Reflection:

Surprisingly, this was the most exciting course of the year. As should be the case, the complexity of our projects has increased as each course has added more tools to our repertoire. In Video Technology, the complexity of file conversions was added to the tasks of learning yet another new software application and becoming more proficient with a video camera. In every course I have agonized over what to do for an assignment, but once I decided on what, how was a true adventure on our video projects. It is so good to recognize that other Tech Aps disciplines that I struggled with earlier in the year have become familiar friends that provide a good delivery tool for video work. I am very comfortable with video editing, which is far different from saying that I know all I need to know. I look forward to doing more of it, both in and out of the classroom.

Artifact #6 / Artifact #12

Caption 6

I have chosen our group project, the Mood Video, as my first artifact in Video Technology. The knowledge I gained working with Diana Saenz and Mary-Dawn Hudspeth was tremendous. I believe we worked well as a group, and I was pleased with the result of our efforts.

We were asked to keep the mood we were conveying secret when we presented our project to our TATC colleagues, so I have not revealed it in the discussion, but responses from others indicate that we managed to convey it pretty well, despite the many synonyms in the English language that portray similar meanings.

Indicators: I, II, III, IV, V, 8.5, , 8.7, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, , 8.15, 8.16, 8.17, 8.20, 8.21, 8.29, 8.32, 8.45, 9.1, 9.7, 9.8, 9.10, 9.11, 9.12, 9.13, 9.14, 9.15, 9.16, 9.20, 9.24, 9.25, 9.28, 9.31, 9.33, 9.34, 9.39, 9.42, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.6, 10.7, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, 10.14, 10.16, 10.17, 10.18, 10.21, 10.24, 10.25, 10.26, 10.29, 10.30, 1..31, 10.32, 10.33, 10.35, 10.39, 10.40, 10.41, 10.42, 10.43, 10.44, 11.7, 11.9, 11.12, 11.16, 11.17, 11.18, 11.19, 11.21, 11.23, 11.24, 11.25, 11.26, 11.27, 11.28, 11.30, 11.31, 11.35, 11.39

Artifact #6

Descriptors: Elements of design, use of video software, video editing techniques, use of audio software, audio editing techniques, selection of appropriate content, appropriate crediting of resources, file manipulation using assorted encoding, decoding, and compression packages, web design, fulfilling a specified roll in a group project, communication with group members in a group project situation

Title: Be Still

Course: TATC 105 Video Technology

Date Created: March, 2003

Source: Music provided by Diana Saenz, Sound Editor, Web Page provided by Mary-Dawn Hudspeth, Producer, video clips downloaded from the web or provided with video software selected by all three of us as Content Editors, timeline from Diana, and script provided by me, consultation with our group and our instructor, Rachel Newman, file manipulation by me.

Media: Ulead Video Studio 6, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Ease Audio Converter, Windows Media Encoder

Description: Groups were assigned members and commissioned to create a "Mood" video. Each member of the group was assigned a specific roll in the project, and the first person listed on the group assignment list was designated as the Producer. We were to create a music video up to a minute long using video clips that conveyed a basic mood - tranquility, anxiety, reverence, anger, patriotism, sensuality, spirituality, for example - to the viewer. We were allowed to use imagery supplied with our video software or from any other source. We were asked to keep our chosen mood secret so that viewers could hopefully identify the mood we tried to convey.

"Mood" piece video requirements:

• A time limit of 1 min.
• A storyboard or script of the video - decide which as a group
• A mood conveyed
• At least 3 edited/cut/trimmed scenes from their original clip
• Sound
• Credits
  

Rationale: I chose the Mood Video as my first video artifact because it was my first effort at video editing, and I enjoyed the success of this project. Working with Diana Saenz and Mary-Dawn Hudspeth was a real pleasure because they are both very organized, and both are strong group contributors. I became much more comfortable with video editing software, and I gained experience converting video clips in different formats to formats usable in Ulead. I enjoyed experimenting with file sizes, and I discovered that although the difference in the sizes of files created by Ulead in mpeg1 and mpeg2 formats was huge, the difference in their file sizes after being compressed by Windows Media Encoder 9 was only a few kilobytes.

Implications for future: I will enjoy teaching an introductory Video unit in my Multimedia class. I have learned a lot about the software required, and I look forward to improving my camera skills, which were not required for this project.

Reviewer's Comments: Great job, ladies. Serenity is definitely conveyed, and with everything going on in the world and in TATC, this is a much needed respite. Enjoyed your work thoroughly!

Reviewer's Name: Thelia Lisle

Date Reviewed: March 26, 2003

Title: TATC Colleague

Reviewer's Comments: Impressive. I really enjoyed the imagery you selected. I initially thought of something celestial, but then I saw your timeline with Spirituality identified. I think this fits very well. I particularly enjoyed the professional look of the website. Ours is so plain vanilla by comparison.

Reviewer's Name: Peter Ponce

Date Reviewed: March 26, 2003

Title: TATC Colleague

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Caption 12

Mr. Custer represents some of my best work because it was perhaps the most challenging of our projects for me and one of the most successful. More concepts were incorporated into one project in the creation of this video than in anything else we did. As usual I agonized over what music or artist to focus on; that decision had to be made first. The explicit planning demanded to satisfy the TEKS was truly beneficial because of the complexity of the project, and also because I was on a UIL trip with my Computer Science Team for 3 days during the week when most of the video was actually made. Acquiring resources, filming video, ripping video from a DVD, editing audio and video, finding a good sequence of content and molding it into a cohesive unit demanded ingenuity and an artistic eye, which I think I had for this project. (Saying that is a first for me during this course!) Because all albums that included Mr. Custer were of a frivolous nature, while the video dealt with a timeless and very serious human emotion, tying the web site to the video proved to be a challenge in itself.

