For the past 2 months, I've been producing and directing an incredibly exciting fund-raising campaign film for the Courtauld Institute of Art. 

The Institute is pre-eminent in art history and many of it's alumni go on to hold some of the most distinguished posts as Art Historians, Curators, and Museum Directors at institutions across the world.

The Institute relies on a third of it's annual income from the generous donations of art lovers and philanthropists worldwide.  As you can imagine, a post graduate degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art doesn't come cheap, especially when you consider that to become a fully trained conservator for example takes around 7 years to complete! But without courses like these, our cultural heritage is going to suffer enormously, because many of these students that come directly from the Courtauld Institute of Art go on to work on and restore the wonderful paintings collections within the National Trust and English Heritage.

Without any kind of financial backing, it's be difficult for a young student to fund a course in art history at the Courtauld, particularly those taking MA's or post doctorate research.  While the money raised by this campaign film will of course be used to pay for the ongoing annual costs that keep the doors of the Institute open, it will also fund scholarships that will directly benefit a young student, who would otherwise may have not had the financial means to develop him/ herself in this way.

To find out more about the campaign and donate, please click here.

 

Since I am currently in the throws of putting the finishing touches to edit, I’m afraid I can't provide a link to the film as yet. But … my very next blog will provide a link and will look at how the final version of the film has been received by our very prestigious client.  What I can confidently say right now is that the film will really have the wow factor – it's not everyday that you get to film a Van Gogh in very close up detail!

 

Video production techniques are constantly evolving and I'm positive that a majority of Final Cut Pro editors haven't even picked up the selection of manuals shipped with the software. And even if they have, there's a big difference between being able to operate a piece of editing software, and being a good editor. As such, I've come up with a few video production tips that I hope will aid your filmmaking, and be useful across every type of project that you're editing.

Digital Cinema Preview

Especially when you don't have a second (or third) display for playback, this is a really useful feature for watching back videos in full screen. First make sure to go to VIEW, then EXTERNAL FRAMES and click on ALL FRAMES. You might find that this is ticked already, but worth checking anyway as it's key to making this work.

Following this, whilst still in the VIEW drop-down menu, click on VIDEO PLAYBACK and select DIGITAL CINEMA DESKTOP PREVIEW – MAIN. Your canvas will then fill the entire space of the monitor, allowing you to watch your work back in all its glory. This is also a great thing to do before delivery/completing any piece of work, because it's very easy to miss things in the canvas that become apparent once you blow it up to full screen.

Using Dissolves and Transitions Effectively

Just because you have a large amount of transitions to throw into the mix, doesn't mean you should. The best editors allow the transitions to seamlessly move the edit along without distraction, and at the points where you do see one, it's been put there for a good reason.

Noise Industries (FX Factory) do a great mix of funky transitions and effects in their plugins, but you would really only want to use these sparingly and with purpose. The last thing you want to do is pull the audience out of the experience by 'twirl' wiping the screen, or by throwing in paint splashes that do nothing but distract.

There's a good reason that simple dissolves are still so popular (and my most used transition), especially when it comes to showing a movement of time/setting in my edited piece. Whether it's a film, a corporate video or a music video, as an editor it's important to always be thinking about the purpose and target audience of the film, and reflect that in your work; in most cases, less is more!

Camera Moves & Static Shots

A really simple trick this... It's similar to the Ken Burns effect, and will help to add steady movement to a shot, that can be impossible for a cameraman to get without the right equipment.

To dolly forward/push/zoom a shot, firstly load your clip up into the VIEWER; a good example to test with might be a wide shot of a building or a room. In the MOTION tab, under BASIC MOTION, add a keyframe (by clicking on the diamond) next to SCALE. Then within the window, move to the end of the same clip and add another keyframe. Set the scale (which by default is at 100 to most clips) to 105 or 110 (depending on the length of the clip).

If done right, your shot will slowly move forwards. You can also reverse this by putting in the numbers the opposite way around, so that the shot 'pulls back' instead. A useful little trick for any form of video production, I'm sure you'll agree!

Make a Freeze Frame Still Image, and Export (optional)

In Post-Production, chances are you'll be asked to pull still images out either to use in your edit, or to export for a client. It's really quite simple, and there's a couple of ways to do it.

The first way is through Final Cut Pro of course, and this is particularly great if you want to freeze frame a shot. The first thing to do is position your playhead at the frame you would like to turn into a still; this can be done in any of the Viewer, Canvas, or Timeline. Then go to MODIFY, and then select MAKE FREEZE FRAME.

