Evaluation

What I did and why

During the two days of filming the trailers for TryLife I had several different roles. During the first day, I was a camera operator for the behind the scenes crew where I was part of a small group who conducted interviews with cast and crew about what they thought of TryLife and how the production was going. We did this as they would be informative to put on TryLife’s Facebook page to give their audience a better insight on what TryLife is and what it is like to be working on set. On the second day, I was the director and camera operator for a section of the trailer which in small groups we planned and organised.

What new techniques were you exploring?

For the filming of the trailer we were exploring different camera and planning techniques. When planning for an interactive trailer it is more complex than creating a normal trailer as you have to consider how your decision routes are going to work to make sure each path makes sense. When it came to actually filming the trailer on the first day we had to consider how we were going to film it as we were in a room which was filled with mirrors, so we had to learn how to shoot the scene without getting any of the crew and equipment in the way of the shot.

 

What new skills or processes did you learn?

Throughout this I have learned how to create interactive videos and the process of effectively planning out these kinds of videos as they require much more work done for them to be successful and not to confuse the audience.

 The language you should use to help keep your audience interested in the video. I also learned how to film more effectively by doing the same types of shots all together instead of going in the storyboard’s order.

What went well?

Over the two days many things went well as we managed to all work out an action plan of what we were going to film and how it was going to look. During the first day, we managed to get interviews with many cast and crew members which were to a good standard. 

On the second day, we managed to plan out what we were going to film in detail so that all of the crew knew what we were going to do and how it was going to look. We also managed to film all of the shots that were required within our limited time slot of 30 minutes.

Even better if

The first day of filming would have been better if we were able to get a hold of the cast and crew more easily as for the majority of the time it was extremely difficult to get people to interview as they were either too busy to do so or they didn’t want to be interviewed, this could have been improved if we were able to have more time before they started filming to interview the cast and crew as they would have been more available to do so. Another thing which would have made it better was if we had a chance to interview Hannah as during the day we were unable to ask her. Another thing which would’ve been better was the camera focus as many of the shots taken on the day were out of focus especially the shots where the camera was tracking into Hannah’s face. On some of the shots taken there was crew members clearly in shot who didn’t get noticed by either the camera operators or directors, so to improve this I would do a check before filming it to make sure no one is in shot and would also do several takes of each shot. If I had to do this again I would use a pistol microphone with a pistol grip as sometimes the audio setting levels weren't right with the DLSR camera and the Rode Videomic. 

Audio settings we used which were incorrect

The second day of filming would have been better if we had more time to film our shots as we may have been able to get more takes where we could choose the best shot of them.   

Filming TryLife Trailer Day 2

Tuesday 4th April

During the second day of filming I was the director and camera operator for filming my groups scenes.

Call sheet for day 2 of filming

Before we were able to film our scene we needed to plan out what we were going to do, what shots we were planning to use and the equipment which we would need to film our scene.

Written plan on what we were going to film

Storyboard of how our scene was going to look 

The order which we were going to shoot each shot

Camera and set-up plan

Overall I found that the filming went well as we managed to complete all our shots in our given 30 minute slot. However, sometimes it was difficult to make sure the extras were quite whilst we were filming and sometimes the lighting was either too low or too high.

Some images from the shoot:

Filming TryLife Trailer Day 1

Monday 3rd April

During the first day of filming I was given the role to be the camera operator for the behind the scenes interview crew.

Call sheet for day 1 of filming

Here is some images of the set up for the interviews.

Towards the end of the days filming I went to the location and took some behind the scenes footage of them doing a scene.

Overall the day was quite hectic as the majority of the time the cast and crew were too busy to do a quick interview, so there was times where we would be waiting around for someone to be ready.

Creating Our Own Interactive Video

Tuesday 28th March

Creating our own interactive video

Today we got given a brief to create an interactive film based on an idea of whether the person should steal, leave or return a phone which someone had forgotten to pick up when they left.

Here is all the planning documents and images from the production and post-production:

Storyboards

Camera Plan

Shot List

During the shoot

Post Production

Interactive Media Case Study

Issues to consider with interactive planning

Decide on where to place your decision points 

When creating an interactive video, it should always be clear for where a decision point is. The main places where you would place a decision point would typically be when there is going to be something which would decide the outcome of the story for example choosing the character to go to one location or the other, or choosing a certain object which could help or not help the character(s). If decision points are placed inappropriately it could lead the audience to become confused upon what is happening in the video and possibly lose track of the plot.

One  interactive video which I think shows this well is A Date With Markiplier as this placed the decision points in the appropriate places which allows the audience to feel as if they are actually the person in the video as there is a lot of user involvement 

 Language

The way you set out your decision makers is essential especially with how you are addressing this with the audience say if you put “Where should (character’s name) go?” this is more likely to make the audience less interested whereas “Where do you want (character’s name) to go” as this makes the audience feel more involved as they feel like the character’s fate is in their hands and they are relying on the audience. Here are two examples which I found which show the two different types of languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7gWVA3lts4 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFsv8tGHkHY

Steps to uploading an interactive video to YouTube

https://www.incomediary.com/ultimate-guide-interactive-youtube-videos

what setting you would use, how to link the other clips with the main clip, how to hide the option clips from showing up on the channel.

To upload an interactive video to YouTube you must upload your main clips and all the decision routes. 
Once this is complete you can then go onto your main clip and link each different decision clip to it using spotlight annotations which you can place on the video for your chosen amount of time and this will allow the audience to click on their option. After this is done you can publish the videos.

Additionally, you can hide all your routes from your channel page by un-listing them in the settings menu, so that the audience doesn’t look on your channel and know what is coming up and that they aren’t able to skip to different places on the interactive video.

Integrating interactive video with social media

When trying to integrate your video onto social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter you could either just copy and paste the URL  onto a new post or more advisably go onto the video click on the share tab, below the video, and click on your chosen social media site which will then usually show a clickable link with the videos thumbnail on it or it will allow you to watch the video on the social media site itself.

Additionally on blogging sites such as blogger.com you have the option to embed your video into your post. This can be done by doing the steps you'd do to post on social media sites but then click on the tab which says embedded and then copy and paste the link into the HTML option on the post which you are writing.

Your Solutions

To create an interactive video you must first decide upon what the story is going to be and whether it is going to work as an interactive video. Ideally this will include a storyboard which shows all the different routes (this will help you to notice any inconsistencies in the story), a script, and a list of shots you will be filming on the day, which can help you be more time effective (filming the same types of shots all at once instead of filming them in chronological order).

This is the brief we got given to create as an interactive video.

This is the storyboards which we designed before shooting the story.

Camera plan 

Once you have done all of the above you can then film all the shots. After this you will then need to edit each different route. The best way to do this is to create a sequence for your main video and one for each of your routes. Whilst in editing you should also consider how you should pose the questions to the audience as shown earlier in the post but also you need to consider who your target audience as you may  need to word it differently to ensure that it will keep them interested (e.g. if it was aimed for a young audience you may get away with it being simple and less direct whilst for an audience who are teenagers and adults you will have to be direct).

This image shows each of the sequences I made to create my interactive video.


After that is done you can upload it onto youtube and link all of the different routes onto the main video (as explained earlier in the post) and publish it. Then you can share it across all of your social media platforms by clicking on the share tab (via posting link or embedding the video).

This is the final outcome of my attempt at an interactive video.

Sources:

https://www.incomediary.com/ultimate-guide-interactive-youtube-videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CICbO4L_-iI  
https://lbbonline.com/news/5-simple-tricks-to-follow-when-making-an-interactive-story/