I'd like to know if there are any forums or sites I can use to discuss a first attempt at shotting a corporate video. If this is as good a site as any, and since many of the posters seem to be knowledgeable pros, I'll give it a shot. But feel free to refer me to another site if it's more appropriate.
I've been shooting video for about six months as a hobby. Since getting Vegas, I'm excited about how easy it has made my editing. I'd like to take on a bigger project than just home movies of the kids. I have an opportunity at work to make a ~three-minute video which can be used for: 1) encouraging people outside our department to work for us, and 2) demonstrate our talent, enthusiasm, and skills, thus making us seem like a safe investment and make it easier to get funding.
The content will be about 15 engineers describing various successful and interesting projects. The finished product will be available only within our corporate intranet, not really for public consumption. The audience will be design engineers and managers with large budgets. My motivation is to get paid for using Vegas, and also to make it good enough where other managers outside my department will want the same thing for their groups, so that I can spend more time doing Vegas and less time doing PowerPoint, Excel, budgets, schedules, etc. Wouldn't that be great. Anyhow.....
Given the audience, I have two main questions:
1) I've seen videos where people address the camera directly, and others where people look to the side, as if talking to an interviewer. Which should I use? Or alternately, what is conveyed in these two points of view? We're selling our skills and interests, not really selling a product, so I don't know if direct address is appropriate. There won't be any questions/interviewing, just people saying something directly.
2) I have a lot of stills to show, while people are talking (i.e., someone is saying "We designed the xyz widget in record time, blah, blah..." while showing a dozen views of the widget, cutting back and forth between the narrator and the widget). I've used the pan/crop feature quite a bit, to keep the slides in motion. I've also tended to make the motion go in the same direction each time, otherwise it makes me seasick to see 10 slides all being panned in different directions. However, ten stills panned left-to-right is also a bit repetitive. 10 static slides is also pretty dull. Any ideas on how to make a series of stills interesting? I'm thinking a single partially-transparent photo overlayed on top of a series of photos (montage?) may be a trick to use once or twice.
Also, a link to a good corporate video would be great for ideas. Thanks in advance for the consideration.
I've been shooting video for about six months as a hobby. Since getting Vegas, I'm excited about how easy it has made my editing. I'd like to take on a bigger project than just home movies of the kids. I have an opportunity at work to make a ~three-minute video which can be used for: 1) encouraging people outside our department to work for us, and 2) demonstrate our talent, enthusiasm, and skills, thus making us seem like a safe investment and make it easier to get funding.
The content will be about 15 engineers describing various successful and interesting projects. The finished product will be available only within our corporate intranet, not really for public consumption. The audience will be design engineers and managers with large budgets. My motivation is to get paid for using Vegas, and also to make it good enough where other managers outside my department will want the same thing for their groups, so that I can spend more time doing Vegas and less time doing PowerPoint, Excel, budgets, schedules, etc. Wouldn't that be great. Anyhow.....
Given the audience, I have two main questions:
1) I've seen videos where people address the camera directly, and others where people look to the side, as if talking to an interviewer. Which should I use? Or alternately, what is conveyed in these two points of view? We're selling our skills and interests, not really selling a product, so I don't know if direct address is appropriate. There won't be any questions/interviewing, just people saying something directly.
2) I have a lot of stills to show, while people are talking (i.e., someone is saying "We designed the xyz widget in record time, blah, blah..." while showing a dozen views of the widget, cutting back and forth between the narrator and the widget). I've used the pan/crop feature quite a bit, to keep the slides in motion. I've also tended to make the motion go in the same direction each time, otherwise it makes me seasick to see 10 slides all being panned in different directions. However, ten stills panned left-to-right is also a bit repetitive. 10 static slides is also pretty dull. Any ideas on how to make a series of stills interesting? I'm thinking a single partially-transparent photo overlayed on top of a series of photos (montage?) may be a trick to use once or twice.
Also, a link to a good corporate video would be great for ideas. Thanks in advance for the consideration.