Friday saw two big jobs through. One was pulling together a production schedule for all of our media, where, when and how. We managed to simplify some of it, and it's feeling quite do-able, whereas the text is still feeling like a big, big job to fit in. The other task was sketching out a script for our flagship piece, a viral/publicity piece about the course and film-making. It went rather well:
Today was a really good day for two reasons. The first is Rick and I sat down and sorted out Wk 2 of the course, which will be about getting good shots and sound. It needs another pass really, but we typed it all up and it made sense at 5.05pm when we stopped.
It gives us something to use to talk about templates and is not very far from a D0 - a structured outline of a piece of teaching. Even better, we wrote down all the phrases and ideas we wanted to get across. It's such a pleasure writing with Rick, because he gets what I'm talking about and vice-versa and then it's not so difficult to find a really sharp way to put it across.
The other exciting thing is the LTS team have set up the course web site:
The Open University's VLE is based on Moodle, and has really come along since I first knocked up against it in 2006. Then it wasn't so easy to even look at your own course site while it was being constructed.
Now we can use it as an outline - write things straight in as we go along, and get an idea of how they're going to look from the students point of view. I'm really still learning my way into the interface, but here's the outline for week 2:
Here we go. I have started to load up the archive we are going to use, namely Cast and Crew. We have the rights department thumbs up. We have checked out the paperwork know as a PasC (Production as Complete) and the contracts created in the OU/BBC co-production.
Thinking about this as a potential resource? http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xpnz4/Hollywood_The_Sequel/
I am handling the media centrally on Final Cut Server (FCS). I am able to digitise from Digital Betacam or trans-code from the high definition camera sources directly to this server of 28 Tera Bytes. The studio has a 2Gbps link directly in to the FCS. I have a main T156 production in the root of the server and all respective individual projects will be under this header. These projects will be checked in and out as they are worked on by myself or Rick. I am able to edit footage from the studio Mac Pro, or from my office workstation on my MacBook pro. I have a single bound 1Gbps network connection from here. When editing locally off the server i check out the project file only, not the media so my laptop is not tied up with 10's/100's of Giga bytes of footage.
Tomorrow is finalizing the media plan with Rick and starting to script the video clips we are creating. Also some thinking about a Viral.
Next week we start to record and this is a great feeling.
I finally found where this video was online, probably one of the first times the course was mentioned in public. I was interviewed nearly 2 years ago as part of a case study on the OU and the way it deals with rights for moving images. The interview is about 3.30, and moves on from my trial by fire about rights with a film competition, to our thinking about how we'll deal with rights and students submissions for this course.
So the aim is to build in a creative commons culture from the start - introduce cc licences and the implications of different flavours of it for media making. The brief for all the student tasks will be to only use 3rd party media they can licence on a cc basis, and to clear all their own work with consent forms etc.
Apart from being the right thing to do, it provides some potentially exciting resources for the university, like a growing library of stock footage and sound effects from the exercises in the 2nd week, which would be a very good eye-catcher on the web for what we're doing. It would be fantastic if the OU became one of the top 10 sites to look at when you wanted cc resources to use in a low or no budget production.
One of the biggest challenges with writing an OU course on digital video is that course production takes at least a year, and that's a short one. They go through several drafts, out to critical readers, to an editor and back, media gets made and everywhere you can expect deadlines to slip.
This means that we're writing in January-March for a November course and that feels really tight. By then some aspect of the technology: hardware or software will have moved on, and if we were trying to nail down everything that a student should use with the course, that would feel unlucky - time to start thinking about updating the course if the student numbers warrant it, or to cancel it if they don't. By the expected end of the course (May 2016) we've no way of sensibly predicting what technologies will be in vogue, never mind how the software will look or feel.
So the idea is to throw the job of updating the course over to the students. We'll show them how to research all the things they need and provide them with a place to effectively share and compare resources. If we can effectively bring what they find back into the course we're ahead - well maybe we're keeping up. It all hinges on making doing that kind of research and sharing rewarding enough to be sustained through 10 weeks of study.
One of the things that the whole Web 2.0 fad obscures is that it's easy to do this badly. Looking at Facebook (and seeing as we're here) Blogger, we see things that work. But there must be a long tail of lame almosts that never got the development time or failed to be base on how people work in the first place. There's a lot of description or normative stuff written about it all, but I'm not finding anything too helpful on how to trigger and sustain social learning online.
So suggestions welcome, and in the meantime some ideas are:
- Publicly recognise good behaviour - student of the week kind of thing. We could use the moderators to pick out and thank students who help others resolve issues.
