Problems I have had & Comments from Crit

In the 'Crit' session, I had plenty of comments that I could use to make my video better. For example, I had overlapped 2 of my people, so that one finished the other's sentence, I did that twice. The first comment, was to add more of the overlapping people so that they are all telling one part of the story, at least, also so that it would make it a continuous event that happened throughout my video.
Another comment, was to add more of the stop motion animations to my video, so that they would look more consistant and make my video even more interesting.
The next comment was to get rid of the beginning part, because everyone didn't find it relevant to my video, and would take the attention away from what I was trying to do.
The last comment I had was I had to change the voice over of Julie Hall, because she was a different quality to the others, and it didn't sound good at all, therefore I had got my mother to redo some of the parts that Julie had said, this is so it wouldn't sound that bad.

Lastly, the lighting in Robert's interview was terrible, which then meant that the video was grainy and pixelated.
I therefore had to re-shoot his video, or not use him visually. Therefore, I had to contact him to see if he could do it in the time space that I had, and luckily he was free, and therefore I was able to re-shoot him. However, this time I decided to use a black background, which would make Robert stand out more, and I changed the lighting a bit, so that again he would stand out better.
Luckily, this time it worked. And therefore I changed the videos from the old ones to the new ones.

I was able to make all of the changes and more to then make my video to the best of my ability. I also got a comment from another lecturer, saying that I could have added more effects to make the video more visually interesting. I feel that if I had more time I could have done that, however, to due to the issues that I had with getting hold of people and getting people filmed, I ran out of time.

Programs Using and Used

I have used different programs to create the different elements for my video.

For the video itself, I am using Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Pro allowed me to cut my videos up and place them into places that I would like them to be. However, because I have only got a PC at home I found it very difficult to carry on using Final Cut Pro, and therefore one of my Lecturers showed me a way to use Adobe After Effects in the same way.

I began using Adobe After Effects to create my stop motion animations, therefore I was very comfortable with using it, and I also had it at home, which then allowed me to work on it as much as I wanted. Creating the different stop motion animations ment that I had to use different features within After Effects, for example the In and Out points to cut up the different parts of the films.

Lastly, I used Adobe Illustrator to create some of the graphics, and to modify some of the images to make them lighter or darker.

Questions Used for Interviews

For the Four Children:

1. What is your name?


2. What school do you go to?


3. What do you think FairTrade means?


4. What have you done for the FairTrade Festival?


5. What do you think that Anthem is about?


6. What lines did you help create?


7. What do you think it means?


8. What did you enjoy most from this experience?

For Robert Eggleston:

1. What is your name?


2. What do you do for FairTrade (Job)?


3. What is a FairTrade Town?


4. When did Burgess Hill become a FairTrade Town?


5. How and Why did Burgess Hill become a FairTrade Town?


6. When was the first FairTrade Festival?


7. How long does the Festival run for?


8. What events are there at the Festival?


9. Do people volunteer or do you have to ask them?


10. What type of people volunteer?


11. Is there a commitee of people making the decisions about the festival?

For Julie Hall:

1. What is your name?


2. What do you do?


3. Do you do anything outside of Burgess Hill to promote FairTrade?


4. What are you doing for the FairTrade Festival?


5. Why are you involved in the Festival?


6. Are you more aware of FairTrade by doing the Festival?


7. Would you ever do the festival again?

Using these questions that I have come up with will allow me to create a story between all of the different people talking.

Progress of Brief

I have currently started creating my animations, from my sketches and storyboards that I have created, the first one I have created is a chocolate stop motion animation, which will co-inside with what Robert Eggleston has said, when he was explaining how fairtrade works.

I created my stop motion animation by firsting having to make sure that the camera was on a tri-pod so that the framing hardly moved. I then made sure that my positioning of my objects were in the frame, and that you could see the products.

For example in this test shot you cannot see the chocolate that well, therefore I decided to use a white sheet or something to make the chocolate stand out from the carpet.

For example in this photograph here, I have put a white sheet below the chocolate and therefore the chocolate stands out.

