Evaluation / Final Video

When starting this project I didn't expect to be working with someone else, i've never worked with someone else during any other university project so it was very new and different but I throughly enjoyed it and actually recommend it to anyone else who is thinking of partnering up. Andrew and Sue had been speaking and came to the conclusion that I would be a good person to parter up with because I enjoy video/editing and when Andrew told me his idea I understood it straight away and we went from there. Other reasons why I was more than okay with partnering up with Andrew is because he's a very reliable, smart and easy going. He had a vision for what he wanted the video to look like from the get go and explaining it to me I also had an idea of what he wanted but needed it down on paper to fully understand what it should look like, when we starting storyboarding it was easy to draw out what we wanted to achieve with the film / after effects.

The first thing me and Andrew did when starting the project was make a plan, we said that I would be  in control on filming whereas he would handle the after effects but help each other out, Andrew helped massively with the filming as I was actually in the video and needed an extra pair of hands he also has amazing camera equipment that we used, the shoulder camera holder that we used for the train station scene was brilliant to use because it kept the camera steady and gave a really steady shot. I also helped out with the editing of the videos as I would go to Andrews house and edit there or in class, he knew better than me how to use After Effects so there was no help needed with that but more giving my opinions to what i thought was good or what needed changing, I like that he really values the opinions of others, it makes for great team work.

The only downside I would say to working in a team is finding free time to meet up, for example Andrew would work the weekends and I would work Monday & Tuesdays which left zero time before being back in on Wednesday and Thursday, having said this we both did make huge efforts to meet up outside of university and in university we would get on with work. Also having dissertation first draft due along side the project was quite stressful because at times I was really stuck on which one to put more of my efforts into as i wanted to do well in both.

During this project I have learned a lot which I'm really thankful and happy about because without doing this project I wouldn't have ever heard of some of the things i can do now, for example Adobe Mocha has played a big part in this project by tracking the phone and making it so the mock up app is actually on the phone in real life, I've always wanted to know how to do that now i do, once this project is finished I am going to play around in the software a bit more because i can defiantly see it being useful with future projects. I have also learnt more in After Effects though i already knew how to use it Andrew showed me some tips, tricks and shortcuts on the keyboard to get faster results. I have a canon 60D and Andrew has a canon 600D I only recently got my camera so I learnt how to use this better when filming also I now know more about what lenses i should be using.

Overall I am very happy with the final video It looks exactly how we set out for it too look when we initially started story boarding and I think the whole idea behind the app answers the brief set by airbnb, myself and Andrew have been talking and we're going to submit it to D&AD.

Below is the final video that we handed in for submission:

Editing The Final Scenes.

editing the montage together was quite fun, firstly we had to think of how many videos would fit in the frame, the videos had to be made square from their original shape, Andrew did the math and figured to that we would need 6 across and 4 down rounding up to 24 videos playing on screen. 

We had to think logically when it came to this part because we wasn't going to go out and film ourselves because we needed a lot of different people in completely different locations so we took to youtube and sourced a range of videos from vloggers to people doing room tours. We then imported the video's into After Effects and shuffled them up into a random order so when they appeared on screen it would be in no particular order. Now all the videos are on screen we then put a box blur effect on it this creates an almost cinematic blur this also helps the logo stand out against it, whilst the voice over ending slogan comes in saying "airbnb stories, share your stay today" which ends it beyond perfectly. 

Making The Voice Over.

Ive recorded some of what we did to give an insight into how we did the voice over, in the last video see Andrew reading the script off of my computer screen. Andrew wasn't too keen on his voice but i think he did really well and sounds very clear all the way through. 

there was a little bit of difficulty in making sure everything perfectly matched with the video, making sure the audio levels sounded the same and also making sure that there was no other noise in the background, there was a class full of students next door so it was a little difficult at time but because we adjusted this in after effects it came out okay. 

Voice Over Script

When it came to writing the voice over script I straight away went to the airbnb website for some inspiration then it thought it would be a good idea to add some of the quotes to the script but maybe reword them slightly. We went through the video and spoke along as it was playing to get an idea of what would be the best thing to say and what fit the best, because we didn't want it to sound rushed or not enough. 

In the end we got a good script together and Andrew was the voice person for it because i said he has a clear voice that everyone would be able to understand though if there is time we're considering getting Jake to do some speaking then choose between the two because he has an enthusiastic voice. 

we was trying to think of a slogan for the end of it that would tie it all together, we settled on 

"airbnb stories share your stay today." we like this because it's catchy, it sounds like it rhymes and perfectly ends the video.

