After producing a final cut of our promotional videos and collecting positive feedback from our client, we are finally ready to evaluate our creations. We have also created a short video (less than 1 minute) that can be used as a teaser to promote the full video and further promote the studios. This video can be put on more formal websites such as Instagram and Twitter to engage a wider, more diverse audience.
The planning process was vital in this project and we were very carful to consider lots of details before starting to film such as what shot types we wanted and how we would travel. By planning beforehand we became more confident in our aim and how to achieve it. Another aspect of planning that greatly helped us in producing a film we were confident Amanda would be proud of was meeting our client. By organising a meeting with Amanda and talking through essential elements of our course of filming, we were able to ensure her of our preparation and professionalism. It also gave us the opportunity to go through our business objective and get Amanda's opinions on possible target audience, message and distribution.
We filmed in only one location, Bliss Studios, which is situated in Nuneaton about a five minute drive from my house and a fifteen minute drive from Emily's. For the majority of the filming process the distance was not an issue and myself and Emily were both able to attend every filming session on time, we hope this showed professionalism and competence to our client. Although for the most part filming went smoothly, we did hit a few obstacles; one of which being he weather. During February Britain was hit with Storm Emma who bough blizzards, floods and freezing rain to most parts of the country. Unfortunately for us Nuneaton did not escape the tempest and we were forced to cancel one of the last filming sessions due to buses being unable to run. Our college was also closed for a 'snow day' meaning that the facilities that we use there (computers/tripods/microphones) were out of reach for a day. Emily and I worked around these obstructions by quickly rearranging a new day to collect footage the following week when the snow had cleared up and dedicated the day off college to our blogs. We added to the planning sections and tidied up any posts that needed improvements; we felt that this was a good use of our time and prevented a day being wasted.
When on shoot we were able to avoid running into lots of issues due to our thorough planning. However the filming process did not go without a few hiccups, one of them being the limited space that we had to work in. The studios is spacious for the students with plenty of room for them to fly around poles and swing off hoops but that did not leave a lot of room for myself and Emily to weave in between people with our cameras. This was only a minor problem and was easily fixed by Emily and I just being super vigilant and spatially aware of the students. We also found that after a few sessions of filming it was easy to navigate the rooms and we became quite good at becoming invisible in the class meaning that we the girls and instructors were not disturbed and we got more natural shots.
Another complication that slightly interrupted the shooting process was the microphone battery, and the spare battery we bought as a back up, running out of charge. The microphone was to be used to gather voice recordings of students at Bliss Studios as we ask them interview questions such as 'what do you like about the community found at the studios?' and 'What kind of support do you receive from the instructors here?' These recordings would be used to go on top of our footage and give the final film a narrative aspect. We borrowed a Zoom H1 Handy Recorder from college, which already had a battery inside, and took a back up battery with us incase of emergency. I tested the microphone at home before the shoot and it worked fine and so I did not prepare for the potential disaster that followed. Fortunately for me, Emily had prepared for the worst by downloading a voice recording app onto her phone, should something happen to the microphone. After 'recording' two interviews on a dead microphone, we realised our mistake and quickly turned to Emily's phone to save the day. We then went on to get four more interviews with students at the studios and including Amanda (the owner). This turned out to be just the right amount and all four successful interviews fit smoothly put into the final cut of both promotional video edits.
Things that went well during the shoot was the amount of footage we were able to gather. We attended two aerial hoop classes, one pole fitness class and one aerial hammock class; which allowed us to obtain much more material than was needed. Myself and Emily had over 300 clips between us, not including the interviews, meaning that we had plenty to play around with while editing. Because we had a multitude of footage to choose from, the opportunity to make something aesthetically pleasing and professional looking was widened. It also made us more confident when it came to editing because there was never the worry of not having enough to work with.
If I was given the opportunity to start this process again, obtaining the knowledge I picked up from doing it once already, there are a few things that I would change in order to improve the final piece. Firstly I would do thorough research into how to use Premier Pro so that I was more confident going into the editing stage. I recognise that I made a few mistakes in terms of stabilising footage and scaling clips to the correct frame size, I have since learnt from these mistakes but unfortunately not in time to fix them before the deadline. Luckily our client was not too concerned with this however it would have been a lot more satisfying to be able to hand over a professional piece of work that needed little improvements.
Another aspect of the process that I would have made improvements to is in regards to the variety in our filming. The studios does tons of different classes including ballet bootcamp, private sessions and dance however we only captured pole, hoop and hammock. It would have been nice to fully showcase the multitude of different classes available at Bliss and how well they are executed. I think perhaps I just lacked the confidence to ask about filming in more classes and was more concerned with being a distraction to students and so we did not enquire about filming more than enough. Although we did collect a lot off footage and the final product was not repetitive or falling short however if I was to start the process again I would defiantly put more effort into filming at every opportunity and covering every class the studio has to offer.
The studios has just released an app which makes booking on to sessions and classes much easier, I wish that I had thought about this while filming so that we could incorporate this into the video. I would have used screen recording on iPhone to record the app being used, this would have been a nice aspect in the video because it is a little different and modern.
Another improvement that I would make in regards to the filming would be to capture the show that the studios puts on every few months. The show is used to air the talent produced at the studios and give everyone there the opportunity to create a routine and show it off their piers.
After a rough cut was sent to our client and the feedback from our questionnaire was received, it was clear that our client was predominately happy with what we had created. She did not give any criticism apart from wanting the webpage address that we used to promote the website at last shot in each film to the updated address. Once this was done Amanda was pleased with our film and we were even more pleased with her cooperation and helpfulness. She was very accommodating and, during our meeting with her, seemed to have lots of ideas that inspired the final cut. We could not have asked for a better client or experience with promotional videos.
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