Batteries Not Included Documentary

Newspaper Advert

Radio Trailer for Batteries Not included

Permission of use for 'You've Got A Friend In Me'

The main music bed we used in our documentary was the toy story theme tune, to avoid copyright Jordan e-mailed Walt Disney records to ask permission for the use of their song.

Voice Over For Our Documentary

To produce our voice over for our documentary Jess had to create a script that would go with our documentary. Once she had typed it up she had to make sure that it was ok to use with the rest of the group.

Jess then asked a michelle if she could read out the script and be recorded. Jess had to book time in the studio in school to ensure that the quality of the recording was good enough to use with the documentary. Once this was all recorded Jess brought it to the group and put in our production on Adobe Premiere pro. Jordan then cut it up accordingly to the clips we had, and put the voice over our work so we then had a description on our production.

Production Of The Newspaper Advert

Before Lydia made the newspaper advert she had to plan out on paper what she would include, once she had done so she then took the photographs that we needed to create the newspaper advert in Photoshop.

This is a picture of a window that has been enlarged to fit 2 thirds of the screen to emphasis that there is outside and inside to the advert.

She then added a black background to ensure that the bottom of the screen wasn't a plain colour.

Next she added a photograph of a teenager playing an xbox and enlarged her by pressing ctrl+T.

She then cut around the edge of the teenager using the polygonal lasso tool, which ensure that she didn't get sharp edges around the image and the shape was still kept.

She then added a buzz light year behind the third layer or the teenager, and enlarged the image my using ctrl+T, she tilted him slightly to the left to ensure the toy could be seen end emphasis the fact the toy was looking over her shoulder to come in.

Next an action man figure was added, and enlarged again by using ctrl+T.

Next a teddy bear was added, she made sure it was in front of the action figure but still behind the teenager, she also made sure that it was large enough to see the detail of the sad mouth.

Next the channel 4 logo was added to the left of the advert. she ensured that it was positioned correctly and could be see against the background.

She then clicked the Rectangle tool and created a white box on the bottom left for the text of the show to be put on.

Another box was added on top of the first rectangle, she then ensured that they were both coloured in white to make the text stand out against the dark background.

The slogan of the documentary was then added to the first box by using the text tool and changing the size of the font to 36pt.

The title, date of scheduling and the time was then added to the lower box, again using the text tool, ensuring the text colour was black and the size to be 23pt.

This was then the finished product that Lydia created for our newspaper article in Photoshop.

Drafting Newspaper Advertisement

Rough draft for our newspaper advert.

Production Of Our Radio Advert

To produce our radio advert Jess had to write the script for it show it to the group to make sure that we approved to the script. Jess then asked Michelle to record our radio advert as well as our previous recording of the voice over.

Jess had to pre book the studio in school for the better sound quality and get Michelle to read over the script before she recorded the advert. Once the advert had been recorded Jess then put it onto Adobe Premiere pro, next Jess had to import voice clips from our documentary to include in the advert, she also imported the music bed that we used on our documentary which was the main theme from 'Toy Story'. Once she had a variety of voice clips she then cut them and put them together accordingly to her script she planned out earlier. Once the advert had been made the whole group then listened to it to make sure that it flowed properly and sounded good enough.

Scripting radio trailer

Music bed: Toy story soundtrack
Vox pop “My favourite toy was a...”

VO: In the UK last year we spent 16.7 billion pounds on toys.

Stewart interview: “You need batteries for most toys nowadays”

VO: So how have toys changed over time and how have developments affected
the ways children play today?

Irene interview: “Children don’t play anymore”

Rob interview: “Now the children just want to play on video games, and don’t
want to go out and play”

VO: Could it be that toys are actually unhealthy for our children and are making
then anti-social?

VO: You coming out to play?

VO: Batteries not included, Tuesday 20th December, channel 4.

Codes and Conventions of a radio trailer

 

Radio trailers often use a T.V advert as a radio advert.

On average a radio trailer is around 30-40 seconds.

The voice over - Narrator outlines the narrative.

Sometimes they pose questions that will be answered in the programme.

Sometimes direct address is used "you" it intrigues the audience.

Extracts from the documentary are used, such as; voxpops, music, interviews

Sound effects are used where appropriate.

Music bed also used where appropriate.

Slogan always used before scheduling information.

We are given scheduling information used at the end of the trailer.

Title, date and time, channel have to be said on the end of the radio trailer so the listener know when and where to watch the programme.

Scripting Voiceover

 

it is estimated that in the UK last year we spent around 16.7 billion pounds on toys.
Toys are a big part of our lives, we learn through them, we grow with them, we have our favourites, and those that define a generation.

