Research into webseries

Myself and Becca researched into popular movie reviewers on Youtube, and found the most highly rated and popular reviewers; and people's feedback into why they are popular.
The first we found was The Epic Movie Review; Who are three men who discuss their films as they leave the cinema after seeing the film, and have a group discussion about it.
From feedback from the viewers; people enjoy these reviews because they are honest, unbiased. with a clear interest in the films that they are watching.
The second we found was the Blind Film Critic, a man who is blind but reviews films from what he hears from them, and the audio descriptive versions.
From feedback from the viewers on this reviewer; people liked the reviews as they add a unique perspective that not many people will experience.
Breakin' it down  was another popular reviewer; a woman whose parents are directors/producers, and people enjoy these reviews because she provides a funny perspective, and is more than qualified to deliver film reviews.
Kermode and Mayo are two very popular movie reviewers who have a radio show, and put the videos of these on the internet, and people enjoy his reviews as they provide an intellectual perspective on movies, and oftentimes can be quite amusing.
What the Flick was the final one that we researched, and it draws together reviewers from across the web and gets them talking about movies that they've recently seen; and viewers seem to enjoy it because it is a panel of professionals, who know what they are talking about; providing their input on movies.

We researched these popular web reviewers in order to get ideas for our review show on how to make it popular and enjoyable, and factors that we can extract from these review shows in order to make ours better; and the main factor that I can take from this was that the most enjyable review shows are the more casual, discussion-based ones.

Production Log

Production Log

-          Was told about the project, and what it entails; watching the presentation on road safety; and assessing how it can be improved to better reach it’s target audience.

-          We watched the presentation; and were given a chance to hear feedback from the other group. The other group said that it could be seen as biased as a lot of the facts included that most of the crashes were by male teenage drivers; and it could be better to stay away from that, as there is a risk of insulting the audience. Some other criticisms were that the video clips shown were much too graphic, and put off a lot of the audience; and that the content that focussed on the emotional repercussions reached people a lot more.
My own personal critique somewhat matched the other group’s feedback; I found the clips much too graphic; It bordered on horror, and seemed to be constant, and there would be members of the group who would be sickened, rather than shocked into not driving dangerously, and there would be members of the group who wouldn’t care as they were too used to violence.

-          My idea from there was to create a clip without any violence, preferably something humorous, which still got the message across to the audience, rather than relying on shock tactics, which would most likely be ineffective on a teenage audience.

-          I began to put together a proposal for my idea to improve the presentation, and to explain why it would improve the presentation, and the message that it would put across.

-          My idea was to put across in my video the message that teenagers, particularly girls, should be careful of using their phones while walking round in public, near roads, as it is very easy to become distracted and stop paying attention to cars driving past. I wrote in my pitch that this idea would help improve the presentation, as it addresses something that no other video in the presentation did; as well as being relevant to the target audience.

-          Two other ideas were selected by the creators of the presentation to be made, and so the class was split into two groups to create each video. The video my group was meant to create was a funny video about two couples having a race to put their seatbelts on, rather than to race their cars.

-          Everyone created an individual script for the piece, and one script was chosen to be used for the video.

-          This script was changed, as it once had speech in it, and the speech was removed, as it seemed to flow a lot better with no speech, and just music playing over the video, as really, no speech was needed, as it added to the humour, of the audience thinking that they were actually going to have a real race.

-          Storyboards were created, to depict where each shot was, and it what order they would be played, so as to make it easier when filming and editing.

-          The location was selected; Teesside Park, at the car park next to Hollywood Bowl.

-          The Risk Assessments were written and distributed to all involved members of the cast and crew.

-          We scheduled which day everyone was available, and scheduled the shoot.

-          Contact sheets with everyone’s details, and the details of the shoot and times were written and distributed amongst all involved members of the cast and crew.

-          A Script Breakdown was carried out to decide what equipment was needed. We only really needed two cars; one car was Karl’s, the other Hamada’s.

