Corporate Report

Task 1

What kind of forms of corporate videos are there? Describe 3

Music Video

In a music video, a set of different actions are happening with the music/Audio playing on top of those actions. Sometimes the music is part of the video (with people dancing etc) and other times it is similar to a soundtrack of the story in the same way it would be used in a film. Music videos are a important part of the corporate product as they allow the audience to have a visual of the music rather than just listening listening to the music itself, this adds a new medium to the music industry. This type of video is for entertainment purposes as well as to sell a product.

My personal opinion on music videos is they are the most interesting form of corporate videos to watch as making music is a creative process which allows the people making the music video to be more creative. Where as something like a training video will be very informative and doesn’t really allow the makers of the video to be creative. As music does allow the people making the music video to be more creative with the visual element there are many different things happening in music videos but some shots do pop up a lot such as a shot of the artist performing the song in some sort of way whether that is through dance or lip syncing to audio. Also depending on what genre the music video is, some videos have very similar videos if they are in the same genre such as if the genre is rock or punk they will usually have a cut aways of the band performing the song and cut aways to the story being told of that song. You can see this by video below:

Training Videos

This is for informing people and is not meant to be fun as the information has to be learnt. For example food and hygiene videos which would deal with how to handle raw foods, how to store all foods and at what temperatures plus other necessary measures. Sometimes there may be some humour in the images (for example, what you wouldn’t want to find in a fridge). They would do this to stimulate the watcher and secure their interest. Training videos are usually used by companies on a group of new staffs induction day, they use them as they are a effective way of giving new staff information in a more entertaining way than she telling them directly. Training videos generally have examples of a situation that might present itself to that employer in their time of employment at the company. Such as when a employer has to deal with a tricky customer and what is the correct/appropriate way to deal with that customer.

Promo Videos

In some way, they are trying to sell you something. They’d be advertising something and would be screaming out, “hey come and see.” Sometimes they may use a celebrity to endorse a product or service such as Idris Elba promoting sky box sets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbHp2F8iX-In this video Idris talks into the camera as it gives the impression that he is talking directly to that particular audience member looking at the screen, this will appeal to a mass audience as people will enjoy being talked to directly by a person that Sky hope they know (Idris Elba) will help convince them to sign up to Sky plus this will be the preferred reading of the producer of the advert.Although promo is usually used to promote a corporation as a whole and this is just promoting sky plus, by promoting the sky plus service it in turn promotes sky as a company.

They somtimes use celebrities as the audience feels like they know and can relate to that particular celebrity and are use to seeing them on their screen. Using a celebrity can add a lot to the production cost as they’re fee is obviously higher to an unknown actor or performer. Sometimes a promo will be done to promote a college or a university by one of its students, these videos obviously have a smaller production value than say a bigger company it will give the video a less professional look, but in turn it can give the video a different and more creative feel to a video that has been done by a larger company. Such as this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms849HYfpK0&list=UUDTcIcYOGkgONf1WMpCwgKg-This is a video that wouldn’t be made by a bigger company because it doesn’t have “professional” feel to it but because it is made by student with new idea’s they have made the video feel fun and creative by using a dinosaur as the main feature of the video.

Codes of Conventions used in corporate videos

Codes are symbols or systems which create meaning. Codes and conventions are the way in which media text is predictably communicated to us. This predictability means we become used to the lighting, sound, even actors in certain genre of films/videos. Corporate videos tend to use fluent transitions  which help keep the audience engaged and allows them to watch the corporate video with a interest of the content involved in the video and helps the video to have a more professional feel, which in turn if the video is promotional it gives a good impression of the company that the video is trying to promote.

Describe Current Practice

The most basic equipment would be cameras and batteries, tripod, microphone with muffler and lighting. For corporate videos these items would all be scheduled for use in advance and used by trained or experienced professionals. The lighting of a corporate video will be well lit as it look’s more appealing to the audience as a well lit environment is easier on the eye.

Corporate videos would run to a schedule that they would have to stick to procedures and each genre has a format so that audiences can find the product easily and identify it’s content.

For techniques, the camera work and shots would reflect the content. For example in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ the audience is fed a false sense of security, which builds up. The film is a dark-comedy but becomes darker as it goes on. Its use of lighting shows the main character in a normal light, having a routine to his life, a man going to work as normal but bad things are unknowingly happening around him. The composition of the film is quite clever and the mood is enhanced by lighting and music/background noise. Although Shaun of the Dead is not a corporate film it is a perfect example of how music and lighting can change the audience’s mood/emotion.

Production Practices

Pre Production practice starts with an idea, which is developed. It then becomes written up as a proposal, ready to pitch to a company board who will decide what happens next. If it goes through, it goes through to pre-production which will mean a storyboard has to be created along with a treatment. Another meeting takes place involving everyone who is part of the project to further discuss and to ensure everyone has the same information. There is a lot of communication and planning including the start of searching for locations. Next will come the writing of scripts and shooting scripts, which will include a shot list. Scheduling will involve basically more planning and ensuring the cast is ready and equipment booked and tested. The director and producers are involved in casting. Before shooting begins the chosen locations will have a risk assessments done.

Production will include the use of lighting, cameras, tripods and a mirance. It will have the people that will appear in the video itself these could be actors/actresses or even extras and presenters. Production could also include filming on location or filming in a studio. The footage is then recorded hopefully smoothly if the pre production is done to a good standard!

Post Production- Once all the footage is recorded you can then move onto editing, editing can often be the longest part of the process as the client may request after being given the first edit for something to cut or replaced which may involved rearranging the whole edit which would take a considerable amount of time to be complete. The editing process involves rearranging sections of video and clips and putting them in order that will achieve maximum impact for the audience. Corporate videos tend to be a maximum 6 minute long video and will be the editors responsibility to put in any sound,subtitles etc and to make the video to look and flow in a way that the client has requested.