- Open Studio - We're using an OU developed platform called Open Studio for students to catch, tag and share media (including their own projects) or websites. It already has comment facilities, but our fantastic developer Jane is going to add a rating system for us - so students can give each others' finds a rating of between 1 and 5 stars.
- Task driven - each time Open Studio is used, it will be for a specific task - "Look for the best tutorial on the editing package you use" etc.
- Ratings and comments to be against specific rather than generic criteria - For each task, we'll give guidance on what to rate on.
- Forums - Use forums for generic discussion, but also build them up as a place to get help - just like the students can if they continue to work out media making after the course.
- Reputation system - The course is too short to warrant this, but definitely worth thinking about for something longer.
We're at the stage now of setting lots of things up and are going into pre-production with the media. We've been talking about doing some partnership activities with UCMK and their media students which should be interesting for all. One of the main things I am currently thinking about to focus on is what kind of media should be in the course. There are a plethora of different tutorials on the web as Chris has already mentioned but we want the media in our course to really grapple with the truly different areas of film-making which is as much about working with people and organisations as it is about having the latest model of a particular camcorder.We think the media should approach the whole area of film-making holistically in the sense that you are constantly having to negotiate a multitude of things when you attempt to make a film: creative, editorial, technical and logistical. So we'd really appreciate any feedback about what you've seen out there that you think really works and what is the kind of balance you think we need to strike in terms of the teaching that is delivered through the media.
Hi everyone, it's Rick here. I haven't posted anything so far but I just thought it'd be worth letting you know where we're at with the course. Alongside many of the meetings already outlined in the blog, a large part of this week has been about fine tuning the media that will be part of the course. I've been working very with Chris now for a number of years on participatory video and training projects as my own production company Catcher Media which has been doing video using participatory methods for over 14 years and we've been pulling in our knowledge of working with a very diverse range of groups to help shape the media for the course (as well as the rest of the content). In the course of my work I've worked with primary school-children, teachers, third sector workers and academics amongst other so as we're drafting the course I'm always trying to relate the materials to a really wide set of media needs.
It's been great linking up with John Sinton at the OBU too and he has been bringing all of his film-making and training expertise to bear on our thinking, which after the long gestation of the course is now moving at quite a pace.
The primary challenge for me at the moment is to ensure that the media contains all of the elements necessary but doesn't feel overloaded or too technical (in the first instance). Alot of the thinking behind the course has been to try and bring in those people that aren't interested primarily in the technology (or are afraid of it to some degree) but are keen to communicate using video, as well as setting enough challenges to people that are fairly happy with talk about codecs and shutter speeds. Much of the media will focus on generic video exercises and film grammar with much of the work of future-proofing the course done by social media content - forums and rating systems, so that as new technologies, new kit etc come online students can pick their own way through to some degree.
Well this was bound to happen. When we first proposed this course, there was nothing like this around:
NYVS is the World's Top Online Film School
NYVS provides anyone with a video camera an easy and affordable way to learn to make films and videos like a Hollywood professional.
As a NYVS member you'll have access to video courses, critiques, tutorials and a learning community that will help you quickly become a master at video editing, video production, videography, iMovie, Final Cut Pro and much more!
It's video tutorial driven on a subscription model (not a bad annual rate at all), but there are some real parallels with T156 - a good dose of social media learning, a practical focus, and aimed fairly and squarely at video production for the web. I'm certainly curious enough to subscribe, and I suspect I'll get as much out of it as a film maker as the time I put in.
Looks like it's been going since about August last year, and a lot longer than that in previous forms. It's a bit disappointing not to be the first large scale attempt in this mode, when we've been marking time to get the go-ahead. But given their introductory tutorials have around 2,500 hits in less than 6 months, I think it's a good demonstration that there's a market there. The interesting figures will be the hits per tutorial behind the paywall.
So given there's some similarities between what they offer and what we plan to - the obvious next question is what are the differences. Any opinions?
We're starting to get into a rhythm with the production - Rick and I kicking off on Mondays in Herefordshire and then parachuting to Milton Keynes for a slew of meetings and anything else we need to do here. By next month we'll be in full flow, filling a website and knocking out video, but for now it's all about pinning down details around a succession of tables (and sometimes floors).
Progress Meeting with LTS
Today's most important meeting was one of the big ones, sitting down in all the extended team of creative professionals that will help us to roll out the course in October. These guys are a central part of why the OU had such a good reputation for it's teaching materials, but sometimes you'll find different professionalisms pointing in different directions. The result can be quite a gulf between a team of academics producing content and an LTS team whose priority is form. A good way through is to take the time to appreciate one another's professional expertise and judgement, as well as to make sure we're sharing what it is that's exciting about the project. Luckily we've some very good people to work with, always worth listening to.
