8th May 2017-
Today we've been assigned our groups, I've been placed among the other previous level 2 students as the director of a production regarding the "Artisan" restaurant.
Our role (slightly different from the rest of the class) will be to overview two current level 2 students as they complete this project, helping them creatively complete the video to a high standard. It can then be used at the presentation day along the other videos.
As a group, we're very happy to receive this assignment and are even beginning to brainstorm ideas.
As a class today we also reviewed some previous presentation day videos, discussing what we liked or disliked in each.
We specifically analysed the shot types and other camera techniques utilised. One point I contributed was how I liked the way the first video (Hadlow College) Used some slow motion close ups on faces to display the happiness of the students.
Not only did it display how content the students were with the college and their work, but it also sectioned off the video; breaking each subject into nice little chapters.
What I also really liked in the same area was the way in which it showed the effects of the work. For example the agriculture and farming classes would be followed by shots of the produce being sold in a shop.
I really like the way the video presented both how happy the students were, and how their hard work was paying off. It's inspiring my thoughts for what we can accomplish in our videos.
9th May 2017-
Today we're researching the Artisan restaurant, gathering any information we can regarding how it operates and what it offers.
The first place we're looking is the restaurant's page on the West Kent website:
http://westkent.ac.uk/theartisan.html
The page displays a brief history as well as useful information like opening times and a PDF of the menu.
As a group we're trying to give the video some substance, our first initial roadblock was the idea that we might struggle to fill the entire video with enough interesting footage. We want more content than simply aesthetic shots of the restaurant.
But with that being said we are hoping to film at a time where the sun is out because of how pretty it can look through the windows.
11th May 2017-
As a group today we've gathered some footage from the Artisan, whenever I had the camera; I ensured I was following the shot types I'd found in previous restaurant promo videos that inspired me particularly.
Many of which were slow panning shots that showcased the aesthetic design of the restaurant, everything that really built it's personality. The Artisan for example has an attractive alcohol and separate wine collection. We paid a lot of attention to these, really trying to do them justice with good-looking shots.
16th May 2017-
After looking through the footage we've decided to film for a second time, taking out the same camera and asking for permission once more. This is following our conversation with the manager (Karen) After she'd stated that today would be a bit busier.
We got some very good shots, it's uncertain at this point whether they will be enough or even fitting the purpose. But near the end I managed to record some great shots involving the staff members delivering food to a table of seven. Which really fits our purpose, i'm hoping it all looks good as i'm imagining.
18th May 2017-
Today I've emailed the client tasking us with creating this project, I asked what kind of content they wanted to see in the video; including what we've got so far:
Hello,
I'm one of the students tasked with creating a promotional video for the Artisan Restaurant. We've already gathered some footage but would like to know if there is anything more specific you would like to be included.
Here is what we have so far:
-Multiple wide shots of the entire restaurant
-Close ups on specific details (Alcohol collection etc.)
-Students cooking/cleaning in the kitchen
-A student delivering food to a table.
Is there anything else in particular we may have missed? Please let us know!
Thank you!
-Tom
I'm one of the students tasked with creating a promotional video for the Artisan Restaurant. We've already gathered some footage but would like to know if there is anything more specific you would like to be included.
Here is what we have so far:
-Multiple wide shots of the entire restaurant
-Close ups on specific details (Alcohol collection etc.)
-Students cooking/cleaning in the kitchen
-A student delivering food to a table.
Is there anything else in particular we may have missed? Please let us know!
Thank you!
-Tom
To which they quickly replied with:
Thank
you for your email. I would like you to liaise with Karen (manager) in the
Artisan to take some footage of the Restaurant when it is busy. Yesterday would
have been perfect but I understand that it was your day off.
- Busy
lunch time
- Busy
Thursday nights
- Interview
with Karen about The purpose of the Artisan restaurant.
I have
copied Karen into this email, please contact her to arrange
This is essentially my client brief. He's given some specific elements he'd like included but the entire project is still very open, it is seemingly still fully up to our interpretation. There are things like busy Thursday evenings that might be hard to film.
What hasn't been mentioned but will still need to be included, is house style. I'll need to ensure that because I'm representing the college, i'll need
This is essentially my client brief. He's given some specific elements he'd like included but the entire project is still very open, it is seemingly still fully up to our interpretation. There are things like busy Thursday evenings that might be hard to film.
