Interview evaluation

What went well? 

Throughout this interview our interviewer (Rob) used many techniques in order to keep Tim (our interviewee) Feeling comfortable and open to answer each question as much as he could. Our group feel that the interview was in an informal tone, as the dialogue shows that it was very colloquial and not serious, we feel that this tactic was a very useful to gain the best answers from our questions we generated. This interview contained only open ended questions, which we feel are better than closed questions, as you can gain more knowledge about the subject (Tim) which gives a larger insight to what his own opinions are on the Van Susans group.


Throughout the interview there didn't seem to be any stalling from either Rob (the interviewer) and Tim (the interviewee) We feel that this shows a great success in how the questions were presented to Tim, and that he felt comfortable to answer each one with confidence and depth. Our group also feel that the filming throughout the interview was smoothly done. For some of the responses given the camera would zoom into Tim's face more to possibly capture any emotion shown. This was shown when the question about how he felt leaving the Van Susans, we were possibly hoping to see him show some sort of emotion like stuttering.

Even Better if?

First and foremost the first main issue we had was with the sound in the interview. We decided to add shots of Tim playing his guitar to show his own skill. However the mic could have picked up a lot more of the sound that we had. Or we could have possibly asked Tim to use an amplifier, however we could have used a boom mic which would have picked up a better sound quality but the Boom mic was broken.

Another large problem that we encountered after we had our first viewing of the interview. This was the mise-en-scene throughout the interview, this could have been of a much higher standard, we acclaimed our group would reserve a good music room in order to suit the style of the interviews subject (music) However you could see that not much musical related equipment was placed in the shot, aside from the neck of a guitar. The reason for this was because Tim had a schedule to keep with helping a student with his music coursework, this didn't give us much time to set up the mise en scene to suit the musical elements of the interview (the image above and below shows a good clear view of the mise en scene which was rather poor) We could have placed Tim in the chair on the left (Picture above) and placed much more equipment around him to suit this subject matter substantially well.


One last element that our group picked up on, was the other person with Tim in a few shots. We feel this could be a bad thing as it has the potential to distract the audiences attention form the main subject (Tim) We didn't want to create this distraction, but again this relates to the previous statement above, whereby the music room was only ours to use for a period of time and the student needed to use the music room and have assistance from Tim (The image below)

Documentary filming schedule

First day filming

-Filler Shots
  -Music department wall of guitars and other music equipment
  -People playing some tunes e.g shots of hands playing the instrument
  -Get historical footage of music e.g. Rolling stones live show at Altamont


-Interviews
  -Students
  -General Public
  -Industry Professionals


-Voice Over
  -Used as the glue in between shots
  -About anything related to music which is relevant

Soundtrack mindmap

Budget List for Crisis animation

Budget list 

Title: Crisis advert

Client: Miss Moore 

Writer: Oscar Artini and Robert Welland

Producer: Oscar Artini and Robert Welland

Director: Oscar Artini and Robert Welland

Date: 15th Febuary 2013

This ident project will be free to make however if this were to be professionally done, we would in fact have to pay editors to analyse each section of the ident to see if there is anything wrong that they can improve. 

Material List

Clay

Clay will can easily be found within the Media department at RavensWood school. This will also cost nothing to use. However there may be a problem in reserving some at a specific time as other groups that are doing a similar project may obtain it.

Fabric

This material will also be able to find in the RavensWood school media department. This will also cost nothing to use. However there may be a problem in reserving some as other groups in the school doing the same project may use some too.

Lego

This material will also be found in the media department of RavensWood school. This will cost nothing to use, however again it may be hard to reserve some for a specific day  

Equipment

The equipment needed in order to film this stop motion piece is a webcam, mac computer and the Istopmotion program on the computer. The webcam shall be used to take shots of the objects we use to generate the idea of motion. The mac computer and the program are combined within the media department of RavensWoodschool. However we shall have to choose appropriate times to use a computer in one of the rooms, we shall have to generate the piece next to one of these computers.

Actors  

Oscar Artini or Robert Welland (only for hand scene) acting will cost free of charge as the project is being produced by ourselves and scene is extremely basic to produce. However if this were to be professionally done and more acting needed we would possibly hire someone who could make the scenes needed much more professional.

