Agricultural and Extension Education
|
AEE 526 - Information Technologies in Agricultural and Extension Education |
Module 3:  |
Digital Video Production (2.5 units) |
Introduction: |
There was always a sense of excitement when a "movie" was shown in one of my classes when I was in elementary or secondary school. Later I learned to call these movies "educational films". With the advent of video cameras, and more specifically today, mini digital video cameras, it is relatively easy for an educator to produce his or her own "educational film". These videos can be shown in meetings, incorporated into a PowerPoint presentation or can be placed on the web. In this module we will learn more about digital video production. |
Learning
Objectives:  |
 Differentiate between analog and
digital video List
five advantages of digital video over analog Identify
the different types of video cameras (VHS, miniDV, 8 mm, Digital 8,
VHS-C, Hi-8, S-VHS) Identify
what to look for in selecting a mini digital video camera. Determine what equipment is needed to produce digital
videos Transfer video from a
camera to a computer. Describe
the concept of storyboarding. Discuss and demonstrate
principles and steps to follow in producing a video. Identify
popular video editing software Produce a
professional quality
digital video Identify
the various formats in which digital video can be stored |
| Instructional Activities:  |
Complete the interactive
pretest on
Digital Video Production. We start our journey
into the digital video world
by having a guided tour from MicroCenter.
This video is an excellent overview of digital video cameras even
though it ends up being a commercial for MicroCenter in the end. You
will have to wait for
some of the video clips to load. Just be patient; some clips take
several minutes to load. cnet.com has videos
showing the features of many video cameras.
View one of the videos to get an idea of some of the features
that are important. If you are thinking about buying a specific camera,
they may have a video about it. http://reviews.cnet.com/Panasonic_PV_GS300/4660-6500_7-6484082.html?tag=vid Read the Digital
Video Buying Guide in PC World. Complete
the interactive pretest
on Digital Video Production II. Learn about the different video
format types. The first step in video
product is to plan your shoot. Professionals
use something called a Storyboard. Read this simple article about storyboarding. See
some examples of Storyboards.Professor Monkey walks you through the video
production process. Read Video
Shooting Tips from the University of California-Berkeley Walk through all the lessons on the Videography
for Educators web site. There are 20 of them, but many are short. You might be interested
how students make
their own
movies. If you really want to immerse students in learning and
engage them, transport this technology into your classroom. Apple
has a library of digital video
field trips and documentaries. You might pick up some ideas here,
especially the electonic field trips.You need software to
edit digital videos. Many computers come with free
basic movie editing programs such as iMovie (Mac) or Windows
Movie Maker. These do an adequate job and you are welcome to use
them for this class. If you were a semi-professional video producer you
might use Adobe
Premier (for Windows-$799) or Final Cut
Pro (for Macs-$1,299). In our Ricks Hall AEE computer lab we use
the Pinnacle
Studio Product. This is because it does a decent job and is
relatively inexpensive ($99). Read a review of
Pinnacle Studio to learn more about it. The
video editing program we use on campus is Pinnacle Studio. Go to
their web site and get an introduction by viewing
some of their videos or reading their articles. If you are using iMovie
on a Mac, video
instructions can be viewed online. Read about the different
video
file formats that you can choose from when you create your video.
You will need to determine whether to save your video as an avi, mpeg,
mov, wmv or what. |
Lagniappe:  |
Check
out these funny videos at http://www.allowe.com/Humor/video.htm Want to see more? Warning. The following web site may be hazardous to your health (you may hurt yourself laughing). Some are off-color, so be forewarned. |
Assignments:  |
Assignment 1 - Your
employer has given you $800 to buy a mini-dv camera (don't worry about
shipping or taxes). You want to get the best possible digital video
camera (often called a camcorder). First you may want to do some
research. Two good places to check
out the opinions of others is C/Net (http://www.cnet.com/)
and
Epinions (http://www.epinions.com/). Go to
both web sites, seach for camcorders and look at the reviews. Then
write a short
paper (one
page or less)
telling which
digital video camera you would purchase and why. This
should be a page or less. Title this worksheet3a.doc and post to
your web
space. Assignment 2 - Create a storyboard for the video you are going to produce for assignment 3 below (this will probably be 1-3 pages in length). Before you start the storyboarding, state the working title of the video (this can change) and the goal, purpose or objective of your video. Mail or fax this project to me since it may involve creative drawings. Of you can save it to your web space--just let me know the file name. Assignment 3 - You are to produce a 3-6 minute video on a topic that you could use in your work. This video should be a high quality video that incorporates all the principles found in this module. There should be a title, scene transitions, and some additional sound or sound effects. The final product should be submitted on a mini-dv tape or DVD. Or it can be saved in an appropriate format and loaded into your www directory. Some students save it as an avi file and put in in the www direcotry. We do have loaner laptop computers with the Pinnacle Studio software and video cameras to loan out. When you get the camera there will be an instructional manual on how to use the camera. Contact the instructor to make arrangements to borrow the loaner kit. We only have 5 loaner kits so you will be able to keep it about 2 weeks before passing it on. You are welcome to use your own camera and computer. There is an excellent tutorial for Pinnacle Studio on the laptop. When you get the laptop, click on the Studio program icon to start the program. Then click on Help and then Guided Tour after you open the program. The Guided Tour will walk you through the process. I selected this program because it is highly rated, rather inexpensive and easy to learn. There are more robust programs out there, but they are much harder to learn. Or you are free to use any other video editing program that you have access to. |