RTV 3531C Production Assignments - Professor Bagley's RTV Course Pages

PRODUCTION ASSIGNMENT #1 - Visualization
Grading Objectives:

Ability to depict apparent central point of interest
Ability to employ proper and appropriate framing and composition principles
Appropriate camera mechanics (e.g. exposure and focus)
Ability to avoid common errors such as contrast problems, lens fare, etc.
Ability to meet formatting requirements
General creativity

This is all about visualization and camera mechanics. As with all ensuing assignments, you are expected to exercise care and deliberation. Note that many of these don't seem very interesting or sexy; so it's up to you to make them appealing to the viewer (me). Therefore, appropriate creativity, as always, will be prized. However, creativity and appeal need to come from composition and framing rather than the staging of the objects themselves. Individual requirements for this assignment are:

All shots are exteriors--no interiors.
All clips for this assignment will be shot with the RTV Canon 70D or 80D obtained from the RTV checkout area. The following will apply to all images used for this assignment:
- all shots must be horizontally (not vertically) framed
- there will be no in-camera manipulation of the image (such as vignetted effect or cropping)
- there will be no post-production manipulation of the images in the camera or in programs such as Photoshop
- all shots must be recorded in JPEG format (not RAW)
- you may use field photographic manipulations such as zooming to change focal length; altering f-stop, shutter or ISO, etc.
There will be no lighting associated with this assignment, so you'll need to shoot these during appropriate daylight.
The assignment is to be performed individually. You may have no assistance in the execution of this assignment whatsoever. Evidence of any assistance in photographing, staging, etc. will result in an automatic "0" score for this assignment.
Each of the 10 assigned subjects must be shot in separate locations; you may not shoot multiple objects in a single location.
No footage from sources other than your own photographic effort may be used for this assignment.

You will submit to me one single shot for each assigned shot (below) in a folder in your personal media files on the EditShare server. Name this folder with your first name and last initial followed by Assign1. Thus the folder will name will look like this example:

jamesbAssign1

There will be no editing of any kind and no leader. The only manipulation you'll perform on your raw footage is to copy only those clips you want me to grade from the camera's SD card into the EditShare using the RTV computers in the RTV facility (NSC 160). For this assignment you are required to use the RTV Canon 70D or 80D cameras (you will not need a tripod). Here are the subjects you'll shoot for this assignment:

Assignment Shots:
A full bottle of water or soda
A toy
A ball
A single piece or bunch of fruit
A semi-profile of someone in MCU (medium close-up)
A book
A wooden guard rail behind the Student Union
A close-up of a hand doing something actively (writing, turning the page of a book, removing the lid of a cup, etc.)
A stationary (parked) car tire
A bicycle part

LEADER AND SLATING REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSIGNMENTS 2, 3 & 5
See a graphic depiction of story structure on the Edit Tape Formatting for reference to specific requirements for leader.

Slate will be composed in white lettering situated in the upper left corner against a black background and will run for 15 full seconds and contain the following required information (with no bullets):

Prod./Dir.: (you)
Title: (Production Assignment number)
TRT: (beginning at 0:00 after countdown) (write one minute as 60ss instead of 1:00; anything over 60ss is written, for example, as 1:03; include only minutes and seconds, not frames, in the TRT)

PRODUCTION ASSIGNMENT #2 - EDITING/CONTINUITY
Grading Objectives:

Ability to understand principal visual components of shooting for editing
Ability to understand concepts of pace and story sense
Ability to manage linear editing equipment
Ability to meet designated TRT
Ability to edit visual and acoustical sequences
Airability

Your assignment is to edit together a coherent storyline from the Bank Robbery raw footage located on the server. Individual requirements for this assignment are:

The edited piece must be 1-3 minutes long (no shorter than 60ss and no longer than 3 minutes)
The final edited piece must contain appropriate leader and front pad coming out of the countdown and back pad as we discussed in class and which can be viewed on Edit Tape Formatting PPT slide.
The final edited piece must contain at least 3 or more instances of natural sound (from the Bank Robbery footage itself)
You must also employ at least two separate music beds of your choice. How much of each you use and where you use them and your natural sound is up to you.
No footage from sources other than the Bank Robbery footage contained in RTV 3531 Media on EditShare may be used for this assignment. Assignments failing to meet required expectations run the risk of not receiving a grade or point reduction.