Props/Scenery

Within a room in the media department there are small sets that are designed for these stop motion pieces, they are made out of wood and have a good amount of space to film for our stop motion piece in particular. However it is up to our group to make the aesthetics needed for the set as most of these sets are plain colours such as black. The lego from the material list will also be needed to create scenery, hopefully we will be able to find something like a tree or a bench. However if we cannot we shall have to find another alternative such as clay. The clay shall also be used to possibly make puddles on the ground to emphasise the harsh cold and wet living conditions. The last piece from the material list that shall be used as a prop shall be the fabric. Our group discussed about possibly making some sort of blanket out of the fabric, maybe tearing holes through it to make it look rough and worn. All of these little elements should help emphasise the harsh conditions for homeless people, all of the above shall also cost nothing to use.

Post-Production (editing)

The editing for this piece will not cost any money to make. However if this were a professional piece, i would most definitely have to think about certain aspects of editing such as grading. If the lighting were too harsh on one shot, we would have to find an editor who is professional at grading in order to take some of the color out of shots to not make it look harsh. 

Prop Design

Set Design

Character design

Target audience research analysis



Analysis of the data

 

This questionnaire that was created was sent to teenagers, it may be short, however we feel that our group has generated a very good idea in terms of making this ident apppealing to teenagers whilst stressing a serious matter. These questions will help us develop on who we should be aiming this towards and what the audience may like to see within the piece.

 

From the first set of questions we gained a very simple response, all of which were asked to do this questionnaire we're students. Which will later help us gain more knowledge of how to make this appealing to the teenage audience. Moving onto the next set of questions the gender of all who answered this questionnaire were male, this is definitely helpful in terms of gaining knowledge on what the male teenage audience would like to see, however some late research may need to be done in order to find out what the female teenage audience would like to see within this stop motion piece for Crisis that would be appealing to teenagers.

 

Moving through to the net few questions we then see the soundtrack side of the stop motion. The was a 100% response onto the slow/tragic option. Which our group feel that would suit this ident extremely well, as we would like to stick to traditional methods of charity adverts. We don't want to break this traditional element to it by using happy music on such a serious matter. We are glad that the teenage audience feel this way too. Finally the last question was what the ident shall contain in terms of materials/objects. Of all the options that we gave for the teenagers to choose from, all of the options were chosen nearly even to each other. One of our original ideas that our group generated was to actually use all of these materials to make our piece with, we felt that this would be good to appeal to the target audience (teenagers) We are going to develop our original idea with these materials and this ident shall most likely come out appealing to the target audience whilst stressing the main idea of how homelss charity's like Crisis need help and support.

 



 

 



Risk assessment for interview

There are many risks that have a possible chance of occurring when filming this interview or transporting the equipment to the desired destination of filming. We must put many things in place to prevent these from happening.

Camera/ Light/ Mic breakage

There will be many possible aspects that must be carefully looked into when transporting the camera. We must make sure that firstly the route in safe to take the camera along. The main issue with this is tripping over, so being extremely careful whilst transporting the equipment shall be imperative. Keeping the camera within its protective casing is imperative just in case it were to be dropped accidently along its journey to the destination. Also loosing components such as the cameras lens cover must be very carefully managed. We may not want to keep the lens cover on within filming the interview if it were to take away some light, however if this were to happen we must make sure that the cover is stored in a safe place whilst filming and make sure each component is put back into its rightful place. One possible way to prevent this could be an equipment check list, this would help identify what has gone missing.


















The lights are as equally if not more delicate than the camera, similarly to the camera it must not be dropped as it will most likely damage the components within the lights which will end in them not functioning properly or at all. A good way to prevent this from happening is keeping the lights covered in some sort of protective casing or material if the worst case scenario were to occur. We must also make sure that the route is safe to take this piece of equipment on, this could also be linked into the equipment check list to prevent this piece of equipment being lost.




















Boom microphones are also a very delicate piece of equipment. Once again if these are dropped it may damage the components within it. Also adverse weather conditions are no way ideal for this piece of equipment, an example were to be rain. If water was concealed within this equipment it would more than likely break and be unusable. A good way to prevent this from happening would be to once again check the route in which the equipment is being transported on. Also check weather forecasts in order to find a suitable day to use this (however, this may not apply to our group as our interview is being conducted within a room safely guarded from this.













