Evaluation of DMCC

                                                            Evaluations

Promotional 2 ½ min Video for client

For this project my aim was to create a video for a client that would promote and advertise their business/vocation.  I chose a Personal Trainer who works at a local gym, and does fitness classes’ and one to one sessions.

The Client:

I chose someone I knew would have liked a website and video doing to help them gain more clientele. I also knew my client on a personal level, so this had both its advantages and disadvantages in the working environment.

The client was a male personal trainer called Alex. He has worked in the fitness industry for five years and would have liked to have gone freelance, but does not have the client base to do so. The aim of this project is to create a video for Alex that could enhance his reputation, gain him new clientele, and raise awareness of his profile.

What we needed to do:

To ensure it was successful, we firstly needed to gain an approach of how we were going to conduct the video, and select a target audience. After doing this, I raised awareness of the impact of social media, and having the video hosted on a website. My client agreed, and this set the basis of what needed to be done.

I needed to get as much information in the pre-production planning stage as possible. This consisted of moodboards for the website, colour schemes, sitemaps, and ideas of website providers we could use.

 

I looked at some other videos that have been done in the fitness industry and how these have taken certain aspects in to consideration. I used these to gain a bearing of how to incorporate many different parts in to a video.

We also discussed ideas of how we would film, and what the video would consist of, as Alex also has other sporting achievements and interests.

The difficulties in doing the PPP were finding the right balance of being able to discuss things professionally, gaining enough time together, and also, gaining sufficient feedback, as I found that as I knew him on a personal level, he may neglect to tell me his true thoughts.

The advantages of this were that I could play around with ideas more creatively, and get on with the tasks when I had the chance, as Alex generally was happy with the initial ideas we had come up with.

The making of:

The video had to ensure that it promoted Alex in the right way; not to hard-core that it would put people off, but serious enough to make people aware of the intensity of the sessions.

We decided that we would have a mixture of Alex training outdoors, doing weights, taking fitness classes, and working with clients.

This meant there were a lot of locations, timings, and situations where the filming had to be done at particular times, so this affected the speed of how the project developed. Once the filming’s were completed, I had ensured that I had gained enough alternative footage and photographs to be able to edit and use, that we had something to work with, making sure we did not have to re-film anything.

Once the footage had been collected, I put together a simple but effective storyboard. Knowing that there were four main sections of filming, I gained some other photos of Alex from his bodybuilding competitions, and thought this may be a useful idea to incorporate to tell people a bit more about him.

Storyboard:

Putting the video together was one of the hardest aspects of the project. I have not had much experience of this, and I don’t have highly technical software, but I used what I had to try and create a simple but effective video.

This part took me around two weeks, to get to a stage where the timings were correct, and then I could progress with the additional items such as music and voiceovers.

I conducted a voice recording of Alex to place over parts of the video. This was scripted to the video and had to be exact to the timings and parts that it was desired for. We did not have too many issues with this part, as it was short and simple, but effective.

To include in the video, I had also asked one of Alex’s clients to record a voiceover to incorporate within the video to break the music and tension of the video. The idea with this was to also give the audience of the video a real life insight in to what training with Alex is like.

I feel that this worked well within the video, as it fitted well with the tone and the type of video that was created.

The same person also conducted a podcast for myself, of which will also be incorporated into the website.

The website itself went through a couple of designs, but once the provider was chosen, my client picked this himself, as he had an idea of what he wanted.

The website creation had to evolve from just information and the video, as I would have liked to have created a fully working website that was efficient and could be hosted.

After discussing this with my client, we decided to push ahead with this and create a fully functional website.

The main issues where deciding what tabs, and what would be included within this.

These are some of the sketches I first developed, and the site map.

After making some adjustments we came to decide on certain aspects that would and wouldn’t be included, and started to progress with putting content on the website.

This is one of the first screen shots of the website in progress.

This developed over the weeks in correlation with the video being put together and edited.

After the website was finished for design purposes, my client also wanted to include some other media aspects, so I created him a Twitter account for professional use, and put this on his blog as a live feed.

I have also placed a tab labelled media, of which this is where the video, the podcast of his client, and any other future media items can be placed. This makes his site more interactive and non-linear, and also appeals to a wider audience because of this.

I have also created spaces for a photo reel and an archive of photos.

Problems:

The main problems in conducting the whole project were time scales, although it was completed weeks before the expected date. Certain aspects were re-arranged on many occasions such as filming and communications were sometimes limited in terms of the project.

I see my client most days, as I know him on a personal level. I some respects I felt this helped, but the negatives where that the timings were sometimes cut short or re-arranged without much notice. It also became difficult to gain a grasp of whether my client was happy with the product, as he did not give much feedback other that ‘it’s good.’

Successes:

The successes were that also because I knew my client on a personal level, I could guess what things he may or may not like, and made this my advantage in ensuring things were done to timescales. If he was unsure I would urge one direction or another, and that would make him feel at ease with the decision.

Also, the conversations were chatty and informal, which helped with the progression of the smaller details, of which with a more formal client, this may have taken a meeting or a scheduled event.

Being able to drop the website and video into conversation when seeing him for other purposes also helped, as this led to me gaining more information and clearer and quicker perspectives of what he wanted.

Future impact:

The process of making from scratch a full promotional video and website has helped me immensely in gaining knowledge of what works and doesn’t work for future projects of this nature.

Professionally, I feel that this is a learning curve of first practises, as I have never done this type of project before. So this has given me ideas, confidence, and more skills, to be able to carry out making a video and or website from start to finish in the future.

