Friday 17 June 2011

How I created the Hydrographic Academy promotional video


This is an HA promotional video I have been working on, but before I discuss the details, I have to thank the following people who helped make this video happen:

Cdr Andy Swain and his team (Royal Navy) for providing the Pat Barton training vessel; Dr Richard Thain; Dr Victor Abbott (and students) and Gwyn Jones (and students) for providing the University's own training vessel the Falcon Spirit; Dave Hurrell (Film and Broadcasting Manager, Plymouth University) who provided some of the video content for this promotion (thumbnail videos); and Becki Vickerstaff (fellow Learning Technologist).

Ok so how did I achieve this?
With a lot of head scratching, but also backed up with some software and hardware. I predominately used Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 for the main editing of the footage and After Effects CS5.5 for titling and special effects. The main footage was taken on a Canon 550D DSLR, with a Canon 17-85mm IS USM lens, shot at 24 frames/second. Stills were also intermingled in places using content from the same camera. The thumbnail videos were sections of Dave Hurrell's footage shot on a Sony HDR FX1 camera.

The story board created for this production was a brief show and tell of what the Hydrographic Academy has to offer (as shown in the video). It includes lens flare effect titling graphics with blue colouration from the HA's main logo. The music is called 'White water rapids' which is copyright free from the Plymouth University's own UpMedia staff and student area (only) resource. I wanted to give emphasis to the sea and water, hence the different shots of boats and frothing white water. Equally I wanted to hint at the sort of equipment being used in the training, this was achieved by a few intermingled shots of electronic measuring equipment and more traditional hand held devices. Finally, so as not to make it feel like it was an academy with no soul there are little insights of the people involved in the project, who are working hard behind the scenes.

We hope you enjoyed the video!

No comments:

Post a Comment