Studio Production - COMM 360

In our studio production class, I have worked on both sides of production. This does not mean that I have been in front of the camera. But, I have been both behind the camera and in the lab editing the footage (although most of my work was at home since I do not know how to use final cut). In the studio, I worked on the video switch board closely monitored by the director. I also worked on some problem solving when setting up the set.

Some things I really liked was the set up for the chairs and table. It seemed very professional. Next, I want to give credit to the camera operators at the time. They were very still with their shots, gave proper head space, and quickly changed their shots when instructed to. These are three things (in my opinion) that make or break a camera operator. Moving on, I did not enjoy several things about the production. Because of the recent power outage, our guests did not show up except one, but we managed to replace some with our own production team. This gave our production less credibility, but overall, I found that it worked out nicely. Next, I did not like the choice of shots. Some shots were on two talents that were not even talking. The director attempted to set up a shot and did not anticipate the particular talent to stop talking. This resulted in lost shots by the time the camera man panned over. Finally, I did not like the microphone falling in the middle of one of the talents speaking. However, this was an easy fix in post production.

The post production was a joint effort with me and John Chapman. At first, John edited the video, but we found that it was difficult to remove the buzzing noise in the background and John did not know how to remove it. Also, it was hard to separate the video from the audio to cut down a particular part of the video to fit it properly in the time restraints. So, I took the original file home and edited the entire video with Vegas Pro and worked on the audio file with audacity, which removed the buzz entirely. After rendering (and eventually rendering again the next day to get a higher quality format) it was returned to John Chapman where he rendered the entire file again with the Shepherd bumpers.

Overall, I did not enjoy that Vegas Pro was not available in the lab, but that is to be expected. I find that I can work better at home on my own computer anyway. It gives me time to do it right. I wish the bumpers were more readily available so I could have done it in one shot and John wouldn’t have had to do the rest on final cut, but I understand that is hard to do.

In conclusion, I am proud of our video. I wish there were some things that were changed or that I wish we did differently. However, in the long run, no production is perfect and mistakes are bound to be made. Overall, I find that if any mistakes were made I am glad that these mistakes were made rather than anything worse.