Training: Digital Video Production for the Web

Our Digital VWEB4ideo Production for the Web course is aimed at NGOs, SMEs, charities, social enterprises and small businesses who want to produce their own online video content. There is an ever-increasing demand for high quality online video to get your message across and to reach audiences.

DIY film making and successful use of no/low budget techniques can slash your production costs and actually improve the content you produce. Training existing staff or volunteers in the techniques of high quality digital film making is far more cost effective than hiring a film crew. But in addition to this, when people working on the ground record their own activities and events, capture client testimonials and document their work you can often get better results than with a hired film crew of strangers. Where your staff have built relationships and trust with your clients they can film more relaxed and interpersonal moments – moments that might elude an external film crew, making for a more direct and powerful film.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

This practical hands-on course aims to give you the “future proof” information you really need to know to produce high quality videos by concentrating on the techniques and skills that stay constant, regardless of passing developments in software, technologies and formats.

The training is not technology specific but gives you the knowledge and attitude to get the best out of whatever equipment is to hand, to navigate your way around the complexity of codecs and formats, to identify and solve technical problems, techniques and methods, to speedily pass on knowledge and expertise to other members of your organisation and client base.

ABOUT THE TUTOR

Mark Saunders is an award-winning independent film-maker, media activist and writer. His expertise in the field spans over two decades.

He is currently running Spectacle Productions, a company which he founded in 1990. Clients have included Amnesty International, Channel 4, the Rowntree Foundation, the Howard League for Penal Reform, Council of Europe, Groundwork, the London Health Commission, and many others.

His films have been broadcast internationally and exhibited at galleries, including Tate Britain, the National Film Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Musee des Beaux-Arts,  the National Media Museum and the Photographers Gallery.

Alongside production work, in 1990 he was a founding member of INURA (International Network for Urban Research and Action). Mark has also been teaching for over 15 years, and has been a visiting lecturer at a number of institutions, including London School of Economics, the Royal College of Art, the London College of Communications, Bournemouth, Florence, and Coventry Universities. He is currently teaching at Birkbeck College.

DATES AND COSTS

Our London based Digital Video Production for the Web training course is suitable for beginners and up. At just £600 per person it is excellent value and we offer a 20% discount to groups of more than four booking together. If you are a group we can bring our training to your premises and tailor it to your needs.  We have a course scheduled for next week, and another set to run in December (3rd-5th). We will arrange more courses for individuals if there is demand so please enquire if you are interested. If you are a group of more than four, please contact us and we can run a course especially for you.

For more information on prices, booking and course content, please see the training page on our website.  

If you are interested in booking this course visit the How to Book page.

For information on other Spectacle training courses

Or contact training@spectacle.co.uk

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The show is about to begin…

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The day before the shoot. The atmosphere is filled with nerves. We have the last meeting to decide the final details for the shoot.

In the meeting we decide the role each person will fulfill during the shoot. We try to organize every detail for the next day and to have a clear schedule. In the morning, first thing is to meet Karim, the owner of the location. At the same time, the technical equipment should arrive and the technicians start setting up. There will also be a meeting with the director, the DoP, CGI specialists and the first AD while the second AD is getting the frosted glass ready.

At 11.30 everything should be ready to start shooting.

During the meeting, the storyboard and the shooting plan are on the floor. We can see every shot, the technical crew and actors needed in each of them as well as the props needed.

We decide which actors will participate in each shot, their role, which directions they are going to take, how many of them there are in each shot.

We check the list of things we need to take to the shoot. All the props we have been collecting like hats, coats, handbags…and even a crutch…

We have the contracts, the make up, the menu, video camara to shoot ‘the making off‘ and the camera to take pictures during the shooting.

Everything seems to be ready.  We send an email to all the cast and the technical crew with the call sheet and all the information needed: address, contacts, map, time…and we wish everybody good luck.

We phone all the actors to make sure they are coming the following day and that they received all the information.

And…even if we are still nervous, we leave the office feeling that everything is under control. Next day we will meet at 7 am at Lavender Hill to start with the real action. The show is about to begin…

If you want to get more information about the project “Speak out against discrimination”, click here.

For more information about Spectacle, click here.



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Looking for studio for 13 people. Click here to reply to this ad

Para leer este blog en español pincha aquí.

When you are working on an audiovisual project there are a lot of overlapping issues, interdependent decisions to take, and this makes things difficult. While we are looking for actors, we are also looking for a studio to shoot the video. This is not easy. We have to remember we will need a green background, for the chroma keys, or an infinity cove, to get that white non-discernable atmosphere. We must also decide how many days we will need, where the studios are, which further services they offer, any possible discounts we may get…

Let’s take it step by step and just grab the telephone- a producer’s best friend. We have to be down-to-earth: our English can be a handicap, and our lack of experience doesn’t help. The best thing to do is to know what information we need to get:

  • Hiring price
  • Dimensions
  • Is it possible to paint it green? How much will they charge for this?
  • Is it available in the shooting days?
  • How many days in advance do we need to book it? Do we have to pay a deposit?
  • Discounts

Eventually we have a list of studios scattered all over the city. As we have a very tight budget we have to focus on to the most affordables ones. Once again we are working with words, suggestions, ideas… everything is too abstract. We need to go and see the studio and decide if it fits our requirements (if we really know which our requirements are!).

Oyster Card is popped in the pocket and we set off to Norh London. There we meet the CGI specialist. Coffees, decisions progressing, decisions going back, redesign of some shots… “We should shoot this with a chroma key. No, this one is better with a white background”. Scribbles, deletions, drafts… This video is constantly changing and sometimes it is one step forward and fifty steps back.

It is midday and we head off to the first studio hoping to find the answer to all our questions.

Its too small! Sometimes it seems that we will never shoot this project and all that we are doing is wasting our time, but we cannot get demoralized.

Hopeful, we go to another nearby studio We haven’t made an appointment, but the studio are professional and friendly and answer our questions.

Things pick up, it seems that we have a place to shoot our video. On our way home we write down which shots will need chroma key and which won’t, so we can make the shooting schedule and give them a time and date. We must take the right decisions in order to optimize time and money. We don’t want 13 actors strolling in the studio for 2 days when most of them can do their role in one single morning.

So, what else do we need? Yeah, right, the glass of course…

If you want to get more information about the project “Speak out against discrimination”, click here.

For more information about Spectacle, click here.