The Radio Trailer:
The Print Advert:
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Media Evaluation
Question 1:
What ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For my media assignment we were put into groups of three to help each other create a 5 minute documentary as our media product. Our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in many substantial ways as to create a standard, modern and professional documentary:
Framing of interview:
Our interview<<<
Professional interview>>>
The framing of our interview is a convention which we have used from real media product as, as you can see, it is framed to the right. It is a standard convention for interviews to be framed either to the left or right of the screen, as centre framing is seldom used.
In terms of camera work, the medium close-up is also a convention we have used to frame the interview, and the image of a real documentary beside the screenshot of our own documentary is proof of this – as they have also framed their interview this way.
Our mise-en-scene also follows forms and conventions of framed interviews as it establishes the location and matches the interviews nature. For example, within our interview of the tattoo artist, we have tattoo-inspired posters filling the free space beside him and a desk with boyish/tattooist implements upon it, which work as an extra visual aid and reinforces the tattooists image - Just as the example image does.
Framing of Voxpop:
Our Voxpop<<<
Professional Voxpop>>>
Also conventionally framed to the left or right, and filmed in a location which makes sense with the documentary/the target audience needed to be the interviewees in the voxpop. For example: our documentary was filmed about a shopping area where a range of people of different ages would be found. Also the interviewee needs to be looking at the interviewer, and not directly at the camera. Comparing the image taken from our documentary (on the left) to the professional documentary (on the right), it shows that we have used the framing of our voxpop correctly.
Graphics:
Our Documentary<<<
Professional Documentary>>>
Our graphics were chosen on the thoughts of a tattoo-style related type and colour. Due to the outlook we were trying to portray on tattoos, we chose a rock style, colouring red to connote the passion and danger within getting tattoos/daily tattoo enthusiasts. Again, this is a used convention from other real media documentaries as the type style always needs to match the topic. The fact that the graphics are placed on the left-hand side of the screen is a further convention, as it is again a commonly used technique, which is also shown in the real media documentary image.
Narrative structure:
Our narrative structure uses typical styles of a mixed documentary – where any sort of documented footage applies. For example: Voiceovers for narration, archive footage, interviews and observational images to keep the viewer interested.
Cutaways and editing:
Using cutaways in a documentary is a common convention as it helps to avoid jump-cuts and can act as a visual aid – e.g. to give the viewer an idea of what our documentary is talking about. Below are images of cutaways we used and why:
This cutaway was used as a visual aid for the voiceover, to link to what was currently being described: 'They adopted symbols such as swallows...'
This cutwaway image is a standard jump-cut avoider, used also to match what the interviewee (Manuel Worker) was speaking about: 'Then i got our lord there...'
This is an image of the tattooing needle. This was used in our collection of shots before the tattooist interview to establish the location.
The ways in which we used forms and conventions of editing were as to make sure our documentary looks and sounds strictly professional. Such examples of us using typical editing techniques are cutting out the questions asked by us to the interviewee throughout the interviews. For our style of documentary this slice of filming does not apply, therefore it is a must that it is not present in the final production of our media product. Also, using editing styles between different parts of documented film, for example; cross dissolves, fade to black, and others; are other conventions of editing in documentaries.
Example of a flash being used in another professional tattoo documentary ('Tattoo documentary.mov') between images, such as like we used in our opening titles:
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our group has carefully put thought into the spread of coherence throughout our final product as a whole, by creating necessary links between the documentary, radio trailer and the print advert:
Documentary Opening Titles:____Print Advert Titles:
As you can grasp from looking at all of the examples of the final product above, the main link between them is the documentaries title: ‘The Human Canvas’. This is solid evidence to our audience that the programme that they are watching is the one they have heard and/or seen advertised. Another direct link, between the print advert and the radio trailer, is the tag-line ‘What’s the point?’ which is present in both of these ancillary texts, as is the date and time. Both these visual and audio presentations automatically combine the two texts together, as they inform the targeted audience of the same thing. These connections are effective to lead our audience to the correct viewing of the documentary.
