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Referencing

Bibliography:

Fig1. (2016). Tiger Close up. Available: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1TItATlyRG0/T4-mBRpujDI/AAAAAAAABxA/M9WlnHZipVk/s1600/jonathan-griffiths-up-close-wildlife-photography-tiger-in-snow.jpg. Last accessed 2016.

Fig 2. (2012). New York Sky line. Available: http://www.cubebreaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/skyline-01-new-york-city.jpg. Last accessed Oct 2016.

Fig 3. (2012). The Shining. Available: https://thefilmprof.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/url.png. Last accessed Oct 2016.

Fig 4. (2014). E.T. Available: http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/574765aa9105841d008c54a1-1190-625/the-100-most-memorable-movie-shots-from-the-past-100-years.jpg. Last accessed Oct 2016.

Fig 5. (2014). Insider tutorial. Available: https://www.facebook.com/Insiderinventions/videos/966776696791208/. Last accessed Jan 2017.

 Referencing:

Kinetic Photography Tutorial. (2014). Youtube. Available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOi5P1qxrM4. Last accessed Oct 2016.

RTE ONE Video. (2016). Facebook. Available: https://www.facebook.com/RTEOne/videos/1330849450322225/. Last accessed Dec 2016.

Matilda Movie Scene. (2014). Youtube. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QriZJ-X3wbU. Last accessed Nov 2016.

Dream Orphans. (2015). DaFont. Available: http://www.dafont.com/dream-orphans.font?text=Big+Band+Saturdays. Last accessed Nov 2016.

Ryandale Website. (2009). Ryandale. Available: http://www.theryandale.com/. Last accessed Jan 2017.

Render Video. (2016). Youtube. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFcE2onrR70&t=1s . Last accessed Jan 2017.

Introduction to Lighting and cinematography -. (2016). Michael Farrley. Available: Powerpoint. Last accessed Jan 2017.

Camera Movement. (2016). Michael Farrley. Available: Powerpoint. Last accessed Jan 2017.

Derek Ryan - Hold on to your hat. (2014). Youtube. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpgP2Gtx8QY. Last accessed Jan 2017.

Final Video- all videos here. (2017). Youtube account. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm40i4QMsUk. Last accessed Jan 2017.

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In Conclusion...

Overall I am very pleased with how proceedings have went. The pre-production is essentially how I have created a promotional completely from the scratch. The in-depth thought and detail that has went into this task has certainly made me significantly more comfortable with Adobe Premiere and more importantly the camera itself. Before this task I had very little experience with a camera and can confidently say I wasn’t familiar with how different camera angles are effective and the importance of difference camera angles. As soon as I got into the hall however, I knew what I wanted and I think you can see my eagerness in this video:

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm40i4QMsUk

The audio complementing the video is my biggest achievement on top of some really creative camera shots. I had the option of using Foley sounds like maybe the doors opening or the pint being pulled but it was unnecessary due to the audio being played.

In conclusion, 90 seconds or thereabouts was the perfect way of promoting the Ryandale and I fondly believe that it will prove to be a success with Facebook if it is used. The introduction to the likes of Vines (7 second video) has made it very hard for some people to dedicate such time to (myself included), but this is company is very highly respected in the Tyrone area and as that RTE video states it really is one the best spots in the land for country music. It falls on me to make it worth watching and I look forward to some peer assessment from my class when the time comes to present it as criticism will prove to be beneficial in the long run and who knows I could be asked to make a promotional video for another company as a result to the Ryandale which I would have absolutely no problem in doing so with thanks to this task.

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Post Project Evaluation

My project is now successfully completed and by completed I mean puzzled together. I will now go through the adjustments made after watching what I thought was the end of my video the first time round. There a few things I would like to bring to your attention and also how I put the finishing touches including rendering to the video.

So as previously explained I got an audio that really filled me with excitement, this is when singer welcome everyone to the venue and mentions the Ryandale loudly and clearly. I initially wanted to put this at the end but it didn’t work due to the song in the background. My first was of outside the Ryandale so I thought it made sense to put along with it and it is the singer ‘welcoming’ people to the venue, you could almost use it as him welcoming people viewing the promotional video which I thought sounder and looked incredibly smart. I turned up the volume by a few decimals just so it could be heard clearly which it can be.

