Your FinancesLois Dean AS Media

Task 1: examples of similar real world products

http://www.barclays.co.uk/Studentlife/Studentsaving/P1242593469730

• Barclays bank have a section on their websites for ‘student saving’ which contains information, tips and videos on how to save money.

• This video named ‘student speak’ is aimed at students planning on going to university who want to know how to manage their money.

• It features short clips of interviews with current university students stating what kind of things they would do to cut down on spending in response to the question ‘What’s the most painless expense you would cut first?’. Using current university students gives a first hand opinion, rather than using people who don’t actually go to university. This is helpful for the target audience who may not get a chance to interact with current university students.

• One reason why the video is a strong media product is because it includes comedy. It makes the information more light hearted to learn about, as financing could be seen as a dull topic for some young people. However, because the information given is repeated as part of the there isn't a wide range of detailed advise for the audience, meaning not much would be learned by the target audience. Therefore, it is not effective in giving detailed information.

• The video is edited together so that it is fast paced and doesn’t focus too much on one element. This ensures the target audience doesn’t get bored and turn off the video. It also means that the information is straight to the point in each clip and doesn’t include things that are off the topic of finance.

• The use of upbeat and bouncy non diegetic music gives the video a more exciting and fun feel for the audience, making the topic of managing money seem more simple and exciting.

Researching and analysing real world videos on financing.

https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/finance-and-support• The target audience for this moving image from the

‘UCAS’ website is students that are planning to go to university and want to know how to effectively manage their money.

• It breaks down financial advise into smaller pieces of information, which draws in the target audience. This is because it makes complex information about finance simpler to understand for young people, who are likely to not have had to deal with finances previously.

• The video asks rhetorical questions to ensure the target audience don’t feel as though they are being patronised by the adult voice over. It gives the sense that the video isn't telling the students what to do, but advising them.

• There is non-diegetic music played throughout the video, however it is dull and repetitive. This makes the information seem boring and tedious for the young target audience.

• It consists mainly of text on a screen, which is uninteresting for its target audience of a young person. The video doesn’t attempt to make the information exciting for the viewers. Occasionally it cuts to clips of students at university, however they are basic shots of students doing things that aren't particularly thrilling and so aren't visually exciting. Furthermore, they don’t link to the financial content of what the voice over is saying.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/debt_w/young_people___money_advice_videos.htm

• This video from the ‘Citizens Advice Bureau’ is attempting to appeal to its target audience of young people that want advise in finance.

• It appeals to the target audience by featuring advise from other young people about what they do to manage their own money. This encourages the target audience to follow the advise because its from people who are in a similar situation to themselves.

• One particular thing that is done that is effective is featuring answers that focus on what young people should do in order to think about their future, not just their current situation. This has not appeared in any other videos on managing money, making it unique.

• The video has no non-diegetic sound or voice over. This means that the video is tedious and doesn’t give the video a sense of excitement and so the target audience may revert to watching a more stimulating video on finances. Furthermore, it means that background diegetic sounds, such as birds and wind, distract from what the actors are saying.

• The video only features interviews with young people and doesn’t vary with in shot types. This makes the video slightly repetitive. Furthermore, the young people are filmed in the same location meaning there is no variation.

• Despite there being good advice in the video, I don’t think that this is a successful media product because the advise is delivered in a boring way, that wouldn’t engage the target audience of young people. I feel as though the target audience are unlikely to take on advice from young people they don’t know.

feedback to the company for the ‘Minted!’ campaign.

The front cover for the brochure is very successful in attracting the target audience of young people. The slot machine has links to games, making the topic of finance and managing your money seem fun and exciting, changing the perception that finances are boring before the product is even opened. Furthermore, the use of bright and cartoon like colours would catch the audiences eye and help it to stand out from other guides, which may use dull or plain colours. The images inside the guide continually link back to the topic of finance. This keeps the theme of finances running throughout and focuses the audience’s mind on the topic.However, there were also ineffective aspects to the guide. The product often uses slang in an attempt to relate to the target audience of young people. However, it is out-dated with terms such as ‘dosh’, ‘moolah’ and ‘bread’, meaning it slightly misses the target audience of young people. Furthermore, the guide doesn’t end with a final message for the target audience. Instead it gives a lengthy list of websites, this may make the readers feel as though there is a lot more information they need to be reading rather than them feeling as though the guide has helped themAlthough I am creating a film, I found it helpful to research a different form of product because some of the types of images still apply to what I will be creating.

