Evaluation

For the unit 'promotional video,' I had to plan and map out everything needed as if I was going to shoot a promotional video for a client. Initially, I started by analysing different types of promotional videos so I had a better idea of what directions mine could go in. After reading the brief I began to do basic research and put together my ideas for a pitch through a PowerPoint. Overall I thought my pitch went quite well, I made a lot of notes in my presentation so I wouldn't waffle and I could maintain my points. Then I spent a week putting together a storyboard and script for all three of my promo videos. I really liked the way I laid this out with the script cropped next to what shots it aligned with on the storyboard. I feel my vision came across very strong and was received well by the client. I next started researching the equipment and people I would need for the videos and when I would need them to begin an estimated price. My first draft of this was quite bland and didn't offer a lot of information and secure the client with the knowledge that I was getting the best prices because at that point I had only done minimal research. What I then took from that meeting was that I now had to do a lot more research and justify my decisions through comparison to multiple services and websites.I think after redoing this side of pre-production my costs were a lot more validated and there was more clarity between what I was saying and the client's understanding of that. I then went on to look at and research the legal side of making a promotional video like talent release forms to prevent anything adding to the overall cost of the videos in the future so an actor wouldn't be able to force you to take down the video with images of them in it. I think I did a good job at covering the reason why this was necessary and the different types of release forms that would be needed. the only thing I would do differently next time would maybe add a bit more detail about them to give the client a bit more financial security. This then brought me onto child labour laws as I would be using three child actors so it would be peccary to follow legal requirements so no legal action can be taken against us and overall I feel that I covered this efficiently. Something I wish I had done better is giving a better idea of how the different stages of production would've happened so this could clarify my previous claims about cost due to how long services would be required.

Overall, I think I did a good job. Now I have a better idea of the different stages of production planning I would spend more focus on the costing and planning side of it as I struggled trying to plan everything out efficiently and I think I really excelled in the concept and creative side of the process and that was definitely where I showed skills.

Promo Video Pitch

https://kecnuneaton-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/bm_kinged6nun_ac_uk/EY7X3Pow3ohFlizql1PbxpwBuPOcRdcVzw5iO5iHuei80w

Final Estimated Cost

Estimate cost: £36,22.44

Distribution

"Distribution is the process of sharing, publishing, and promoting content on various social media platforms." blog.hubspot.com. In my initial pitch, I informed the client that marketing the app on popular social media acts would be more beneficial than televised advertising due to the fact television advertisements interrupt someone's experience leaving them with a negative experience where as people use social media in hopes of looking for a new experience.. Therefore I had to do extensive research into social media advertising

According to WebFX and sixads, Per Click Facebook typically charge between £0.38 and £1.52 per click so an average of somewhere around £150 and £600 per month so as we're planning to advertise on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok the most we're likely to spend is £1800 per month. Instagram prices are typically around the same per click. Asgandpartners.com informs us that Tiktok is significantly put down to the fact it is very popular and also relatively new so they charge around £7.50 per click but again due to its popularity the client would see the benefits of that price. So with all this in mind we're likely to spend £4,760.52 per month advertising on all three apps so if we start off advertising for 6 months that's costing the client £28,563 but that will go up depending on how long the client wants to continue using the ads to promote their company.

Bibliography

- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-distribution

- https://www.webfx.com/social-media/pricing/how-much-does-facebook-advertising-cost/

- https://sixads.net/pricing/

- https://www.asgandpartners.com/tiktok-for-business-a-quick-guide-to-advertising-on-tiktok/

Loctation Scouting

 Location Scouting

Filming Locations

The plan is to fit for 2 days and to achieve this, one of the filming properties can be used for 2 videos as most of the 3rd promo video is shot upstairs while the other 2 are shot predominantly downstairs. This would also keep the cost down significantly, as it saves having to book the cast, crew, location and equipment all over again.

I used the website scouty.com to find appropriate filming locations in the UK. When booking for half a day or an entire day they offered me a discount. Furthermore keeping the overall cost down.

Filming Location 1 - Cottage in Hertfordshire https://www.scouty.com/location/1850s-cottage-618a7edc87e71c00186bb0a3 £1260

Filming Location 2 - Cottage in Uxbridge https://www.scouty.com/location/old-english-cottage-61dea046b277a7001806471d £1050

I decided to go with modern cottages to provide that nostalgic feeling that we want to be associated with the app as well as being very homely and comforting to help create that calming atmosphere.

Recording Studio

As all 3 of the promotional videos are meant to be muted and only have non-diegetic sound in them, we didn't need to book sound technicians and mic equipment for the initial shoot. As there is a voice-over throughout the entirety of all three videos we do need to record good quality audio and since we saved a lot on sound equipment for the shoot and there is a lot of room for additional costs in the budget, it makes sense to get the best sounding voice over possible through booking a recording studio to record it.

