My First Premiere Pro editing exercise

My First Premiere Pro editing exercise

Learning to use a camera

Although I learnt most of my camera skills last year there were a few new things I learnt this year, for example how to configure the iso and shutter speed correctly. I also learnt how to use auto focus properly. I also learnt how to get a shallow depth of field by adjusting the iso.

We also learnt about the exposure triangle (aperture, iso and shutter speed) and how to correctly expose a shot.

After we got familiar with the camera and how to use it we went out and shot some footage, none of the shots we filmed were complex in any way, they were all quite basic, this was because we were focusing more on the editing side of things. After we finished filming all the shots we had to we imported them onto a mac and organised then into folders to make editing easier. Also when we created the adobe premiere file we created different bins to put the different types of files into. This helped a lot for us to keep everything sorted and tidy. It is very important to do this when editing.

Then we chose which shots we were going to use in our video, we cut them down to the bits we wanted and put them on the timeline, after  this we added some transitions to the video. We sound a royalty free song to use on the video (we still had to credit the composer). It was very easy to add the music to the timeline, it was very similar to adding video, Cutting it to the length we wanted it to be and added to the timeline.` After the video was finished we added a title screen and some scrolling credits at the end.


After the video was fulling completed we exported it in 1080p in a format compatible with YouTube.

The commissioning process

Job roles in the commissioning process. 

Scriptwriter:

The scriptwriter writes the script for a project, sometimes communicating with the director.

They need to be very creative and be able to translate ideas to scripts. They also need to be able to produce a script in a professional way. The qualifications for a script writer will vary a lot because it is a freelance market there aren’t set qualifications a person will need to become a script writer. They just need to have a good, creative idea. The script writer will be the first person to get their hands on the script (because they’re writing it). They will have the most involvement in the script out of everyone. Info from: ScreenSkills. Screenwriter. https://www.screenskills.com/careers/job-profiles/film-and-tv-drama/development-film-and-tv-drama-job-profiles/screenwriter/ [accessed 5th January 2020]
-Aaron Sorkin. A very successful screenwriter.
Wikipedia. Aaron Sorkin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Sorkin [accessed 6th January 2020]

Script editor:

Script editors will read the script the writer has written and point out weak points and potentially harmful material. They must be able to thoroughly read through the script that has been and be able to make accurate in-depth criticisms. Script editors must be able to communicate clearly with the other people producing the film. It would also help if they had experience in the film industry. They are probably (depending on production) the second person to see the script thoroughly. There entire job is to edit the script, so they are heavily involved with the script.
Info from: Guru. How to be a Script Editor. http://guru.bafta.org/how-to-be-a-script-editor [accessed 5th January 2020]njnmh

-Blogger. Script Marked for Editing. http://frankiechildsediting.blogspot.com/2014/06/script-marked-for-editing.html [accessed 5th January 2020]

Commissioning editor:
Commissioning editors advise what pieces of work to publish and pieces of work that shouldn't be. They need to be very good at communication with other people around them. previous experience in the industry would be good so they know what to look for in projects. Depending on the project they may or may not see the script.
info from: Wikipedia. Commissioning editor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioning_editor [accessed 5th January 2020]

- It's Nice That. Film: Meet commissioning editor of AnOthermag.com Laura Bradley.https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/film-meet-commissioning-editor-of-anothermag-laura-bradley-in-between-the-lines [accessed 5th January 2020]

Agents:

Agents are people that are hired by various kind of talent, (actors, writers, etc.) their job is to find jobs and work for their clients. They need to have lots of contacts within the industry, and they must be able to find a lot of opportunities for their clients, they also need to be very good at communicating with people in the industry. You could become an agent with very few qualifications, although the more the better in this case. They could not be involved in the script they could just get the job for their client and not do anymore, or they could be a bit more involved.
- Ari Emanuel, Co CEO of William Morris Endeavor.
 Info from: Wikipedia. Talent agent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_agent [accessed 5th January 2020]
-Wikipedia. Ari Emanuel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Emanuel [accessed 5th January 2020]