Analysing a real world financing guide aimed at young people

Own Ideas

Who I would interview

Students planning on going to University

Someone who made a mistake in managing their money

Where I would film

Bank

Topics

Opening a bank account

Hole in the wall (ATM)

Setting budgets

Dealing with and paying bills

Music

Upbeat non diegetic music to keep the target audiences interest

What not to do

Music appropriate to tone of content

Shop

Video style

Interview

Real story

Facts and statistics

How to guides

Bank manager

Young people moving away from home

Money adviser

Students concerns about money

Previous university students

Young people who have recently left home

Added sound effects for impact

supermarket

At a sixth form where students are about to leave

Somewhere were a young person is living

Parents who’s children are at university

Equipment and props

Video camera

Bank card receip

ts University application forms

bills

Jar full of money

Tips on how to save

Research into target audienceOnline Survey ( Survey Monkey)I created an online survey in order to conduct research into my target audience

I asked ‘are you currently getting financial advise or information from anywhere are the money?’ and 100% of the target audience weren't currently getting any financial advise, despite the fact that 75% of people were planning on moving away from home in the coming years. This shows that there is a gap in the market for a video on financial advice.

I also asked ‘what are your main concerns about managing money?’ and found that ‘paying bills’, ‘student loans’ and ‘debt’ were the top three most popular answers. I will try and address these concerns in my video and feature information that will help the target audience learn about these topics.

Another question I asked was ‘if you were to watch a video about managing your money what would make the information more appealing?’ No one said that facts and statistics would make the information more appealing. However, I will use interesting and unexpected facts and display them on screen in a visually exciting way.

Focus Group

• If they were to watch a video on financing at university, they would prefer the information to be in small bites as apposed to than lengthy explained points. Therefore, in my video I will use a voice over to break down the information.

• I asked them why they weren't interested in learning about finances and they believed this was because It was ‘boring’ and was hard to understand and so didn't’t bother trying to. This may pose a problem when trying to engage my target audience in my video. To overcome this I will make the information seem exciting and fun for the target audience.

• Most members said they would prefer to watch a video about finances than listen to a radio show, because they ‘prefer visuals’. From this I will make sure I use a range of exciting shots and when I place text on the screen I will use bright bold colours.

• They also said that they don’t get the opportunity to ask current university students questions about financial questions and in a video would like to see university students talking about their personal experiences. Therefore, I will feature a current university student talking about how they manage their finances whilst studying.

I also asked the focus group members what they knew and didn't’t know about finances. This will help to decide which topics I will choose to use in my ‘your finances’ video:

• Some members of the group were not aware of the difference between a credit card and a debit card and were not sure which one would suit them best.

• Everyone I asked was planning on taking out a student loan, however did not know how you go about doing this• No one was aware of which bank would be best for them• None of the members had ever done a shop on a weekly basis• The members of the focus group were also unsure of how to get out a student loan and how much you would receive

roughly• Most people said that they were aware of how to budget but were not sure of which aspect they would cut down on.

I conducted a focus group with my target audience of students who are planning on going to university in the coming years

Skill set

When I use text in my video I will be able to change the font, the text size and the text colour. This is helpful as it allows me to use my chosen colour scheme in my video because there is a wide range of colours. There are also a range of different fonts and so I can choose the font which will fit best with my video.

I can also change the visuals of each shot using the ‘video’ editor. If I upload a clip but the shot is either slightly too light or too dark, I could use the exposure, brightness, contrast or saturation tools to alter this. This means that I would not have re-film the clip.

When I place each shot together it will appear like this. The small grey square is a transition. I can use these to make the change between each shot slicker. Furthermore, The purple and blue bars allow me to look at the level of sound in each individual shot. I can use this to alter the non-diegetic sounds.

I Movie

I created a skill set on the software I would be using to create my video. This allowed me to understand the basics of what I would need to use in order to create a successful product.

