Finished Video & Evaluation

This is the first draft for my Nuneaton Town FC Academy Promotional Video. This video is designed to promote the Football Academy and persuade young footballers to want to join. The Scholarship course allows young footballers to enjoy both full time football and still gain a qualification in the form of a Level 1 or Level 2 BTEC Diploma in Sport.

I have tried to apply equal emphasis on both aspects of the course and have done so by using footage from on the field and in the classrooms.

I did however decide to change my video. I have changed and shortened some of the clips and also changed the song as I did not feel that the initial song used suited the style of video.

Evaluation 

I found this type of video difficult to create at times. Throughout my research I viewed quite a few videos similar to the topic of my own, however they were produced on a much larger scale. These videos did provide me with inspiration for certain shots that I would later on go onto produce myself, although I am not totally happy with how they turned out.

One of the main challenges I faced was filming serious footage of a large crowd at once. A lot of the footage I captured was unusable due to people laughing in the shot, something of which the Manager didn't want to capture as he wanted to emphasise on the structure of the Academy they are establishing at Nuneaton Town FC. This is why the Manager asked me to produce a video of the Academy set up as it is relatively new and he wanted something visual to send out
to young footballers with a lot of potential who would then hopefully like to join the set up at
Nuneaton Town FC.

In the middle of planning the shooting for my video, I did have to change the whole plan and theme for my video. Nuneaton Town Football Club had initially told me that they wanted a 'Boardroom Hospitality' video producing, I had already planned out what I was going to do, how I was going to film it etc. Then I had a spontaneous conversation with the manager and was told that he now wanted a video that promoted the Academy set up and it would be shown during a presentation night to the new scholars. This came about quite late on in the unit however I still managed to re-do all f my planning in time.

In terms of shooting the actual footage I used a Canon 650D for the majority of the video. I faced a natural challenge whilst shooting the training footage as it was quite dark lighting despite it being the middle of the day. This gave me a big problem straight away as I wanted to capture smooth running shots of the players training with very little blur captured. As I increased the frame rate enabling me to shoot smooth footage, the lighting was clearly effective. I did attempt at raising the ISO, the next problem I encountered was grainy footage. One thing I noticed about the videos I viewed in my research was that all the shots were incredibly smooth despite the fast paced action being shot, this was definitely a feature I wanted my video to conform to. I decide to ensure that the action in training I shot was smooth with a limited amount of blur, the only downfall to this was that during editing, I did have to raise the brightness to some extent, this meant I lost some of the colour in my shot.

The part of the promotional video I am most pleased with is the footage I captured using the GoPro Hero 3 camera. This camera attached to one of the players during training with the help of a chest brace, enabled me to capture engaging footage from the point of view of the player. The shot really places you in the boots of the footballer on screen, I feel as though it is perfect for the purpose of the video, which is of course, to demonstrate life in the Nuneaton Academy to them. In terms of the quality of footage too, it was not only the easiest to capture, however it required the least amount of editing also. The GoPro automatically adjusted to different lighting and was perfect for the fast paced action taking place, providing me with smooth footage. If I was to do something similar in the future, I may even think about shooting the whole of the video with the GoPro on the chest brace; I was so pleased with how it turned out, it created a real sense of 'virtual reality' for the viewer, you were able to see everything in their POV.

The education shots which were "very important for the video", in the words of the Manager, were much easier for me to shoot. Apart from one classroom where I again had to raise the lighting during the editing, the rest of the footage I shot was bright, full on good contrast and really smooth. I did actually experiment in the way in which I shot some of the classroom footage, regularly used a panning shot. Something again I noticed from viewing similar videos within my research was that the educational side of things was shot differently compared to the football side, after all it is less interesting to the majority of the target audience (young footballers). I felt that by adding the occasional panning shot to the sequence, it would keep the viewer engaged.

In terms of the video's effectiveness I feel that the video does promote the club's academy, however there are definitely areas in which I could improve the video. I mentioned previously about how effective I found the GoPro footage when viewing all the clips in post-production, it really did place you in the footballer's boots and that for me is perfect for young players who potentially could be joining the academy. I feel interviews with a few of the players could also improve the video, It would be useful for young players who are unsure about the academy to hear the views of players who are already at the club.

Success

This video is to be used at a presentation night and will be shown on the website to hopefully promote the academy and attract individuals to turn up to the presentation night in which the young footballers will be given all the information they will need before joining the academy. The only way I can get an idea of how successful this video has been is by seeing how many people firstly turn up to the presentation night (9th May) and secondly, how many people want to sign up for the Academy following the presentation night.