During my time at BCIT produced a number of videos for various class projects. One of which was a promotional video for a small art and music promotional company based out of Vancouver, Art Signified. To start with this project, my video colleague Rob Zawistowski, and myself met had an initial conversation with the co-owner Mitch Ray about the overall feel of the company and what he wanted to accomplish as a goal for the video. Mitch wanted a professional looking video that captured the raw nature of the artists he was promoting. He wanted the focus to be on the main focus of the business which was promoting quality art and artists. The business should be taken seriously but should not revolve around image or being too slick in nature. A balance between professionalism and the organic, unprocessed art being promoted was imperative. We then brainstormed ideas of how to accomplish this through visuals and narrative. After that we came up with a storyboard for the video and tried to match a loose script for Mitch to narrate the video that would have a consistent focus and accomplish the ultimate goal for the project.
Making this project a reality was the really fun part of the project. After creating an objective and plan for the project the rest, although a lot of work, was a great experience for me. We as a team had to set up our cameras and lights to take account for the lighting and acoustics of the rooms. We always shot using from different angles to give difference perspectives and different options. I used a Nikon D5200 DSRL camera for video and Lapel and Condenser microphones. Shooting in controlled environments was obviously much different than on site as we shot video in music venues where the general public had access to and we had to work around but very often the natural surroundings gave a raw natural feel that worked for the video. The video was then assembled in Adobe Premiere and Audition, making adjustments for colour correction, audio levels and quality as well as adding transitions and graphics to the end video. My colleague happened to be a musician and was able to provide music.
Our client Mitch was very impressed with the video had nothing but positive feedback for the end product. We did receive some tips about how to clean up some audio for the video from our BCIT instructor. The video didn't really need to be overly polished as the slight imperfections in audio actually worked for the raw edgy nature of the business and feel we wanted to portray, but the advice was appreciated and put into good use in future video projects. I consider this video a great success and am proud to been associated with this projects and will remember the experiences and lessons learned from this project for many years to come.
