364MC: – Portfolio – Website – How well does it work?

http://chrisgarnervideoed.wix.com/post-production

Above is a link to my finished Wix website for my portfolio. I believe that the website is successful in layout and in terms of its visual style and has received some encouraging feedback from my peers who are involved in the media industry. The website is something I intend to obviously continue with and develop as my career progresses. I have received two confirmed pieces of future work from the success of the website so I know that the website is doing its job but it is something I will refine should work slow down.

The goal is to get the website out there to as many people as possible in order to network and gain a huge list of contacts that will hopefully eventually lead to me becoming part of an editing company. I am going to continue working with the contacts I have built a good working rapport with and I hope that the site will eventually generate a lot of interest and bring me in a lot of work.

 

364MC: – List of contacts

Freelancing obviously relies on the ability to build up a list of contacts as part of the process of networking. As my goal is to become a freelance video editor, any contacts that could become future clients are important to note down and remain in contact with so that they remember you. Although I haven’t had email contacts with them all, I have all of their email addresses and feel it is important to evidence through screenshots the people I have contacted over email. By doing this I have also secured two other projects; one of which I will begin towards the end of May once the footage has been given to me, and one in which I will endeavour to shoot and edit over the course of the Summer.

Salvatore Finelli

As is stated in the email, Salvatore is a fashion model represented by two UK-based model agencies. Me and him have been in discussion about me shooting and edit a promo video for him which will go on his future website as he continues to promote himself. Payment was also discussed which will be incredibly important for me as a freelancer. This will also give me the chance to network more and contact the people he works with which can hopefully lead into more job opportunities.

 

I started my networking with him already and asked if he knew of any video editing companies and he gave me the website of a company based in London; Linney. Although it doesn’t focus itself entirely on editing or film, it contains many different areas that can be applied for and may be something I look into for the future.

LinneyGroup

 

James Dann

James Dann is a former student at Coventry University and was someone I got in contact with during my second year. When he was looking for an editor to put together his latest documentary (‘Rifle in my hands’ which can be seen below) my name was recommended to him purely by word of mouth. This was the most challenging piece of editing I had done at the time as it was the first official client I had ever worked for and the process was something I was very new to. I had over 200GB worth of footage on a HDD and a rough script of the English subtitles with timestamps that needed to be applied to the video also. James was impressed with my edit that I continued to work with him on two other projects following this: 2 adverts for both Zero Degrees and Outgoing for a skiing promo video as well as a showreel for him. The promo for Zero Degrees can be seen below also:

‘Rifle in my hands’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44oEVlXw-eM
Zero Degrees promo video – https://vimeo.com/58087133

I have continued to remain in contact with James to this day as he is filming many different projects all around the world. He has recently messaged me asking if I can edit a brand new showreel for him. He intends to get the footage to me around the end of May.

Contact information: jamesjoeldann@gmail.com

Katie Downing

Katie Downing is the Head of English Literature and Media Studies at The Polesworth School where I used to work and have continued to go back and help out during exam season for the last 3 years. Going back to work there gives me a lot of experience as I get to work on software I’m not completely fluent in and is therefore a good learning experience as well as work with the students which improves my people skills and ability as a teaching role. Although I asked via text message if she could write me out a reference, she is currently incredibly busy with marking and exam season and would not be able to write me one out until the end of May. As such, I just took down her email address:

k.downing@thepolesworthschool.com

Six Broken Sticks

Six Broken Sticks was the first band I worked with for my FMP to produce the music video ‘Little Rag Doll’. They were incredibly pleased with the work myself and my team produced that they have said they would like to work with us again on future projects and even recommend us to other bands and musicians. Music videos are something I had incredible fun producing and are some of my most challenging edits. This is something I would love to continue doing in the future and will hopefully secure future work.

Bad Mouth Men

Bad Mouth Men was the second band I worked with for my FMP. I spoke with their lead singer after I had produced the video for them and gave them my details and also asked for their contact incase they choose to produce any other music videos in the future:

Borderline

Borderline was the third and final band I worked with for my FMP. I believe that they enabled me to create the most professional looking music video out of the three I produced and were really fun to work with. Although I’ve only had email conversations with the keyboardist regarding the organisation for my FMP, I also took down his mobile contact at the end of the filming process incase they choose to film any more videos in the future.

chadmercer7@gmail.com

 

364MC: – Website feedback and alteration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After creating my website, I sent the site out to many of my friends who are also in the media industry to see what advice or feedback they could give me regarding all areas of my website; from content, layout, colour scheme etc

General feedback included the following:

– The site is professional in design and content
– All information is clearly laid out in an easily-readible format
– The consistent positioning of the banner and email address add continuity between the pages
– There is a lot of varied content among the collection of projects
– The showreel that automatically plays grabs the audience’s attention

However, some people raised the problem that the website was too large for their monitors and that certain parts of the website were cut off because of it; namely the email address at the top of the page as well as either side of the tab bar along the top. Whilst the tab bar was still somewhat readable, the email address being cut off obviously posed a huge problem especially considering I will be using this site as my freelancing platform which relies on the ability of people being able to contact me.

