Rational

Rational

Our product is unique to the marketplace. Competition is next to nothing, therefore we are creating awareness for our product by introducing it as fun, modern and desirable.

This Video is designed to be placed on a crowdfunding website as the goal is to get donations. But it could also be placed on social media and adds as another goal of the video is to create awareness.

Our message and instructions for the audience are clear in the voiceover. It says "Fund us….click the button below". The audience is encouraged to fund large amounts because the biggest 5 donations get a reward, a free Replay Lens.

We use Ethos, Logos and Pathos to make a persuasive video. We used relatable and likeable characters. We all know someone similar to these characters: student, builder and elderly which makes them trustworthy. Using 3 different aged and contrasting people also connects our product to a wider audience. We use logos as we state facts and functions of the product in the voiceover and with graphics on the screen. Pathos is used in the video through humour, jokes are being told both with the voiceover and the footage.

Masking and tracking troubles

The phone screens in the video are meant to show our app and when they tap on them we zoom into the app and into the flashback.

We didn't consider how challenging this might be when the finger goes over the image on the screen to tap on it. It meant we'd need to use a tracking mask. With so little time and no previous knowledge of how to use masks and a number of failed attempts, we made the decision the cut the video before the finger passes over the screen. This way we could just quickly zoom into the screen with the app already open.

Because the actors holding the screens weren't perfectly still, but swaying, we had to track the image to the moving phone. We did this for most of the shots until we realised that it wasn't very well executed and so gave a tacky look. We then also decided to add a still frame of the actor holding the phone and very slowly zoom in so it didnt seem awkward and still.

If we had more time it would've been great to master the skill of tracking and masking to make a professional looking effect.

We are very happy with how the animated contact lense turned out. By carefully tracking it frame by frame and turning the transparency down slightly and turning up the mask feathering, we think it looked quite realistic.

Sound effects Process

We recorded all our sound effects after we did the shooting.

Here are just some examples of ways I created the sounds to place over the video:

For a squeeking mattress sound, we tried recording my squeeky desk chair. This wasnt quite the sound I was going for so we tried just slapping pillows and falling onto the bed...

slapping the pillow surprisingly made for a better sound than actually falling back onto the bed like the video.

 Scrunching plastic bottle for the lunch room scene with a sandwich packet.

Recording myself drinking water to get the gulping sound for the bar scene. 

Flicking through an exercise book for the Grandma scene where she is reading. 

Sloshing around a cup of water with my fingers to get a fish tank/bubbling sound. 

In a few scenes we turned to online sounds when we could not effectively make our own sound. 

Critique Week 6 class 1

Sadly I could not be here for this class but Elley filled me in on the feedback:

Feedback:

-Sad flashback music isn't working
-Maybe happy music to contrast it
-Dull
-Music and Audio are the main priority and need to work together
-Maybe too long?
-More voiceover to talk more about the product and what we want.
-Lunchroom scene unclear which lens is being looked through and lighting off. 
-Add timestamps and recording icons
-Glitch effect?
-New voiceover

New Video Draft

After feedback on Tuesday, we decided to crop the middle scene (builders) out to make the video snappier and give us more time to really focus on the other scenes.

We still intergraded our builder who is talking in the product shot, who is also the guy doing the voiceover. But instead of linking him to the builder scene we changed our voiceover to say our product is still 'under construction' to tye in his costume.

Finally figured out how to export within after effects with a transparent background. I have roughly included the animations in this draft.

Also recorded a mock voiceover of our new script.

Music Test

We want to use music to aid in the narrative and help viewers understand when they are viewing a flashback. Here we are testing out different music moods for the flashbacks. All of the flashbacks have a different mood/vibe but we are unsure if it will seem too random having 3 different flashback songs, we want it to feel cohesive. If we could find one song that would suit all of the flashbacks that would be great.

Because each flashback scene involves something negative going on it could be an idea to use a sad song in all of them. Also because the flashbacks are meant to be lighthearted the contrasting sad music could act sarcastically and add to the comedy of the scene... We will give it a go.

info graphic

We are adding a quick infographic explaining some of the features of the product. 

Graphics for the Video

Created these phone screans on photoshop to add to the video. We will try using masks to edit them in.

To do: Sound effects, stills and animations

To do over the weekend:
We have split this list between us. On Monday we will combine our work to make our first complete draft ready for critique on Tuesday. 

Sound Effects/Music:

Scene 1:  

Breeze blowing

General room noise
Dripping water (beer)
Blankets rustling
Breathing? (mirror flashback)
mumbled party sounds
clubbing music
pouring water
swallowing
slamming shot glass
scraping eftpos card
rustling cash
mattress springs

Scene 2:
Lunchroom noise
fridge door opening and closing
plastic wrap rustle
plastic wrap drop to ground
room noise
sinister sound effects
sinister music
munching, eating
slap

Scene 3:
room noise
wind
trees rustling
book pages flipping
dun dunn duuuuuuunnnn.....
fish tank sounds
water sounds
pill rustling
pill plopping 

Other sounds:
zoom in/out sound
logo sound
music for flashback
music for other scenes

Stills:

Bank acc 0.00$
6x replay app on phone with different time and date and screanshots

Animations:

timestamp - how to change time
infographic - product 

Contact lense illustration and animation

 Using photoshop and our logo design we created this illustration of our contact lense.
Inspiration was drawn from our research on our mood board.

Here is the animation that will be used in the scenes. Made on after effects.

timestamp

Figured out how to add fake time stamps that we will use in our flashbacks. Also figured out how to add text for any other anotations or credits we want to add.

