Video screenshots

25/05/16

 The program I used to get the name and job titles of the interviewee was in the same program I used to compile the footage together, Adobe Premiere. I basically just opened up a title sequence and typed what it needed to say.

 I had some of the animals with a natural background, i.e. this emu, to give confidence to the viewer that the Hope Nature Centre takes care of animals in an outside space. It's also in a medium shot and a cutaway to create interest and/or information on the context.

 This man, Clive Bond, represents a visitor that came to the centre and had a good time. I was also conscious of how the camera was positioned with the interviewee, that the interviewee was not to stare directly at the camera.

 I liked how this Eagle Owl took a curious interest in me, so I had to include him in my film. Though this wire mesh was a bit of a problem filming him.

This final shot gives a good ending to the video, for it tells you that this video was all for the Hope Nature Centre and it invites people to come along. I also gave it focus transition on the camera to make it natural.

FMP Final thoughts

23/05/16

Does your finished product reflect what you originally set out to do?
A little bit, because I was originally just making a poster aiming for Bath Cats & Dogs Home, but then I focused so much on the video and I was unable to get permission to film and couldn't use abuse stats on my poster, so instead I went for Hope Nature Centre. There were two huge differences between the two, Bath Cats & Dogs is an animal rescue centre, while Hope Nature is a centre focused on helping people with learning difficulties.

What did you struggle with? - be honest and specific.
We struggled with the questions, because the ones we had prepared were accidentally left behind, but of course we improvised by coming up with a different set of questions. So to avoid having this sort of disaster happen again, we may take a checklist with us. We struggled with the wind which blew through our microphone, but I didn't do anything about it, because it was to be more natural and the ways I was doing in getting rid of the bluster made the people sound like robots. I struggled with making the video as long as the music, so I couldn't include the other footage we did and I could not get the release forms to people in the un-used footage. I also struggled with getting the footage of Bath Cats & Dogs home, because they have a confidentiality policy about abused or neglected animals being filmed and if they were filmed and it was put together on Youtube, the abusers will see it.

What did you enjoy and why?
Meeting the people and the seeing the animals, because it helps with being social and the animals are in a way therapeutic.

What could you improve on and how?
Possibly the wind sound, by taking the microphone with the 'dead cat' cover. Again I can remember to bring the questions by taking a checklist.

If you were to do this project again/had more time and resources what might would you do differently?
Like the previous question, the wind sound and get the permission release forms sooner. But apart from all that nothing else.

Are you happy with the final product?
Yes I am, because it gives a happy and peaceful atmosphere with the animals and the music.

Are all of the above combined in a blog post?
Yes.

Model release forms

19/05/16

The only release form we need is from Metin, the animal park supervisor.

Recce

19/05/16

What is Primary and Secondary research?

19/05/16

Primary research is generally brand new information provided from specific issues or questions. This type of research can be obtained by giving questionnaires, surveys or interviews, whether it is reliable. I personally already knew what primary research is and found out some new information from my charity video.

Secondary research is information obtained from research that already exists. Primarily secondary research is there when you do not have any information on a certain subject and look it up on newspapers, books, reports, videos or generally the internet.

The only people who answered my questionnaire appear to be three males. I could have gotten much more widespread and gender diverse responses from different people, by asking more folk in person around the college. Having more members of a different gender would most definately balance it all. out.

I had myself a narrow range of ages from my respondents. My video was not directed at any particular age group.

I had two of my recipients being donors to charities. I should have really let them give more detail into 'Other.'

Everyone responded, 'No.' It granted me the opportunity to introduce the centre to anyone who doesn't know it.

 My recipients answered they all do like animals and they give explanation of why.

The answers they gave was not entirely useful as the animals they mentioned are domesticated. Although technically, the animals at the centre are domesticated animals, but they are not entirely the kind you would normally keep as pets. I may not include that question next time.

This was useful (apart from the tiger or lion response) because it they wanted to see animals, I give it to them.

HNC Promo

17/05/16

My FMP is a video to promote the charity Hope Nature Centre. I used a camera, a tripod and a microphone. I seem to know right away on how to use the equipment, especially the shutter-speed, I never entirely knew how to use it at first, but I know now that you use it to brighten up or darken footage depending on the light.

What enjoyed of filming was getting to see the animals, though with some of the small ones, I had trouble with filming them while behind wire mesh. I also enjoyed talking to some of the people at the centre, especially the members of public. I also enjoyed compiling the video recordings together on Premiere. I had a few interviews and cutaways all in between each other. I did tracking shots on the animals, for example the rabbit. The final shot was the sign of the animal park, I first filmed it out of focus and then I added the focus for a natural transition.

