Commission Report – Making Miracles

Aimee Saunders

Simon Welsford / Laura Coull

Word Count: 2705

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Contents;

Introduction 3

Main Body-

Starting the Unit 3

Memorial Garden 4

Medway Hospital/Stall 5

Cuxton Library 5

Interviews 6

Graphics 6

Editing 7

Critical Reflection/ Conclusion 8

Bibliography 10

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Introduction:

In this report I will be explaining how I came about the commission and what I

did to produce the finished video for my chosen charity. I will be explaining what

I did for my commissioner and the lengths I went to finish this video in time,

through research not only into my chosen commissioned charity but also into the

appropriate areas, such as editing and camera techniques.

The charity Making Miracles was set up a year ago by founder and chair Kelly

wells after going through a traumatic pregnancy where she nearly lost her

second baby. Going through what she did inspired her to set up a place for

support for those who go through a similar experience. When Kelly went through

this experience all she had was the fetal unit for support which is why she set up

the charity to help the fetal unit and raise money for any equipment they may

need or support mothers need, such as the memorial garden.

Main Body

Starting the Unit

I came about this through Laura advertising what she had found already and I

showed an interest in this, as I wanted to do something I felt that would make a

difference and for a good cause. When I met Kelly she was really keen and she

told me everything she wanted, she was a really friendly person and was really

keen to work with me and keen on creating this video.

Kelly had given me a few pages brief and the website to look at so I could

research into the charity and what it is about and aims to achieve, there was a list

of ideas and songs, the songs I was worried about at they would need permission

so I had to teach Kelly was royalty free and copyright was.

After researching and a weeks of scripting on my part I went to the site for the

new baby memorial garden as this was before any of the work was about to start

so I could get shots of before and after, photographs and footage. Kelly had

volunteers going into the garden to get rid of the overgrown trees and ivy, in the

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script I had put the process of the garden as a main sections so I needed to make

sure

I

had

the

before photos.

Fig. 1 Garden February right side (2015) Fig. 2 Garden February left side (2015)

Fig. 3 Garden February graveyard(2015) Fig. 4 Garden February walkway (2015)

Baby Memorial Garden

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I went to the garden on a weekly basis on a Wednesday when the probation team

was there clearing the garden, I documented each week the progress they was

doing. Even after the first day they had made such a difference and I made sure I

got as many photos and clips as possible.

I went every week until the studio production show as I was now busy on

Wednesdays so I made sure on the last Wednesday that I got an overall short

piece of footage to show the garden, this was put in the film and it cold have been

a slightly better piece of footage but I did it without a tripod which going back I

would have used.

Fig. 5 Garden after 10 weeks (2015)

Fig. 6 Garden (graveyard) after 10

weeks(2015)

Medway Hospital/Stall

Each week at the hospital right outside the fetal unit Making Miracles has a stall,

in which people donate items for babies to be sold on or the knitters at the

library knit items especially for premature babies which are harder to come by

and not often donated, I went to the stall on a recce to find out where I would be

going and what sort of shots I could get etc. I went again a couple of weeks later

to film everything the only hard things was I could get any faces in and as so

many people walk by it was tough plus I didnt want to put people off buying

items because there was a camera around. The filming went well and I got a lot of

shots even though in the film we only used one, I still had plenty of different

shots.

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Fig. 7 Making Miracles Stall(2015) Fig. 8 Front of Stall (2015)

Cuxton Library (knitting group)

it was a while into the unit/video before I went to the library to see the knitters

who make all the items that are on sale on the stall, I actually only went there

once and that was on the day of filming the knitters, this I do regret as I had not

done a recce first so I didn’t know what I was going to get when I got there and

what I would be filming so I had to do the best I could with the situation, actually

in the film we only used one shot which lasted less than 10 seconds in total but

this was because there was much said about them in the story, next time I would

do a recce first even if it a long way to drive just so I know what I am doing and

can plan some shots first.