Your freeze frame will show up in the viewer window with a default duration of 10 seconds (unless you've set it otherwise). You can adjust the in and out point here, to the duration you want. For speed I typically drag the clip straight into my TIMELINE and trim from there.

With the same clip selected, you can also choose EXPORT, then USING QUICKTIME CONVERSION, and choose STILL IMAGE from the Format drop-down. This will save a still image to your computer as a JPEG for example) to use outside of FCP.

The second way, is more for those who want a still that they can use outside of the edit specifically. So for example when your client wants a few stills from their finished video. In that case I recommend purchasing DV Kitchen, which amongst other things  has a Timefreezer option where you can save a high quality still image to your hard drive, at your desired frame size. There's also a quality slider, which you can alter as per your ouput requirements.

Batch Export

A final handy tip, when you have lots of sequences/videos to export, and don't want to have to do it individually.

Highlight all the clips/sequences you need to export in your BROWSER, then right click (or CTRL+click) and choose BATCH EXPORT. Your videos will load into another window, at which point you'll want to select SETTINGS (at the foot of the window) and set the format, codec, aspect ratio as required. Once done, click EXPORT and you're away.

Worth noting that if you are exporting sequences marked with in and out points, you'll need to tick that option in the Batch Export settings.

 I hope that you've found these Final Cut Pro tips useful.

A couple of weeks ago Jedward were here at Spectrecom's Waterloo Film Studios filming their own music video (a cover of Blink 182's "All The Small Things"), plus a behind-the-scenes / making-of documentary.

If you're a Jedward fan, you can catch the first episode of "Jedward: Let Loose" tonight at 9pm on ITV2, a fly-on-the wall reality show which follows the brothers as they leave home for the first time. 

Here's the original video, filmed in Studio (1). Please click here for further information about our film studios or call direct on 0203 405 2260.

 

 

 

How Online Video Marketing Can Improve Your Business.

Last month Christiaan and I attended Chris Cardell's excellent 3 day Entrepreneur Summit to gain some insight into the latest business growth and marketing techniques. We're currently trading at 48% year on year increase in turnover – so we already know a bit about business growth. But although marketing has always contributed to our success, there's always more that could be done. You'll notice on this website that we're using video to promote ourselves and to humanise the site, and indeed over 45% of our video clicks belong to our home page player and the 'Meet the Team' page. Our new clients tell us that these videos are one of the reasons they chose to run with Spectrecom, so we know the videos work.

Now, I've been banging on about the benefits of online video since we started in business back in 2005, but as I sat and listened to Chris Cardell (and other speakers) promote the use of video as a major marketing tool, I thought how refreshing it was to hear how the far the concept has entered the mainstream. As it happened, it was Chris Cardell's own videos that persuaded us that we needed to attend the summit in the first place!

So what, from the speakers' point of view (they included Sir Bob Geldof, Gerald Ratner and Karren Brady) makes video an essential marketing tool? Well, I can't reproduce the summit here for you, but here are a few thoughts:

• It's now very cheap to produce and easy to put online
• Technology has evolved sufficiently to offer a great viewing experience
• It can be distributed across multiple video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, as well as an increasing number of trade directories that will to bring new visitors to your site
• It allows you to communicate personally with a much wider audience than you could ever hope to achieve with networking and face-to-face meetings
• It's available to view online, 24/7
• Compared to traditional advertising, it's effectiveness can be easily measured
• It's great for SEO
• It humanises your website

I could add to this list, but that's for another time. However, you'll see us increasingly use video on this site to promote what we do in a variety of different ways, and we'll be testing and measuring the success of each of those videos. To start with, I'm going to be presenting a series of video workshops to look at the effectiveness of online video for different types of organisation and I'll be starting with student recruitment for higher education. This will go online in September and I'll be pleased to share our results with new and existing clients. If you want to view any of these new video workshops, or if you have any suggestions for specific subject areas you want me to cover, please e-mail info@spectrecom.co.uk with the subject headline "video workshops".

Goldsmiths in south-east London is a globally-renowned arts institution, revered for its unconventionality, its high academic standards of teaching and for producing alumni who have changed the face of British art and design, such as Anthony Gormley and Damien Hirst.

Spectrecom recently delivered this student recruitment video to promote their prestigious Department of Art, which specialises in making, curating and writing about contemporary art and brings together students and researchers from all over the world.

Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, Spectrecom is the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.

To discuss your student recruitment video(s) or get a quotation, please feel free to contact me at christiaan@spectrecom.co.uk or call on 0203 405 2260.