Video Production

* * * * *
Wetzel, C. Douglas, Radtke, Paul, H. and Stern, Hervey W. (1994) Instructional effectiveness of video media. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. USA.
Chapter 6 Video Production Methods and Tradecraft (111-133)
Chapter 7 Video Production Methods and Learning (134-157)

• The use of video production methods and techniques in instruction and learning has two goals: (a) producing instructional video materials that meet general standards of technical quality and (b) using the capabilities of video to enhance learning. P111
• The characteristics of good video for the video professional may exceed the requirements of instructional video. An example of this would be the emphasis on production values (music, sets, talent, etc) in commercial video products. P111
• The term tradecraft refers to the rules of video production that have evolved from the experience of video professionals. P111
• Tradecraft rules are discussed under four broad topics (a) camera technique, including the selection of shot length, camera movement, camera angle, and zoom or focus lens effects; (b) shot composition, including picture complexity, balance and proportion, movement, framing, and lighting, (c) editing, including cutting, shot order, and continuity; and (d) the use of special effects such as animation, music, text and captioning. P113
• The basic unit of analysis of any production technique is the shot P113
• A shot can be considered from three perspectives: the content of the shot: how the content is presented, or treated; and how the content and its treatment will be influenced by earlier and later shots. P113
• Camera techniques include the selection of the shot length, camera movement, camera angle, and zoom and focus effects. P113
• Shot lengths are typically described as long shots, medium shots, close-ups, and extreme close-ups. P114
• A one-shot has only a single subject, a two-shot has two subjects, and so on. P114
• Camera movement is used to change the direction, angle, or distance of the video image during a shot. Tradecraft rules suggest that camera movement should always be motivated, controlled, and at an appropriate speed. That is, according to the rules, the camera should only be moved to accomplish a particular objective. Random or accidental movement should be avoided. Any movement should be slow enough for the viewer to understand the changes on the screen. P115
• Camera movement includes the use of panning, tilting, dollying, crane or pedestal movement, and trucking. Panning involves turning the camera horizontally on its mount head to scan an extended horizontal area from a fixed location. Tilting involves changing the vertical direction of a shot by pointing the camera up or down on its mount head. Dollying involves changing the distance from the camera to the subject by moving the camera toward or away from the subject. This is sometimes referred to as Z-axis movement. Crane or pedestal movement involves lifting or lowering the camera while maintaining a fixed shot angle. Trucking involves moving the camera horizontally, to follow the movement of a subject or to scan over an extended area. P115
• Panning. Camera pan shots are used to establish a spatial relationship between two objects or areas. A slow pan is though to create expectation and tension as the viewer watches for a significant detail or action. P115
• Tilting. A camera head tilt upward is used to emphasize height, such as the use of the slow upwards tilt when showing a tall building. A tilt downward is used to emphasize depth, such as the use of downward tilt to show a deep canyon. P116
• Dollying, Craning, and Trucking Physically moving the camera by dollying, crane or pedestal movement, or trucking, is thought to give the viewer a sense of subjective presence, whereas a static camera provides a sense of objectivity and detachment from the action. P116
• Camera Angle. The term camera angle is sometimes used to describe the vertical position of the camera relative to the subject in a high angle shot the camera is shooting from above the subject. In a low angle shot, the camera is shooting from below the subject. P116
• In professional video productions, different camera angles are used for at least four functions: (a) to avoid the so-called jump cut, (b) to clarify the point of view of an off-screen observer, (c) to intensify the emotional or aesthetic impact of a scene, and (d) to create a stylistic effect. P117
• A jump cut occurs when an object seems to suddenly move from one screen position to another because of a small, unintended change in the position of the camera or the subject. P117
• Camera angles are used to clarify the point of view of an off-screen actor by adopting the subjective position of the actor to show approximately what the actor would see. This temporary use of a subjective camera is sometimes inserted into a conversation as when the camera uses a high angle shot to simulate the point of view of an adult speaking down to a child, or a low angle shot to simulate the child speaking up to the adult. (Zettl, 1990) P117
• Zoom and focus techniques use the camera’s ability to change the focal length of shots to magnify or distort the video image, or to isolate objects by narrowing the focus of the camera to portions of the visual field. P117-118
• Zoom effects are created by changing focal length of the lens from narrow to wide (zoom out)or wide to narrow (zoom in). P118
• Lens effects: Overlapping planes; Size and Distance; Linear Perspective; Depth of Field. P118
• Use of lens effects in production.
• Composition refers to the way objects and people are located within the frame of the video screen. P119
• Picture Complexity: Viewers are thought to be able to notice and retain information about no more than seven to nine elements in a television picture, even when given enough time to scan the entire image. P120
• Idea: analyze the composition of the layout of a video lecture, perhaps under Panofsky.