By putting this audio at the front of the video, I put the music directly after and thankfully it cuts straight into the music which then kicks the video off. By changing the audios around this started a chain reaction the appropriate video clip to the actual song lyric.

You may not have noticed which is understandable due to the fast pace of the video but at approximately 30 seconds you hear the singer saying ‘sweet heart’ at this time a lady is on screen which I thought looked very creative. The video also cuts to the next clip exactly at the end of the sentence, were he sings the ‘you’re the apple of my eye’ in this frame it shows a pint of Guinness being pulled which is kind of funny.

Another shot I really like is when the verse kicks in at 48 seconds, they change direction of the dance and almost looks like they are dancing to this song in perfect motion. The pace of the song absolutely suits the pace of all the dancing scenes and even the singing.

The management agency of the singer were more than happy to let me use the song provided I mentioned it in the latter part of it just in case anybody may actual want to buy the song of iTunes. Also, the singer in the music video isn’t the singer on the audio so it was only fair he got a mention. If you watch closely I’ve included right as the singer says “hey” at 1 minute 11 seconds, which I think looks really nice. So I’m overjoyed with the timing of the song and the song as a whole, I honestly don’t think I could have picked much better to appeal to the target demographic.

I included this screen as an indication the video is coming to an end and also out of respect to the agency to advertise the song being as a mark of my gratitude, I will also be making a request to the Ryandale to post the iTunes store link to song and his album.

I finished the video promotion on this scene purely because the logo is often used to promote the Ryandale so therefore it felt appropriate to use both, I once again changed it when the singer said ‘hey’ which for me looked and sounded  professional and a nice ending to the promotion.

After these minor changes I was fully confident in my video and it was ready for rendering. I founda fantastic video that let me export the video in the best Youtube quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFcE2onrR70&t=1s

My exporting render options looked like this, with much thanks to the Youtube clip. It took roughly 40 minutes to export the file but thankfully it looked the real deal and I was delighted with the outcome.

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My Project Video...Enjoy!

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More Transitioning!

The next transition is called a ‘film dissolve’ between the couple dancing and the group of people dancing simultaneously. My reasoning behind this was that the dissolve smoothly transcends into the next clip and as the next clip starts with it being zoomed out of, this is aesthetically very nice to watch and looks intentionally done in pre-planning. The cross dissolve between the dancing and the stage is another one I am particularly impressed with. The smoothness looks really professional and captivating, as the video quality of the previous isn’t the best it is good to get back to the high quality camera shot and the cross dissolve certainly helps this.

My next transition was called ‘band wipe’ between the singer and the two females dancing(show above). After much considering and a small bit of editing, my reason behind choosing this effect is because the blocks that cut across to ‘wipe’ the screen, ‘wipe’ the blocks which contain my writing almost inch perfectly, which looks fantastic if you follow the video really closely. I’m not really expecting anyone to notice this smart transition but it makes for good practice.

My last transition is between the two females dancing and the ‘Ryandale logo scene’ this being my last footage scene. I used what was called an ‘addictive dissolve’ as it is nice and bright in the midst of its transition and therefore as a result lures you into the lights of the final scene which I think works successfully.

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Transition period

Transitions are instrumental in making a great video but can also prove to be a videos downfall if they are used wrong or, if the wrong ones are used. I found most of the transitions to be quite tacky such as the page peel and the barn door effects, I felt the vast majority were video defining in the some just made the video look unprofessional and uneasy on the eye. I have a lot of different clips in my video and I plan on using transitions for a selected few were seemed appropriate, I have already used a cross dissolve at the start (between the hall and bar clip) which to me makes perfect sense, I know what to experiment with more transitions.

This for me was the fun part of the video process as it was matter of piecing together the jigsaw and making the video run smoothly. The fluency between shots is going to prove to be pivotal to the success of the video another trial and error phase is upon me.

As previously stated I didn’t want to get carried away as sometimes it actually looks more clean not using a transition. I wanted to keep the transition periods towards the end as its fast paced, moving from the dance floor to the stage etc.

I included a transition named ‘inset’ between the main entrance scene and the pint being pulled scene (picture above shows mid transition). My reasoning behind this was that the video had made its way out to the front doors of the hall and therefore, I wanted to make it exciting that we were going back in again. Much like the pint being pulled in a downward direction, the scene also moves downward and I think this makes for good viewing.

