight.

Clear story with contact info.

Reflection for the 21st January 2020

My aims for today were to start filming and start editing.

The progress I have made is that I started filming and started editing, at the moment I think I have got enough footage however, I'm not sure if I will go and film more. I have edited a lot of the clips on Photoshop by getting a photo from the clips and edited them on Photoshop. I am happy with my progress on this as I have made a few drawing looking transitions a bit like at the end of parts one and two in the inbetweeners episodes, which may also intrigue the target audience as a lot of teens watch the inbertweeners and the characters in the inbetweeners are the age of the target audience. It wasn't completely inspired by that however, that is most likely where part of the idea came from. I have also made some of the photos that look like drawings work like stop motion however, it is more like one frame a second but, it doesn't take the video concept away from the video as it still has motion.

I quite effectively used my storyboards however a few of the spots we found and decided to shoot there. This was because we came across them and decided they would be a good place to film as they suited our project well.

Reflection for my work on 27/01/2020

I think I have progressed with my knowledge quite a lot today as I have learnt a lot of features and effects on Aftereffects. Although I have not progressed much on my actual production I have been experimenting on after effects and learning how to make my work more interesting. I used the paint effect on Aftereffects.

A bit of peer critique I got was that a section of my video looked odd as it was sunny but I added a rain to the shot so do make it look more realistic I edited a photo of some dark clouds onto the footage and moved it so it takes about a third of the video, then masked it, feathered the mask so there wasn't an obvious line where the photo is and put the opacity to 100% so this made the darkness pretty strong because once you have exported the video actually comes out darker. I found this peer critique very useful as it has made my video more effective.

A problem I had was whenever I exported the video from Aftereffects the footage would lag a lot and when I exported it as a Premier Pro project, in Premier the effects I added in such as paint, rainfall and snowfall didn't appear in Premier. The way I solved this problem was I made Aftereffects a small screen but kept Premier full screen and I then dragged the project from Aftereffects to Premier Pro and this worked.

Reflection for 29/01/2020

I had a few problems today as I didn't know how to turn of the CC Rainfall effect on Aftereffects. This problem was solved as I didn't put any key frames in to change when the effects stop, start and change. With this I could put a key frame for 0 drops and then in the next key frame I put, for example, 2900.

Some new techniques I learnt were using the key frames in After Effects, I have used them before in Premier Pro, however, I hadn't though about using them to solve the problem above and when I did it was a very useful technique.

Reflection for 03/02/2020

My aims today were just to edit my video. I added quite an intriguing and interesting part at the end where, using the paint tool on Aftereffects, I wrote donate but kept going over it every frame to make it sort of shake a little which gives it a more drawn/animated effect and I then made all the remaining exclamation marks after the writing had dissapered, merge into one line and sort of wiggle off the screen.

The shot above was actually quite plain although it does have the drawn element, so, what I did was I drew a rat to emphasise the conditions the homeless have to live in and it added something to the shot. All it does is run around in the corner for a second or two but it makes the shot a lot better and more effective.

Practical Skills

My aim for the work I did on thew 13th January 2020 was to test shoot some footage that would add up to around 20 seconds. Then I had to edit this footage in premier pro and get photos from the videos, take these into Photoshop and then make them a different style such as a drawing. Unfortunately I never managed to make them a drawing, however, I did turn one to black and white. I also cut the photo and used the quick selection tool to get the outline of Aaron this meant there was no background in the photo and it was a PNG.

I scaled the black and white photo slightly bigger than Aaron in the original footage as the photo is a still however, the footage keeps playing so as it has been scaled to be larger than Aaron in the original footage you don't see movement from Aaron behind the photo.

I cut out Aaron using the quick selection tool then copied him onto a new layer and turned it black and white. Already this gives it more of a drawn/sketched feel.

To make it look even more like a drawing or a sketch I got a pencil texture of the internet put that over the photo of Aaron then put my mouse between the layers held Alt and then clicked which makes the pencil texture only appear where the cut out is. Then change the texture to overlay which makes it more transparent so you can see Aaron with a pencil texture on him. A good effect you can use is the pattern overlay effect and if I make the pattern small then it looks more grainy making the image look more drawn. An even better effect in my opinion is the stroke effect as it makes it look more like its been drawn as there is an outline around the cut out which you would have in an actual sketch.

For my final video I used the curves effect. This changes the brightness and contrast. It is a very useful features you can get the contrast and brightness pretty much perfect.

Here is an example of pattern overlay. As I have said this is a useful feature as it make the photo look more grainy if you make the pattern small

Some peer critique I got was that in my project the footage was quite bright and didn't really look sad and as this is a charity promo you'd of thought it would look sad. I edited the brightness and contrast, used the curves tool and made a tint of black 35% to make make it darker with and slightly black and white as this makes it seem more depressing.