Recording Studio price Birmingham book.pirate.com - £30 for 3 hours (1 hour for each script)

Bibliography

- https://www.scouty.com/locations/London?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuMuRBhCJARIsAHXdnqOdSJ4wwmuN5DxGR5vm6MMyWsZusuZhYrCYr72z7jxXxjffWuITkEYaAikiEALw_wcB&page=1&search=cottage

- https://book.pirate.com/booking/upper-trinity-st-birmingham/419/2022-05-23T11:00:00+01:00?duration=2&studio_type=3

 Cast and Crew

Actors

The job of an actor is " is to fully represent the character they are playing and to convince their audience that character is real by engaging them and drawing them into the story. " careerexplorer.com. For the video, we need 12 actors so according to the Career explorers site the average salary is on average, converted into pounds around £15.18 an hour. this seems to match up as upon further research thebalancecareers.com, the average estimate is said to be converted into pounds £13.42 and Talent.com further supports this with its median average of £12.21 an hour. So for all 12 actors, it's most likely going to be around the £2,181 area but could range from (£1,809.12 to £4,512).

In addition to the cost of actors, we also need to look into the legal requirements and standards for child actors in the UK as I plan to use three. On the UK official www.gov.uk website, for these three child actors we will need; performance licences and supervision (from a parent, teacher tutor or a chaperone from the council if others are unavailable). 

They will not be allowed to work;

• without an employment permit issued by the education department of the local council, if this is required by local bylaws
• in places like a factory or industrial site
• during school hours
• before 7am or after 7pm
• for more than one hour before school (unless local bylaws allow it)
• for more than 4 hours without taking a break of at least 1 hour
• in any work that may be harmful to their health, well-being or education
• without having a 2-week break from any work during the school holidays in each calendar year

So the main concern is that we have appropriate supervision and the performance licences and get them off of set as much as possible.

Crew

Cinematographer - “A Cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist, moving an audience through a movie…making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark.” — Legendary Cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather, Annie Hall). From the information I have gathered from careersinfilm.com, the top end annual salary for a cinematographer is around £49,331.42 annually further supported by talent.com stating it can vary from £20,090 a year to £52,140 a year making the median daily rate around £97.49 per so for our 2-day shoot £194.98. 

Camera Operator - a camera operator's job is to capture footage. They work with " a variety of technical equipment including cranes, mobile mountings, portable cameras, remote-control cameras, and digital cameras." On the website careerexplorer.com, the average pay of a camera operator is £19.37 an hour for the states where there is a higher demand than the UK. This is seemingly the going rate as other sources such as talent.com give similar numbers of this averaged down for the UK at £10.10 an hour so £90.73 per day making it £181.46 for both days.

Lighting designer - "The Lighting Designer is responsible for the design, installation, and operation of the lighting and special electrical effects used in the production." theatreanddance.appstate.edu The average lighting designer hourly pay is £9.11 on pay scale.com" and similarly averaging out at £115 a day at talent.com meaning £230 in total.

Hair and Makeup Artists - "hair and make-up designers help actors portray their characters by using hair and make-up to create a look." screenskills.com It's seemingly difficult to find an individual to do both of these jobs so the better option would be to just get a person for each of them which would also speed up the production process on set. talent.com say the average salary for a hairstylist is £90.60 a day while a makeup artist according to the rough average on payscale.com is £10.29 an hour but I've found these prices have a large range so as ours will be doing all 12 actors' makeup we can assume they would want more pay for more work so on it's likely going to be around £135 a day so both jobs added together for 2 days would be roughly £451.20. 

Animator - "An animator produces multiple images called frames, which when sequenced together create an illusion of movement." prospects.ac.uk According to fullrotation.com, animation usually costs around £3000 - £3500 per minute so as we're only animating under a minute, it will cost on the lower side of £3000. and this matches up well with talent.com which have averaged out that animators typically make around £625 a week to £805 from what I've found and most services are the animator working from home so giving the animator a week allows them to take several breaks in line with the legal requirements and enough time to get the work done as explain.ninja say it typically takes 5 days to animate a 30-second animation and our animations combined, are under that timestamp. 

Editor - Video editors are "responsible for editing and assembling recorded raw material into a suitable, finished product ready for broadcasting." talentlyft.com From the information on Vidchops, the time for an editor to edit video footage into a final product is 1-2 days and their price for 4 videos a month is £246 and we know from talent.com that the average pay rate of an editor is £107 per day so £214 for 2 days that the cost is going to be around £230. 