Tripping over wires 

The main piece of equipment that would make this happen would be the microphone wires, this could cause us to fall over and break the camera and probably the microphone. The best way to prevent this from occurring would be to make sure that all wires from the boom mic etc are tucked away in a safe lace when not being used or when being operated. Once this has been done, we shall not have the probably of tripping over loose wires. Before these precautions are taken the risk is within the range of 8/10. However once these precautions have been taken it would make this risk about 2/10.

General members of the school walking into the interview whilst filming

This isn't a potential health risk to ourselves or damage to any of the equipment. This is more for the sake of making our interview look professional and not informal, we may not want the general public walking in front of our interview in the music room. A good precaution that could be taken for this possible risk is to look into the music room and see when the busiest  times are for that particular area. The potential risk of this before taking the precautions was probably about 10/10 (especially for our area) However now we shall research the busiest times for the room and choose our times carefully to film.

Risk assessment for documentary

Camera breakage

Dropping the camera 

This hazard is probably the most likely to happen regarding the equipment. The camera is a very delicate piece of equipment that must be looked after considerably well. Before using this camera we will need to put down a 20 pound deposit towards the camera incase of malfunction. The most likely problem we may encounter will be dropping the camera or not properly placing it into the tripod. To prevent this from happening we must take extra care when securing it within the tripod by double checking it. Also when the camera is being held, it must be held in the proper way (securely) in order to prevent any damage to it via dropping it. Before taking these precautions the risk was most probably about a 7/10. However from taking these precautions we have probably taken it down to approximately a 3/10.















Weather conditions 

Weather can also largely affect the way in which the camera functions. A good example of this would be rain, any water that finds its way into the camera will most likely break it. So to prevent this, our group must not take the camera out in adverse weather conditions unless equipped with appropriate waterproof materials for the camera. The best way to counteract this adverse weather would be to check the weather forecast for the specific day that is needed for filming. This will help us find the best weather conditions needed for our documentary filming. Before taking these precautions the risk was approximately an 8/10 but now these precautions are to be taken it would most likely make it around 1/10.

Travel

This can also heavily affect our travel we choose to get to certain areas. Especially if a train is needed, these can often be cancelled by snow and will be unusable for a period of time. Again, the best way to prevent this from happening is to choose an appropriate time slot to film sections of our documentary. Before taking these precautions the risk would probably be around 8/10 especially with this current weather situation at this time of year. However, now these measures will be put in place the risk should be around 3/10.













Tripping over loose wires

The main piece of equipment that would make this happen would be the microphone wires, this could cause us to fall over and break the camera and probably the microphone. The best way to prevent this from occurring would be to make sure that all wires from the boom mic etc are tucked away in a safe lace when not being used or when being operated. Once this has been done, we shall not have the problem of tripping over loose wires. Before these precautions are taken the risk is within the range of 8/10. However once these precautions have been taken it would make this risk about 2/10.

Robbery

This can be an extremely likely even to occur in specific areas that are chosen to film at. Robbery shall be very much the same as breaking the camera, we will need to put in place a 20 pound deposit in case of this occurring. The best possible precaution that could be taken is to research the areas we wish to film in thoroughly, certain areas can be potentially more likely to have the camera stolen from our possession. We could research these areas through word of mouth or certain crime stats for an area on the internet. The risk of this incidence occurring would depend mainly on the areas that we choose to film in (which aren't potentially dangerous) we think that this risk before taking the precautions would be around 9/10. Now these precautions shall be taken, this risk shall be rather low, 3/10.

General members of the public walking in shots whilst filming

This isn't a potential health risk to ourselves or damage to any of the equipment. This is more for the sake of making our documentary look professional, we may not want the general public walking in front of some of our interviews we chose to do (which could be out in public space) A good precaution that could be taken for this possible risk is to look into the certain area and see when the busiest  times are for that particular area and possibly choose another suitable time to go there and film or choose a quieter area of where we want to film. The potential risk of this before taking the precautions was probably about 10/10 (especially for our areas) However now we shall research the busiest times for the area and choose our times carefully to film.

Van Susans research

The following research is being analysed to generate question ideas to ask Van Susans guitarist Tim Dullaway..  