This audio bar will allow me to edit the sound in my video. I can increase or decrease the sound when I will need to remove diegetic noise. I can also use features such as ‘fade in’ or ‘fade out’ to gradually increase or decrease levels of sound to make transitions more even.

This clip adjustment bar allows me to change the visuals in my video. I can slow down or speed up a shot, which would be helpful if I want to use slow motion or fast motion in my video. I could also use the zoom tool if one of my clips isn't the same size as another. There is also a ‘video effect’ tool which allows me to put the video into an effect such as black and white or sepia.

I will use garage band to record and edit the voice over for my video. The purple bar is the recording which I can cut and edit to ensure its the right length for my video. I will need to leave breaks in the voice over to allow pauses between each piece of information given and so I can use the ‘split’ tool and create an interval.

If I double click the purple bar I can edit different aspects of the recording. This allows me to alter the pitch of the sound clip if it is too high or low. I can also edit the sound levels. This is helpful when I place the recording over video clips that have background sound because I can make the voice over louder so that the viewer can hear it clearly

Timeline for production

DeadlineThursday 30th April

April 13th Add the voice over to the film and move shots around so that they fit the voice over.

6th March Finish pre production work, planning and pitch

March 16th Film outdoor locations around Muswell Hill at an ATM, bus stop and in Sainsbury's.

March 30th Write and record the voice over using Garage Band. I will edit different elements of the recording and upload to IMovie.

March 9th

Film indoor shots. I will film in a friends kitchen, bedroom and office. These shots will capture typical things students do at university.

March 23rd Upload all shots to IMovie and edit the visuals of each individual shot.

April 20th Add in transitions to ensure each shot changes are smooth. Upload music and add in the text that will appear on screen.

April 27th

The final week before the deadline I will dedicate to small changes, responding to feedback and perhaps re-filming shots.

April 6th-

Upload my chosen non-diegetic music to IMovie and place over film as well as editing the sound levels

I planned out what I would be doing on each week of the production of my video on a timeline

Production Costing

• My video would not require using expensive locations as most of my shots take place in public spaces (such as at an ATM or at a supermarket).

• I would need to rent a studio space which, in London, would cost around £450.• My video will be around three minuets and so the cost would have to be worked out in

relation to this time.• If I added up the minimum costs for my video it would cost around £1840 (at the very

minimum with these figures)

I researched the costs of creating a real world video that would be for a website and created a table with the information

Pitch To Client

Audience• My target audience is students of both genders who are in year 13 and are planning on going to

university. They would be aged between 18-19 and. are most likely to be in the ABC1 demographic.

• It may be hard to appeal to the target audience with the information I am delivering. As the research from my survey monkey and focus group has shown, finance is seen as complex by my target audience of young people. Because they view it as a boring topic they don’t try to understand it. Therefore, this may pose an issue in engaging my target audience in my finance video.

• To overcome this issue and engage my target audience in my ‘your finances’ video I plan on:1. Making my video exciting for the audience by featuring bright, colours which would tie in with

the websites theme. I have chosen orange and white, which will catch the eye of my target audience because they are bright.

2. I will also use upbeat and bubbly non diegetic music to engage the audience and make the topic more appealing. I will use a song from the charts as they are popular and well known amongst my target audience of young people.

3. I will also break down the financial advise and guidance I am giving in the video. This would make it more understandable for the audience because it will be in short bursts the audience would not have to concentrate very hard throughout the video, making it seem more relaxed. I will also use subheadings which state what each topic the advice is about making the video more clear cut.

4. I will raise awareness through social media, which my target audience are prominent on. 63% of teenagers have twitter and so ‘promotions’ could be used. These are advertisements on the target audience’s ‘timeline’ which would raise the amount of viewers. I will also use Facebook, Instagram and post the video onto YouTube. This will allow my target audience to share the video with their friends who may also be planning on going to university as they are likely to be of a similar age. I would also give an incentive to the target audience in order to encourage them to share the video. This could be a prize such as a voucher or a laptop which would be helpful for students that are planning on going to university.

5. I will also raise awareness through schools. As the majority of my target audience will still be in education it would be easy to promote the video by getting schools to show the video to students and help them to prepare for university.

