About the company/client - Simon's Artwork

Simon's artwork is an independent business run by Artist, Simon Smith.

In 2010 Simon was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome aged 42. From being completely fine to being hospitalised and having his body shut down. Guillian-Barré Syndrome is a rare and serious condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves. The cause of this condition is still unknown. Simon's experience of Guillain-Barré (GBS) was quite severe and spent a large amount of his time in the intensive care unit. He experiences a lot of visions/delusions whilst in hospital which made the condition more and more odd and frightening for him. When Simon left the hospital he was on a slow recovery and had to use a wheelchair when walking outside of the house. The first part of his body to make a proper recovery was his hands, so he wrote 2 novels and started teaching himself different painting styles and techniques; already being good at drawing and painting. He also wrote a book on his experience 3 years later and sells it on Amazon. Now Simon has made more of a recovery but unlike the 80% of people who fully recover, he still struggles in day-to-day life. He can walk small distances with a walking stick but can not walk long distances. He also experiences extreme tiredness. Due to these recovery complications Simon is unable to go out and work so he needed to find a way to work from home. He worked with a job company to help him set up his own business so that he could paint for a living. He now paints a wide range of stock and takes commissions for anything to be painted or drawn. He usually paints on large foam board or artist paper. He sells through phone, e-mail, in person, Facebook, Twitter and exhibitions. He has had 1 exhibition so far and displayed 46 paintings.

Policy and legal research

When thinking about possibility of legal problems with this video we were quite relaxed. My client gave me some of his own music that he composed for an exhibition video. We would have no trouble with copyright and he decided that that music could be his 'theme'. When it came to the images in this video we were quite confident with them being safe. The problem being that most of the paintings are of famous people; would there be a problem there? My client has always worried that one day he would be told not to paint certain people, places etc but he is usually careful about what he paints unless it is a commission and he has been asked to paint it. He decided that since he is a local painter who is expanding he doesn't need to worry too much since he isn't exactly well known.

Market and Audience

This video is being used in Simon's Artwork's marketing. He will be uploading it to his YouTube page which is linked with his Facebook, Twitter and website. His website does not yet have an option to add a piece of video but he may upload it when he improves his website. We discussed who his audience were and came to the conclusion that he needed a video for the people who do not know him personally. A lot of Simon's clients are friends, friends of friends etc. He is getting more and more customers that he does not know. This video is to explain to them who he is, how he became an artist and advertise some of his available paintings. At the end of the video he asked for his Facebook page, Twitter page and website to be listed. He is going to use simple language when explaining his hospital experience that led him to painting, to make sure a variety of people can understand the complex topic.

Sample brief and response

This is a list of examples for a brief.

Client

Musician
Individual
Local businesses
Bank/finance
Events (weddings)
Large businesses who use the web a lot
Charities
Media companies
Government

Contact

Name and way of contact - e-mail, phone etc.

Type

Animation

Event coverage

Training videos

Awareness

Health and safety 

Bidding

Podcast

Purpose

Motivation

Instructional

Serious

Inspirational

Advertising

Requirements

Logo

Slogans

Certain actors

Particular font

Colour scheme

Audience

Staff

Clients

Public

Superiors

Distribution

Youtube

TV

Web

Cinema

Running time

                                                                                                                        

This is an example of a client brief.

Client - Media company (Tech)

Contact - Mainly e-mail, phone available too

Name of project - (Name of product)

Type - Event coverage of product release and promotion of product being released

Purpose - Advertising

Requirements - Company logo, company font and colour scheme.

Audience - Public and clients

Distribution - Web, Youtube and possible TV.

Running time - 6 minutes.

                                                                                                                         

Response to client brief:

If this video is 6 minutes long I assume you would like a full description of this new product, is that correct? About the event coverage; will you be needing me to set up a full camera set up? and is the event the unveiling of the product?-if so, who to? Would you be able to send me a full resolution PSD file of your logo for me to use? Also, what is your colour scheme and font? I may need some filming time with your product for the features description if you would like that.

                                                                                                                          

Summary of college brief

Work with a client to create a corporate video that they can use. They decide a deadline based around the college deadline.

We have 4 tasks to work on until the deadline; 10/02/14.
We have research, pre-production, production and evaluation.

For the research task we'll have to research the company we plan to work with, policies and legal rules, existing corporate promos and market and audience.

Pre-production will include: Proposal, treatment, storyboard, script, production diary, meeting notes, pitch, location reports, equipment list, release forms, sound planning and possible after effects and editing planning.

Then, the final production, this will be uploaded onto Youtube/client's website and put onto the blog.

