Introduction
The analysis project brief and the parameters wanting to produce
In week 7-12 the BA group was given the task to create a marketing Video promo for the course. In this 6 week project it was required from each of us to choose to do one or more sub element that is part of the main project.
The brief states that the video should be composed of interviews with students and lecturers, “intro and credits” graphics, music for the video, adaptation and enhancement of End of Year Show reel material and viral for use on the different social media platforms for promoting our product.
On week 7 we were introduced to the project and we discussed the possible styles of the video promo.
On week 8 we discussed ideas for the script and made a decision.
On week 9 the sub elements of the project were chosen to the most appropriate BA-s regarding their specialisms and further decisions were made.
Regarding the style of the video our group plans on including sound bites of these interviews with the students of the course and lecturers, furthermore showcase the work along with animation and kinetic typography. The duration of the video mustn’t exceed 3 minutes and it would consist of three parts:
The first bit would show Winchester (King Alfred statue, the Cathedral and the high street) followed by the campus, Student Union, Learning Café and the University’s buildings. After this would come the show reel with our work and the interviews.
Project description
Background of proposal - primary and other audiences
The purpose of our project is to promote our course, advertise it to people who are interested in studying Digital Media. The primary audience of our project is the future Digital Media students.
On week 7 when we got together we discussed the peculiarities of the university we want to highlight in our promo video.
Due to its friendly and open atmosphere the city provides a safe and secure community, ideal for a good learning environment.
Winchester is located in the countryside, although it’s history dates back to long, it has modern parts as well, and it can provide a lot of amusement to students.
Also, because of its well arranged transport, Winchester assures an easy travel from the surrounding towns, so it’s easy to commute for students who live somewhere else.
Also, because of its well arranged transport, Winchester assures an easy travel from the surrounding towns, so it’s easy to commute for students who live somewhere else.
The city is ideal for having fun, its nightlife, live music pubs, shopping, history and culture fascinates even people from other countries and continents. The close relationship with the Cathedral and the fact that students graduate there, impresses everyone and can be a telling argument in favor of the University.
The particularity of this course which we may want to highlight is that there are no exams, instead students are engaged in projects in which they can develop their talents and gain more technical knowledge. The DMD studio offers a calm and well-equipped learning environment for those who don’t have a computer, internet access or the software needed.
Another feature of the course is that the year groups consist of small cohorts, which may be tempting for future students due to its friendly, easy to speak and personal atmosphere.
Digital media is a very unusual course, it is normally just a module on other courses, and accordingly people come from everywhere, from Europe, to Japan and even the United States of America to join the University of Winchester’s Digital Media and Development.
The University has a very good reputation, many ex graduates are working as professionals, and also many decide to continue their studies and do the masters degree.
Finally as a last reason, the University’s welcoming attitude and friendly staff towards enquirers, helps people to be informed, to make a good decision and gives advice when needed.
As a secondary goal, our aim is to promote the course and the staff to everyone in order to make it more popular and to show the world and the design companies how talented we are and how much we learned so far. To achieve this, we’ll use social media, we’ll upload the video on Youtube and Facebook. Additionally we’ll try to upload the video on the universities website.
Project objectives
The team set out as a target to create a visually appealing, informative video that represents the course in the best possible way.
The first step of the group was to assign the work, so we decided on the following:
- David is going to film the Cathedral, the high street, the campus, the Student Union, Learning Café and the other building’s of the university
- Alex with Joe’s help will be doing the show reel
- Sammy, Orsi and Chris are going to do the interviews
- Chelsea is going to do the animation with others help
The next step was to create questions for the interview and prepare a list of people to be interviewed. We decided that we need for this a BA and a BSc from each year, a graduate, two MA-s and Debs.
The questions are the following:
Y1
Why did you choose to study Digital Media at the University of Winchester?
What is your favourite aspect of the course?
What is your favourite piece of software and why?
What is it like to study here?
MA
Why did you choose to study your masters at Winchester?
What was your favourite project and what did it involve?
What project are you currently working on and what does that involve?
Do you find this course useful and why?
Grads
Explain your experience of studying Digital Media here.
What opportunities has the course given you since graduation?
Did your experience prepare you for working in the industry?
Debs
What made you take this role?
What excites you about Digital Media?
What are the plans for the future of the course such as the Digital Hub?
How do you see technology evolving in relation to this course?
Are there any trips planned for the students?
This was followed by booking the equipment and deciding on the date, Thursday 1st December. After this we sent out an email to everyone explaining what are we doing and asking them if they would like to do it and if they are available.
Following a discussion, our group agreed that the video shouldn’t be longer than 3 minutes because after that people would loose interest and would skip to the end.
In the first part of it the video would show Winchester (King Alfred statue, the Cathedral and the high street) followed by the campus, Student Union, Learning Café and the University’s buildings. After this would come the show reel with our work and the interviews.
