Hello people,

Is my first post on this forum I trully need some insight on the following production, let me explain:

*We are going to produce educational videos from university subjects (film teachers giving lessons on whiteboard, in front of white background and green chroma, etc...).

* We'll start with mathematical, history, human body and french subjects.

* The teachers are not actors. But they will take a course on speech, entonation, etc...to help them to speak better (the cant take acting clasess, university wont pay extra for this)

* We have to make full material for 4 subjects by december 2007 (6 month)

* We'll be using a Canon Xl1s and recording straight to a pc (with a tape recording as backup) and a FOCUS harddrive when recording outside the studio.

* We have professional lighting (flourescent in the ceiling and four 1K hotlights on tripods).

* The teachers will have reunions to discuss and prepare the documentation and material (paper, power point, etc...). We are going to virtualize this material recording the teachers explaining this material and with screencast.

The question is regarding how would you handle the production of recording this project?

We are afraid because they aren't professionals; they dont know anything about how things in video takes so much time; they might get tired, etc...

This is a project and we are very lucky the university is backing up, by for now this 6 month project is a demo and by the end of this period the university will make the decision to make it final and continue doing more subjects...so we have to be able to do it the best we can for both parts.

We have to take into account the teachers wont get paid any extra money for coming to record with us (that's why we have to make it very easy for them...something like come - go as soon as possible). For the demo we're choosing willing people as to at least have and advantage, but not the less it has to be as free-pain as possible for them and hopelly for us too!

What methodology would you use regarding:

1. Recording periods (by hour, day, week, month) of each teacher during the 6 months to be able to get the job done.

2. Recording strategies to avoid calling teachers to having to came back another day to reapeat something because in post-produccion something went wrong (speaking mistakes for example). One solution is of course to record several times to back up, but how do you make easy on them.

3. Would it be better to record the whole 5 days of the weeks during the first hours of the morning and leave later hours for post-production (editing).

4. Or use for example 3 days a week to record during the 8 hours of work and leave the rest of the 2 days of the week to post-production. This in case something goes wrong we can try to make a new appointment to repeat recording (of course we want to avoid this as much as we can).

5. More things???

Any insight, questions, useful tips, experience or anything helpful will be very kind.

Thanks in avanced and forgive me for my english, is not my mother language.

Jose:

What is the intended purpose? If you are looking to be able to offer classes at home for students I would not ask the teachers to act.

I would suggest leaving the teachers in situations where they are most comfortable. A local college here has placed an actual class room inside the studio. It seats 10-15 students, has a whiteboard, document camera as well as projector for the teachers power point. The document camera and computer feed directly into the studio switch as well as the 2 cameras in the room.

The teacher then teaches the class. In some cases it is taught the first time live on the air. Leave the mistakes in don't ask them to stop and even better for you....live edit. After 1 or 2 classes the teacher will become comfortable with the set up since it is almost what they are doing already. When the semester ends then you have a complete set of classes that can be re-aired, webcast or given to future students on DVD or VHS.

Teachers who are used to lecturing to large groups would transistion well, others will mainly need to remember to repeat any questions from the in-studio class for the benefit of the at-home audience.

Here is a link to the information....
http://www.highlands.edu/academics/extended/ghtv.htm

Hope this helps.

Randy

Hello Randall,

The purpose is for students to study at home and at the university. It can't be done in the classroom, we are not looking for filming a regular class. We need to film the teachers alone in our studio. We have already made a demo with a faculty member and it came out pretty well, this is what got the university to back up the project and we have to make it with the same way. This teacher is the one that had the idea and of course this was very helpful.

We are in a step of recruiting other staff members (teachers) to make another demo (bigger), this are people who like the idea of the project and this would help, but I'm sure they dont know this stuff takes a lot of time and can be painful at time, they are not actors, but at least they know their subject very well. I would like to make it as flawless as possible and be easy on them, thats why I'm asking for tips, suggestiongs, methods of more experience people to give a helping hand.

Thanks for the answers.

Jose