Another combination we have made is the channel 4 logo, present once again in both the print advert and the radio trailer:
Close-up image of logo on Print Advert:
This makes it obvious to the viewing audience/listeners that the channel our documentary would be aired on is definitely channel 4, which again is effective in leading viewers to the right place, for the right time.
We chose a young male voice in particular for the voiceover as it seemed the right match for our documentaries focus, and was within the age-range for our target audience (15-40 years). The voiceover for both the documentary and radio trailer is this same voice used repeatedly.
This links the audio heard by the audience and creates a familiar link whilst watching our documentary. This is effective as it sort of creates a comfort between the viewer and documentary. It is also useful having extracted audio from the voxpop and interview with the tattoo artist, as the audience could also relate to their voices as well, and may unconsciously even create an element of surprise to whom the voice belongs too.
The print adverts main image is the most characterised link to the documentary – as it was obtained from the filming of a girl getting a tattoo done:
Documentary filmed image<<<
The use of this image is effective because it was extracted from the documentary itself, and helps to outline our documentaries nature perfectly as it is a blatant visual guide to the detail involved, and the issues our documentary will be handling. Once again, the audience are also able to make a familiarised link between seeing the print advert, and watching the image in action on screen. It may even trigger the question about how we replaced the image on the woman’s body with the channel 4 logo. Combining these two images is yet another creative technique we used to bind the documentary and ancillary texts together, as what you’re seeing is what the programme will contain.
Its just simple little links that have helped us to make a great impact on the effect our advertisements could have for the viewing outcome for our documentary.
Style:
In terms of style, our documentary and ancillary texts address our target audience by using effective techniques which relate to the modern day youth and beyond of society:
--The upbeat music and young male voiceover we have used for our documentary/radio trailer, help’s to address the interest of those with an open-minded nature – to which for people to take interest in tattoo’s, their minds must be open to new options and opportunities, making our choice immediately effective.
--Our use of colour is effective within our products as we have used a wide range throughout the documentary/print advert. For example: Our opening titles are a variation of colours, and since a colourful background is a modern theme at the moment, this helps to address the right sort of attention to detail in our product from the audience.
--Our use in visual aids (imagery) is also concerned with attracting our audience. The collections of images used for cutaways in our documentary were carefully selected to appeal to our target audience: Flowers, birds and animals for the light-hearted; and skulls, webs and other such tattoo images for the rather more hardcore viewers. Also, the main image for the print advert is eye-catching and intense, and it is displaying the actual tattooing process – an image which many of our targeted audience may not have seen yet. This could effect the amount of attention our documentary seeks by an increased value.
Appeal:
When and where would the radio trailer be played and the print advert placed?
Radio Trailer:
Commercial radio stations:
Our print advert also could potentially be used as a billboard; if we had the option to stretch our advert to other media, as due to the size and shape of our image it is the right shape to enlarge to become of billboard quality.
"How tattoos are drawn and where they originate from"
From looking at the audience feedback, it tells us that the style of or documentary is professional in terms of the layout and the selective pace for our audio and film. This informs us that we have the right idea about how the documentary should look and the formation is proficient for television viewing.
However, there are weaknesses with our documentary found by our audience, such as question 2 which states that the music is too loud in the second interview. To improve this we will need to either enhance the voice of the interviewee if it is too dim, or decrease the volume of the background music/get rid of the music altogether if that works better. By doing this we will be making the viewing more comfortable for our audience.
The most important answer obtained from our audience I think is from question 7, to which a person answered that they would watch the documentary if they were ‘interested in tattoo’s’ (which this person is). This is very significant information to do with our product as it tells us that we are hitting our target audience, which are basically people with an interest in tattoos/people who have got tattoos. To strengthen the outcome of this question however, I could ask more people within our target audiences on their views to reinforce this answer, and also even ask the opinions of people outside our targeted audience, to see if we could regulate more interest than just from those within our target audience.
