This project aimed to create a promotional video for nights out in York targeting 18-25 year olds. Research included a survey of the demographic which found that price was the most important factor when choosing a venue. The video was planned to begin as an advert for various bars before transitioning into a narrative about the dangers of the river while intoxicated. Pre-production included storyboards, experiments, and location scouting. However, permission to film inside venues was denied, compromising the production. Post-production utilized stock footage and effects to salvage the project, but the overall result was disappointing due to a lack of planned internal shots. Lessons include securing filming permissions and having contingency plans for potential issues.

1. Media Client Project
18-25 Year Old York-Based
Demographic

2. Promo/Trailer for Nights Out in York
• Varying night life: lively bars, dance floors, loud music,
live bands/music acts, cozy pubs, theatre productions,
cinemas, restaurants, horror tours etc.
• Student discounts, distance from campuses, Fresher’s,
transport links/taxis, constant shows and events e.g.
theatre shows,
• Neon lights, night fashion, modern life in a medieval city
• Subvert it into a narrative following a group of drinkers
walking by the river when someone falls in and turns into
a horror-like tragedy/warning to party-chasers.
BBC. (2019). Mother's sorrow over latest York river deaths. Available:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-47952015. Last accessed
19/09/2019.
Mike Laycock. (2019). After fifth death the mums of two York river victims say ‘this can’t
go on’. Available: https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/17601518.mums-of-two-york-
river-victims-tell-of-shock-after-fifth-death-in-weeks/. Last Accessed 19/09/2019.

3. Demographic: 18-22 year olds
• A total of approx. 24,610 university students = broke 18-22 year olds who
want to go out for cheap. Student discounts, distance from campuses,
ease of access to the main bars.
• Loud music – grime, pop, dance
• The age of short attention spans – quick cuts, fast music, straightforward,
interesting graphics and transitions etc.
• Modern motion graphics/transitions.
• Alcohol consumption is important for this age range’s nights out.

4. Existing Work: York Christmas Markets – Visit York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE6kHC68r6k
• Time lapse
• Artistic bokeh
• performances (carol singing, musicians)
• B-roll (Christmas decorations, cameras/phones, clapping)
• Simple end text slate
Existing Work: “Only In York” – Visit York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=008QpRGHzhk
• Follows hosts
• Directly tells the audience about the attractions and culture
• Cheesy af – not aiming for 18-25 year olds, but families instead
• Cooking food B-roll w/ speed ramps, slow motion
• End text slate with hashtags
Existing Work: Coming Up In York in 2019 – Visit York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpG5vTIur2c
• Drone shots. Lots of drone shots.
• B-roll of ice sculptures
• Text accompanying the first shot of each event
• Constant hashtagged watermark in the bottom corner
• Stills being panned over in post
• No audio other than the soundtrack itself

5. Analysis of Existing Work Research
• Looooooots of B-Roll sequences – slow
motion, speed ramps, quick cuts, up tempo
music
• Famous landmarks (the Minster, the wall etc.)
• Upbeat pacing, quick cuts and high tempo
music.
• End slates w/ hashtags.
• Frequent watermarks etc.
Similarities with each video

6. SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/F38DTF2

7. Although close, there are more women answering this survey than men, which
correlates to the overall population of York itself. 51% of York’s population is
female, which is very similar to the 53% shown in my survey.
World Population Review. (2019). York Population 2019. Available:
http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/york-population/. Last
accessed 20/09/2019.

8. No surprises here, the vast majority of the thirty 18-25 year olds drink.

9. These results vary, but the majority of respondents ‘rarely’ go out in York. ‘Never’
is the second largest answer, but only amounts to 26% of respondents who don’t
go out in this city of ours, against the 74% who do. This may be because they live
elsewhere, like Scarborough, or have already moved away to university in a
different area of the country.

10. Q4: What do you look for when
choosing a place to drink?
Venue Music Price Atmosphere
IIIIIII IIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIII
7 8 15 8Total
As this was a text-box question, some people noted a number of things in their
answers (meaning that the tally numbers don’t equal the total number of
respondents), but all answers fell under these 4 categories.
Price is very clearly the most important thing to the people when they go on a night
out, perhaps because the majority of them are now university students living
independently and with their own money. This is followed by music and atmosphere,
which go hand in hand very well. Venue is not far behind these two answers, though
sits at the bottom of the “most important” pile.

11. Most respondents claim to be responsible, with only around 17% of people throwing
caution to the wind and getting black-out drunk. This would mean that there are
people who are susceptible to falling in the river if not looked after by more sober
friends.

12. Most people aren’t planning on going to one of the York-based universities, nor
already attend them. I believe this is because most of the people answering my
survey have either left for university already, are enrolled and moving away
shortly, or haven’t yet decided.

