Fall 2023 | Sec 001 | Location Ross 1240 | M.W.F | 11:15-12:05
- Dr. Marc C. Santos
- www.marccsantos.com
- marc.santos@unco.edu
Student Hours: My office hours are on Thursday from 12:30 until 3:00. I am also available on Tuesdays by email appointment if you are unable to meet during those hours.
Course Introduction
This course develops your knowledge of and abilities working with digital video. While the course does require you have access to some kind of digital recorder (a smart phone will do), it does not anticipate any prior experience editing video. I hope this course accommodates a broad range of student experience and trajectories. I think of this class as a workspace–the goal is to provide you an opportunity to experiment and develop. Grades on this class are primarily based on investment and effort, not necessarily the quality of the final product.
It should provide you with the skills necessary to pursue jobs as a social media specialist or marketing/communication specialist (these jobs often call for experience making promotional videos, vlogging, streaming, or making tutorial videos). You might pursue a job as a multimedia specialist. If you are a gamer, then you might develop a twitch stream or even your own gaming review site. Should you aim to be either a scholar or a teacher, you will find that more and more research and teaching is expected to incorporate multimodality. While writing remains a valuable and marketable skill in our culture, increasingly the modes of delivery are expected to be more than simply words on a page. This course aims to make you comfortable with a variety of genres and modes stemming from video.
This course is divided into two halves. For the first half, we will work on a series of smaller projects to develop your familiarity with many aspects of the composing process. We’ll work on lighting, shot angles, audio recording and editing, video editing, text and title options, screen capturing, conducting interviews, and compressing and distributing video. In the past I have used the Adobe Classroom in a Book series for supplemental instruction; this semester I am going to dedicate Wednesday to tech tutorials–from working through the embedded Adobe Rush tutorials to some of the more beefy tutorials included in Adobe Premiere Pro. Occasionally we will supplement these with youtube tutorials.
In the second half of class, we will work on two longer projects. The first project, inspired by scholar Gregory Ulmer’s work on postmodern philosophy and internet technology, will be a documentary project based on Maira Kalman’s And the Pursuit of Happiness. This project will ask you to identify a unique place in Colorado, visit that place, and document your subjective engagement with the space in a way that reflects Kalman’s idiosyncratic style and Ulmer’s genres of the “mystory” and/or the “MEmorial.” The project will involve some theoretical readings on phenomenology, derive, and affect–your task will be to imbue your video with a feel and vibe of a place.
Our other project will involve documenting the Fall 2024 Go West Film Festival. I have some video capture from the 2023 festival that we will edit for social media. We will also collect and edit video from this year’s event. Our goal will be to cut up some 59 second clips for social media distribution and to produce some 3-4 minute videos for a youtube channel.
Text and Materials
I work hard to keep my course costs manageable. That said, as both a technology course and a production course, there are a few expenses beyond the normal costs of books.
This course has two required texts:
- Maira Kalman, …And the Pursuit of Happiness. There’s a link to the book in blog form there. You can purchase it via Amazon.com for cheap.
- Schroeppel, Bare Bones Camera Course for Film & Video. This one should be at the bookstore. You need this one by next week.
Additionally, this course requires access to the Adobe Creative Suite. These programs can be accessed at several UNC computer labs. Students who wish to work at home might consider signing up for the Adobe Creative Cloud ($19 month for students). I certainly don’t expect you to sign up for the Adobe access–the Ross 1240 computer lab is generally open all the time and the computers in the library also have the creative suite on them.
This course requires access to a digital recording device (likely a smartphone) AND a tripod. A smart phone capable of recording digital video is sufficient, but students will be required to purchase a tripod for their phone; these typically cost around $10-30.
I will ask you to create a YouTube account (with or without a pseudonym–we’ll talk about this in class) for this course. You will upload videos and submit links to Canvas. If you already use another site for video upload, then that’s fine–you don’t need to specifically create a youtube account for the class. But you will need someplace to host your video files, since Canvas gets angry about large file sizes.
I strongly recommend you pick up a microphone for recording audio. Microphones greatly improve audio quality. And, after teaching this course for 8 years, I’ll say that recording quality audio is by far the biggest challenge we will face this semester. A mic typically costs between $20-25 dollars. Note that the UNC library has equipment rentals.
I also recommend iPhone lens adapters.
Course Work and Projects
Work list:
- Introductory Video
- How to…
- Opening Shot
- Montage
- Interviewing a Person #1
- Go West Edit
Project One: The Kalman Project
In your second project, you will create a short video inspired by the work of artist and writer Maira Kalman. This semester will will be working with Kalman’s book My Favorite Things.
- Deliverables: a 4-6 minute video project with multiple audio files. Additionally, you will complete a reflection survey that explores your design choices, intentions, and workflow for the project.
- Time: 4 weeks
- Skills: Emphasis on video quality including lighting, varying shots and shot length, establishing shot, developing credits/graphics, and transitions. We will also work with Audacity to optimize audio recordings.