I would work with clients I know on a personal level again, as this one overall was a successful and positive experience, although that may not always be the case.

I would like to continue developing my skills in video production and website planning and creating as it is something that has a vast business market, and journalistically, I can use it to offer other skills, and purposes, such as writing the content for a website.

The overall experience is something that I will continue to develop and expand upon to ensure that I can be knowledgeable and skilled in many different areas, all of which I can use for my future career in the media industry.

Analysis of my Newsroom Exercises

The newsroom exercises have enabled me to develop and produce a thorough and comprehensive selection of varied writing styles and genres to build a portfolio of various journalism works.

Initially, the tasks given helped me to understand the basic concept of journalism, and the theories surrounding a journalist’s role in society and as a vocation. This was discussed and explored through investigating the NUJ code of conduct, and thus comparing and looking at a Japanese theory of investigative journalism by Ansei Inoue.

One of the first tasks given was to write my own Obituary suitable for publication. In doing this, I found it difficult to write a biographical piece from an exterior perspective, as I wanted to refer to myself in the first person. I also found it hard to distinguish which items should and shouldn’t be included within an obituary.

From doing this, I learned how to write quickly, accurately, and for a purpose in a short space of time, whilst also considering hierarchical based items as mentioned in another aspect of the writing exercises, which was to work in a hierarchical structure of importance.

This was an aspect covered in the Japanese Theory of Journalism, to work in a reverse Pyramid. This technique is useful for writing interviews, reviews, articles, and any writing exercises that have to be succinct. I took this advice through to the tasks that followed from these first experiences.

As the new media and interactive media develops, there are more mediums and alternatives to make and distribute news or stories. These are some of the aspects that were covered within the newsroom. I looked at alternative methods and online sources of storytelling, such as Vimeo, Cowbird, Unsungnewyorkers, amongst some others, and considered how and if these are relevant in the modern journalism vocation.

I reviewed some aspects of stories that I had viewed as videos, and speculated on how this can be useful for a journalist and what affect it may have on the profession. After exploring these mediums, I wrote a piece concerning how there is a difference between journalism, and storytelling, and my thoughts on how and why this must stay separate to keep the profession of journalism alive.

Some of the aspects of these new media websites can be sued by a journalist as part of creating a wider and diverse audience, but the main interactive based new media tool that I found to be most useful was Storify.

This I feel is a tool that can be used as a journalist, professionally, and adequately to create and tell a story for an intended audience on what is considered news. I used this to create some stories of my own, one of which was for the 2012 U.K Budget.

The basis of Storify is to create and use new and social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and using web links, to create a story in a succinct but comprehensive and thorough manor that can be distributed with immediate effect.

This version of my Budget analysis was one that I tried to vary and derive a more cynical yet truthful approach to the topic. I used imagery that would not be used in general media representation, and I wanted to challenge and border the political correctness and reserved approach of how media represents certain matters.

I used captions and titled the story, a Budget for everyone, which was solidified at the end with the image that also incorporated everyone. It was meant to use a style that might be seen on light hearted news programming such as Channel 4’s 10’oclock Live.

I did this as I do not want to be the type of journalist that follows conforming attitudes towards how a story of piece of news should be presented, but I want to enforce my own style that is in line with public perceptions, rather than one that donates the practise of ‘us and them’ keeping the public’s views silent, and the political views heard.

I feel that this style would aid my success in the journalism sector, as it would effectively separate my style and approaches from that of journalists that are afraid to use wording or imagery that could offend, yet is truthful.

I have used Storify on many occasions for different purposes, but all of which tell stories as part of being a journalist.

The newsroom exercises that were ‘Live’ were one’s that I found most difficult, but also the most compelling and realistic to write.

I have written articles on a Presidency election, a Politician accused of breaking the law, and a Beer and Cider festival event of which I attended and reviewed the event immediately after.

These exercises gave me a tremendous insight into the aspects of true journalism, and a newsroom environment, whilst also equipping me with techniques to help speed up my writing, make it more concise and accurate, and deliver a report that tells a story in a short space of time.

Other aspects covered in the newsroom were reviews on aired T.V programmes, particularly, ones by BBC’s Storyville.

These documentaries were based around many different topics, and I was expected to review these and write reports suitable for a Broadsheet publication.

I found the Broadsheet writing much more definitive in the vocabulary selection, and the intended target audience, as I could write a more sophisticated or elaborative review that would be from various angels depending on the stories.

I found that in doing these tasks, I developed a style that I otherwise did not know I had. I followed some similar patterns and tried to follow a basis and analytically presented the articles in a journalistic format that took the reader on a journey through the review.

The final piece of writing I did was the Murdoch, an Empire in Dire State. I chose to write this in a very different style to what would usually be done, whilst also placing my views into the piece, as it is an opinion piece. As I’m entering the sector, I feel that it is imperative that I understand all concepts surrounding the current state of media, and all that affects this.

Using this style whilst asserting my opinion has helped me to analyse the current state of the media, whilst drawing upon other aspects that are affecting the sector.

Throughout all of the newsroom exercises I undertook many aspects of journalism, and developed skills in a varied amount of areas, such as reviewing, interactive, broadsheet, and tabloid writing, and  also, finding my own writing and journalistic style and preferences.

The experience of undertaking these weekly exercises has developed me professionally and moulded my writing into something that I can use as a tool and adapt in many different styles, mediums, and works, all of which will equip me with good knowledge and experience to expand, develop, and use, for future writing and journalistic experiences.