13. As it would seem, bright lights, fast music and fancy graphics are
equally preferred to artsy shots, with straight-to-the-point advertising
being third and nobody caring about slow motion.

14. This question seems completely off topic, however it fits perfectly with what I want to do
with the twist from “advert”, to narrative about the dangers of the river, particularly while
intoxicated.

15. Survey Summary
• My audience is mainly female.
• The vast majority drink alcohol.
• My audience predominantly goes out in York on ‘rare occasions’.
• While on a night out, most of my demographic consider price
before going into venues like bars and pubs, meaning advertising
the average prices of drinks amongst the venues.
• Most claim to be responsible, so the planned twist for the end of
the video will make them think about how well they look after their
friends and themselves.
• Attending one of the York universities is not in the plans for 87% of
my respondents, but this may be because many people that
answered my survey have already moved to a different uni, have
already finished university, or hasn’t yet decided.
• The majority prefer stylistic promotional videos that contain bright
lights, fast music and fancy graphics for bars and other venues, so I
shall make the promo-section with these results in mind.
• Thriller, is the film genre of choice for my demographic, which fits
the plans I have for the twist from advert to narrative.

16. Idea Mind Map
Night Out Advert
Dangers of the River
B-ROLL
BarsYates Slug and Lettuce
Slow Motion
In-camera Transitions
Las Iguanas1331
Hazy visuals, mimicking drunkenness
Digital/in post or in-camera trick
(multiple takes trying each technique)
Narrative
Bright & and vibrant lights
High saturation
High contrast
Graphics/transition
s packages
Smoothly transitions into a bunch
of drunken party-goers stumbling
by the river before it's clear
something is changing in the tone
of the whole video itself.
Glitchy visuals as if the prior
advert section shouldn’t be going
in this direction in the advert,
paralleling with the party-goers
evening - starting fun and frantic,
turning into a eerie and tragic
ending.
Highly contrasting
from the previously
vibrant and hectic
visuals from before –
lowered saturation,
dark and grungy rather
than bright and
vibrant.

17. Idea Development
• Begins with B-roll of bars and various venues in town at
night – Yates, Slug and Lettuce, Las Iguanas (and that
street), Thirteen Thirty One (Bar 1331) etc.
• Average price for a pint in York = £3.00
• Flashy graphics, slow motion, in-camera transitions to
swiftly move from venue to venue
• Group of stumbling drunks walk by the river when one
of them goes missing from frame. A fairly loud splash is
audible, with minimal struggle due to the intoxication.
• Lighting heavily contrasts the bright and vibrant lights
from within and around the bars and streets with the
dark riverside walkways.
• Camera trick where you hold the lens up to the sensor
to create a dreamy/hazy in-camera effect.

18. Location Scouting/Recce

19. Storyboards

20. Shot List
Stock Footage
B-Roll/Advert
Narrative}

21. Experiments
• Drunken effect in post: https://youtu.be/oDpDEttbNuk
• Drunken effect in camera: https://youtu.be/qsoog8uW3tk
• Falling into water simulation: https://youtu.be/oWSZEjkbBVM
Personally, I think I'm going to take aspects of both styles and put them into the
production stage. I think the practical effect's lighting added looks far superior, as
well as the natural out of focus elements, whereas the digital effect of overlaying
the same clip twice and changing the opacity to around 15%-30% really puts
across the feeling I'm going for.
I used a number of different techniques when approaching this experiment. First, I
let the tripod-mounted camera fall via gravity before catching it with my off hand.
Then I tried lowering the camera down at my own pace with the neck strap to
control speed, but not so much the direction the lens faced. Finally I tried just
guiding the tripod slowly to the floor with both hands, which yielded the best
results.

22. Filming Reflection
I decided to shoot over a number of days:
• Day 1: Ext and end shot
• Day 2 onwards: Int and B-Roll
The first day went very much to plan and I ticked off
every external shot on the shot-list. Unfortunately, day
two was a different story. I wasn't able to bring my
camera into any of the venues, such as Yates and Las
Iguanas etc, so I wasn't able to shoot any of the interior
shots that my storyboard and shot-list had detailed.
Thankfully I managed to get some footage of a
university flat party that I went to at Halloween which
at least gave me a bit of visual variety. I will most likely
have to fill in some gaps with stock footage.

23. Editing Reflection
The editing process has ran pretty smoothly. I have cut
together all of my shots and the stock footage, as well
as titles and colouring each of my own shots/adding a
pre-set so that they match better with the higher
quality stock footage shots. I am quite proud of the
sound design, more so than I am with the footage I
collected (which I'm content with, but irritated that I
couldn't film any of the internals I had planned for).
I think the drunken effect works most of the time,
particularly in the internal shots of the party and with
the final shot of the drunken camera falling into the
river.
The audio sounds really good, the sound design I've
done for the video works so well and shines when
looking at the issues I had with the visuals.