Another strength in our work found from the audience feedback is the answer to question 6 about the print advert, where they have answered that they’d expect our documentary to be a debate on the Pro’s and Con’s of tattooing – which is right. The content of our documentary includes more information on tattoos than just this though, which could be a further strength, as it could come as a positive surprise to our viewers. The tag-line on the print advert states: ‘What’s the point?’ This is a rhetorical question, and tells the viewer that whether or not it’s going to be answered; to find out they’re going to have to watch the documentary – which is a positive pull into gathering more viewers for our product.
Still Image Camera:
What ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For my media assignment we were put into groups of three to help each other create a 5 minute documentary as our media product. Our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in many substantial ways as to create a standard, modern and professional documentary:
Framing of interview:
Our interview<<<
Professional interview>>>
The framing of our interview is a convention which we have used from real media product as, as you can see, it is framed to the right. It is a standard convention for interviews to be framed either to the left or right of the screen, as centre framing is seldom used.
In terms of camera work, the medium close-up is also a convention we have used to frame the interview, and the image of a real documentary beside the screenshot of our own documentary is proof of this – as they have also framed their interview this way.
Our mise-en-scene also follows forms and conventions of framed interviews as it establishes the location and matches the interviews nature. For example, within our interview of the tattoo artist, we have tattoo-inspired posters filling the free space beside him and a desk with boyish/tattooist implements upon it, which work as an extra visual aid and reinforces the tattooists image - Just as the example image does.
Framing of Voxpop:
Our Voxpop<<<
Professional Voxpop>>>
Also conventionally framed to the left or right, and filmed in a location which makes sense with the documentary/the target audience needed to be the interviewees in the voxpop. For example: our documentary was filmed about a shopping area where a range of people of different ages would be found. Also the interviewee needs to be looking at the interviewer, and not directly at the camera. Comparing the image taken from our documentary (on the left) to the professional documentary (on the right), it shows that we have used the framing of our voxpop correctly.
Graphics:
Our Documentary<<<
Professional Documentary>>>
Our graphics were chosen on the thoughts of a tattoo-style related type and colour. Due to the outlook we were trying to portray on tattoos, we chose a rock style, colouring red to connote the passion and danger within getting tattoos/daily tattoo enthusiasts. Again, this is a used convention from other real media documentaries as the type style always needs to match the topic. The fact that the graphics are placed on the left-hand side of the screen is a further convention, as it is again a commonly used technique, which is also shown in the real media documentary image.
Narrative structure:
Our narrative structure uses typical styles of a mixed documentary – where any sort of documented footage applies. For example: Voiceovers for narration, archive footage, interviews and observational images to keep the viewer interested.
Cutaways and editing:
Using cutaways in a documentary is a common convention as it helps to avoid jump-cuts and can act as a visual aid – e.g. to give the viewer an idea of what our documentary is talking about. Below are images of cutaways we used and why:
This cutaway was used as a visual aid for the voiceover, to link to what was currently being described: 'They adopted symbols such as swallows...'
This cutwaway image is a standard jump-cut avoider, used also to match what the interviewee (Manuel Worker) was speaking about: 'Then i got our lord there...'
This is an image of the tattooing needle. This was used in our collection of shots before the tattooist interview to establish the location.The ways in which we used forms and conventions of editing were as to make sure our documentary looks and sounds strictly professional. Such examples of us using typical editing techniques are cutting out the questions asked by us to the interviewee throughout the interviews. For our style of documentary this slice of filming does not apply, therefore it is a must that it is not present in the final production of our media product. Also, using editing styles between different parts of documented film, for example; cross dissolves, fade to black, and others; are other conventions of editing in documentaries.
Example of a flash being used in another professional tattoo documentary ('Tattoo documentary.mov') between images, such as like we used in our opening titles:
Link to documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDAgTzHBmQ8&feature=fvw
Running order:
It is a certain rule that all media television programmes have a running order before the programme is even created, as a model to work from. Our group basically stuck to our original design, but deviated from some sections due to complications: we did not include the voiceover section about prison break as we decided it was an unnecessary point in the documentary to talk about it. This also gave us more space within our first 5 minutes of the documentary to show more of the voxpop, which in turn fitted better with the products flow of topic. Our timing for each section of our documentary has also changed, however this is a factor that most probably could not have been avoided, as it is uncertain how long each piece of filming would actually last, especially when it comes to matching our first prediction exactly.
