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Video/Media Project

Understand your assignment.

Read your assignment and ask your instructor if you have questions on what is required.

Note: Video and media project assignments can be very different depending on your class, instructor and assignment goals. Make sure you are clear on what your instructor expects from you and expects you to learn. The steps given here may differ for your assignment.

Determine what equipment or software you may need.

Find out what equipment and resources are available. Make equipment reservations. (SMART Learning Commons)
Is it a group project? If yes, meet with your group members and set up regular meeting times.
View some examples of video projects for inspiration.

Brainstorm ideas. Do some background reading and research.

Brainstorm topics. Do preliminary research.

Not sure where to start? Try the "articles and databases" tab
Take good notes and keep careful records of your sources to cite later.
Ask Us! Chat, email, phone or in-person help from librarians.

Begin to create a storyboard.

A storyboard is a visual plan of what the video will be, scene by scene, drawn on paper or a whiteboard.

Learn more: Multimedia Storyboarding

Plan your production elements.

Production elements include all of the techniques used to create a video such as:

Title sequences: names and credits
Video techniques: close-ups, long shots, fades, dissolves, framing and special effects
Audio techniques: dialogue, music, voice-over narration and sound effects

Scout any locations where you might need to shoot. Take photographs to plan your shots. Get written permission to shoot at your chosen locations, if needed.

Do additional research. Begin writing content and gather music, images or media.

Begin writing any scripts, narration, inteview questions or other content.
Find additional books, articles or primary source material.

Evaluate sources to find high quality, reputable material.
Take good notes and keep careful records of your sources to cite later.
Ask Us! Chat, email, phone or in-person help from librarians.

If needed, gather public domain music, images or video to use in your project. Be sure to double check each item's copyright status. Look for open source, public domain or Creative Commons licensed materials.

Finalize content and scripts. Make sure you have everything you need for production (shooting).

Revise scripts or any narration (take advantage of the Center for Writing). Revise storyboard.
Choose talent. Rehearse any scripts of action scenes.

Get costumes or props if needed.

Check equipment. Does it work? Charge batteries. Purchase video tapes fo rthe format you'll be using if needed.

Use video log sheets (PDF) to plan out and keep track of shots.

Begin production (shooting) based on storyboard.

All your shots should be planned in your storyboard.

Include camera work, lightning, and sound recording
Make sure you keep a careful log (PDF) of your shots to make editing easier.

Learn more about production techniques: Video Production 101.

Post-production phase one: rough cut.

The rough cut is where you first put together your video following your storyboard. Begin to combine shots, add narration, music, sound effects, images and visual effects.

Use your video log (PDF) from shooting to help with editing.
Learn more: Basics of Video Editing.

The SMART Learning Commons have software and experts to help you produce your video.
It is considered a best practice to include credits and cite any sources you included such as images, music, other video, etc. You can cite throughout or at the end of the project. Try VideoAnt to add text annotations.
MediaMill may be useful to archive and distribute video and audio content.

Initial Screening.

Do a screening of your video to one or more people who are not involved with the project.

Do not explain anything about your film before you show it. The film should explain itself.
Gather feedback. Does it fulfill the objectives of the assignment? If you have the grading scheme, ask about those specific points.

Do any necessary reshooting.

You may want to do some reshooting based on feedback you get at your screening.
Follow the same guidelines while shooting.

Post-production phase two: final edit.

Complete you find edits.
Gather and edit any supporting documents you may need to turn in such as story boards, scripts, sources or other documentation.
Do a test run of the final video with some time left for fixing problems.
Burn DVD or post video based on assignment requirements and turn in any supporting materials. MediaMill may be useful to archive and distribute video and audio content.