24. Evaluation

25. Research
• My survey was very helpful, allowing me to get to
know my demographic outside of my peer group, who
also matched the demographic. It let me find out how
often they went out for the night, how many drink
alcohol and how much they drink.
• My research about the number of students at the
various York universities meant that I knew how large
my whole audience was and how many were at each
uni.
• The search I did about victims of the river helped me
mould my message to people about the danger that is
the water.
• Looking at and analysing the various existing products
helped me understand what was successful and what
similarities and differences each video had.
Evaluation

26. Idea Development
• I feel like the idea mind map was fairly decent and
helped me explore different avenues that I could take
my original concept down. It wandered through both
the night out factual section and the narrative element
towards the end of the video that I wanted to
punctuate it with.
• The following slide was putting the mind map into a
more worded chronological and detailed order.
• I think that this stage of the project combines more
with pre-production, rather than standing on its own
feet. In that sense, I think it served its purpose very
well and allowed me to then move onto creating a plan
for the video itself, rather than just the concept of it.
Evaluation

27. Pre-Production
• My location recce could have been much more detailed in
terms of internal scenes and such.
• The external recce however helped me create a perfect
visual for the shots set outside.
• The experiments I underwent assisted my selection of
technique for certain shots and effects.
• My storyboard was clearly set out and almost
perfectly showed my exact visualisation of the video, bar
one or two shots.
• The shot-list was extremely detailed and promising and
held potential for a very decent final product, whilst also
being realistic and including stock footage where I
suspected there may be issues filming.
• Where my pre-production collapsed was in the failure to
secure the filming locations. This crippled my entire final
product and forced me to compromise when I could have
found various ways around the issues.
Evaluation

28. Production
• This is the stage of the project where in which the
execution really let me down and ruined the entire vision
for what I wanted to create.
• Thankfully, I managed to shoot all of the external shots that
I had planned on my shot-list, most of which I was happy
with. The one external shot I wish I could change would be
the final shot where the camera 'falls into the river'. I feel
as though it wasn't long enough and wasn't nearly
contrasting enough to the rest of the video. In all fairness, I
was thrown off slightly by the water level being too high to
shoot on the side of the river that I had originally planned
for and visualised.
• Regarding the internal shots issue: I may have been able to
film with my phone for some of the internal footage that I
needed, but instead decided there was no way around
it and settled for mediocre footage from a flat party
that looked nothing like a bar. I should have taken my
phone into a bar or club and recorded B-roll that at least
resembled my shot-list or fit the theme at minimum.
Evaluation

29. Post-Production
• I feel as though elements of the editing process really saved the project
itself after the production calamities.
• The colouring of each of my own shots did assist the whole video towards
blending in my shots with the stock footage, although most were quite
clearly shot on a different camera altogether.
• The cuts all landed on beats and had some elements of rhythm to them.
The soundtrack was selected from Epidemic Sound and fit the overall tone
of the advert-section of the product.
• I believe that the sound design and backing track was probably the best
performing section, pound for pound. It added another level to the video,
making it more dynamic and giving it more weight and style. For
example, part of the pouring beer sound was the sound of a flowing stream
which not only sounded smooth, but also could be used to convey that to a
certain point, alcohol can become hard to stop like a body of flowing water
in nature. It also foreshadows the end of the video too: reflecting the river
that the camera falls into.
• The drunken effect (created using multiple copies of the same take and
then slightly desynchronising them and changing the opacity of the top clip
to create a wavy and odd visual similar to being drunken, giving a similar
effect to seeing double) works very well and works better than the other
way I had tried creating the same effect, using in-camera tricks.
Evaluation

30. Overall
• I'd say that overall, my final product is disappointing. This is
especially considering how promising my shot-list and storyboards
were, and the potential I had created in my head for the project
itself.
• It's main flaw is the lack of internal shots that made up the majority
of the shot-list, due to the lack of clearance for shooting within
venues with my camera, and lack of injenuity regarding ways that I
could have went around this obstacle. If I were to go back in time to
the pre-production stage, I would call various bars and ask if I would
be able to film B-roll for my student project, and if I got denied that
access, I would work my way around it by at least filming within the
venues with my phone. Both of these outcomes would have, most
likely, been much better than what I settled with in reality.
• I also think that parts of my pre-production weren't detailed
enough and could've done with more content: the 'idea
development' stage was very much lacking development itself. It
was more of a rough guide of my vision, rather than a progression
on what I had written down in my mind map.
• My reflection from the production and also the editing stage should
be much more detailed, particularly considering the problems that
occurred and how I dealt with them.
Evaluation