This is a valuable piece of information because our group can generate many questions around this event that was played. For example 'What was it like to play at the indigo o2?' or 'What do you feel is the scariest part of playing on stage?' These kinds of questions can be linked together in a continuous fashion and lead onto length answers. We could even ask about how they feel about this particular article in the news shopper. From this information above it could also give me another idea of a question "How would you feel if you were given a sudden burst of success"  

This interview with the Van Susans is also very valuable in terms of generating good questions that can gain long and detailed answers. Also helps us determine which types of questions will be most valuable to our use and what ones are not so good to ask the guitarist 'Tim Dullaway' Seeing as the band has also been interviewed numerous times we could also ask from other interviews what were some of the strangest questions they have been asked.

This is another interview from a website called Undersong. The interview contains many of the basic questions aimed towards a band for example "How did the band meet" however this question above I feel is a good example to base a question around the idea of "How did the band motivate itself to go up on stage and perform in front of many fans?" I feel that this is a good open ended question that could gain a valuable answer to it. It goes into much deeper meaning in terms of what mentality a person or a band must have to perform in front of a large crowd. This question may be included within our list that we shall ask the guitarist (Tim Dullaway) 

 This is also from the same interview, this part talks about the newest addition to the band. The band were looking for a violinist to play, they  explain how the held auditions etc. A question to ask Tim Dullaway (Band guitarist) would be "how do you specifically feel the bands relationship was and what specific element made you want to leave the band?" This also could be a question we that our group may contain within the interview. Another possible question to ask Tim Dullaway could be "How did you feel when Holly was placed within the group, was her style of violin shown valuable to the groups sound?"

This is a broadcast from a radio station with two members from the Van Susans group. This research could possibly generate a question such as "How do you feel when performing within live broadcasts on the radio, how do you think you would feel if you slipped up whilst the recording was being aired?"

   

Development of ideas

First Idea -

Using a white board to visually write down and illustrate a tragic story of a homeless person. We will be able to get a true story from crisis, the charity we are doing the animation for.

Developed -

We are going to still use the same idea of using a white board to illustrate a story about the homeless, also as its a white board it makes it easy to write words on it, I will do this because it will make it a lot easier for the audience to understand.





Developing on my clay and paper idea -

To develop on this idea I'm going to try and make it appeal more to teenagers, and the only way of doing this I feel is to show them that its not 'fun' to live on the street and just be honest with them and show them to truths about what homeless people go through on a day-to-day basis. It is an advantage that we are filming with clay to animate because in my opinion it gives a complete different look being more friendly etc... to the advertisement, if we filmed this with real life footage it would give a disturbing out look to the audience.

Developing on my Lego idea -

This idea uses just Lego as I feel Lego is a good material to use as it doesn't create to much of a mess. This idea starts with a couple of shots of a homeless person, laying in the middle of pavement sleeping rough with empty bottles and lose clothes scattered around him. The next shot is where a pedestrian is walking down the street and just steps over him to get off to work, not caring that someone is sleeping in the middle of the pavement. After this the next shot is of a person in a red Crisis shirt walking up to the homeless person on the street and puts a blanket over his shoulders and comforts him and starts walking him down the Crisis help centre.

Developing on my Clay, Lego, Hands and Objects idea -

This idea includes a range of materials instead of using just one material as I like different materials for different purposes. The first shot will be of a homeless person on the street laying up against a wall with the Crisis logo graffiti-ed on it  without him even knowing that Crisis is a charity designed to for helping people in his situation. Whilst hes laying up against the wall he is looking sorry for himself and unhappy, but a passer by comes up to him and throws change in his pot and says, 'turn around they will help you', and it goes to a shot of where hes getting cared for and is happy. This last shot will show that Crisis is a charity for helping care for homeless people, and trying to get them off the streets and getting there life back on track.

Ideas Mindmap

Storyboards

Location Recce for interview

This picture below is of Ravens Wood School, this is were we are going to do research and some production for this interview. The main room for the interview we plan to use is found within the school which we shall later show.

These are pictures taken by a group member, in the music room that would we'd like to do the interview with Tim Dullaway. This room is ideal for the interview because it has a lot of music equipment in it which will help the audience of our interview understand immediately that it is about music. This room is good because it is spacious so we could maybe get lights in there as well in order to make the interview look professionally done.

We feel that this room is best for the interview due to the subject being based around the idea of music. So this room is ideal as it has instruments placed along the wall which helps it relate well to the subject matter.

