Keiron Harris

Evaluation

We produced a travel promo based on the area of Lincolnshire, specifically focusing on the
areas of Grimsby and Cleethorpes. This had a large focus on the people of the area. Our other
idea was a travel promo based on Sheffield. However, we didn’t choose this as we thought it
would be more suitable for re-filming opportunities and location researching to choose the
location we lived in, as this would allow more time for filming and we would already have an
expert knowledge on the area.
Our target audience is young families, with the age demographic of parents being 20-35 and
children aged 5-15. The geo demographics we would be aiming our promo at would be UK
residents, as people would be unlikely to travel overseas to Lincolnshire, but we would target
southern people in the UK, as we feel that families in the Southern part of the country may be
more inclined to want a day out to somewhere rural or coastal as it is completely different to the
bustling city life in the South. The socio economic groupings of the target audience would be
ABC1 as since we are targeting Southern families, they stereotypically have more income and
money to spend, meaning it would be logical to target this demographic. The psychographics of
our target audience would be explorers, as these are generally younger people (which is our
target audience) and people that would want to adventure somewhere completely different and
explore the area, which is the message of our promo. Our promo wouldn’t be gender specific in
it’s demographic, but could be more likely to appeal to female consumers since we have put a
large focus on the people and scenery of the area, not any sports/action footage, meaning
following stereotypical conventions, this would appeal more to a female demographic.
We assigned roles for the production process at the start of the assignment, with us splitting an
equal workload, with members assigned to camera, audio, organisation and editing roles. These
included camera men, lighting engineers, editors, etc. I was assigned to help with the
organisation of the project, and also helped oversee the editing and camerawork by organising
which locations/angles we would be shooting. I also engaged in conversation with people to ask
permission for filming. I believe I performed my tasks well although I could have managed time
more effectively when filming, as often we didn’t have as many shots as we had hoped for. The
group initially struggled in communication and organisation, as occasionally there was confusion
over where or when we were intending to film. This resulted in a lack of quality shots, although
this was apprehended later on in the project when we went out to refilm. There were also some
slight disagreements over what shots we should be getting with each member contributing
different ideas, although this was quickly resolved and we came to a decision. However, on the
majority, the group did work well together and we produced a high quality product in the final
edit.
There were some difficulties we had to face during the production process. To start with we
discovered the original camera we were using was not of sufficient quality for a hiqh quality
travel promo, as some of the shots we captured seemed blurry and low resolution in the edit. To
solve this we replaced that camera with another which we made sure was of high quality before
we went out to film, and then proceeded to re-film all of the shots that we discovered were blurry
at the next available time. Another problem we faced was travel and transport. This is because
since all group members lived in different locations, it made it difficult to always meet up at the
same time. To resolve this, we decided that we would all purchase a bus ticket which could be
Keiron Harris

used to get anywhere in the local area. Therefore, this made it much easier to travel to the
different shooting locations, and arrive there on time.
The planning process was successful apart from the early disagreements on filming locations,
as we all contributed and shared our ideas for the promo, allowing us to quickly initialise a plan
of action over the coming weeks. Certain pre-production materials came in very helpful along
the production process, including the contingency plan which allowed us to quickly overcome
the aforementioned problems we had during production by using the solutions on there. Another
useful pre-production material was the location recce. Which was successful in allowing us to
know exactly where and what we were going to do as soon as we got to a location, as we had
already scouted it.
The filming process (apart from the previously mentioned timing and communication problems)
went well and was both efficient and enjoyable. We captured over 30 minutes total of footage,
which we could choose from in the final edit, most of which were of a high quality after we
switched cameras. We encountered many different people whilst filming, most of whom were
completely understanding and coordinative in helping us film the shots we wanted. However, we
also discovered that some individuals were not willing or comfortable with being filmed, which
did hinder us in capturing certain shots. However, we accepted their decision and tried to find
other people who were more comfortable being filmed.
Some examples of the camera angles we used include mid shots, generally used for showing
an individual with some background also included in the shot, a close up shot, mostly used to
display a specific person or item which we wanted to focus on, a long shot which was used to
show an entire area, in our case, we used it to show the seafront, and we also used a mixture,
of high, low and eye level shots which created different effects such as showing the
dominance/minisculinity of certain objects or placing the viewer in a specific situation, making
them feel they are the ones in the shot. For example: we used a low angle shot to show the
church’s size, we used a point of view shot to show the butcher chopping the meat and we used
a high angle shot to show the seafront. We decided not to use any diegetic sounds, with us
opting instead to solely use a non-diegetic background track to convey the emotion of the
promo, instead of using the sound from the specific clips. This backing track created
connotations of happiness and positivity, which is the vibe we wanted to achieve within our
promo, making it successful in appealing to our younger family target audience.
The editing process went well with little delays or hesitations, as we all agreed on the direction
we wanted to take the promo. We quickly got used to the editing software and started editing
almost immediately after re-filming, and faced few problems when editing our final promo. Some
of the editing techniques used include the white flash effect, which was used as the train barrier
comes down, to flash forward to when the train comes past, this was used to increase the pace
of that segment, as we previously thought it to be too slow. Another technique we used was
timelapsing, which we did by increasing the speed of a longer clip. We did this on a few
occasions, such as in Freshney Place and the Leisure Centre, both of which were used to
evoke a sense of busyness and popularity within the location, and were also used simply to
quicken the pace of the promo to stop it from becoming slow and monotonous. We also used a
black and white effect on all of our photo’s to create a contrast with the bright footage, this made
it look nostalgic, showing the different sides to the location, and may also help to appeal to a
secondary audience of grandparents due to the black and white photos possibly creating a
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sense of history within the location, which would generally appeal to an older demographic.
The strengths of our finished film according to our peer feedback are that the still imagery is of a
high quality standard, and also that the editing quality was good, especially with the timelapsing,
although one peer did state that the editing could be smoother, contrasting with the other
feedback received. We also received positive feedback on the audio, which generally stated it
worked well with the footage. The negative feedback received was that a few shots were still
blurry and the font could be changed on the final shot. One peer also said that some shots could
be removed, or changed in order to help the flow of the promo. As a result of this feedback, we
decided to change the font to a more suitable style, and also adapted the order of the promo to
help it’s flow. We also removed any of the blurry shots and re-filmed them.
I feel that the promo does meet the needs of my primary target audience as it displays a positive
reflection of the area, and shows many different locations within it, providing a sense of variety
which would be important to the family demographic we are targeting.
Next time I would make sure to manage time more effectively and organise and communicate
better with my group.