College Campus HELPP

[Alefeb07]

Hello,


I have been hired by a small private company to do work at all the local colleges. The work consists of all video ( which i have never done). I have the task of filming interviews with students and staff, as well as filming the entire campus. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing, or just advice on how to go about this?

This will be all filmed with a DSLR, and a Sennheiser shotgun mic.



Thanks,


Alex

[Elmo]

Man you have an uphill battle. First and foremost your audio will be terrible with only a single shotgun mike. Shooting production style video is not as simple as shooting home video. The camera and mike are only the beginnings of the equipment needed to produce quality video.

Best of luck to you.

[BigFuzzy]

Did they know you don't even know your camera and have never done film before? And you said yes? Ouch.

My best advice is find someone that's actually done this before and ask them to help.

Man, you're brave.

[Murtasma]

So you accepted a position that requires at experience shooting video which is something you have never done. Hate to be a Debbie downer but I would have said no thank you to the position.

With that said you need to go seek help at a Videography forum. There are a few people here with video experience I believe but you will have better results seeking help from people who specialize in this area.

[Alefeb07]

I appreciate your concern everyone but the company is a small group of students, looking to gain content and qualify for college grants. The expectations are not extremely high, they are just looking for presentable material for their site. They also know I am using this for a learning experience.

That being said, I am just looking for any recommendations for the actual campus work, such as what to capture and what to look for.


Thank you

[Jim Bryant]

Man......I'm not even going to comment on this one, but your reputation is one the line here.

[Elmo]

Considering your last comment you might want to consider using a slide show with added commentary rather than a movie.

[jdepould]

I'd be willing to come in and rescue you ... for a fee.

Do you know anything about video editing? That's equally as important as knowing which way to point the camera.

[naeno]

Originally Posted by Elmo

Considering your last comment you might want to consider using a slide show with added commentary rather than a movie.

That's a really good idea! You may want to see if they would find this acceptable.

[Alefeb07]

Originally Posted by jdepould

I'd be willing to come in and rescue you ... for a fee.

Do you know anything about video editing? That's equally as important as knowing which way to point the camera.

Haha thank you, I appreciate the offer. As far as the interviews go, I plan to use my general photography knowledge to shoot them well enough where they will need minimal editing out of camera. I know enough about the editing to touch them up and cut clips together, but not a whole lot after that.

My biggest concern is the filming of the campus itself. Cutting down hours of a campus walk to 5-10 minutes will be challenging. I am confident they would rather have film over a slideshow.

Thanks for the suggestions though!