Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Today I posted a video some sixth grade students made for a spot on our news program. One of my loyal readers wanted to know how it was done, so this post is an attempt to tell how the video was made. We did not use any really expensive equipment to make that video. The library has a Sony DV Handycam camcorder that was used by the kids to take video. I told them not to worry about the sounds, noises, or talking, as in all likelihood we would remove it and use our own voice over narrations. So I got a locker key from the office, and they got the camera and we went looking for lockers to shoot.

Once we had our footage, we came back to the library, and they set up my Dell laptop. Using a Compaq firewire card we connected the camera to the computer and turned it on. Almost immediately the computer asked if we wanted to capture the footage. I made the girls direct it to my external harddrive (notice the duct tape holding it together–i dropped it about a year ago!! It still works thankfully!) I learned sometime ago that if video was captured to a basic computer it may skip as the computer’s basic memory is not fast enough to handle video. (I had an entire Christmas program from school that skipped like crazy, and lots of disappointed parents.) I also don’t want to fill up my harddrive with a bunch of videos. So I sought out an expert–the video editor from my church, and he recommended an external hard drive that had 200GB of memory and a 7200 spin rate to keep video from skipping. I now have two of these, both four or five years old, which are great, b/c now all pictures and video go there.

Anyway, once we got our film on the computer, we used a very basic editor–the freebie Windows Movie Maker. The girls imported the video, and then we cut out and snipped unnecessary footage. I wanted them to cut more, but they were very protective of the video.

I had them create a cover or opening, and they used PowerPoint that was saved as an image. Pretty basic. Then they wanted to do their audio voice over. WMM allows you to, so they began by planning what to say. Before videoing, they had already written out a plan of what to get–lockers that were not closed right, lockers with things blocking the frames that might cause jams, and messy lockers. They had already selected the messy locker, and they decided to clean it out for the video too. That was cute. The guy who owned the locker kept asking if anyone saw anyone around his locker. They didn’t tell until he saw his locker on the show. They also told me his locker is already messy and full of clothes again.

Anyway, they did their audio narration section by section (as the clips imported were in pieces–every time the camera was stopped and started clips were created, so there were many.) They would mute the existing audio, and record their own.

They ran into a problem when they wanted to add transitions, as the narration would not align, so they only used one transition–a flip or rotate at the point where they cleaned out the locker. If one looks closely, it is in the wrong place, but they were pleased as punch with it.

I told them their video could NOT go more than 3 minutes, so they did not get to put any credits on (other than “the end”). Oh did they fuss. But they did not want to get rid of any footage, and we were at the end of their class, so they decided on just a quick “the end.” We used a CHEAP headset w/ a microphone to record it. They saved it as a movie file (.wmv in moviemaker) and then watched it again. They wanted music, so we looked in freeplaymusic.com for some. I finally had to lay down the law, as they didn’t have time to search– that would have taken a whole day again, and so I convinced them to use something I had already used for another project. So they re-imported their video w/out music in WMM, and added the song twice with a slight overlap at the end of the first time and the beginning of the second. The music was 90 seconds, so two times through was just enough. They saved it as a movie file, and that was the final project, which we played out during the news program the next day. The whole project took two days–one day to shoot and capture, and then one day to edit and finalize. (They are w/ me for 45 minutes each day.)

Our studio has a pc/tv converter, so inserting the wmv into a ppt slide allowed us t0 share it schoolwide.

These girls are already planning their next one, which will center on lost and found stuff. They are in the planning stages of a puppet show type video, where the clothes talk to each other asking where their owners are. Should be cute–IF they can pull it off.

Now that I’ve told you how it was done, I want to say that our studio has a fancy, expensive video editor, but my goal was to let the girls see that one does not have to use fancy expensive equipment to make videos. I think they got it too. They are all jazzed about the lost and found clothes puppet show. I also know that this could have been done using a 2.0 USB wire instead of a firewire, and that using a Mac would have been just as easy (but our school does not use Mac.) Even better, the new flip cameras make it even easier to capture video.

