Archive for the ‘video production’ Category

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Do-It-Yourself Camera Slider Project

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013 by Jeff Gray, KET

Continuing our test-builds of do-it-yourself photography/video production tools, here’s a camera slider that schools and home users should have a good time building for little money. Using it is fun, it’s very portable, and it adds many possibilities for interesting camera moves for video production projects. Students will notice that the moves are used regularly in films and tv shows. Slideshow pics are swipeable in portable devices.

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Based on the Filmriot crew’s DIY Camera Slider design, our unit was inexpensive (around $20.00, including some used parts) and it helped to produce some nice test video right off the bat. Mods I added were: substitution of a raised metal electrical switch plate; addition of an inexpensive quick-release camera mount I found online; and felt strips to line the tubes for smoother sliding. If I can build this (think Homer Simpson BBQ project) I know you can.

Here’s the first quick video test. Could do better with practice and care, but the dogs, Precious and Bunny, were perfect with no direction at all.

Camera Slider Test Video
Camera Slider Test Video

Shot with iPhone 5; edited in Lumify app (to try); WiFi transfered to iPad w/PhotoSync app (on both); edited in iMovie app to add titles, stills, and music; exported to YouTube over WiFi; inserted into WordPress blog w/Royal Slider plugin.

See the earlier camera stabilizer project.

Coming soon: a camera crane/jib project for more super-silky-fun moves!

If you’ve made something useful for video production and would like to share it please leave a response, below!

Share | By Jeff Gray, KET at 3:41 pm | Permalink | Comments Off   Posted in do-it-yourself equipment, photography, portable devices, projects, video equipment, video production

Gallatin Middle Students Use iPads for Video at KET Media Lab

Thursday, January 31st, 2013 by Jeff Gray, KET

Ms. Michelle Lawrence brought students from Gallatin County Middle School to KET on January 17 for a tour of KET’s digital production facility and a workshop in the KET Media Lab on Using iPads for Video Production.



iPads, iPhones, and other portable devices with cameras continue to become useful tools for education, and using them for student video production is fun and efficient. The learning curve for video production as compared to pc-based software is drastically reduced — especially for editing — and the quality of the finished productions is impressive. A video project can be done from start to finish in much less time, with a minimum of equipment (iPad, tripod adapter, external microphone, iMovie or other edit software), and for much less money than pc-based solutions.

Here’s a great use of the iPad and the iMovie app by Camille Davis’ students from Lexington’s Christ the King School for the KET School Video Project: Election 2012.” Camille also started her students off with a KET Media Lab workshop on Using iPads for Video Production. Check out the excellent video quality and sound of the video these very well-prepared and charming young students made — all with just an iPad ($499) and the iMovie video editing app ($5.00), which includes graphic templates and free-to-use music backgrounds — and for much less than the cost of a camera, a pc with editing software, and other gear. Improvements could be made by adding a tripod adapter and tripod, and an external microphone, which could together add about $150 or so — still well below pc-based video production costs. That brings easy, effective, and fun video production much closer to more schools.

If your school is within driving distance of KET and you’d like a free workshop (and a tour, time permitting), contact Jeff Gray, KET Education Division at jgray@ket.org; 800-432-0951 ext. 7263, 859-258-7263.

And, if you and your Kentucky students are already using iPads, iPhones, or other portable devices to make student-produced video projects, please upload examples of your work to the KET School Video Project website to share (please list what you used to make your videos in the “Notes” field of the upload form). Call or email Jeff if you have questions or need help.

Jeff will also be presenting on Using iPads for Video Production at the next  KYSTE 2013 (Kentucky Society for Technology in Education) spring conference (Willis room, 3:45 pm, Thursday, March 14). If you’re headed for the very useful and entertaining spring KYSTE conference, stop in to see and hear about video project recording, editing, and sharing using iPads (and some new information on using iPhones), along with a demonstration of various useful add-on accessories and workarounds that Jeff has found that make it all even better.

Share | By Jeff Gray, KET at 7:04 pm | Permalink | Comments Off   Posted in featured schools, iOS for video production, Media Lab, portable devices, school video, video production

Mason County Video Makers Small and Tall

Friday, April 27th, 2012 by Jeff Gray, KET

 

For over twelve years Library Media Specialist Karen Wood has been running the Straub Morning Show each morning from a small room off of the school library. Each week features a different class. Straub’s Morning Show is a live broadcast that begins around 8:15 each day and is played to the school through a vcr/dvd player. The show is also recorded each day as it’s performed, and at the end of the week a DVD is made for the current class’s teacher so that the students can watch themselves performing the show.

Ms. Wood makes a class participation schedule at the beginning of the school year. She begins with the 2nd grade classrooms and ends the year with kindergarten class. Ms. Wood provides the cue sheets that the teachers use for each show: one each for the introduction of the class and the date, Pledge of Allegiance, lunch menu, weather forecast, and the Straub song. A different student is in charge of each element. The week’s teacher fills out the scripts for the students before they report to the library in the morning for the show.

During my visit, Ms. Wood reminisced, “Sometimes funny things happen on the live show. One day we had a teacher promoting the spring frog derby. She brought in a live frog and was showing him off in front of the camera. The frog leaped out of her hand and hopped around the room. Of course the tape was still rolling and here we were acting crazy because there was a frog hopping around the studio.” She added, “During Read Across America week in March, we have mystery readers come on the show and read passages of Dr. Seuss books behind the camera. The students try to guess who the mystery reader is based only on their voices.  That is a lot of fun.”

Here’s a sample Straub Morning News Show program made by students from the 2nd grade classroom of Marybeth Tumey.

Close by, at Mason County High School, students in Ms. Stephanie Grayson’s video production classes also do excellent work. Basic video production knowledge and skills explored in projects like Straub Elementary school’s Morning Show are further developed into sophisticated productions that integrate curriculum with technology and demonstrate student mastery of communication tools and methods.

Students in the Video Production/Broadcast Journalism program at MCHS learn television production techniques involved in both studio and field production. They gain hands-on experience enabling them to learn various skills such as editing, camera composition, lighting, and scripting. Students in the MCHS video program consist of 10th-12th graders. Here are some of the projects the students are involved in throughout the school year:

  • A weekly, 20-30 minute MCTV news show for students and staff. All students are involved in writing the news stories for each new show and are assigned a specific category such as sports, local news, school news, etc. Each student is then assigned a specific job when the actual production begins, such as camera operator, news anchor, editor teleprompter operator, etc. Students also create commercials, PSAs, special reports, etc. that are included in the final news show production. Advanced students use Final Cut Pro editing software and beginning students utilize Apple iMovie editing software.
  • Recording of various sporting events and creation of highlight videos at the end of the season
  • Recording of various activities for teachers in their classrooms
  • Recording of guest speakers at school assemblies
  • Creation of commercials for local businesses that are aired on local cable television
Here’s a dramatic public service announcement (PSA) video on texting and driving made by Ms. Grayson’s video production students.

Down the hall from Ms. Grayson’s video/multimedia classes, Ms. Roberts’ Family and Consumer Science classes use Apple iPads to produce classroom multimedia projects that they present to the class via Ms. Roberts’ pc and video projector.
On the way to Ms. Roberts’ room, I saw some music students using various multimedia tools while waiting to perform: iPads, a digital camera, a smart phone —  each student was rapt in attention to a device.

I enjoyed visiting Mason County Schools, where I saw multimedia technology effectively integrated with curriculum in a fun and effective way for early learners to high schoolers.

Share | By Jeff Gray, KET at 3:39 pm | Permalink | Comments Off   Posted in featured schools, news programs, projects, school video, video production

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