Here is some user feedback from the Facebook page for my media course. As well as the likes and positive comments one of my tutors said:
"I felt that the pace changed a bit much through the piece"
I personally felt that that pace of the video flowed well, and I allowed very small breaks or slower video just to add pauses, however overall I kept the video quick and flowing as it was only 40 seconds long. Potentially I can see issue with the social media part of the video, where I created fast movement around social media logos which them progressed into two slower pans over logos and a video channel. Personally I was happy with my end result and feel like this could only need tweaking slightly.
Other feedback from friends was positive, and overall with the positive feedback i received from the client I am happy with the final outcome of this project.
Another point raised was the use of Charlie Chaplin footage, of which i sourced legitimately for used from a stock video website that has a public domain section of video that is allowed for free use in projects. (Pond5 stock video)
After completing my final video for VPoint TV I asked the Co-director Sally Reynolds for feedback on the final product.
"HI Dale,
This project has come on a long way since I last saw it. I like the flow and pace of it. It's a good length for a promo. We discussed whether we should have a male or female VO, and did think that a male voice might sit better with the music. But I think that there's a nice juxtaposition with the softer female voice and the harshness of the music - this works much better than I thought it was going to.
Regarding the storyline. I think the script is much punchier now and that the visuals reflect the message of the words. I like the 'metaphorical' imagery that you have chosen to help get points over - for example, the 'crowd' of penguins, the two 'lost at sea' messaging shots, the Russian dolls to represent different sized client companies, Charlie Chaplin, the Go section of the Monopoly board etc.
The only thing that I'm not sure about is the relevance is of the aerial shot of the canal, the combine harvester and the bloke walking along before we get into client logos. At this point, the VO mentions 'we've made lots of compelling videos for companies'. Of course I know that these are all shots from some of VPoint TV's compelling videos, but would somebody else?
We're not pretending that the penguin and the sea shots are from our videos, so how does the audience know that we've now moved to showcasing some work. Perhaps there could be some other element here to 'signpost' this. As the video creator, what would you suggest to help do this?
Otherwise, I think it's great! Really like the speeded up sequence of the green screen shoot!"
Overall I was very pleased how the project came together and I think I managed to create a professional video that perhaps with further revision the client would be happy to publish. This is particularly pleasing as my client is a video production company, so they have high expectations of a video that was designed to promote and illustrate what they do and represent them to anyone who watches the video. I am really pleased with the music and the voice over working well, and I am pleased Sally herself has admitted although she didn't have confidence in it at first, the juxtaposition works well between the big drum music and a soft but slightly stern female VO.
The only concern Sally raised in her feedback was the start of the video transitions from the first three shots of stock footage into videos that VPoint TV had created, and how I could manage this transition better.
Firstly I would look at my design method of SCAMPER which sits well with changing an edit by Substituting and Adapting the way I have edited the promotional video and what clips I have used.
In this case with the transition between stock footage to VPoint TV's video I would choose to use a graphical transition at the start of VPoint TV's own footage, with the logo and some kind of wipe or blur in transition to bring the logo in front of the footage actually created by VPoint TV, and then continuing as before.
Another option would be to include one of the behind the scenes videos before VPoint TV's content to show staff there working on a video and then that transitioning into the video they were creating at the time. I did this with a jib crane shot later in the video before the time lapse so I could try Put to other use video I have already editing simply by Substituting it else ware.
To finalise my video I needed to add two videos to the start that I wouldn't be able to create myself. These were the first idea of standing out from the crowd voice over being overlayed on top of footage of penguins in a large crowd all looking the same. I feel this works well and is a strong image as penguins look very similar and also have a relation to large city crowds in suits.
The next was the very next clip of getting your message out there, for this i wanted a tropical beach with a bottle and sealed message inside. I felt this was a good analogy of having a message in a sea of videos online, and the sealed bottle also standing for not being able to get your message across to the target audience.
I have used other stock footage however this was public domain and free to use, this is why i left the paid footage till the end of the edit to make sure I definitely needed to purchase it for the production to be a success.
As part of my voice over towards the end of the video is the line "We go that extra mile for our clients". For a while I was puzzled how to represent this. The extra mile part of the voice over seemed obvious, and using some kind of car footage would be useful and almost to obvious not to use. However I wanted to represent the word 'Go' with something that was icon and recognisable as 'Go'! At first I thought about using a traffic light turning green as it would link in with the car footage and also represent 'Go' well, however I thought that it would possibly be to similar to the car footage as I wanted the video clips in this video to vary as much as possible. Finally after thinking about ideas for this I spotted the pile of games in the corner of my room and immediately realised using a monopoly board go square would be ideal. It says the word 'Go' and also is iconic which is ideal for a video where vidoe clips are montaged quickly and could easily be missed or not understood if they didn't have enough recognisable value.
Final 'Go' clip from my video
When i finally filmed this clip I decided to do a quick pan onto the game piece to add movement into the clip, this is because I felt a stationary image of the word 'Go' wouldn't lend itself well to the connotations of the word. This clip then led into a car related clip and I felt it worked well and resulting in one of the more iconic images in my client video.
