VIDEO PRODUCTION

When I first heard I was going to produce a video, I thought it was almost an impossible and unrealizable task. This is partly because I had always considered myself a person who could at best shoot a video. But editing? No, never.... Well, that is what I used to think. Yesterday I was happy that I found that I had been wrong. I am happy I worked in a group because we helped each other a lot.

In general, video production includes a series of stages. The video I watched on video production process  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rWcQdH7-wE ) revealed that it is really a labor intensive process. It includes creating an outline of the film with key scenes, structure and characters, writing the screenplay, storyboarding in which you have to consider camera angles, how you are going to put scenes together, in which direction the characters have to move, and etc. Sometimes you need to think of financial issues. You might need to turn to fundraising to be able to realize your project. The film production process is really time consuming. You have to think of camera angles, proper framing and any other seemingly unimportant things. By the way, I learned a lot of interesting stuff from some videos I watched on proper framing and using different camera angles and movements for achieving different effects ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbeVSx1Gf4k and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYVV6hKtuNk ). Well, after the film shooting there comes probably one of the most labor-intensive processes - the editing process. The book I scanned on this topic ("Digital Video Essentials: Shoot, Transfer, Edit, Share" by Sadun, Erica) was somehow useful for getting a general idea on preparation, video production and editing techniques. But one drawback it had is that it is just a book. There is no reinforcement of the information we read there in form of video illustrations. So, it was somehow difficult for me to imagine some of the stuff described there. In our video editing process we used the principle of playing with different options in Windows Movie Maker ( a very user-friendly tool) and finally finding a proper solution.  

It goes without saying that the pre-production, video production and editing processes are really creative ones. Besides, it is really engaging creating a video in the topic of which you are genuinely interested. In our group, we had a lot of fun while creating our video. We were so motivated. 

Now let's turn to the implications video production has for teaching English. Here I would like to mention both the advantages and disadvantages of video production. The greatest advantage is that it is really a creative process at the end of which learners get a tangible product. Besides, the 21st century learners like to use technology everywhere. The greatest drawback of video production is that it is really a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. Our learners, be they schoolchildren, university children or adult learners, are generally busy people. We should consider this factor when including video production in our assignments. If we do not give really clear instructions, the video production, however creative it might be, may not lead to the development of language skills. However, this does not imply that we should not use video production in ELT. We should just keep an eye on time available and the given context. We should also take care that our instructions state clearly that the target language has to be somehow used in the video. 

In general, introducing different types of technological tools in ELT is really a fantastic idea as far as we remember that these are only TOOLS and that our principal aim is helping learners develop second or foreign language SKILLS. I love these tools and I am going to use them in appropriate contexts after careful consideration of their implications for teaching English:)