The last task is the evaluation.

Proposal

I got my idea after hearing a song called "where is my mind?" performed by Yoav featuring Emily Browning. The song was the sort that I would like to make a music video for. I then thought that if I made a film, I could make a music video for the song using some clips from the film. - Like an advertisement for the film that doesn't give away too much of the story. It's going to be half film clips and half characters miming. After I started developing the final idea from listening to the song for inspiration and think about as many strange ideas I could. I thought about having it about toys they would have a dark, creepy theme. I decided that I wanted it to be about a teddy bear that messes with a girl's mind.
The final film is aimed to be between 5 and 10 minutes. The breakdown for the story is this: A young girl is given an old fashioned teddy bear and she loves it. When her back is turned it comes alive and leaves drawings around her house for her to discover. It also projects a shadows on her walls to scare her in the night and appears with an unfamiliar face. The girl has a photo of her favourite memory (in a village hall). The bear draws a version of that memory on the wall and the girl realises she has to go to the village hall to find out whats going on - taking the teddy bear with her. Completely oblivious that the teddy bear is the cause of strange goings on she searches the hall looking for any clues of any kind. After circling the building she finds a mini stage on the large stage. It presents a shadow puppet stage that portrays the story of the bear and the girl. Whens he realises she goes looking for her bear. When she finds it she takes it to a bowl she finds in the backstage area and drowns the bear. She returns home and destroys all her toys that she can now never trust again. It is revealed that she now has teddy ears implying that she will now become a teddy bear.
To film this I will be using a Canon 650D because I wanted a camera that is of a good quality that I create depth of field with - as my last camera did not have that ability. I decided to use my own camera so that I wouldn't have to rely on booking from the college in case there were any complications or the camera I want isn't available when I need it. I will be filming mostly using a tripod and some shots will be done using a hand stabiliser to create smooth free hand. Most shots will be lit in a way to look like lamp light and some shots will have bright spotlights to create effect. In post production the film will be given a dark, vintage colouring to make it look a lot better and suit the tone of the film.
My target audience is both children and mature audiences. I came to this audience when I thought about the feeling of the film. I think children (not too young) want to watch horror films but are too young, so I think they would enjoy dark stories that aren't of a high rating. The main character is also a child and there is a possibility of the audience relating to her.  I think that young teens would also fit into this bracket. I think mature audiences would enjoy it for the concept and cinematography; I'm hoping it will look very appealing.
When it comes to filming dates and timescale, I intend to get a lot of filming done in a short amount of time. All the scenes in the village hall will be filmed on one day that I can book the location. The house scenes will likely be filmed over 2 days so that the filming isn't too rushed on one day. The village hall scenes will be filmed in the middle of the 2 house days. To do some scenes I need a photo taken in the hall. And for many scenes I need the teddy bear, but there bear may be ruined on the hall day. I need to work out what scenes can be done on each day so that everything is done in the correct order and in time.
Alongside this production I will be creating a music video using clips from the film and lip-syncers for my Music video project. Considering a song gave me inspiration for my film I decided that I should use that song.

Festival research

London short film festival

This film festival is usually held in January. This year's festival was between the 10th and 19th. It is hosted in 19 different central London venues.

The deadline for entries is usually in September. The entry requirements are:

• All submission filmmakers must be living or working in the UK.
• The films running length must be under 60 minutes.
• The following genres are accepted - drama, comedy, documentary, experimental, animation, lo/no budget, music video or a combination of genres.
• Entries must have been completed in the last couple of years (2/3years)
• All entries must be submitted on DVD or online through 'Withoutabox'.

There are many opportunities when entering this festival. Last year over 300 films were shown; which is a lot of exposure. There are many different awards that all give different prizes. Here are the usual awards. There are 9 awards:

• Best new short wins £1000.
• Best short Documentary wins free passes and submissions to 2 festivals.
• Best lo-budget short wins a Lomography camera package.
• Best Thriller short wins an opportunity to show their short on ShortsTV's European broadcast channel.
• Best experimental short wins a 'reel 100' membership, 12 cinema tickets and the film will be put on the ICA website and feature in the 'trailer wheel' for a week.
• Best student short wins a specialised course at London Film Academy
• Best female character win a one-to-one mentor session with a female director in the industry.
• Best music short wins a full package picture grade which includes one day Baselight grade, DigiBeta, DCP version and data files.
• Best comedy short wins a free place on the LOCO industry training course called 'Kickstart your comedy career'.

I looked into previous winners over the last few years it ran and I couldn't find any recognisable names or any people that really got far from this festival. Most websites just put a list of the winning directors and the names of the films.