maanantai 30. tammikuuta 2017

How to make your video look more pro - tips and tricks

These blogs are supposed to contain what you have learnt during the week. I really enjoyed the guest lecture about marketing research and what people buy. That was not much related to digital marketing than it was to basic marketing. Other than that I have to sadly say that this week I didn’t learn anything new about the other subject; video. So, instead of going through what I learnt maybe I can teach others couple things more about video making. 

Last week we had our first task as a group. It was shooting and editing and introduction video about ourselves. Before the assignment a fellow student gave us a presentation about video. That was what inspired me to write this blogpost, since I wanted to point out some thing that she didn’t talk about. Honestly, it has been a while since my last video production. My thesis from vocational school in 2015 was a video production. 

Anyways, important things to keep in mind when planning, shooting and editing videos.

Planning


Every video production starts with synopsis. A short story, summary, what is the basic going for your video. What happens, and in what direction. Is the video going to be chronological, does it include music, what is the storyline in short?

Next, you will do the script. Write down what, where and how dialogue is said. What happens in between? Write down the sounds and movements. Using a script does not mean that you cannot improvise, it is just guideline to tell you what happens in your video and helps you keep track on what you did already. Trust me, it is not very nice to find out you forgot to shoot important scene when you start editing.

Then the most important tool, if you want your video to look professional, is storyboard. There is apps and websites to dedicated to help you with this but basic stick figures on the paper work just fine. The point of storyboard is plan ahead your camera angles and camera movement. 

Visualising your script into a storyboard is first of all, -well planned, half done, second that makes the set up for shooting much easier and faster since you already know where to set up the camera and what to shoot.

Other preparations consider;

How long does it take?
Longer than you think. Let’s put it this way. You have to make 1-minute video. And you have six 10 second clips to shoot in different places. The reality is that you wont make it at the first try. Depending on the clip, is there people, is there a dialogue, is something suppose to happen in corresponding actions, it might take average 5-25 tries. Add when you add all what happens behind the camera, all preparations for the next try, watching the material, etc. you can easily spend 10 minutes shooting one 10 second clip. If you want your video to look professional, take your time. Don’t rush.


When it comes to the locations, there is really not a limit. Use your imagination. Make a note that it is legal to shoot in public places (where anyone could have access and you don’t have to pay anything) without asking permissions. Of course it is polite to ask, but for example a store cannot make you delete to footage once they spot you and say you cannot shoot. They can ban you from the store though.





Shooting


Only time you can shoot vertically is Snapchat. For example, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram still prefers horizontal. Seriously. I couldn't be more serious about this. 

Good lighting is the most important thing. I would recommend a natural light. Reason behind this the colour of the light. Specially if you shoot with smart phone, because even they can shoot 4k, quality of the picture is not very good in dark situations. Aka inside and in yellow lightning.  
Avoid mixed lights. Different colour light sources can make the image look blurry and very unprofessional. If there is not quite enough light for both sides, you can also use reflectors for example: big white paper or even a mirror. White reflector also makes the shadow side of the picture look less harsh. Avoid light right above of behind the target when shooting people. Best option is light source from above in 45-degree angle or from straight forward.


I could do a whole another post about camera angles and how they effect on the quality of the image, but lets just summary it here. Always keep the camera angle at 90.
There are lots of exceptions but this is a basic rule. Don’t tilt the camera down like you tilt your head just to fit the subject in to the picture. Step back and lower the camera if needed.

Why? Because the horizon and perspective. That’s why. And it looks silly.
As Viveka told us, good audio is the key. Using headphones to record audio is what I have also done in past and it works very well. One tip though, when recording external audio; Clap three times loudly when you start shooting and recording, so when you have to match the audio to video in video editor, you can overlay the audio tracks more easily.




Editing 



Less is more. There is so much you can fit in to one second. 24 frames to be exact. Good example is already dead app called Vine, which allowed you to do only 6 second videos. And still you can fit whole story in 6 seconds. Keep what counts to make video informative.

Good editing makes the video interesting. Change angles when shooting or cut out the pauses and “um”s, so you don’t have somebody talking straight to the camera for 2 minutes. That just gets boring. You can also overlay audio track with other clips and make the video more interesting.

Tip for shooting somebody speaking is to use more than one camera at the same time so you have different angles to choose from when editing.

The internet is full of tutorials how to edit video. And if you want to learn some specific software, I recommend Youtube. I started with Windows movie maker also and then evolved to Magix Movie Edit Pro, which was fairly easy to use. Nowadays I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but I am still learning it, as it is a huuuuge program. They all work with the same timeline concept, which is in my opinion more useful than the "trailer" tool, it you have any interest in editing at all. Timeline makes it easier to understand the structure of the video and makes applying music and other audio easier.

This one is very good tutorial about how ted talks are cut.
http://blog.ted.com/10-tips-for-editing-video/

And one thing, If you want to look professional don’t use those video transform things that Movie Maker and IMovie has.  

For free editing software other than listed above, check out these listings:

sunnuntai 29. tammikuuta 2017

Important stuff about internships

I apologize for the language in this blogpost.

I have to say that I am still bit pissed.

On Thursday we had a guest “lecturer” from AFS. The purpose of this speak was only to recruit someone to work for them. At first I was interested in the position, since I am looking for summer job. But after I heard that there was no supervisor or marketing manager in the whole place and job was no-paid, I got very mad.

Let me explain.