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I Choose you...

After searching through www.Dafont.com I found a find that fitted the bill, shown below:

This font ‘Dream Orphans’ ticked all the necessary boxes for me on DaFont. My first thoughts are that it looks extremely professional and I am excited to incorporate it into my video.

I then decided to use ‘Insiders’ idea myself, making a large cube shape and dropped the opacity down on it slightly. I thought took up much needed space on the screen however the font looked fantastic against the grey.  

I played about with cube feature and ultimately came up with this:

I plan to like insider, to keep the text like this across the video with the probability of switching between the left and right hand side of the screen. I personally am very happy with how the font has come out.

As for animating text in like kinetic photography, my first thoughts are that each scene just isn’t long enough for it to be effective and as I plan on using a few transition effects I don’t want the video to become too confusing and too edited as it will take away from the smoothness of the video with the consistency being questioned (or lack of it).

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Trial and Error

Using text in Adobe Premiere is really about trial and error. Videos are ever changing meaning the colours usually change so its important to get a font and colour that can be easily seen against all backgrounds. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done as I soon found out like the photo shows above. This led me to look at other videos that use kinetic typography and thankfully I came across a Facebook page called ‘insider’ which give you information or certain stories such as new technologies, like this example:

https://www.facebook.com/Insiderinventions/videos/966776696791208/

Fig 5

Insider use a rectangular shape and put text over the top of it which can work on any video, keeping it consistent. The important thing is that it works and it is very easy to see. They don’t use too much text it’s all very brief and straight to the point, this being of the main reasons as to why they are popular Facebook with 6,000,000 followers one of their pages.

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Adding in Text

The usage of text was essential in my readymade promotional video, without text the video has no meaning necessarily. Text helps drive home the message of what is on offer and if used correctly can answer all questions. I conducted research on kinetic typography which is basically animating text in video, I used a short tutorial on how it could be used effectively and basically got the ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of kinetic typography (see bottom). 

Text is something I struggled with in this assignment as I was unsure of how it could be informative across clips that weren’t any longer than 5-10 seconds. Too much text can cause chaos for a viewer and the will ultimately lose interest if too much information is being forced upon them, It will also distract the viewer from the video itself which is not what is wanted or needed.

I’ve already used typography in the video with the “We look forward to seeing you in 2017” but I felt this font will not be suitable for promoting the Big Band Saturdays and Social Dance Sundays, I wanted a font that was big and clear to see but also one that looked very proper and professional.

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Not over the line just yet.

I was once again back scavenging through my already captured footage, I was more than confident in finding a short clip of people enjoying themselves. I found the answer relatively quickly of 2 female woman performing a different dance from the previous shown and better yet they are singing along to the band looking extremely happy.

The clip will also cover the target demographic as in the first clip of the couple dancing you could say are in the age bracket of 18-30 and these ladies in this clip are in the elder age bracket which for me shows that this venue is for everyone and can be enjoyed by everyone.  The lighting on these ladies is also fantastic and is truly a fitting ending to the captured footage.  

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Making it work...

I know knew how long my video had to be in order for it too sound great, as I reviewed the edited clips I realised that it was falling about 18 seconds short. As previously stated I had more footage that could have been used so this wasn’t an issue but it was important to keep it interesting, I know now that over a minute for a minute for a promotional video is quite a long time to dedicate to a video but I felt it necessary to try and promote this place to its full potential to the target demographic.

The Ryandale dance hall promote 2 nights over the course of most weekends as previously stated. As I have already used the big band Saturdays relatively well in the promotional video I thought I would take the opportunity to promote the ‘Social dancing Sundays’ night.  The Sunday nights are much more low key in terms of numbers in attendance however, they are very similar in contrast as it really is just the similar music but a much more relaxed atmosphere with the servings of tea and coffee as opposed to drink (bar still open but not anywhere near as busy).  I got a few videos of the band performing on the Sunday night that I could incorporate into the video.