Here is the final draft for the script that we came up with:

Editing Brighton Scenes

Once we had finished filming in Brighton I had to go to work so the next day we was both free all day so I made my way too Andrews house to edit what we had together. Andrew had his laptop connected with his computer monitor this proved handy as the screen was extra big and we could see what was happening better. The first thing we did was track the phone in my hand using adobe mocha, I had never used this software before but it was amazing too see how it worked and the fact it's so easy to get the tracking on point as it zooms in to to the pixels. 

zooms in to to the pixels:

Once the tracking of the phone was on point we then added the app which was created in after effects on to the phone it, I couldn't be more pleased with how it came out. We then got onto adding the video I shot on my iPhone in to the avatar circle, Andrew originally wanted a picture of me to place in the circle to show I was changing it but I suggested it could be a better idea to have a default picture because it's an image that is known world wide and is more clear that someone is changing their picture. Adding this and watching it back it worked really well. 

We then saved this out and created a new comp on after effects and added it to the rest of the video. then staying in after effects we imported the coffee shop scene, this only took a few minutes because we didn't have to track anything using mocha. We just had to make sure the timings were okay because we used two different camera angles we wanted to make sure it ran smoothly and was a seamless cut. 

Example of default picture:

Editing:

Filming in Brighton

Looking back at our storyboard I thought it would be a good idea to head into Brighton and shoot a couple of the scenes as it was a sunny day and Brighton is full of nice locations. The scenes we had left to film was the video avatar and the scene were the man opens the laptop in a coffee shop you can see this in the print screens below.  

Originally we wanted a man in his 40's+ to be on the laptop to show that the site is user/age-friendly, but because of time and Jess having already offered to help we came to the decision it would be easier to get her to play the part of the coffee shop person. We all headed to Starbucks in Brighton centre because we knew they had an upstairs where we wouldn't be disturbed and big windows for good lighting, we got a table right next to the window and the lighting was perfect for filming. Myself and Andrew both bought our cameras to film with and because of this we got brilliant cut shots from different angles. We asked Jess to simply sit and open the laptop then pretend to scroll and click on the image. On the laptop screen we had the airbnb website up and running but we thought it would be a good idea to use GogglesXRay this is a website that allows you to use the code from any chosen website then manipulate parts, we changed the name to airbnb stories to match our app, this website came in very handy as it was much easier and quicker to do this instead of using green screen.

Here is a screen capture of the shot I filmed in Brighton, I thought this over the shoulder shot was good because it fits in with the other footage we have already filmed, it also pays attention to the screen which is what we wanted because then we could could use both this footage the parts that Andrew filmed. 

We then went to film the video avatar scene, a video avatar was one of my favourite ideas that me and Andrew came up with for the app because it's so new, fun and really goes with the theme of the airbnb website. So instead of a normal profile picture you can instead have a profile video that loops when someone clicks your image, the idea behind this scene is showing how easy it is to do this. 

We chose for it to be me using the app at this point because we wanted different people throughout the video. Firstly I saved an image of a green block colour from google images this is so when editing it would be easy to get the app that was created in after effects on the phone, though once we got to editing we shortly realised that a blue screen would have been more ideal as the grass is also green and blends in but Andrew assured it wasn't a problem and he knew how to sort it. 

Once the green screen was up and running I had to stand there whilst Andrew shot from over the shoulder and pretend to click the screen, it was difficult to make it look real so I would click then hold my finger back as if i was waiting for it to load which worked well as we saw in editing. I then had to film on my iPhone a short video of myself waving at the camera this would be used for my profile video when it came to editing. Jess used my camera and shot from a different angle which helped out too. 

In the two screen shots below you can see the what I am talking about when referring to the video avatar, in the first screen shot there is clearly no picture I then click on the little pen tool which enables me to be able to recored (which you can see i the full video.) The last screen shot just shows the result in how it would look when finished. 

Jess, Myself and Andrew filming in Brighton:

Crit Feedback

When doing Crit the pressure / amount of feedback you get can be so much that when you go to make changes you forget what was initially said because of this we now get someone to note down the feedback which is very useful. Above is a screen shot of the email I got sent ill go through them all.

• The first point we was already doing at the time because when we presented our work we hadn't finished so now it's almost finished i can say we have got a number of people uploading videos not to mention at the end we're going to have at least 24 videos montaged together to show how many people are using it and how its forming a community. 

• Montage multiple stories - I think this referring to the last scene, the videos will appear one after the other and will be only a few seconds long.

• Thinking about the map and how it can handle both pictures and video - I remember sue mentioning the fact people like to see pictures too - I personally dont think this is a problem because it will be a still images until someone clicks on it which will then play a video. - when it comes to things like this it simply doesn't matter because you can add a button or a swipe or a hidden drawer that solves the problem theres a lot of ways around it.

