This is me, trying my best to deliver the opening speech.Afif, Asrul Nizam and myself during the presentation. AS Farah and Aishah Ismail can’t make it due to unfortunate circumstances.
And here’s our final video (the subtitle is available) :
Throughout this course, and the program, I’ve learned a lot. I learn on how to work in group, appropriately, and what should I do when I’ve been appointed as a leader. (Apart from the Program Director, I’m also the Director of our video. Honestly, there are still many things that I should improve on myself, and about how I shouldn’t hog all the tasks since I’m also a human – with limited capabilities.
The program was a success, and I’m sure everyone, including my classmates and lecturers felt the same way. This course has been a fun ride, and I’m willing to ride it over and over again.
With one week until the Edutechnovation Day, as the director, I had to ensure that everyone is okay with their tasks. Last week, before the class ended, I conducted a meeting with the class. I put them into groups and asked AS Farah as the secretary to create an organization chart. Everyone is assigned with tasks in their Edutech group, because the event is going to be a big one, I really hope that I can get everyone to work together.
The video is now complete, the only thing left is to do the subtitling. I left the poster-making task to Afif and Asrul Nizam.I prefer the video’s subtitle to be in separate .srt format, rather to make in embedded in the video, because it’s easier to edit it, and I don’t have to render the video all over again if there’s error in the subtitle.
My software of choice is Subtitle Edit, found here. It’s a freeware, and easy to use.
Oh, there are many kinds of software available in the market, or in the Internet- in the form of freeware and shareware.Freeware means it’s completely free, and shareware means it’s free as a trial, and you’ll have to pay to unlock the full version permanently. Just thinking that I should mention this.
At this point, our video’s shooting process has been 50% completed. AS Farah had compiled and edited the earlier footage to be shown to the class and lecturers today. For me, today has been disappointing for us. The lecturers aren’t satisfied with our work, since the language used is not up to standard. We chose to shoot several parts in informal Malay, and put English subtitles to it, but Dr Rosseni said that it’s better if we shoot everything in English, since we’re TESL students. On the technical sides, we’re good since we incorporated various camera angles.
After class, all of my groupmates decided to reshoot several parts in order to make the video better, and we can deliver the message in the video without difficulties.Oh ya, today, I’m chosen to be lead the class’ Edutechnovation Day, in two weeks from now. During the event, we will show our finalized video, and poster.
Back to the video, I have no trouble editing the video with my favourite application, Corel VideoStudio. The only pain is when I have to wait for the video to render in full HD. It could take some time, but the waiting time is lesser when I updated the app to the latest edition. Note here, always update your PC and applications to the newest version to take advantages of the newer technology. For me, newer is always better, at least for this case.
Today, Dr Khalid showed us Faculty of Education’s corporate video. He said that the video is prepared by him and his team of lecturer. It must be a painstakingly hard process, to gather all the information and edit it to be watchable in video format. After that, we discussed about the weaknesses of the video. For me, the video is okay, in terms of contents, but the pace is a bit too fast and the music is repetitive. But as corporate video is meant to be professional, it’s okay.
After that he showed us his photos while he is in the United States. All the photos has different angles and situation. This is to prepare us for the upcoming photography trip.
For the presentation this week, we showed our raw video (of our first scene) with 3 different angles
For the last week (9th week), I’m not feeling well, due to lack of sleep. I accidentally skipped the Friday class, so in order to learn more about photography (which is vital for our trip), I read my friends’ blogs.
Today is the day when we’re supposed to present our second, improved draft of the storyboard. We went through with the storyboard by scenes.
(the attached video might need to be viewed with your earphones on)
As usual, we waited for the feedbacks. Dr Rosseni thinks that it’s a good idea, but we should brush up on the second scene, the “doomsday” scene, saying that we shouldn’t overdoing it and defying the true signs of the Doomsday itself.
I think this session is great, because we get to know the required do’s and don’ts before we seriously start our video shooting.
It’s the time to get into the fun mode, when today, Dr Khalid further exposed the class with video editing, as a way to prepare us for our main project. He shows us a lyric video, the famous Scorpions’ song titled Wind Of Change. I must say, he got various tricks to make us students glued to the lessons. After that, told us about differences between video and film, which is easy to understand.
Basically, film is an analogue form of a video. And talking about “video edit”, it is an act of cutting or splitting the video, or enhancing it by adding effects to make it more presentable and meaningful. He instructed us to do a simple clip, by our own, using footages from the Internet, and edited using Windows Movie Maker.
As I got some video editing experiences, honestly, I don’t really prefer the user interface of Windows Movie Maker. The absence of timeline editing is really confusing, but it’s only me. Maybe other casual video editors will find the software easy to use. My personal preference is Corel VideoStudio. I used to use more advanced softwares such as Sony Vegas and Adobe After Effects, but lack of training made me resorted to basic softwares.