What I have learnt from getting feedback on creating things like this is that, like screenings for various drafts of the editing process, you always get things pointed out to you that you initially did not see and makes your project better because of it. I would not have known that the website was cut off for most people as it appeared fine on my own monitor. Now I have edited the site so that it’s fine for everyone’s monitors and all features of the website can appear as normal and readable. If I continue to make any more changes to my site I will be sure to always consult people for feedback.

 

364MC: – Creating my portfolio

I decided to use Wix to create my website for my portfolio as I believe that although it is a free software, it can achieve some very professional results.

Below is the Home page. As I stated before, I wanted to keep it minimalistic and have gone with a white and black colour scheme to make things easily readable with a sleek and modern look to it. My showreel takes up the whole middle of the page with one of my most eye-catching shots I have filmed which enables it to grab the browsers’ attention from a mere glance. My banner at the top of the page clearly states my name (in order for people to remember it) and the profession I am in. They clearly get an understanding of what the website is about, what I do, and what my name is. I have also provided my professional email address at the top of the page in large bold letters to make this the focus and common feature on each page.

I have also created an About page which is designed to tell the browser a bit about my media past to show that I am qualified to handle their footage for their projects and that I am more than capable to get it looking to a professional standard. It is almost written like a personal statement on CV in content and also reveals a bit about my own personality so that the client sees me as a person who they can talk and discuss the vision and idea of their project with. I have also included a picture of myself taken from when I was on set on my FMP which shows me holding a camera which proves my media capabilities.

As stated before, it is important for a freelance editor to show that they are versatile in their editing style and to show a number of projects they have worked on across many genres and different applications and evidence of editing technique. As such, I created pages showing projects I have worked on for short film & documentary, music videos as well as other videos which contain short videos and promos. I believe this shows a diverse range of projects I have worked on and I have also provided some information on each of them to show the browser than I can apply myself to the thought process behind what I do.

Finally I have created a contact page which provides a direct message page which leads to my email contact as well as serving as a place to explain to the browser how the process goes if they want to send me a project to edit. It goes through step by step of the way in which the transaction will go so that the user can be sure of the order of things and how it works. I have also provided links to my personal Facebook page and Vimeo.

361MC: – Final Media Piece

My FMP consists of 3 music videos, which can be found below:

Little Rag Doll – Six Broken Sticks

 

Rat Bastard – Bad Mouth Men

 

Juliet – Borderline

361MC: – EPK

An EPK is an electronic press kit which is put together as a form of promotional material in order to announce, promote or generate awareness around a particular piece of media for launches, conferences or for events . These can take many forms and can be made for many different applications, such as films, television shows, documentaries or for music and bands.

It was important for me to be aware of what things are typically included in an EPK for my particular final media piece of music videos. After looking around on the internet I found the common elements that bands and musicians tend to include in their EPKs contain the following:

• Bio pages
• Tracks or music excerpts
• High quality photos of the band or any key members surrounding the band
• Tour dates
• Links to various websites and pages of the band themselves and their music
• Contact information

However, what I found was that these tend to be distributed on physical platforms, such as DVDs, CDs or USB devices. As we have to provide a link to our EPK, I chose to make my EPK on a PDF document format containing as many of the aforementioned items in its contents. I obviously could not provide actual playable tracks on the PDF, and so I instead provided as many links for each particular band that were on offer on the Web and included them on their respective pages.

I had taken many pictures and screen shots of the bands and so had more than enough images to populate all 11 pages of my EPK in order to keep it visually interesting. I chose to download a series of fonts in order to make each band unique in the EPKs lettering, as all of the bands do not have their own logos of font style. This made each band instantly recognisable from the font so that the viewer or reader wouldn’t get confused between all three. I also provided information about the bands’ history and future plans as well as a lyric of their song from the music video as another way to tie the PDF into the actual FMP.

Although more for a film or documentary EPK, I also felt it was necessary to credit each of the crew who helped me through the three music videos and give a brief description of the kind of things they had worked on in the past. I also provided a ‘Director’s statement’ to give a little insight into my own thought process before, during and after the fact. I feel this adds a nice dynamic to the EPK overall and accounts for not only the people in front of the camera, but also those that made it happen behind the camera.