On Leslie’s session we discussed possible styles for the interview and stated that a traditional one wouldn’t be appropriate for our video, because it wouldn’t represent us and how a creative course we are. Therefore we opted to do an animated one, this idea was given by Chelsea.
Overview of the research
The main inspiration of the idea was the animated John Lennon interview, I met the Walrus.( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfBpVn0ESqA) This brilliantly demonstrates how a simple interview can be transformed in something interesting furthermore unique by using animation, kinetic typography and semiotics. Letters can not only be expressed by characters but also by symbols.
In addition to this I also looked at other promos to gain an idea of how these videos are created. I found the Digital media course by Valencia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4VU6OAOjro) quite good, it’s short, brief but concise.
The South Devon College’s video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz8Oqguslns) emphasizes the essence of its course in the same way, yet it’s convincing.
I did a research on music for promos and found that the ones for Hungary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmz8Ni9zO4M&feature=fvsr)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5KCt5LrksE&feature=related) demonstrate well how a piece of music can change the impact.
Overview of the expected outcome
By uploading the video on the universities website we hope that we’ll encourage people, lift the profile of the course.
Alongside this, our other aim is to be visible to the digital media industry, attract their attention towards our group. Hopefully after looking at it they will be interested enough to visit the DMD website and ours and get in contact with us.
Pros and cons
After a debate, the cohort came up with 3 ideas for the video.
The first idea was to use live scenes of Winchester, followed by interviews with students and staff, finally show casing our work.
The pros for this are that it would be informative, it would show the town, students and staff realistically, so it would be easier to relate.
The cons are that it’s too predictable; we need more creativity to break the ‘norm’.
Our second idea was to use animation only with sound and kinetic typography, plus the show reel.
The advantage of this idea is that it’s creative and can be an impressive piece of work.
The disadvantage it’s too time consuming, we would need months to achieve it, furthermore it could be for any University.
Our final version was to use in the video live footage of Winchester, leading up to the University (using a time ramp to speed up the uninteresting parts). The interviews will be incorporated with animation and kinetic typography and with elements of the show reel.
The pros are, this seems to be the most original and creative idea. In addition it would show the possibilities of digital media whilst also showing where to study.
The only cons are that the animation is reliant on the outcome of the interviews and may be quite time consuming.
Overview of the technical development and the technologies used
On the third week of the project we were trained to use a video camera with the green screen and lighting. This knowledge will be useful for me, Sammy and Chris in order to capture visuals and sound on the interviews. I have a Samsung NV100 HD camera and a tripod, so I offered it to the group. Because we are short on time, we would be in advance if there was someone who has some experience in filming.
David also offered his video camera, he will be capturing the live footage of the town, the university and the campus.
Chelsea, who’s the chief animator will be using Adobe Flash with a WACOM track pad, but we’ll all try to help her so we can get the project done on time.
The post production is Sammy’s job, she’ll be using After Effects and Final Cut Pro, which will allow to edit and manipulate the scenes, add intros and credits, plus the music.
As the final step, we’ll upload the video on Facebook and Youtube.
Timeline
- First week (08/11/11): we were introduced to the project and we discussed the possible styles of the video promo.
- Second week (15/11/11): we researched similar videos and found the inspiration. We discussed ideas for the script and made a decision. With John’s help we practised for the interviews.
- Third week (22/11/11): we had a camera training, we were shown how to handle a vide camera, how to set up the lights and the green screen, we were told on what to pay attention. Also on this week students and staff were contacted for the interviews. David shot the video live actions of Winchester and the University and edited the footages. Alex and Joe asked people to send them their work.
- Fourth week (01/12/11): Sammy, Orsi and Chris will film the interviews. Hopefully we’ll manage to do all of it, so we can start illustrating and animating the characters.
- Fifth week (06/12/11): we will continue the animating along with any extra footage. If required we’ll do some more interviews.
- Sixth week (15/12/11): post production will be completed and we’ll present the final outcome to the lecturers.
Key solutions and problems that we overcame
Persuading students to agree to be interviewed has been difficult, there have been very few responses. Because we sent out an email to everyone asking them if they would like to be interviewed, only one ex graduate and Debs volunteered.
To solve this problem, DMD lecturers will help push forward this to happen, they’ll convince the students to come to us. If this won’t be successful, then we’ll use ourselves.
Since this is a 6 week project, we don’t have much time. The interviews are the basis for the animation which means that stage can’t begin until the interviews are done. This means we only have two and a half week to illustrate and animate the characters.
As a solution we’ll have the live visuals as a back-up.
Conclusion
If I could redo this project, I would try to be prepared and I would have the camera training ahead, which would mean we would be able to start filming the interviews immediately. By this we would be more ahead and could spend more time on the animation.
In addition, if I known about this project this summer, I would have started learning about video editing softwares, Adobe After Effets and Final Cut Pro.
As a final thought, if I could have done the video single-handedly, maybe I would have used the Hungary promo as an inspiration.
References
References
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