Production diary of my process from start to finish

1. Production process
Kieran Beal

2. Finding the
client
Finding the client was a simplistic if difficult process, mainly my method was just
trial and error, I didn’t really know of any businesses in York that would accept
work from students, so it was a matter of messaging every business I was
familiar with until I got lucky. Eventually I came across CityScreen on the 25th of
October, whom as it turns out had worked with students in the past, I was put
into contact with Mr. David Taylor, former mayor of York and current marketing
manager for the Picturehouse in York, where I discussed meeting with him on a
set date. After meeting with him for the first time on the 2nd November, we
discussed the project roughly and had basic specifications set for it, at which
point I went away to conduct product and audience research so that I could build
a proper portfolio to present to him upon our second meeting.
During our second meeting on the 20th of November I was able to present to him
my extensive audience research as well as a better description as to what would
work for this kind of video, eventually we arrived at a specification that suited his
aims and my production skills, I am currently negotiating a date for the actual
production with him.

3. Audience
research
I started off by conducting a simple survey on Surveymonkey in order to collect
some basic information about my target demographic such as age, gender, how
often they go to the cinema etc.(I have included screenshots for my survey in the
audience research PowerPoint) I then also began to research areas like how
often people use their phones, which generation uses them more, who would be
more likely to see the ads and from that conclude who the majority of our
audience would be. That was my primary research however I also conducted
secondary research by investigating multiple sources of information.(the
references to which I have included in my bibliography in my client portfolio
PowerPoint)
Based on the target demographic, price of the cinema and target psychographics
I concluded that overall my target audience is most likely to be the younger
generations (15-25) with a C2-A socio-economic grade, and an emulator or
mainstream psychographic.

4. Shot list
The construction of this shot list had to be created with a specific goal in mind, to
be able to create a full length trailer while also giving the freedom to cut the
video down to shorter clips to suit the clients needs. As a result it can be seen on
my shot list that it shows each area of the cinema one at a time, and each area
is focused on for roughly 30 seconds. Which creates approximately a 2-2 and a
half minute trailer, which is then able to be cut down to 30 second clips, making it
more versatile and suitable to almost any platform. However due to time
specifications from the client I am unable to produce all of the shots in a single
shooting, instead spreading it out over about 3 days to collect all of the footage I
need.

5. Client
portfolio
My client portfolio is where the majority of my work is based. My idea generation
was a straight forward process, I came up with 2 basic ideas initially to present to
my client which I then merged together to give my client options after my first
meeting with them, which they agreed with. I then listed some of the more
technical aspects of the project, followed by some of the filming technqiues and
more advanced shots + editing techniques that I would be using. I finalised this
portion of the client portfolio with a mood board and by including a link to my
website where I describe my client in greater detail. Once I had my idea refined I
started to create a storyboard in order to construct how my trailer will play out,
then proceeding to build a shot list for a shot by shot analysis of how I will film it
exactly so that I know what to do during production.
This was then followed by a standad health and safety list and contingency plan
covering risks and issues on set, finalised by keeping a record of all
correspondance between me and my client and building a bibliography of all the
sources that I used for research and inspiration for this project.

6. Production
week 1
In the first week that I was able to use for production I was bale to complete a significant
portion of my promo trailer for CityScreen, this included the shots that I needed of one of
the live performances in the basement of the business. To get this shot I had to co-
ordinate with one of the other managers of the cinema, who coincidentally is also called
Dave, I had to speak with him in order to get permission to film in the basement as it is out
of Dave Taylors' hands. It went smoothly however I wanted to use a time-lapse of the
audience entering, however on the night I was filming it was not even close to a full
turnout. So it transpires that the footage I've got may be slightly underwhelming in that
regard due to the lack of people. Were I to repeat this process I would confirm with one of
the managers of CityScreen whether or not it is a fully booked night and whether or not it
is worth filming.
With that being said there was a positive to it being a quiet evening, the fact that the room
was emptier made it easier to maneuver my camera which ultimately made it easier to film
in the already cramped room. It also allowed me to get a clearer view of the stage so that
there was no confusion as to what my audience is supposed to be focusing on in the shot.
I was also able to get some of the miscellaneous shots filmed that required it to be darker
outside, this saved time on the next day of production as I didn't have to waste time
getting shots that I could've easily done before hand.
Upon the next day of production I was able to get the evening shots that I wasn't able to
do before, my shot list is setup distinctly to split down the middle through a solid transition
to go from day time to night time. The shots that I acquired on the second day were the
evening shots of my actors roaming various parts of the cinema, which I was unable to
achieve the night before as lining up my actor's schedule with my production schedule and

