Video Part 2: Instructions
The Video assignment has four parts:
- Shoot at least seven video clips, for one sequence. (This is less than a story.) Upload seven clips to Vimeo.
- Edit the clips (from Part 1) to create a sequence. (Audio is not graded.) Upload the edited sequence to Vimeo.
- Shoot an interview and B-roll for a real journalistic story. (Audio quality must be good.) Upload clips to Vimeo.
- Edit your video story (from Part 3) and upload it to Vimeo.
Follow these instructions for editing your video for Part 2 of this assignment:
- Edit your video clips (from Video Part 1) into a sequence that shows the activity in a coherent, understandable way.
- Pay attention to matching the action, as explained in Module 11.
- Trim your clips intelligently so that a viewer does not feel bored because he/she is seeing the same thing for too long. (A trimmed clip may be less than 10 seconds!) Use your judgment about how the whole sequence feels. Too slow? Too fast? Make adjustments.
- Export the finished, edited sequence.
- Upload it to Vimeo.
Length of video: 60 seconds or LESS.
You may include more than five shots, if you like.
You MUST include at least five shots.
The sound is not important in this assignment.
DO NOT add any sound or edit the sound.
Matching the motion from one shot to the next IS important.
I expect to see at least two extreme close-ups of the face, the hands, or both. I expect to see the person's face at least once.
DO NOT add any transitions or titles or other material. Just the shots.
See an example of an edited video that meets the requirements. Notice the different angles and distances. Please also note the extreme close-ups.
What is the purpose of this exercise?
This assignment has three purposes:
- To introduce you to video editing.
- To give you experience with crafting a sequence, which is the building block of video storytelling (as a sentence or a paragraph is a building block in writing).
- To encourage you to think about getting better shots.
Any idiot can throw five clips on the timeline in a video editing program.
It's the way you trim the clips, and the way you order them, that makes a sequence good or bad.
If you build a sequence carefully, dragging the clips around and spending some time to think about what makes sense, what feels right (in terms of pacing, time, and the visual logic of what is in the frame), you can make your first video sequence as good as one that was cut by someone with much more experience. (That is assuming you got the right kind of shots in the previous assignment, which was designed to make this one work well for you.)
By taking care with this simple assignment, you'll get used to the editing environment. There's also another benefit: You can learn how to shoot better clips the next time you go out to shoot video if you pay attention to what's working well, and what's not, as you are editing the clips you shot. What do you wish you had? Get those important shots the next time!
Just as in producing an audio slideshow, when you are cutting video together you want to give the audience visual variety: different angles, different distances, different PARTS of the action. That's why you learned the Five-Shot Method.
Naming your file on Vimeo
Upload your ONE edited video file to your own personal account on Vimeo. PLEASE NOTE that uploading may take longer than you expect, even though this is just one short file. START EARLY.
In the TITLE field on Vimeo, name the edited video file Video Part 2. (You can review the instructions in the Video Part 1 assignment.)
Your real first and last name must be on your Vimeo account. If you need to change it, go to "My Profile" and then "Settings" (upper right corner).
You do not need to add a description to the file for Video Part 2.
You DO need to add a tag. Copy and paste this so it is exactly right:
JOU3346L
Don't forget to click the Add button.
Make sure that ANYONE can view your clips on Vimeo. A TA is likely to grade your work, so it must be visible to everyone. Also, other students are going to view this edited video. This is the default setting, so you should not need to change anything under "Privacy."
There is all kinds of great Vimeo help here:
PLEASE NOTE that it is VERY IMPORTANT in this course that you name files EXACTLY as instructed for every assignment. Failure to do so will result in zero points for assignments.
Questions?
If you have questions about any part of this assignment, post them in the Course Questions discussion in Sakai.
This assignment is part of an online course offered to students enrolled at the University of Florida. It was written by Mindy McAdams and is available for re-use under a Creative Commons license.