in this essay I will be talking about the work flow of a promotional corporate video and evaluating my own production and product. with each video you create you have to have a client that you are going to promote and sell to a selected target audience. In my case my client was 'Miskin Media, Creative Media Production, TV & Film'.
they had asked me to create a promotional corporate video advertising the course to students who are just leaving school or looking to get back into education.
during my production I was the director throughout and also filmed the interviews and cover shots. however I also decided on crew to help me with the production. (I had Ellen Bailey and Mikey Cload to help me with the filming of the interviews. I then asked Simon and Connor to film cover shots whilst we were doing the interviews as this way it was time saving and we didn't have to hire the equipment out for longer than we needed.the work flow of a promotional corporate video starts with meeting the client and deciding on what it is that you as the project manager is offering and make sure that they understand what it is and understand what the client wants. once it has all been discussed and all of the ideas and plans are clear you then have to go away and research the client further so that you fully understand who they are and what their business is. with this you then start writing the proposal which is a detailed brief of what the corporate video is going to show. once the proposal is complete you then would propose the proposal to the client again and they would give you the go ahead with the plans or ask for changes to be made.
after you have got the go ahead with the proposal with the client you have to complete the rest of the paperwork. such as the treatment which goes through everything within the video explaining how we are going to achieve it. along with that has to come the shooting schedule explaining where and when each scene is going to be filmed, what equipment is going to be used and what crew member is doing what. with the shooting schedule a risk assessment has to be carried out every time you change location. it explains where there are risks, why they are a risk, how bad the risk is and what we are going to do to prevent the risk and prevent anyone being put into danger.
in the way of meeting my client i was with them everyday, so it was very easy to communicate fast is here were any problems. for research i observed the classes and lecturers gathering ideas of interesting shots to capture. i also looked online for previous video or work that had been done before. however i failed to find a corporate video. however there was a student made video which had some good ideas that i thought about using however i couldn't create shots similar.
for all promotional corporate videos there has to be an audience that you are aiming at. by knowing the target audience you know what will appeal to the audience and what will not. meaning the video will get the response expected.
my target audience was students aged 16+. by having this audience then knew that the audience was mature and looking for a video that would give them the inspiring information that they need/want to know about the course. i also have a refined audience of students that are already interested in media and are looking for a course that is like working in the industry. however i also have an audience of students who are looking to explore the media industry. therefore i have to make sure i answer any questions they may be asking themselves about the course.
in a corporate video there are key elements that you have to include and consider especially when you are creating a video. for example :
You have to identify who you're creating the video for. meaning that you have to recognise the target audience finding out what appeals to them and what they don't want to see. however a lot of focusing on the target audience doesn't just rely on what is put into the video a lot of it is in editing deciding on the pace and the music etc. putting it all together to create a video that will inspire the target audience. Within my corporate video I realised that my audience are going to be students that are just leaving school and also people that are looking to get back into education. with this I then mixed shot of both younger people and older people on the course showing diversity within the course so that this way everyone felt that they were able to come to the course and not feel out of place.
you have to make sure that the audience are entertained. no matter what the corporate video is about you can make it interesting for the viewer. you can make anything appeal to an audience by putting the edit together in a creative manor and exploring with the shots when you are out on shoot. For example instead of just taking a still shot of someone working if you turn it into a really slow pan it gives it the edge where the audience cant help but watch it. In my corporate video I took a shot of the college corridor but instead of just having a still mid level shot I lowered it so that the camera was looking up and do the slowest pan I could on the tripod. this gave it a really nice effect and turned out much better that I thought however I wouldn't have got this shot if I didn't decide to go out of the box and try something different.
also whilst creating your corporate video you have to be honest with what you show on screen. for example with my client the course is a BTECH course so the students that are looking to apply are going to know that there aren't any exams and that they are going to be doing practical work as well. yet to be honest with the client I showed shots of current students working on the computers and doing paper work in a class room. this way the audience will then see that they are not going to just be out with the equipment all the time. this also means that we are not tricking them into thinking they are not going to have to do any work and meaning that they aren't going to be annoyed when they get onto the course and find that they have to do some paperwork
when making a corporate video you have to remember that the video isn't going to be 30 minutes long and that you cant afford to put us less information in the video. you have to be very selective with what you include in the video however you have to make sure that you include everything that the audience would be wanting you to answer. I made sure of this by putting together the interviews in a way so that they were almost having a conversation. this way the information was put across clearly and I could also put everything into the video that I would expect my audience to want.
when in preparation of the corporate video we were very un organised in the way of the shooting schedule as we had left it till the last minute to book out equipment. because of the delay with the process of the paper work it meant that the equipment hadn't been booked and dates for filming were unknown until the last minute. this effected the video massively as it meant that people were given short notice about when they needed to film and also with the interviews. in future projects the paper work will be divided out to each team member so that it gets done quicker and that way it isn't left down to one person rushing at the last minute. i will also have constant communication with the rest of the crew as this way if there are any problems they are sussed out straight away not at the last minute when its to late to make any changes.
the equipment that was used was ...
*black magics - i decided to use this camera because it gives a much better picture quality and was easy to adapt to the different lighting that we used throughout the video.
*50ml lens - we only used the 50ml lens as it made the interviews look much more refined and detailed. it also matched the shots that we planned to get as majority of there was close ups so there was no need for a wide lens apart from when we were getting the landscape shots for the opening and ending of the video.
*tripod, dolly, track - each of these were used to create effective shots and the tripod especially was used for panning shots and the interview stills.
*day-doe and flow lights - we used 2 types of lighting for the interviews as this way we had a choice in the way we lit the interviews and the effects that we created.
for the preparation of the interviews we only used one location. this was because all of the interviews would be done at the same time and we were also able to create effective settings in just one venue. we used the spare equipment to create backdrops and shadows to keep it interesting visually. the rest of the video was shot on the college campus in the media department. this was because all that we needed was all in one area meaning it didn't require us to travel to and from places.
once all of the filming was done and we were ready to edit i used final cut pro to edit the video. i used final cut as it was a professional software to use and gave great products. i also then used Davinche to colour correct the final video. this was because i had filmed on the black magic cameras and needed to lift the grey scale in order to bring the colours of the shots forward.
within this project i would defiantly make a lot of changes if i had to repeat it in the way of planning as i found that i was very un organised and this effected me time wise and i found that i was rushing every thing at the last minute. i would also have set crew and people to interview this way there would be no miss understandings with getting people to help me film and produce the footage i needed.
However the interviews i was very pleased with i had done them individually with a sounds man they turned out very well and better that i had anticipated. also the arrangement of the interviews and how i told the story within the video was very creative i decided to use each interview separately this made it really effective for the audience.
i have gained many skills and learnt things that i need to work on in the way for future projects. i have learnt that i need to work on my time management as it effected me really badly in this project as i meant everything was rushed. i have also learnt that corporate videos are revolved around the interviews and has to be created by what the people say in the interviews not what is shown on screen. however in the way of cover shots what is shown on screen at each moment has to follow what the interview has said otherwise the audience are miss lead and it makes the video confusing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E6UVlelzVs
