I was not present for a lot of the shoot, as I was away for the weekend. I was kept updated about how it was going via the group chat with our group, and did come in for the final 45 mins/hour. It was really exciting to see all of our ideas beginning to come to fruition, though it sounded like there were a few hiccups that the group faced while trying to setup in PG25. It turned out that the front desk didn’t give them the key, so they had to scout around uni trying to find an appropriate room to film in. Though I wasn’t a part of that section, hearing about it reminded me of how important it is to have contingencies when filming, as even on the day various things can go wrong, including this time not being able to film in the space we had booked!

Beyond that, the content that I personally shot was very minimal, as it was the last few things that needed filming, such as the lava lamp. I was able to look at the footage though which meant that I was able to actually see what had been filmed on the day. It was reassuring to see how good everything looked on film, and that our ideas had really translated into something that I felt looked excellent. I am looking forward to properly reviewing the footage and beginning to edit it.

 

 

 

 

At the Fire Station, we did near enough everything that we had discussed at the meeting the day before. We measured the space we had to work with, which we realised was shorter than the brief. As a result, we had to rethink our ideas slightly, and incorporated the TV’s onto the DJ desk rather than the back wall. This was the main breakthrough that we had on the day, as it meant that we could incorporate the TV idea into the overall design, without it impeding on the back wall.

I then went away and designed the back wall on the computer so we had a to scale representation of everything we were going to create.

 

I feel that the iterations that we have gone through have led to a really solid design. The comic book/pop art design has really lent itself to the correx, and it’s exciting to be able to really make use of it. Given that we can’t use real TV’s, the correx at least will have some ‘3Dness’ to our projection, as well as contrasting from the black background. As mentioned, we are also making TV’s out of correx for the front of the DJ booth, and we are also creating a ‘frame’ around the DJ. This idea came out of the discussion we had at the Fire Station about how best to incorporate the DJ into our theme. One of the main themes of comic books and pop art are the characters and people, and we thought that framing the DJ made them a part of the ‘action’, and part of the projection.

It was good to find a way to properly incorporate the DJ into our content prior to filming, as it meant that we had an idea of the entire layout of the stage and what content could be appropriate in each place. For example, ideas we had for filming such as using a real person probably won’t work in the correx surrounding the DJ, but will work in the larger ‘comic book’ squares of correx either side. This means that when we get to filming, we will hopefully be able to look at each shot not only through the lens of the shot itself, but also where it fits into a larger theme.

We then had a meeting after the seminar with Lizzie to go over the feedback and make decisions about what to do next. On a personal level I really like how open the group is about meeting whenever we need to, especially after seminars, as it means that all of our ideas are fresh in our minds when we discuss them. This openness with meetings is something that I feel will be useful in future projects as well.

We began the meeting by talking about the TV’s. We threw ideas back and forth across the group, with Antonia and Luke coming up with a few rough drawings of what the background could look like. We also began to incorporate the DJ and his booth into our ideas, to try and fit him in with our idea as seamlessly as possible.

As we got to the end of the meeting, we realised that to properly make decisions about the correx and the background, we would need to go to the Fire Station to measure everything. For example, we needed to confirm exactly how big the DJ booth would be so that we could work around it, as well as how much correx we have to work with. Based up Antonia and Luke’s drawings, we may well be able to still fully incorporate out comic strip idea, which is excellent as it was what the clients really liked about our idea.

I hope that tomorrow’s trip to the Fire Station will help to clear up the worries we all have with the correx/DJ booth/general queries about the space we have to work in. This week has been interesting in terms of the things we have had to work around and replace. Based upon this meeting, it seems that although some of our ideas have not been received brilliantly, the group has rebounded with more concepts and designs that are becoming more appropriate for the client and what they want. I’m really happy that we all seem to be on a similar page, and that we can now tailor our ideas once we’ve been to the Fire Station.

The feedback from Lizzie was useful for pinpointing what ideas would work, though it was a bit sad to see that the clients weren’t that fond of some of our major ideas. They liked our pitch, and thought the concept was good, but they thought the .gif we made wasn’t appropriate, and that we should make the TV’s out of correx, or drop the idea completely. It was good that we had shown them the .gif in the presentation, as if we hadn’t we may well have included it in our final content package, and they had mentioned that they may want to use it in other areas of their advertising.

It was also frustrating to hear that they didn’t want the real TV’s on the stage, but that they were now going to have a DJ instead. We really emphasised the 3D element of our idea within the pitch, and they even gave feedback on how to properly use the televisions in our setup, so it is unfortunate that they don’t want the TV’s on the stage. They did say that they liked the idea though, and that we should perhaps make the TV’s out of correx instead, which in the long run may be easier to do. I was happy that they gave us such specific feedback, as it will really help in bringing our vision to life, though the inclusion of the DJ has made it much harder. Our central idea is a comic strip, which had been made much more difficult now that there is an 8ftx4ft table and a DJ in the middle of the stage. It would have been much easier for us if we had known that there would be a DJ the whole time, but it is at the very least an indication of what client work is like.

I am not happy that we have been told to alter our ideas from a personal standpoint, but I am happy that we are getting practice in how client work operates, and how briefs and their ideas of what they want from us can change during the production process. It is useful practice to have to alter ideas that we have worked hard on and are proud of, because it means that we are less precious of ideas and more open to changing things on the fly to suit the needs of the client.

I thought the pitch went very well. Not only did we showcase what we had, I feel that everyone that spoke was really confident and put our ideas across well. The clients from the Fire Station had a number of questions as well, which I hope meant that they were intrigued and engaged by our ideas.

Their feedback was useful as well, and ranged from not only comments on the pitch ideas, but the pitch itself. For example, one of the representatives commented on the fact that the story board was very small in the presentation. The actual story board that Antonia created had far more on it, but we shrunk it down so that it would fit on the slide.

  <- The Trimmed Story Board

I was happy that they picked up on this, because it will help in future presentations. I will try and make sure that any content that I show is shown in full, or in an appropriate amount; I will strive to present in a way that fits the presentation around the content, rather than just trying to make it fit around the presentation.

The clients also mentioned that the TV’s may cast a shadow across the back wall, and that we should be careful when we arranged them. We had thought about this before, but not in a large amount of depth. It made us realise that we had to really think about and focus on the televisions for the idea to work.

I personally was also really happy at the variety of other groups’ ideas. I was a little nervous before presenting, as I had heard that other groups had similar ideas to ours. However, I was really happy at how individual our idea seemed to be, as it meant that we weren’t stepping on other groups’ toes with our ideas, and that we could really run with our concepts without being too worried about our ideas being too similar to the other groups.

We decided after the pitch to have a meeting on Tuesday after Lizzie’s seminar, as she would be giving feedback to us from the clients.

We met up on the Monday a few hours before the pitch to practice. We had previously decided that Nancy, Andrew, Sophie and I would speak, and we used the hours to refine what we were going to say and touch up the presentation.

d1-projection-mapping-5-final

Fabi finished the .gif of the recoloured logo’s so we had something to show in the presentation, along with the mood board and story board. As mentioned last week, I am really happy that we had something to show in the presentation, as it shows that we are already working on ideas, and that we are confident in them. I am hoping that they appreciate that we have created something to show so quickly, and I am happy that we will have feedback on not only our ideas, but also content that we have actually created.

We also decided to film on Sunday this week, as PG25 wasn’t available on Wednesday. It also meant that we had longer to shoot.