• We chose to stick with the colours that airbnb already have because it think it shows a level of professionalism - sometimes you don't get to choose what colours you personally like and you have to stick with the ones you get - but in this case i did like the colours i think they work well for the brand and the app we created. 

• internal communication was mentioned in during crit and said / still think that it wouldn't work with the app we created, our app isn't supposed to be an instant messaging social network its to upload video shots, but this doesn't mean you can't chat on the app you can easily chat through the comments which we have made clear in the final video. 

• Having a like function has been included in the app along side the comments but not a "was this helpful" it think things like this should be kept on the official website not on airbnb stories app. 

Overall crit was averagely helpful, everyone had something to say whether they was complementing or giving some constructive criticism, we will go read more into the feedback notes and make necessary changes. 

Adobe Mocha

Adobe Mocha is By using this software we are able to make the airbnb stories look like a legitimate app that is actually being used. When showing this work to a few people they genuenly thought it was a real app that he was using which i think is conformation enough that it looks good!  

Filming The First Scene

Today myself & Andrew are going to film the first few bits for the film, because we're both at lewes we want to get the train station scene done. We have been going through ideas on who could play what part, we're thinking of either Andrew himself or get someone in the class to do the train station guy. 

The idea behind this scene is that we see a guy in his 20's using the airbnb app to record himself at the train station, this sets the scene for the rest of the video as it shows he is headed somewhere - traveling. It also gives an insight into what the app does. 

we're using a canon 600D to shoot this scene, and using the shoulder pad really helped to get a nice steady shot. Because we're using such good equipment the footage we have looks really professional. 

Opening Tittle // After Effects

In this mornings class we have been working on the opening title, it looks exactly how we planned for it to look when storyboarding, It's being created in After Effects we want to create it so the logo swoops in then out as if someone is unlocking the phone. I have been giving my opinions here and there but Andrew knows what he is doing when it comes to After effects. It looks really good and I'm pleased with how quickly it's coming along.

THE X-Ray Goggles

x-ray goggles is a website that allows you to manipulate websites using code, the website is supposed to teach people what code is and how to use it, but we thought it would be a good idea to use this site for some of our video, mainly the end part for when the laptop is used because this would save time in green screening. I have only just heard about this site so i am going to spend a few hours playing around with it and seeing it's full potential. 

https://webmaker.org/en-US/goggles

Background Music Ideas

I personally think music brings everything together, you can have the best lighting, HD quality and brilliant acting but without a little music it stays pretty dull, this got me thinking of airbnb and how they're far from dull from researching into their brand and community they like creativity and the idea of play. I think the music needs to resemble this. The music needs to be instrumental because lyrics would take the attention away from the audience and if we're going to have a voice over then it will also distract from that but the music also needs to be fun and averagely fast pace.

here are some that i have found:

I cannot find this one on youtube but it is my favourite of all the ones I have looked into, it's called feeling positive and you can listen by clicking on the link. http://www.melodyloops.com/tracks/feeling-positive/

Storyboarding

Recently myself and Andrew met up outside of university to discuss and go over research that we had both done and discovered that would come in useful.

we thought it would be a good time create the storyboard, creating a storyboard is very helpful because now i know what exactly needs to be filmed and how it should be edited. We worked well together thinking of what would be the best way to go about and present our idea.

The basic idea is a trailer for how the app works we want to show the main features of the app but do not want to exceed a maximum time of 2 minutes because keeping the viewers attention is important.

The images below with a red boarder are going to be done within after effects / other computer software and the rest are ones we need to film, we wanted a constant mix throughout. There will be background music and a voice over.

main features: filming, uploading, searching.

The storyboard outline basically starts off with a guy in his 20's at the train station filming on the app then the uploading will be shown, we thought a good idea would be for comments to surround the phone such as "good video" too show the community/notifications side of the app. Then it moves onto two girls teenage/early 20's in their living room excitedly planning a trip searching for a place to stay. We then go back to the train guy because we want to show how you change your avatar into a moving image. We then have a man in his 40's on the computer viewing a story, we thought it would be a good idea to have someone a bit older, this is to show that the site/app etc is for most ages. It ends with the computer, tablet and phone sliding in too show that it can be used on any platform then finishes with a montage of videos and fades out with the logo last on screen. I think this should look as slick and tidy as possible when it comes to actually filming and editing process.

Myself and Andrew also spoke about equipment, discussing what we should use, I have a canon 60D that I will happily use for filming but will need one of his many camera lenses as I only have a couple that would be good for zoomed in, blurred out background shots but not for a wide angle view.

though the deadline is quickly approaching I am happy with the progress we're making and I think once we get filming done then the editing will allow us to get creative and will be fun to do.

Sketchbook Work.