8. Time-Lapse & Go Pro Footage Research

Time-Lapse, Go Pros & Fish-Eyes

Time-Lapses

I have experience in filming and editing a time-lapse style footage. Whether it is speeding up of slowing down, there are various different ways of producing time-lapse footage.

One method requires you having lots of charge for you camera (back up battery or mains plug in will be required) as well as having extra memory cards and a tripod for the camera to sit on. You can simply get time lapse footage by recording you shot for say 30mins, which in the editing stage can be condensed down to 30 seconds. 

A technique which I like to incorporate is a reverse time-lapse which simply is playing the footage on reverse. This technique would be handy for us as it means we wouldn't need to film the set-up and deconstruction of the TEDx event. We can just film on or the other and play one in reverse, giving the same effect.

Another method is setting your camera to take photos every minute over a few hours. This saves battery and camera memory but doesn't have a smooth transitioning between shots as the previous method. However, you do get a much bigger time gap to acquire stills of. You must also be cautious about the settings of the camera, I would manually set-up the aperture, focus and brightness settings as this will change for every shot and we want consistency throughout setting the camera up manually before starting this method of time-lapse is crucial.

Go-Pros

eBay explains that "In the last few years, the GoPro has really taken off in popularity. What was once just a loyal niche fan following has turned into a worldwide demand for these items. The surge in popularity might prompt those who don't know to ask "what is a GoPro?""

The GoPro is a HD-quality, waterproof, video camera. It is very small and compact, yet it can deliver amazingly crystal-clear video. The GoPro cameras are completely shockproof so they can be used in any type of environment or conditions. 

Currently there are three different versions of the GoPro video cameras. These are the GoPro Hero 1, the GoPro Hero 2, and the GoPro Hero 3 video cameras.

We would be using GoPros to film our 'tour' like footage around the interior of the Brighton Dome during the TEDx event. I have little experience with using GoPros so I left this to other members of the group to look into, mainly the two people who would be filming the event.

Fish-Eye Lenses

These lenses are great at capturing actions and expanding the spatial environment. Popularised by skateboarders for filming their flips and tricks, these types of lenses can get really eye capturing shots. We though these lenses could provide some great shots of the stage of the event or of the grand hall in the Brighton Dome as it would give of the message that this traditional venue is large and beautiful building. Here are some photos using fish-eye lenses. As you can see, the lens can create some really captivating images.

Bibliography

1. http://www.ebay.com/gds/What-Is-a-GoPro-/10000000177744699/g.html

7. Our Group Pitch [Practice Run w. Paul]

Practice Run of Pitch: Feedback

Our practice pitch we performed in the week prior to our actual pitch with our clients in front of our tutor and workshop group.

Since our team was still split on an idea for our project and how to incorporate the two, the structure of our pitch wasn't fluid and needed to be reformed. Here are some summarized points we received from our workshop group at tutor.

• Think about the structure of you pitch, put your proposed idea across to your client as clear and concise as possible and explain how you will achieve this.
• Be more interactive - Perform you pitch, get really into your project and show passion for it in your delivery
• More visuals! This will make your presentation stand out more, possibly add some to your hand out
• Chose wisely who is going to pitch. Some people in the group had a quiet and unclear delivery of their dialogue. Use people who are more confident with presenting to pitch the idea across to your clients.

From this feedback, we aimed to transform our google slides presentation into something that was clean, vivid and professional. We had a couple of meetings and lots of discussion on our group chat about preparation and materials needed for the pitch so we decided to split up the roles in our group by having some of us prepare the scripting for the pitch, someone creates the hand out, someone creates the presentation, someone to prepare a shot list etc. This would mean we all had an involvement in the pitch in some form or another, we just hope our client likes our proposed idea. 

6. Pitching: Tips & Techniques

Pitching: Tips, Tricks & Techniques

Since we would have to pitch our project proposal to our clients, I thought it would be beneficial if I did some research into pitching presentations to help me with my own strengths and weaknesses as well as aiding me when it came to reflecting on my own pitch. I did various forms of research such as reading articles surrounding the subject pitching, watching footage of successful pitches and finding out from experts what they think makes a successful pitch. Below is some of the results of my research into pitching.

1. Presentation Tips For Pitching - Richard Branson

Carmine Gallo is a communication coach, keynote speaker, and author of several books including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and his latest, Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets Of The World’s Top Minds. He wrote an article for Forbes magazine last year about tips for presentations from his interviews from people who have successfully pitched to mass organisations or owners and operators of these organisations. In this article he explains the following points, mainly from his interviews with Richard Branson.