**(All professional images, apart from those noted otherwise, were extracted from the documentary: 'Far Beyond Tattoos Documentary part 1': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao7ORCfibio)
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our group has carefully put thought into the spread of coherence throughout our final product as a whole, by creating necessary links between the documentary, radio trailer and the print advert:
Documentary Opening Titles:____Print Advert Titles:
As you can grasp from looking at all of the examples of the final product above, the main link between them is the documentaries title: ‘The Human Canvas’. This is solid evidence to our audience that the programme that they are watching is the one they have heard and/or seen advertised. Another direct link, between the print advert and the radio trailer, is the tag-line ‘What’s the point?’ which is present in both of these ancillary texts, as is the date and time. Both these visual and audio presentations automatically combine the two texts together, as they inform the targeted audience of the same thing. These connections are effective to lead our audience to the correct viewing of the documentary.
Another combination we have made is the channel 4 logo, present once again in both the print advert and the radio trailer:
Close-up image of logo on Print Advert:
This makes it obvious to the viewing audience/listeners that the channel our documentary would be aired on is definitely channel 4, which again is effective in leading viewers to the right place, for the right time.
We chose a young male voice in particular for the voiceover as it seemed the right match for our documentaries focus, and was within the age-range for our target audience (15-40 years). The voiceover for both the documentary and radio trailer is this same voice used repeatedly.
This links the audio heard by the audience and creates a familiar link whilst watching our documentary. This is effective as it sort of creates a comfort between the viewer and documentary. It is also useful having extracted audio from the voxpop and interview with the tattoo artist, as the audience could also relate to their voices as well, and may unconsciously even create an element of surprise to whom the voice belongs too.
The print adverts main image is the most characterised link to the documentary – as it was obtained from the filming of a girl getting a tattoo done:
Documentary filmed image<<<
Image used for Print Advert>>>
The use of this image is effective because it was extracted from the documentary itself, and helps to outline our documentaries nature perfectly as it is a blatant visual guide to the detail involved, and the issues our documentary will be handling. Once again, the audience are also able to make a familiarised link between seeing the print advert, and watching the image in action on screen. It may even trigger the question about how we replaced the image on the woman’s body with the channel 4 logo. Combining these two images is yet another creative technique we used to bind the documentary and ancillary texts together, as what you’re seeing is what the programme will contain.
Its just simple little links that have helped us to make a great impact on the effect our advertisements could have for the viewing outcome for our documentary.
Style:
In terms of style, our documentary and ancillary texts address our target audience by using effective techniques which relate to the modern day youth and beyond of society:
--The upbeat music and young male voiceover we have used for our documentary/radio trailer, help’s to address the interest of those with an open-minded nature – to which for people to take interest in tattoo’s, their minds must be open to new options and opportunities, making our choice immediately effective.
--Our use of colour is effective within our products as we have used a wide range throughout the documentary/print advert. For example: Our opening titles are a variation of colours, and since a colourful background is a modern theme at the moment, this helps to address the right sort of attention to detail in our product from the audience.
--Our use in visual aids (imagery) is also concerned with attracting our audience. The collections of images used for cutaways in our documentary were carefully selected to appeal to our target audience: Flowers, birds and animals for the light-hearted; and skulls, webs and other such tattoo images for the rather more hardcore viewers. Also, the main image for the print advert is eye-catching and intense, and it is displaying the actual tattooing process – an image which many of our targeted audience may not have seen yet. This could effect the amount of attention our documentary seeks by an increased value.
Appeal:
When and where would the radio trailer be played and the print advert placed?
Radio Trailer:
Commercial radio stations:
Print Advert:
Newspapers – The Sun, The Independent, Daily Express, The Guardian, Metro, The Mirror, The Star, The times, etc. Aimed at both a broadsheet and tabloid audience.
