Pre-Oscars
I was very happy with my Pre-Oscars video, I believe the content was very appropriate for educating viewers on the nomination process and the previous political involvements at the Awards which linked to my Post-Oscars video.
I took the role of presenting seriously by thoroughly researching the content I was delivering and writing a script. I used the official Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science website to research how a film is nominated, using YouTube to watch videos of previous instances where politics were present at the Awards. It was during the scriptwriting process that I would choose the appropriate language whilst managing my sentence structure to ensure I was talking in complete sentences and not waffling. The language I chose to use was clear and simple but not condescending, this was so that the audience would believe and listen to the information I was giving.
Prior to filming, I approached the role like any other act; I learned the script to my the best of my ability so that filming could go smoothly and quickly; I know in the industry time is money therefore if time was wasted due to my lack of preparation the producer would not be happy. I also wanted to be as efficient as possible in post-production, which is very important when there is a need for a quick turn around, such as in our case where some videos needed to be uploaded on the same day. However, this can be quite a bit different when working on live multi-camera productions as the channel mixer and director will edit as it is being broadcast.
Before filming I rehearsed my scene with the two members who would be playing opposite me as students; this allowed the crew to set up the cameras, check the camera framing and establish sound levels. This also meant I could read through my lines to the director who could act as a final reviewer and tell me if they believed there was a problem with anything I was saying or the messages I wanted to convey.
I chose to wear a smart but stylish dress, in keeping with the appeal of the Oscars and so that I could be seen as professional, taking pride in my appearance and the brand (Ufilms) I am representing.
I stood angled toward the master camera and towards the students in my scene; this was so that I was still open to the audience welcoming them into the scene whilst explaining to the students. Throughout the video I directly looked at both the master camera and my close-up camera to establish and maintain a connection with the audience, keeping them engaged and interested. I used facial expressions throughout when speaking certain lines, these are mostly seen in the close up shots.
When delivering the dialogue I tried to not talk too fast so that I could be heard clearly and understood by those watching. This is quite difficult as I knew what I was going to say but the audience obviously wouldn’t. I identified a risk that the topic could be seen as quite boring or uninteresting to people who are not in the film industry or already fans of the Oscars, therefore I tried to be charismatic, upbeat and passionate to keep the audience interested. Effective presenting relies on both the content being said and the way in which it is delivered. I tried to pace my delivery so that I was not rushing lines and possibly dropping words or syllables which would affect the audience’s understanding of what I was saying. Knowing that my main target audience would be people from my area I felt comfortable in keeping my normal accent but I was very mindful not to use any slang as this would be unprofessional and unnecessary.
Whilst filming I suffered a small number of technical problems; to film I used 3 SD cameras on tripods and 3-point lighting, however when exporting the footage from the SD cards I encountered a significant challenge. The SD card reader became disconnected whilst copying footage meaning I lost half of the footage from the master camera and therefore had to reshoot the following day. While filming the reshoot I then faced another problem; one of the three lights failed completely meaning the reshot footage would be noticeably different and continuity would be an issue. As we didn’t have enough time to completely reshoot again, and there were no replacement bulbs for the light I chose to reframe the shot to just a close up and use this to deliver an outro message.
During editing I suffered no issues, I was able to easily sync the sound and videos as I had made sure we used the clapperboard when filming each take. I included both the UFilms Logo and name graphics to ensure we maintained a uniform look and feel throughout all our Oscars Run Down shorts. I chose to include two videos that I had referenced in my video to accompany what I had been explaining however this caused a slight problem when it came to uploading my video. I edited my video to plan and scheduled it to be uploaded onto the YouTube channel at the agreed time of 8pm, however as the videos I used were flagged for copyright this blocked the video from being watched. I believed the videos were in the public domain and filed a dispute against the complaint (via Youtube processes), this then unblocked the videos allowing them to be watched however this delayed the go live time. This is something I will be very aware of in the future as it could happen again if I choose to use existing footage.
