Multimedia Design & Editing

FAILURE IS GOOD

"One swing in a sea of duds"

CEO of Patreon talking about the importance of trying and failing and trying again

(warning: some profanity)

Film School summaries (courtesy of Finn)

Analysis -

Clip for discussion

Another clip for discussion - not for the faint-of-heart

Sometimes simple is powerful:

Video Basics

The fields of television broadcasting and film are huge. Salaries can range from an hourly minimum wage to the tens of millions depending on luck, skill, schooling and networking. The first big question is why? Typically we generate TV & film for one of (or several of) 3 reasons: for pure art, for an audience, or for a client.

Art - is the most altruistic form of media generation, where the artist isn't inspired by a paycheque, but rather by a sense of publishing content to emphasize/make a point. The artist simply 'does' for the sake of doing, be it to inspire others to think about a topic, or to think about the artist him or herself.
Audience - recognizing that a paycheque is a good thing inspires individuals to create content with a mass distribution in mind. Be it TV, film, radio, or print, the artist has to think of the end-user in generating the content and tailors it so that the audience will embrace it. Making content for an audience doesn't necessarily mean it isn't art, but it is much harder to create a work that both completely pleases the artist and the audience. This may pay well, but the artist has to often compromise for the sake of publication.
Client - the artist becomes the tool for an individual/group. This type of media is usually generated by individuals for corporations. There is usually good renumeration, but at the cost of the artist feeling like they're really making a statement.

What makes a great piece of film/TV?

It is a work of art- from script to cinematography, from sound to acting
It is commercially successful - show me the $
It stands the test of time - it is as relevant 5 decades after release as it was 5 minutes after release.

Examples of great cinema/TV?

Cinema: Laurence of Arabia (1962), American Beauty (1999), When Harry Met Sally (1984), Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Citizen Kane (1941)
TV: Sienfeld, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Sopranos, 60 Minutes, The Simpsons
In between: Game of Thrones, Mandalorian, Stranger Things

Video Production types

There are 2 basic production types live and canned. Live production is exemplified by the traditional broadcast while canned production is where footage is shot, then edited, then distributed to the user. Canned production far exceeds live production because all aspects of the finished product can be manipulated, while live production is at the mercy of lady chance (i.e. a team can do all they can to minimize errors, but because it's live, errors can result in termination of broadcast).

Live Production - not used at SCHS, but programs like those at Sir Will and a few others have sound, lighting and film-work combined to generate live streams watched by audiences.
Canned production (coined by the fact that film used to be carried around in 'tin cans' containing the celluloid) is what is done at SC. We have 2 forms of canned production:
1. Film: using Premiere Elements as an editor, footage and sound is mixed in a post-production environment to generate a finished product.
2. Broadcast (using Visual Communicator as an assembler): a time-line-based piece of software that ties together live and pre-edited elements to generate a finished product.

Studio

All the work is done upfront BEFORE the shooting happens.

When video is shot in a controlled environment, you can optimize things such as camera placement, lighting and sound. End-product is often of high-quality, but can suffer from authenticity if a desired look from the outside world is wanted.

On-location

Shots in the 'real world' can often be noisy and unpredictable but generally give a truly authentic feel to the piece. Benefits of shooting on-location are that you can get an authentic environment, you can get dialogue that might be unpredictable but valuable, you can capture events or interviews you might not otherwise get and finally, using multiple cameras, you can get 'B-Roll' footage, that can be used to enhance the primary shot.

Overview of Stages of Video Production

Video Production is typically broken down into the following stages:

STAGE ONE:

Pre-Production

Pre-Production is all about effectively planning the FORMAT and CONTENT of your production. Although it's EASIER to simply "wing it" and start shooting without planning, experienced producers know that the final UNPLANNED product WILL be:

Inferior and amateurish
Harder to edit, and may require re-shoots
Take more time to produce, and
Leave the producer with regrets

It's FAR cheaper to plan and "test out" your ideas on paper, before committing to the costly and time consuming process of shooting (production) and editing (post production) your video.

Pre-Production requires that you:

Identify the "Target Audience"
Define the final product, it's format and length
Define the concept and specific content
Storyboard StoryboardStoryboardStoryboardStoryboardStoryboardStoryboardStoryboardStoryboardStoryboard your shots, and Script your dialogue
Assign time-lines, areas of responsibility and identify and book required resources

STAGE TWO:

Production

Set the stage, and shoot your "footage". If you're skillful at production, you'll be mindful of the things amateur productions don't pay attention to:

Lighting
Audio
Framing
Shots and Camera-work
Lead In and Lead Out

STAGE THREE:

Post Production

Editing the footage can be the most time consuming part of the process, and offers the most effective opportunities to enhance the production and give it a "professional" feel by adding:

Select or "trimmed" clips from your footage
Transitions between clips (be mindful of K.I.S.S.)
Audio elements
- Music
- Voice Over Dialogue
- Sound Effects
Titles and Credits
Text and Graphic overlays
Composited clips like green-screened elements or matte elements
Special effects and filters that can clean up, or modify the original video clips Post Production also involves rendering and publishing the final product to the desired output format like DVD or web-friendly files

Camera Setup

These settings are easy to overlook, but potentially DISASTROUS to your production if not set properly

ASPECT RATIO

Wide-screen is the new standard - use the menu settings to choose WIDE-SCREEN if appropriate

AUTOMATIC SETTINGS

AUTO FOCUS works well in most cases, but changing the setting to MANUAL FOCUS can ensure your shots STAY in focus

WHITE BALANCE

As with digital photography, setting white balance ensures proper colours and can pro-actively eliminate "colour casts", manually correcting colour afterwards is a pain.
Finding the White Balance settings is a big challenge - Consult the PDF manuals in the handouts folder to set the white balance for specific cameras (in the PDF, use EDIT FIND and search for the word "balance")