Producers:

Producers look over the whole filming process, they supervise everything, (preproduction, filming. They will also pick the talent for the film, they must be good at talking to people, making sure the talents are okay, communicating with the director. No qualifications are entirely necessary but would be helpful, producers often work free lance, so they would have to have some experience, and be looked quite highly of in the industry. They will be involved in the script a bit.
Info from: ScreenSkills. Producer. https://www.screenskills.com/careers/job-profiles/film-and-tv-drama/development-film-and-tv-drama-job-profiles/producer/ [accessed 5th January 2020]
- Steven Spielberg. Famous director and producer.
-Wikipedia. Steven Spielberg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg [accessed 5th January 2020]





Director: Directors are the people who make the scrip come to life, they decide what everything will look like on screen, where everything will go, where the actors are positioned etc. Directors have to able to easily communicate with the whole crew to make sure everything goes smoothly. they also need to make sure everyone on the team listens to them. No qualifications are needed to become a director, good contacts in the industry would help, but anyone could become an independent director. They have a very close relation to the script generally, this depends on the production.
Info from: ScreenSkills. Director. https://www.screenskills.com/careers/job-profiles/film-and-tv-drama/development-film-and-tv-drama-job-profiles/director/ [accessed 5th January 2020]
-Martin Scorsese. Very well known director.
- Wikipedia. Martin Scorsese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Scorsese. [accessed 5th January 2020]



www.screenskills.com/

Optioning: is when a company buys your idea for a certain amount of time, they do this with the intention of producing it but that’s not always the case. Sometimes they'll just option an idea so no other companies can legally make it.

Commissioning: is when a company or a person pays someone to complete a piece of work. Production companies usually go through agents to hire talent, that's why it's important to have an agent to represent you.

There are a few things you need to do to have agent representation from Knight Hall, for example, initially it’s good to write to them explaining a bit about yourself and your work, it’s also okay to email them. Sending them emails with attachments would be a bad idea as they may contain viruses.

3 things writers should never do to an agent are: 

• Never call after sending a letter, it would just annoy them. 

• Don’t do anything to annoy them, try and leave a good impression 
• Don’t sound desperate. 
• Knight Hall Agency. Knight Hall Agency. https://www.knighthallagency.com/ [accessed 5th January 2020]
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It would be easier for an independent director to produce their own screen play rather than getting commissioned because they wouldn’t have to follow someone else's rules, everything is your responsibility. Which can be a good thing and a bad thing. You would get a lot of freedom in how to do everything although everything is your responsibility, you’re the one to answer everything. You must control the budget, you must make sure everything is going to plan. 

Script factory is an organisation that helps young writers find work and help them improve their writing skills. They don’t finance screen plays for ideas. They also help young writers' scripts get noticed by production companies. 

Bluecat is an organisation that holds a writing competition, which involves sending in a script and receiving written analysis, which would hopefully result in winning a cash prize. Winning would help young writers greatly in getting seen by production companies and getting their ideas and scripts optioned. Winners and finalists have been signed to major talent agencies in the past. So even if the writers that enter don’t get anywhere at least they’ll have their work marked by a professional which would be useful for self-improvement. Info and picture from: Bluecat. Bluecat. https://www.bluecatscreenplay.com/ [accessed 5th January 2020]

There many legal and ethical problems that need to be considered when developing a screenplay/ media production.

