THE BRIEF
As a group you will create a 3- minute promotional video to entice students, young professionals (16-35) to visit Bristol instead of the attractions of other big cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. The film will be fresh, vibrant and highlight all Bristol has to offer be it culture, retail or social. the video must not contain and copyright material and must be shot in full HD (1080p)
To begin planning our promotional video, we first had to review and critique other promotional videos, discussing and noting what we believe worked and didn't work in them, so that we could create a video that not only captured the raw atmosphere of Bristol, but also enticed our target audience to visiting.
We looked at promotional videos abroad and at home to guarantee our plan would be accurate and effective in portraying the city, the first promotional video i looked at was created by a student who attended Bristol University. A student who lives in Bristol would seemingly portray the city in a genuine and sincere way, as they would be more knowledgable in the atmosphere and culture of the city, as they are currently living in that city.
An interesting aspect of this film is that it relies heavily on time lapse shots of the city streets themselves, focusing more on the day to day routine and atmosphere of the cities people, rather than generic establishing shots of the cities attractions and monuments. The film seems to have been colour coded resulting in every shot having an almost yellow or orange tint to it. Whilst this is indeed visual striking, the fact that it is repeated for every shot eventually leaves it feeling generic and repetitive. the same can be said about the technical camera work for this video, the video opens with vast establishing shots of the city streets, almost with overwhelming depth and detail, but again this same shot is repeated constantly throughout the video.
What i took away from this film was that when it comes time to filming of my promotional video is that various camera shots must be used in order for the film to remain visually interesting, and that i should also experiment with colour coding to create an interesting visual flair that not only looks compelling, but is also symbolic of Bristols culture and atmosphere.
The next promotional video i researched was a video made by a professional advertisement company that creates promotional videos for cities and locations across europe. I chose this video to analyse and discuss as i wanted no only to take notes on a professional piece of work with more advanced equipment and budget, but also to explore possible thematic and technical choices throughout all of my research.
whilst this film is excellently made, all the camera shots and editing techniques used are pristine, light levels are balanced and every shot is focussed well, it feels devoid of atmosphere, rather than capture the raw atmosphere of london, its culture and its essence, the film makers have created an obviously artificial view of london. The video focusses on the attractions and monuments of the city rather than capture the streets, the culture and people that make london such a vibrant city. for lack of a better word the video feels to corporate, devoid of emotion, traded in for an obvious picturesque view of london which is unrealistic. if the film were to feature more abstract camera techniques, shots of the city streets outside of the tourist district than it would feel much more vibrant and real that it currently is. as it stands i believe this film would not attract the target audience we intend to market to.
from this video i have concluded that my promotional video shall incorporate shots of all the attractions explained in the brief, but also intertwined with shots of the streets, the people and the culture of Bristol in order for the video to feel more heart felt and sincere.
The next promotional video a researched was created by a freelance film making current working out of Bristol, i believe this film creates a more personal, heartfelt video whilst still looking professional and slick, i chose to discuss this video as as mentioned above, i wanted to view a promotional video that was both an accurate portrayal of the city by an individual who experiences the city everyday
i personally believe this film is an almost perfect template of a promotional video, it blends abstract camera and editing technchiques with a intimate portrayal of the city which results in a heart felt but professional portrayal. the video relies heavily on time lapse shots combined with an extremely slow pan or tracking shot, whilst similar promotional videos i have discussed use this same technique, what this video does differently is the combination of tourist attractions and city streets, we are presented with an impressive pan of the ss Great Britan, juxtaposed with a shot of graffiti artists creating a mural in the BearPit, this seamless transition between historic monuments and contemporary urban settings creates the impression that the city is just as historically influential as it is urban. i believe that this video is closer to the target audience of young professionals and students than the other videos i have analysed.
this promotional video will essentially be a template for my promotional video, i will emulate the videos use of wide establishing shots combined with more personal close ups of the city streets.
locations to visit
Our brief instructed us to include 10 pre established locations, in our group plan we came to the conclusion that rather than spend the entire day commuting between the ten locations, we should split the locations into 4 different teams, this way we would not only save time between the journey to each location, but send longer on each location, resulting in more professional and stylised footage.
TEAM 1
Joe; director
Aj ; cinematographer locations; Cabot Tower/ College Green
Caitlin; safety/runner
TEAM 2
Ben; safety/runner
Claudia ; cinematographer locations; Millennium Square/ Arnolfini/ Thekla
Leah; director
TEAM 3
Emily; Safety/runner
Olivia ; director locations; Clifton Bridge + Area/ Observatory
Ellie; cinematographer
TEAM 4
Emily; safety/runner
Connie; director locations; Bear Pit/ Xmas Steps/ Park Street
Leah; cinematographer
We will be staying at the Rock And Bowl Hostel located on Nelson Street, the hostel is essentially in the very centre of Bristol, meaning that it will be extremely convenient for all the groups, as we won't have to commute as far to our locations, compared to staying on the outskirts of Bristol, where a large majority of the day would have been the commute to each location.
Rock and Bowl hotel
Nelson Street
luckily all of our target locations are within a 30 minute walk from the Hostel, below are the locations shown on google maps,
approximately 20 minute walk
College Green
approximately 40 minute walk
EQUIPMENT LIST
DSLR Camera x2/per group
TRI- POD x2/per group
SD card/ 1 for each camera
GOPRO
Handheld Steady Cam
Story board
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