My interactive video was made to showcase the Level 3 Hairdressing course at Strode College. I believe that overall, the project has been a success and that I had done a good job when it comes to portraying all that the hairdressing course involves and what potential students can expect. The intention behind this interactive video was of course, to promote the hairdressing course and to entice potential students into enrolling onto our hairdressing course, which has excellent facilities and can absolutely lay down the foundations for a great future hairdresser.
A Summary of my Idea for an Interactive Video
The idea for my interactive video was initially to hold an interview in the classroom for Level 3 hairdressing and get the head tutor of the course, as well as one of the students to talk to us about the course and inform the viewer of what it means to do Level 3 hairdressing at Strode College. I wanted the video to have a professional feel and for the video to almost have a corporate feel to it, which would ensure the viewers that the videos made were of high quality and convey the professional practice maintained by the students of the college. Professional practice is another aspect of this project which the students were tasked with focusing on and making an interactive video to a high-standard would convey such an aspect well. In addition, good professional practice has also been made apparent with my project in particular, as there are plenty of WordPress articles backing up my work and providing evidence on all aspects of the assignment.
Pre-Production
The first task at hand was of course, getting in touch with the head tutor of the course and deciding upon a good time and date to get to work on producing the interview and so, I emailed the head tutor of Level 3 Hairdressing and the negotiation began. In the meantime, I decided to get to work on composing a proposal for the interactive video, the proposal included my ideas for the interactive video and the aspects that I believed it would require in order to be professional, high-quality and successful. I also set to work on conjuring up the best questions I could ask in order to get constructive and useful answers for curious potential students and intrigued parents/carers.
Producing The Interactive Video
Once I was able to commence filming, I got my hands on a media kit from the AV Centre and started collecting B-Roll for the interactive video, I took shots from outside and inside the college, getting as much substantial B-Roll as I could to make for a more interesting and more fleshed-out video. Unfortunately due to poor professional practice, I forgot to upload the footage onto a computer and so all of my footage was lost. Initially this was a problem and an inconvenience, however, after I had filmed the interview I set about collecting more B-Roll which I did end up remembering to upload onto a computer and is how I was able to get some good pan-shots and close-ups around the hairdressing salon days after the interview, before editing had begun.
When it came to the interview, the whole process could not have went much smoother than it did, upon arrival my crew and I were welcomed and directed to the hairdressing salon, where the two people I would be interviewing were waiting. As we prepared the interviewees for the filming, we set up the camera, the tripod, the lighting equipment and the lapel microphones in a brisk 5 minutes. Once this was completed, recording was underway and the interviews began. I decided to interview the less-occupied student first, which was a good warm-up for the more in-depth interview with the more busy tutor. I asked the questions I needed to behind the camera, which has been cut from the final edit due to my question-asking being ultimately unnecessary in a video which would have such a swift yet easy to comprehend delivery. The student and the teacher both provided substantial and informative answers which are now in the final edit with only the pauses in conversation and the questions I asked being cut out in the final edit of the interactive video.
As mentioned before, I returned to the hairdressing salon alone a few days later to collect some B-Roll footage as halfway through editing during a media lesson, I decided that the video was too bland and could do with some interesting B-Roll footage which I immediately set to work on getting. I did not need to let the hairdressing salon know in advance that I would be arriving, as we had built a decent working relationship at that point and so I assumed they would have no problem with me dropping in and attaining some B-Roll footage. I was let into the salon and was lucky to catch the students at a time when they were in the middle of a very practical-heavy lesson and so there was an excellent opportunity to get some interesting B-Roll footage of the students at work which to my credit, was well-shot and I feel, captured the premise of what is done in hairdressing very well, as the footage involved students cutting, styling and combing hair which is a good display of the practical work undertaken by the students, which I feel is more substantial for viewers than just hearing about what the students do which in most of the interactive videos, is the case. In my interactive video, the viewers actually get a glimpse of what the students get up to in hairdressing and I see this as a factor that sets my interactive video apart from the rest. I also feel that my video has a remarkable mise-en-scene, with students at work in the background as my interviewees give their responses. I am, on the whole, very proud of my interactive video and feel that it was very well-produced indeed.
Post-Production
During post-production, it was important to ensure that my poster and video was polished, I used Adobe Photoshop to tweak my poster and make sure that the colour-scheme, general design and use of the Strode College logo aligned with the brand identity guidelines, as I did not at all want to misrepresent the college or have my poster stand out for all the wrong reasons. Once I had consolidated my poster and made sure that it was eligible to be showcased and fashioned into an appearance deemed fashionable and well-representative of the college, I set to work on editing the interactive video. Using Final Cut, I was able to thoroughly go through my video and cut out anything that I believed there was no use for, such as pauses in speech and all of the non-essential footage. I also focused on ornamenting the video with some background music with was ducked when the interviewee was speaking and also including the B-Roll footage which I feel set the video worlds above its previous form. Another thing that was done to improve the video, was use a pre-made motion graphic which would appear in the bottom-left corner of the screen when someone new was introduced in the video. This was done to introduce the interviewees and also to deepen the video and ultimately make it a more convincing production. While an option at one point, I opted not to use text in the video apart from when introducing the interviewees. The reason behind this, was due to the advice I had received from one of my tutors, who made it clear that adding text in abundance to a video is seen as unprofessional. Having learnt more about professional practice this term, I took heed of my tutors words and I feel that I made the right decision by not including text in the video.
My Target Audience
Naturally, my target audience for this interactive video was potential hairdressing students, interested in enrolling onto the course at Strode College. This target audience is any gender, between 16-20 years of age and preferably those who are local to the MENDIP district, so that Strode College is a feasible option for the said student. I would also like for the video to adults, particularly the parents and/or carers of the potential students as their input is also important. If the video appeals to adults as well as young people, then the interactive video has proved successful when it comes to appealing to a diverse audience.
What I Have Learnt
The interactive video project has taught me a great deal, I have learnt more about the vitality of professional practice, the importance of good time management, how to promote something to a broad audience, how to make a good poster, how to compose an interactive/commercial video to a good standard, how to build good working relationships with clients and partners alike and of course I have learnt a great deal when it comes to creative media studies and I believe that my final project will be a rousing success thanks to all I have learnt in the months leading up to it.
Conclusion
To conclude, I am very happy with how this project has went and I believe I have learnt a lot and composed something that I can be proud of. Both the poster and the video have been received well by my tutors and that does indeed fill me with confidence, overall I think that I did well in some areas and could have done better in others, however this is of course the premise of any learning experience and I shall take the mistakes I made as opportunities to learn, grow and develop. I think that my video will do a good job of conveying what Strode College has to offer, particularly in hairdressing. It goes without saying however, that I think that the video that I have made will also convey the capability and creativity of the media students of Strode College, who I feel have proved that they have bright futures in the world of media and that we are for the most part, capable of producing excellent productions and will have an opportunity to show this off with our interactive video project. What I am most proud of during this project, is my resilience, my positive mental attitude, my mise-en-scene, my use of B-Roll footage and my overall skills in this project. I was tested in many areas but I believe I have done a very good job and sincerely hope that my efforts are well received.
Romano G Media 