Trailer

I feel the trailer was an over all success and did its purpose, it reflects the overall message of the video and makes the viewer want to watch the full version. This is helped by a number of things.

1. The magical sunset imagery combined with cinematic videography makes the film seem professional and in that case more appealing to watch.
2.  The colours of the desert mixed with hard core skateboarding targets a mass audience and the niche audience of skateboarders and helps to portray the narrative giving the viewer a small taster.  
3. The influential voice over mixed with the dramatic music helps to influence the viewer into watching more by making them more engaged with the story and then leaves them handing.
4. The voice of audio reflects the film showing passion and determination will help to interest the viewer and leaves them with Kamel saying skateboarding saved my life, the viewer will want to know more, how? why? etc. This engages with the viewer.

When doing it again i would change the music to the iconic 'say no prayers' because its more of a up beat song, full reflecting the film because it is a positive message.

Audience profile & self analysis of first draft

Overall the feedback we got is that they enjoyed the film overall, and like how it focuses on skateboarding by using lots of skate clips, this proves how we have targeted our main audience. Other thing they picked up on is how unique the interview style is, using the rule of thirds and also the cinematic Bokha, they talked about how professional it was because of the multi use of camera angles keeping it interesting even in the interview.

The interviewee picks up on the fact that we displayed failure and also success, they enjoyed the fact that we did but they want to see the progression and process of landing a trick not just a bail. This can also help show determination and how dedicated Kamel is to the sport.

The major thing that they felt was missing is the push on the narrative 'inspiration'. We talked about how we could portay this idea and they felt like a whole new part of the story needed to be added visually. And this is where the idea of the desert came in.

One thing we agreed to change is the beginning, they didn't like how it started with a bail, if we wanted to keep this idea of showing failure and success we had to show progression. 

Sound editing

When editing sound it is important to make sure that it fits well and is used at the right time. Sound was a major way that we managed to target our demographic because of the genre used. We did lots of background research into what music to use and i feel we picked music that fits very well.

Sound much like camera angles can enhance the trick making it look even more impressive by timing the bass line or high snares with the landing of the trick, we have also used this technique to create continuity editing making it easier for the viewer to understand whats going on. We did this by firstly marking the bass line of the soundtrack and then syncing the sharp cuts with them. This improves the overall aesthetic and makes the segment more powerful.

The use of soft background music over the audio allows for the piece to flow throughout and keeping the entertainment level high. 

Video first draft

This is the first draft of our video, we created a first draft to get audience feedback such as improvements and also things that worked well that we can keep the same. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz01XPHdRM

First draft editing

To edit our film we chose to use Final Cut Pro because it is a software that i am familiar with and have used before for other projects. We has 500+ clips that we first had to go through and pick the clips that we would use.

I edited the mass majority of the film due to my team being on holiday and lack of experience with editing video. The first thing i did was match the audio with the visuals of the interview. I had to do this because we had a two camera set up. One was central and was capturing his voice using a rode mic capturing the highest quality sound and the other camera i was operating and i had to capture the soft visuals of the interview using my 50mm with an f/1.8 this created a soft bokeh.

I then organised the clips in terms of location, i did this because i wanted to arrange the clips to the audio and match what he's talking about to a visual image. This helps solidify what Kamel is talking about and makes it more relevant. We arranged the clips into the skate park in QF, then the skatepark in Katara, then CNAQ when he talks about his education and finally any extra clips from random locations.

I felt the first draft was missing a large portion to tell the story, to find out what is missing we are planning to ask put target audience on what to improve or add. 

Post card Design

This is our post card design, over all i am very happy with it and i feel like we have recreated our original idea very well. We took inspiration from another skateboarding postcard that follows the same theme as our called 'We are blood'.

We are blood is about how the skateboarding community is like family almost blood related. If i were to do the photo again i would go back on a day that wasn't as cloudy, i really like the outcome but i feel it would be more effective like the above 'we are blood' poster, it would allow up to have a more golden vide which i feel would've been very effective.

Editing of postcard

Below is a list of what we needed to change from the original image:

• The lack of colouration of the sky
• The slight over exposure of the sky
• The slight under exposure of the subject

Original Photo

Edited photo

Firstly we imported the image into photoshop after creating the size template of 8 inches by 12 inches, this is because i researched the usual size of a film festival postcard. We then had to decide on how we would edit the image. We wanted to enhance the sunset to promote the theme of following your dream by making the sunset magical. We did this by enhancing the colours and adding conventional colours that portray this theme such as purple. We also decreased the exposure to make the sunset more prominent it also allowed us to follow our original design of the silhouette.

The colour gradient we selected was purple and orange. This is because of the colours of the sunset, it made the vibrancy stand out more and look more exciting.

Unedited poster photo

These are the unedited photos for our poster. This shot is also seen at the end of the film making it easily relatable for any viewer. The dramatic sunset adds to the story being told and also helps to back up the synopsis. 