Original Edited

Here I tried to make it that when Aaron talks it is actually him waking up from the rain however this rain I drew and made it animated rain. I had to draw the rain drops

The editing below has been explained in reflection/problem solving however, I wanted to add it here as it is a practical skill which although is quite easy once you know how to do it, is slightly complicated. As you have to mask the cloud photo, then with the blend mode multiply it, sort out the opacity, feather, expansion of the mask and then even more stuff if you're editing further for example I had to scale the photo and move it up the screen. This creates a dark effect to make it look as though the sky is darker than what it is as this shot was sunny so the rain didn't work that well. However, now that the dark cloud effect is on the footage it works a lot better. Although it is still not great it is better, which obviously is a good improvement.

Final Outcome

Music credit: "Emotional Sad Piano Music | Touch" by Mattia Cupelli

https://youtu.be/_JYHk_D5A44

Final Evaluation

I used planning quite effectively to support this project as a lot of stuff I kept to what I had planned and when shooting and editing stuck to my inspirations and again what I had planned, however, there was also quite a lot of other stuff I changed for example.

I changed the last two shots on this as we were only meant to shoot on campus unless we got shots during our own time, I didn't have much spare time and Aaron would

have to have spare time as well to

help with getting the shots.

Here's an example of something I didn't change. I planned my locations and took location shots. Although we found more locations while filming I still stuck with the original locations I planned and took location shots for.

I planned a lot of my shots using the location photos. A lot of these were initial ideas such as the tent, I knew that the tent would be hard to use but it was an idea as it is a good idea still to plan for props.

Although I didn't use all of these shots it was useful to plan them as I think it quite effectively helped me with my other shot ideas such as the slow zoom out on the bench and the last alley shot (alley I planned to have the tent in), I actually took that from the other end as there was windows from the initial angle however, I kept the original idea of the trucking shot.

Although it is not shown in my original planning, however is shown when I researched Lyrical Lemonade, I stuck to the raindrop idea as soon as I thought of it, not once did I think I shouldn't do it as I thought this was a great and effective effect as it really gives it a cartoon/animation X real life feel to the video.

The rain and snow can also be seen as leading line as they fall into the video drawing you into it and when they land on an actor that draws your attention to them and the conditions they live in.

The planning of my script helped me a lot as I had an idea of what I wanted my video to be like and it gave me a good idea of the lengths of the shots as people need enough time to read the text.

I used ongoing reflection pretty effectively as it helped me understand what I needed to improve on or what I could improve on to make my video more effective. For example, here where I added the dark

clouds and masked them to make the sky look darker, this reflection helped a lot. This was peer critique however, I was looking at this shot and if I hadn't have also reflected on it myself I probably wouldn't have edited it. This helped a lot as it created a better effect for my video.

If I hadn't have done reflection, then a lot of the stuff in my video I wouldn't have edited and my video would be pretty bad to be honest.

I effectively used ongoing reflection to understand what I could do better next time for example, with the first video I did, I added the cut outs of Aaron with the video still playing in the background and what I did better and learnt with my final video was that I should capture the image of the video with the cut outs over it but still make it sort of stop motion to give the impression that the video is still playing however, you are actually looking at still images.

I also reflected on the shot of myself outside the door and thought it was quite plain so I added a little drawn animated rat to add something to the shot, this also makes it look more like a video and not images and this also emphasises the conditions and locations the homeless live in.

I personally think I used the ongoing reflection very effectively and it really helped me in producing a much better quality video than if I hadn't have done the ongoing reflection. However, I do also think I should have done more reflection as this would have probably improved my video a lot but then again I don't want to think I should add more effects and then over do it so no one knows what is going on as then no one would watch it and it wouldn't be intriguing or if it was it would draw the audience/viewer away from the actual subject which is Stone Pillow.

My research helped me a lot in targeting my audience. My target audience was 16-18 year olds and my research into Lyrical Lemonade helped me a lot with the animated ideas as I know a lot of teens and young people are into rap music. I think the paint effect is a an exciting and interesting effect as it brings a lot into the video and I think nearly everyone with access to cartoons and animations watch them, especially teens and young people. The animated effects from Lyrical Lemonade really inspired me with all the animated features such as the snow, raindrops, the rat, etc. If I hadn't of researched Lyrical Lemonade I think my video would have been so much worse than what it is. This also helped me learn new skills on Aftereffects such as the paint effect as this is a very interesting and intriguing effect. I have actually been interested in this sort of effect for quite a while now as I have seen similar on social media and to finally find out to do it is very useful.

Here are some examples of the animated/cartoon paint effects I added to my video. This one is the rain.

Snow

Weather conditions to emphasise conditions.

Rat

The rat emphasises conditions just like the weather.

Writing that says "DONATE", I like this effect as the exclamation marks turn into a sort of squiggly line which

wiggles off the screen which I think is quite intriguing which is good as it is an important part of the video as it is telling you to donate. I think I could've put more effort into the rat maybe, make it look like it moves more but it is not on the screen for long and it is very hard to do with a computer mouse.

My research into charity promos helped me target the audience as obviously those promos are created to draw you in so I took a lot of inspiration from them such as, the logo in the corner. This is a good feature because as it is always there you probably subconsciously remember the name a lot better than if it was not there.