When finished, you'll export the edited piece as an H.264 file into your Bank Robbery Assignment folder in your personal media files on the EditShare server. The name of this H.264 file will be your first name and last initial followed by Robbery. Thus the H.264 file name will look like this example:

jamesbRobbery

Failure to follow these instructions will result in an automatic point deduction on the assignment.

PRODUCTION #3 - Shooting for Continuity
Grading Objectives:
Production Assignment #1 and #2 Objectives
-Plus-

Ability to shoot for editing
Ability to edit together a coherent whole with a storyline from raw field video
Ability to precisely meet length requirements
Ability to correctly format
Ability to manage post-production sound in a meaningful and complementary manner
Airability

This assignment deals exclusively with shooting for continuity and editing, though you must never neglect proper visualization aesthetics and camera mechanics. As with all ensuing assignments, you are expected to exercise care and deliberation. Individual requirements for this assignment are:

Things you must have in this assignment:

You must use the Panasonic UX90 video camera.
You are required to employ appropriate atmospheric (ambient) sounds as sound continuity.
You are required to employ at least one music bed of your choice. You may have more than one music bed if you feel it is needed. (You may also use SFX if and where you think appropriate from the SFX CD library or from appropriate sources online. SFX and music beds need to complement the storyline and visuals and not be gratuitous. How much of those music beds and potential SFX you use and where you use them is up to you. )
All footage must be exterior shots--no interiors--unless cleared with me prior to shooting.
Appropriate formatting is required (see instructions for slate detailed in Assignment #2 above and the Edit Tape Formatting slide).
The final version must be PRECISELY 60ss in length. Any time over or under, even by 1ss, will result in significant point deduction for this assignment.
Talent must come from outside this class.
All assignments are required to conclude the storyline, thus have a logical and appropriate ending. The storyline should be simple such as someone doing a task (washing car, mowing lawn, gardening, etc.), two people interacting with each other outside in some way, etc.

Things you may not have in this assignment:

You may not use the Canon 70D, 80D or any other D-SLR camera.
This assignment will not include any dialogue or any other synchronous sounds recorded in the field. All sounds will be added in post as either SFX or music beds.
You may only use cut transitions; no dissolves, fades, etc.
You may not use text (graphics, text messages on a phone, email screens, etc.) of any kind to convey meaning.
You may not use any camera movement of any kind (pans, tilt, pedestal, tracking shots, zooms).
No footage from sources other than your own photographic effort may be used for this assignment unless you have secured prior approval from me. The presence of footage not shot by you and not cleared with me before submission is considered cheating and will be dealt with according to course policy for unethical behavior listed on the Course Syllabus as well as a score of "0" for this assignment.
No post-production lip syncing is allowed. All production sound will be added in post. You may use diegetic sound, however, This must be asynchronous asynchronous diegetic sound, that is, recorded on location separately from the visual action recorded and meant to be added separately in post-production.

No script is required for this assignment, however, as with all productions, you need to have for your own purposes a clear blueprint for what you need to accomplish the assignment prior to shooting and the same for post-production to not only meet required TRT, but also to create a solid, meaningful final product.

The assignment is actually in two parts. First, you are required to submit the idea for your storyline to me via my UCF email address (not through WebCourses) for approval prior to consultation by the deadline listed on the Course Schedule. Emails must contain proper salutation and sign-off with your name. I will not review nor count this portion of the assignment as completed without these. In the subject heading for this email write the following exactly as it appears below:

3531 Silent Story

Second, once you receive approval for your story idea from me via email, you will shoot the project in the field and subsequently edit together a coherent and seamless 60ss production according to the assignment's requirements listed above. When finished, you'll export the edited piece as an H.264 file into your Silent Story folder in your personal media files on the EditShare server. The name of this H.264 file will be your first name and last initial followed by SS. Thus the H.264 file name will look like this example:

jamesbSS

Assignments failing to meet required expectations run the risk of not receiving a grade or point reduction. These are due at the assigned time listed in the Course Schedule.

General Grading Guidelines for this Assignment
A = solid photographic practice; imaginative photography; seamless, precise edits with no problems (jump cuts, black holes, etc.); imaginative editing practice; effective use of sound; imaginative use of sound; clear storyline with a bona fide beginning, middle and end; effective technique(s) to tell the story in a seamless and intriguing fashion; appropriate formatting per assignment instructions
B = solid photographic practice; seamless, precise edits with no problems (jump cuts, black holes, etc.); effective use of sound; clear storyline with a bona fide beginning, middle and end; effective technique(s) to tell the story in a seamless and intriguing fashion; appropriate formatting per assignment instructions
C = contains one or more of the following problems: some photographic problems; some problems with editing (seamlessness, timing of edit points, as well as jump cuts); poor management of sound, including quality and levels; missing required components of story per assignment instructions; poor storyline; problems with formatting per assignment instructions
D = contains several of the following problems: unusable shots; some problems with editing (jump cuts, black holes, sound levels, formatting problems per assignment instructions, etc.); bad management of sound including quality and levels; missing required components of story per assignment instructions; evident gaps in storyline or a difficult story to follow; problems with formatting per assignment instructions

PRODUCTION #4 - Lighting
The assignment is in two portions: Portion 1) lighting a subject illuminated by a practical, and Portion 2) lighting a subject illuminated by moonlight.

NOTE: This assignment will furnish me a collection of at least 4 stills shot on the RTV Canon 70D or 80D Digital-SLR cameras. You will work in groups for this assignment which I have already assigned. (Note: it is permissible to trade partners with someone else provided everyone in both partnerships agree to the trade and I'm notified and approve of the trade via email of the change prior to the evaluation sessions for this assignment.)

Grading Objectives for Portion 1:

Ability to depict aesthetic and naturalistic lighting strategy on an individual illuminated by a practical
Ability to properly and aesthetically light a visible environment
Ability to avoid common errors such as contrast problems, lens fare, etc.
Ability to meet formatting requirements
Team member evaluation
Airability

The first portion of the assignment deals exclusively with shooting an individual engaged in a stationary activity (reading, sewing, playing a video game, etc.) at night time with lighting appearing to come exclusively from a practical lamp. Requirements for this portion of the assignment are:

The subject will appear in a natural setting and should appear naturalistic, i.e. not artificially lit.
All talent must come from outside our class.
This will be an interior location.
You must have at least one practical in the shot which is the presumed principle source of illumination on the subject. The practical may be a lamp on a table (end table, night stand, dining table, etc.) or a floor lamp.
You may employ any kind of props or other practicals you feel necessary to depict an ideal and naturalistic lighting situation.
You may employ make-up or costuming, though grading will come from lighting only.
This is required to be an interior shot--no exteriors--at a field location of your choosing.
You will record in JPEG format (not RAW) and adhere to the following rules for this class:
- shoot only in horizontal frame format (no vertical framing)
- there will be no in-camera manipulation of the image (such as vignetted effect or cropping)
- there will be no post-production manipulation of the images in the camera or in programs such as Photoshop
- you may use field photographic manipulations such as zooming to change focal length; altering f-stop, shutter or ISO, etc.
The following will be recorded and submitted for grading:
- A principle shot of the subject
- A minimum of 3 additional shots of your lighting setup that depict how/where you set up your lights, what gear you used (gels, LED fixtures, tungsten, etc.) in relation to the subject. This means that these will necessarily be mostly wide shots. I don't just want to see your lights; I want to see how you set them up in relation to the scene and subject.

Grading Objectives for Portion 2:

Ability to depict aesthetic lighting strategy consistent with moonlight as the light source
Ability to properly and aesthetically light for a dark setting
Ability to avoid common errors such as contrast problems, lens fare, etc.
Ability to meet formatting requirements
Airability

The second portion of this assignment addresses lighting a single individual illuminated by moonlight. Thus moonlight is presumed to be the principle source of light illuminating the subject. Individual requirements for this portion of the assignment are:

The subject may be shot in either an interior or exterior location of your choosing. The main concern, though, is to have access to AC power for lighting since you are required to use available lighting from the RTV facility.
All talent must come from outside our class.
You may employ any kind of props or practicals you feel necessary to depict an ideal and naturalistic lighting situation, however, any practicals employed may not constitute the principle light on the subject.
You may employ make-up or costuming, though grading will come from lighting only.
You will record in JPEG format (not RAW) and adhere to the following rules for this class:
- shoot only in horizontal frame format (no vertical framing)
- there will be no in-camera manipulation of the image (such as vignetted effect or cropping)
- there will be no post-production manipulation of the images in the camera or in programs such as Photoshop
- you may use field photographic manipulations such as zooming to change focal length; altering f-stop, shutter or ISO, etc.
The following will be recorded and submitted for grading:
- A principle shot of the subject
- A minimum of 3 additional shots of your lighting setup that depict how/where you set up your lights, what gear you used (gels, LED fixtures, tungsten, etc.) in relation to the subject. This means that these will necessarily be mostly wide shots. I don't just want to see your lights; I want to see how you set them up in relation to the scene and subject.

When finished shooting the assignment, you will submit to me the requisite shots for both assigned shots (above) in a folder in one of your team members' personal media files on the EditShare server. Name this folder with your group number followed by Lighting. Thus the folder will name will look like this example:

Group1Lighting

All group members will come to the classroom (NSC 152B) at your assigned time. (Arrive a few minutes earlier than your assigned time and wait outside in the hallway. I'll come get you when I'm ready.) Failure to be present at your assigned time will result in an automatic point deduction on the assignment.

There is an additional component to your grading which will be in the form of an anonymous evaluation you perform on the other team member. (You will not perform an evaluation on yourself.) This will be due in my email box prior to your group's scheduled evaluation time. All team member evaluations will use the 3260evalform for this which will be filled out by you noting the team member evaluated and by checking the appropriate boxes in each of the five evaluation categories. Save this file electronically as a WORD document, then attach this to an email and send that email to my ucf email address (not through WebCourses). DO NOT send this as an online doc but as an actual attached WORD file in the email. The subject line in the email must read:

Lighting Assignment Evaluation

There will be no editing of any kind and no leader. The only manipulation you'll perform on your raw footage is to copy only those clips you want me to grade from the camera's SD card into the EditShare using the RTV computers in the RTV facility (NSC 160). For this assignment you are required to use the RTV Canon 70D or 80D cameras (you will not need a tripod).

General Grading Guidelines for this Assignment
A = solid photographic practice; effective lighting; imaginative lighting strategies; good lighting of environment around subject; the ability to express in a single frame mood, potential storyline, setting, etc.; inclusion of all required components per assignment instructions; appropriate formatting per assignment instructions
B = solid photographic practice; good lighting strategy; good lighting of environment around subject; inclusion of all required components per assignment instructions; appropriate formatting per assignment instructions
C = contains one or more of the following problems: some photographic problems; some problems with lighting (unwanted shadows and hot spots, areas of frame missing needed lighting, conspicuous lighting; problems lighting environment around subject); missing required components per assignment instructions; problems with formatting per assignment instructions
D = contains several of the following problems: unusable shots; some problems with editing (jump cuts, black holes, sound levels, formatting problems per assignment instructions, etc.); bad management of sound including quality and levels; missing required components of story per assignment instructions; evident gaps in storyline or a difficult story to follow; problems with formatting per assignment instructions