Copyright is a massive thing in terms of media productions, people creating productions need to be clear on the copyright rules to make sure they don’t break any of them, for example, writers need to be very careful when writing a script to not steal ideas from an existing production. This can happen accidentally if the writer is taking too much inspiration from somewhere without realising it. There's a fine line between copyright/plagiarism and just taking inspiration. If the production company gets sued in this early stage of the production it would be a massive hit, especially for a small production company, getting sued could put them out of business.
-Wikipedia. copyright. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright [accessed 5th January 2020]
The 1979 genre defining film Alien was taken to court by aspiring screen writer Jack Hammer, who claims that the idea for the movie was stolen from his unproduced screen play: Black Space. But he was unable to convince the court that this was true so the case was thrown out.
Info and picture from: Taste of Cinema. 20 Famous movies accused of copyright infringement. http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2018/20-famous-movies-accused-of-copyright-infringement/ [accessed 6th January 2020]

Bias is when the producer/director wants to push a certain message through a production. This is very common in factual programs, (documentaries) to make the viewer agree with the presenter. This would typically be done subtly, maybe by not explaining the opposing argument fully. An example of this would be the very famous, Bowling for Columbine. Although mostly accurate, the scene where Michael Moore (the presenter) goes into a bank that gives away a complimentary rifle when setting up a bank account with them, this is true, but the way it was filmed makes it seem like he walked in and a couple hours later he left with a gun. But in reality it takes a number of days.
IMDb. Bowling for Columbine. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310793/ [accessed 6th January 2020]

It’s very important to consider bias when researching because sources could be bias and not completely the truth. Therefore, it is very important to look at many different websites when research to make sure what you’re reading is true. It is also important to not take everything you see in documentaries at face value, it’s very unethical to lie about something in a documentary, but a lot of the time the documentary will be made in a way to make the viewer agree with the presenter. 

Censorship is a massive thing in the films industry, if a project is very explicit it will have a higher rating. The ratings are: U, PG, 12A ,12, 15, 18. These ratings are very important because they determine how young someone can be to view it in a theatrical release or purchase it. Big production companies will tend to want to get their films as low of a rating as possible to make it more accessible, thus making it more money. Once a film has a final draft it must be sent of the BBFC it has an age rating paired with it. The film company will get it back and have the chance to make changes to lower the age rating. Info and picture from: bbfc. bbfc. https://bbfc.co.uk/ [accessed 5th January 2020]

Watershed is the time on British television (9pm) where programs are gradually allowed to show more and more explicit content, e.g. swearing, nudity etc. This is to not expose young children to inappropriate language/ visual hence why it's 9pm). The things they can show progressively get more explicit as time goes. Programs are not allowed to have a lot of cursing and full nudity just as it turns 9. Info and picture from: Ofcom. What is the watershed? https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/advice-for-consumers/television/what-is-the-watershed [accessed 5th January 2020]

Libel is when someone publishes something untruthful and damaging to someone's reputation, this is a very similar thing to slander, although slander is spoken, and libel is written. Therefore, if someone’s producing a media project and basing it on a real person in a negative light, they need to change their name to something else. This would be to avoid being libel, this could result in being sued by the person who was mocked, which could have a major impact on the project in the making. Info from: Wikipedia. Defamation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation [accessed 5th January 2020]

Plagiarism is when someone's work is copied or very heavily inspired from, so much so that it goes past copyright laws. This is a very important thing to consider when developing a script because it could get you in a lot of trouble. It is possible to do this by accident as well, so it is vital to do research before starting a project to make sure that you’re not plagiarising anyone's work, this could result in a lawsuit, which could heavily damage the project. Info from: Wikipedia. Plagiarism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism. [accessed 5th January 2020]
-Grammarly. 5 most Effective methods for avoiding plagiarism. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/5-most-effective-methods-for-avoiding-plagiarism/ [accessed 5th January 2020]

The Nature and Purposes of Research

The Nature and Purposes of Research  

Primary research 

Primary research is a type of research that you conduct yourself, for example, interviews, questionnaires  etc. 

“Experiments, investigations, or tests carried out to acquire data first-hand, rather than being gathered from published sources.” – Business Dictionary. Primary research definition. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/primary-research.html [accessed 11th July 2019] 

In my documentary task we made some surveys and handed then out to the public, this is a form of primary research because we gathered all the information ourselves.  We gathered this information because we wanted to know generally what people thought about teenage pregnancy and abortion (the topic of our documentary) so we could be more specific on what we focused it on. After this we created a list of questions to ask the people who were featuring in our video.

