Finalized Video Advertisement Project Ethan Csont #5
Throughout the last 2 weeks, I have been working on editing an advertisement to promote the various organizations and tools used for students entering into the English department such as the Writing Center, the Red Masquers, and teachers that help those organizations. And while I am not yet done with this experience, I wanted to highlight each step of my process in making this happen.
When I first started filming before Thanksgiving, my goal was to try and give a fall setting to the Duquesne Academic Walk and the McAnulty Building. But instead, in a stroke of good luck, I got footage the day it was snowing hard at Duquesne. So, while I missed out on the fall mood, the snow gave it a more cinematic mood and worked well with the music choices.
The next element was filming both the teachers I wanted to interview (John Lane, Dr. Sarah Wright, Dr. James Purdy, and John Fried). Surprisingly, this was the easiest part of the process since I either had to record a zoom call at home on my computer or set up a camera in one of their offices and have them state their occupation, classes, suggestions to new students, and groups they are associated with.
Next came the editing process. Two highlights I want to include are the choice of music and the more experimental cuts used at the beginning and interspersed with the transition shots. When thinking about Music, I know I did not want to use something generic like classical music or a library of generic pop sounds from Kevin McCloud. On the other hand, I didn’t want something that would not represent the department like heavy metal. So, I went with some of the best editing music that I listened to, Lo-fi music; specifically the artist your best friend Jippy. There was something about the samples from other songs, movies, interviews, and whatever he pulled to make some fresh beats that caught my ears, but was never over the top and more of a passive listen then active. So, with my music chosen, I wanted to use quick cutting in the introduction and in the transitions from interview to interview. These included the quick cuts of the snowy landscape around the building, going up to the 6th floor, and any other shots of the building. My thoughts were that if both the music and environment sync up in time, it could grab anyone that is walking by or watching on their device. Plus, it was fun to challenge myself as an editor in DaVinci Studio 13 to get the exact frame of each transition cut.
While I had done editing before for my video essays, scheduling became one of the greatest skills to master in my time this semester with this project. From scheduling the interviews, to filming, to having deadlines of when to show Emad the footage, it was like the projects I did back in high school again. I have had an incredible time editing this and there is nothing better than to show the work to somebody else who agrees. I am disappointed that this project will soon end, but I want to make it a goal to try and use my DSLR more for my personal videos. Hopefully, that can begin as soon as I enter winter break.
Building Bridges 