LO2 Be able to develop a planned response to a brief

My brief
 

Finding a brief and receiving the initial brief:

I asked my manager at work if he could give me a brief to do something for the company. I work at Skirmish paintball in Lane end. My manager suggested to me that I could do film and edit a promotional video advertising airsoft gameplay at Skirmish.  I told him that this was a fine idea and asked him to send it to me by email so that it would be a formal brief with all the information I required to work to the brief.

I will now quote the email brief from my manager.

Hi Matt,

I would like to encourage you in making a promotional video for Skirmish paintball as our previous videos are out of date by years. I would like the video to be aimed at promoting the airsoft gameplay of Skirmish paintball and for the video to be approximately two and a half too three minutes long. I would preferably like the video to be finished and ready to upload by the end of March this year. To film the footage you can either come in on your own free time or film it during our weekend shifts. If you have any questions about this brief please contact me.

David.

LO3 Be able to apply a response to a brief

Responding to the brief:

When I was given this brief offer by my manager I was immediately keen on taking it up. My main reasons behind why I chose to respond to this brief is because the brief itself is my category of expertise, I am a very confident with my filming and editing styles which I felt would come in very handy for a brief such as this one.

I responded to my manager within the day of receiving the brief telling him I would take up the brief offer and complete it for the given deadline. I also sent him a questionnaire for him to fill in. The reason for the questionnaire was to get as much detail out of my manager as possible about how he wanted the final video to be like. Below is a copy of the questionnaire table that he filled in and emailed back to me.

Approximately how long do you wish the advertising video to be?	Roughly around three minutes long seconds but no longer than minute. Time of the video does not matter too much because we won’t be putting this video forwards for TV promotion. YouTube is a much more likely location for the video you are going to make.
Should I include music? If so what music should I include? Any sound effects?	You may use copyright free music, as long as it is upbeat and has no swearing in it. Sound effect can be inserted in the video, but don’t insert them into unnecessary parts of the video. We are very keen for you to keep the sound in from your footage so that people listening can audibly capture the experience. Make sure you cut out any areas that include swearwords or other offensive language.
Shall I include important information in the video such as pricing or the logo? If so then when should I include it?	No, We only want the video to show people who are new to Skirmish paintball what it is all about. We will insert pricing and other vital information in text underneath the video.
Are there any rules or health and safety modulations I should know about if I’m about to film people playing paintball?  If so please list them.	The usual rules as if you were marshalling a game. Wear body suit and helmet. We might suggest a protective or paint proof cover for your camera. Just to warn you, we will not cover the costs for any of your equipment if it is damaged when filming.
What is the final deadline?	I don’t see the need for a deadline, but If you require one I would like the video done before late May.
What features of Skirmish Paintball would you like me to video? Paintball, Laser tag or Airsoft? Should I film gameplay, special events, or any other features?	I would like it if you featured game play of airsoft games only. We already have a large amount of past footage advertising paintball. However we have hardly any footage of airsoft.

Budget

There is no budget for my given brief because I am doing this brief for free. The camera and recording equipment is owned by me. I use editing software at home and on College site. The health and safety equipment was handed to me on the days of filming without any requirement of payment.

Project management and developing my final video from feedback

Now that I had all the information I needed to start filming I had to start managing how I was going to make the video. In other words I did pre-production for my promotional video.

Research into similar video ads:

I needed to do research into similar promotional videos to see what video capturing and editing styles they used to make their videos.  At first I found it difficult finding promotional videos along the same category, but a work colleague told that there was a skirmish paintball channel on YouTube.  The channel was very helpful to my research; I found the most common video capturing technique was filming the footage in a first person view using a head strap with the camera. I think this was good way of way of capturing footage because the audience could relate to it as what it would look and feel like if they were playing right then.

The majority of the videos I saw used montage editing techniques keeping the all the airsoft action on screen flowing at a constant rate. This is a technique I decided I would be using because it would help keep the audience interested and fixed on the video.

