Advert Three

Advert Two

Advert One

Finished Practical

We left it a bit late, but after spending a week editing, we managed to complete our practical work. We have got to complete our write up and to be completely honest we should have had it finished before we actually completed the work, due to weather conditions and actor problems, we continued to delay the filming and in the end this left us with no other option than to use different footage.

Progress

Since the coursework was set in September, I haven't made as much progress as I thought I would have. At the start of the project I undertook a lot of research so that I could gain a better understanding of what i needed to make and therefore enabling me to create a good advert. Through this research I learnt about the codes and conventions of advertising as well as information about the product I was advertising and the target audience. However, I feel that the practical side of coursework has been very disappointing. Through my organisation of time, exams, problems with actors as well as weather conditions, we have been unable to finish our adverts by our own deadlines. It has been very frustrating due to weather conditions because whenever we had planned to film, the weather conditions would take a turn for the worse and therefore there would be no point in filming, even though we attempted to film a couple of times, the footage was useless because it didnt match the other footage. I have learnt how to use the macs and more importantly imovie; allowing me to edit the footage. I have developed my camera skills which allows me to get the best shot possible and as a result this allows us to create what we want. Storyboarding has been a very important process due to the changing of products, I have storyboarded several times and these storyboards have been very useful when out filming allowing us to get the shot we want as well as being creative and getting a few varied shots. Since the exams finished I have taken it upon myself to move this group forward with a more positive attitude to working. We have filmed nearly two adverts with only needing to re-shoot for a few more shots and we are going to film our third advert this week, with the aim of having three adverts completed, only needing to re-shoot a few shots to improve the quality.

Editing and Evaluating

I spent monday morning editing our current footage, as well as evaluating. I went through each shot, deciding whether it was good enough to be in our final piece, whether we had to re-shoot, or change the angle, or add something to the shot. This process took around three hours, and as a result I know exactly where I am and what I need to do to improve our current work.

The second advert is coming along and has a narrative which you can understand, it simply needs a few shots added to it and a few shots to be re-shot. We are filming Wednesday and Thursday this week and hope to get Advert one, and Advert two completed by Friday this week.

Leaving Advert three to be completed.

Filming, finally

Yesterday Tom and I managed to film the whole of advert two; and today I have been editing the footage, I feel advert two is nearly complete and all we have to do is re-shoot a couple of shots and add in some music and the advert will be completed. We are happy with what we managed to shoot yesterday but the quality of the footage once transferred from the camera is not spectacular to say the least. We are planning on filming the whole of advert three by thursday next week and having the advert finished by then also, leaving a few shots of ad 1 left to complete, once the weather picks up. I am feeling quietly confident that we shall have finished our adverts by March the 13th, with only needing to re-shoot a few shots to improve them.

Current Status

Tom and I are both disappointed and frustrated at the current time, we are frustrated because of the weather we have been unable to film, and we are dissapointed because we are as of now missing todays deadline.

I have booked out a camera and if the weather stays as it is today, I will be able to gain the footage to finish two adverts worth to edit when we come back from the half term. As a result catch up. If however the weather takes a turn for the worse (as usual), I will try and get enough footage to finish ad three.

We have been unable to film advert two because everytime we have booked a pitch at 'Goals', they have closed due to adverse weather conditions and as a result we have been unable to gain any footage to edit.

On reflection, choosing to do a football based advert and film during the winter period perhaps wasn't the best choice, however I feel that we can still get the relevant footage to create three good adverts.

The past two months have been very frustrating because we have been unable to film for the majority of it, whenever we have gone to film, a problem such as the same lighting or whether the road was wet or dry meant that the filming we had done, was unusable. We have tried to come up with solutions but have decided that now the weather has improved we must try to plow through it and finish our adverts before the deadline.

Exams

Now that our exams are out of the way, we are able to film properly once again, many if not all of our actors were bogged down with exams and therefore we were unable to film when we wanted/were able to. We have booked 'Goals' for this weekend with twelve actors; we have an hour to film and we film we should be able to get enough footage to complete our advert two. We have decided to take two cameras along to 'Goals' so that we can get maximum angles and the best shots possible.

Now the exams are out of the way all we need is for the weather to pick up a bit!

Frustration and how to get past it

Due to the current weather conditions being different to when we filmed Tom and I have been unable to film any more of our advert 1; instead we have decided to focus on ad 2 for the current time, until we get a day when the roads aren't wet where we filmed.

This means we have 2/3 of our advert 1 filmed and cut to our like and we only need to re-shoot a few shots and film the last few ending scenes. Still it is becoming frustrating as it's looking like we might not make our deadlines for two adverts finished and one rough to be in on the 30th of January.

We will try and get it done, but may need a few more days, sunny days hopefully.

