Dine Contract Catering
Freelance Work: Summer 2016
Over this summer I have taken the opportunity to find work
experience to further test myself, practice and develop my skills. I had
searched and applied for a number of places including: Disney, Nickelodeon and
other studios within the U.K.
Our tutor Andy sent an email to the group sharing a
freelance opportunity with a food company. Not many details were shared
regarding what they wanted, as this would be discussed when we had met the
person. Therefore I wasn’t completely sure what work would be involved but I
still wanted the experience.
Meeting Rob Bruford for the first time was a nervous
experience as I had no idea what he looked like or what the work would be. We
only had only communicated over email and mobile, and we wanted to meet to talk
about ideas and what the work would be.
Rob wanted to create two videos which would educate trainees
on the company’s policies and how they should work. Dine Contract Catering is a
nationwide company which needs to train people up and down the country. This
would be done by employees traveling to different destinations to train in
person. However this is a costly and time consuming method; therefore Rob
proposed the idea of training videos which could be viewed all over the country
without the need of an employee travelling.
Rob’s initial proposal was two 8 minute long videos; one
about ‘Customer Service’ and another about ‘The Pre-Service Brief’. The
Customer Service Video would be about how employees should engage with their
customers, and what good customer service is. The Pre-Service Brief discusses
the importance of group discussion about the day, an opportunity for employees
to plan the day ahead and prepare for any potential problems.
After discussing with Rob, we decided that the videos would
be around 4 minutes each, and would be animated with an informative style. As
in the style would be inspired by instruction videos and warning signs. This
would be to make the video both clear and informative. During this discussion I
had to consider my time; how long would these videos take to create and would I
meet the deadline?
The deadline would be the 8th August as this
would be the week Rob shows the finished videos to the board to take the idea forward.
Before this work experience, I had booked a holiday for a week and had planned
other work experience which would happen before the deadline. Therefore I had
to consider the massive time restrictions and be honest with Rob what I could
and couldn’t do. I decided the University would be the best place to work
because I can focus properly, but I would have to ask for help to complete both
videos on time.
I asked Siobhan for help with the project which she was
happy to do. We decided the best way to work would be if we created a video
each, Siobhan would create the ‘Customer Service’ video and I would create the ‘Pre-Service
Brief’ video; we would simply split the invoice between us.
Firstly, we discussed the styles we would use within our
videos, we decided two different styles would be effective because: we wanted
both of the videos to be memorable in their own way. Therefore we took
inspiration from the website and colour pallet of the business card; these
would be consistent in both videos but would have our own flare in both.
I took inspiration from warning signs which produced the
stick man figure. I then started creating storyboards based on the information sheets
Rob gave us about what should be in the video. I broke each section down and
thought how this could be visualised and how the characters could interact with
it in a memorable way. After producing storyboards, I started to create the
shapes and characters on Photoshop to see what they would look like on screen.
Once I was happy with results I began to create the video.
Initially I had trouble finding a work flow as I had not
used these software’s in a while. I used: Photoshop and Premiere. As the animation
was simple I used Premiere’s own animation tools. I created the shapes and characters
in Photoshop, then animated them in Premiere. I learnt a great deal of the
potential of the effects used in Premiere during this project. I had also
learnt a lot more about staging and timing with Premiere’s animation tools,
which I can apply to later animations.
Over the next few weeks I continued to speak with Rob about
the progress of our work and how things could be changed to ensure the final
product would be the way Rob wanted it. As Rob had to work between both board
and their needs and our progress through the project. I believe this constant
communication reassured Rob of our progress and allowed us time to change
aspects of the videos quickly which was effective.
From my other experience at SG Gaming I learnt a lot about
Photoshop and its tools which allowed me to incorporate what I had learnt from
there into the videos.
Pre Service Brief Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_oDywuv4PI
Customer Service Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZUh_T1p6NY
The videos style is intentionally simple and I am pleased
with the results. This project would have been better if I had more time to
work on the videos, as I would have given more detail and expression in the characters.
From this experience I learnt:
Time Management-
through discussions with Rob and my nerves, I had to both meet Rob’s demands,
and mange my time to be able to achieve what I am meant to do.
Software’s- Having used Adobe software again, I both
refreshed my memory and learnt a lot more of what I can do with its tools.
Project Management- As I was the project leader, I had to
discuss with Rob about his vision and discuss these ideas with Siobhan to achieve
them. I learnt to communicate confidently with both sides and share these
messages clearly to achieve a common goal.
Overall this has been an important experience testing my independence
and management. I always strive for better and wish to have had more time to
improve the videos in quality. Rob and the board were both happy with both
videos and this could lead to future projects on other videos.
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