- Keep the story tight, short and simple.  --> Great leader are simplifiers. “They can communicate to their entire audience in terms that are universally understood.” Branson says when he hears a long-winded speaker, “It’s all I can do to prevent myself from grabbing them by the collar and yelling, ‘Life’s too short! Get to the point.

- Start with a headline --> The big picture should be summed up in no more characters than a tweet. The human brain sees big picture before details. If you can’t articulate the big idea behind your product in a short sentence or two of 140 characters, keep working on the message. In one interview with Branson he told Gallo that if an idea cannot fit on the back of an envelope, “it’s rubbish.” Enough said.

- Wear your passion on your sleeve! --> “Passion (capital P) is unquestionably the secret sauce of every one of Virgin’s scores of highly diverse businesses,” writes Branson. In my 25 years of studying communication I’ve never met an inspiring entrepreneur or business leader who isn’t abundantly passionate about his or her company and the role it plays in improving people’s lives.

- Enjoy making a difference. --> “If you aren’t making a positive difference to other people’s lives, then you shouldn’t be in business,” says Branson.

- Demonstrate good listening skills. --> Branson carries a notebook everywhere he goes and constantly solicits feedback from employees and customers. And when he listens, he really listens. “Listening while keeping your mouth shut and saying nothing is a whole lot smarter than not listening, speaking up and saying nothing,” according to Branson.

2. Deborah Meaden's Tips on Pitching

Deborah Meaden is a successful UK entrepreneur and Dragons' Den investor. Being a big fan of the show, I thought I'd look into her opinion on what makes a good pitching as she will have a huge amount of experience and knowledge surrounding the matter. Some key points she makes which I will take from are:

- Really know your stuff

- Be clear on what drives the business forward

- Get the message across in a concise and credible way

- Use your own language, don't try to be over-clever by using "insiders" jargon; you will run the risk of baffling your audience and looking like a smart-alec!

- Memorise key points throughout your presentation so that, if you lose your thread, you can easily pick up again.

- Make sure you look good and therefore feel good on the day. Wear your favourite suit (or relevant clothing), take time with your grooming in the morning, make sure you feel "a million dollars". All this will help with your confidence and confidence is contagious. 

Bibliography

1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/12/5-presentation-tips-for-pitching-richard-branson/
2. http://www.deborahmeaden.com/20/pitching

5. Ideas & Project Planning

Planning for Project - Initial Ideas
From the Brighton Dome's project, I thought to incorporate these ideas in my personal proposal as each member of our group was going to put forward an idea of what they thought we could do with the project brief and here are the things I wanted to incorporate:

Time-Lapse: 

- Gain footage of a main stage set up

- Bird's Eye View Angle of the duration of the event

- External shots of the venue of people coming in and out of the event

Vox-Pop Style Interviews:

- We need to organise interviews with at least 4 people who are linked to the event. Each person we acquire an interview from, we must do some background research on the individual in order to compose the right questions to gain the answers we are looking for from our interviews.

- Each individual we interview, we must ensure that we think of the misè-en-scene/location of where we conduct them.

Venue Footage

- Since the brief wants us to show the inside of the Dome in order to attract other event services we must film a lot of cutaways in and around the Dome during the project. This will emphasis the Dome's capacity and it's beautiful architecture which is also apparent in their branding.

Inspirational Clips

Having inspirational clips and footage to show makes it easier for our client to construct a clearer idea of where we want to take the project in terms of its visual construct. I searched the web for clips of footage of a similar to nature to the theme of our project to help inspire some ideas for my initial proposal. Here are some clips which I found on YouTube:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYnn-6NnUqE&feature=youtu.be

This clip shows a time-lapse of interior and exterior shots of the Brighton Dome as well as the incorporating of the client's brand. This is a key example of how we would like to open and close our video project. We would use an animation of the branding of the Dome and then fade into an exterior shot of the Dome in the morning, with a time-lapse and then fade to the interior and at the end we would do a similar exterior shot but in the evening. This could be done on the day of the TEDx event to show people entering a leaving, but it could still be shot on any other day as the Dome is such a popular venue for tourists to visit.

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIViC-Z_YXI&feature=youtu.be

This is an example of a split screen, where we have two pieces of footage layered together within the frame. For our project, we desire to use this technique by having one layer showing the dome on a day when there isn't an event occurring, which can give emphasis to its beautiful infrastructure and exquisite architecture, and then for the other layer, have footage of the event taking place to contrast. This will convey to the spectator the message we aim to deliver, that the Brighton Dome is a beautiful traditional venue which can host any event.

