News Unit: Shoot Day for promo and presenter

First shoot day

What did this day consist of?

Today we had to shoot the presenter parts and footage for our promo video. Rosie is our presenter and she was required to talk towards the camera but in a conversational, informal way.  She sat down and familiarised herself with the lines whilst we set up the kit. Our plans for the promo video consisted of getting shots of each member of the team, being fun, stylish and we also wanted to have close ups of make up to go along with the fashion trends that our channel is about.

Here is an image of our set up whilst we filmed for the promo vid

How was the set up?
For our shooting we used a PMW, 4 LED lights, and a tripod. We just used the directional mic that came with the PMW for sound as it would be good enough. 

So as we set up the kit we realised that we were not given stands for the lighting and so we had to improvise. We used the chairs that were in the room, stacked them up and imitated the effect of lighting stands. It was fiddly but we managed to make it work, however, this took a big chunk out of our filming time as well as given us a negative atmosphere to start off with but we had to push through. 


What went well?

• One thing that went well was our ability to bounce back from not having all the kit. We almost decided to go home after finding out but we made it work and you couldn't even tell when looking at the footage. 
• Our ability to get clear shots which were framed good.
• Rosie's perseverance to learning her lines and making it through the whole script.
• Thinking of new ideas on the spot in order to make the most of the equipment and time that we had. For example, I thought it would be a good idea to get the similar spin around effect that was used by The Kardashians by kneeling on one of the spinning chairs, a video of that is below; 

what didn't go well?

• We wanted a more informal approach for the channel but as Rosie spoke to the camera it became quite formal and stilted, almost directed to a different target audience. This was due to her only really learning the lines on the day. This was not her fault though as I believe we all underestimated how hard it would be to learn lines and present them in a different way. Especially when you've never done it before, its is difficult. At one point Rosie didn't want to do it and I gave it a go, I couldn't even get past the first line without forgetting the rest of the words, it was a disaster on my behalf so our only option was to let Rosie do it and she managed to pull it off in the end.
• When getting footage for our promo video it was clear that we were not as organised as we thought we were. We knew what we kind of wanted but we never made a shot list or anything like that so we just filmed shots that we thought would look good. We were winging it and it showed. We would often get stuck and think "okay so what next?" This meant that there could've been things that we missed, shots that could've worked better if we had given it more thought.

What can we improve?

• The main thing we could've improved on was organisation and planning. We underestimated a lot of things and we ended up paying the price for it. It isn't good enough to just "wing it" sometimes. Especially when we are creating a news package that relies heavily on accuracy and building trust. 
• We need to make sure we have all the appropriate kit that is needed before leaving the building. We were very lucky to be shooting somewhere with chairs that we could stack but what if we were on location somewhere else and had no other option to do so? that would mean cancelling and a loss of time and effort.
• We NEED to make better shot lists or even story boards in order to make sure we get all the shots thats needed 
• Memorise scripts for easier filming and more fluid presentation. This really makes a difference. Especially to our target audience, they will be able to pick up on stilted conversation and speeches which would bring down the overall value of our package. We need to take it more seriously if we want to produce something convincing.

Next steps

• Go through the footage, edit the green screen parts and put together a promo video.
• Create an opening title to go with the promo video 
• Expand knowledge of after effects to know how to enhance the look of our package and brand.
• Make sure all edits are seamless, consistent with our brand colours and make sense.