Supervised Arts Leadership Project:
I was given an assignment to create a short video, as a promotional piece about Middlesbrough College. I was in charge of editing a mix from the footage. There were two of us in the group and both helped with the actual filming and camera work.
However, I was in charge of editing. I had done some editing before from my Level 1 course, but this was using basic programmes like I Movie. I was now looking forward to the challenge of learning how to use Adobe Premiere, which is fast becoming the industry standard for video editing. We had to make out own edited version from the footage that both members of the group would shoot, and add some music to suit the footage.
In this group there was Me and Daniel from my class. Dan took the role of camera man and directing, because even though we both filmed parts of the footage, Dan had final say over framing and composition for each shot.
Planning and Practical Issues:
Before we could start the actual filming, there were some practical issues and planning which was needed.
I was given an assignment to create a short video, as a promotional piece about Middlesbrough College. I was in charge of editing a mix from the footage. There were two of us in the group and both helped with the actual filming and camera work.
However, I was in charge of editing. I had done some editing before from my Level 1 course, but this was using basic programmes like I Movie. I was now looking forward to the challenge of learning how to use Adobe Premiere, which is fast becoming the industry standard for video editing. We had to make out own edited version from the footage that both members of the group would shoot, and add some music to suit the footage.
In this group there was Me and Daniel from my class. Dan took the role of camera man and directing, because even though we both filmed parts of the footage, Dan had final say over framing and composition for each shot.
Planning and Practical Issues:
Before we could start the actual filming, there were some practical issues and planning which was needed.
- We would need to think of what ideas we could use for a video about the college and a mind map would be good to do this.
- We would then look around college and do a recce to see which locations would be good to use.
- We would need to complete a risk assessment as although it was going to be filmed on college premises we would still need to identify and possible risks or hazards during production of the video.
- After deciding on suitable locations we need to discuss who would be taking part in the production and any dialogue, script or camera directions that would be needed.
- When we had agreed on this we will need to arrange to book out camera, tripod and batteries for the morning of filming that we are going to schedule.
- We will also need to schedule a further two hours or so for use of the editing suite to complete editing and add sound.
- I am going to look on you tube for a suitable sound to use in the final edit.
A further problem with planning was that we only had a short amount of time to film it since we had missed a few lessons. The software we wanted to use for editing our footage was Adobe Premiere.
We agreed that the 4th floor corridor and right wing staircase would be the best places to film. They would not be too crowded; it would be easy to set up, and there was some interesting shots and angles that could be made.
After discussing different ways to make the video between Dan and myself, we decided not to use any people in the actual film production - this would leave out time needed for scripts, dialogue, model consent etc and allow us to concentrate on using buildings and backgrounds as the main content for the footage.
Evidence is included here to show the mind map that we made to help give us ideas:
Here is the booking out form for equipment:
Here is the risk assessment that we made
We agreed that the 4th floor corridor and right wing staircase would be the best places to film. They would not be too crowded; it would be easy to set up, and there was some interesting shots and angles that could be made.
After discussing different ways to make the video between Dan and myself, we decided not to use any people in the actual film production - this would leave out time needed for scripts, dialogue, model consent etc and allow us to concentrate on using buildings and backgrounds as the main content for the footage.
Evidence is included here to show the mind map that we made to help give us ideas:
Here is the risk assessment that we made
Production:We got sent off for a week to think of some ideas to film a one scene video, we have thought of some shots to take for our video, we need a total of 21 shots to take. The next week we looked for more places to shoot and walked all along the 4th floor looking for the right spots.We’ve thought of some ideas for our location and the shots we are taking.Dan was in charge of the equipment and the production of the video, we both decided where to film but he made the final decisions and said when we had enough footage to take back with us and to finish our final piece. We went around the college to film some certain spots, we mainly used the 4th floor right wing staircase to film the transporter bridge scene and background scenery. From this viewpoint, we also the filmed the Astro Turf across the road near to the Sixth Form Centre of MC6. This was a good choice of location as there was a group playing football. We filmed our locations with about a 10 minute worth of footage and we took the best 50 seconds we could find.We both thought that we had got the footage that we needed to edit ourselves and uploaded it to the computer in the edit suite ready to be edited with Adobe Premiere.
After uploading the footage we looked through what had been filmed and I deleted some footage that I felt was not a good take due to framing and lighting. I changed the colours of the edited footage down to Black and White as I felt that this matched my choice of song from youtube. This was a depressing song called Mad World by Gary Jules.
We added all of our footage the Adobe Premier and i changed the colour into black and white, added in music and also added in a title and credits. Here is a screenshot of the control panel used in Adobe Premiere for editing:
Here is my edited footage, it is complete. This was a project and its the finished result.
How well did we work together as a team
There were no real issues with communication. Both team members were in the same class and we found it very easy to get on with each other. Dan had a tendency to make all the major decisions as to what shots would be used and had quite an eye for direction and composition in his shots. However, the edit shown here is my final take with the work I have done myself. Dan also said he was please with the result.
If we were to work together, we would ave liked more time to work on the production; less absence from lessons, and more time to plan shots, scenes and possibly even include chartacters to add dialogue.
I think it could have been good to show more time and detail; at the planning stage and work on storyboards, recce notes etc.
Evaluation:
The edited video has been posted in my blog and shared with others. Feedback from one of my peers is included in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
I think that this project went well, we did everything we needed to, the editing wasn't hard to do and the location that we needed to film was hard to get to because it was just outside of our classroom. The software that we needed to edit our footage was easily available to us and we new what we needed to do and how to edit it the way we wanted to. We new how to add the music and effects that we needed and also adding in a title and credits the the beginning and end.
If i was to do this again i would be more patient with the editing and the recording of the footage, i would get a better shot and add more to the editing of the title and credits but since i only had a little time to do this in i just added a plain black background and added in white text to both the title and credits, but considering the amount of time i had left to produce this i think that the overall project went will even though i rushed some bits i still got it up and completed.
I think in terms of achieving what I wanted from this project, I did have the opportunity to get experience on Adobe Premiere. I found it quite ok to get to grips with and manage to edit a result I was please with quite quickly. However, it is quite a complicated programme and there is a lot more that could be done with it, in terms of image and sound editing and adding extra effects etc.