Documentaries almost always have a lot of primary research in them, for example any kind of interview in a documentary is primary research. A form of interviews is something called “vox pops” (voice of the people) this technique is where the interviewer goes out in public and asks random members of the public questions. This is almost like a video form of a questionnaire. -BBC. Recording vox pops https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/articles/art20130702112136311 [accessed 17th December 2019] This i s a short video made by the BBC presented by Melanie Grant, an experienced journalist, focusing on important things to remember when recording vox pops.

Secondary research 

Secondary research is using information that other sources have gathered, this could be a book, a website etc. When using secondary research, it is important to reference where you got the information from. 

“Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research. Secondary research is contrasted with primary research in that primary research involves the generation of data, whereas secondary research uses primary research sources as a source of data for analysis”-Wikipedia. Secondary research. https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Secondary_research [accessed 27^th August 2019] 

For the documentary task we watched documentaries before making our own to see the conventions and techniques that are often used in different types and styles of documentaries. To gather ideas about how to shoot ours. For example we watch Louis Theroux's Louis and the Nazis, this was a very interesting perspective on documentaries, it felt very personal, this helped us shape our own.


-Wikipedia. Louis and the Nazis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_and_the_Nazis [accessed 3rd January 2020]

If a company was shooting an historical film, they would have to research into making it historically accurate, to make sure they wouldn’t get anything out of place. Although it's made for children, Horrible Histories is a very good example of this, at its core it's an educational program so lots of research had to go into it.

 -Den of Geek. Horrible Histories: the 15 greatest songs. https://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/horrible-histories/53409/horrible-histories-the-15-greatest-songs [accessed 3rd January 2020]

Primary research and secondary research both have their pros and cons, they are both very useful in different contexts. Secondary research is very useful is you are researching an event that happened a long time ago (this would mean that it would be impossible to interview anyone). Whereas if it is a more recent event it would be a lot more emotionally impactful to get interview and get a first-hand account of someone who was there. QuestionPro. secondary research- definition, methods and examples. https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/articles/art20130702112136311 [accessed 17th December 2019]

Quantitative research

Quantitative research Is how well something is received, how popular something is, e.g. box office figures, ratings etc. Things with numerical values. Something that can be used in graphs or tables. 

“Quantitative research gathers data in a numerical form which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement.  This type of data can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data.”- Simply psychology.  What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? https://www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.html [accessed 28^th August 2019]. 

For our advertising task we conducted a survey to collect feedback, although this is an example of primary research it is also an example of quantitative research because it can be made into graphs and tables. Collecting feedback was very helpful. We used a website called Survey Monkey, which is very useful because the website automatically puts the collected data into graphs and tables.

This kind of research is used a lot in marketing so they can gather figures and decided how to market something to reach a biggest audience. Quantitative research is also used a lot in different types of adverts. This is to make the product seem more appealing to the audience.
- YouTube. Trident 4/5 dentist commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXqAyMhgc7I [accessed 3rd January 2020]. This advert for Trident is a good example of quantitative  data being used in media.

Qualitative research 

Qualitative research is people's opinions and responses to things, for example, reviews, responses to different forms of media etc. 

“Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.”-SnapSurveys. What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? https://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/ [accessed 29^th August] 

For our advert we sent out a survey to gather opinions. This was very useful to find out what we could improve or what we could’ve done differently.

a review is typically qualitative research. This is much more commonly used after a piece of media is complete to gather feedback. Adverts also use Qualitative data to promote products, companies will get people to share their opinions (usually positive ones) on their products for adverts. 
- YouTube. Colgate Dentist DRTV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ULR68LTmbw [accessed 3rd December 2020]. This Colgate advert has many opinions from people who use this certain toothpaste.

