LO4: Evaluation

A) In our product for Sheffield Live, the Play Expo segment there was 3 aspects in the production process, pre production, production and post production. The first stage of whole process was to plan out in detail what we were going to need and do, a lot of time was spent on creating the planning documents as we knew they would assist as a sort of schedule, the planning documents included call sheets that allowed us to request and take equipment from the college, story boards which were created so we had a brief outline of what would be captured and how the segment would look when completed, Gantt charts gave us a time schedule to follow and key dates of the production, treatments and other forms were also made, these reinforced the previous documents and made it clear what was happening and what was needed for the segment. 

The second part of the production process was to capture footage and give it to the editors. The camera operators using Cannon 650D cameras followed the storyboard to an extent and improvised when interviews were recorded, there was only one day to capture footage as the Play Expo was in Manchester and the presenters needed to come back to Sheffield, so there was no room for error. Audio was captured through Rode Shotgun microphones that were mounted on top of the camera.

The final stage, post production consisted of editing the footage and generating feedback through surveys which allowed us to improve the video.
The editing stage was the longest part of the production stages, this took around two weeks to complete.
The most time consuming part of editing was to sort out all the clips taken at the Play Expo, this was a tedious task as we had to carefully look through each clip and decide whether or not it was fit for purpose, once this was completed, the editing on Final Cut, Adobe Premier and Adobe Audition was fairly quick to complete, however attempting to make the audio clearer in Adobe Audition took a substantial amount of time as we had no prior experience with the software.
Once the editing was complete and the segment was exported, a survey was created in order to generate feedback, the feedback assisted us in making any changes to the segment.
The questions asked were regarding different aspects of the segment, for example the audio, visuals and the strengths and weaknesses of it. The feedback was mostly positive however there issue regarding the quality of the audio was occurring as many people agreed the audio was poor.

B) The location of the piece was determined on where the Expo was, this year Play Expo was in Manchester close to the Trafford Centre in a warehouse. As Manchester is quite far from Sheffield, taking train was the best method of transportation, the tickets were pre booked online. At the Play Expo, footage was taken by two camera operators who used Cannon 650D cameras with standard lenses and Rode shotgun microphones.
The presenters interviewed a number of video game producers, this was a key decision that was made weeks before.
We wanted to follow conventions and get a close up shot of the presenters in the interviews, however this proved to be a mistake as the shots taken were too close and this was addressed by Sheffield Live who said in future events the interviews should be captured at shoulder height.
A decision regarding the sound was made prior to the recordings at the event.
We chose a fast paced song as it would reflect the target audience and would relate to the Play Expo as it was a lively event, this was discussed weeks before the Play Expo and a song was chosen and used in the segment. A decision concerning the edit was also made prior to the event taking place. The decision was to have many clips taken as a fast paced edit was going to be made and we wanted to make sure we had enough clips for it.

C) The camera operators captured the footage from two angles, an extreme close up and a close up, however sometimes the close up was substituted for an over the should shot. A fast paced song was used, this was found prior to the footage being captured.
The song would also be appealing to the target audience of gamers aged between 16 - 21, the song was chosen from a royalty free music site.. After the segment was created, we created a survey asking about the sound, in particular the music and whether or not it fitted with the show, the song was . The results of this were positive as most people thought the music was had fit well with the visuals.
 The directors of Sheffield Live enjoyed the segment and loved the music. The song was chosen as fast cuts could be used, as we knew there would be a lot of footage captured. A change was made in the edit as we had to re use some clips due to a lack of clips. The editing was fast paced, as it was synced to the beat of the song, the feedback on the editing was positive as most people said it was fit for purpose. During the recording and editing of the footage, the script and story boards were followed closely.

D) According to the feedback from the surveys, the quality of the visuals were fit for purpose. When the footage was captured, some shots were quite blurry, to counter this problem effects such as sharpen were added, this made them look clearer. In the editing process we used the software, Final Cut, Adobe Premier and Adobe Audition. In Final Cut colour correction was added, this made the visuals seem vibrant and representative of the Expo. The main problem of the segment was the quality of the sound in the interviews, there was a lot background sound and due to this, the sound had to be edited in Adobe Audition, even after this, the feedback on the survey was quite negative. The reason of this is because the sound was muffled. When the directors of Sheffield Live visited our college and gave feedback on the segments they addressed a few problems with our piece. The first problem was that the quality of the sound on the interviews was quite poor and recommended that if we do anymore interviews, we should use a hand held microphone and hold it close to the chest of the presenter and interviewee, this wouldn't capture as much background noise and would pick up the voices much clearer. The second issue with the segment was also regarding the interviews, this was an improvement on the visual aspects. Sheffield Live recommended that we use a different shot type, capturing the people involved from the shoulders up so they would seem life size on an average sized television and become more relatable to the viewers.

E) Our final product matched the storyboards we designed for the shooting, we didn't have a script planned as we did not know who we would be interviewing on the day but followed some of our shot plans successfully. We had the idea of creating a good insight onto what was involved at PlayExpo and what visitors could get up to. In our storyboard we planned images of people using new gaming softwares and interviewing developers on new indie games.
We successfully followed our initial action plan which was to document the day in a fun and interesting way, which will appeal to gamers looking to go to these events or try out new games.

F) Our product related to our target audience as its content and context was completely based on gaming and things related to gaming. Gamers will be drawn to the segment as they can learn about the current market trends in gaming and what goes on at PlayExpo. We believe our segment was very appropriate for daytime television and for the pre-watershed 9'o clock hour as nothing offensive or anything that could be harmful to children was featured and was kept under the regulations of Ofcom. The segment would be very good to broadcast during 12 noon as it is informative and fun for viewers at home, fit for daytime television.

G) We think that the pace of the segment could be a little faster, perhaps due to more interviews needed. However the segment was edited to look fun and interesting with music appealing to a gaming audience. When filming the event, an area for improvement would be to approach more of the visitors of the event, rather than just get shots of the developer's points of view. This helps gain multiple perspectives on the event and will help make the show more relatable to gamers watching at home. Some of the audio could have been a little clearer in the interview, by possibly bringing a boom microphone to capture the voices of the interviews clearer. The shotgun microphone did work but a lot of background noise was captured which some people could find distracting when watching the interview.