My EPK can be found below:

Christopher Garner EPK

364MC: – Researching freelance editor websites

As I will be creating a website for my portfolio which will serve as my entire professional network and eventual livelihood, it is necessary to make sure that is can compete with many other freelancing or editing company sites. I decided to look at two freelancing companies that deal with video editing in order to look at their typical layout, style and common elements and see how I can translate these or improve upon them for my own site.

http://www.dragonflyproductions.co.uk/

One element that I have already decided I want to include on my own website is to have a short showreel on my homepage as I feel this is a good introductory method to someone who discovers the site for the first time. This is an element that is included on Dragonfly Productions’s website although it is kind of pushed to the side and is incredibly small and almost insignificant to the page overall. The homepage also contains an incredible amount of text which I think is quite imposing to a user and seems to contain information that could easily be included in some of the other tabs where it might be best suited. In my opinion, the homepage should always be kind of light yet eye-catching and intrigue the user to explore the rest of the website. A lot rests on the homepage as it is the user’s first impression of the site and serves as a way to judge if they think the site look professional from a mere glance.

Other notable elements include showing a diverse range of projects that the company have worked on in order to show that they can apply themselves to multiple styles and thus draw in more clients as well as listing every type of video they can work on. This is a very important factor as it doesn’t make your editing skills appeal to a very restricted or niche market as well as being an enabling technique to work with many different people.

The final elements that I want to include in my website are a contact page which will lead to a brand new email address that I have set up for the exclusive use of my career as a video editor. Dragonfly Productions also doesn’t directly list any prices for rates of their services and instead states that price is decided between them and the person who has contacted them. This is a practice I think I will use in my own site as creating set prices is a bit unreliable as the time taken for certain videos differs. For example, a 10 minute short film might end up taking a shorter amount of time to edit than a 3 -4 minute music video which requires many intricate cuts. Therefore setting a price based on length of the video seems very inconsistent with how much time it will take.

The site also uses a very simple colour scheme of white with hints of blue which keeps the site very simple but very easy to read.

 

http://www.thevideoeditingco.co.uk/

I also looked at The Video Editing Company (which you can’t say is exactly a vague company name) to see if their layout and website features corresponded with those of Dragonfly Productions.

The homepage is immediately more visually striking with a large image that fades to two others; enabling the casual browser to click on any of the three pictures to take them to a particular item on the website. Unlike Dragonfly Productions, this site does give a list of prices under a series of different package options. This has made me get a sense of the kind of prices I will need to look at in the future (especially if I am to sustain myself) although when I start out, these prices seem incredibly high right out of the gate from university. This is something I will have to look deeper into in the future.

The page once again has a contact page which is just a necessity for any kind of business. However, although it gives a list of the kind of projects they specialise in, there are no example videos on their site to convince the browser, and so as a customer you would just have to kind of take the company’s word for it. This is something I will definitely not do on my site as I think it’s important to offer examples of the work that has been produced as well as being a reliable platform to host all of my content. The colour scheme is again very minimalist with white and blue used. I will also employ a very basic colour scheme on my site as in my mind it looks cleaner and more professional than if it had some kind of glaring background as it would avert the browser’s attention from the key information and the content of my actual projects.

Overall, I believe there are common elements in both which will be necessary to include in my own site, such as layout with the tabs at the top of the page and colour scheme. Content seems to be pretty consistent and I will include all of my most professional projects I have filmed/edited in the past onto the site.

364MC: – Idea for my portfolio

As I intend for my portfolio to be used regularly and be the most pivotal tool in my freelance career after university, I have decided that I want to create a Wix website which will be my platform for my own professional identity as an editor for my business as well as be a place to host all of the content I have work on in the past. Although I already have my Vimeo page, which I will continue to also post my content to, a website is a lot more professional and is a link that will be exclusive to me and something I can print on business cards and distribute to all future contacts I work with.

My website will contain a showreel on the home page so that someone new to the site can immediately see a short collection of the material I’ve created/worked on and get an impression of my work. From here I also include a short paragraph about myself in the form of a personal statement. This will have to include my past history with media and projects and types of material I have edited as well as my interests so that a client can get a sense of my personality and if they want to work with me. The bulk of my website will host a collection of all the best work I’ve edited and will show work from many different styles, such as short film, documentary, music videos and adverts/promos. This will show I can apply myself to a diverse range of projects and will thus expand my chance of bringing in many people I can work for. Finally, my page will have to focus on a contact page and how someone can get in touch with me if they are interested in me editing a project.