Interviews

I didn’t arrange the interviews Kelly did as she mainly produce the whole video

and organized everything. In total there was 7 people that we interviewed and

we decided to do them all on the same day, this was done at Medway Hospital as

Kelly felt this was the best place especially as Ranjit was a busy man and we

could fit his interview in between patients. I did feel a bit of pressure as I am had

to make sure the image was prefect and sound was really good and the clip mic’s

were working etc. my only job was to film the interviews, so I had a two camera

set up with two microphones, I had the sony recording the sound and the wide

shot of the interview and a canon to do a close-upon the interviews, this gave me

more of a range of shots for the interview.

A director answers to the producer and is responsible for the details, quality and

the final film (Rabiger, 2003, pp. 4) This I feel does apply to us as Kelly produced

this film and organized the interviews and I was responsible for the visuals and if

I thought something would look good I would show Kelly but sound and the

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second camera was my responsibility to make sure I didn’t mess up and ruin the

film.

Each interview was set up the same but as I had 7 people we changed which side

they was on the screen so we had 3 mothers and Kelly on the left side and the

other 3 on the right side. They were each colour corrected so they would all be

the same colour, the only problem I had was that I filled the cards up so

fortunately I brought my mac so I could dig the footage in between interviews.

Fig. 9 Kelly Interview (2015) Fig. 10 Hayley Interview (2015)

Graphics

I could not have done these myself so I asked Chris if he could do them for me as

I didn’t have after effects and it would take ages for me to create them, he was

more than happy to help. I supplied to his details of what I wanted and gavehim

the logos, names etc. and he did these very quickly and not only I loved them but

Kelly was really happy with them and thanked Chris, the graphics included the

lower thirds for all interviewed and the logos on the interviews, Figure 9 and 10

show this graphic, and the effect on the newspapers.

Fig. 11 Kelly Lower Third (2015) Fig. 12 Ranjit Lower Third(2015)

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Fig. 13 Marion Lower Third (2015) Fig. 14 Becky Lower Third (2015)

Editing

After filming everything was put the editing on hold till after the live show, which

was only a week later but this left us 2 ½ weeks before the Spring ball and the

video had to be finished, we felt optimistic and it would be done in time.

When I started putting the interviews into the timeline the time came to over 30

minutes and knew cutting this down with Kelly was going to be hard and she

would have to be roofless. It started to go well and we met up everyday for an

hour to start cutting this down and to get the storyline together. I spent more

time with Kelly over the 2 weeks as the sync assemble took a week to do and I

could start seeing the problems that were occurring, the main one being my mac

couldn’t handle this edit as it was being really slow and taking ages to render.

This is one of the main things I regret and would change next time is that I would

edit on my hard drive instead as it would be a lot smoother and less problematic.

Over the days the more I added things into the project especially music and

pictures the worse the slowing got and when I came to exporting it kept coming

up with errors and taking hours to export, when I told Chris he helped me find an

easier way and told me how to edit in future to avoid this problem which I was

grateful for as I really struggled, but Kelly was patient and really enjoyed

watching the new things I had changed or done to the film.

Critical Reflections/Conclusion

Looking back on the whole unit from starting the unit to the end result I am quite

proud of the result and I believe this to be one of my best videos to date, even

though I worked on my own Kelly was their supporting me all the way and this

video was a joint effort in which we are both proud of the results. It was a

pleasure to work with Kelly and I don’t think I could have chosen a better charity

and a better commission, I am glad I have been able to help her out with what

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she is doing and I believe the video will do what it was created for and spread the

word about awareness about the charity, what it does for mothers and to

support those in need.

The whole video went smoothly from beginning to the end, when I first met Kelly

I knew she was going to be easily to get along with and work with which I feel

has made the whole process a lot better experience, at the end it was a bit of a

rush and under a bit of pressure as Kelly wanted the video a lot earlier then I

needed to hand it in, the last 2 weeks before she wanted the video for was purely

editing and I started to feel the pressure and doubt myself but each time Kelly

felt optimistic and changed my mind and with Chris’s help we finished the video

in plenty of time even with all the problems.

