Ancillary tasks - An introduction

Finally, the time as arrived when we must get on with the construction of the two ancillary tasks that are inter-linked with our final product (documentary), which will mark the ending point the overall construction of the A2 coursework.

We have decided on making a Radio Advert and a Newspaper advert. There are several reasons behind this choice of ours. Firstly, radio adverts will be something new for us try. Keeping in consideration that we have never worked on anything relating this particular medium of advertising it will be something new us to learn ad a bit challenging which will help make this project more interesting for us. Radio Ad would be a different approach as well. The double fold spread option that we had if combined with the newspaper advert would have had the risk making both the ancillary tasks monotonous. A radio advert is also more notable than that of a double fold spread or a newspaper. By putting in a catchy background music with an energetic and lively narration would definitely manage to capture a large audience. Furthermore, the newspaper advertisement could bring us the advantage of capturing masses. Considering that newspapers are sold to a large population whereas, a magazine is only limited to the narrow audience targeted, this medium of advertising would be an effective way of driving a large number of consumers towards our media text. 

Ancillary Task- Work division

For the convenience of us both and for the saving of time, Sabaina and I decided to do I will the research, brainstorming on ideas, inspirations and scripts etc. everything together but we distributed the editing part between ourselves so that we the ancillary tasks get completed without taking too much time and hassle. So, it has been decided that Sabaina will be editing the radio advert and I will be editing the newspaper advert of our documentary.

5th shoot.

We are done with the re-shoot of Dawood today! I'm glad we went for a shoot before this one as a lot of problems we faced during the previous shoot were taken care of in this one!

I reached at Dawood's place on time! Considering that previously I was 2 to 3 hours late due to some issues, so the shoot started right on time without and disruptions or delays.

The lighting problem was solved. We purchased a studio light with which we managed to adjust the lights of every room we took shots at. As it was an indoor shoot, we had lot of issues with the lights previously. At some parts, the lights available were very dim which made the scenes dark and on the other cases, especially while taking the interviews, the lamps were not suitable as they threw a very harsh light on one half of Dawood's face. So, with the help of the studio light we managed to create our own light ambiance that was neutral in nature.

The electricity problem was also solved as we were provided with a generator which prevented our work from becoming disruptive when the lights went off.

As we had a DSLR camera, the issue we had with the quality of the camera was solved! Also, we were able to get smooth zoom in footage with the help of the DSLR as its hard to get such smoothness from a Digital camera.

In the end, we were satisfied with the shoot and after seeing the videos on the computer it was perfectly alright. Today, we mark the completion point of the shoot of our documentary.

Next step: EDITING! :D

- Us during the shoot!

5th shoot planning.

We have almost reached to the end of out shoot for the documentary. I'm glad that we have had enough time to re-shoot in order to eliminate all the problems in the recordings we did at the first time. Tomorrow, we will be going at Dawood's house again to re-do the previous shoot. Dawood's shoot was our first shoot of the documentary which did not go well. So, for tomorrow we tried our best to erase all the problems that we faced earlier. We have arranged a DSLR for smooth zoom in and zoom out facility and to get a good quality footage. We have arranged professional lights so that the electricity does not interrupt us during the shoot and the get the kind of lights we wish for. Plus, we will make sure that the shots are smooth and cohesive without the camera getting jerky in between the recordings.

- Excited.

4th shoot.

To our advantage, it did not rain today! We are done with our outdoor shoot. It feels great to not have to re-do a shoot and to complete it in one attempt!

I had a great time taking shots of the little ones in the park. The best part was that I did not have to ask them before taking their footage as I had to during the interviews :P. 

However, there were a number of problems that I did face during the shoot. 

Firstly, it was a really difficult task covering the sports such as football. As the camera had to move with the people playing football, I was unable to take a smooth and static shot of them. So, after a while, the people who were playing football formed a circle and started passing the ball to each other. That was comparatively easy for me to capture and so, I was successful in recording them during the game.

Secondly, it was really hard to stop people from coming in front of the camera. People unconsciously passed right through the camera the moment whenever I was taking a shot of something, due to which I had to take the same shots all over again. But, there were many who were very corporative. A lot of adults who were jogging waited for my shot to completely first and then passed by, which was really sweet of them.

Thirdly, of course, the mosquito problem. As the time between 5-6 pm is the time of sunset, a lot of mosquitoes attacked me during the shoot. And so when I came back home, all the exposed parts of my body had a mark of a mosquito bite on it. 

Other than these few dilemmas, I had no issue with the shoot. I like the shots on the computer and I am satisfied with today's shoot. 

Below is a video of me during the shoot. The video is not made properly as my maid was my only helper there and she did the best she could taking a shot of me. I’m very thankful to her for being the only support for me at that time.

4th shoot planning (2)

Unfortunately, we were not able to do our outdoor shoot today due to weather. We were all set with the equipment and had a schedule for the shoot which we were following strictly but, 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave for the park, it started raining. However, we still waited for the rain to stop but it went on and on for hours, so due to the poor weather condition we had to cancel our shoot for today. We have planned to do it tomorrow, if the weather allows us to do so.

- Praying for a dry weather tomorrow.

4th shoot planning.

We will be working on our outdoor shot, tomorrow. The outdoor shot will be based on recording children doing physical gaming. The recce for the shoot is Askari 11 (where I live). There is a huge ground in the locality which is filled with children in between 4:45 to 6 pm. We will be taking candid shots of children playing different games in the park. This footage will be part of the opening sequence of the documentary, where we show some 'outdoor activities'.

- Looking forward to a great shoot.