One of the things I like do at the end of a sizable project with my students is have them fill out a questionaire asking them to identify parts of the project that applied specific concepts. I list every concept that I can associate with the assignment. It makes them conscious of the number of concepts involved, it makes them more aware of the project's educational value, and their sense of accomplishment typically sky-rockets. My sense of accomplishment was tremendous when this music video and its related site were completed. The glowing responses from my colleagues were greatly appreciated.

Title: Mr. Custer

Course: TATC 105 Video Technology

Date Created: April, 2003

Source: Video shots of Kiran Patel (one of my students, who portrayed the young Iraqi soldier), still images downloaded from news services, still images related to the Little Big Horn, Indian village scene ripped from a DVD, audio from Larry Verne's Mr. Custer, images of the covers of many albums which included the musical selection

Media: Internet access, Ulead Video Studio 6, Super DVD Ripper, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Ease Audio Converter, Windows Media Encoder

Description: Produce a music video and present it on a web site designed to publicize the music or the artist while featuring the music video as the center of attention. Planning was a major emphasis for this project, requiring a timeline, a storyboard, and periodic reviews of progress.

Video Requirements:

• Demonstrate knowledge in composition such as ratio of image to frame, position in frame, line of gaze, pan/tilts, movement, and perspective.
• Demonstrate proficiency in basic camera techniques such as zoom, focus, iris control, white balance, and filters.
• Utilize lighting techniques such as key, fill, and backlight, using incandescent/reflected light, color temperatures, and filter use.
• Include control and/or time coded tracks, transitions, audio levels, and background music.
• Use audio and editing techniques to transition the scenes. What many music videos do is to change scenes on the beat of the music.
• Use character generators, fonts, colors, and principles of composition to create graphic images.
• Include captions and/or titles for video and graphics.
• Produced as a windows media streaming file and accessed from the TATC windows media streaming server.
• Two minutes maximum. Although it is difficult to specify any kind of an arbitrary length for the video, it should be limited in scope and complexity given the short production and post-production schedules that will be necessary in this course.

The video must be provided as a windows media (streaming) file. All video clips must be compressed and saved as wmv or asf.

Web Page Requirements:

• It must be designed to publicize the music group or individual and feature the music video as the center of interest.
• The design of the web page should be in keeping with the message of the video.
• It is important to consider what effect you want this video to have on its audience, and
• For project documentation, discreetly include links to your storyboard and project management plan.

Rationale: My music video is my most comprehensive video work. The complexity of the work required careful planning, and the experience of writing a storyboard and timeline as part of the planning phase was invaluable. I chose to highlight Larry Verne's song, Mr. Custer, with its very tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the fear haunting a young cavalryman riding off to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Fear is a timeless emotion, and the video translates that same fear to a young Iraqi soldier as he contemplates the progress of war in his country and his own response to it. My work encompassed combining still images related to the doomed Battle of the Little Big Horn, overlaid with video of an Indian village scene from a DVD, and still images of the Iraqi War, as it was in progress. (I found that video clips from the wire services were of such low resolution that they were not usable.) My own video shots of Kiran Patel, portraying the Iraqi soldier as he laid aside his military uniform for civilian clothing, overlaid the Iraqi war images. I was pleased with the imagery achieved in the two contrasting settings. One real challenge was tying a video treating a serious emotion to a frivolous web design; frivolous out of necessity because the music appeared only on albums of a frivolous nature. What do you do with album names like "Dumb Ditties"?

Implications for future: I look at the complexity of this project, and for many of my students, I think, "No way!" For others, not only would they succeed, they would excel. I think a project of this complexity would have to be preceded by projects that give students experience with individual skills. My job as a teacher is to plan the sequence of instructional materials to teach basic concepts first and add complexity as proficiencies are demonstrated. I want each of my students challenged, and I want each of them to experience a measure of success. The challenges don't always have to be the same, but the opportunities do. The measure of success will vary with their capabilities, interests, commitment, investment, and certainly with their individual strengths.

Reviewer's Comments: Jane, Your video was wonderful! I think vision and artistic eye are your strong point and very evident from watching the video. Use of the student as a "backdrop" behind the moving scenes was truly innovative and added much to the feel of the video's message. The shots were clever and I like the ending with the statue toppling and Saddam's picture burning. Your parallels between Custer's last stand and Saddam's last stand were great too.

The website itself was cute and very appropriate to your intent. All links worked and I never really understood what the talent release was for until I saw yours. I thought it was more for getting permission to use the music. Duh, it's very clear now! Thanks for all the hard work you put into this.

Reviewer's Name: Thelia Lisle

Title: TATC Colleague

Date Reviewed: April 22, 2003

Reviewer's Comments: That sure was a lot of work that you put into that. The video went very well with the lyrics and tone of the song. The transitions you used (x fade for example) were appropriate for the feel of the war happening on the song. The music was perfect for the imagery that you used. There were so many undertones that it was hard for me not to get swept away in the video. Your actor did very well and the way that you overlayed your moving videos over still images was great.

The web page was colorful and matched the personality of the song. I'm sure that the artist would really enjoy seeing that. I especially liked how you color coded each section on the timeline and the script. That made it very easy to follow and gave it consistency throughout the entire page. Good work!

Reviewer's Name: Diana Saenz

Title: TATC Colleague

Date Reviewed: April 22, 2003

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