5/14/2014

Educating
Keswick
Summary Report
Benjamin H Bryden
KESWICK SCHOOL
Introduction
I have now completed my 5 minute clip of Educating Keswick so I am going to type up a report to
evaluate my video product. I will include what we have done well, what could be improved, the
editing techniques, tools effects and techniques we used and the different camera shots we used. I
will also discuss how the product met the brief and the target audience.
What went well?
After reviewing my final video and thinking back over the making process there are a number of
things that went well. Firstly I am very pleased with the video clips because filmed a number of
different classes, interviews and scenes from around school so we got a lot of variety in our final
product. After we had captured the footage we went through it and decided which clips to use. We
then had to do some editing to cut the clips down to length so as not to bore the audience. We also
used the sound from some of the interviews with clips of lessons relating to what the teacher was
talking about because it is more interesting to watch a class and listen to an interview than watching
a person talking. It also makes the video look more professional. Another thing that went well within
our group was the organisation and punctuality of the group members. Everyone turned up on time
for the filming at the correct places without any issues. Generally we worked well as a group and
shared the jobs and work load out equally. I was the director, Jordan was the camera man and
Ronan and James were the editors.
What needs to be improved?
In order to improve my 5 minute clip I would like to have better voice-overs because the ones we
currently have are bad quality and there is a lot of crackling there is also volume difference between
the voice-overs so some you can barely hear and some hurt your ears. I also said some of the voice-
overs too quickly which can make it quite difficult for people to understand so in the future I plan to
write out a final voice-over script and re-record the voice-overs to make them easier to understand
and I will use a better microphone to make them of a higher-quality. Also I will record them all in one
go so that I can keep my voice at the same volume.
Another thing that I would like to improve is the flow of the video because at the minute it still looks
a bit rough and the transitions between clips are very rough and basic. So for my final video I will use
a better editing software, Pinnacle (not Windows Movie Maker 2.6) so that there is a larger range of
transitions and the video looks smoother and more professional.
I would also like to link it to my target audience, year 6 children worried about making the transition
from Primary to Secondary School, even further by interviewing some year 6 children and asking
them what their main worries about coming to Secondary School are. This would help me focus my
video on the most worrying parts and trying to show that these parts arent really that scary. Also I
could have included them in the video so that other year 6s could relate to them easily because a
lot of the worries they have will be very similar.


What Editing tools and techniques and effects tools and techniques
did I use?
To make edit my draft video together I used Windows Movie Maker 2.6 which is a fairly basic and
widely available free editing software. However it was perfectly good enough for a draft. The only
problem with it in hindsight was that it did freeze and crash quite a lot but general it AutoSaved your
work and you could recover it.
I used quite a few different editing techniques when creating my draft video. At the start I created a
separate short clip on Move Maker and saved it as a movie file of different images from around the
school grounds with the intro of the song Paradise City. I used this song because it is very lively and
upbeat so this helped me to get across the feeling that Secondary School isnt scary right from the
beginning which links to my target audience. I then inserted this clip into my main movie so that I
could put a voice over on it to give some details about the school before the program began
properly. I used Audacity to record my voice overs. Audacity is also free and relatively basic but it
was all I needed because the Logitech microphone provided an acceptable sound quality for a draft.
During this opening clip I turned the volume of the music down quite low so that it was just subtle in
the background and so that the voice-over could be heard clearly. This isnt very effective in movie
maker but when I do my final video I will used Pinnacle which will allow me to adjust the audio even
more so that the voice over really stands out.
After the opening scene I cut straight to Mr Jackson, the headmaster at Keswick School and he
explains his view of the school. At the start of the interview I use text on a red banner on the video
so that the audience know who is speaking.
At the start of the scene in Mr Downs form I use a voce over to describe what is going on. Then I
increase the volume of the classroom recording so the audience can hear it better.
During Mr. Balls ICT lesson I play Mr Balls interview in the background while still watching the
lesson, this is more interesting to watch than Mr Ball just standing being interviewed but before that
I show Mr Ball being interviewed so that the audience can see who he is. I have done the same for
Mrs Riggs interview about the interhouse football competition so it looks like she is explaining it as
it is happening because it is much easier for the audience to understand what is going on if it is being
explained while they are watching it.
For the year 7 form building days and the bikability I couldnt get any video footage because they
happened in the past so I have just had to use photos with a voice over. This will still give the
audience the general idea as to what happened.
Throughout my video I just used one transition which was fade. I just wanted to keep it simple and
consistent because if I had kept using different ones it wouldnt have looked very professional and
spoiled the video. When I come to do my final video on Pinnacle I will probably use a better
transition for example zooming in on the Educating Keswick Logo then cutting to the next scene.
There will be certain places where I will still use the fade transition because it is very subtle which is
sometimes what you need when changing clip.
I havent used any video effects in my draft video because I didnt think any of the ones in Windows
Movie Maker were suitable and they didnt fit in with my video. There should be a larger range of
video effects in Pinnacle so if there are some suitable and relevant ones I may use them in my final
video.
What different camera shots did I take?
When I was making my draft video Jordan (cameraman) and I took a variety of different shots. For
example for the interviews we used a close up shot in order to focus on the person being
interviewed but we didnt use an extreme close up because we wanted to have something relating
to the particular member of staff we were interviewing in the background. There are some examples
below:


