Our print advert also could potentially be used as a billboard; if we had the option to stretch our advert to other media, as due to the size and shape of our image it is the right shape to enlarge to become of billboard quality.Question 3:
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
For our audience feedback we needed to set up a documentary viewing with people from our target audience. To do this, we asked people from outside the lesson to come into our lesson and watch our documentary, afterwards asking them a short list of questions about it – to gain our feedback. We asked them 5 questions on the documentary, and one question each on the ancillary texts. The questions we asked our audience and the answers retrieved from our audience are as follows:
Documentary:
Q1) Did you enjoy the 5 minutes of our documentary?
"Yes i thought it looked very proper, you have obviously put a lot of thought and effort into it."
Q2) Were there bits of the 5 minutes you would like to change?
Music in the interview a bit too loud - 2nd interview
Q3) Do you think it looks like a professional documentary?
Y
es (80%),
"The first bit before the title is good. Also, the way the music goes slow and then fast generates a creative pace."
Q4) Would you consider watching the rest of the documentary?
Yes (100%)
Q5) What are your opinions on the product overall?
"Very professional";
"Interesting";
"A lot of effort put in"
"I especially liked the way you used different body parts to create an actual human canvas, it gave your production more of a means to be about the body being an art itself, instead of just the tattoos"
Print advert:
Q6) Having seen the print advert, what do you expect to see in our documentary? "A Debate – the Pro’s and Con’s of tattooing";
"Why tattoos exist in the first place";
"What tattoos are and what they mean to the world"
"How tattoos are drawn and where they originate from"
Radio Trailer:
Q7) Does the radio trailer capture your attention and make you want to watch the programme?
Yes (100%)
From looking at the audience feedback, it tells us that the style of or documentary is professional in terms of the layout and the selective pace for our audio and film. This informs us that we have the right idea about how the documentary should look and the formation is proficient for television viewing.
However, there are weaknesses with our documentary found by our audience, such as question 2 which states that the music is too loud in the second interview. To improve this we will need to either enhance the voice of the interviewee if it is too dim, or decrease the volume of the background music/get rid of the music altogether if that works better. By doing this we will be making the viewing more comfortable for our audience.
The most important answer obtained from our audience I think is from question 7, to which a person answered that they would watch the documentary if they were ‘interested in tattoo’s’ (which this person is). This is very significant information to do with our product as it tells us that we are hitting our target audience, which are basically people with an interest in tattoos/people who have got tattoos. To strengthen the outcome of this question however, I could ask more people within our target audiences on their views to reinforce this answer, and also even ask the opinions of people outside our targeted audience, to see if we could regulate more interest than just from those within our target audience.
Another strength in our work found from the audience feedback is the answer to question 6 about the print advert, where they have answered that they’d expect our documentary to be a debate on the Pro’s and Con’s of tattooing – which is right. The content of our documentary includes more information on tattoos than just this though, which could be a further strength, as it could come as a positive surprise to our viewers. The tag-line on the print advert states: ‘What’s the point?’ This is a rhetorical question, and tells the viewer that whether or not it’s going to be answered; to find out they’re going to have to watch the documentary – which is a positive pull into gathering more viewers for our product.
Question 4:
How did you use media technologies in the construction of research, planning and evaluation stages?
Video Camera:
Still Image Camera:
Voice Recording Technology:
Microphones:
Tripod:
Adobe Premier Pro:
Adobe Photoshop:
Adobe Audition:
Internet:
The internet was used to obtain Archive Material such as the marine tattoo images within the opening section of our voiceover. It was mainly used for research and planning however, as the search engine allowed us to gain a load information about the history of tattoos and other related topics in the documentary.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Editing the Print Advert
To create the print advert, we first needed to come up with a drawn-out idea to base our design on. Some ideas we came up with were:
- Having the documentary title 'The Human Canvas' being tattooed onto a persons skin, the portray the programmes topic.
