Production

This is my opening sequence that I will add to my piece in post-production. The main point of my opening sequence is to show the audience that the activities in this production are game related, as well as showing the tense when the cards are swiped off of the table in a angry manner. I have made the introduction black and white, this is so that the audience doesn't mistake it for an actual mini game or scene in my piece and also so that the fade between the opening sequence and the logo is less out of place. 

I like how my edit turned out, I think it works well with my expectations for my final piece. One of the main aspects that I am unhappy with is the quality of the film, I had to film the scene quickly as the spot is public and people use it. However, as I was trying to film the cards being thrown, a group came and took one of the couches we where using, so I had to make do by trying to show a little as the couches and more of the table as possible. If I could go back a re-shoot this scene I would take more time to film, as well as using a tripod for the camera - this means that when the cards are thrown towards the camera it will stay level; as I was holding the camera myself, the screen shakes with the force of the cards. I believe that it would look a lot better if I filmed it this way. 

Tripod Setup:

In this video, I explain how to set up tripod as though it was a tutorial, but these four videos also double-up as showing how I setup my production. The reason I made these as tutorials is so that I can use them in the future if I need something to refer back to when I'm stuck.

I set my tripods to be directly in front of the presenter and contestants instead of at angles, I decided to do this because the camera wouldn't pickup the face-on reactions from the contestants due to the tables being in the positions that they are in. It was also easier to set them up like this as the tripods being at angles would mean that they will capture the studio in the background instead of the green screen and I wanted to prevent this as much as possible.

Lighting Setup:

We used two of the Neewer LED lights that are already set up in the studio to light as many shadows on the green screen as I possibly could - doing this meant that when I come to Ultra Key it in post production, there isn't too many shadows preventing me from getting a good background image. 

I also used the rigged studio lights that where straight ahead of the contestants, this meant that they where well lit and the camera could pick up their facial expressions as well as light up and creases in the green screen, preventing any annoying lines in during post-production editing.

Camera Setup:
The cameras where the most difficult to set up and required the most of the time, in the end, they didn't capture footage at the best quality I wanted but I wasn't very hopeful going into the studio as the camera operators and plan B operators didn't show up - meaning that there was only one person behind three cameras until half way through my production when someone else came to help. The studio lights did a great job at lighting the green screen head on, but there was still shadows from the two Neewer LED's which meant that there was shadow behind the two contestants. During post-production, it was difficult to ultra-key these shadows out of the background which left a greenish-grey tint on the blue background.
In the future, I would like to shoot on location instead of the studio. I think this would make my pieces look better as the green screen is not very good/ always comes out looking messy but if I have a natural set behind the contestants and presenter then the final product will look polished much like the two podcasts I analysed in my research.

Sound Setup:

In my production I used 3 microphones, all of them where Shotgun mics. Two of them where hung above the contestants tables to capture clear audio of them speaking as well as the rustling of paper while they played the mini-games. The last on was on the central camera as a backup mic just in case the other two stopped working, or the two cameras didn't record audio, or if the audio corrupts during post-production. Luckily, none of these ended up happening, however, the audio on the central camera works best as it captures all three of the people speaking on camera - unfortunately, the audio sounds very fuzzy which could be altered in post-production. If not, then I will use one of the other camera's audio.

- Following the editing I did for this piece, instead of using the centre camera (Camera 2) audio, I used Camera 1. This camera was focused on one of the contestants and the shotgun mic that was capturing the audio did not pick up as much fuzzy background noise. Furthermore, this microphone was hanging from the rigging at the top of the studio which meant that it captured both contestants and the presenter when they spoke as well as the sounds that the paper made. This means that Camera 1's audio is the most effective in creating a authentic environment, I want the audio to be authentic because I did not want to add sound effects in post-production - if I did this then the piece would be unrealistic and could possible sound forced. This is not the case as the contestants were not acting and everything that happened during the games was genuine reactions. Now that I have changed which camera's audio i'm using in post-production, the piece sounds better.

During post-production, I will be adding in music for the graphics that introduce the title of each mini-game. Doing this will breakup the constant stream of information that the audience will be getting from the presenter whilst also notifying them that the introduction has finished and a game is about to begin.

This song from YouTube is upbeat and already has a natural fade in the song which I could use to transition from the opening sequence to the presenter. I chose this song because I the lyrics correspond well with the premise of the game show, "don't wanna complicate ya" but the games and challenges appear to be complicated even though they wouldn't be if the time restraint wasn't involved.

When introducing the first game, I added a title card that had information on it for my audience so that they would understand that the game was about to start. Instead of using the song Complicate Ya, I used a 'swoosh' sound effect as a gentler transition, I felt that it was necessary to add a sound effect as I didn't like the video going from lots of talking to silence to talking again. The use of a sound effect and graphic breaks up the constant information the audience is receiving and adds other sounds for the audience to listen to besides someone's voice.

