Professional Practice: Commission Research

Professional Practice: Commission Research

As part of this project I needed to kep myslef well informed, not only about the aims of my company, but also about the commission processe in general. As part of my ongoing reserch I watched and analyesed a variety of other similar commissions and a few contrasting ones to see what I could take from them.

1. Sir Cloudesley Shovell's Silver Plate | 100 Objects that Made Kent -Becca Bennet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAxUYB1h-30

This commission uses voice over as its primary method of informing its audience. However there is a lot of what is refered to as dead time, with long pauses in the informative voice over. In my project I would want to hold audience attention bith audibly and visually, as such I would keep a steady pace in my narration with only an occasional pause to ensure thoer attenton doesn't wander. 

The hand held Shots are a little unsteady. Although they do give a nice angel and we have the close up shots in the right place (matching the voice over) as a veiwer I find teh shaky shots a litel distracting. I would use a fig rig or other similar device to help maintaina steady shot and proffecional appearance. i also deiscovered that dollys often make an effective tool especially when panning so I hope to encourperate that in to my work to generate smooth shots and shot transitions. 

There as some good story telling done both visually and audibly. The creator uses sound effects that match the subject matter and help spark the viewers imagination. This is somehting I will consider but I hope to create a similar effect through the use of POV shots.
There is good use of  establishing shots, especially when moving on to a new topic. I plan to at the very least include a wide shot or pan when moving on to a new point in my narration as it hekps ground the project. 


2. Middelheim Museum promo video
https://vimeo.com/45893857
The Quick cuts used in this commission helps maintain the audiences attention well but doesn’t give them much of a chance to absorb visual information. When creating a piace of work that is designed to inform you of course want to keep it interesting but I inyend to eep my cuts at a steady natural pace that matches the voice over and gives my audince a chance to absorb teh information.
Althoug quite fast for a formal piece of work there is steady Pacing in this commission, which as I mentioned is key for maintaiing audiences atention. 

The Text on screen is a very useful tool (like lower thirds) but could have been utalised more effectively in this case. Since there is a lack of voice over the text is the only real inforamtion we have, and it is not on screen for very long which risks lossing its message. I am considering the use of text on screen but intend to make it large enough for all ages to read and more interesting to look at than the generic font used here. But in my project, unlike this one I thinkvoice over would be a more effective tool and text should obly be used to reinforce or provide aditional information that isn't otherwise present. 

This commission blends hand held shots and tripod shots seamlessly. If you can establish a scene nicely with a static shot and then move in to hand held tracking shots when action picks up then you are garanteed to keep atention and pacing. I plan to utalsie both static and hand held/tracking shots in my project as movement is a useful tool. Ti s project is a good example if this done right.

3. Science Museum Group Annual Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3gOAntV1_k
The steadt pace of the cuts in this commission is matched well with music. This use of rhythmic editing is a useful skill to have. And since the content in this commssion is exciting it works well. ince my content will likely be more static this technique may be useful to have, but likeley wont prove effective, unless i translate the skill to match voice over as apposed to music.
Voice over was effective here. Sound clips are taken from a variety of interviews keeps things interesting, and in my project I hope to keep the narative moving by having voice over pick straight up from PTC's
The use of POV shots keeps things interesting and is useful especially when targeting a young audience (which i could potentially be aiming at), even though I will be shooting objects I plan to utalsie this skill to keep the project interesting.

4. Natural History Museum
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-neanderthal-in-us.html

Great implementation of diagrams to help deliver information. Sometimes it is useful to have a visual aid to reinforce the inforamtion being tokd to an audience. I think there may be room for a diagram in my project but I hope to take it further than this. By recreating the object its self as an animated diagram.

Smooth cutaways and transitions are present in this commission. While I am not sure what cut aways I will be using in my project it is useful to see where they are approprite.

Effective and clear blending of audio/voice over. As mentioned I plan to use voice over in my project but this commsission takes it further tahn i had considrerd by having a backing track throughout which helps maintain audience atention even when there is no talking. While this is a method that I will consider, I am concerened it could prove more of a distraction than anything. 

From looking at the commissions for these museums I can see that there are a variety of common techniques used. Such as voice over, text on screen etc. which I plan to take in to my project.

I have also been able to assess what isn't effective or what works for one commission, but wont work for mine as the themes and aims are too different.