Promotional Video: Final Product Evaluation

As a whole I feel as though this unit went well, with only a few minor issues that were either amended quickly or worked around, for example, I thought I was going to have an issue with two of the dancer as I know they were either foster children or adopted and wasn’t too sure whether they would be allowed to be filmed to be published on social media but because I handed out the release forms their mum signed and okayed that they were allowed to filmed for the purpose of the promotional video and for it to be posted on the internet. Also dealing with so many children could have been a big issue dealing with consent from parents/guardians but, again, because of the release form they allowed me to know which children were and weren’t allowed to be filmed, also the owner of the studio/dance teacher posted on the school’s Facebook page stating I would be filming and if any parent/guardian had a problem with their child being film to contact her privately so that she could let me know; luckily there we few children who weren’t allowed to be on camera or they just didn’t attend the lessons during my filming time meaning there was no chance of them being caught by the camera, which meant there was little rearranging and reframing that needed to be done.

I used majority mid to long shots as I felt it gave a good view of the studio, and the different styles of dancing. I feel that the use of long shots and showing the full body of the students shows how their whole body connects to the song and the choreography and it displays the quality of the dances to their full potential. As well as the mid/long shots I did close ups showing only the legs or feet to show a close up of the movement. I chose the feet because Karen Hardy (professional ballroom dancer) once said that ‘footwork is the foundation to movement’ and I took that and applied it to my filming by showing the footwork of the dancers and their movement during the dances.

If I had the opportunity to reshoot there are several changes I would make; I would hope to use a GoPro attached to once of the dancers to fully capture the movement and give an inclusive feel to the video, as it would be a point-of-view shot it would give the audience the view of a Kelly’s School of Dance dancer; I think the use of a GoPro would work particularly well when doing turns or tumbles to give a feel of the motion felt through dancing. However I was new to the technology of the GoPro and was unsure on how it actually worked and I didn’t want to use any footage that I wasn’t sure of and didn’t look a high enough quality for the final edit as it was for the promotional use of a business and I wanted to be able to make to the highest quality possible. I would also want to have a wider range of shots, for example a high angle almost giving a birds-eye-view on the studio and the dances as it would add dimension and depth to the video, also I would like to do extreme close ups on possibly the faces of the dancers to fully grasp the emotion when dancing as dance is a sport where the execution during performance heavily relies on the emotion and facial expressions of the performers to sell the dance. Another idea would be to use a dolly or glider to get steady and fluid camera movements when shooting the dance without it looking static and monotonous, this would work really well if I was to schedule times when I had certain, smaller groups of dancers performing one of their dances more in a way as if they were competing or not in a dance class setting, much like the videos I found to look at the framing and angles used when filming dances prior to my filming. However because I was filming during active lessons it wasn’t possible to get the perspective I was after as it would have been too disruptive to the classes and as I was shooting during the business hours of the dance school it just wasn’t doable. Ideally I would have been able to have a time when I could have almost staged classes where I would have been able to get into the dances more and show a different view of how the dances look.

If I was to continue with this project I would keep on top on how successful the video was by checking the likes and comments section of the video on YouTube to see how it is received by the audience. Another way I would measure the success is when new students start at the dance school on the registration form I would ask my client if there could be a section added as how they found out about the dance school and from that see how many people joined after watching my promotional video.

Overall I believe that the final product has been completed to a standard that my client was happy with, as it covered a whole range of classed that she offers at the studio. I think that the editing and the length of shots works well in time with the music, as I chose a song that was similar to the kind of music that Kelly (my client) uses when choreographing her dances and I thought a remix would give the promotional video a fun, energetic and engaging feeling for the audience as they’re watching; in hopes that the engaging qualities make the audience connect to the video and feel that this is the kind of dance school they would like to send their children to.

I sent the youtube link of the final product to my client for her to see the outcome. And her feedback was positive and she was impressed with the video as a whole. Although we had discussed ideas I could tell that she wasn't too sure as to what I was getting at fully hence why she said she didn't know what to expect but I'm glad she was pleased with how it turned out.