Qualitative and quantitative research, in my opinion, are most useful when used together, it’s best to have both graphs and tables showing peoples general opinions but it is also useful to have more in depth written opinions. 

Data gathering agencies  

Data gathering agencies are companies that gather data and do various things with, some companies could make databases, some make ratings from the data they gather. 

BARB is the organisation that decides the different ratings for television in the UK. IMDB is an online database where you can find information about different films and TVs, video games, actors etc. blogger. 

Unit 3 Research techniques for the creative media industries. http://rhyspainter23.blogspot.com/2016/01/data-gathering-agencies.html [accessed 17th December 2019]

Audience and Market research 

Audience and market research are types of research media companies will do before creating a product or a piece of media. The purpose of these kinds of research is to fine tune the product or piece of media to a certain demographic, to maximise popularity. This could take place in many forms, surveys, vox pops, or maybe even polls posted on a social media sites. All could be useful in their own ways.

“Audience research is any research conducted on specific audience segments to gather information about their attitudes, knowledge, interests, preferences, or behaviours. For cultural organisations, audience research is often conducted on current visitors and past visitors”- colleendilenschneider. Audience vs. Market research. https://www.colleendilen.com/2016/06/08/audience-vs-market-research-a-critical-distinction-for-cultural-organizations/ [accessed 3^rd September] 

For the advert project we had to conduct market and audience research to make our advert as effective as possible. We watched many different adverts to get a feel of the different tones and themes used, to get a better idea of what we could use in our own. For example the 'Marmite neglect' Marmite advert was an advert we took into consideration. It was very different from our advert, it was very divisive, many people thought it was offence and not funny. So we knew when making our Marmite advert it needed to be more family friendly and less edgy.

-YouTube. End Marmite Neglect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R1TDZtNq9g [accessed 5th January 2020]

These kinds of research always happen before a media production starts. It's very important to conduct audience and market research to make sure you know who you're trying to appeal to, if you don't the the project could seem messy. Also if a company is trying to market to too many audiences at once it could seem convoluted and confuse the audience. An example of something that completely missed their audience is the 'baby' advert for play-station.
- YouTube. PS3 Baby commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU [accessed 3rd January 2020]

Production research 

Production research is research that must be conducted before a production is made. Things like finance needed to be researched to make sure everything is in budget, It's also useful to create story boards, shot lists etc. to get an estimate on how much the production will cost. Production research also includes location reccies, these are very important to carry out before a production because people need to make sure they are fit for shooting in, the also need to make sure they have all the correct permissions to be filming there. This all has to be accounted for in the budget.

“Production research is always needed when developing a new product. It is research to help give information on the characteristics of the product. It focuses on the production of a product, in other words, how it's made” slideshare. Audience, Market Research. https://www.slideshare.net/marleylong/audience-27055236 [accessed 3^rd September] 

For all of our projects that we’ve completed we’ve conducted production research. We have completed reccies for all of our filming locations and have gained permissions if necessary. For our depict project we made a list of all the costs so we knew exactly how much the project will cost. All of our projects were either free or very cheap so organising the budget was relatively simple.

For our depict project we created an extensive story board showing every shot in the project, this was very useful to have because we knew exactly what we were shooting and roughly what it should look like, this made it much easier to create a production schedule because we knew what we needed to shoot.

All professional productions will have to conduct market research to make sure they’re in budget. This is essential to make the project work, there have been many cases where the budget wasn't stuck to and as a result the movie/project failing. For example the 1995 film Cutthroat island was a train wreck of a production, after problems with the crew and many setbacks on set including raw sewage flooding a tank. This production ended up losing $105 million. Gizmodo. 13 movies that went disastously over budget. https://io9.gizmodo.com/13-movies-that-went-disastrously-over-budget-1737605750 [accessed 5th January 2020]. This is why taking all the potential costs into  account is very important.
-IMDb. Cutthroat Island. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112760/ [accessed 5th January 2020]