After all the theories, we were assigned to an individual task : to create any form of video using the footages downloaded from the Internet, combined with audio clips and editing to make it more presentable. I chose to create a short clip on cats, with the famous Nyan Cats Song as the background music (BGM)
To download clips from YouTube, I use a website called keepvid.com. The website enables us to choose from low and highest resolution possible for the video, and we can also save the clip in the form of audio files (.mp3). So it’s easier for me to get both my needed video and audio clips.
Ah, there are no class for this week, but today should be the day when we decided to work on our storyboard via the virtual classroom. But, because most of my group mates will be gone to their hometown for holiday today, we decided to do the discussion earlier, face to face, and improve it via online discussion later.
We scrapped our first idea (foodie trip) due to many difficulties surrounding it, hindering us from shooting a good video. We made our scope much smaller, but relatable to our daily lives. Then, I got an idea. As for this class, we’re dealing with technology, why not do a video that revolves around the abuse of technology?
Okay, we got our needed scope. Time to find another, to complete it. Then, we got it too. Internet. Internet is an important element in today’s life – a part and parcel, I might say. So, we merged the idea, abuse of technology and Internet. The main issue revolves on the people whom shares messages and information without proper validation in the Internet.
Week 6 into the semester. All the lectures had been constantly reminding us about one of our final assignments, the creation of our video.So, this week, Dr Khalid gave a lecture on Multimedia. He kick-start the lecture by showing us two videos, both are in different context. One is a fast-paced travelogue video, with upbeat background music (BGM) to highlight the cheerful and energetic mood of the video, while the other one is the video that Dr Khalid shot by himself, with a slower music and transition.
The implied message is that, apart from the technique (camera angle, shots, equipments), before the shooting process, we must identify our targeted audience for the video, so we could create an effective and suitable video. It would be quite weird if a somber video is edited with a Megadeth music as the BGM, no?
Back to the class, for this week, Dr. Khalid instructed us to do some sound editing using softwares such as Audacity. I’m very excited, as this brings me back to my Foundation days, when I spent days editing my radio drama using this freeware. As the time provided to us to complete our audio was very limited, I decided to do what I do best : a short audio clip of Imperial soldiers (from Star Wars) invading a peaceful city.
I’ve been thinking of a way to share my audio clip, thus I decided to upload it on SoundCloud. SoundCloud is a platform used by DJ, or indie artist to post their tracks, conceived in their bedroom for others to listen and give comment. It’s like Instagram for music.
So far, I really enjoyed this class. I had plenty of activities to keep myself busy here.
For this week, Dr Fariza gave us lecture about instructional/traditional media in classroom. As usual, there will be presentations done by all groups. Our group received the task to elaborate about usage of photos as a medium of teaching in class.
For me, usage of photos in class had been widely practiced by teachers, just like usage of mahjong papers. But, remember, “a picture speaks a thousand words”. It will be more effective to use photos as a stimulus in class, as an old-fashioned way. Some people would say, in a 21st century classroom, it will be more easier to use LCD projection instead of printed out photos or mahjong paper. As a realist, I would like to prepare for the worst, because maybe the class won’t have electricity at that time, or I will teach in a class without proper equipments. Furthermore, by working with hands-on materials, students’ creativity will increase, and the engagement level will increase.
Despite all that, I still respect the usage of new media in teaching. In fact, this blog won’t be possible without new wave of technology – the Internet. But, I believe a teacher should be flexible, and can make do with anything available for him/her to teach. Again, for me, using photos in class is timeless, just like old mahjong papers or photo slides.
So far, this week’s class had been the most informative and intense. First, we were reminded about our class photography trip. Dr.Rosseni told us that Dr Khalid had booked a bus, and we will need to decide a place for our outing. I had Penang in mind, but my other classmates seems indecisive. Never mind, this one could wait. Why Penang? For me, Penang is a unique place to be, a melting pot of culture. And I believe that there will be many interesting things waiting to be captured by our lens, there.
After a brief lecture about instructional design, we were instructed to construct our storyboard for our video trip. My group and I decided on a video about a foodie trip to Melaka.
The premise revolves around multiculturalism and food. We aimed to find best hawker foods in Melaka, but the problem/challenge is where to find halal version of them? Afif, my groupmate will act as the
Yes, suddenly one of our group members had a box of crayons. Feel like a little kid, all over again.
And here’s the video of our very first pitching.
At first, everything seems okay. But after the presentation, it seems like we need to alter our storyboard more because we found some problems.First, the proposed story doesn’t have a specific climax, which will affect the flow of the story, thus the plot feels flat.Next, due to time constraints, we suddenly realised that we can’t make it to Melaka to shoot the video. We need to adjust the storyboard to make the video shooting process easier, and more impactful
For this week, I’d learnt that making a good video is not as easy as picking up a video camera and hit the “REC” button. Behind the scene, before the camera starts rolling, good and thorough preparation is needed. After all, how can we deliver the message of our video if the overall end result is not satisfying?
#syahmi 