This is a really good position for the logo to be in because it doesn't get in the way or disrupt the video, however, it is obvious enough for you to realise it is there, clear enough and big enough to read.

Another thing I learnt from my research is that charities often give you questions which make you think about the situation and they often start with them, so, that is how I started my video.

This is a very useful bit of research as this is one of the first things in the video and this is one of the most important things of drawing the viewer/audience in and making them think about the situation.

My research into "Stylo" by Gorillaz and the John Lewis Christmas advert 2019 made me think a lot more about conventions.

I used leading line quite a bit in this project. The walls in the alley shots lead

Aaron and they also lead you further into the

shot which shows what the alleys are like

and it makes the audience think how horrible

it must be to live down somewhere with

those sort of conditions. The first alley does

show this better and I think we should maybe

have tried to have used some props in the

second alley as that alley is quite plain and

doesn't show much. We should have got

some of the boxes we used in the other shots

just to make this shot more interesting and

intriguing as it is very plain, luckily I added

some drawn looking elements which made it more

interesting.

My research into Wes Anderson inspired inspired me with my

symmetry shots as his symmetry shots are very intriguing and

bring a lot more to the shot.

Some peer feedback I received was about the shot of Aaron

on the bench, because it is a sunny shot yet it is raining.

I have already spoken about this in my evaluation as it was

also part of my ongoing reflection. If I hadn't of had this

feedback I would not have edited that bit of video and it

wouldn't look great.

Another bit of peer feedback I got was on the whole video itself and how it

was quite bright so I edited the brightness and the con tract to make the

video darker and I also made it have a 35% black noting to make it more

black and white which gives it a more depressing and emotional feel as

there is no bright happy colours. This helped me make the video more

effective.

An editing technique that worked really well for me was the paint effect on Aftereffects, this worked well for me as I learnt how to use it quite quickly and it works really well for the animation aspect of the

video.

Another editing technique I used was on PhotoShop when I cut out the actors and then turned them into looking like drawings. This worked well as they were easy to put into Premier Pro and edit them to make them work in the video.

An aspect that could have worked better or could have been improved was the dark clouds I added to the shot of Aaron on the bench and then masked, this is because you can still see them slightly instead of it just being darker and it makes the dark part on the screen slightly blotchy. I could have tried to have changed the opacity or using as different part of the photo.

Something I did with the composition is I put the

stone pillow logo in the top right corner as this

is in many charity promos and it doesn't get in

the way but it is obvious enough to notice it. I

put the waiting usually in the second horizontal

third, or I put it a bit lower or higher than the

actors so you could still see what is going on in

the shot however you can still read the writing.

The text that I put at the bottom of the screen

was the details how to contact stone pillow as it

is often at the bottom in charity promos and I

would have got in the way of the shot otherwise.

The two shots where there wasn't really any conventions

were thee shot of Aaron on the bench and the shot of the

bike shelter. However, the shot of the bike shelter does

have leading line however, it leads youth the edge of the

shot which is an unimportant part of the shot. Although, it

does lead you into the bike shelter if you look through the

line.

I used framing the alleys shots as they alley walls

frame the leading line and the actor (Aaron).

Another shot also with framing is the shot of me on the boxes

which is framed by the walls and rails. I do think I could have

planned better framing or planned it better or angled the

camera differently however, I think the framing is still pretty good and that it does work well enough to frame the shot and parts of the shot well.

I didn't actually use much symmetry in this video apart from when

I was outside the door, I know that I could have done symmetry

shots with the alleys but I prefer the shots I have filmed.

I used rule pot thirds in most my shots as the actors head would

be in the centre of the shot and some of the shots they would be

completely in the middle their whole body.

I chose not to do a voiceover as I wouldn't be good at it and I thought it would be better to just add music to mine, that is the reason I chose to put the text on their because then the viewer audience more likely to not just ignore it and let it go over their heads. I do now think that a voiceover might have been good but I am happy with how my video has come out without a voiceover.

I think this project has helped me a lot with conventions such as framing, leading line etc, because although I knew how. o use them it definitely helped me doing another project where I had to use them.

this project has taught me how to use Aftereffects and a few effects Aftereffects such as the paint tool and I learnt how to turn the pain into animations and I also learnt how to add effects to the video on Aftereffects, etc. I also learnt how to make a photo look like a drawing on Photoshop which is very useful as I can do this instead of actually drawing and it is a very neat effect.

I have learnt more on how to aim my project towards my target audience with research on what they like, do, age, what other similar things/products/projects are like, etc. This is a very useful thing to know because you can get your product/production much closer to perfect of what the client wants.

Knowing what the client wants is also very useful as instead of just a general idea of what you are supposed to be doing you know what you actually are supposed to be doing and what the client actually wants you to do which is very useful because you can get your research down to a lot less research and only what you need to research although, it is always useful to have extra research.

Having a proper deadline is very useful as it is easier to meet them as you can plan how much time you spend on your work and when to work on it. It is also useful to know when you need to get it done by.