So AFS realised that they needed somebody to do their marketing, since there was no-one and “hired” an un-paid student intern. And now they are looking for SECOND marketing intern in a ROW. Why did you not hire the poor girl who was working for you? Then man said that the intern they are looking for should be interdependent not only because there is no one to guide you but also because they expect you to teach everything to the next intern.

The.
Next.
Intern.

Are you f*cking kidding me?

So they don’t have any intentions to actually hire somebody to do the job they obviously need someone to do? This is what pisses me off the most. The conscious decision to miss use interns, their work effort and trying to sell it to students as a “great opportunity to learn”. It can be great opportunity to learn, I do not deny that.

But if someone who has no experience in marketing field should not ever work unsupervised and independently. That is not the purpose of Internship! It is not an internship is there is no one to guide you!
The internships are meant to be paid if the work you do is same effort as paid employees would be. If the intern is the only one and have responsibility on one whole part on running something (this case: marketing), it should never be un-paid.

If the internship is un-paid, it is getting to know work field and the subject, and cannot include hard, independent work tasks. And if it does, it means that your employer is using you and your work effort for they benefit.

On other hand, someone who has already experience and is able to work independently should never go for an un-paid job! And not even once if it already clear that they are not going to hire you after the internship.

”Korkeakouluharjoittelusta pitää saada vähintään työssäoloehdon täyttävää palkkaa ainakin silloin, kun opiskelija tekee jo kertyneellä osaamisella työnantajalle tuottavaa työtä.”Vuonna 2017 työssäoloehdon täyttävä palkka kokoaikatyöstä on 1 187 euroa. Jos teet työharjoittelun alalla, jolla noudatetaan työehtosopimusta, palkkasi määräytyy työehtosopimuksen mukaan."
Lähde: https://www.akavanerityisalat.fi/jasenyys/opiskelija_jasenena/tyoharjoittelut/palkaton_vai_palkallinen_tyoharjoittelu
Freely translated;
University student has to be paid salary at when the student makes the with the expertise they already have productive work for the employer.
In 2017 the recommend salary is 1 187 euros. If you do an internship in the field, which comply with the collective agreement, they pay depends on the collective agreement.

It is greats that students and unemployed people have change to get to know the work field, search for their calling and get a paid job after you perform great as an intern. The unpaid internship is legit only in few cases, for example in health care. In those cases, the terms are negotiated between the employer and the university. Then the stage of the internship is more like getting to know to work. (Suomeksi; työhön tutustumista)

Nowadays there is more and more internship available and companies even promote unpaid internships. The problem is that some (I don’t want to say most, but I am afraid that that is the truth) employers use the system on their benefit and year after year hire a new intern after another and they have NO intensions to hire a paid employer. Most of the interns are already over 18 years old and have work experience, who after short induction can do the work fully independent.

On a bigger scale problem is that when employer, -company or city, miss uses the internships, they save money on personnel expenses, and that disturbs the competition aka forces other employers to also miss use the free and cheap work force.

Unemployment is already a problem in Finland and employers like AFS, do not make the situation any better. It is quite opposite, when employer miss uses the system, it only adds work in the black markets and miss use of tax paid supports.

In unpaid internship, there is not an employment relationship. Therefore, the intern drops outside the labour legislation and the safety of possible collective agreement. Also there might not be any insurance for the intern, if the university has not taken care of the insurance the student. The problem is also; that unpaid internship does not give right to earnings-related daily allowance.

So, please, my fellow classmates, check twice when you go work as an intern.

Here is some links, if you want to read more about the subject.




Restart - Reposted

Reposted from my personal portfolio 29th of January
suvilehtonen.ga

As a part of my studies in Laurea UOAS, we are required to start a blog.
So,
Hello.

In this blog, I am going to speak about my experiences in Digital Business course, things I learn and whatever other stuff I might have to say.

I look forward to begin this course in English, since I find English much easier language to express yourself. I am not scared to speak in English, since in most of my jobs English have been the official language. My writing skills are not the same level though; I am very bad especially when it comes to all those tiny words. I never know what goes where.

When I heard that writing a blog is one part of this course, I got slightly excited but also bit scared. It feels so weird to be writing a blog again, since the last blogpost I wrote was couple years ago. I wrote a blog on and off for three years, but never seemed to have dedication for it. Towards the end my blog evolved to full photography blog, and I posted only pictures.

Our Digital Coach Sakari, hosted his first lecture ever and talked about importance of blogging. And I agree, blogging can be very powerful tool if used right. I think it is valuable way to learn when you have to go over everything and form your own opinion.

Someone pointed out in our lecture, that you actually remember things better when you write them down. Even that we live in digital world and this is a course about digital things, I do most of my notes by hand. I have tried to do notes with my phone or IPad, but never have I succeeded so that it would be useful enough. Doing notes by hand is just writing down my ideas and thoughts. I can find the lecture material online anyway so I can focus on the actual learning and processing the information rather than just copying.

By the way, as a graphic designer, my desk used to be filled with notes, doodles, sketches of work stuff, and all sort of information, that tended to eventually get lost. By mid November I came across with a brilliant solution called Bullet journal and if you are like me, – scrambling your notes in everything you can find, I highly recommend you to give it a try. You can find more detail and how it works from here
Alright, I think my writing flow ends here, so, bye, see you next week.

Suvi

I want also apologize for the current visual state of the blog, as this is now part of my personal website/portfolio. Which is not ready yet, as you can see. ( I don’t know how to operate this thing yet)
Website is done by amazing Tiitus Hopia, 15 yo entrepreneur from my hometown. Check out his company here
 http://lizardic.com/