Final Script

Scene 1: 
" This sad sack has no clue what happened last night......... Lucky he put in his replay lens so he can relive his bad descisions"

Scene 2: 
"Your replay lense syncs directly to your phone....... Now eating the evidence isn't as easy as before"

Scene 3: 
"Oh No!........ Grandma forgot that her Alzheimers medication doesn't work for goldfish"

Scene 4:
"Fund us to get our product onto the market...... the largest 5 donations receive a free replay lense"

Actor/ voice over = Fraser

The first 3 scenes will be a voiceover. The 4th scene will be shot in the studio with Fraser as the actor. He is also in the builders scene, so will be wearing the same outfit.

We thought he would be a good fit because he is confident and well spoken. 

We decided to keep him in the builders outfit as it conects the senes and builders are everyday/relatable people.

Location, Actors, Props sheet

We put this together as it is an easy/ helpfull way to see exactly where/who/what we need for each scene.

story board critique

Feedback:

They liked all 3 sceen ideas, we had a couple of laughs which is good. They liked the drunk one the least as it was predictable. We could integrate the end product and crowdfunder sceen into the middle so it is not so boring. Maybe there are to many sceens, it will be too long? The mood board was good to really show what our product was and might look like. 

Our response:

We have decided to film all 3 sceens and later decide while editing if we want/need to cut one out. We will definatly be playing around with where/when we explain the product and ask for money. 

Potential Sound Effects

List of sound effects we might need to record:

Scene 1:
Breeze blowing/General room noise
Dripping water (beer)
Blankets rustling
Breathing? (mirror flashback)
mumbled party sounds
clubbing music
pouring water
swallowing
slamming shot glass
scraping eftpos card
rustling cash
mattress springs

Grandma Scene

For the third scene we planned, the story was that a Grandma with dementia finds her fish dead and so uses her 'Replay' product to find out why. In her flash back she sees she actually fed the fish her Alzheimer's medicine. She then buries her fish in the garden which we then see is next to a dozen more fish she has accidentally killed.

Unfortunately we couldn't find a grandma who would be willing/talented enough to play the part so we decided to use one of us and dress up as a Grandma. Since this video is meant to be for a crowdfunding page we decided it was okay if it looked homemade and like the grandma was fake.

We brought a wig and did some wrinkly skin make up...

The hurdle we had to cross was the fact that we need fish for this scene.

We debated actually buying real fish but decided we didn't actually want to keep the fish afterwards and couldn't find anyone else you would want some free fish...

Fortunately what we did have was an old fish tank.

We ended up buying fake toy fish and taping them the the side of the fish tank so that they looked like they were dead. 

For the flash back while the fish were supposed to be alive we just placed them in the water.

Product logo

We created a logo for the product that we have named "Replay".

We wanted it to look futuristic and professional and resemble a contact lense. We plan to animate this logo as well to use in the video.

We also printed out the logo and used it as packaging for our props in the video to reenforce that we are selling a product.

Here is our animation:

First person shooting

Because our product is a contact lens we needed to use first-person shooting to get a realistic effect that you are looking at a flash black through someones eye.

To achieve this look we used a regular digital camera and got behind the actor and held it in front of their face while they acted. Or we held the camera close to our face and walked around naturally with it. In some cases we had to get the actor to actually hold the camera and press record after we had set up the scene.

We also let the camera be as shaky as it naturally would be while holding it by hand to get the wobbly   first-person effect.

Colour Grading

We are using colour grading to help make the flash backs more obvious.

The colour grading for the present tense is bright and warm.

Whereas for the flashbacks (below) it is slight desaturated and has blue cold tones. We have also added a vignette to add the the effect that you are looking through someones eye. 

In the drinking scene (below) we have made it significantly darker and dramatically bluer to try and get the effect of nighttime and a dim bar. 

Video for Class Critique

Here is the rough edit we presented to class.

We received good feedback - mostly impressed that we could tell a story with no audio, simply through the visual storytelling.

We made the contrast between present and flash back obvious by using black and white just for the presentation because we were worried it could be confusing with no audio. Surprisingly it was noted that the black and white was working well. Unsure if we will keep the flash backs in black and white, we might just use obvious colour grading and vignette to achieve the same thing.

We still need to shoot the last scene. We are worried that our video will be too long with 3 scenes but we are willing to take the risk and film it just incase and if we have to make the call to take out a whole scene then we will.

Second Mirror Attempt

The second attempt looks much better. His positioning is better and the blinking animation we've added contrasts it from the normal (non first-person) footage which is different from these "flash backs". It also adds a cool effect which emphasises that we are looking through his eyes.

Mirror Shot Experimetning

We wanted to have a shot of the guy wearing the contact lens looking in the mirror. Since it's meant to be first-person shooting we needed to find a way to make sure the camera wouldn't be seen and make it look realistic.

Instead of editing out the camera afterwards we decided to try the technique where you film the subject straight-on looking into the lens and then film a shot of just the mirror. You then put them together in editing by using a mask.

Here are the two original footage before editing them together...

screen shot of us trying to work out how to use masks

This was our first attempt...

We are happy that you get the idea of what we want to achieve and its starting to look semi-realistic. But some issues are:

• the mirror is not a perfectly square in the image and so we need to edit our mask to perfectly fit it. 
• He is too zoomed in for it to look realistic, unfortunately we can't zoom out any further so we need to reshoot him.
• Also we need him to not be turning his head because then it wouldn't be realistic first-person shooting because the background would have to move as well. So in our next attempt we'll just have him looking straight on and maybe blinking a few times.