 

Evaluation of stop motion

Stop motion evaluation

Clay/ paper cut outs/ objects

What went well

The animation that was created was done smoothly and worked well. I feel stop motion animation is the most effective way of generating animation because it is rather simple and straight forward to create. I feel that the material (clay) we chose was rather easy to mould into whatever shape you wanted to. Also the time limit was rather short to create an animation but this was done carefully and professionally, so this shows that stop motion animation is reliable, quick and easy to use. The paper cut outs also make a great backdrop for the animation to take place. The objects that we used (lolly stick and white fabric) also were easily moveable for the animation, The fabric was stuck in the mouth shape by cello-tape which worked well to sustain the shape. 

Even better if

For this particular animation i think that it would have been goo to have had something to represent or relate to, as the idea was chosen randomly. Also continuity was also a problem within this animation we have just created because whilst the eyes were rolling up the clay balls, it was hard not to get the balls from movie. Also the animation could have added sound to it this would have made the animation much more interesting to watch. Possibly could have linked some of the movements of the objects with some sound. Another element regarding continuity would be that finger dents on the clay can sometimes be visible, a way that could stop this from happening would be to possibly re mould the shape anytime that this happens 

Lego/Paper cut out 

What Went Well

When  testing out these other assets we could use to generate a stop motion piece. We found that using the Lego characters and objects we could  make this piece in a much shorter space of time as we didn't have to build characters or objects like the previous stop motion piece with the clay. We found that creating motion with these objects was much easier than using the clay as this could potentially change the clay's shape.

Even Better if 

I feel that the tea was an extremely delicate material to use within this piece as changing the motion of direction the tea was moving in had to be done using extreme care as we didn't want each shot to seem over edited. I feel that these objects were a good choice however, the piece could have had much more going on within it. Such as something else that makes its way in to the shot.

Sand/whiteboard/people

What Went Well

Firstly I feel that this use of animation actually looked the best out of all choices we have used. I think that this format would be easy to appeal to every audience, my reason for this is because certain audiences may think that lego or other such object similar to this could be too childish for them. I think that this format could be both entertaining and meaningful to any audience. Also, this format gives you a great spectrum of creating whatever you want, whereas the lego/objects could only move at certain lengths in certain ways. Whereas the sand can move into anything you wish it to be, this is also the same with the whiteboard as you can draw whatever you want within that space, it doesn't have many limits. Our group feel that having people (hands) within the piece was helpful, as we originally thought of blowing the sand away from the whiteboard to give our final shot, however this would have been extremely messy and long winded. So using our hands was a very successful alternative for this.

Even Better If

The main problem with this format of animation was first and for mostly the sand. You have to be extremely careful and professional in terms of continuity if you want your piece of animation to look good. I feel that if sand is to be used, it can only be used at one certain time only and not over a period of days as the continuity of each shot could be incorrect. This was almost an issue even for our short piece below, we had to be extremely careful to not make it look rather unprofessional. Our group feel that possibly a mixture of each format could work well together for our charity piece as we seem to think that there are very good aspects of each format.

Equipment List

Equipment list

Rentable camera

This camera shall be rented from the RavensWood School media department. We will need this piece of equipment in order to film our interview. It should roughly cost about a 20 pound deposit.

Tripod

This shall also be rented from the media department, this will help us film a steady interview and prevent the camera from shaking, which would make the interview look very informal or unprofessional. This shall also be included within the deposit from the media department at RavensWood School.

Boom Mic

The boom mic shall also be rented from the media department from RavensWood school. The boom mic will help us obtain the best amount of sound quality when our interviewee answers the questions we provide. We don't want the sound quality to be poor as we may not be able hear some words that are said from the interviewee. This shall also come under the deposit for the camera from RavensWood school.
















Notepad and pens

A notepad and pens are essential to take to the interview in order to take brief notes on what our interviewee replies to each of our questions. So this will help us evaluate each question. Spare pens will also be essential to bring as one may run out and prevent us from writing our notes.

(Possibly) A redhead light

There may be a possible need for a redhead lamp incase the lighting within the music room isn't sufficient enough, the image below is a redhead light that are available at the RavensWood school media department. As you want to generate an interview where you can see the subject, we aim to show different shots of the subject (Tim) in different angles and possibly the natural light may show the subject well enough, therefore resulting in our group booking a redhead light to use during the interview. If our group decided to use this piece of equipment it would make our shoot look a like some of the BBC interviews we have researched resulting in our shoot looking much more professional