Questions for Key Personnel

Since we were going to be interviewing key personnel from the Dome and the TEDx staff i, we needed to ask the right questions for our vox-pop style interviews to convey the message that Brighton Dome is the perfect venue to host the event. Therefore, I've constructed a few questions that I then fed back to our team on our group chat and we collaboratively came up with these questions:

1. This is the 5th TEDx event held in Brighton and the fourth to take place at the Brighton Dome, What do you like about this venue hosting this great independent event?

2. What makes you think the benefits are of holding an event at the Brighton Dome are? 

3. If you were an event organiser, what do you believe would attract you to hold an event here at the Dome?

4. Can you summarise in 3 words you experience here at the Brighton Dome?

5. Tell us about your experience about working here?

6. Why do you think the Dome is a great venue to host events, not specifically the TEDx talk?

4. TEDx, Brighton Dome and Client Research

Who are TED?

"TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world."
https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization

The first time I came across TED was when I was showed a video conference talk during an A-level Physics class where scientist explained that they had developed a camera with such a fast frame rate it was able to record the path/direction in which a light ray travels through water inside a plastic bottle. From my understanding, TED seemed to be a organisation of free knowledge which was available through their website or YouTube channel. I had little awareness about their global community or how much they had grown in the past few years so I did some research into their TEDx community as this is what event was going to be taking place at the Brighton Dome.

What is TEDx?

TED run many different programs and initiatives all over the world, one being the TEDx program which:

"...was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community."
https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program

It is a program designed to aid people in the community and organisations to trigger conversations and connections through local projects which are similar to TED experiences. They're events which are planned and co-ordinated independently, under a free license granted by TED. 
Live screening of TEDTalks videos or a combination of live presenters will be present at the events.

Types of TEDx events

"When you apply for a license to organize a TEDx event, you'll be asked to choose an event type. TEDx event types are exactly what they sound like: different kinds of TEDx events. Every TEDx event falls under one of these categories, and while all events follow a very similar format, some different content, rules and audiences apply to each type of event."
https://www.ted.com/participate/organize-a-local-tedx-event/before-you-start/event-types

• Standard event - This is the basic event type. It is subject to all of the standard rules, and applies to most events
• University event - This event type is for those hosted at a college or university, and organised by current university administration staff, faculty or students.
• Youth event - This is a TEDx event organised by, or catered toward, youth and/or kids or school communities.
• Salon event - This is a small weekly or monthly event that keeps a TEDx community engaged between regularly scheduled TEDx events. In order to organise a Salon event, applicants must already have an existing standard license.
• TEDxLive event - This is centered around the simulcast of the annual TED Conference. Here, the world becomes TED’s audience.
• TEDxWomen event - This is a TEDx event on the topic of women and gender which features the simulcast of TEDWomen. This event may only be organised around the official TEDWomen conference each year.
• Internal event - This is for corporations, organisations, government entities, non-profits or other institutions that want to organise an event under an institutional name. This event type, and the naming exception it grants, is approved only for internal, private, employees-only events.
• TEDx in a Box event - Some communities may not have the resources and infrastructure to organise an event. In these cases, we deliver all the resources needed to organise a TEDx event, packaged in a portable box.
• Library event - This event follows the same format as a standard event, except that it is hosted by librarians at a local library.
• ED event - These are TEDx events where educators, students, administrators and others gather to discuss the future of education
• Level 2 - The TEDx Level 2 license is for organisers with at least two years in the program, and other requirements

What is TEDx event at the Brighton Dome?

http://tedxbrighton.com/events/2015

More Info on the Brighton TEDx events

Who are the Brighton Dome?

Each year, The Brighton Dome present and produce over 600 events spanning music, theatre, dance, comedy, literature, spoken word, visual arts, film, digital and more. Annually every May, the Dome host the internationally acclaimed Brighton Festival -  England's leading and most-progressive mixed-arts celebration.

They have a rich history spanning over 200 years (starting life as the Prince Regent's stables and riding house), and provide an extraordinary space in which to bring the arts alive.

Brighton Dome commissions and supports both emerging and established artists and companies, enabling them to develop, take risks and deliver work of the highest quality. 

Brighton Dome is committed to bringing all sorts of art to all sorts of people. By offering imaginative new ways to discover and participate - from Saturday morning singing to theatrical make-up workshops - they aim to inspire creativity in people of all ages with experiences to remember. 

TAKEN FROM: http://brightondome.org/about/about_us/

3. TEDx: Losing Control & Brighton Dome Project Brief

TEDx: Losing Control @ Brighton Dome - Their Brief

What is the aim?

To share the experience of holding an event at Brighton Dome with our audience of event organisers. These event organisers may work for a corporation, association, charity or an event agency and they are researching venues to host a wide range of events to include conferences, meetings, awards dinners, summer balls, product launches and many more. 