After showing my video to my tutors my video and the progress, they had said that I should include more stop motion animation. Therefore I had decided to go through my video to pick out the parts that I can animate.

I then used the idea of when Robert was explaining about the different events that will be at the Burgess Hill FairTrade Festival, I thought I could make 3 short animations to go with what he was saying.

Therefore I chose, 'an acoustic evening',

Classic,

And Rock.

I then thought about doing another small animation showing the different types of people who can get involved with Fairtrade, which again goes with what Robert says again.

Also there was a part that was said about how buying fairtrade items won't cost people 'more than a few extra pennies'.


Therefore I chose to do another even smaller animation just showing about 3 or 4 pennies disappearing from this group of pennies.

Also within my video Robert mentions about the different shops that sell FairTrade products as well as Fairly Traded product, and therefore I went around to each shop, asked their permission if I could take a photo of their products and their signs so I may put them into my video. And here are the shops.

I then added the products that had been mentioned. For example: Oranges, Sugar, Coffee, Chocolate and Bananas

Videos and Images taken for Brief

My answer to the brief that was set by Fairtrade, is to create a video that is based around a community, and with Burgess Hill (which is my home town) being a Fairtrade town, I wanted to base it on that. I chose this idea because I feel that it shows what people can do as a community, instead of individually.

I would like to interview different people, children as well. The only way I can film and include is by getting the school's permission and the parents permission. And I have got all of the permission slips for the interviews, and I am still waiting for the slips from the Choir. I have been thinking about, what would happen if there were children that did not have permission, I would make sure that they attend their choir session, however I would also make sure that they were not included in the film.

I have currently done most of my videos, which are:

• Robert Eggleston's interview (The Chairman of the FairTrade Association of Burgess Hill)
• The four children's interviews (The four children, from Birchwood Grove Primary School, involved with creating the Burgess Hill Community Anthem.)
• Julie Hall's interview (Is a performer who will be performing in the Burgess Hill FairTrade Festival).

I have also started on photographing the images that I would need to create my stop-motion animation.

I am currently waiting for an oppotunity to film the Birchwood Grove Choir singing the Anthem, I think that I may only use the music in the background, and then use the choir singing the chorus at the end.

Research for Fairtrade

This video I got from YouTube. This video I have chosen because it is a good way to explain how Fair Trade works. It has also been a good reference into what I could do for my video. However, this is mainly for people who haven't heard of Fair trade, and are not already ethically aware.


Again I found this video via YouTube. I like this video because it makes the inanimate objects, (the different fruit and vegatables)feel more personal, mainly because they each have their own story and jobs etc. Each of the fruits represent the different workers that help grow and harvest the fruit.


This video again I found on YouTube. This video is very explanitory about what Fair Trade is. There is a voice over, and the words from the voice over are displayed, but they are animated so that it makes the video look better and more ineteresting, then if they were just plonked on the screen in the middle.

Each of these video are very helpful because they show me what I may have to do to make my video stand out. However, there are a few things that I will be doing different to these videos. These videos are very informative about what FairTrade is, and I will not be touching on that subject so significantly, there will be a brief description, and then I will move onto different points, which is what I will come up with.

YCN trip and Final Decision

On the 13th January 2011 we went on a trip to London to visit the company YCN. YCN are the company who hosts the YCN Student Awards every year, which allows for Students and younger people to show what they can create for the briefs that are set.
The trip was very insightful into what the clients are really looking for. We also were shown past winners, and they made me think that I owuld have to think outside of the box to get noticed.

After looking again at the different briefs, I found that my shortlist had changed from 20th Century Fox, Sega and Fairtrade to Green and Black's and Fairtrade. I chose Green and Black's because I had come up with many different ideas.

However, we then had to pitch our ideas to the whole class, to see which idea they thought was the strongest. Some of the comments of my Green and Black's idea made me think, for example, one person said that they were looking for a viral campaign, and my idea wasn't really viral.

And therefore my final decision for my assignment is Fairtrade. This is because I feel that I had more ideas for Fairtrade, and I think that I will be able to match the Fairtrade Brief better then the Green and Black's Brief.