"Green Screen at S.C. State" Prezi Presentation

SCSU's colors are red and white but today in Columbia the school color was green as S.C. State senior communications major Kris Bennett and I gave a Prezi presentation at South Carolina Educational Television to members of the South Carolina Media Educators Association.

I gave an overview on the Communication Program's television studio. Three of the studio's four walls are painted bright green to allow for chroma key, which is a special effects/post-production technology for layering or compositing color hues. Think local TV weather reports in front of a big map- the meteorologist is standing in front of a green screen.

I also highlighted some of my classroom green screen projects and students who come to the studio to shoot against the green walls for various school, club and other projects.

Kris spoke about the "Bulldog Bite" YouTube show she produces on campus for her fellow SC State students.

At SCETV in Columbia with senior Kris Bennett

Here is the Prezi I put together for our presentation to the S.C. Media Educators Association.

Lighting- It's Essential to Quality Video Production!

In my television production class we are getting into lighting. Proper lighting must be achieved or your video is going to look shabby and unprofessional. We are fortunate at South Carolina State University to have a wide array of studio and field lighting gear, including some Smith Victor KT1500U lighting kits like the one below.

Communications senior Jasmine Dodd checks out a field lighting set up

Students will be doing an exercise in three point lighting. They will post photos of themselves and classmates in various lighting arrangements. Three point lighting is a professional configuration commonly used by both photographers and videographers.

SC State student Khadijah Johnson used our TV studio for a project having to do with her hair fashion business.

Khadijah Johnson backlight! 

Tweaking the light locations and brightness levels can help achieve desired effects. In this case, her hair is highlighted by some backlighting. 

I'll try to get a nice smile out of Khadijah next time! 

Action Sequence Video

In my Television Production and Editing course textbook, Chapter 4 is titled "Shooting Video in the Field." The video assignment I gave the students is one of the options in the chapter, which is to "shoot a simple sequence in which you edit action in the camera. Shoot only those scenes you want to use on the air, in the order you want them to appear, with action as closely matched as possible."

With the help of S.C. State communications major Lynn McGrier, we produced this video. The simple concept is to shoot Lynn going in and out of shots, as she leaves a classroom and makes her way out of the building.

A little bit of editing was necessary to make the clips and sequences tighter. I also added title and end pages and found a piece of music on my favorite royalty free music website to accompany the action. Fun little Friday class exercise for the students and I! 

SC State's TV Studio Comes To Light!

In my television production class, the students are learning the thought and planning processes in videography. Whether for film, television news, sports or features, or commercials, there are common processes. Among them is the idea of sequences and steps in accomplishing an act.

As a demonstration, I put together this video showing the various steps involved in opening and turning on the Communication Program's television studio.

Once the raw footage was shot, the next step was to trim each shot to three or four seconds and arrange the clips in an orderly, logical flow. Editing is much easier when the video is shot in sequential order. That's not always possible, but in this case it was.