Miles and i went out into the desert to take the final part of the video and capture the postcard image. 

Filming day 3

Filming day 3 took place on Friday 22nd of January, we planned to film the interview on this day at CNAQ, we took two cameras a tripod and a rode mic to capture the interview.

One camera was set central on a tripod with the rode mic that was running the whole time we asked Kamel questions. We use a 600D with a rode mic to capture the best audio possible, this camera was positioned close to Kamel and didn't move the whole interview. The second camera i was operating, i used my 70D and my goal was to capture cinematic close ups of Kamel during the interview. To do this i used my .. 50 mm lens. This lens is extremely sharp and is primarily used for filming because of its manual aperture which is controlled on the lens and has a very low f/ 1.4 giving a really nice depth of field. I ran around getting different angles adding variety and interest in the interview.

We are aiming to have completed the following in the day of filming:

1. Interview with Kamel
2. Establishing and close-up shots
3. Main body of filming

Getting close ups adds to the personal connection with Kamel:

Final Music Selection

The music is very important in setting the scene in our film, we spent a lot of time searching for songs that would fit out theme and help amplify the mood of positivity and following your dream.

We worked out we needed around 2/3 songs to fill the entire film. not because of duration but because the change of subject and vibe. 

We settled for 'Say no prayers - Menace0711' for the beginning of the film, when introducing himself and his passion for skateboarding. This song fits well because its more upbeat and positive which follows the theme. Because the song is fast and has a heavy bass it makes it perfect for putting over skateboarding clips and syncing with transitions and landing of tricks, this is conventional to the skateboarding genre and we wish to recreate this to follow the genre. 

The song talks about "how do you find a way to keep on fighting" this works well with Kamel's story of following  his dream and over coming obstacles that are in his way.

Menace0711 - Say no prayers

The next song chosen was OC- Born 2 live (instrumental). This song is an instrumental from an old rap song, this type of music is conventional to the skateboarding genre and seen in most skate videos because of its fast pace bass that can be edited to fit the clips which can amplify the trick making the video more impressive and can compliment the low camera angle. 

This song is going to be used in the middle after Say no prayers and before the inspirational talk, purely to fit within the genre and it works really well with raw skateboarding clips. 

OC- Born 2 live (instrumental): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCoHyKAi3PQ

Lastly we had to choose a song that would go over the inspirational part of the film, this song had to be easy for the viewer to hear the voice over of Kamel talking but still have a dramatic impact in setting the scene and help promote passion. We settled with 'The xx - Intro'. This song is somewhat magical and fits very well with the desert scene making what Kamel is saying impact the viewer even more. 

The xx - Intro:

Film festival nominations

When creating the film postcard we looked at others for inspiration, and one thing we noticed were the film festival nominations. These not only celebrate the nominations and their success but also add to how professional and official they look.

The above image is an example of a film postcard, as seen at the top of the postcard they have clearly represented their festival nominations and successes. 

The below is the film festival nominations we have designed to put on our postcard, we have followed the conventional design with the leaves and layout of fonts and font size. I feel this is really effective in creating a professional looking postcard.

Making of the film festival postcard

To create the Film festival postcard we decided to use Photoshop. We are using this software because we are familiar with using it due to our past experience with photography. This will allow us to create a more interesting and professional postcard quicker. 

As proposed we made a 8 inch by 12 inch blank white canvas. This is the size asker for the film postcard. 

The first thing to do was look back at our designs and see which one was the strongest in promoting the film. After this we added the logo and film name (drops) in. We used the same logo and font to make sure our work is easily relatable to any viewer. This includes colour scheme and overall vibe. 

The next stage was to add essential information on the postcard which is conventional to this type of advertising. The information, imagery etc. must express what the film is about and interest the viewer to watch the film. This is the main goal for the postcard. 

The next step is to take the photo for the background. This will take place in the desert during golden hour to give a dreamy effect. 

Filming skateboarding equiptment

When filming skateboarding it is essential to have the right equiptment and how to use it.

Equiptment:

X-Grip- This is an portable stabiliser/ handle for a camera. This allows the filmer to get closer to the ground making the skater look more powerful and the tricks more impressive. This is used when filming with the fish eye lens.

Fish eye- A fisheye lens gives you much more width than you would have normally on your camera therefore allowing you to fit the whole skaters body in and more of the spot. And it helps the viewer feel closer to the tricks. Plus gaps and stairs look larger, and rails look taller. Most videos are about 2/3 fisheye, 1/3 long lens.

Filming Skateboard- This is an essential to the equiptment list, its basically a normal skateboard but with softer wheels on them much like longboard wheels. This allows the filmer to follow the skater with a smooth shot and push less because it will roll for longer.

Mic- Even though skate videos have music playing they choose to keep the natural sound of the skateboard on top of the music. This adds to the realism and makes the trick seem more real because of this added sense, Visual and sound. We chose to use a rode mic on the fish eye lens because it was always closer to the skater.