In today’s society we are surrounded by gender stereotypes everywhere we go. No more so than in toy shops, where the toys our children play with reinforce what it apparently means to be male or female.
Most toys today are electronic; they either need batteries or are plugged in. While these may be more exciting for children, they have also affected the ways they play and interact

Videogames have probably had the greatest impact on the way children play. There are over 5 billion different video games in the world today... and still counting.

Editing

To create our documentary we had to use Adobe Premiere Pro, we imported the interviews and cutaways onto the programme and edited the questions off the interviews and cut down the cutaways to suit were we wanted to put them.

This is the part on video/ xbox games, we edited out the questions and where the questions were asked we shortened the space and added cutaways that were relevant to the answers.

We added a still image on the documentary by importing it, we then ensured that it fitted the screen and changed the time it was shown for.

These are cut aways that we put on our documentary, the left are xbox games that we used in the gamer interview, we added these on the top line of the time line, as seen on the picture.

This is the blank space that is left when questions are cut out, to avoid the black space the different parts of the documentary are moved up the time line and cutaways are overlapped on the top to ensure that there are no jump cuts.

The toys that we filmed were sped up and parts were cut off to fit over the top of the interview or for the voice over in the blank spaces.

We had to speed up parts of the footage we had, this was done by right clicking on the clip, and clicking speed/duration, we then had to type in the right amount of numbers we wanted to speed up or slow down that shot.

Cutaways of shops were put in the middle of the documentary for the voice over, we wanted to explain the different types of stereotypes you get in toys you buy nowadays compared to years ago. We also added out main music bed on the opening name of the documentary and various other parts of the documentary.

This is another cutaway used in our documentary, its a nintendo DS and we used it in the interview for miss stewart. we had to ensure that it linked with what she said.

We used a cutaway of the two young girls we interviewed playing with their toys, we sped it up to fit inbetween the interviews and show play.

This is stock footage of a popular wii game called 'Wii Sports', we sped this up because the footage was too slow for a quick cutaway.

Here is were we added our voice over to the documentary, we imported the clip and cut it up accordingly to where we wanted it to be placed against the documentary.

we added the voice over to stock footage of a game shop and ensured that the voice over fitted with what was on the screen.

Finally we ensured that all the cutaways and the interviews fitted with one another and that there were no jump cuts or black spaces.

Edit Decision List

By creating an edit decision list it enabled us to document the clips we wanted to use in our documentary. By doing this is helped us to order the clips we wanted to edit, what order they would be put in, and what cutaways/stock footage/interview we were using and where.

We put our edit decision on a sheet provided with the separate titles to make it clearer for us to read. Myself, Jordan and Jess sat together to decide what clips we wanted to use, and how long we would keep them on the screen before going to another clip. this was determined with the help of the logging sheet which was done earlier.

Logging

Throughout the filming of our documentary we had to fill in a logging sheet. This is were you document all of the different bits of filming you have on the tapes, you document the times it start and finish, what is it that you have logged and if the shot you have logged is good enough to put into the documentary.

Myself Jess and Jordan took it in turns to log when we came back from filming. To save time one person was logging on the logging sheet, and another was on Adobe premiere pro capturing the clips and recording them on a separate logging sheet. By doing the logging sheet it helped us organise our clips, made it easier for us to edit, and made it easier to locate any clip we needed on the tape, just in case we needed extra footage later on in the production. 

Filming Miss Stewart

Wednesday 2nd November

Lydia and Jordan had to interview an adult on their view of toys these days, they asked Miss Stewart, and asked her a series of questions.

They ensured that she was framed to the left but had to use a Big close up because they couldn't get a background in time. They had the camera on a tri pod, and attached a microphone to ensure that the interviewee could be heard in the interview.


Once they had filmed they then logged and captured their interview on Adobe premiere pro, they edited the questions out from in between the answers of the interview to make it run smoother. Once they had edited it all out they then added cut aways over the top of the interview to make sure that there was no jump cuts through out the interview.  

Filming the title sequence

Tuesday 1st November


Lydia, Jess and Jordan filmed the opening title for the documentary 'Batteries not included' by using children's building blocks. The set out the blocks first to ensure that they had enough to spell out the title, they then made a background, and made sure that the lighting was right.


They then filmed it as a stop start, so moved the blocks and recorded, stopped, moved the block more and pressed record again. They did this to every block until it spelt out their title.


They then sped up the footage to make it look as if the blocks are moving by themselves into place.

Filming A toy shelf

Wednesday 2nd November 


To film out toy shelf Lydia, Jordan and Jess had to bring in a large amount of their childhood toys to fill a shelf. Between them they shared out who would bring in which toy instead of having too many of the same toy. 


