Smart phone music video

A fantastic example of what's possible with a smart-phone, some help from friends and a good dose of imagination.

T156 Digital Film School and the iPad

My name is Anthony Kennedy, I am a T156 Digital Film School and Open University ('OU') alumnus. I am the Executive iPad Coach and a published author of multiple books on the iPad and its use in business and personal life. This is a short post, in response to an invitation from Chris High, one of the tutors of T156, and is about my experience of the T156 Digital Film School course with the OU and its application in my world. 

At the end of my studies with the Open University I needed a short course to complete my BSc. Honours degree. This course had little directly to do with my major of social science and European identity, but it interested me greatly both personally and professionally. In some respects I felt like a first time student with the new format of online course being a different mode of study to what I had been used to with previous OU courses. However, the course was constructed in such a way that it seemed to take me by the hand and lead me step-by-step through the topic, resources and exercises.

I found the course content to be engaging and well presented. The best practices and resources that were taught gave me a great understanding and capability to apply when I write, plan, film and produce video content for myself or a client.
I run my own company specializing in creative and graphic support to companies and teams. In promoting my business I used the iPad as a promotional tool and this received an overwhelming positive response from each client I sat down with. This positive response led me to create the iPad coaching business where I work with business leaders, executives and IT teams to maximize their success with the iPad.

This resulted in me authoring a number of books on the iPad, some of which were able to be enhanced by the creation of orientation and training video content to demonstrate or showcase applications and use case scenarios for the iPad. The T156 Digital Film School helped me to produce these videos and maintain a focus on the desired outcome.

In my work for the course I set out to complete it using nothing but my iPad and iPhone, which I achieved. If you can forgive me the use of household implements such as an extending pole, lots of rubber bands to secure the iPhone and other items from around the house to give different camera angles and perspective in the test exercises.

The course also introduced me to some great sources of free or inexpensive material that can be used for soundtracks, backing music and other such media. This alone was almost invaluable.

As always with the OU I enjoyed being able to learn at my own time and speed. For me this meant being able to study in the early hours of the morning if I was up - or to delay starting a week's study due to business or family schedules and come back and catch up. It was also great to see the work of other students online in the tasks and assignments. It was possible to see people's skills and finished product improve as they developed - as part of the exercises is an engagement with the work of other students.

If this course had been my first OU course I would have been very excited to sign up for the next one. This is exactly how I got started with the OU back in 2006 with a French language course and it has led to me completing an honours degree.

While I approached this course for external personal reasons that were not connected to my other studies. If I was at a point where I wanted to take my European identity knowledge further, through an independent or social based project, such as interviewing European citizens about their concepts of Europe, and regional, national or European identity, I know that this course has given me a great start for this. Knowledge of planning, preparation, techniques, interviewing and management of a set, cast and crew. The Digital Film School will help you on any personal or non-OU related video projects. But maybe it could help you take your other studies forward or in a new direction once you feel confident to use digital film as a platform?

All the best, 

Anthony Kennedy

Executive iPad Coach

http://www.projectteamsupport.co.uk and http://www.iPadCoaching.com

A training video

More student work I stumbled across - one of the EMAs from the last presentation that I didn't mark.  I think this is a really nice example from one of the groups of students we were interested in teaching about video; media professionals who wanted to extend their skills base and develop their video skills to complement their existing practice.

Anthony Kennedy is an executive coach with a creative background, with a website at
http://ipadcoaching.com/, and two books under his belt. His training video is a cracking example of the genre and you can see the value of his experience in the production values he displays - have a look at the behind the scenes documentary.



Open University T156 EMA (EMA option 1 - Training Video) from Anthony Kennedy on Vimeo.


EMA Documentary (EMA option 1 - Training Video) from Anthony Kennedy on Vimeo.