Building up trust is important, because we have different points of responsibility in the workflow and different sets of other projects we're dealing with in parallel. So if deadlines slip, things can get tetchy. There's no accounting for really bad luck, but personally I'd rather head of problems before they happen if possible. A colleague last week told me "Until this comes back, you can tell me anything, as long as it's not a surprise" about £25,000 he was effectively lending me to get a conference off the ground. It's not a bad approach and one I hope we can deliver on. The schedule is tight, but tomorrow's first job is to look again and see if we can tighten it up again to make the space to get the very best support we can. Setting realistic and real deadlines and meeting them is a good way to getting there, and will get the job done with less suffering all around.
I have been researching the Open University audiovisual archive for background material to be used on the digital film schools project, T156. The Open University has an audiovisual archive that spans its history, over 40 years. With this in mind I started a search. I wanted to find some film archive that was focused on the processes involved in film making. I would to hear from the production team, actors or crew. Using the OU/BBC database I soon focused in on two programmes.
The first and most inviting is called 'Cast and Crew'. This sounds absolutely ideal and on closer inspection I found that it was specially created for The Open University. In these programmes we hear perspectives and debate from the production team. The format is that of a studio based discussion between the cast and production team. A behind the scenes perspective for the following iconic 20th Century films.
The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
My Beautiful Laundrette
The second is called the Joyride. We follow a Scottish production team through the process of creating their film. We follow the members of the production team through the process of creating a scene and the difficulties they encounter such as negotiating costs and dealing with authorities to get various permissions.
Now I have identified the archive it is now a matter of working with the intellectual property (rights). We will treat the footage to remove and third party rights costs.
All programmes are stored in the archive on Digital Beta-cam. I will need to remix the audio track to remove any music.
One of the issues that we're going to have to get right is translating ideas that work in one medium into new ideas that work in another. All of the work that Rick and I have done together to date has been face-to-face, usually workshops. I wouldn't say it's an easy option - it takes a lot of energy - but we do have a lot of tricks up our sleeves. In this course we're going to have to find new ways to do old tricks and find some entirely new tricks to make the most of the opportunities that online distance learning offers.
Another conversion to make is between the task up until now - explaining what the course is about for the sake of the university - and explaining the opportunity to students. We're teaching that audiences are important after all, so it won't do to forget that in the text of the course and elsewhere. So after years of describing the course in terms of learning outcomes, financial costs and benefits and strategic directions for our teaching, it was a real pleasure this week to sit down and knock out a short description of the course for students. This is what I came up with:
The Digital Film School is your chance to join the millions of people around the world who make and share video every day. The explosion of film-making for websites and mobiles gives people and organisations the opportunity to tell their stories and show what they have to offer, at low cost. The course is practical, hands-on and fun, built around simple tasks based on real-world briefs and a strong culture of mutual support between students. Our experienced team of film-makers will show you some of the craft secrets that underpin good film-making, and how the professionals stay up to date.
We started our notional 5th day of course production explaining ourselves to friends and colleagues - a hand-picked group of experienced teachers, the wider course team and some of the people we thought might have an active interest in the publicly available media and teaching resources we'll make.
The idea was to present what we have so far a bit like a dress fitting - enough shape to suggest what the finished article is going to be like, but not something you'd like to walk around in. We get some expert feedback on our ideas at an early stage and some nice internal publicity for what we're doing. Another big advantage is the pressure it put on us to get our ideas into a form we could present to someone else, at an early stage.
Something I've really enjoyed since is the number of people there or have heard about it afterwards who've said they'd like to take the course. It's a really good sign.
An example of the sorts of resources I was talking about in my last post.
Just as Rick arrived yesterday I was talking to Gusztav, a friend who's been struggling with a new camera because his current editing package doesn't read the files it produces. I was getting a little boggled by the .mts files he was looking at and not linking this to an issue I know about - which is that older kit really doesn't like AVCHD. Talking to Rick I realised that this was what the issue was. So I managed to google a few solutions and suggest them - I don't know if it helped.
Anyway, last night I searched on "AVCHD to AVI conversion tutorial" and found a some relevant resources. I liked the look of http://www.winxdvd.com/how-to-convert/avchd-to-avi-converter.htm, which promises up to 15X real time conversion rates. The tutorial is more of an advert for a piece of software, but download the software and you get 15 days to try it out before it starts watermarking the output, and it's only $30 for the licence. I had to try it - it is fast, writing 60-80 fps at 1080p.
Another option comes of out searching "avchd to avi freeware", which turned up http://www.brothersoft.com/free-avchd-converter-download-236601.html, which is from a company I've heard of. No idea if the perfomance is better or worse, but two options has to be OK. Well the truth is that there are hundreds of programmes out there. It also looked like you could use Handbrake which is a good open source program I've used on a Mac.