After reviewing the videos I plain and simple just didn’t like them nor did I feel they would add anything different to the video that I haven’t already achieved. As previously stated the two nights are very similar so I thought it best to promote the nights with text when I add it in. I uploaded probably the best video I captured of the Sunday night at its peak and tobe honest at its peak it just didn’t suit what I was looking for as I was informed that this Sunday in particular was deemed relatively quiet in comparison to others this is partial to the fact it was the week before Christmas so they weren’t expecting too many people. Another factor for me in this video that didn’t work was once again the lighting of the hall at this time, it once again has made some of the footage look distorted and ill timed. As previously shown, I am already using a video (people dancing) that isn’t the full quality and I feel I can get away with it however, if start using more not necessarily poor videos but just not up to standard videos, the video as a result will look extremely unprofessional and the Ryandale might even opt against using it which will be bitterly disappointing for myself as I know I have more footage to use.

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Hold on to Your Hat!

They saying ‘it’s about who you know’ springs to mind as I was able to gain the rights of one Irelands most popular country singers, arguable the most popular country singer, named Derek Ryan. I owe huge amount of gratitude to a close friend who was able to get in contact with Derek’s manager a talent agency company called ‘Rising PR’ who represent Mr Ryan. I then purchased the track for 0.99p on iTunes (below).

I myself, was not familiar with most of the singers music therefore, it took time to listen to several of his top tracks to try and find the most suitable and recognisable track. The track selected named ‘Hold on to your hat’ I personally felt, it was the most upbeat and catchy and when drafted into my video piece I instantly felt it was the most fitting song to accompany my videos.  

Getting the rights to this song to play as the backing track of the video promotion, will be very much welcomed by the target audience as you can see this see has achieved an impressive 1,500,000 hits on youtube in just over 2 years. The Ryandale will also take a great deal of pleasure in gaining the rights to this song as it will be immediately identified and is an ever stay on country music radio stations. In comparison to the royalty free music  and no disrespect to royalty free music it just wasn’t up to the standard of what I was trying to achieve.

When I placed the audio into premiere from iTunes I instantly knew it was going to work. It summed up what this lively is about and what it represents. For people watching that may not have heard this song before I think will agree it suits the video perfectly.  Much more editing was needed to make it sound sharp between shots, I had to make the verses and chorus work with shots.

How the audio ends on the clip is also very important, as you can’t end mid verse or chorus, after listening to the song a few times, it became apparent that it was not possible to end after the first chorus or verse due to the song in full swing, which is why at the very end of the song you will hear singer repeat the title of the song without backing music, this will work perfectly at the end of the first chorus. I placed a duplicate of the song in adobe premiere and cut it to the end of the song and then placed just after the chorus which sounded fantastic and really professional. Above shows how I edited the clip which you will hear in the video, the transition should happen at approximately 01:16.

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Concluding the video....for now.

Company branding is very important when it comes to advertising, in the modern world how companies or addressed through any advertisement be it, social media, print or video etc they all have their own logo. this helps people viewing immediately identify what the branding is, famous examples of this are, Nikes ‘swoosh’ tick, McDonald’s “m” and Apples ‘half eaten apple’. The Ryandale of course had their own logo which will be familiarly recognised in the country scene as the Ryandale advertise themselves across many different platforms.

Above shows the Ryandale’s simple logo in a nice rich gold, the logo usually appears in either white or gold but, I have been given the all clear if altercations are needed to change colour then it is okay, but I feel both gold and white should be fine in the video if used accordingly.

I had weighed up either putting the logo over a blank background or a video. My immediate conclusion that a plain background will instantly kill the pace of the video and will look quite bland. I still had footage that could be experimented with to give a nice finish to the video, it was just about finding the right one and will it match the white or gold logo? I retracted to a previous video used – the extreme long shot of the hall, I felt this video was the perfect candidate in comparison to the others due to what it offered. This footage makes the ending of this promotional video an ending on a high note. Its inviting and I feel it asks the questions such as ‘what are you waiting for?’.

I tried both the white and gold up against the video:

When comparing the 2 I found them to be very similar but when I rendered them I found the gold logo was much more easier to read this is due to the fact of the white lighting on the stage, which makes it unclear to read. I came up with the finishing line ‘We look forward to seeing you in 2017’, as this advertisement will (hopefully) be put on their Facebook in January it’s a nice way to finish it, the white also compliments the gold logo. The font used is called ‘Ar Julian’ and was already on my laptop.

