Corporate Video Analysis

As part of this unit, we were required to analyse 3 promotional videos from different companies.

Apple Recruitment Video

The Apple Recruitment video is designed to draw the attention of potential employees to the self-titled multinational electronics company. Throughout the video we are shown a diverse range of their employees, ranger from technical designers to retailers, showing the wide range of jobs available to budding new hires. The video also showcases the mixed race and gender neutral work environments, showing people of different ethnicity and genders working together in a variety of roles.

The uplifting non-diegetic music in the background is inter cut with Vox pops from employees, giving testaments on what it’s like to work at Apple, and the kind of people who work there. This serves to show us the kind of people who we would be working with if we took a job there, and put us at ease, rather than having an unrelated, disembodied voice telling them about the company. Instead, we are getting it straight from the horse’s mouth. The locations are bright and spacious, serving to further relax and endear us to the company. All of the people within the video are busily working with happy expressions on their faces, giving the impression of a gratifying hive of activity.

During the mid-section of the video, we are shown promotional footage for a new product that the company is releasing, alongside footage of the production process, and voice over describing the design process. This serves to show possible staff members the full process of making a product, from the design stage to distribution.

The overall quality of the video, with its slick editing, vibrant colours and pitch perfect tone show that a lot of money has been put into this promo, and that means that the company is serious on getting the best people for the positions it wants to fill.

Homefield Vets

This promo, while having a much lower production cost that the others, still follows the same conventions as any other promo. Opening with the veterinary practise's logo, a set of paw prints is super imposed over the top with relaxed non-diegetic music over the top. This instantly tells us who the promo is for, and sets a relaxed tone for the piece.

Vox pops with members of staff play out over footage of peoples pet's being seen to at the practise. This helps to show us that the target audience for the piece is the owner's of these pets. By showing the animals being looked after by people, along with the confident and caring vox pop segments, the viewer is instantly shown that these are capable people, able to do their job effectively.

The promo also covers the fact that this is a nurse training practise, and could serve to show prospective nursing candidates the kind of environment they would be working in if they were to attend this practise. The video ends with contact details for the practises and a website URL.

An interesting point to make is the lack of gender diversity shown throughout this promo. The majority of the promo features females, from the all female vox pops, to the single shot of a man within the montage footage. This could be because not many men work at the practise, but not using any males for the vox pop sections makes the whole piece female heavy.

This promo covers all of the fundamental portions of a promo, serving to show us what the company is like and how to get into contact with them. However it never goes into detail on any of it's points, and uses no anecdotal points as in the other promos, serving to make the ,all be it well natured, tone of the piece fall a little flat.

London Business School

This promo tries to gain new recruits for the London Business School from around the globe. Throughout the promo, we are shown people of both genders from a wide variety of ethnicity, showing the diversity of the people partaking in the course. This is also the case with the instructors, showing diversity across the board. This helps to make applicants feel more comfortable in their choice, regardless of ethnicity or race, by showing a completely mixed course.

Another important note is the age of the participants. All of them are at least 25 years of age, mostly older. This is due to the course targeting people who already have industry experience, and this corporate promo helps show that though the onscreen presence of old students. On the other side, it also shows that it has a mixed age of tutors, signifying that they have both experienced lecturers, and younger lectures with fresh views on the industry.

Running at a grand total of 10 minutes in length, I feel that this corporate video is far too long to be effective. It breaks itself down into 3 sections, focusing on different aspects of the course. Although I can see that they would want to cover the content of the course to try and garner the audience's interest, it doesn't sit right in a corporate video. The video should have instead focused on whetting the appetites of potential students, and then guide them on to more specific content from a different source, such as a website (Which, as with the Vet Promo, is at the end of the video).

The promo is shot on a large number of locations, ranging from large lecture halls to calm parks. This is an effort to show of the facilities the school offers, and its prime location in the capitol.

Editing, Part 1

With the project in Final Cut Pro set up ready for everyone to begin thier sections of the edit, i began editing the final section of the documentary.
 



Our producer had laid down a vague idea of how he wanted the ending to look: Showing a transition from the old hall to the new one, using glide track footage of the empty old hall to try and evoke an emotional response.




While looking through interviews with the residents of Thornham produced by the previous Level 3 Group, I came across an interview with a woman called Odile Castro. The way she phrased her thoughts, combined with her French accent and history with the village instantly struck a chord, so I cut a section of the interview to include in the edit.


To try and get the most impact from the shots we had, I decided to split the ending into two distinct sections. Rather than having the Vox Pop running over the footage of the hall, I concluded that keeping the footage of the hall as ambient as possible was the way to go, giving the audience a breif moment to reflect on the information presented to them in the documentary, following up with the Vox Pop to drive home one last point, and hem in the documentary.

The Shoot and Editing Set-Up

In the last post, I spoke about the shoot on Saturday 21st. This event was attended by parts of both Corporate teams, with full shooting equiptment.



Our crew, filming the ceremony at the Drill Hall

The reason for the moving of the shield is symbolic, showing a transition from the soon to be demolished Drill Hall, over 100 years in age, to the new Village Hall.

 




From the old...

...to the new




Attended by the residents of Thornham and the surrounding area, this a momentus occassion forms the latter part of our corporate documentary.

 

The following Monday, a few members of Spingboard TV went up in a two man plane to collect shots of the Thornham area. Although not attended by any of the current production teams (The camera operator going up had worked on the project the previous year), the footage is now available for us to use in our respective projects.

 



About to be skybound



 

Thornham Documentary: Prelimary Prep

On Tuesday, we split into two different groups to tackle our assigned corporate project.



 



Construction on the new hall

Our subject is a new village hall that is opening in the coastal village of Thornham. This new facillity is equipped for weddings, sports groups and numerous other functions. To be completed in October of this year, it will serve as a central point for the people of thornham to gather for functions.

 

This facility is to replace the drill hall, the old village hall erected in 1906. Deemed outdated and unsuitable for congregations by the local residents, this hall will be demolished after the new hall is finished.

 

 

 

 

In our group, I was assigned the job of lead editor. In this role, it was my job to oversee the transferal of all footage to our editing platform (A set of Macs linked by a server), and to bring the final piece together in Final Cut Pro.

 

But before that, we needed to work out the timetable we would be working to on the project. With a planned meeting with the client tentatively scheduled for the last week of term on the 22nd October, we sat down to consider what needed to be completed within that month.

Above is our estimated timetable for the project.

 

A previous group had already produced much of the footage we would be using in the edit, however the group will be shooting on the upcoming Saturday, as there is a ceremony to commemorate the old hall, as well as inaugerate the new one.

Introduction

Over the course of this unit, I will be using this Blog to waste time mashing the keyboard and hoping for results record and document my analysis of a number of different corporate pieces, as part of my Media Production Course.