Real media products that are impressive

• http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/studentfunding/

• Warwick universities ‘student finances explained’ video on tips for students that are planning on going to university was an impressive media product.

• It gives short pieces of interesting information about the main things that students need to know about university costs. It uses bright bold colours for the text that appears on screen. Rather than showing a screen of full text, it is edited onto shots of a students everyday sites. The text was also placed on the screen in a range of visually exciting ways. This was then explained by a voice over and so the video was able to focus on footage as apposed to lengthy text which the audience might find boring.

• http://www.practitioners.slc.co.uk/resources/201415-resources/videos.aspx

• This video on making payments for university on the ‘student finance England’ website is a successful moving image.

• It gives each piece of information and then explains it to the target audience of students planning on going to university, which is what I plan on doing in my video. It also uses upbeat non-diegetic music which gives a positive mood the the video. The images that are used are all cartoon’s, adding to the fun aspect of the video and making the topic of finances seem less dull.

I researched real videos on student finances that I though were impressive. This enabled me to see which elements made them successful products

Project overview:The direction my ‘your finances’ video will take is top tips on managing money for students that are planning on going to university

• Through my research I have found some of the most common financial worries students have that are planning on going to university. This will enable me to provide my target audience with helpful advise and information that they might not be able to find in other existing financial videos.

• I will film a current student going about doing different things that relate to finances. This would appeal to the target audience as they will be able to relate to the video.

• I will feature a voice over giving pieces of information and advice that corresponds to what the student is doing in the video. I feel as though a voice over is more casual than text on a screen and so will make the information come across as more light-hearted and so the target audience wouldn't have to concentrate too hard throughout the entire video.

• I will feature facts and statistics that will appear on screen in a visually exciting way. From my research I found that students wouldn’t necessarily want to see statistics appear in a video on student financing. However, I will ensure I use interesting and unexpected figures so that my target audience don’t get bored by my video.

• I will break down the advice I am giving into small chunks as apposed to lengthy explanations. This will help the target audience to understand the financial advise being given, as it will be broken down into small points.

• I will also film a current university student giving advise on what not to do, and a story about how they got themselves into a bad financial situation. I will then have them stating how they got themselves out of this. This would be helpful for the target audience, as from my research some said that they don’t get the chance to ask university students questions on how they manage their money.

• I will vary my shots in order to grab the audiences attention. I will film close ups, medium close ups and over the shoulder shots. I will also use experimental shots (such as from the interior of a fridge door) to grab the audiences attention.

Stylistic and design considerations:

Title Ideas:• Financing for

university• Everything you

need to know about money

• Your finances: managing your money for university

• Your finances: top tips for managing your money at university. I think that this title gives a clear idea of what the video will entail.

Lighting:• I want to partly shoot

indoors and so in some areas it may be too dark. To overcome this I will shoot in the morning so that I can purely use natural light.

• I also want to shoot outdoors and so it would be hard to control the lighting. In order to ensure the shots aren't too dark or dull I will film in the morning and at mid day.

Props:• bank notes• cheque• credit card• debit card• receipts• jar full of coins• Chair• Tripod

Tone: I am using a voice over throughout the duration on my video• I want my video to have an

informal tone so that the information can be made light-hearted and the target audience won’t get bored during the video.

• When writing the script I will balance colloquial language with an appropriate amount of formal language. I will use some sophisticated financial terms so that the target audience don’t feel patronised by the video.

Camera shots:• I will use basic camera angles such as close ups, wide angle shots and medium shots as these are typical features of real world media products.

• I will also use experimental shots in order to make the video seem more visually exciting.

• I will use a pan shot when I am introducing a new scene. This is so that the audience will be able to tell were it is set

• I will also use a track shot when featuring a previous students story. This would make the viewer feel as though they are in their position and understands the situation

Colours:Your finances – I would like to use this shade of orange in my video because it is very vibrant and would help the text to stand out on a darker background.I would also like to use this white as the other colour for text in my video because it creates a contrast with the orange. Furthermore, it will make my video appear more professional.

Overall impact of my project in meeting the client’s demands:• I feel as though this project is different from other media products about finances for young

people that are planning on going to university. • The real world products that I have found don’t give helpful advise that is easy to understand.

