Final Project: Promotional Video

For our Final Project in this class, we have had about two weeks to focus on what we are doing, and each of us in the class is working independently. Our assignment was to create a promotional video, promoting a person, place or thing that we are passionate about. We had access to the fancy video cameras for about two days, and were to incorporate all the things we have learned about: recorded voice tracks, music tracks, video using pictures and stills . These short videos are the kind of thing you could carry on an ipod an shoe to others whenever they ask about your chosen subject. They could be used as a mini calling card, representing your abilities in a quick, easy-to-understand format.

Not feeling that I could do the best possible job if I were to choose something seriously important to me, I chose to do a bit of fluff about a subject that I love: shoes. I had already completed a book about shoes several years ago and had lots of images on hand. I loved shooting the video and could have done a lot more on the subject. But this quick video is a fun intro promoting the idea of shoes.

Cool Jazz Illusions

For this short video, we were to create a piece that was long on style, that set a mood and was visually exciting. We weren't supposed to create a story, but more of a music video. I worked with a new group of all women--Judy, Emily and myself.
We had one short 2-hour session to film, so we had to stay on campus, which seemed a little limiting. We really had not had a chance to plan what we were going to do because we found out who was in our group as we came to class. But we started by checking out the music room, and found a talented young man there who was practicing on the piano. While he played fabulously for a continuous 45 minutes, we shot him from every angle we could think of. He was a great subject--he never flinched when we were practically on top of him. (He is planning to go to music school next year and study film scoring.)
After that, we went around campus and filmed and shot stills that were more abstract and "art-y". We were inspired by some of the video in Judy's previous group video, Flying Fists. We weren't sure how these things were all going to work together, but we used the camera for as long as we could.
In our editing session, we happened on the format of our video. Emily contributed the music, and we found we were able to cheat the video clips of the pianist into fitting with the jazz music track--music that was completely different from what the young man had been playing. By interspersing the art-y shots in between the clips of the pianist, we were able to capture a mood that really fit with the music. When we saw how it was working, we shot more video and stills over the weekend to add to our abstract video resources. Some of the video we had shot the first night looked great in the viewfinder, but was too dark to see anything. Once we had it all edited together, we added some special effects and titles.

A Short (Tongue-in-Cheek) Instructional Video

As a group project, we were to compose a short story, and then shoot it, edit it and finish it, all working together. My group was me plus Gilbert and Michael. Gilbert had the initial idea, but we worked together to refine it, to each add our own personal touches and to make it more workable in our short time frame. We had only one class period to work it all out, then one 2-hour period to use the camera equipment. We raced through the shooting process, and still we were the last ones finished that night. We discovered that some of us had difficulty remembering lines in front of the camera, so we had to improvise a bit when we got into the editing process. We had fun pulling it together and adding crazy touches after the scenes were cut together.

Keynote Animated Type Video

Well, I was able to get my music in sync with the picture of my type animation video, which I created in Apple's powerpoint-type software, Keynote. I wasn't able to work with the sound and picture together in Garage Band, like I originally intended, and so I couldn't bring down the sound level of the background Tuba as I would have liked to. The piano is an original "composition" that I recorded using the USB keyboard. I tried to keep a sense of humor in the music to match the words of the passage.

Here is that video.

Click here to go to my YouTube account and see it.

Group Project Movie

We divided into small groups of three or four and each group had one class time in which to create a short video. Our topic was HOPE.  We included a few inside jokes. One of the members of our team, Gilbert Karp, has a reputation for creating long videos for other class projects he has worked on. So the instructor, Tony, warned him not to try to make an 'epic' this time. We also made a pun with his name. 

Here is the movie:

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Work in Progress

Before we set up our blogs, we had learned to create musical tracks in GarageBand, then were charged with creating a Keynote slideshow using only words (a quote, poem or joke, for example), and finally added our own music to the slideshow.

I am excited about my slideshow, though it took me a while to get up to speed on using keynote. But I am still a little hung up on the music. I have several tracks I've created using the loops from Garage Band, but I am leaning towards using a track of music that I actually composed and played using a USB connected keyboard. The trick is to get the musical cues keyed up to the action.

A week or so ago, my teenage son showed me how to take my slideshow, which by then I had converted to a Quicktime movie, and place it into GarageBand so that I could edit the music while watching the picture along with it. This would make things so much easier. I haven't actually gotten back into editing it, but I am hopeful about the results. When finished, I'll post it here.

In the meantime, we are continuing to learn so much in this class. Every time I pick up little tidbits from the instructor that are worth the price of admission.

In the past few weeks we have :

• Recorded an audio voice track for a podcast, with each member of the class participating in a short extemporaneous blurb about themselves. Afterwards, we each edited our own parts of the track to get rid of the hemming and hawing. I look forward to hearing the final product when they are all strung together. We used a nice microphone that plugs into the computer. Just getting a chance to try the equipment is a great part of this class.

• Looked at the various media used by the national election candidates for president. As might be expected, Barack Obama's website is playing to a younger crowd and offers more trendy new features, like ringtones and widgets.

• Visited the Media Center to check out available equipment for our use and learn the procedures to access it.

• Edited together a short video in iMovie '06 using video clips provided by the instructor as well as our own. We'll bring in music to add underneath the video. We also learned to use iMovie '08, a later version of the program that has new features but has eliminated some of the more advanced capabilities of the '06 version. Tony shot some video of the class at work that we'll be adding to the mix. We will also try to post some of these video segments on our blogs.

• Along the way, Tony has told us about software that will allow us to convert video files from one format to another (this came in really handy on a project I was working on at home, allowing me to convert Windows Media files for use in iMovie), and a gadget that will allow us to archive old analog movies from VHS tapes right into a portable hard drive, without tying up our computers.

It is this up-to-the-minute, helpful info that makes this class such a gem, as well as all the things we learn from hearing ideas from and seeing the work of other class members. Last Thursday we saw the incredible video Zach has put together using Adobe After-Effects. Many of us are keen to pump Tony (and Zach!) for some instruction in this program after seeing the possibilities.

Gini's Adventures in Multimedia

So we've started a blog in my fall Multi-Media Class, and it is a great relief to have this whole process somewhat demystified. As an experienced art director/designer I have felt pressured to keep up with more and more aspects of this rapidly changing digital world. Through this class, more things multi-media will begin to make sense, and maybe I'll be able to keep up with my teenagers.

After we've mastered the basics of setting up this blog, we'll complete our short videos with animated text set to music, and hopefully, upload them to the blog.