Mr Jackson In his office sitting at his
desk with his computer on and work at
his desk. The interview was quite
informal and Mr Jackson was in the
middle of some work when we did it so
this clip is very realistic as to what
happened in the Heads office. It
wasnt staged in any way.
Mr Ball When we filmed Mr Ball all of
the computer rooms were taken so we
improvised and used a spare classroom
(which happened to be French) and
wrote some year 7 ICT related work on
the SMART Board. This turned out
quite well because from the angle the
shot is taken you wouldnt be able to
see the computers in a computer room
anyway.
Mr Down We filmed Mr Down in his
classroom standing just in front of his
whiteboard and his desk. And there are
some English Related posters on the
wall. However if I had filmed this shot I
would have moved the camera so he
was more at the side of the shot. But I
obviously didnt communicate this to
the cameraman very well. We also
should have wrote some English
related work on the board behind him.
When we were filming classrooms we used wide-angle shots and the occasional high shot in order to
capture as much of the action in the classroom as possible sometimes we would zoom in to the
teacher or a pupil and use an extreme close-up to capture their facial expressions. For example:





























This is a screenshot of a clip of Mr Balls ICT
lesson with 7KJ, we have used a wide angle shot
to capture as much of the class as possible we
can see Mr Ball teaching and quite a few of the
students putting their hands up and answering
questions.
This screenshot was from the form period we filmed with
7RD and Mr Down. We used a close-up shot here because
we wanted the audience to see Mr Down talking one-to-
one with the students in his form. This links to the target
audience and purpose of the film because we are trying to
show that Secondary School isnt scary and that there are
lots of people that are very approachable and you can talk
to, easily if you have a problem. It also shows how
approachable members of staff are at Keswick and how
students form strong bonds with their form tutors. This is
all promoting the fact that Secondary School isnt scary.
This was another shot from M 7RDs form period.
We used an extreme close-up in order to capture
this boys facial expressions when reading the
book. Sometimes it can be quite amusing for the
audience to see someones facial expressions
from close-up.
After Mr Ball had finished talking and the students were
working independently we moved to the other side of the
classroom and filmed the class using a high-angle shot. This
enabled us to see more of the students at work easily and
people dont block the shot because the camera is high up.
The only problem with this was when we were filing we didnt
have a tall enough tripod or a table to stand it on. So Jordan
and I had to hold the camera, on its tripod up high in the air.
Obviously this produced a bit of camera shake but when we
come to do our final version in Pinnacle we can edit this out.
Generally I am very pleased with the range of different shots we come up with but I would have
liked to include some point of view shots because they would have been very good to show what
school life is like from a students perspective, once again this relates to our target market because
we are trying to stop year 6s being scared of coming to secondary school and give them an insight
into what life is like in secondary school. So a point of view shot would be a great way to show this. If
we have time before the movie has to be finished Jordan and I may go into the locker hall or the
canteen at break or lunchtime and film some point of view shots.
How does my draft video link to my target audience?
Throughout this report I have commented on my target audience but I would just like to clarify who
my target audience is and how I have made sure my final product relates to them.
My target audience: Children who are about to start secondary school. We want the video to
encourage them and help them stop worrying about the transition from Primary School to
Secondary School. Lots of the reality school programs are designed to bring out the worst in
secondary school we aim to show the very best that Keswick has to offer.
One of the ways that I linked my video to my target audience was by interviewing some current year
7 pupils and asking them about how they settled in and for advice for new year 7s coming to
secondary school. This will hopefully settle the year 6s and show them that there were lots of
people in the same boat as them and they have settled in quickly, it is always good to have primary
evidence. As I mentioned before I would also like to interview some year 6 pupils so that I can see
what their main worries are and focus my video around them. One idea that I could have done is to
send out a questionnaire to some local primary schools to gather feedback from the year 6s there.
I also asked the members of staff that I interviewed questions relating to year 7 pupils and I
interviewed members of staff who are involved with year 7. Mr Jackson isnt directly involved with
year 7 but he was able to provide an overview of the school and how it helps pupils settle in.
Conducting this interview will also show year 7 pupils that Head Teachers of Secondary Schools are
very approachable and are only strict when they need to be. Mr Hannaway is the Head of Year 7 for
the second time so he provided some advice for settling in and said how he could help the pupils in
his year group. Mr Down was a good person to interview for two reasons, firstly, he is a year 7 form
tutor so he told us what he liked about his job and how he has formed relationships with the pupils
in his form, he also explained how he could help if a pupil had a problem. But he is also a relatively
new teacher at Keswick School (he started in 2012) so he could provide first-hand evidence as to
what it is like to settle in at a new school so hopefully the year 6s can relate to this. Mr Ball is also a
year 7 form tutor but we interviewed him as a teacher of year 7 ICT. So he provided us with an
overview of ICT at Keswick School and told us what year 7 lessons were like, o that the year 6s can
realise that lessons at secondary school can be fun if you go in with the right intensions. The final
people we interviewed were Mrs Rigg (Wordsworth House) and Mr Baillie (Rawnsley House) who are
two of the four House Heads at Keswick School. They told us there feelings about the new house
system and they said how they thought that it had brought the year 7s together as a community
and helped them to settle in.

