DV PROMOTIONAL VIDEO OF LIT:
INTRODUCTION:
The requirement of this Digital Video project was to
construct a visual narrative to support a pre-defined script for creating a
potential promotional video for the college at LIT. The wording of the video
derives from LIT’s President Professor Cunnane’s script and this provided the
basis of the project brief. Our team created a video incorporating the brief of
duration two minutes twenty-six seconds which is within the allocated
time-slot.
ROLES & TASKS:
Our roles as per ‘Guidelines for Crew Positions’ were
as follows: Director/co-producer-Khizer; Production manager (PM)-Ash; Director
of photography (DP)-Sinéad(myself); Director of Sound-Ian.
While our roles are clearly defined in the crew positions
brief we developed on this by working as a team on all the different aspects of
the pre-production, production and post-production processes. Ian and I
assisted the Director Khizer in his plans for the project with idea generation
and editing while working with each-other.
Part of the Directors plan was to divide the work to reduce
duplication of efforts. We all agreed on this and it was a great idea, where we
worked on different aspects of the video and then regularly linking in with
each-other to exchange notes, ideas and opinions.
We had many meetings and worked together on the project and
I think this was a primary factor in the final resulting video.
The planning process started out using our pre-defined
shooting script and determined from there the shot types and locations we would
require to realize the film and the overall vision of the Director.
I worked using the college camera equipment and my own
digital camera, making sure all equipment was in working order, the battery
charged prior to any filming and the equipment on the set on time. We scouted
locations and came up with a large amount of shots for editing. The video
recordings were of: the street; library; science labs; engineering labs;
workshops and sports-scenes. I think we did a good job on this stage of the
process.
Then, back in the computer lab, we proceeded to work on
assigned areas which are relevant to our background areas of study: Khizer in
engineering; Ian in Art and Design and myself in Science. Here we conducted a
lot of internet research on videos associated with LIT but also promotional videos
of other third level colleges.
For my part, as with the rest of the team, I researched and
then analysed many u-tube videos and still shots. Those that I decided would be
relevant I download using the ‘u-tube to MP4 converter,’ saved the downloaded video
file into my ‘source files’ folder, and lifted each video into the timeline on
Premiere Pro for editing and compositing.
I learned from team members some other functions on Premiere
Pro like scaling screen resolution size and speeding-up and slowing-down clips
which was quite useful. As an overall perspective on our approach to the
project we started out with master-shots and then adjusted these and or moved
in closer for Medium close-up shots (MCS) and close up shots (CUS). This helped
us in sequencing the flow of the film.
The clips were assembled and Ian applied the sound and the final editing carried out. Editing involved using among other skills elliptical editing removing extraneous material and territory to keep the sequence moving along smoothly for good continuity results. The transitions between shots are smooth through awareness of good mese-en-scene principles. The result was the final product video.
The clips were assembled and Ian applied the sound and the final editing carried out. Editing involved using among other skills elliptical editing removing extraneous material and territory to keep the sequence moving along smoothly for good continuity results. The transitions between shots are smooth through awareness of good mese-en-scene principles. The result was the final product video.
MORE DETAIL:
For the Mise-en-scene where the meaning of the shot is
determined by its content and the visual treatment of that content works in
this video. As it is a promotional video of the college each shot and sequence
is relevant to this promotional objective. The connotation is interesting here
as the images stand on their own and as combined in a sequence in telling the
narrative. But, the narrative as stated above has been pre-scripted and
overlays the video clips with this pre-scripted narrative (as sound).
Therefore, there are two dimensions to this connotation process where the shots
and the sound must be corresponding, the images stand alone in telling the
narrative intention and this is reinforced with the sound applied.
There is consistency in location, decor, lighting and camera
positioning as: all scenes are shot in LIT and shots with people all have
similar positioning of students to teacher as would occur in
classrooms/workshops/laboratories.
Most of the shots are ‘closed frame’ where information to be
conveyed is contained within the frame. There is use of ‘deep frames’ in the exterior
LIT building video clips to add depth and movement along the z-axis. There are
a lot of zoomed-in shots and point of view (POV) shots to create the feeling
and sense of being the viewer looking from one point and then zooming in onto
the point of focus.
In terms of Proxemics the environment that is LIT is
emphasized in shots at the start and at the end of the film which provides
context to the promotional video. Considering character shots most of the shots
would be medium shots (MS) where the camera shot-taking is close enough to see
the subjects and the actions they are carrying out.
There was a lot of shots that involved panning from left to
right to show progress from one part of a scene to another and pan-to shots
showing the movement of one subject into another in space. There is good use
made of tilting-up shots as in the clip with the girl playing the drums. There
are some very close-up and dollying in and out shots, to focus in and out, on
the actual work the characters are doing (while not incorporating the
characters in these frames at these points) which draws the viewers’ attention
in on the scene information being portrayed.
There are birds-eye-views of the LIT college campus which
provides context at the start and finish of the film and once within the film
again for purposes of reminding the viewer of the LIT context. There is a very
nice shot of the LIT outdoor club at a beach enjoying themselves which shows
another element of the LIT experience and brings the viewer to another
destination LIT is associated with. Also, the LIT logo is a strong feature in
this film highlighted mostly at the start and finish. It is incorporated as it
is a strong logo and is immediately recognizable as Limerick Institute of
Technology (LIT).
CONCLUSIONS:
Work conclusions: the desired outcome from the brief at the
start of the project was to ‘attract potential students at both National &
International level; to increase awareness of LIT especially in terms of
diversity of courses; for use in diverse social platforms like Twitter,
Facebook etc. and the LIT Website,’ and I think we achieved our set objectives
in the video by following the theory on Digital Video in our course and
combining that with the different talents each member of the group has to
contribute to the various aspects of the project.
Personal conclusions: for the end of this subject in Digital
Video having been in the roles of: Production Manager, Director of Sound and
Director of Photography in the three video projects of this semester, that my
preferred areas are in this order. Regarding the photography I like taking
still shots but have found that the video work is not an area I would pursue
career-wise. However, I have learned a lot from this and may in the future be
working with video makers and I have the knowledge of how all the equipment
works and the types of shots taken.
In terms of Director of Sound, I enjoyed very much this role
in sourcing and applying relevant sound in awareness of timing of the video
shot sequence and this is an area I would like to pursue. Then as Production
Manager, I liked this role a lot and would pursue this in the future. I am
quite organised as a person and I like organizing things and events. All roles
involved brainstorming of ideas in the idea generation step, developing a plan,
carrying out the video work, editing the same and presenting a final video
product.