What hasn't been mentioned but will still need to be included, is house style. I'll need to ensure that because I'm representing the college, i'll need
So tonight (Thursday) Sam and I are going to try and film the two of these points we don't have. The busy night, and the interview. The interview is going to be extremely easy as we'll only really need the manager (Karen) to explain the "Purpose of the Artisan" in her words.
22nd May 2017
Unfortunately it looks like (At least as of now) we aren't able to film a busy Thursday evening, we tried to on the previous Thursday (18th) but it turned out that the Artisan would be extremely empty on that evening.
What we've instead organised is to try and film today. I was told by the manager (Karen) that they had another full booked table between 1-1.30 today. This could be another opportunity to film not only a busy table; but also students serving the guests once more.
What we did manage to gather last Thursday was an interview with both the head chef and manager, we asked exactly the question that was written in the email "What is the purpose of the Artisan?" and they both gave their own detailed responses. To gather some more interesting information I then decided to ask how much work they believe the students carry out in the restaurant.
The answer was slightly unexpected, the head chef decided to state how he thinks the students could be doing more, this is something we probably won't be using as we of course only want to be selling the restaurant rather than more informative facts.
Luckily, Karen then interjected by stating how she believes the students get some really good experience in these sometimes difficult busy situations. I ran it by the group, that's something we definitely can use.
23th May 2017
Today I started properly editing, all of the clips we're using are in the project and we ensured this morning that we've completely logged all our footage. So I made a start:
By the end of the day- i'm happy with the way it's going. I almost finished the entire project with well needed help from Luke.
Together, we removed anything that didn't look professional; cutting any moments where the camera was shaky etc.
It's looking pretty good in our opinion, especially because of the soundtrack we took some time to pick.
Hopefully our client will like the draft, but if not; we can of course make some changes.
This means it's my duty now to email the client once more when we have a finished draft (Likely this coming Thursday) so we can arrange a date for a preview.
30th May 2017
In the previous lesson I took it upon myself to email 'keem the cipher' the American artist responsible for making the music we wish to use in our video:
To our surprise, Keem then quickly replied with this nice email. He added that a payment would be well appreciated as it is his business, but as we're just students it isn't necessary. He seemed to incline that any publicity we could give him would be worth it in itself.
8th June 2017- FIRST CLIENT VIEWING
Today after extensive back and forth emailing, we managed to arrange a viewing for our client. Or rather, viewers on the client's behalf.
Both Karen and the head chef arrived stating that their final decision would be carried forward to Ian the client.
And luckily they thoroughly enjoyed it, stating that it was perfect and better than anything they'd received from marketing before! We then asked if they had any improvements or us, to which they replied with nothing.
We will likely at this point be presenting it to another client, but it's good to know we are very much on the right track.
12th June 2017- SECOND CLIENT VIEWING
Today the client overlooking all of the other projects had a look at ours, he gave a lot more feedback with some specifics. Mainly regarding the interview section. He told us what we should do to fix the scene, it might be a little difficult and take some time. But Luke and I have said we'll have a real crack at finishing it tomorrow.
13th June 2017
The video is now completely finished and exported, I set out today to amend all of the problems that the second client had with it. Some of them were very simple, like i've now fixed the pacing of the interview scene as per his recommendation. But one thing he did say was to zoom in some of the panning shots on busy tables to make the restaurant seem more busy, trying this just proved a mistake. A zoomed in shot is very obvious and it just looked awful. This is something that can't really be changed, I discussed this with Debbie and she appeared to agree. Another problem I had regarded their Artisan logo, the quality of it was terrible. It looked like a pixelated mess if it was large, and it couldn't be TOO small. So i decided to make two versions of the video, one with their logo and one with mine. But in my version i display their logo small at the end so it isn't blurry. I believe this should suffice.
15th June 2017
I was informed upon arrival today that the second client reviewed my new export and liked it, the only thing he commented on was the audio during the interview. He asked if it could be fixed so that the background music could be removed. After trying for a little while with both technicians, it couldn't seem to be fixed. I feel as though the scene is not disastrous though and that overall it's quite a good video. It's worth remembering for next time though that I should have asked for the radio to be turned off while I interviewed them.
