Ad+Tips

School Ad Awards 2007 **Tips for Making the Winning Ad** Before you start on your video there are a few things to think about first. • Your idea • Script • Shots • If you will use music • If you will use graphics These are just a few! Once you have your idea, you need to go through a process to make sure you end up with the best video possible. And that is where this tip sheet comes in! • Think about how you will tell your idea - if you want it to be funny, thought provoking, silly, sad, creative etc. • Keep it simple and focused, you don’t need the whole school to tell a story, just one or two people. • Try to have a beginning, middle and end to your ad. Making an ad like a short story can be much more interesting than stating a list of points.School Ad Awards 2007 **Shot Sizes** After you have your idea, the first thing you want to think about is shots. Here are some examples: Extreme Close up Close up Mid Close up (ECU) (CU) (MCU) Mid Shot Wide shot Extreme Wide Shot (MS) (WS) (EWS) School Ad Awards 2007 **Pans, Tilts and Zooms** These are camera movements and look best when shot off a tripod. ? **PAN –** the camera moves from left to right (or vice versa) ? **TILT –** the camera moves from the ground up (or vice versa) ? **ZOOM –** the camera stays in the same place but it feels like you move in closer to something in shot These movements can add to your video, but if you put too many in, they can make the viewer feel a little bit sea sick. Try to use only one or two in your ad. **Script and Sound SOUND** This is a very important part of making the winning video. Often in the past schools have been let down by poor sound, so pay a lot of attention to what noise is around you when you are doing the shoot. Turn off any fans, close windows in the rooms, stay away from rivers or lawn mowers outside. These are all noises that can make it really difficult to hear what you are trying to say in the script. **SCRIPT** This can really help or really hinder your video. Try to keep everything you say meaningful. Sometimes it can be more effective to gasp and point off camera than to say "Oh my goodness look over there at that dog!" If someone is talking, try and get the camera as close to that person as possible so that their voice will be loud and clear. Don’t be afraid to ask people on the set to be quiet, and if necessary, you might need to re-shoot a scene if the sound is really bad. School Ad Awards 2007 **Story Boards** Once you have an idea of what shots you want, you can now put them in order to make what is called a //story board//. It doesn’t need to be flash, stick figures work just fine - as long as you can understand the drawings! Put directions under each shot. Here is an example of a story board of someone making a cup of coffee: Wide shot Kitchen Mid close up Mug Close up Sugar Mid shot Person walks in Pour in milk Take out of shot Adds sugar Close up Jug Extreme Closeup Mid Close Up Extreme CU Finishes Boiling Pour water/stir Lift to mouth Drinks The purpose of a story board is so that when you go out to shoot your video, everyone has a very clear idea of what you are going to be taping.School Ad Awards 2007 **Shooting** Before you start recording there are a few things to check first. These functions can be turned to manual operation in most home cameras. It is probably a good idea to practice with them before the big shoot so that you know how they work in your own camera. There are also tips below on how to get the best result while keeping your camera on automatic. ? **WHITE BALANCE** This is where you tell the camera what colour to make the picture. You will have seen pictures that are really blue or really orange before, and that is where the white balance isn’t right. To do a manual white balance you need to look at a picture in your viewfinder that is of two triangles that dip in the middle. When it is not set, they will flash, while it is being set they will flash quicker, and once the white balance is set they will stop flashing. You need to change your white balance when you change rooms or go from inside to outside or you could end up with blue pictures. If that all sounds a bit confusing, you can use the automatic white balance, (home cameras have this set as a default). **Automatic White Balance**: Zoom in onto something white (so that it takes up the whole screen) for about 20 seconds and the camera will do all the work. You should see it change colour a little bit.School Ad Awards 2007 ? **FOCUS** To get your focus, zoom in to an ECU (extreme close up) of something in your shot, usually if it is a person we zoom in on one of their eyes. Make the focus as sharp as you can, and zoom back out. Now everything between you and that spot will be in focus. **Automatic Focus:** Hold the camera steady, zoom in on what you want in focus and then zoom back out again. It will do it for you. ? **IRIS** This is how bright you want your picture. It is also called exposure. If the picture is too white, you will need to lower the iris (just like in our eyes) so that you can see the detail in the picture. If your picture is too dark you will need to raise the iris. **Automatic Iris**, just remember not to shoot against a bright background (eg. Windows or white outside walls or sky) your subject will end up just a shadow. Video tape does not cope well with bright lights and dark shadows so try to keep the whole shot the same brightness. **The 5 Second Rule** Once you are under way and are about to start recording, roll the camera for about 5 seconds before calling "action" to your set, and again when the shot has been recorded, keep rolling for another 5 seconds after the action has been captured. This is so that when you get to editing, you know for sure that you haven’t missed anything. School Ad Awards 2007 **Covering different Angles** When you are doing the shoot it is a good idea to get your subjects to re-enact the scene a couple of extra times while you shoot different angles and sizes (close up, wide shot etc). Get a good variety of different shot sizes and angles to make it much easier in editing. Watching a variety of different shots is much more interesting than seeing everything on one wide shot. Most times we will shoot the same scene 5 or more times (some reporters even take up to 30 takes to get it right – but I wont name names!) Even if you think you have it the first time, do a second take just as a safety net. **Logging** This is where you watch your tape all the way through and write down the time code of the best takes. If you don’t have a time code, just write down which take was the best. Now when you get to editing, it will be quicker and easier to put your video together. **Editing Tips** There are a few editing "rules" that are very easy to follow. ? Don’t put two similar shots together (e.g. a person standing in front of a tree cut to a different person standing in front of the tree) it will look funny ? Don’t put a wide shot by a wide shot or an extreme close up by another, try to show something that we didn’t see in the last shot School Ad Awards 2007 ? Keep continuity, if someone has their right hand above their head in a wide shot, make sure they still have it up when you cut to a mid shot of them ? Try to vary your shot sizes. Use only one or two wide shots, if someone is speaking, show them on a close up or mid close up. ? Don’t cut on a moving shot. if you need to, use a dissolve ? Try not to hold a shot for more than 3 seconds, this will help to show more in close up shots and make the ad more fast paced. Sometimes you might even make them shorter. **Video Effects** Most editing programs have neat video effects in them. It can be really tempting to put all of these video effects into your ad - but be careful because sometimes they can be very distracting and take attention away from what you are actually trying to show. **Sound Effects** These are the finishing touch to your tape, if you can see something happening, it really helps if you can hear it too. If you make some rain using a hose, perhaps you could add some thunder by waving a big bit of cardboard by the microphone! School Ad Awards 2007 **Music** This can be a tricky one, because it can be very tempting to just use your favourite song! That can be ok, as long as it is relevant to your pictures. Have a brainstorm about different songs that you might like to use, and if you aren’t sure which one will work best, test them out on your timeline (or preview them if you are doing a tape edit) and see which works best. Make sure the music doesn’t drown out peoples voices. **Graphics** You may like to use a graphic in your video and that can be very useful, for example an arrow pointing to something in particular that you want the viewer to notice, or perhaps some writing. If you decide to write something on your ad, (eg. //Watch Fair Go//) think about what font to use. You want something that is clear and easy to read. Using a font that looks like handwriting is good if you are showing what someone hand wrote in a letter, but not if you are showing what they typed out in an email, so keep the font relevant to what you are saying. And keep it **big**! If your writing is too small, no one will be able to read it.