-          Started filming, the equipment was not booked in advance, but the GoPro Camera was available, and so this was used. No sound or lighting equipment was necessary. The whole shoot took around 2 hours to film, and transportation was provided in Karl and Hamada’s cars. Everything ran smoothly, and all the exterior shots were filmed first, then all of the shots inside one car, and then all the shots in the other car next, to be edited together later on. We returned to the college and returned the equipment immediately after taking off the footage and saving it to a safe location.

-          Myself, Karl and Rebecca each did a separate edit of the video. The editing process took around 5 and a half hours each, and we decided on Karl’s edit to be our finished piece.

-          We handed in all Pre-Production work and the finished videos into Andy.

Road Safety Video - Editing Review

I spent some time looking at various road safety videos to find examples of editing within these videos; the following two were videos which I believed were edited well, and suited the tone of the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM
I believe this video was edited well because of the well-shot close ups; which fitted in smoothly with the rest of the video, as well as the slow-motion, and the "explosion" at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFoxGg49WwM 
This video had superb quick cuts, and smooth dissolves and shot transitions when required; as rather than being one road safety video, this is a compilation of many safety videos. The videos flowed well in a way in which you did not notice the editing, and you were instead focused completely on what was happening in the video. As well, the videos seemed to flow in an almost linear fashion; in one shot, a car would crash, or roll over; in the next shot, it would be the fallout from the crash; injured people, gravestones, etc, all pulled from various different videos, and compiled together in a very fluent way.

The following videos however, I believe had poor editing, or editing in some places where they were not necessary:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDpOAXfangI 
This video has little editing, but every transition from one shot to another is a fade to black; which does not really fit the tone of the video; as well as drawing attention to the editing; which is always a bad thing.
The slow motion in the video also doesn't seem to fit, as when the child is being hit by the car, too birds fly past and almost completely obscure the child; and even if this was shot this way on purpose; it doesn't look it, and looks like a mistake during them filiming as well, which could easily have been resolved by reducing how slow the filming was or reshooting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNlS851CWWQ
This video's editing overall is generally terrible; there are unnecessary fade to blacks, as well as cuts where it is meant to look like it is the boy opening and closing his eyes, but it is much too fast and smooth, and simply stands out as an edit where little attention has been paid into making it look real; as well as the shaky camerawork, which was made to look blurred by the editing, I believe, which didn't make sense, as it was shot during the day, even though he was speaking about going on a night out; and so the editing didn't make sense, if it was meant to signify that he was drunk.

Forms of Online Digital Media Distribution

Forms of Digital Media Distribution

 

 

 

There are three main forms of online distribution, Namely Progressive Streaming, True Streaming, and Downloads, and both illegal and legal methods of accessing them. Because of Progressive Streaming, it is becoming quicker, easier, and cheaper to access archives of films and other media without having to physically go out and purchase it, as well as being able to watch live events with ease, and online downloads make it easier to purchase media online and usually at a cheaper price.

 

Progressive Streaming exists in forms such as Netflix, Lovefilm, Vuavi, etc.

Progressive Streaming is when a film is encoded and then uploaded to a server, which is then accessed by the viewer. For example, A film is encoded and uploaded to Netflix's server, and then when viewers log in to Netflix, this enables them to access Netflix's server and view the films that have been uploaded onto this.

 

True Streaming is always live streaming, and is used for live events such as wrestling, football and various other sports, or any show or event which is broadcasted live. One way that people watch these is via the internet, or on Television services such as TiVo boxes, etc; where people can pay to watch these broadcasts (Wrestling PPVs, etc). There are also many illegal methods through which people can watch streams live online without having to pay/from someone other than the broadcaster/etc.

 

Downloading media online is quite easy from the many sites which provide downloadable content; e.g - iTunes, Amazon, etc. This is simply where you download the media straight on to your hardrive without streaming, however, Progressive Downloading also exists, where as you are streaming a form of media, it is downloading to your hardrive at the same time. For example, Through the Xbox Marketplace or Playstation Network; where as you are watching/listening to something, it is downloading itself to your hard drive.

There is quite a high rate of illegal downloading, mainly using Torrenting sites, also known as File-Sharing, where someone will upload a media file, and other people will download it from then, and then using a torrenting program share the file, so the more people who have downloaded the file, the quicker and easier it is to download it.