Unit 21: Understanding Video Technology

Task 4 – Assignment Report

Aim: Your small freelance multimedia creative company has been commissioned by Real TV to produce 3 complementary television idents 10-20 seconds each in length which are to be used as online and broadcast teasers for a new reality TV programme titled ‘The Only Way is Salford’.

For my overall project I was asked to produce 3 complementary television idents for a new reality TV programme titled ‘The Only Way is Salford’. I was given a set time period in which the idents had to be 10-20 seconds long and feature the programme title ‘The Only Way is Salford’.

Firstly I began my research of idents, which involved ‘Discovery Science, X-Factor idents, Manchester/Media City television idents’ and ‘mysterious idents’ which were centred on ‘mystery, darkness, slight horror’ and ‘fantasy’ programmes.

I then later, went to put idea generations from these idents onto ‘thought showers’ and ‘mind maps’ which involved certain screen shot images from each of the idents and included written text on what I wanted to achieve with each ident.

When I had completed my research and mind maps of idea generations, I then began to put these ideas into a PowerPoint documentation, which was later shown to an audience. The documentation involved information on ‘what idents I had viewed, how mixed media was combined, the use of colour, sound’ and ‘what type of software’ I would personally need in order to achieve the end product.

When the results came back on which ident ideas had been chosen, I began to research ‘video technology standards’, in which I produced multiple fact files. For example, I constructed fact files about ‘camera sensors (CCD), white balance, the iris, shutter speeds, aperture, f-stops, worldwide broadcast systems, video compression, codecs, file formats, high definition, standard definition, TV standards i.e. SECAM, PAL etc. aspect ratio, HDMI, DVI, broadcast systems i.e. satellite, cable, terrestrial and multiplexes’.

Finally I began to work on the production and post production documentations of the ident in which the group was going to make. These involved ‘booking forms, resource lists, minutes meetings, prop lists, location plan view, scripts, filming schedule and shot lists’.

Within the production of the idents, I took on multiple roles, for example I was the Producer, in which I worked on the documentations, as well as editing scenes frame-by-frame in Photoshop in order to tidy up image sequences which couldn’t be altered with Chroma key in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. The task was very time consuming, but resulted in the quality of the finished project looking much better and was later added into the finished product.

As one of the multiple roles I performed, I worked with the director and assistant camera operator in order to shoot the footage, as well as set up the green screen for the crew to film on. I was also an assistant editor, in which I helped edit some of the footage together and helped clean-up images which were corrupted by which I used adobe Photoshop to alter the video frames.

I personally believe that the editing stages worked rather well, as there wasn’t too much footage that needed to be edited. Also the documentations were fairly simple to fill in, and were later typed up to professional standards. I also believe that the finished project was a success and was very funny. I also liked the use of having a warning sign at the beginning of the video to capture the audience’s attention and to make them aware that the ident has something in it that may be unsuitable to certain viewers i.e. children.

I personally felt that the construction of the team/crew was a downfall, mostly because crew members were ill. Also some of the footage was a little ‘shaky’ and so therefore, it couldn’t be used. Another negative issue I had was the overall idea of the ident which was chosen, mostly because it had slightly ‘sexual content’ within the ident, and I personally didn’t agree that this was an ident that would be allowed to be shown on TV.

If I was to do this project again I would consider using a whole different idea for the ident, because I felt the outcome of the ident the crew and I made was a little over the top and wouldn’t suit being on TV, unless it was a late showing advert and had a warning at the start of the ident. But overall I thought the advert had a comedic side to it and wasn’t something to be taken seriously.

http://understandingvideotechnology.blogspot.co.uk/ - link to Blogg