Work Experience - All Staff Faculty Event / Student Experience Film

Recently I received a message from Dean Summers asking if I would be able to assemble a crew to film the ACES staff celebrations for outstanding support to students being held in the Howard View on Monday 9th December, and to interview staff regarding student support to make a short film to be shown at the All Staff Faculty Event  in January and to be included on the university website as promotional material to attract new students.  I agreed to do this as it involved practising my production, filming and editing skills, and I have been asked to do a few university films recently and I think they are good experience and good networking opportunities.

For this film I was liaising with Dr Hilary Cunliffe-Charlesworth who supplied the brief.  I assembled a crew which consisted of three of us; myself, Luke Parker and Charlie Poyser.  This equated to two manned cameras (Luke filming the awards ceremony in Hallam View and Charlie filming the interviews in Chef Hallam).  I worked between the two making sure that the cameras were set up correctly, that they had spare batteries and running through the shots to make sure that they were comfortable getting the footage that was required.

I assisted in organising the interviewees to be positioned correctly for the framing of the camera and talking through some of the questions with them.  Once each interview started I recorded the sound using a Marantz as a back up in case the camera sound wasn't quite close enough.

The filming went really well.  We used the new XF305 cameras which was only the second time that I had set those cameras up but we did really well in setting them up for the two different surroundings (Hallam View being mood lit for the occasion and Chef Hallam being bright for the interviews.)

We got good answers from the interview and the clips are editing together well.  I'm really pleased with how it went, and I am pleased that I keep getting asked to do these university films.  I know I am being referred to when people and departments are wanting films making.  I'm good at organising shoots and I must be thought well of and someone who can be trusted to produce their films.  (I have been asked to film another university event on Friday!)

Below is the brief of the All Staff Faculty Event film which shows what was required and what I had to organise:  

Dear Hannah, Paul, Bex, Hannah, Luke and Charlie

Thank you for 'volunteering' to film a staff event on Monday week - for which you will recieve a £20 High Street Voucher.

The Brief:

The Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Sciences are celebrating courses where there has been outstanding support for students. Your role is to interview  staff for around 2 to 3 minuites (Hannah plus one) on the topic of 'how does your course ensure the students have an excellent experience?'  (Hannah you can of course ask additional questions to elicit the information or examples required using your  journalism skills.  Hannah can you also sort out release forms to bring on the day for the interviewees to sign?)

These interviews will be filmed and then edited down to short soundbites (the Media Arts team).  The final edit should be around 15mins in length including establishing and closing shots. The Media Arts students are responsible for booking the equipment tripods, cameras, lights and undertakening the editing and add titles(eg name of person and the course they are associated with.)

Purpose of material - to be screened at an all staff faculty event in January that will be on the Student Experience  and also to be put up on Course sites - so you need to be aware that the material may be seen by the general public as clips that relate to each course - and thus the edit will also need to be saved in a form of a series of clips for this purpose.

Who:  There are around 15 interviews to be undertaken.  Hilary will go and hunt out the staff for interview and bring them to you to keep things rolling.

What: As well as interviews you will need to take establishing shots of the event and also film the Dean (Roger Eccleston) who is to give a speach  in Hallam View

Where:  Hallam View is on the 6th Floor of Owen - we are trying to book a quiet room nearby where you can undertaken the interviews. Each course will have a banner which needs to be positioned suitably for the interview.

How long will this take?  The event is planned to go on till 7.00pm.  You might want to form 2 groups for filming . Hopefully this should be wrapped up by 6.30

Thank you very much for taking this on.  There will be food and drink at this event so I will make sure you get some.  If you are unable to make this time can you please let myself and Dean know?  Also Hannah have you got another name plaese?   Many thanks Hilary

Dr. Hilary Cunliffe-Charlesworth