This short course focuses on the video production skills needed to make higher quality video recordings for applications such as staff development, marketing and promotion and re-usable learning materials. It assumes you have a suitable digital camcorder, a computer and editing software and are able to use these to do basic shooting, capturing and editing.
Objectives:
To be able to produce good quality video recordings, suitable for a range of educational applications
To be able to describe the key issues and considerations in producing video recordings
1
The stages of video production
There are three main stages in producing a video:
"Pre-production" - planning and preparation
"Production" - shooting your video, recording additional sound
"Post-production" - editing and preparing for distribution
After that, it's distribution e.g. via DVD, the internet, VLE, or mobile devices.
This short course provides tips and ideas for each of the first 2 stages, pre-production and production.
2
Pre-production: Planning and Preparation
Without some prior planning, a video project can quickly descend into chaos. This may not become apparent until you start editing and realise that you have lost track of which shots are where, you have missing shots and sound recordings and footage that doesn't work as you expected and needs to be re-shot. The guide below provides tips on effective planning for your video shoot.
It is very easy to enthusiastically wave your camcorder at your subjects, focussing on the action rather than the quality, but experience will show that the results can be very hit and miss and you will probably make more work for yourself when it comes to editing. A bit of planning and an understanding of what makes a good shot can make the process much more rewarding. The quick reference guides below provide some ideas to help you do this.
Most video editing packages provide tools to capture your clips, edit them on a "timeline", then prepare them in a variety of formats for distribution. For RSC video production workshops, we have used Ulead Video Studio 11. This is one of a number of easy to use and reasonably powerful "consumer" level products. Others include: Sony Vegas; Pinnacle Studio and Adobe Premiere Elements. For more advanced editing, Adobe Premiere (PC) and Final Cut (Mac) are popular choices.
For simple editing jobs, you may find that Windows Movie Maker is sufficient. This is included with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista.
The JISC Regional Support Centre for the East Midlands is one of 13 RSCs covering the UK. It's our job to support the development of e-learning and Information Learning Technology in FE, Sixth Form and Specialist Colleges, Adult and Community Learning, Work Based Learning and aspects of Higher Education. We cover teaching and learning, management, staff development, technical IT and business support.
This course was devised by the RSC East Midlands. It is freely available for use by the clients of any RSC but copyright and usage restrictions apply (see link below)
The RSC are happy for our learning providers to download many of our courses for use on their own Moodle. To find out more about how to do this, contact: support@rsc-em.ac.uk
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