Project Two: Go West Film Festival
In past semesters, we’ve worked to develop promotional videos for UNC’s Liberal Arts Council. This semester, we will be working with the Go West Film Festival to document their fall 2023 festival. I’ll have more details regarding this project later this fall (right now I know they are planning for the first or second week of November).
- Deliverable: a 4-5 minute video uploaded to YouTube with closed captions and a transcript.
- Skills: videography and video editing, shooting on location, emphasis on lighting, interviewing.
The course will be evaluated based on the following scale:
A+: 97-100% A: 93-96% A-: 90-92% B+: 87-89% B: 83-86% B-: 80-82% C+: 77-79% C: 73-76% C-: 70-72% D+: 67-69% D: 63-66% D-: 60-62% F: 0-59%
Here are the requirement weights:
- Work List: 35%
- Tutorials and Minor Assignments: 20%
- Kalman Project: 25%
- Go West Project: 20%
Assessment
As I indicated above, assessment in this class is mostly labor-based. I know working with technology can cause anxiety and freak people out a bit. To help diffuse that anxiety, I will base the majority of your grade on whether you made an honest, dedicated attempt at an assignment. If you pass in an assignment (relatively) on-time, then you are assured an 85% on that project so long as it meets basic expectations and assignment parameters. If an assignment fails to earn an 85%, then you will have a chance to revise and resubmit. Grades above an 85% will reflect an advanced understanding of course readings and tutorials.
Late Work
You will quickly see that I assign a lot of work, and that those assignments are generally progressively structured. It is important that you keep up with assignments. But I also understand that life happens. As such, I will accept any assignment up to seven days after its due date for up to an 85%. On rare occassions, I will mark an assignment as time sensitive–those assignments *must* be completed on time.
Attendance
First, this is a “hands-on” course, and much of the learning you will do in here comes from trying (and, sometimes, failing) to do things in class. Virtually every study of attendance and grades reinforces their strong correlation.
Second, attendance has been… different… since COVID. I have had classes in which virtually everyone attends without problem and I have had classes in which attendance was spotty at best.
Third, for the last 10 years I have not tracked or graded attendance. I trust that you will come to class if you can. I think that is an important part of treating you like adults because you are, in fact, adults.
So, in review, attendance is complicated for me. Here’s where I’ve landed for this class: I will take attendance every class. You can miss up to 4 classes without penalty. Please DO NOT email to tell me why you are missing a class. You don’t have to do that. And do not ask me to excuse these absences. You get four days.
You ABSOLUTELY SHOULD email me if something serious comes up such as a death in the family or an extended illness. Depending on the situation, and your previous progress in the course, I may be able to work with you to excuse those absences or to discuss an incomplete for the semester.
During week 8 of the semester, I will revisit the attendance policy based on how things are going.
Disability Accommodations
Any student requesting disability accommodation for this class must inform the instructor giving appropriate notice. Students are encouraged to contact Disability Support Services (www.unco.edu/dss ) at (970) 351-2289 to certify documentation of disability and to ensure appropriate accommodations are implemented in a timely manner.
Parental Accommodations
As a parent, I understand that life can come at you fast. If you would miss a class session due to babysitting issues, please don’t. Feel free to bring your child to class.
Student Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity
All members of the University of Northern Colorado community are entrusted with the responsibility to uphold and promote five fundamental values: Honesty, Trust, Respect, Fairness, and Responsibility. These core elements foster an atmosphere, inside and outside of the classroom, which serves as a foundation and guides the UNC community’s academic, professional, and personal growth. Endorsement of these core elements by students, faculty, staff, administration, and trustees strengthens the integrity and value of our academic climate.
The Department of English at UNC has adopted the following policy regarding plagiarism. Pretending that another¹s work is one¹s own is a serious scholarly offense known as plagiarism. For a thorough discussion of plagiarism, see the Dean of Students website:
http://www.unco.edu/dos/academicIntegrity/students/definingPagiarism.html
Students who are caught plagiarizing will receive a final grade of “F” in the course. In addition, they will be reported to the Chair of the Department of English and the Dean of Students office for possible further disciplinary action. If you need help with understanding documentation systems and avoiding plagiarism beyond the instruction given in class and as seen in the UNC Code of Conduct, speak with the instructor or visit the UNC Writing Center’s web site for a series of PowerPoint tutorials at http://www.unco.edu/english/wcenter/academicintegrityindex.html. Instructors use experience and a plagiarism detection service, Safe Assignment, sponsored by the University, to aid in spotting cases of plagiarism. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Some but not all UNC instructors regard double or repeat submissions of one¹s own work as a form of plagiarism. If you intend to use in this course written material that you produced for another course, please meet with me first. Otherwise, you may be guilty of cheating. I am open to remediating and expanding previously completed work in this class.
