Filming the Health and Safety Video

Today is the day! I believe we did pretty well because we learned from our video blogs to film small chunks and then pass it to Ellie who is the editor to check that the format is correct and to start editing. This worked, the format we were filming in was fine and Ellie was editing throughout the day.

Harry did a schedule which we wrote up on the board so everyone knew what was going on and at the start of the day we were on schedule. Unfortunately Joy couldn't make it in so Rob took over the lighting.

When people weren't filming we found other things to do like helping out with the camera work or preparing for the next scene. I completed the voiceover at the start of the day with the help of Ellie. I then helped out with the filming for the rest of the day along with the others.

Although there were some stresses throughout the day for example falling behind schedule because we were taking too long to film some scenes, it turned out to be what I thought a successful day! The thing that was suggested from our tutor throughout the day was that this video didn't need to be a polished piece of work and that it was a learning experience. With that said we did want it to be as perfect as we could possible make it. I believe this worked in our favor because we did take it seriously and tried our best to get just how we wanted it and con to this was that it did hinder us time wise.

In the end we did actually finish it early and could watch it as a full and see Ellie's editing so far, which will be carried out until next week. I'm excited to see the finished product :)

Planning the Health and Safety Video

Over the week everyone kept in contact via email and shared ideas for the story of the film and how the day is going to pan out.

Then when we came in today we brainstormed some more about what the script should say and talked about everyones involvement within the film. We did have some disagreements on whether we should do animation or stop motion. After we decided that animation would take up too much time we went for the stop motion as we have a deadline to get this video done including pre-production, filming and post-production. 

The ideas presented throughout the week was Edun's of doing a mock 20's style video like one we watched last week and we had Joy's idea of doing a David Attenborough type video. We decided on Joy's idea which I personally was really keen on. Another reason we chose Joy's idea was that she already did a general plot line for her idea and this made it easier for Cherokee to create a script from it.

We left the day with everyone being allocated stuff to do throughout the week to prepare for the shoot next Friday!

Editing the Video Biography

Today we found out that we must've filmed the parts of my video blog on the college camera in the wrong format as it wouldn't work on the Apple MAC's. The parts that we filmed on our personal camera did work except I didn't really want to use those clips because they were just a draft version with me rehearsing my lines and seeing how far the que cards can be away from me. The images that we took which were going to be used as stills throughout my video could also be used. Unfortunately we couldn't fix the problem with the main video, so for now I don't really know what is going to happen with my video blog.

The positive that did come out of this project was learning that we should film some on the college cameras but then stop and see if we can edit it and this will ultimately tell us if there is any problems with the format and we can fix it straight away instead of filming an entire video and then realising that non of it can be used. 

Today we also did minor planning of our Health and Safety video. We basically worked out that we would do it in one big group and that way everyone can have allocated roles. 

The roles we decided were:

Jemel: Actor

Rob: Story Boarding

Joy: Lighting

Ellie: Editing

Edun: Cameraman 

Finnbarr: Director

Harry: Assistant Director

Cherokee: Scriptwriter 

Me: Actor / Voiceover 

Video Biography Shoot!

Today is the day! After discussions over the week I think Edun, Joy and I was pretty prepared and had a good idea of what we wanted to achieve. Joy presented some very good ideas of doing it like a CV type Biography and so I did some que cards of what I was going to say and most of it did actually come off my CV. Joy printed some awesome photos to place around the shoot. Unfortunately I did get in a bit late so it looked like we wouldn’t have enough time in the Photography Studio (which we didn’t) so we only spent about 20 minutes in there and did some practice shoots and shot some photos with great fashion mannequins and photography lights. Fortunately the studio next door was free for another hour and that’s all we needed and it also turned out to be set up like a TV studio, which was great. This added to the whole professional CV theme and it looked like a real TV set, so we were all pretty excited with this turn out. Edun did great camera work and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
I would say the biggest con of today was that we didn’t time manage very well and could’ve been better prepared in that sense and this meant we also didn’t enough time to edit and complete the video but that shall be done next week. We also didn’t get the camera’s sorted out which added to not having enough time and the idea of adding some humor wasn't fully accomplished due to time. Over all though I think it was a pretty decent effort and we worked really well together!

Week 2

Second week in and it was a pretty easy going day. I basically just had another orientation type day which included doing some standard English & Math tests, the mandatory paper work and got my photo taken for the Student ID. I then met most of our other member's: Joy, Edun, Cherokee, Rob and Finnbarr. They all seem really nice and I can't wait to get to know them better! Ellie, Harry and I (the newbie’s) chose groups to work with on Video Biography's. I chose Joy and Edun and we just threw some ideas around. We've come up with the idea of filming it in a Photography Studio to tie in with my love of photos. We're going to actually film it next week and I'm excited to see where this goes.

Induction Day

As part of my Apprenticeship with the Film Production Company Pistachio Pictures, I attend City of Westminster College every Friday. Today was my first day. I'm excited about attending the classes because I can't wait to learn more about the Creative and Media industries and develop my skills further. I feel really lucky and appreciative of being able to do this Apprenticeship, especially in the industry I want to be in. I started the Apprenticeship on Tuesday 30^th August 2011 and although at times it can be high-pressured and very busy, I really do love my job, it involves me creating posters and other promotional material for our upcoming films, eventually taking on more of the role as Production Assistant as we produce and direct films in the future and also general Personal Assistant work. Alex and Susan for whom I work for are great and we all work well together. I met two of the other Apprentices at College today as well, Harry and Ellie who are really nice. Our tutor Barrington is awesome and I can see myself enjoying the lessons a lot and I can’t wait to meet the rest of the Apprentices and get further into the course!