Font:

In my research I looked at an editing element called lower thirds, these are used when introducing information or to keep a constant track of changing or recurring information. Using a lower third graphic will allow me to introduce the contestants, where they're from and at the end of the game I can also show the score. The font I used for the lower third and text in my logo is called BebasNeue-Regular, it appears very video-game-looking for the reason that it is sans-serif and in all capitals -even with the caps lock off, the font is very block-y unlike serif fonts.

Screen Recording/Post-Production:

I began my production edit by syncing the three camera angles and their audio together on the timeline, this allowed me to get a brief idea on how long my final piece would be. When I first began, the edit would have been 40 minutes long. However, after removing the slip-ups, re-do's and useless information after the ending, it was only 34 minutes. I continued to edit until I had only one camera angle for each clip that I wanted to use, this took a long time but it would have taken a lot longer and been more difficult if I hadn't synced the footage. After locating and cutting the clips that I wanted to use, I began to Ultra Key the green screen out of each clip to replace it with my logo as the background. This would have taken a very long time to do for the entire production, so at this stage I changed my end goal to be a 5 minute fully edited clip of my production that would potentially be more effective rather than an unfinished 35 minute episode. Doing this meant that I could add my opening sequence, sound effects, graphic transition and opening music in enough time without having to worry about have 20 minutes of unedited footage. However, due to the first mini-game being a short one, I was unable to find two clips that looked well together to overlay in a graphic that I made on my planning page.

I made my transitional graphic for the first mini-game in adobe photoshop. This video shows how I created the neon lines in the background as well as the font that I used and how I made it appear 3D in the settings. I have done this for my audience for information purposes.

Final Edit:

This is my final 5 minute edit of the beginning of my game show, it includes the opening sequence, introduction and first mini-game. Overall, I am satisfied with my final piece as I have achieved what I said that I was going to do, admittedly it may not be to the quality that I want it to be - in terms of video quality the piece is bad as it is too blurry. When I come to film in my future projects, I will pay more attention to the camera's quality so that I can ensure that I am happier with the final piece.

During my production, many aspects went wrong. Some of these where out of my control and some where a result of lack of planning. When I came in the morning of the shoot, I only had one 64GB and one 16GB SD card which consequently meant that I had to use the 64GB SD card in a new computer and the 16GB one in an older camera. I do not like using the older camera's as I feel that they do not capture footage in the best quality like the newer ones do. Furthermore, I was given two older cameras which meant that I had to go back and ask for a newer one. My third camera's SD card was provided by a friend and all footage was transferred to my hard drive after the production. Due to the tie-microphones already being used I resorted to using the shotgun mics that where in the bags with the cameras, although at first I believed this to be a last resort, the audio actually turned out better than I had expected and captured better audio and the sounds the contestants where creating while they folded the paper. Another aspect that went wrong was the lack of people that turned up on the day of my shoot. My original number of cast and crew members was six people - three cast, three camera operators. However, two of my camera operators could not show up on the day/ where late to the shoot and one of my contestants got to the studio and received a phone call saying that they should be at work. This meant that I had to ask one of my camera operators to fill in the contestants place. They did this happily and where very understanding. In the end, I had three people (including me) helping on the day of the shoot - and only one camera operator. As a result of the lack of crew members, my camera angles weren't as good as I wanted them to be and often people where out of frame, this is another reason why I have decided to only edit the first 5 minutes of my production because sometimes you can barely see what is happening.

Despite these negative occurrences during me production, there was also some positives. I enjoyed making my opening sequence - it was the best looking footage that came out of my entire production and editing it was easy as I only sped up the clips and added a black & white filter over the footage. Syncing my three camera perspectives was a quick processes which as a result made editing a lot easier for me and is something I will do in future projects that involve multi-camera editing. Finally, the responses to the games were entertaining and I feel that the contestants enjoyed what they where doing. The contestants being interested in what was going on is a very important aspect of my production as this will appeal to my target audience - who are looking to be entertained.

Peer Feedback:

I showed my project to male classmates and my brother, who are all within my target audience, a gained a primary positive response with a few constructive criticisms that would help me in my future projects.

Owen, 14: "I enjoyed it, the head-to-head was really funny and the layout is easy to look at. The only problem for me is the background, there's a green shadow that is annoying to look at."

Alex, 18: "The green screen needs more lighting to reduce the shadows and the audio could be clearer in some places, aside from this I like your introduction and the use of time-sensitive games."

This feedback is helpful to me as it shows that I have achieved what it said I was going to in this project and I have appealed to my target demographic whilst doing so. Furthermore, if I could re-shoot my piece, I would take into consideration the lighting on the green screen and perhaps use a more blend-able background as well as making sure tie-mics are available on the day of the shoot - this will allow for a clearer audio pickup unlike what I thought the quality of the shotgun microphones where.