I used the song from a website called Bensound.com that has downloadable royalty free music. I chose the song on basis of having the video a casual, happy mood. But of course, I had to discard some other footage we took from getting into the video on account of the length of the song. I made a second version where there's a different song 'Carefree' by Kevin Macleod, in order to fit all, including the missing footage into the video. I had some trouble with the sound of the wind, because it turns out we used the wrong kind of microphone, instead of using the 'dead cat' mic, we accidentally took the regular mic which can record the wind too well. I followed a tutorial on Removing Wind Noise in Videos: Quick Audio Fix by Justin Brown for the second version, but I decided to not do it after all, because, the interviewees would sound too robotic. The interview question we had prepared were not in our hands, so it had to improvise the question.

We had some successes and problems when it came to release forms. The forms for the volunteers were sent to their families. So I could not use all of the footage, because we were not given the permission of filming them.

FMP Storyboard

27/04/16

From what I found out from my questionnaire is that most of my respondents are male, three out of four of them like animals and they would like to see "happy animals," "the great work the people at Bath Cats & Dogs do" and "interesting shot of the dogs and cats." Because of this, I have put almost all of that into this storyboard.

These are question I will ask at the charity:

1. What is Bath Cats & Dogs Home?
2. How much is the annual cost of feed for the animals?
3. How many paid staff do you have and do you rely heavily on volunteers?
4. What would you say is the percentage of the dogs that would be put into fights before being rescued? 
5. What would you say is the percentage of the cats that would be neglected by their owners?
6. What would you say is the percentage of the other animals that would be abused?

10/05/16

I made a lot changes to my storyboard, such as the animals, one of the members of staff and possibly it's style. I started to identify the key things in interviews, including cutaways (when one scene cuts to the next one or "a cutaway shot is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else." from Wiki)

There will be an establishing shot, shots of the interviewer including 'noddies', a type of camera shot used in recorded news or current affairs interviews. The noddies consist of nods and other similar "listening gestures" made by the interviewer from Wiki. The panel of the woman walking the dog was dropped due to the fact that it may be irrelevant to the video and the fact that there are no dogs being walked at Hope Nature Centre.

There are five main people from the centre that I may interview, such as, the animal park supervisor, animal park assistant, tearoom supervisor, manager and fundraiser/marketing person.

Redone questionnaire

I have also done a release form for the people that I will be interviewing. For legal purposes.

FMP WIP Poster

05/05/16

I decided to make it plain and simple, nothing complicated. But I also gave the background texture using 'Blending Options', because I think that having it with no texture doesn't give a feeling of something. I also like how I use different simple shapes to make animals, as an example of existing infographic posters.

The one last thing I need to do is find out the proper statistics of the animals in Britain.

With change of animal rescues, so did the poster.

I change the background from white to a pale tan-like colour, because white reflected the previous charity. I replaced logo of Bath Cats & Dogs with the logo of Hope Nature Centre. I used font called Superclarendon Black to resemble the font on the logo. The infographic animals were replaced with the three kinds of animals that are at the centre. I added statistics, not of the animals that were troubled, but of young people with learning disabilities.

Skills I need to do FMP

03/05/16

The skills I need to do my FMP include:

• Communication skills: Eye contact, straightforward clear communication, open questions to know more and serious but friendly expressions. I do feel confident in using these skills.
• Camera skills: Checking equipment, framing, lighting (stabilising shutter speed), audio (I want to improve my skill by handling the boom kit) and angle (I shouldn't make the camera be pointed straight at the interviewee.)
• Interview Skills: Location (it should be relevant to the subject), goals (I want to hear the opinions about statistics), questions (as openly possible and plan them out), flow (the order of the flow of the questions) and medium (whether it is audio/video or written, to not use interjections like "Uh-huh" in audio interviews to keep the tape clean.) I have a wingman to help me with the interview video. I have to learn avoid obsessing over every single detail and quality. I may need to revisit some questions that may have not been answered. Work up the interviewee. Endure awkward silences and be prepared to tell about their process.

This was researched from this article.

Testing audio recorder

In my previous events with A Knight for a Call, there were some issues, such as the wind. It caused a disturbance in recording the dialogue. Due to that we decided to do a test before the actual filming day. We were testing out the mounted microphone on the camera, because using separate audio boom kit and then trying to sync it up to the recorded video will be complicated. Our first take was that the camera didn't had a memory card and I didn't turn on the mic, so we did it again but we had a few outtakes, due to me getting tongue-tied and started laughing a lot, before we perfected the final mock interview.

My animal charity disaster/salvation

03/05/16

I have been looking into Bath Cats & Dogs Home, but after receiving a message from the organisation saying they didn't had the resources, I was a little gutted. Then I researched other animal rescue centres which are the most closest to me possible, such as, RSPCA, Somerset & Dorset Animal Rescue, Blue Cross, Holly Hedge Animal Sanctuary.

Just as Bath Cats & Dogs were unable to accommodate me, Hope Nature Centre may give me the window of opportunity. It was explained at the last minute that they don't allow people to film the animals due to their backgrounds, considering other videos from Bath Cats & Dogs which features their animals. I am wondering why I'm not allowed to film, because their are already videos of the animals online.

I e-mailed Hope Nature Centre, I found out, it is a registered charity that gives placement for young adults with learning difficulties.