TASK TWO

Media products have many a lot of laws and regulations to abide by. These will include:

• Libel, which is any published item that are not true which damages a person’s reputation. This is important to abide by as if it is broken they will be hold to libel claims and then of course prosecution. It is also good to follow as having a video where no one is the but of the joke makes easy viewing for the audience as they are (hopefully) not offended at any point.
• Privacy, which means respecting the privacy of people to live their lives without intrusion. Corporations take their image very seriously and if they where to be found not respecting someone’s privacy it could tarnish that company’s image and give them a bad name.Release forms are a way of avoiding privacy issues as they are a great way of getting peoples permission to film them and reduces the risk of getting in trouble with the law.
• Laws relating to race relations, disability, obscenity, which means not being offensive to any person who may be disabled, and must not risk discriminating against anyone on the grounds of race or religion or a different culture. Obscenity would depend on the rating of the film for example, any content relating to drugs or nudity would not be in a child’s film. It would also depend on the genre.
• Copyright- Copyright is taken very seriously as if not followed correctly it could result anything from the video being taken down or a prison sentence. Although copyright can be anything that has been copyrighted by its creator the best example is the music of the video, the music of the video has to be royalty free from websites such as this :http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ or have permission from a record company to use a song at that particular label.

Ethical issues which need to be considered are again, not to discriminate or offend anyone of different races, religion or gender.

• Race, persons from another country who maybe have different colour skin and/or a different culture should be represented in a fair manner and their way of life respected.
• Gender, males and females to be represented equally in that a media product is not detrimental or patronising to either one gender or another.
• Religion, media companies don’t have the right to dictate through their product that a religion or belief is wrong. In the film Carrie based on Stephen King’s book, the central character was victimised by her mother due to the mother’s strict religious beliefs. The mother enforced her opinion and punishments on her daughter. I think this may have influenced some people about abuse through religious beliefs.

Examples of Corporate Films:

Tesco-Better Service. This video is a promo video available to the public to “show off” how good the service is at Tesco superstores, it involved interviews with staff and customers talking about the top quality customer service that is provided by Tesco. The first shot used is a over the shoulder shot of a customer getting served by a member of staff that is giving her top quality service. Although allot of videos start off with a establishing shot this is a good shot to start with as it is a video essentially to show off how good the service is at Tesco’s. Throughout the video this continues as a theme of when a customer is getting served they use the over shoulder shot as the audience see the quality of the service that the customer is receiving. They use allot of mid shots throughout when a person is being interviewed and has a voice over of the main interviewee in the video speaking over the cutaways. They have close ups of things like freshly baked bread to allow the company to show of its product to the viewer to make them want to come to Tesco as they see in the video that the produce is fresh and made by themselves so the customer knows where it came form. The purpose of the video was to show Tesco have good customer service and i think this video achieves that, it not only visually shows the customer service but has members of staff speaking about how good it is and even customers backing up what the staff are saying which is we have good customer service come shop at Tesco.

Apple-Apple Watch-Health and Fitness-This video is promoting apples latest new the product the apple watch. The video starts off with a mid shot around the persons waist of the apple watch. It has medium shots and close ups of people wearing the apple watch, all these people are young and good looking people who look like they lead a active lifestyle. They chose these people as the apple watch is targeted at people who want to lead a healthier life by being more active. They have a medium shot of director of fitness and health technologies Jay Blahnik who is the voice of the video throughout. It continues to have close ups of the apple watch throughout the video and has shots of people doing some sort of physical activity throughout the video such as skipping etc. It also has a close up of the new iphone 6 which is a clever marketing techniques by apple as it not only advertises the apple watch but also make the consumer either want to purchase or at least look into the iPhone 6 as well as the apple watch in the same advert. The aim for this video is to sell the apple watch and ipohne 6 but it also promotes apple as a company as well as i believe when people look into these products they will also look into buying more apple products such as macbook etc. The image that apple want to set for themselves is in some ways that they are ahead of the game in terms of technology as they are making products that haven’t been made before and innovating products such as the iPhone in such a way that other company have looked at as inspiration for their phones. I am unable to say whether this video promotes the company and the products effectively as these products are not yet on sale but i think it is pretty obvious will do looking at apples previous sales figures and according to this article http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2356494/apple-expects-iphone-6-to-smash-sales-records-with-70-to-80-million-units-ordered apple have ordered 70 to 80 million units which shows you how confident they are at this product doing well. I personally think that this advert promotes apple and their product well and makes me want to go out to buy the product so i would have to say that this video has been successful

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFvbTSI2DYI

Sainsbury Local video:Manchester: This is a video i found that is shown to new recruits at a Sainsburys located in Manchester. The videos first shot is the Sainsbury logo and then has a opening which involves the animation of the Sainsburys store going into a long shot of the sainsbury store itself. Although the opening 5 seconds are good the person who is the voice of the video appears fake uninterested and annoying. The camera then has a medium shot which is shaky telling new recruits about the stocking process. The audio of the video is not the best as although you are able to hear what is being said it appears fuzzy and is not pleasant to listen to. It then has a slideshow of pictures of a member of staff before going to interview that member of staff.. The interview is shot in a two shot and moves into a cut away which has tetris background noise trying to make a joke about having to make the most of limited space when working on that particular job. The video continues in a similar fashion throughout having bits of animation which i enjoy and some of the music like for example the tetris music when trying to put stock in small spaces is clever and has potential to work but the amateurish camera operators and sound technicians make the audience want to cringe and compared to the other two videos i’ve analysed this video seems a world away of the standard that has been set by the other two.