I know I should be sharing how to begin a successful year.  I’ve seen a number of my favorite bloggers writing about the same thing.  But I am taking a slightly different approach.  I am writing today about beginning my new job.  Maybe I should title it fears.  But I’m  not really afraid of it. I just can’t stand to be “new.”  And beginning Monday, I’ll be the “new” girl.

Another issue at hand, beginning at 6:45 in the morning, is my upcoming eye surgery. I am having the newest corrective vision surgery,  where the doctors will replace my lens (in each eye –Thursday and Friday) with a flexible plastic lens, called Rezoom and Restor. I will be having this done in Charlotte, NC at the Christenbury Eye Center.  If all goes well, I will be glasses free beginning Saturday! I have needed reading glasses now for two years, and according to the doctor (Doctor Christenury) I have what is known as Presbyopia, which is the inability to focus on things close up due to age.  I’m only 44 for pete’s sake.  Most patients only get the Restor lens implanted, but because I have an astigmatism in  my left eye (basically translated I have a weird shaped eye) I will need the Rezoom to compensate for some of my distance vision.  Best (or worse, depending on how you look at it) I go back in a month, and if my vision is not what Christenbury wants it to be, he will do a touch up Lasik surgery to correct it more.  And that touch up surgery is free.  Now in the office, Dr. Christenbury showed me a warm and fuzzy video to prepare me and get me excited (to get my buy-in.) But what he failed to realize is that I, as an information specialist, know how to use the internet to get information. I have seen numerous videos (that really creep me out!!) and seen the forums and discussion boards of my eye surgery. So I think I’m aware of what can go wrong too. Knowledge is a double-edged sword sometimes.  I know way more I would wager than the average patient.

Okay so what does this all have to do with going back to school?  In my new school, an entire shelf of library books (I am a school library media specialist) has been boxed up because a television studio room was added to the library. A doorway was added there, and I am the “saving grace” for bringing video production to this school.  I’m very excited about that.  BUT those who don’t work in the library don’t always realize the ramifications of moving books, whether it be one bookcase, one shelf, or just a few books.  Because the library books are arranged in Dewey order, when books of any number move, everything in front has to shift too. EVERYTHING.  So when I show up at school Monday, my first task is to assess the ramifications of the section of books boxed up, order shelving to replace the removed ones, and begin the process of reorganizing the library’s layout.  It’s a daunting task. But it is exciting to know that I will be able to “play” around with the set up.  I already know there is a huge weeding project too, as I have looked at the collection analysis, and it may be that I won’t need any new shelving if I tackle the weeding that needs to be done first.  In the meantime I need to get to know the teachers and students and begin to seamlessly integrate the library and information literacy into the curriculum.  And considering all this, due to my eye surgery I cannot do any heavy lifting at all for the first two weeks! I will have to rely on volunteers for the manual labor part of my job to begin with.

I have only been in my new school one time, and I live three hours away. So it’s not like I could have used my entire summer to do anything or even oversee or make recommendations for the changes that took place.  If I had been right there, I would have begun that weeding process right away! That would have helped considerably with the boxing of books, and they probably would have been the ones that won’t go back on the shelf.  If you haven’t already figured it out, I am NOT AFRAID to rid the student’s library (my workspace) of unused, outdated, or old books.

As far as living 3 hours away, I will be relocating to that area living alone in an apartment. I will be home with my family on the weekends. Yes it’s new and different, but I have my entire family’s support in this.  It was not how we planned to live, but it is how things worked out.  My family is very excited about my new job too.  So for now, these are my back-to-school thoughts. Please pray for me in the next few days.

David Jakes has created a great visual guide that can be printed to help novices use Photostory3, but he has gone one step further.  He has also created simple, easy to follow screencasts to view for learners who need visual, audio, and video cues.  I can’t wait to share this with our teachers!

http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm