The Media Studio (also known as The Motorola Studio or T3) contains some £35,000 of audio/visual equipment for staff and studnts to create A/V presentations, such as music tapes or video role plays. This booklet is to help staff and students to know what can be acheived with the equipment and how to use it.
The studio is equipped with a 24 channel sound desk, a variety of sound processors, an 8 track ADAT recorder, DAT and tape to tape recorders, CD player, Korg synthesizer and professional microphones. We also have a number of video camcorders with tripods, red head lights with stands and gels, edit suite, G3/Media 100qx NLE suite, special effects and 3d graphics software and lighting desk.
Further details can be obtained from the T3 web site
INDEX
Booking the Studio/ENG Cameras
Students are allowed to book the studio for college work (private work may need special permissions or you may have to pay to hire the facilities). Just visit me in the studio, tell me what you want to do and when and I will find a space in the bookings diary. If you need to cancel, please let me know as others may want to use the studio. You are allowed to borrow the portable cameras during school time, however if you wish to use them overnight or at weekends I must have a letter of permission from your teacher (the one who the work is being done for) and you must be aware that the equipment is your responsibility, SO TAKE CARE OF IT !!
Making a video or audio production will involve a lot of time and work. Do not turn up to a practical session and think you can knock out a video in 5 minutes, becouse you cannot. One of the golden rules in tv is plan ahead, becouse if you don't, you will be left floundering whilst everyone else is sailing past with a decent project.
Use the resources available to you within the college. If you want a prop made, ask the technology department for help. If you want some background information about a particular event ask the history department, and so on.
We all have great ideas for videos but you may think they cannot be done, for example you may want a shot taken from a helicopter of a police driving into the school grounds and then exploding.
Ask yourself, is this possible? Ask others, such as myself, is this possible? In fact this is possible but only if you put a lot of time and effort into it and are willing to compromise if necessary. Think about what you need, does it have to be a marked police car, how about having a teacher drive their car into the school with the headlights on, add a siren to the soundtrack in editing and it can be an unmarked police car. Film the shot from the roof of the science block (Barossa is the easiest roof to get equipment up to and allows you to look down on the playground area where a car can be driven), then film the actors reactions to the explosion using bright lights.You could ask Surrey Police if they would be willing to lend a police car and driver, (you never know till you ask), and film as before. Use a model of the car or computer graphics to blow up the car. Pyroyechnics (Fireworks) could be used in the model but you MUST have permission to use 'explosives' from the Principal (further informations is listed in the Safety & Conduct section)
Whether you are planning a video or recording a radio play you must have some form of planning and should include the following basic forms of paperwork.
Video Paperwork:
Audio Work:
Graphics, either pictoral or text, need to be well thought out for video work as some graphic styles work better than others
Using the correct terminolgy will stop everyone becomming confused (especially me!) and will also make you sound like you know what you are doing not only to the examiners but to your clients and members of the public watching you record. This is just a basic outline of the general terms used, there are many more.
There is a video library of documentaries, mainly behind the scenes and special effects programmes.
There are a number of magazines available and I hope to have a database on the college Macs when I have the time, so you can search for a particular article.
Safety & Conduct Whilst Filming
There is further information and links on my web site:
