Completed Video

I really hope that this will be the final time I have to upload this video! I'm really pleased with the finished outcome and think that by changing the font and adapting some of the text and moving a few clips has been really beneficial to the finished product. I believe that now the music fits better and that it looks like it could be an actual advert for Lego. I'm particularly pleased with the outcome and hope that it reflects the journey i've been on over the last 9 months!
Here is the finished video, again there is a 10 second black clip:

Testing & Comparing Fonts

So i've spent the day trying to match up the font from Lego's most recent advert to one that i can use within mine, I tried to google what font they use in their adverts and turned up no results that were of any use!!

Heres a screen shot of the font they use:

After scrolling through my complete collection of fonts these five fonts were the closest i could find to the lego one:

This font is Al Bayan, I believe it is close but not quite right!

This is a font called Apple Braille, again I think it looks similar
to the original Lego font but not exactly right!

This font is Gujarati MT, close but not similar enough!

This font is ST Heiti, it is not close enough for me to use though!

This is the font that I have found to be the closest, and I plan to use in the final edit.
It is called GB18030 Bitmap.

Feedback

I have shown the advertisement to a variety of different people and had virtually the same feedback from the all. Which is that the that the text at the end is not quite right, and i agree.
Here is what the text at the end looks like:

I agree with the feedback that I received and want to put it right, i believe that the problem lies in the font and the transition. Therefore I plan to look at other lego adverts again and match the text up.
As well as the feedback about the text, i also received very good feedback from people, they said that the advert was very good and looked as if it could be seen on the television. I am very pleased with the feedback and feel if i can overcome the issue with the text it will be a very good piece of stop motion.

Finished edit!!

I'm happy to announce that I have finished the editing of the final advertisement! I am so pleased with the final outcome of the video, and think it reflects everything I have planned over the past couple of months since deciding to use lego! I want to show damien, my FMP tutor the finished piece and see what he says, before officially putting it to one side ready for the show case in two weeks time.

Here is the finished video (Theres a 10second black clip before it begins):

Cheeky Preview

I have uploaded 3 individual videos of my stop motion and time lapse lego creations, they are not how they will be appearing in the advertisement they are just the basic stop motion then time lapse videos. I have decided to upload the pirate ship and desert island, (Note, none of the videos have sound as i am in the process of sorting the music at the moment!!):

The Lego Sign:

And the Shop:

I have chosen these as i think they all demonstrate well the theme of the advert and are all different sorts of things that feature in the advert. As the deadline is fast approaching i thought i'd check in and say that there is just the music to go on now and hopefully my final video will be up by the end of this week! 

Hope you enjoyed these sneeky videos and keep on checking to see when the final one is up!!!

Editing Stop Motion with Final Cut Pro

1. Final Cut Pro lets you set a default video size for imported images. We need to set things so that an image is imported to play as 3 individual video frames. This will give us a playback frame rate of 10fps. You can change this number to affect the playback frame rate, but will need to re-import your folder of photos at the new duration if you change it. To set this import size go to the top menu and select user preferences from the Final Cut Pro menu.
2. Select the editing tab (second item) in the user preferences and change Still/Freeze Duration to 00:00:00:03. Click OK.
   
3. Import the folder of images. These should be sequentially named and 720X480.
   
   
4. Double click the imported folder of images. Select all (Edit>Select All) of the images. and drag them to the timeline.
   

This information is taken from: http://mediacommons.psu.edu/instruction/tutorials/importing-still-images-stop-motion-animation-final-cut

I have found it particularly important when importing images to use this process that I found online, as it makes the editing process much easier when putting clips onto the timeline. Not only does it save time but also means I can immediately start editing with the clips rather than having to wait for each one to render ect.

Update!

So I'm feeling as if I should check in with my progress!
I'm not currently at a point where I can upload a video, however I am in the process of editing my final advertisement, Im really happy with the way it looks and really feel it demonstrates my storyboards and visions I had of the advert!
Here are some cheeky pictures from the shoot for a sneaky preview of what the advert entails:

Filming

A week and a half ago I did some practices with my lego mixing it up and playing around with stop motion. I literally was testing out the technique before my filming date last week, so there was no focus on the lighting camera work ect, so as expected there were obvious lighting issues and focus issues in editing but  as I was only testing the technique these are not a problem. Here is the video:

Here's are some problems that I found whilst making the video, and in red are how I plan to overcome them:

A. Movement in the objects.

- I've purchased a baseplate, in which I will blue-tac down and build each object on, therefore eliminating any movement.

B. Time.

- As stop motion is a very time consuming process, I've decided to enlist some help when shooting my final video. I have already asked a friend who has agreed to be my 'button pusher' for the shoot, therefore I can focus on the objects and not have to keep running back and forth from the camera.

C. Sturdiness of the objects. 

- I will need to rebuild some of my objects to ensure they are more sturdy for the final shoot, as during my tester I had some trouble with lego falling apart as i was trying to build up, and this slowed up the process a lot.

Storyboarding

Here are my storyboards for my FMP: Lego Advertisement.
I will be constantly referring back to these during the shoot to ensure I get everything I need for the advert, I have planned to combine stop motion and time lapse as it believe it works well together but also because it is something that Lego does in their adverts. Here is the storyboard:

Storyboarding

Pre-Production Paperwork

Here is my pre-production paperwork for the upcoming shoot tomorrow. I will be referring back to this when setting up my shoot to ensure it looks the way I have planned and get everything I need!

Call Sheet


Location Report



Shooting Order

Equipment List

Production Schedule


Risk Assessment