Christmas Break

Due to both Tom and I being busy over the christmas break, we had set out a filming schedule that suited both of us for specific days in the break. Unfortunately on three of these days, there were road works on the road that we had previously filmed on, meaning we were unable to film on that road. We attempted to film on some other roads but they were too short, too busy and didn't look anything like the road we had previously filmed down. Therefore we decided not to use any of the footage.

Another problem was that I had a loose hubcap and took it off, as I had ordered another hubcap and was expecting to receive it before the end of the break as I had ordered it on christmas eve, I still haven't received it.

Therefore we were disappointed that we didn't get any filming done, but have already sorted out a shooting schedule to finish advert one and get the majority of advert two done by the start of february.

January

Our aims are that by January Tom and I will have completed our first advert and will have started/Nearly finished advert two allowing the end of January and whole of February to complete advert three which we feel will take the longest to film and edit.

We have decided to re-shoot a few of the shots for advert one and we feel advert two will take three or four shoots to get the correct type of shots to make the advert.

I will post our new shooting schedule when we have created it.

At the current time I am feeling quite confident that we will finish our adverts on time and that they will be of good quality.

Summary So Far

We started this project in September and I feel like Tom and I wasted three months before we actually started. Our problem was that we had created storyboards for adverts that we were never going to be able to complete. However when we were drawing up the storyboards we didn't think they would be that impossible. As a result from trying to arrange several things for the same day it just proved impossible and therefore we had to decide that we would never complete the adverts in time if at all. As a result we decided to create new storyboards (which I will be putting up on the blog once my scanner is returned next week) and therefore create new adverts which will be as effective but easier to film and edit and consequently complete.

Due to the problem's above we were unable to meet the deadlines and fortunately Mr Michie was very understanding about this. I feel we will complete the adverts by the end of February, we are aiming to complete it before so if need be we can improve small bits and pieces so that our adverts are as effective as possible.

I feel we have faced a few issues and we have overcome them well (issues in first paragraph) and consequently because of the issues and having to re-storyboard we are more determined to get our adverts completed as we feel we are behind some other groups.

Editing

On Wednesday last week we began editing, we have spent a few hours editing within the week and we are starting to see what our first advert will look like. The outline is looking positive and we only need to re-shoot a few shots. We have input some music and we feel that the advert is starting to flow positively.

We need to shoot the end of the race and we feel advert one will be very close to being completed. Over the christmas period we are planning on going out and filming and for this I have booked out a mac book so that I will be able to edit the footage we have gotten from this.

Filming

Yesterday (10.12.2008) Tom and I started filming for our first advert. We started filming the Mecurial Advert VI, which involves a footballer and a car having a race, the result of this will determine what is faster the boot or the car. To develop meaning and understanding that it is infact the boot that we are advertising we have decided to use a range of close up's and eventually the footballer wins, showing that with these boots the audience will become faster by wearing them.

Problems

The main problem was that the storyboards were too complicated. There were too many things we had to do, and arrange. Trying to get them done as well as getting other school work done was just too hard. Filming an actual football match was too hard to implement into the adverts because of the weather at the current time as well as the equipment it just proved impossible.

Another factor which didn't help was also due to the weather, as due to continous rain many football matches which we had planned to go and film at were postponed and this delayed our filming for just over a month as there were no games which we could attend. This became extremely frustrating and therefore we decided to re-storyboard, come up with simpler ideas which we didn't rely on many people to complete and therefore spend more time on the quality of the shots rather than the quantity.

Tom and I have checked new locations and we are feeling very confident that we can infact complete these new ideas.

Tuesday the 10th

Today I am going to ask my teacher for more time, as Tom and I have decided to change our focus. Instead of doing our original ideas, we have decided to slightly change focus. The original ideas would have taken too long so at the current time, I am re-storyboarding and we are planning to film at 'goals' on sunday for Advert two, Advert one is very simple, but we feel it is a very simple way to get people to enjoy the game. It is still involving football, and Nike. So our research is still valid. I have found the perfect sound for one of the adverts best suited and this is from the football game 'V Ronaldo Football'.

I will be posting the new storyboards up soon with an explanation of what the entail.

Re-storyboarding

At the end of last week Tom and I had to make a choice. Whether to carry on filming and hope to come out with some footage we could use, or whether to re-storyboard and come up with some new ideas which will be easier to complete.
These ideas should be easier to complete but with a new focus.

Saturday 15th Of November

Again a Chalfont St Peter game was called off once I had travelled for two hours. This is getting very very very frustrating. But I'm determined that in the end it will be worth it. Although I have looked in to filming at an indoor game on synthetic grass. Only if we have nothing in the next few weeks will that happen.

Wednesday 12th Of November

Once more a Chalfont St Peter game was called off. This is getting frustrating. But I'm sure in the end it will be worth it...