Major Production: Website

I made a website for Gullible on Wix http://jamesogde7.wix.com/gullible

Professional Practice: My Thoughts/Unit Review

This whole unit has been a wild experience for me. Being offered a chance to film a promotional video for a major event in Maidstone was amazing. From the start of the project it was very hard to get a hold of the organisers and I felt that we as students were left wondering what was going on, however this is an understandable point from their side. I can understand that if you're planning a big event in Maidstone that you have priorities such as artists and locations, and this doesn't take away from the fact that we were eventually given the information we needed and we were able to film the event.

Filming the event was probably the most organised part of my whole experience on this unit. Filming went really well, we were given the right support from the organisers such as places for us to charge our equipment, access all areas and we were treated very well by the crew. Because of this support I feel we got some amazing shots of the whole event and this can be shown in mine, Tory's and Jamie's videos. I felt that there was so many things going on so it was a joy to film, we were never short of things to shoot which meant it was very easy to put together in the edit.

After the event I feel that the same issue we had at the start came round again in the form of communication with our clients. At times I felt that we didn't know what was going on which meant that we really had to push people for answers like when they wanted these videos done by and if the videos were okay. We also came across the issue of not having enough output for the project meaning that me, Jamie and Tory each had to create separate videos. After the discussion we decided that Tory would create the actual promo video, Jamie would create a teaser and I would create a behind the scenes/interview video which Nic our client was surprisingly okay with.

During the editing process I felt that the issues in communication didn't improve. I had to push my client for an answer on whether or not an edit was good or not, and when I didn't get a reply I had to choose my second cut as my final one. However this is the consequence of dealing with a client which moves around alot. I do not blame my clients at all on the out come of this unit, they have jobs of their own to be dealing with and the videos were of good quality anyway. I believe that although communication was not as good as it could have been, the output of the project speaks for it self in the quality of the videos. I found it a pleasure working with Nic, Andy and the rest of the Social crew and wish the best for the Social next year. I found this unit to be a great learning experience and it gave me a great insight into how it is to be work with/for a professional company.

Professional Practice: The Final Cut

A few days ago I e-mailed Nic for feedback on the updated interview video however I have heard no response. Since I have not heard any feedback from him and the deadline for this project is tomorrow I have no other option than to use the second cut of the interview as the final cut and the video that I will present to Nic. Since Nic is very busy and is on the move constantly I understand why he hasn't replied. Nether the less here is the final cut of the interview with Nic from The Social.

Professional Practice: The Second Cut

I recently re-edited the interview with Nic, after the feedback I received from him about the first cut. All I needed to do was remove the question which he didn't want in there and patch up the gap with the rest of the interview and some cut aways. I have e-mailed him for more feedback and have sent him the updated video. Here is the second cut.

Professional Practice: Feedback from Nic

I sent my first cut of the interview to Nic to get his thoughts and opinions on the video and to see if he wanted anything changed. The feedback was quite positive however he wanted the part of the interview removed. One question which was asked was what artists he wanted for next Social event in 2014, Nic wanted this to be removed because he didn't want any hints given away to who might be playing next year which is fair enough. I took this on board and plan to re-edit the video so I can remove the question which he doesn't want in there.

Professional Practice: The Interview Edit

I recently finished editing The Social: An Interview with Nic Fanciulli which I filmed a couple of weeks back. The clips turned out really well, which dispelled my worries about the lighting in them. Firstly I cut up all of the interview questions and put them in an order which I thought felt smoother, I then put in a couple of cut aways. I found that the cut aways that I filmed around Nic's office weren't as helpful as I though because they added nothing at all about the event which Nic was talking about so instead I used a few clips that we filmed from the event which worked really well. For the music I used a song that Nic sent all of us. Jamie and Tory felt that it didn't go well with their promotional material so decided not to use it, however I used the song as I felt that it worked well with the interview itself. Unfortunately I couldn't find the same font that Saved used for their Social promo stuff but I found a font that was very similar so I used that for the introduction and the shot at the end. I sent this to Nic and awaited his reply and feedback. The video below is what I wanted the video to look like. (Unfortunately I cannot release the first cut of the interview as Nic has requested that a question be removed and for the video with said question in be removed for now, I will release the final cut in the next few blogs)

Professional Practice: Communication Issues

Just before I started the edit for the interview, we had various texts and emails from Andy saying that he would like to see some of the footage and the edit to see how our videos were going. We agreed that one day Andy should come in and view what we had. On the day we arranged we found that Andy didn't turn up to view any of our footage or our edits of the promo videos and interviews. When trying to contact him we found that he wouldn't pick up his phone at all, so in the end nothing was viewed by Andy at all which was annoying as we weren't able to get any feedback on the footage or hear what he wanted in particular. When trying to contact him again a few days later we found that he had nothing else to do with The Social, so even if he did view our footage it wouldn't have had any difference as he doesn't really have a say on the situation any more. In future we all decided to go straight to Nic for any feedback and comments on our videos, which is also an issue. Nic is quite a popular DJ and is often out of or touring round the country which is quite a problem when trying to communicate with him, however we have to hope that he gets our messages and answers any of our questions in the future as he is the only one we can contact now!

Professional Practice: Interview with Nic

A couple weeks back myself and Jamie Shaw interviewed Nic Fanciulli an organiser for the social and local Maidstone DJ at saved records in Maidstone studios. I planned out what questions I wanted to ask and what shots I wanted in anticipation of the edit. When we arrived there Nic was very helpful, and when we asked him the questions he gave some amazing answers. Filming wise we used a close up of Nic throughout the whole interview, we also got a few shots around his office of his music desk and some of the vinyls which he had on shelves for some cutaways. I also asked Nic to pretend to talk to someone on the phone and for him to use his computer for some other cutaways which could be usable in the edit. One concern I had at first was the lighting as it looked quite dark when we arrived, however when we did a few test shots I found that the lighting in the room was just right, any more light would have not done it justice in my opinion. So in conclusion I believe that filming the interview went and hopefully the edit should too.

Major Production: Casting Call Success

Last week I decided on the actor I wanted to play Liam (the compulsive liar). His name is Calum Gulvin and he recently finished training in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Calum messaged me with his interest in that part a couple of weeks ago and his experience and showreel were quite impressive. Since I was not holding auditions for the role I had to analyse the performances from each actors showreels and Calum's was the best by far. Calum has worked with UCA students before and is looking to build up his showreel so I thought it'd be great for the both of us to collaborate.