I then began to erase the woman's tattoo on her back by using the stamp tool, to take a sample of the colour of her skin and stamp it across the tattoo which hides it and makes it look as if her back is then bare:
The arrangement was then changed though as this did not seem to fill the canvas appropriately to attract attention. I also made the channel 4 logo smaller as it seem to look too big for the conventional size. The preferred arrangement then consequently became as follows:
I then gave the print advert some background colour, using the gradient tool and choosing a black/white contrast to give our print advert more presence. After that i changed the colour of the channel 4 logo from black and white to blue and white, as this is also a more modern design commonly seen, and as to add a bit more colour to our product:
Following on with this change, i altered the opacity of the logo, to make it look more as if if was actually printed on the skin:
I then tried changing the stokes on the outline of the logo to give it an even more 'tattooed' texture, looking at angled strokes and sprayed strokes, finally deciding the sprayed strokes looked best:
The Final Production of the Print Advert:
To create the print advert, we first needed to come up with a drawn-out idea to base our design on. Some ideas we came up with were:
- Having the documentary title 'The Human Canvas' being tattooed onto a persons skin, the portray the programmes topic.
- Having the Channel 4 logo being tattooed onto a person's skin, again portraying the programmes topic except probably more ideal to try.
The idea we finally decided on though was as follows:
- Having the Channel 4 logo being tattooed onto a person's skin, using a print screen image of the woman getting a tattoo in the documentary to be the main image, with the titles and scheduling to be fitted in the space above the woman's back.
On Adobe Photoshop, i then began to edit the Print advert. First i took a screenshot of our main image from the documentary, of the woman getting a tattoo. I then cut the image out on Microsoft word, pasted the new image onto Adobe photoshop, and enlarged it to fill the editing window. After this, using the lasso tool i then began to cut out all the sections of the image we didn't need (the background of the tattooing area), leaving the woman's back and the tattooist's hand in the shot.
- Having the Channel 4 logo being tattooed onto a person's skin, using a print screen image of the woman getting a tattoo in the documentary to be the main image, with the titles and scheduling to be fitted in the space above the woman's back.
On Adobe Photoshop, i then began to edit the Print advert. First i took a screenshot of our main image from the documentary, of the woman getting a tattoo. I then cut the image out on Microsoft word, pasted the new image onto Adobe photoshop, and enlarged it to fill the editing window. After this, using the lasso tool i then began to cut out all the sections of the image we didn't need (the background of the tattooing area), leaving the woman's back and the tattooist's hand in the shot.
I then began to erase the woman's tattoo on her back by using the stamp tool, to take a sample of the colour of her skin and stamp it across the tattoo which hides it and makes it look as if her back is then bare:
This then gave me a blank canvas to paste my own tattoo onto - the channel 4 logo. I obtained this image from the Internet, and once again using adobe photoshop and the lasso tool cut around it to get rid of the white background:
I then dragged the edited channel 4 logo image onto my print advert, and enlarged it, placed it under the needle and tilted it slightly, to give the effect that it was being tattooed onto the woman's skin:
Next was the titles and scheduling. Trying to follow the forms and conventions of a typical channel 4 print advert, i planned to have a plain white text over a coloured box - preferably black. So that is what i did, using the rectangle tool to draw on the box, i then began to type up in 'Arial' font the title of our documentary, tag-line and scheduling, and arranged the boxes as shown:
The arrangement was then changed though as this did not seem to fill the canvas appropriately to attract attention. I also made the channel 4 logo smaller as it seem to look too big for the conventional size. The preferred arrangement then consequently became as follows:
I then gave the print advert some background colour, using the gradient tool and choosing a black/white contrast to give our print advert more presence. After that i changed the colour of the channel 4 logo from black and white to blue and white, as this is also a more modern design commonly seen, and as to add a bit more colour to our product:
Following on with this change, i altered the opacity of the logo, to make it look more as if if was actually printed on the skin:
I then tried changing the stokes on the outline of the logo to give it an even more 'tattooed' texture, looking at angled strokes and sprayed strokes, finally deciding the sprayed strokes looked best:
By now i was just about completed with my print advert, but there was something missing. This is when i added the final touch - the star shapes about the channel 4 logo, using the shapes tool - to give our tattoo more of an interesting design:
The Final Production of the Print Advert:
Monday, 30 November 2009
Editing the Documentary
The first sections of our documentary that we began to edit were the interviews. Due to complications with the School's server system being down, we did not have the images to begin editing the opening titles, so we could not start from the beginning which may have been easier. We did our editing on Abode Premier Pro, and the first slice of editing we approached was cutting out the interview questions asked by us to the interviewee (Tattoo artist and Rachael's uncle). We did this by dragging the clips onto the timeline and using the razor tool to cut between each answer, to be able to get a definite cut-off point for each section. We placed the interview with the tattoo artist before the interview with Rachael's uncle on the timeline, as this is the order they'll appear in on our documentary.