Once they had all brought them in they used sugar paper to create a coloured background on the shelf instead of using the plain white wall, and then added the toys to create their 'Toy shelf'.


They then set the tripod and camera up at the same level as the toy shelf to ensure that when they panned across the toy shelf wouldn't be seen at a strange angle. They then used a lamp to add to the amount of light on the toys to make sure the camera picked up the colours of the toys and the shelf.


Once they had finished filming they added it to Adobe premiere pre and cut up the different pans of the toy shelf and sped them up or slowed them down to create their cutaways and clips.

Filming the stock footage of toys

Lydia and Jessica using the talking puppies.

Watching back the footage of buzz lightyear.

Jessica zooming in on the toy.

Jordan and Lydia filming buzz lightyear.

Lydia filming the stop/start clip of buzz lightyear.

Jordan and lydia adjusting the camera to film the toy.

Jordan and Lydia filming buzz lightyear.

Filming an interview with Perc library

Friday 18th November

Jordan and Lydia filmed an interview in Perc library in Liverpool. They had to phone up and e-mail the library to ensure that they could get an interview and once they had set a date they had to travel by train to Liverpool.

They set the camera up in the play centre and ensured the background suited the documentary. They had to make sure the interviewee was framed correctly before they could film. They then asked the interviewee several questions, once they had filmed they made sure that the sound quailty was good enough to use and went back to school to edit.

They captured their work on Adobie premiere pro and edited out the questions so that the interview ran smoother without questions interrupting.

Filming a video gamer

Thursday 17th November
Lydia and Jess went to film a video gamer, First they set up the camera to make sure that he was framed to the correct side, they then made sure that the background suited the documentary.

They asked him several questions about why he likes games, what his favourite are and what are the best consoles to play on.

Next they came back to school to edit out the questions so just the answers can be heard, making it run smoother. They also added in footage of games, and xboxes to put inbetween each answer which made it run better than having cuts between each answer.

Filming two children

Friday 4th November 


Lydia and Jordan filmed Rebecca and Ella for their children's interview. Firstly they had to create forms for their parents to sign to ensure it was fine for them to film their children.
Once they had permission they recorded the girls playing with their various toys, dolls and teddy bears they had.


Once they had stock footage they then filmed the two girls separately and asked them several questions about their toys; what they like about them, dislike, what they would like to get for Christmas and which toy was their ultimate favourite. They had to make sure that they had the background correct and that the girls stayed in the frame.


Next they came back to school to edit out the questions, cut up the stock footage into separate clips so they could then put them in between their answers and placed them all together to make two interviews.

Filming two next door neighbours

Sunday 6th November


Jess and Jordan filmed Jess's two next door neighbours, they asked them the same two questions as their grandparent.


They set the cameras so that they framed the interviewees properly and ensured that they had enough light on them to be seen on the camera. Because they couldn't get toys around the interviewees they had to zoom in on their face to make it fill most of the shot but still framed them to one side to stick to the codes and conventions of recording an interview.


Once they had finished, they came into school and edited out the questions so just the answers could be heard. they also added cutaways in and over the questions to make them run smoother.

Filming a Grandparent

Thursday 3rd November


Jordan and Lydia went to film an interview with Lydia's Granddad. They travelled to Birkenhead and interviewed him in his living room, They set the camera up and did sound checks to ensure the microphone was working, they then sat two teddy bears on the couch with Lydia's Granddad; one old and one new.


They then ensured that he was framed to the left properly and asked him several questions about toys and games he used to play when he was younger.


When they had finished with the interview they logged the counter numbers and started to edit it. They edited out the questions they asked to make the interview run smoother, they also added cutaways and stock footage in between/over answers.

Filming the vox pop

Tuesday 1st November

Jess and Jordan filmed a vox pop in liscard cherry tree centre outside game station. They asked 19 people the same question: 'What was your ultimate favourite toy as a child?'.

After filming everybodys answers they then came back to edit them on Adobe Premiere pro, they then decided that two of the answers they filmed were not framed well enough to go into the vox pop so cut them out.

Next they cut out Jess asking the questions to every person and put all of teh filmed answers together so it cut into each others answers instead of having the question interrupting the flow of the answers in the vox pop

Filming our opening title 'Batteries not included'

Lydia and Jordan placing the blocks in shot ready for stop start filming.

Jordan moving the title blocks.

Testing out filming with the lamp.

Adjusting the camera and light to get all of the blocks focused in the frame.

Changing the position of the lamp for better lighting.

Capturing the blocks for each shot.

Moving the blocks into place.

The angle of the camera so we could film the clocks for our opening title.

Second to last shot before the blocks had to be moved for the finished piece.