Tools Mr. Wright uses for Movie Making/Screencasting

Minor updates done 05/15.

Mr. Wright is often asked what kinds of tools that he personally uses to make videos and/or screencasting. Here is a run down of some of the things he uses.

Video Editing

The bulk of the video editing is done on Mr. Wright’s personal Mac, therefore he uses mostly Mac software. If you are going to get doing quite a bit of video editing, Mr. Wright highly recommends writing a grant and getting a Mac. It just makes life easier.

  • Mr. Wright will do a video project in iMovie if he can. iMovie has gotten quite a few little trick up its sleeve that only pro software can generally do like green screen and sprites. (Need some iMovie tutorials? Head over to YouTube and search for iMovie Tutorials or iMovie Special Effects and you will find a ton of free videos going over all aspects of iMovie.) (And, yes, most of the videos are made by 13 year olds but they have good info.)
  • However, if a projects gets too complicated, he will use FinalCut 7ish. This is a pro package and is quite costly. Mr. Wright has not tried FinalCut X which drastically changed the user interface of FinalCut so he can’t vouch for that. Since this is a Pro product, not only does the price go up but so does the complexity of the program. It can be a steep learning curve coming up from a consumer level video editor. Again, if you need assistance on how to use FinalCut, head on over to YouTube and search for some free video tutorials.
  • If Mr. Wright must work on a PC, he will use Windows Movie Maker 2.6. You can download it here. Mr. Wright doesn’t recommend anything newer than that. Windows MovieMaker Live is horrible. Avoid like the plague. Again, if you need help, search YouTube! (I no longer recommend using Windows MovieMaker. 05/30/15.)

Camera

  • On some occasions Mr. Wright uses his Sony HandyCam with Hard Drive Storage. (Though this typically isn’t the camera that Mr. Wright lets students use.) The nice feature of a hard drive or solid state camera is that getting video to your computer is just like transferring files. For cameras with digital tape, you have to allow the computer to capture the video which will take as much time as you used to film. If you are getting an HD camera, you might want to consider if the file format that your camera is recording is compatible with the editing software that you plan to use. Otherwise, after you get the video on your computer you are going to have to transcode it. The Sony HandyCam that I have records AVCHD.
  • The camera that Mr. Wright lets his students use is a Flip Cam. Sadly, Flip was purchased by Cisco and they are shutting down the Flip camera unit. From the Flip website: “Thank you Flip fans for all your support and comments about Flip and our team here as we begin our transition plans to close the business.  However, do know we will continue to provide technical support for Flip video cameras until December 31, 2013 and Flip cameras will be available through our online and in-store retail partners while supplies last.” Kodak has some similar cameras but that company has been having financial issues as well… Get ’em while you can!
  • Whenever I get a new iPhone, I used to keep the old ones around for students to use. My district now has carts of iPads so students can use those to file short clips.
  • But if Mr. Wright was honest, the video camera that he uses the most often is his iPhone 4. Apple has put a really decent camera in their iPhones. The camera in the iPad (the iPad after the iPad 4) has a descent camera as well, he wouldn’t recommend the iPad 2 camera. I don’t recommend using anything before an iPad Air.

Green Screen/Light

A green screen allows a person to be filmed in front of it and then in the editing process, the green can be removed and replaced with any other picture or video. You can make it look like a student is in the arctic. The key about a green screen is really the lighting and having an even color across the green screen. This can be tricky.

Until recently, Mr. Wright just used green paper taped to the wall as seen in the background of the image below.

Recently, however, Mr. Wright wrote and won a grant to get a green screen kit! He plans on purchasing this one from JourneyEd.

Mr. Wright has been know to use circular car windshield reflectors to help get light were it is needed. Cheap and easy!

General Video Shooting Tips

Mr. Wright does not shoot for perfection. Typically, Mr. Wright has a very limited amount of time to get the shots he needs. He will have mapped out which shots he needs using a storyboard. He maps out which shots he can most easily get at appropriate times. Occasionally, Mr. Wright shoots during recess or while another teacher is watching his students. Students quickly realize that shooting a video isn’t interesting after trying to get the same shot five or six times and they can become restless. Students who are not involved with the scene being shot need to have something to do, preferably something that has to do with the video.

Mr. Wright used to try and avoid areas with noisy backgrounds but he has discovered that the noisy backgrounds can be very helpful in covering up other noises or audible directions. If Mr. Wright speaks while shooting, Mr. Wright can take some of the background noise and copy and paste it over the offending audio. However, try to be aware of sounds that could potentially make the actors difficult to understand. If you want to get really fancy, you might purchase a lapel mic that connects to your camera.

Mr. Wright tried using a teleprompter app on the iPad but that didn’t work out so well with his students. He typically films short scenes so that students can easily remember the lines they need to say.

You might have students bring a set of clothes or costume to keep at school if filming will take more than one day.

For more options during editing, make sure that you get “coverage” or the same scene from different angles and close up positions.

For voice overs, Mr. Wright typically uses GarageBand on the Mac and a USB headset microphone. On a PC, try the free Audacity or the online tool Aviary sound editor.

Before shooting, go to Vimeo and watch some of their featured videos to get ideas on angles, cuts, set-ups, etc. Or search Vimeo and YouTube for PBS or PBiS videos for ideas.

Music

Try these sites for music:

Permission

Before filming, you will want to get written permission for a student to be in a video. The permission slip should outline exactly how you plan to use the video. Are you planning on posting it on the Internet? Are you going to submit the film to a festival or contest? How will the video be available.

Mr. Wright’s district tries to get a media release in all of the beginning of the year paperwork. In addition, Mr. Wright gets permission a second time from students who will be in his class. Mr. Wright also did an after school program this year and he got permission from that group of students as well. You might want to get permission on a project by project basis.