I love how the lights from the stage hit out of the logo in this clip and it looks like they are centred around on the ceiling. At the minute I sense this clip is the most fitting end to the promotion video and so far I am very happy about how it is looking.

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The Main Act

Now that the video has made it down the complete back, I was sure this was the perfect time to include the main reason why everyone was gathered at the front – the band. The singer was called Johnny Brady and as you can see by the crowds, he is very highly thought of in the country music scene. I managed to get a perfect spot along the side of the dance floor to fully take in the stage, my positioning in this great shot was partial the fact that just about everyone had vacated the bar area but I knew that this was going to be permanent so the margin for error was small. I used the ‘Pull Zoom’ camera technique again which worked very effectively, I feel I got the camera focus completely spot on in this shot also. I was also highly rewarded with my timing as I got the singer talking about “the Ryandale” as he welcomed everyone (1.30 – 1.45 on Youtube clip), this was something I really wanted as I myself thought it would sound fantastic on the promotion, it was now just about trial and error with the audio which I will be trying once everything is in place.

For me that was the grand tour of the hall in its element concluded, I felt at this stage I have covered almost every aspect of the hall and its entertainment value cannot be questioned by the target demographic. It was now just a matter of putting a fitting ending and getting a suitable audio that would complete this promotional video. I firstly wanted to address the conclusion clip.

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Perfect timing - Poor execution

The video shows me slowly making my way down to through the hall, starting from the top (the bar) and then onto the dance floor. The previous shot was of the couple in the middle of the dancefloor or thereabouts.  My next shot is of a popular dance (so I’m told) being performed. The footage and the positioning in my opinion is fantastic and I immediately knew this was going to feature in my promotional video. However, I am my own worst enemy in this clip as I never adjusted the focus of the camera which in turn made the footage look blurry (editing needed). This was taken at a time when the band was not on so therefore the lighting of the hall wasn’t as good as previously clip of the couple dancing (see previous clip – band was on at that stage). My thoughts about the clip were that I couldn’t not use it as I thought it looked fantastic as roughly 30 people are dancing simultaneously to the once song and getting shots like this are very hard. I added what is called ‘lighting effects’ to the clip which as result brought the brightness up which was extremely encouraging.

I wasn’t completely satisfied with this clip as a whole, the pace (speed/duration) of it was changed due to how long it took for them to go full circle. The uploaded original is now on Youtube, the original certainly needed a pick me up in colour and I think the pace being increased (from 100% to 800%), will keep with the pace of the promotional video. This video was hampered by a man walking past the camera from the toilers at a crucial part which really angered me as I wasn’t anticipating it.

This happened at approximately 1:28 on the original video. I had to use my initiative as I really wanted this particularly part of the clip to be used. Therefore, I edited the part just as he walks across the screen and then I cut scene to move on the next part, it’s at this time they’re turning so it almost looks like an effect has cut it across to the next scene when it’s actually just a person.

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Dancing Shoes On

The next clip featured is the boy and girl dancing to an upbeat song on the dance floor. The lighting of the stage on the couple works a treat in my eyes and using the zoom I was able to get right up in an extreme close up to the couple dancing. This even adds more character to the video and makes my pursuit of an upbeat country song more essential. I have uploaded the original video to Youtube (see below),  the video itself was very short as I was confident I got the right footage. The different between the couple dancing in the original and in the video promotion is that I have put once again a warp stabilizer which, has subsequently zoomed in on the couple even further which in my opinion looked better.

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The Stage is Set!

My next clip was the extreme long shot video of the hall at its peak, with comfortably 1000 in attendance. This footage works best with the footage you see at the start in my opinion, as at first site you are seeing the hall empty and now there has been a quick transformation like shown below:

This shot alone would answer any questions of how lively the Ryandale is on the big nights to anyone that has never been in attendance. My initial thoughts towards this scene is, if I can manage to get a lively country song this scene will look fantastic and a great advertisement  for the company.  I uploaded the original to Youtube (see above) and I think you will agree it’s very good camera work with adjusting the focus to make it look clear. The difference between the original and the one edited in the promotional video is, I’ve slowed it down ever so slightly as I didn’t want it zooming into the stage (I plan to do that further on in the clip).