Initial Audience Reactions to my Video
As I have just completed my draft video I have not had time to ask anyone to watch it and evaluate it
for me but I did get people to watch and evaluate my 5 second advert that I made for my video here
is their feedback:
Pros
Good length pictures because you can see the pictures more clearly
Good effects with zooming in on the pictures.
Cons
Add some music to keep the audience interested
Add a couple more pictures
Give it some sound effects such as a school bell
I did have music and a school bell but the headphones werent working. So generally I was pleased
with the feedback. The reason that I didnt have more pictures was because the advert could only be
5 seconds long so if I had included more photos they would have gone too fast, and one of my good
points was that my pictures were a good length. If I had created a full length advert then I would
have included more pictures.
How did I Change my Video from my Initial Plan?
At the start of the project we had to present, in our groups to the rest of the class, our initial ideas
for the project this included:
Our target audience
Our cast and crew list
Our filming locations
Our log sheet
Who we were interviewing
A rough initial storyboard
The music and sound that we planned to include
The rough voice-over scripts
The target audience hasnt changed from our original idea and neither has the cast and crew.
Although some of the filming locations have changed due to availability. For example we had to film
Mr Balls interview in a French classroom and just write ICT related work on the board because none
of the ICT classrooms were available.
We tried wherever possible to stick to our log sheet but sometimes we had to rearrange things, for
example we planned to interview Mr Down just after we had filmed his form period, but due to time
we had to do it at a later date.
We interviewed all the people that we said we were going to at the start of the project and no more
because we felt that we had enough footage to produce our video. We were unsure whether to film
a French lesson as well as an ICT lesson but in the end we decided that we didnt need to.




This was our rough initial storyboard for our video the final storyboard which can be seen in our
portfolio is quite different to this. As we progressed through the project and edited all of the footage
together it was natural for the storyboard to change.
The music that we decided on initially, was Mr Brightside by The Killers. For my draft video I used the
intro of Paradise City by Guns and Roses. I decided on this because I just wanted an instrumental
track and the instrumental intro of Paradise City is quite long and upbeat, once again brightening the
image of secondary school.
The voice over scripts have changed quite significantly from our initial ones. The main reason for this
is because it was very difficult to think of accurate voce overs before we had started editing the
video together. Voice overs help the audience to understand what is going on and they also move
the action on so it is much easier to make up the voice overs as we went along. The final voice over
scripts for my video can be found in our portfolio.