PRODUCTION #5 - Full Production
Grading Objectives:
Production Assignment #1, #2 and #3 Objectives
-Plus-

Ability to use the production apparatus to effectively meet its intended purpose
Ability to properly script and storyboard a production
Airability

Your assignment is to conceptualize, produce, shoot and edit a coherent and entertaining music video for a single song. For this assignment you may either use the Panasonic UX90 video camera or the Canon 70D or 80D digital-SLR camera.

Things you must have in this assignment:

The song you're shooting this for may be either a commercially-released song or one that hasn't been commercially released.
The music video must be 2-5 minutes long; no shorter/no longer.
This must be conceptual in nature, that is not a literal dramatization of the lyrics themselves.
You must also include a minimum of 2 instances of sound that is not music or the song itself (voice-over, on-screen dialogue or natural sounds, SFX, etc.). How long these non-music sections of sound are is your call, but they must be conspicuous, that is, I must be able to discern them with relative ease. Be very careful to ensure these are complementary to the piece and not gratuitous, that is, inserted merely to meet the requirements of the assignment. You are allowed to use sound at any other point in this piece, though ensure it's meaningful and complements the production, that is, that is isn't gratuitous.
You must submit a storyboard script for consultation. You will receive points for this script and the consultation will factor into those points. At your assigned consultation time with me, you will supply a storyboard script which must be composed on a computer with only the frame images drawn out, i.e. no computer images, clip art or stills. Any handwritten scripts or scripts with frames hand drawn will receive and automatic "0" out of a possible 25 points.

Things you may not have in this assignment:

You may have no musical performance at all, including lip-syncing, in the piece.
Any talent used, including voice-over talent, must come from outside our class. (Productions using talent from our class will not be graded and receive a score of "0.") Appropriate leader and back/front pads required.
These may NOT be parodies of any existing music video or genre or any other type of production, though humor may be used.
No footage from sources other than your own photographic effort may be used for this assignment unless you have secured prior approval from me. The presence of footage not shot by you and not cleared with me before submission is considered cheating and will be dealt with according to course policy for unethical behavior listed on the Course Syllabus as well as a score of "0" for this assignment.

Scripts
Scripts not formatted correctly will not be graded. All scripts submitted will be storyboard scripts and will follow the format requirements below. Particular additional scripting requirements are also listed with each production assignment. (I will potentially not grade scripts not meeting required formatting.)

All wording (descriptive and dialogue) must be typed; I will not accept scripts with any hand-written text
I'd prefer well-drawn storyboard frames, though however you illustrate these the action represented in the frame must be readily discernible by me
All pages stapled together in upper left-hand corner
Scripts may not be contained in folders, binders, notebooks of any kind
Scripts may be printed on only one side of each page of paper - no front/back printing
No downloaded images for storyboard animations are allowed

Headers for Scripts
For Storyboard scripts you must have a header in upper-left corner of each page identifying the following on separate lines

Project Title
Producer: (you)
Project Run Time: (this will be the TRT you estimate this to come to - be sure to include any sounds that occur outside the song itself)
Page number:

(More on this in class.)

I will entertain requests for overnight use if this is demonstrated as necessary to the production. Overnight use must be requested well in advance via email which will then be coordinated with Mr. Yonts.

When finished, you'll export the edited piece as an H.264 file into your Music Video Assignment folder in your personal media files on the EditShare server. The name of this H.264 file will be your first name and last initial followed by MV. Thus the H.264 file name will look like this example:

jamesbMV

Assignments failing to meet required expectations run the risk of not receiving a grade or point reduction. These are due at the assigned time listed in the RTV 3531 Course Schedule.

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