Jared E. Bendis

The Culture of Video

A few years ago I gave a presentation at the NMC entitled:

Your Video Projects Suck,
But That’s OK ’cause So Do Your Papers:
Moderating Student Expectations
When Teaching New Media

In the presentation I outlined key aspects of film production for students who are working solo on their first project in an academic setting. These aren’t meant to be ‘the rules of film-making’ but instead parameters in which students should work (and faculty should hold them to) to help achieve a level of success and also to stay moral, ethical, and legal. This page also serves as the notes and demonstration page when I give my talk on the Culture of Video.

Aesthetic Considerations
1. What are you making?
2. What are the ingredients?
3. Do you have a checklist?
4. What does your environment look like?
5. What do your participants look like?
6. Who is your audience?
7. Who are you?
8. Do you know your content?
9. Is it informative or is it vain?
10. Funny is hard!
11. Editing is hard!
12. I will not talk about what I didn’t use or do.

Ethics – I agree that:
1. Everyone will understand what we are doing before filming.
2. I will seek permission before filming – no one (or place) will ever get ambushed.
3. Everyone will sign a release form before filming.
4. I will not plagiarize.
5. It is more than a question of fair-use – it is a question of originality.
6. All media will either be original, royalty free, or in the public domain.
7. I understand that my own original recording of someone else’s song is still a copyright violation.
8. I will use royalty-free stock materials only as stock & filler.
9. You have to know the rules before you can claim you are breaking them.
10. I will have a goal and purpose.
11. I will give credit where credit is due.
12. I will own what I have created.

Technical Considerations
1. Always use a tripod
2. If using tripod – turn off the image stabilization!
3. Never use the zoom
4. Beware of back lighting
5. Never work with children or animals
6. Turn off technology that is not in use
7. Get a second take
8. No crawling or rolling text
9. No panning or zooming images
10. Images must fill the screen – no black bars – (so shoot landscape and give yourself room to crop)!
11. You talk too fast – you talk too slow; figure out which and fix it.
12. My video will stand on its own – with no added introduction or defense.

The Official Case Western Reserve University – Media Release Form

Lessons we learn from videos:

Do you know your stuff?

Are you ready to shelve your first video and move on to your next?

You watch original talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFa3c1veBzc