After this we began to edit out the questions in the Voxpop, and all irrelevant filming (e.g. the mic getting in the film framing - would be unprofessional to display). This eliminated us actually using two of our interviewees for our voxpop, as the filming quality was poorer than what is eligible to use. We edited these out using the same technique: the razor tool. This just left us with the remaining interviewee's opinions with us to work with. We placed this on the end of our timeline, to match its place in the documentary.
Leaving this behind for further editing, i then dragged the filming of the girl getting a tattoo onto the timeline, placing it between the two main interviews between the tattoo artist and Rachael's uncle. I then attempted to edit out 30 seconds for us to use in the documentary, using the razor tool once again to cut and delete all unneeded film. (However this later got changed).
When we had finally re-took the photos for the opening titles, and Rachael had filmed the photos all side-by-side as a printed out JPEG image, Radu and me began to lay it all out on the timeline near the beginning (leaving space for the short-section Montage of tattoo images that would be going before it). All the images were saved as 'JPEG' files, and we uploaded and dragged each one onto the timeline separately. The first image we edited was of the 'T' image, were we set the viewing time and then adjusted the image to fill the screen appropriately. We did this to all the images, setting them out in order to spell out 'The Human Canvas'. We then set a flash inbetween each of the images, using a shorter-timed white colour block situated on the timeline above, and used a quick cross-dissolve to create a flashing effect. After doing this we rendered the work area so it would flow smoothly. At the end of this sequence we placed the full filmed title, and the dissolved this to black after a few viewing seconds. Until we uploaded the backing track for this (Linkin' Park - Crawling), we had this section finished.
The first sections of our documentary that we began to edit were the interviews. Due to complications with the School's server system being down, we did not have the images to begin editing the opening titles, so we could not start from the beginning which may have been easier. We did our editing on Abode Premier Pro, and the first slice of editing we approached was cutting out the interview questions asked by us to the interviewee (Tattoo artist and Rachael's uncle). We did this by dragging the clips onto the timeline and using the razor tool to cut between each answer, to be able to get a definite cut-off point for each section. We placed the interview with the tattoo artist before the interview with Rachael's uncle on the timeline, as this is the order they'll appear in on our documentary.
After this we began to edit out the questions in the Voxpop, and all irrelevant filming (e.g. the mic getting in the film framing - would be unprofessional to display). This eliminated us actually using two of our interviewees for our voxpop, as the filming quality was poorer than what is eligible to use. We edited these out using the same technique: the razor tool. This just left us with the remaining interviewee's opinions with us to work with. We placed this on the end of our timeline, to match its place in the documentary.
Leaving this behind for further editing, i then dragged the filming of the girl getting a tattoo onto the timeline, placing it between the two main interviews between the tattoo artist and Rachael's uncle. I then attempted to edit out 30 seconds for us to use in the documentary, using the razor tool once again to cut and delete all unneeded film. (However this later got changed).
When we had finally re-took the photos for the opening titles, and Rachael had filmed the photos all side-by-side as a printed out JPEG image, Radu and me began to lay it all out on the timeline near the beginning (leaving space for the short-section Montage of tattoo images that would be going before it). All the images were saved as 'JPEG' files, and we uploaded and dragged each one onto the timeline separately. The first image we edited was of the 'T' image, were we set the viewing time and then adjusted the image to fill the screen appropriately. We did this to all the images, setting them out in order to spell out 'The Human Canvas'. We then set a flash inbetween each of the images, using a shorter-timed white colour block situated on the timeline above, and used a quick cross-dissolve to create a flashing effect. After doing this we rendered the work area so it would flow smoothly. At the end of this sequence we placed the full filmed title, and the dissolved this to black after a few viewing seconds. Until we uploaded the backing track for this (Linkin' Park - Crawling), we had this section finished.
