Current Progress

By now I have made progress on both the video and started the leaflet. The information needed to be included on the leaflet could be found in the PowerPoint my Client had sent me. It needs to be as informative as the PowerPoint but the difference is that it needs to be attractive, not dull like a PowerPoint. To make it attractive I have decided to add images and not just plain text. The leaflet is the most informative piece of promotional material in this project. I have decided to create a fold up leaflet that has 3 folds with information printed on both sides. The program I used for the leaflet is Adobe Indesign. I am slowly getting more familiar with the program as it is quite a different program to Word or Publisher.
On the left you could see the layout of one side of the leaflet. The blue guide lines are there to guide me on where to insert images and words. The line in the center shows where the folds are and the other two guide lines are margins.




For the documentary video I have been adding effects to the clips and putting the whole video together. The process is surprisingly easy as all I have to do is follow my notebook which I had planned the scenes of the video and also included what effects I need to add. All I have left to do is to test the effect out, make sure it runs smoothly and that the result is satisfying. On the right side is a screenshot of what I have done. There are still a few clips missing, but apart from that I have almost completely finished the video. The screenshot on the bottom right is of a small section of the video. Here I have wanted to create a freeze frame and to do this I have inserted the velocity envelope and reduced it to 0% for the video to be still. I found this quite easy to do and currently finding Vegas a very user friendly program.

Client Communication

Delay in Time plan

There has been a delay in my timeplan as I hope to be able to be filming the documentary video and promotional video by today. The planning for the video has been fully completed in the form of sticky notes in a notebook. The parental letter at first was written in view of the teachers but after discussion with them we have decided to change it to be written from ourselves this way the parents will know clearly what is going to happen and why we are doing it which is to promote the program. We have now sent it and hopefully our clients will hand it to parents so we could be up and filming soon. Because of the delay in filming we hope we can film in a shorter period or we would have to be running late into our timetable.

Sony Vegas effects

In the documentary video, I have almost completely finished designing the layout of the documentary video and decided that the effects I use on it must be simple, attractive and not too flashy. After a quick run through of transitions for words I have decided on 4 effects to stick with they are:

• Cross Blur A/B
• Cross Pixelate A/B
• Linear wipe top left diagonal, soft edge
• Slide in, left-right

All these effects are to be found in Sony Vegas. The sticky- notes plan I am writing on is aimed to be able to have many annotations that simply the person reading it would be able to just pick it up and work from it easily even if they don't know ho to use the program.

Design Work

The timeplan and the final confirmation has been completed now and I can now get on with design work. To start with I should first start designing the video documentary, promotional video and also the leaflet. To design the outline of our video documentary I am going to use word to make a list of different scenes in the order they should appear in the video. They are put in chronological order and in each scene would be annotated with detail specifying what is happening, the editing that needs to be done and also effects etc. The documentary and promotional video I would mainly just use hand drawn images to show the scenes as it is much easier than drawing images on the computer. The leaflet design work could be done on the computer and this time I plan to use prezi and add parts and annotations to a blank in design document and each description would be about what exactly it should include which includes images and texts.

Parental Letter

Today I have been working on the parental letter that is to be used to ask for parents to allow their children to appear in the documentary video. This letter would not include just plain text that letters usually have but also the Sha Tin College Logo, the Compass Program Logo and also the a banner which we would create and would be unique to each letter from the Compass Program. This banner would include a slogan for the compass program and would have to do with guiding students in the correct path and at the same time like a compass they should be directing them. After brainstorming we feel that the word 'direct' should be included in the slogan because it is a word used well in slogans but also fits in with the specifications of the slogan that we were given. The banner shows to the parents how the Compass Program itself is an entirely separate program on its own not just part of the school. The text would include reasons why we need to include the students in the video which is to show how it is currently running. At the bottom of the letter I would have the signature of both Ms Loebig and Ms Stein. Then would be a confirmation slip for parents to sign.

Sony Vegas Text effects

During today I have studied on different ways to create both text and intros on the 2 videos I am going to create. The intros and texts for the two videos would be slightly different. On the the documentary there should mainly be the documentary of the students in the program working and also some interviews. Text and intros in that one could be quite simple as it is just aimed at parents to introduce them to program. Adding many flashy text and effects would prove inappropriate for this particular video. The two links I have found as quite good ideas for an intro for the documentary would be :
http://filmmakeriq.com/2010/07/sony-vegas-tutorial-how-to-create-a-fast-simple-intro/












http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/creating_exciting_text_in_vegas_pro_8














For the promotional video I have found 3 intros that I felt could be quite attractive to viewers



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dembi0WFv1g













http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DecWm90HsW0













http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHsQRkMYyGM












The first 2 intros that could be used for the promotional video are similar, both cloud effects. This gives quite a mysterious feel as if someone is about to discover something. The last effect is the one I like best. Where the text is right now could be the words of the Compass Program. It is a good promotional introduction.