They usually contain detailed helpful information that is presented in a dull way for the target audience, Or they are exciting and fun but don’t give helpful advise. In my video I plan on finding a balance between these by providing helpful information that is broken down so that its easy to understand as well as presenting it to the target audience in an exciting way.

• It may be hard to provide in depth and perhaps confusing information in an exciting way. To overcome this I plan to research the advice and gradually reduce it into as many simple bullet points as possible (which will feature in the voice over). This will make the information easy to understand for the target audience.

• I think that my video for ‘Your Finances’ will be successful because it will provide guidance and support (which is what the client asked for) to the target audience by giving a range of advice and not just focusing on one particular idea. Giving ‘top tips’ will ensure there is a range of helpful advice for the target audience.

• It may be hard to engage the target of young people but using bright colours and bold text to make the video aesthetically pleasing should make my video come across as thrilling.

Story Board I created a story board in order to plan out what shots I want to feature in my financing video.

Screen Shots from my video editing production

1-Uploading: After finishing my filming I had to transfer my shots from an SD card onto an Apple computer. Then I uploaded all the clips to IMovie where they appeared as one event.

3- Reducing diegetic sound: I went through each clip and reduced the diegetic sound to zero. Therefore, the background noise would not be heard over the voice over and non-diegetic music.

4- Visual edits: I felt that certain clips were slightly slow in pace, which I didn’t want from my video. To change this I increased the speed using the ‘clip’ bar. This allowed me to add a fast motion effect over certain shots.

5- Visual edits 2: A few of my shots were too dark and so I used the ‘video’ bar to slightly increase the exposure and make them brighter and so clearer.

2- Selecting: I watched each shot and chose how long I wanted each one to be, as well as editing out bloopers. I then placed them next to each other.

6-Visual Edits 3: Three of my shots were filmed without a tripod. Therefore, I used the stabilizer in order to reduce the unevenness of the video.

8-Recording Voice over: I recording my voice over in different sections on Garage Band. I had to listen to it several times to ensure that there were pauses between each piece of information. I also required the voice over to be as loud as possible. Therefore, I increased the sound level to 100%. Finally, I saved it to iTunes and uploaded it to IMovie.

7-Non-diegetic underlay: After downloading my non-diegetic music I had to upload it to ITunes. This enabled me to attach it to the video.

12-Transitions: I wanted to make the cuts between each smoother. I added different transitions in-between each clip. I chose to use ‘fade to white’ for most of my transitions in order to follow my theme of the colour white. I changed the length of each transition to 0.4 or 0.5

9-Adding Voice over: I uploaded my voice over to IMovie after saving it with ILife preview I was able to upload it to IMovie.

11-Synchronising video to voice over: Once I uploaded the voice over I had to correspond each shot to what the voice over was saying. Therefor, I had to rearrange the order in which each shot was arranged in.

10- Sound Adjustments: I adjusted the voice over so that it was louder than the voice over. This required me to increase the sound levels to their maximum of 500%

14-Choosing Text theme: I wanted to have text that appeared on screen. Therefore, I looked at a range of different designs of texts. I chose to use ‘four corners’ as my text design as it appeared on screen in an exciting and fast paced way.

15-Adding text to Video: I had to drag the text to a specific part of the video. After I had done this I could alter the text so that it fit with the theme of my video. I changed the text of to ‘Gill Sans’, in size 24 and altered the colour to orange, which was the colour that I chose for the entirety of my video.

16-Feed back changes- After receiving feedback, I gave myself time to make these alterations and changes. Specifically, I needed to decrease the sound levels of the non-diegetic music so that the voice over could be heard clearly.

18-Final Adjustments: At the end of my editing time I watched the video a couple of times to ensure it was exactly how I wanted it to be. Finally, I burned it onto a disc,

13-Title: I wanted to create a title page as this was a typical feature of other finance videos. Therefore, I dragged a text box to the start of the video. I then altered the font to Gill Sans and increased the size so that it was large on the screen. I wanted to increase the length of time it appeared so that the target audience would have time to read it.

17-Fitting end of video: At the end of the video I wanted the sound on the video to fade out rather than coming to an abrupt end and so I used the ‘fade out’ tool.