I believe that a website for my portfolio is by far the most beneficial way to broadcast myself and get myself into the public eye of media professionals. This will also serve as the basis for my business and once I distribute the site around will hopefully draw a lot of contacts in once my site gains a lot more notice.

361MC: – FMP Trailer

As I did not produce any kind of short film or documentary, the prospect of producing a trailer for all three of music videos which had no narrative in the conventional sense initially seemed like an impossible task. Whilst film trailers are often the norm in the mainstream, I can honestly say I have never seen a trailer specifically for a music video. Showing any behind the scenes footage would also kind of give the wrong impression as a trailer is meant to sell the finished product. Film trailers don’t market themselves by showing behind the scenes footage as part of the physical trailer, but may choose to do so alongside theatrical trailers or in the lead up to the film’s release. Music videos are very different. They tend to be filmed in secret or at least with a few set images taken by cast, crew or the artist or band which is often publicised on their individual websites.

The video I based most of my inspiration on was a trailer for the Download Festival 2012 advertising Metallica & Black Sabbath. I felt this was an effective trailer as it managed to generate hype at the beginning of the trailer for the bands to appear just as a person in the actual crowd would be feeling. This was a feeling I wanted to evoke in my trailer by building up excitement at the beginning of the video, building to a powerful finale where the music builds with an abrupt finish; ensuring that the viewer got every piece of information that was necessary but still leaving them with the urge to watch the three music videos in their entirety.

Another thing that was important to me was to ensure that the audience were aware from the first couple of seconds of the trailer what my FMP was about and the tone that they could expect. I drew inspiration from the font styles and grainy image as well as the shaking effect, as I feel this worked well in the trailer for Download and created a sense of restlessness and urgency which was a key feeling I wanted to instil in the viewer. I also let 10 seconds of each video play to let the viewer get a sense of the genre of the song and the visual style of the video, but being sure not to reveal too much; thus allowing them to eventually check out the full length versions of the videos if they choose to.

The 1 minute trailer for my FMP can be seen below:

 

361MC: – Juliet – Borderline editing process & Reflection

The editing process for Juliet was very much a combination of the two processes of editing I had used previously in both Little Rag Doll and Rat Bastard. For the small narrative sections that open and close the video, I created an assembly cut in order to visualise and play around with the order of shots as well as get a sense of where I needed the narrative to end and the band section to begin. The entire process of editing was very different to my other two videos as well. Whereas I had a lot of time to edit the previous two, as I had to delay the shoot for Juliet due to kit being fully booked, it was already pushing my video very close to deadline for submission.

The video took me two days to completely finish editing in order to send it to Borderline for feedback. When I had the assembly cuts for each end of the narrative in place and I had trimmed them to the correct timings, I began prepping the rest of the video. In order to finish this video faster, I synced every single clip I had filmed in time with the song and stacked them each on top of each other on the timeline. From here, it was just a case of deciding which band member I wanted to focus on and for how long and applying cuts to each layer of the timeline.

In hindsight, this process worked incredibly well although there was still an extensive period of fine-tuning particular clips if I wasn’t happy with how they turned out or if I had t0 search through my collection of clips to find another shot to substitute for another. This is also a process of editing that I had tried with the previous videos but one that proved too troublesome to work with due to the band not performing the song to the MP3 version of the song, and as such, deviating from the timing of the mastered track in each of their takes. I made it a point that Borderline played along to the MP3 of their track so that time was kept throughout all of the takes, which made the editing a whole lot easier which allowed me a two-day turnaround. After I had finished the video, I immediately sent it to the band and they were all incredibly happy with it and excited due to having their first music video ever released on their Facebook page.

Upon reflection of my finished music video, I believe it was very much a successful considering what it set out to be and all of the problems I went through during the lead up to the shoot. I believe that the look of this particular video (maybe with exception to the narrative section of the video) is probably the most visually professional due to the added boost in equipment on stage with the smoke machine and lights, which gives it a very contemporary feel. The song itself also seems to be a lot superior in audio quality which further adds to the professional look and feel of the video as a whole. I am however not entirely happy with how some of the shots during the narrative have turned out and feel very amateur, but on the other hand, I feel they are needed to break the video up and not to be entirely derivative of my previous music video. The shoot and editing process for Borderline by far was the most stress-free and I was able to group all of the skills and development I had acquired since beginning in January. I believe this marked the point where I felt like a true media producer and editor; filming and finalising physical projects I could then present to clients for their own distribution on social media networks and gain a following.