7. Production
week 2
The third and planned final day of production will be used to get every single
morning shot that I need, these will be by far the most challenging shots the
complete. I have arranged it with CityScreen to let me and my team in early to
get the shots done, due to the fact that they require the bar being fully prepped
and out of the way of the customers. I have also had to request members of
onsite staff to also be there at the time of production so that it looks like the bar is
already open to the public, in addition to this I have also been given half an hour
to get all of the shots that I need completed. Which as long as there isn't any
setbacks should be doable, I have also requested that we be let in slightly early
so that we don't waste valuable filming time setting up instead.
To pull this off I had to co-ordinate my efforts with both the marketing manager
Dave Taylor as he is my main correspondent, and Andy who seems to be the
floor manager or general manager of the cinema. His exact role is unclear to me
as he didn’t describe exactly, however he does seem to be more in contact with
the staff than Dave is, so getting his permission for this filming was crucial.

8. Production
week 3
This was the final week of production and it also involved getting the most difficult
shots recorded. This was because I had to arrange the cinema so that the bar
was prepped before it was open so that I had to time to film all of the shots that I
needed, since they couldn't get staff in too early however I was only allotted a
time slot of 30 minutes to get everything I needed, which I was fortunately able to
do, however due to the nature of the tripod that I was given, I was unable to get
some of the exact shots that I needed and therefore I was forced to improvise a
couple of the shots.
In particular the last tripod I used had a crank that allowed me to raise the
camera up, the tripod I used now however didn't even allow to move the camera
up at all from it's fixed position and so I had to substitute the shots as best I could
in the time I had. I believe the lack of variety in the shots that I have created will
make the video slightly less engaging however it will be negligible, in addition to
this the camera I used didn't have a manual focus feature so fade shots were
difficult to perform. With that being said most of my shots are detailed, focused
and from a good angle, and they all make good use of the angles that I have
used, which I think overall will make the video look much better.

9. Post-
Production
19th December- After recovering my footage when I briefly misplaced the files, I
was able to begin the post-production phase of my project. Today I was able to
get a large portion of the editing done, this consisted of assembling the correct
footage in the right order, cutting down the footage to get rid of the parts that I
didn't want/need, then putting in the transition effects between the shots. For the
most part I have decided to stick with simplistic transition effects (mainly
crossfade) so as to not take away from the main advert and divert people's
already divided attention.
At this point I decided to place in my soundtrack, and I thought it best to go with
something very upbeat and lively to make the video seem more active. My usual
method is to find royalty free sounds online, then mix them together to make my
own soundtrack for the video. However this time around I decided not to do this
and just find a royalty free soundtrack online, my justification for this is that
creating a soundtrack from scratch is an incredibly time consuming process, a
process that I don't really have time for. Secondly to create a good soundtrack it
does require some degree of musical skill, something I don't posses a lot of, I
considered asking someone in the music department with assistance on this
matter however they are also busy creating their own projects and so were
unable to. As a consequence to this while it is a less creative move, I believe to
be the right one, as my client cares more about quality above anything else.

10. Post-
production
20th December- Today I am putting the finishing touches on the first draft of my
project for the client, a few of the shots were too dark but it was easy to correct
this using the 'lighting effects' tool. Changing light one to directional, and then
turning up the intensity slightly, I did the same thing with all shots that seemed
too dark. The final step to date will be to add in the final, more complicated
transition effect, of sliding past an object to render in the next scene. An effective
but difficult technique to get right, in watched a couple of YouTube tutorials on
how to do it however they did it by masking. Masking is when you darken the part
of the video you want the footage to slowly be inserted into, so that it looks like
it's sliding into the next scene, however the key word there is slowly. They did so
by editing the mask frame by frame until they did the whole shot, this wouldn’t be
a problem except they had maybe 15-20 frames to edit.
As far as I can tell however I have hundreds of individual frames I'd need to edit
and process using this effect, and therefore I simply don't have time for this
method, but I'm yet to find an easier way to do it.

11. Post-
Production
After contacting my client again I learned that the logo for City Screen I used
originally was in fact outdated, therefore they sent me a file with a link to the new
logo which I promptly replaced in the video. In addition to this after reviewing my
work again there were parts of it that were unusable (refer to evaluation for
details) as a result of this I have cut this footage from my ad and it has reached
a total length of about a minute and a half. My original intention was to have two
sliding object transitions, to reach the next scene, however only one of these
techniques has actually worked.
The reason behind this was because one of the shots that I need for the sliding
transition is shaky and unstable, which made it impossible to create the
transition successfully, instead I had to substitute it for a simple fade to black
transition. The full production is now ready to view on YouTube however it may
still need to be edited depending on any future specifications from my client.