Bibliography

- https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/actor/

- https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-an-actor-525659

- https://uk.talent.com/salary?job=actor

- https://www.gov.uk/child-employment/local-council-rules-for-child-employment-permits

- https://www.careersinfilm.com/cinematographer/

- https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/camera-operator/

- https://theatreanddance.appstate.edu/lighting-and-sound/lighting-designer

- https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/film-and-tv-drama/craft/hair-and-make-up-designer-film-and-tv-drama/

- https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/animator

- https://explain.ninja/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-animate-an-explainer-video/

- Full Rotation - 2D, 3D Animation Studio & Motion Design ...https://fullrotation.com

- https://vidchops.com/pricing-details/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=Brand+keywords&utm_term=vidchops&hsa_acc=3043800095&hsa_ad=418471424624&hsa_grp=81682125329&hsa_mt=b&hsa_cam=6608128284&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-822562607691&hsa_ver=3&hsa_kw=vidchops&hsa_net=adwords&gclid=CjwKCAiA4KaRBhBdEiwAZi1zzhlhFbqeGXnIQ-HSmR-Y3h6K_yX4mjGiPG3u5Btc5V3oVHHNBNAcXxoCp2YQAvD_BwE

 Equipment List

Cameras

For the best quality videos in high definition, it's important that we use a good quality camera for hire. The price varied for a 2-day hire. According to Fujifilm-loan.com, a 2-day hire was £118.80 so for 2 cameras to get more shots and speed up the production process would be £237.60. This was on the cheaper end of the budget for less big scale production projects. On another website, promotionhire.com, which offer cameras and equipment that fit a more professional experience with very high-quality cameras offer the Sony PMW-200 which is a lightweight and high-quality camera is £110 per day plus vat for hire, so £220 for the entire 2-day shoot plus vat.

For the Second camera, if we once again look at promotionhire.com's large catalogue of cameras to choose from, the Canon EOS C300 Mark II offers the opportunity to get some additional high-quality shots. The camera has a better frame rate so better quality slow-motion shots can be captured which would look good on reaction shots and it's £190 a day so for 2 days it's £380 + vat bringing the cost of both cameras from this company to £600 plus vat.

The same site offers other equipment for the cameras and after looking at their tripod options the Oconnor Ultimate 1040 head seems like a good choice as it provides high-end precision with a smooth pan giving the video an overall high-quality feel. The price is £100 a day so £400 for both days and the quantity of 2.

Lights

For lighting, from minimal research, it's clear that kits/packages are cheaper than renting out individual lights and promotionhire.com only offers individual lights for hire making it more expensive. So I looked around for a cheaper solution and found the website videoed.co.uk which offer Dedo DLH4 Three Light Kit Hire for £45 for 2 days. 

Bibliography

- https://www.fujifilm-loan.com/en-gb/products/HAC00-07641-fujifilm-gfx-50s-ii/

- https://www.promotionhire.com/hire/cameras/sony/sony-pmw-200/

- https://videoed.co.uk/accessory-hire/video-cameras-accessories/video-lighting-hire/dedo-light-hire-rental/

 Legal Documents

Talent Release Form

"A release form is used to give the production company permission to produce and share a video where a person appears." https://youtu.be/6K3rb6Elhi4 Effectively, it just prevents actors with their voice or image featured in the content you have produced forcing you to retract the video at any point and time.

Personal Release Form

"A personal release form is a document that gives you, the filmmaker, the rights to film another person for your project and then to use that footage in your film." http://www.howtomake-a-documentary.com/documentary-tips/37-documentary-tips-1 It also gives the filmmaker the rights to edit the content in whichever way they want.

Location Release Form

"A location release form grants permission to the filmmakers by the property owner to film on a specific property." https://www.peerspace.com/resources/location-release-form/ They prevent property owners from claiming the footage filmed on their property as their own.

Risk Assessment Form

A risk assessment form should also be written as they "allow employers to effectively identify hazards, assess the level and likelihood of the risks they pose and put control measures in place to reduce or, where possible, completely eliminate risks." https://www.chas.co.uk/blog/risk-assessment-template/

Bibliography

- https://youtu.be/6K3rb6Elhi4

-  http://www.howtomake-a-documentary.com/documentary-tips/37-documentary-tips-1

- https://www.peerspace.com/resources/location-release-form/

- https://www.chas.co.uk/blog/risk-assessment-template/

Promo Video Storyboard and Script

 

Promotional Video meeting with Harriet -20220301_163221-Meeting Recording.mp4

Overall, this client meeting went quite well The storyboard and script were discussed positively as the presentation along with my additional explanation provided the client with a clear picture of what the Promotional videos will look like in their final form. The main thing I took away from this meeting is that I needed to provide the client with more information about production and post-production and its costs through extensive research.