Examples of editing:
Permission for the Music:
To be able to use the music that we chose to include in our documentary we needed to write to the company to ask permission for it, as it legally belongs to them and could be seen as copyright. The following images are screengrabs of the emails i sent to the each of the companies that owned the rights to the music:
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Filming the Documentary:
The Images used for Voxpop:
The interviewees reactions:
To do this, we needed to stick our printed images on a black background, and find the right lighting to film in so the image can be clearly seen on the screen. We stuck them to a wall as our filming would be straighter and look more professional.
Within terms of filming for our documentary, we have filmed 2 interviews, a voxpop, cutaways and the opening titles.
For the interview with the tattoo artist, we visited the our interviewee in his actual workplace - Global Tattoo Studios - and filmed in his surrounding work area. We did this to make our interview more authentic, as the mise-en-scene was already set-up all around us. The area we actually chose to to film the interview, was chosen as it perfectly outlines the effect we desired the create, mainly based on tattooing as an art (e.g. the massive explicit tattoo images seen in the background). We had trouble whilst filming with the door alarm constantly going off (as people entered/exited the shop), however we feel we have obtained enough film to be able to avoid this disturbing the footage we use in our actual documentary. My participation in this interview was filming with the camera, whilst Rachael asked the interview questions. We both helped sort the framing for our footage.
Our voxpop was filmed in Liscard village, within the shopping area. We chose to film in front of McDonald's and the street, as it plainly shows the viewers that we were interviewing the general public, and not a targeted audience biased towards the topic (such as only filming people with tattoos). Also, it more-so follows codes and conventions for this style of filming. My role within filming this was once again filming, and holding the microphone above the interviewees for them to talk into. Radu held up the images to our participants of the voxpop and asked questions such as 'What do you think of these tattoos?', 'Would you consider getting this done yourself?' and 'Why?'. We both helped to gather up volunteers with opinions to film.
We attempted to film the voxpop twice. The first time, we experienced troubles trying to find willing volunteers to film and also experienced abuse from passers-by (mostly due to the way we were dressed, as we were dressed up for Halloween in school). We also had troubles with the tripod being to small to film with, and even after trying to balance it on a bench we still had trouble. When we came back the week after to film however, we were delightfully surprised with the good feedback we hadn't been offered before more people were intrigued and interested to take part. We learnt from our mistakes, and made sure we had the correct equipment to film with, and chose our framing with confidence.
Setting up:
The Images used for Voxpop:
The interviewees reactions:
The cutaways for our documentary came from a variety of places. Some are images that were obtained from the Internet, other images are ones which Rachael took of friends/close-relations, and we even filmed some footage whilst in the Global Tattoo Studios - e.g. equipment, Ed Hardy posters/tattoo images, drawing ideas, old-school tattoo tools and even the chair in which it all happens. We all helped to film the pans over the military images for the starting voiceover, and the tattoo images of the lizard man and the Tiger-man for the voxpop:
To do this, we needed to stick our printed images on a black background, and find the right lighting to film in so the image can be clearly seen on the screen. We stuck them to a wall as our filming would be straighter and look more professional.
Here i am filming one of the military tattoos, making sure to pan both up and down, and zooming in to get the whole picture in the frame.
Finally, the filming of our Opening titles. To create this we got some paints from the art department, and painted each letter of our title 'The Human Canvas' on a different part of Radu's body. We then used a camera to take the pictures individually for the opening titles. We took these images both with flash and without flash to see which sort came out looking best - we ended up using the ones without flash. I painted the letters, Radu was our canvas, and Rachael took the pictures. We then uploaded the images onto the computer, Rachael re-arranged them into a full-screen title, printed it off and then we filmed that too for a few seconds. This time however we stuck the image to a white background - another useful blank colour to use as a backdrop for our filming.
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