Now's the interesting part - you can look at people using the thing in action. So there's a tutorial for handbrake at:
and another for the edit package I have (Vegas Pro):
These don't have amazing production values compared to something slick like this Apple seminar http://www.seminars.apple.com/seminarsonline/newsandsports/apple/index.html?s=203&locs=us_en, but they don't need to. The point is I learnt enough from watching them to see another 2 solutions to Gusztav's issue, and as a bonus on a click through from one of them picked up something in the comments thread that really made sense too. Not bad for half an hours digging, and really I could have stopped after 10 minutes. I don't know how long I could have gone on for, but my feeling now is that this is a very, very bounteous well to draw on.
In our face-to-face training, we find you can run workshops where people can move from not having touched a camera to making their first film in a few hours, and some quite nice small pieces in a day or two. This group had one or two people with an interest in film in it already, for example:
But this group started pretty much from scratch with just a little inexpert help on the edit (from me, my first edit ever in a workshop):
With a little more backup over time someone with an interest is away and off, the're a film maker. A novice film-maker maybe, but they have the taste and the rest of their learning is different, more focussed on finding out how to do things they find they want to. Of course that's in an intense, group workshop situation with enthusiasts, but do we really need a 100 hour online course to get to the same sort of place?
Well of course we do, or I wouldn't bother. But I think the challenge is to get at what a good training does, within the framework allowed by online Open University learning. We pick on the best of the principles of the FtF training - exercises structured to raise enthusiasm , experimentation and peer learning, and apply that in new ways.
What we really don't need to teach is specific technical points to students. It's pointless for 3 reasons. The first is that we'd have to force students to use a particular software package, and it might not be at the level that will make sense for them outside the course - pro editors are expensive and complicated to start with, and I can imagine a course filled with endless screen capture type tutorials.
Secondly anything specific like the options with particular cameras or the latest new thing as we were going to press (3D video or DSLR video, for example) would be out of date before the course was through it's first presentation.
Finally is it's a turnoff unless it's done really well and I'm just not that ambitious. I thought the Digital Photography course had a nice mix and I did look at one or two of their tutorials about Photoshop Elements while I was doing the course. But it wasn't what I needed and the trouble with video is it's that much more complicated again - you'd need a mass of really well done walkthroughs every week.
So instead we're going to teach students how to find things out - build it into the bones of the course. It's been a pleasant surprise in the last 48 hours to take another look and see the huge amount of tutorials and short pieces on everything under the sun is a huge avalanche now. I'd be surprised if there's a single editing package out there without a cloud of introductions, specific tutorials or sets of tips and tricks to go with it. Of course they're of variable quality, but that's what we can teach - how to find them, make sense of them, share them and judge them.
All our best projects seem to start on kitchen tables - and then sometimes move onto the floor. Today we've been blocking out the different weeks of the course. The big shift has been from thinking of one assignment per week, building up to a big finale dream project in week 10, to seeing that that's mad and that the last 4 weeks of the course can be pre-production, production, post-production and some space for reflection, with teaching and research thrown in.
Given week 1 is an introduction and needs to cover some basic ground like rights and even down to attaching a camera to the computer for the first time, that leaves three weeks for one-off projects with more and more creative control being passed over to students, and then a 2 week on-location or on-set shoot - preparation and then what we've called "A taste of chaos.
All the way along the balance is to give enough structure to make things easy and pick up on the teaching points we want to make, while allowing students the excitement of taking control and achieving something they feel good about in a reasonable time. Years of face to face workshops on Ricks part and thinking about distance teaching on mine is being married up to try and make that work. Next week we'll have a first go at convincing other people that what comes of marching around a kitchen might work in 500 homes and offices twice a year for 4 years.
Just spent the first actual day of course production on a new course. It's going to be fun - an introductory course on digital video. 10 hours per week of study for 10 weeks, presented anywhere in the world, and aiming at people who want to learn how to make video from scratch or improve what they can do. We think it'll suit enthusiasts and professionals who're finding making media is something they're being asked to do, as well people thinking about going into the industry and wanting to get a feel for the range of different roles they might like to follow.
It's taken a while to get off the ground, for all kinds of reasons, but after three years of preparation and proposals and negotiation, we've just had our first 8 hours of proper, paid for production time. And after all that preparation, we spent the day taking what we'd done to bits - we know there's too much in there and it's about taking things out and smoothing it over. We've given ourselves a presentation to do for next week where we show the concept and the approach to a selection of OU people for comment. No real pressure, but a straight deadline and one more working day before we need an outline we can defend in public.