Following the full event from start to finish we want to document key things such a time-lapse of the venue set up, behind the scenes footage, interviews with staff, clients and delegates all mixed in with promotional footage of Brighton Dome. 

We want our audience to get a true sense of how their event could work in our unique venues, how professional and experienced our team are and how satisfied our clients are with the overall success of their event. The film will be used online via social media, youtube & our website. 

Creative guidance: 

You will be receiving a branding presentation from the Marketing Manager at Brighton Dome. All projects MUST include clear and consistent identity using the correct logo and fonts. Brighton Dome’s tone of voice is generally a friendly one. Any music and voice over should reflect this.

Formatting: 

The video will need to be optimised for web and should be no longer than 3 minutes long. The opening shot should contain the following text: Imagine your event at Brighton Dome. (With Brighton Dome logo) 

• Timelapse video of the set up for the event and delegates arrival. 
• Mini ‘vox pop’ style interviews with key personnel linked to the event to include (subject to permissions which should be sort via Helen): Donna Miller - Business Development Manager, Conference & Private Events Name TBC - Event Manager, Brighton Dome, Sam Orams – Curator/ Production – TED x Brighton, TED x Brighton delegates.
• Video footage of the event and exterior/interior of Brighton Dome And finish with our strap line and contact details: Imagine your event. 

We can create it. events@brightondome.org / 01273 261524 / @brightdomeconf

2. Week 2 [Workshop Notes]

Brighton Festival

Brighton Dome is a multi arts venue in town showcasing all types of events. Every May, Brighton Festival takes place there and it's the biggest arts festival in England.

Example of last years work --> 26 letter teaser trailer 2015 (animation)

What is a Brand?

• a brand is not a logo, its a mark that represents the logo.
• a brand is not an identity, it concerns what fonts and colour schemes we use.
• a brand is not a product.

A brand is a persons gut feeling about a product, service or organisation. It's the essence and backbone of a company.

TRUST is a key concept to put across in your brand. It comes from meeting and beating customer experience. It's reliability and delight summed up.

Strong brands:

- National Trust

- Apple

- Waitrose

The Brighton Dome & Festival Brand

Organisational Values: Respect, Empower, Create, Inspire, Pride, Embody (RECIPE)

We need a brand that isn't mutually exclusive but celebrates the difference between the dome and the festival.

Teri V Photography

www.teriv.co.uk

Art director and designer for 20 years before coming a photography. Talking about presenting a successful pitch.

• Never cover up your mistakes - admit to them and learn from them

What makes a good pitch?

• A pitch is all about convincing incredibly important people that your ideas are the best thing they've ever seen for their company
• It's the transference of creative ideas into a language that non creative people can understand 
• Remember you're pitching against other creative groups, who are all as good as you all trying to do the same thing all truing to get notice
• So why are you different? What makes you so special
• A pitch is an opportunity to sell yourself as well as your idea
• You only get once change, but remember to show a human side
• Every pitch you win will define your career to the next level, it'll go on your CV
• PREPARATION is key!

Huge amount of research and planning, use Pinterest to aid with your designs. collect designs from the web and create mood boards

Do contextual research!

- Find out more, its not enough to just read the brand book

- Swat up to the client, it shows your generally interested you will be

- How much do you know about you client?...Do you know anymore about your client than you did last week?

Write out a Critical Path (Calendar)

• Work out who is going to do what 
• Write out a timeline backwards from the due date (google: Critical paths)
• Make sure everyone involved has small jobs to do along the way and when to do them by
• Meet regularly

In your pitch, make sure you let your clients know who you are and your previous experience and let them know you're willing to do extra that requested

How Do You Win A Pitch?

• Understand the brief
• Research the company, the brand, know them inside out
• Never bastardise their brand
• Create a fantastic idea that you really believe in
• Present you work amazingly
• Know what your talking about
• Look at the part and dress accordingly for the client
• Keep in contact with the company. Become familiar, on friendly terms
• Don't be late
• Learn how to talk to groups of people
• Have an early night - first impressions count
• Don't keep going over it too much beforehand, you know it already
• Never expect anyone to be more enthusiastic than you are
• Talk slowly and use eye contact
• Be excited about what you've got, smile :)
• Compliment their previous work but talk about how you can see it growing with your designs and ideas
• Allow them to talk
• NEVER EVER get defensive - agree with them but have an answer for everything
• Turn everything negative into a positive
• Nothing is impossible - say yes you can to everything, then work out how to do it later on
• Make notes of everything they ask for, even if it off the top of their head

Pitch Portfolio (30%)

1. Concept, Development and Research Material

2. Pitch Presenation Slides

3. Video of My Pitch

4. 500 word reflection on pitch performance