Where to Start

Your First Video Essay Assignment: The Parameters

Small talk

Short length of time of training
Short duration of video
Small budget
Few filming locations

Begin with

An assignment that includes a video essay
Not an assignment that only has a video essay as the main deliverable

Aim for an initial video essay length of 1.5 - 3 minutes.

Learn how students process this first assignment by allowing for a flexible duration

Don’t grade on duration of final video in grading rubric (especially if it’s a video essay that includes interviewing subjects—a student learning the process of on-camera interviewing often learns later in the skill-building process how to make the subject more and more succinct).

Factor 12 hours of training for:

Research
Story development
Video essay production organization
Post-product editing

Many students have spent 15-20+ hours on their assignment (because of enthusiasm and commitment).

By restricting assignment content, the field research development work required of the student is dramatically decreased.

You may need to approach specific nearby communities ahead of time to ascertain their receptivity to being filmed.

Restrict work of a video essay project to take no more than 5-8 hours (production time) while filming in the field (i.e. 2-4 hours of footage, maximum) and in locations easily accessible to students.

If borrowing equipment from Lamont Library Media Lab, the standard, permitted length of time to check out camera equipment is 24 hours.

Your Assignment: Is It for an Individual Student-Filmmaker or a Student-led Production Team?

Do you want the video essay to be a team or individual student-based project?

This decision affects the learning and the work

The learning process of producing a video in a team differs greatly from the creation of a video as an individual. For example, it has been argued that teams play a vital role in organizational learning

Teaching outcomes dictate the best format.

Gains in the teaching of team building may be to the detriment of specific types of cognitive learning, and may impact time required.

Your audience

Decide on the audience before beginning
Decide whether the video essays will be shown beyond your private review or beyond the classroom. This is critical when it comes to obtaining permissions from those being interviewed or filmed and the locations where a student films.

All students should be informed that they can be liable if they choose to show their video publicly without properly clearing archival footage, gaining location permission, and obtaining appropriate legal consent from all individuals interviewed and filmed on camera.

The Topic of the Assignment

Will the assignment be guided by topic or be open ended? Ask yourself:

Will students need to focus on a similar topic or, perhaps, specific aspects of a pre-determined topic of your choice? If you restrict the assignment content, consider approaching specific communities ahead of time
Can they focus on entirely different subject matter? If so, how would this impact the time needed by each student to develop their desk and field research work?
Add these considerations to the length of time needed to complete the assignment.

Required Equipment and Software

Personal set of headphones

Do not use headphones that have active noise cancellation circuits. Students will lose their ability to monitor the natural sound that a camera picks up and records. Instead, use headphones that have passive sound isolation in the form of acoustic padding in the earpieces (which helps students better hear what the camera is picking up), or use basic headphones with no noise cancellation.
Note cost benefit: sound-isolating headphones are cheaper than noise-cancelling headphones

Use a notebook or tablet (easily accessible and efficient) for notes about phone interviews, story development, research, location scouting, on-camera interviews (good and negative responses), additional footage (referred to as “b-roll”) and follow-up needs.
Personal smartphone or a handheld camera*
Tripod*
Smartphone camera mount for tripod
For example, use a Joby GripTight ONE mount. These cost about $20.00.*
NOTE: If you use a smartphone, it is often not possible to monitor the sound with headphones. Instead, a student can use a small sound recording device like a Zoom H4N.*
Personal computer with editing software (or use of computer stations at the Lamont Media Lab – preloaded with software) to transfer and download footage to the external hard drive.*
2 external hard drives (“HDs”) per student (bought by the student or by the course as loan-outs).
- Be sure to buy drives designed for editing. The drive is used to store and edit materials in cases where a student is not editing on their personal computer.
- If a student chooses to use their own computer, the computer must have enough storage capacity (1-2 TB) and RAM capacity to run the editing software (the amount of RAM needed depends on the make and model of the computer and the type of editing software being used).
- Be sure to check ahead of time the capacity of a student’s computer. A media expert at Lamont can help assess the capacity of a student’s personal computer. Projects cannot be stored on the computers at Lamont Library. You need a second drive to prevent project loss due to a corrupted drive.

Other accessories include adaptive smartphone lenses and lights. These are not necessary for basic filming and video capture, are not currently available at Lamont, and can be expensive.

If you forget even one of these items on the day of shooting, you may not be able to film or produce properly. Pay particular attention that you have all necessary equipment.

To continue learning more, please go to Preparation.

*Camera equipment can be borrowed from or used at the Lamont Library Media Lab for a 24-hour window of time. The computer stations can be used at any time the library is open. It is a “first come, first served” system.

For a PDF version of this page, download here.