I believe that this video is very similar to that which I had planned and intended although I was disappointed that I had to cut the last section about equality due to the light problem. Overall I think it worked perfectly on the channel, it had a more educational and factual feel than other videos which were conversational, and this helped us reach a wider audience. I think my video is appropriate to the target audience, professionally delivering unbiased facts and information.
Post Oscars
I believe this was the weaker of the two videos I presented, due to two main reasons; I had less time to prepare and locate the information, and this video was very much dependant on what happened at this year’s Awards so if there wasn’t much to report on then my video would struggle for content.
Preparation time for filming was very tight, the Awards took place early Monday morning and my video was being filmed on the Wednesday. I researched the political instances that happened on the night and wrote them into a script. I decided against adding videos into after the issue that arose with my first video. The language I chose was not too formal or informal, this was because the information I was delivering was factual therefore I wanted it to be taken seriously.
Despite writing the script I did not have much time to learn what I had written but I knew this when filming and therefore broke the script into short sections that I could easily film. I felt I was less rehearsed and prepared than I would have liked and this made me nervous and less relaxed whilst filming, I think this came across in the video as I appeared to talk very fast.
For this video, I wore a light pink dress which was less formal than my first dress however as I was sat down you could not clearly see I was wearing a dress anyway. I decided to sit on the sofa because I felt it would look more relaxed and natural, as if I was chatting to the audience about what had happened at the Awards.
Since it was just me on camera I decided to just use two cameras - a master and a close-up; I would deliver facts or parts of facts directly to each camera. This made editing easier as I would know when exactly I should cut to the other camera. I faced no problems with the filming, editing or uploading of this video, I edited to time getting the video ready for upload at 6pm prior to another video that was going up at 8pm.
It’s hard to say if this video was what I originally intended and planned as until the Awards ceremony had happened I had no idea what I would be commenting on. I feel that if I had had longer to prepare I could have memorised my lines better and appear more relaxed, delivering my lines slower and with more emphasis on the key speeches.
The video was very appropriate to the audience because it followed on from my original film, therefore my intent was to provide them with an update on how politics had been seen at these Awards compared to previous ones.
As a crew we worked very well together, changing roles so that everyone had the experience of operating a camera, directing and presenting and editing. Everyone took part and helped out by staying back on days to help film with some going above and beyond to get their video out on the day so as not to let the team down. Communication was a very important factor and necessity not only on set but for the whole project, everyone needed to know what videos had been filmed and edited and when they were going up, especially those who operate the Ufilms social media accounts.
As we were working with a large amount of equipment and people, health and safety was incredibly important; it was the director’s job to ensure it was a safe working environment for all crew members and presenters. We used a risk assessment to determine the possible risks and hazards and the crew was briefed on what to do to ensure these risks did not become hazards, this included turning lights off and staying still during filming.
We faced some challenges but tried incredibly hard to overcome these, one big issue was trying to get videos uploaded on time, several occasions were because exporting on the computers took too long therefore delaying the upload, others were during the editing stage with computers delaying the completion of a project. Copyright was an issue, we chose to use royalty-free music but faced a problem when using videos from YouTube. Something that became clear during this project was that people have different levels of standard and the standard some people create is not as high or desired as what others do, we decided videos should be checked by other members to ensure they are editing to highest standard and fit with the channel format.
Since we do not have an industry standard studio the roles we took on were changed to fit our environment and ability. For example the director was on set rather than in the gallery and the video was edited after filming rather than live but it gave us a god first look into studio and multi camera filming, showcasing the differences from single camera and short film production.
The channel was a great opportunity for Ufilms as it allowed us to increase our regular reach, gaining more attention, but also educate those around us on the Awards and what we aspire to be. We kept videos consistent with the same format for each, a short introduction followed by a graphic, the use of name tags for each presenter and the same music and logo at the end of the videos. We did this to create consistency and ensure that the videos looked to be all connected and part of series, persuading the audience to watch previous or upcoming videos.
Overall, I enjoyed this project, despite not being a fan of presenting I enjoyed working as a whole team, gaining new skills and experience in something I would like to be a part of in the future.
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