Below is the link to the Skirmish paintball YouTube channel that I used to research into similar video ads.

http://www.youtube.com/user/skirmishpaintballtv?feature=results_main

Preproduction for Skirmish Paintball promotional video

Health and Safety form:

In the form below is a list of Hazards that I will face while filming airsoft at Skirmish paintball. The form also shows how each of these hazards can be prevented from happening.

Hazard	Safety precaution taken to avoid the hazard
Damage to eye or face from paintballs being fired at me.	To avoid this hazard from happening I shall where a plastic mask that comes with goggles to protect my face from damage from paintballs.
Damage caused to camera and other film equipment due to be paintballs possibly hitting the camera or equipment.	My company has already told me that any damage done to my filming equipment will not be paid for by them. So I have decided to take extra precautions by putting a protective lens cap on the camera and covering all my equipment in padding and plastic bags to avoid the damage caused by the impact of the paintball or from the paint leaking on my equipment.
Clothing being warn most likely will be damaged by paint when paintballs hit me.	Where the overalls handed out at the beginning of a paintball game so this way I can avoid my clothes being ruined by mud and paint from paintballs impacting and exploding on me.
The ground at skirmish paintball will be very wet and muddy due to all the feet that go over the ground and all the wet paint that has spilt on the ground from paintballs that have exploded.	I will where willies so that I can move around the ground easily with less chance of slipping. By doing this I will not ruin my trainers with mud too.
Overall damage being done to people inside the facility.	When you have been handed a gun, you are not allowed to load it with paintballs until you are out of the facility and in one of the playing fields. This way we can prevent people from being injured by paintballs.
Damage from paintball gun or physical contact.	You must be mature while playing in arenas. This includes not physically attacking other players or using your paintball gun as a baton.

 Shooting Times:

I will be shooting the airsoft footage at Lane End on the 7^th of April 2012 from 1pm until 7pm because this is the date I have arranged with Skirmish to come in with my camera and shoot the footage.

Shooting script:

I have no storyboard or shooting script for the video I am about to shoot because this is not a performance video where everyone does what the script says. This is me going into an airsoft game with 20 other people and capturing everything that happens. When I get home I’ll edit the best clips I have into a three minute long video.

Equipment list:

Protective overalls: You are made to wear these for protection to be allowed to play at skirmish paintball.

Protective mask or goggles: You are made to wear these for protection to be allowed to play at skirmish paintball.

Camera: The most necessary item to me if I am about to film footage.

Camera protective lens and cover: These are both to stop my camera from being damaged by BB pellets.

Another very useful item that Skirmish is lending to me is a protective mask with clippers on the side of it. This will allow me to mount my camera on the side of my mask to make the footage look like it’s in first person.

Developing my promotional video from feedback:

Once I had made a final edited version of my promotional video I emailed the video to David (my manager) and asked him for feedback including critical feedback. I was emailed back by David who was very praising of my final video. He made one critical feedback point saying that I needed music playing in the video.

I responded to this email within two days and sent him a new edited version with sound playing in the background. David was pleased by this and told me that this final edit was ready to be used. What also made me impressed with myself is that he also mentioned that he wouldn't mind me making future promotional videos for the company.

LO4 Be able to review work on completion of a brief



My review of working to my brief and new skills I have learned or improved on:

The key skills that I have developed are video editing, video capture and meeting my deadlines. A new skill that I have learnt would be the questionnaire. When I first started with my brief I didn’t feel that I would need to send my manager a questionnaire because I thought I knew what he wanted, it turned out there were a few things I would have missed doing if I hadn’t sent him the questionnaire which makes me understand the importance of it.

The one thing I would have done differently if given the opportunity again is pay more attention to my health and safety. In my health and safety form I had written down that it would be a good idea to use a camera protection lens. I decided not to in the end because I didn’t want to buy one, but it turned out for the worst because the first day I went out filming my camera lens was smashed by a pellet which cost me a lot more money repairing  than buying camera lens would have.

My final edited version for the Skirmish paintball promotional video:

Presentation for working to a brief

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