All the problems that we had during the whole process lied in the edit, there was

several complications and without Chris’s help and knowledge I don’t think I

would have bee able to finish it, when I started to edit I made sure I had over

100gb spare space on my mac to edit but as I started doing the sync assembly

with the interviews I soon saw there was going to be some issues with the

efficiency as my mac started to get slower and take a while to do stuff and

render, the bigger the file got the worst this got and it started to lag, this I wish I

would have figured out before I started as I could of asked for help and fix my

mistake but this I know for next time as Chris said I should have edited from my

hard drive which I didn’t know how to do it as I thought I was already.

The main problem I had was exporting the video so I could put in onto disc for

Kelly, because the file was so big and my mac was being so slow it took hours and

it kept stopping with errors on some frames, this I needed Chris’s help with too.

If I would have done all this on my hard drive to start with this would have been

a whole lot easier and I would have saved so much time, if I was to do it again

next time I would make sure I started the edit right as all the problems lied at the

end so it didn’t effect the project straight away.

The interviews had a few sound issues with the clip microphone as it was a bit

broken so on two clips I had a loud noise which I couldn’t do anything about but

mute the clip microphone and use the camera sound which had a bit of an echo

and wasn’t very good, this didn’t effect all the clips and the audio is fine

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everywhere else so I’m not sure how I would change it apart from make sure the

wire is not broken next time I have to use one.

What I have learnt from this experience is that its hard doing everything yourself

in a short amount of time as I had 2 people helping me, also that I’m not very

good at editing although I enjoy to some extent of it, I don’t have much

knowledge about it and cant do a lot of stuff on final cut or even after effects but

this wont be my chose subject of interest, I didn’t mind doing the camera work as

I went to different locations and filmed/photographs of different things I am not

as comfortable with this as I am producing though as there is a lot of pressure to

get the image right that’s why I prefer interviews.

Fig. 15 Ranjit and

Kelly (2015) Fig. 16 Ranjit and Summer(2015)

Bibliography

Figure. 1. Saunders, A. (2015) Garden February right side [Photograph] In

possession of: Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 2 Saunders, A. (2015) Garden February left side [Photograph] In

possession of: Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 3 Saunders, A. (2015) Garden February graveyard [Photograph] In

possession of: Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 4 Saunders, A. (2015) Garden February walkway [Photograph] In

possession of: Saunders, A: Rochester

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Figure. 5 Saunders, A. (2015) Garden after 10 weeks [Photograph] In possession

of: Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 6 Saunders, A. (2015) Garden (graveyard) after 10 weeks [Photograph] In

possession of: Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 7 Saunders, A. (2015) Making Miracles Stall [Photograph] In possession

of: Saunders, A: Chatham

Figure. 8 Saunders, A. (2015) Front of Stall [Photograph] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Chatham

Figure. 9 Saunders, A. (2015) Kelly Interview [Screenshot] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Chatham

Figure. 10 Saunders, A. (2015) Hayley Interview [Screenshot] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Chatham

Figure. 11 Sarmiento, C. (2015) Kelly Lower Third [Screenshot] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 12 Sarmiento, C. (2015) Ranjit Lower Third [Screenshot] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 13 Sarmiento, C. (2015) Marion Lower Third [Screenshot] In possession

of: Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 14 Sarmiento, C. (2015) Becky Lower Third [Screenshot] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Rochester

Figure. 15 Wells, K. (2015) Ranjit and Kelly [Photograph] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Farnham

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Figure. 16 Wells, K. (2015) Ranjit and Summer [Photograph] In possession of:

Saunders, A: Farnham

Rabiger, M. (2003) Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics. Amsterdam: Focal

Press

Stephens, S. M. and Stephens, S. M. W. (2009) The Big book of self-promotions.

New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers

Hackley, C. (2005) Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing

Communications Approach. 1st edn. London: Sage Publications

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