Saturday 19 November 2011

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.

Friday 18 November 2011

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.

Thursday 17 November 2011

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

Wednesday 16 November 2011

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.

Interview questions for children

Tell me what your favourite toy is, tell me about it?

Tell me about toys you don’t like? What do you dislike about them?

Tell me do you like video games? Yes/No why?

Tell me what do you prefer videogames or toys?

Are there any toys you want right now?

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Interview questions for Grandparents and Parents

Tell me how play has changed since you were a child?

What types of toys did you have as a child?

Tell me about your favourite toy as a child?

Are there any toys you used to have on sale now? If so what?

Tell me how have toys changed since you were a child?

What do you like about toys that you had when you were young?

Tell me is there anything you dislike about toys these days?

Monday 14 November 2011

Interview questions for toy shop manager

Tell me what is your most popular selling toy?
Tell me why is it so popular?

Tell me how have toys changed over the years?

Tell me are there any toys on sale now that you used to have as a kid?

Tell me what do you enjoy about your job?

Tell me what toys are popular with girls?

Tell me what toys are popular with boys?

Tell me what toys are popular with both sexes?

Tell me what do you think the future for toys is?

Tell me what has the impact of video games had on the sales of conventional toys?