Video as a project

Having video as a project can be an exciting introduction to video production for the students who are new to video editing, but it can also be a great challenge for the more experienced students. The many roles you will find in an advanced video production gives students the possibility to excel whether their talent is behind or in front of the camera. Give the class a few topics to explore, and then bring it up for a final vote: what should be the topic of the video?

Examples could be interpretation of a historical event, a documentary about a news story, a promotional video of the school or a music video. Depending on how advanced you want it to be, the options are endless! The difference between having a video as an entire project and incorporating video into another assignment is the focus being on creating the video and not just as a tool to deliver a message. When video production is the project, learning about the different roles needed in video production is just as important as the actors performing the message. We all know that the Iron Man movies take more than just Robert Downey Jr. and that the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park arent real. Time to explore the different roles that go into a movie production and who knows, maybe you have the next Steven Spielberg in your class!

Director

The director should be you, the teacher of the class. The main role of the director is to approve the project and guide the rest of the team throughout the process. The director will make sure everyone understands their role in the project and assist the students when issues or problems arise.

Researchers

The main responsibilities for researchers is to find information and make sure the information is correct. Researchers may have to conduct interviews, run surveys or find information needed to create the right environment for the different scenes in the video. Make sure that the students find reliable sources and that they make sure to take note of where they find their information. Does the average American wear the same clothes now compared to the 50s?

Writers

Writers should work closely with the researchers and the storyboard artists. With help from the researchers, the writers create the story, set the atmosphere and write dialogues between the different characters. With approval from the director, the writers have the power to decide what will happen and how it will happen.

Producer(s)

The producer schedules the projects, sets deadlines and make sure everyone stays on time. Communicating with the other students will be a very important task for the producer and he/she will report issues and feedback to the director. The producer should, along with the director, have weekly meetings with the whole crew to keep the students updated on the overall progress and let them know what will be the next steps in the project.

Storyboard artist(s)

The storyboard artists will sketch out every scene of the story, which will be especially useful for the camera crew, light, special effects and sound. This role is especially important before the filming takes place, but as new ideas arise throughout the project, the storyboard artists might have to go back to the sketching board later in the project.

Camera

A very important aspect of recording video is the person behind the camera and what they do. Let the students experiment with different angles, using a tripod, panning shots, shots that follow the subject of the video, and more. Here are three tips to record better video:

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Designers and special effects

Based on important information from the researchers, costumes and props have to be made to set the right atmosphere. Was it a dark and foggy day? Let the students be creative and find the right resources needed to create that foggy feeling or create a foggy background using arts and crafts. Creating the visuals is a fun, creative and very important task which allows your students to show off their talents in many different branches. WeVideo makes it easy for the students to play around with a green screen, which opens the door for many possibilities.

Actors and extras

Your students are probably familiar with this role and theres a big chance this will be the most popular role in the project. Actors can combine their role with another position in the project, such as research information for the project or design costumes, besides being one of the main characters in the actual movie production.

Light & sound

Lighting and audio are a big part of what makes a video come to life and sets the mood. The difference between a well-lit room and a single spotlight can really affect the tone of a video, so ask your students to try filming in different locations with varying amounts of light to get a good feel for what looks best. Even the most mundane things can make interesting sounds if you knock on them in the right way; you can encourage them to use an everyday object in a new way to make unique sounds for their video.

Editors

When your students may think the project has come to an end, you get the joy of informing them that this is when the real fun begins: editing the video! WeVideo lets students collaborate on projects, which opens up the possibility to have several creative editors. In addition to a large gallery of sounds, music, transitions and effects, WeVideo also offer a large variety of themes that will automatically add transitions, filter and sometimes even music. If your students dont have much experience with video editing, starting to edit in storyboard mode might be a good idea. When they start getting a hang of it, they can easily move on to the more advanced timeline mode, where they also get to add more tracks and layers, including the use of a green screen. However, we do not recommend switching back to storyboard mode after editing in timeline mode, simply because th

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