Sunday, February 26, 2017

Ready, Aim, Shoot Video

In addition to working in VR this term, CM 412 Students have already produced several video pieces including: imitating a "series opener," using freegal footage for a themed piece, and a video vocabulary of shot types. They have also been reading the book "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck," by Steve Stockman.

Movies are made with the MIND, not the camera or editing software!

Before they launch into producing video pieces for themselves and their clients, they are refreshing themselves on some basic concepts from our text that will help them "make movies with their minds" before shooting a frame. They will share "17 Nuggets of Video Making Truth" in their blogs, gleaning one principle, motto or concept from each of the first 17 chapters of our text.

And then, storyboarding, shots lists, and shooting begins for our final projects!

My take on 17 “Before the Shoot” Tidbits from How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck by Steve Stockman:


1.       Here we are now, entertain us!
2.       Have a clearly understood purpose.
3.       Tell a STORY.
4.       Get new creative ideas.
5.       Create for the Audience.
6.       Simple Storylines work best.
7.       Storyboard (in your head.)
8.       Every shot is a story within the story.
9.       Keep it Short, Stupid.
10.   Don’t tell too much.
11.   Prepare a Pitch for your video.
12.   Understand what your type of video does best.
13.   Understand the basic elements of your video type.
14.   Remove the guesswork, script it out.
15.   Get the most out of the least amount of words.
16.   “Unplanned” is not a good word.
17.   A shot list before shooting is like a grocery list before shopping.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Limestone College Campus VR Tour - Beta Version

Comm 412 students will roll out the Beta version of the Campus VR Tour on Friday, February 24 at the OpenHouse session. Here is a sneak peek of their prototype:



To see this VR Tour on yoru mobile device, laptop, desktop or in your Cardboard or Daydream or other VR headset, CLICK HERE.
To see this VR Tour in your GearVR headset, CLICK HERE. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Composing in 3D, 360, and Virtual Reality

We will be combining our learning, experiences and skills to build a Virtual reality Tour of the campus using TheViewer. Here is an idea of how the program interface "works" as a tour builder:

We plan to release the Beta version of the tour on Friday, February 24 at the Open House Session in Hamrick Hall Room 127. This Beta version will focus on the central campus and buildings facing the quad.

Students will use their Class Website to see more of the information, tutorials, and guidelines on composing in this dynamic emerging medium.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Making Movies!

Students will use Premiere Pro (and provided video, audio and photos) to recreate the 25-second introduction to a fictitious documentary called "Baseball: America's Pasttime."



In doing so, students will demonstrate their learning of the program interface, importing collateral, using photos, layers, timeline, transitions, effects, editing clips before and after insertion to the timeline, titling, the Ken Burns effect, and exporting to various video formats (in this case, a format suitable for YouTube.)

They will upload their videos to YouTube and embed them in their blogs (or upload them directly to their blogs) with additional prose commentary on the process.

(In follow-up projects, students will create a sample of camera shots, and a brief tutorial on tips to make video better.)

Students will build on the instruction in the classroom, but can find additional support at sites like these:

Adobe has some helpful links to instructions and video tutorials to help you get started HERE.

A couple of tutorials you might have particular interest in are these:
  1. Managing & Viewing Assets
  2. Dynamic Slide Shows (aka the "Ken Burns Effect")
MORE HELP Available at the Course Website!