• Balance and Proportion: Different areas of the screen are thought to have different visual weight or importance… The centre of the screen is believed to have more weight than any other area (Cartwright, 1986; Millerston, 1985; Zettl, 1990). The right side of the screen has more weight than the left side and the upper portion of the screen has more weight than the bottom portion. A common geographic division of the screen referred to as the rule of thirds. Suggests that the centre of attention should not be dead centre, but just off the centre of the screen (Compesi & Sherriffs, 1990). P!20
• Objects within the frame also have intrinsic weight because of their colour and shape, Large dark regularly shaped objects are though to have greater weight than small, light, irregularly shaped objects (Fuller 1982). P120
• A symmetrically balanced screen is though to be seen as static, whereas an unbalanced screen is though to be more interesting and dynamic (Cartwright, 1986) P121
• Overuse of the centre of the screen as the focus of action presumably becomes monotonous (Millerson, 1985). To sustain interest, it is recommended that the composition of the screen be periodically unbalanced by moving objects from the centre to the edge of the screen, or by removing an object from the shot without adjusting the angle or focus of the shot. P121
• Framing: The space around the subject’s head and face is important to the way viewers interpreter a shot, In general, it is though that the human face or head should be framed with adequate vertical space (headroom), if facing toward the screen, an adequate horizontal space in the direction of gaze (noseroom), if facing to the side of the screen. P121
• Lines, Boundaries, and Vector: When filming human subjects, tradecraft rules suggest that the shot should be arranged to prevent natural cutoff lines (i.e., wrists, mouth, chin, waist, knees) from coinciding with the screen edge, because viewers thought to confuse apparent visual boundaries with the physical edges of subjects and objects (Fuller 1982). 123
• From an aesthetic standpoint, horizontal lines are thought to be more restful and comfortable to the viewer whereas vertical lines are more dynamic, powerful, and exciting. A tilted horizontal line creates a sense of disorientation and discomfort, because humans are though to be conditioned to see the world in terms of horizontal and vertical structures (Zewttl, 1990). P123
• Lighting in the context of television production, means the deliberate control of light and shadow effects and the secondary effect of light on colours on the video screen. P123
• The two major lighting types are chiaroscuro lighting and flat lighting. Chiaroscuro lighting creates defined areas of light and shadow, uses a lower overall level of lighting, emphasizes the contrasts between light and shadow with a rapid “fall-off” of light, and creates darker and deeper shadows. P123
• Flat light removes or drastically eliminates shadows, and emphasizes visibility and clarity over drama and emotion. Flat lighting illuminates the entire image and uses a high level of illumination so that light is evenly distributed. P124
• Use of colour. Colour is used in television production to convey information, and to express a mood, emotion or attitude…. A major use of colour is to create a visual mood, or to suggest an emotion or attitude. P124
• Editing techniques: Editing refers to the way individual shots are assembled into scenes and then scenes into episodes and programs. P 125
• Professional tradecraft rules advise the video producer to change shots frequently in order to sustain the viewers’ interest. It is though by some that a shot should not be sustained for more than 6 to 8 seconds. (Cartwright, 1986). P126
• An important attribute of video is the ability to compress time and distance by cutting out irrelevant sequences and replacing them with visual cues indicating that time has passed or movement has taken place. P128.
• Seeing a person walk out the frame of view at the end of a shot is though to be accepted as a cue that the person is moving to a new, perhaps distant location. P128
• Audio: Although video is often referred to as a visual medium, the audio components of a television presentation are a major channel of information and a significant aspects of any video production effort (Borrows, 1989, Zettl, 1990). P128
• Sound: Sound serves several functions in a television production. P128
• When a sound is assigned to a specific source, the quality of the sound should match the location of the source in relation to the listener (the camera). P128
• Music.
• Words on the screen: As a consequence of the limited resolution of TV, short lines of text should be used so as to maximize their size. No more than about q0 vertical lines of text should be used, with about 25 characters per line, and half letter spacing between lines. P130
• Presentations of text should be consistent and should be over a background that makes words easy to read. Words should not be placed over backgrounds that blend with the text or that are so busy as to distract or compete with the text. P130
• Animation: Many of the guidelines are variations of the rules governing live video and reflect the limitations of presenting visual information in a small two-dimensional space. P131
• Professional tradecraft rules are intended to avoid confusing the viewer, given the limitations of video as a presentation medium. These rules have grown out of the practical experience of television production practitioners rather than educational or training experts. Those interested in using video as a teaching device are generally obliged to follow these rules as minimum standards of television quality. P134
• The latter are attempted under the tacit assumption that some techniques could be used to teach students more effectively. P134
• The choice of appropriate formats and instructional techniques for televised instruction, and the application of specific attributes of television productions such as zooming, panning, cutting and sound and visual effects, otherwise called the formal features of television. P134
• Analyse the Idea of: appropriate formats and instructional techniques for televised productions versus the application of the attributes of television.
• The production techniques described in the discussion of practitioner tradecraft rules have been used in a variety of ways to influence learning. In some instances, they have been used to implement specific instructional strategies such as inserting questions or other devices to encourage viewer participation and involvement in the presentation. In other instances, they have been used to enhance the viewer to pay attention to important parts of the video presentation. P135
• As Clark and Salomon (1986) observed, this work suggests that instructional production techniques should be oriented to conveying comprehensible information rather than attracting attention (p467). P135
• General Presentation Format: Instructional video may take a variety of formats, It may adopt the form of commercial television programs; for example, a documentary, a dramatization, a panel discussion, a news broadcast, a commercial advertisement, a show, or the much-maligned talking-head lecture. It may also break from the familiar commercial forms and adopt a strictly instructional form such as drill and practice, simulation, demonstration, job aid, or tutorial. P135
• Dramatization: In general, the research tends to suggest that simpler, more straightforward formats are preferable to complex or elaborate formats in terms of viewer attention and understanding. Researchers found that programmes that develop a single topic are better attended and result in better immediate understanding than programs with short, magazine-style formats (Wright 1984). P136
• Dramatization also appears to be more effective in presenting affective attitudes than direct expository presentations using on- or off-screen authority figures (McCullagh, 1986). P136
• Nugent, Tripton and Brooks (1980) compared four presentation formats for learning effectiveness and viewer appeal: off-screen narrator with accompanying visuals, on-screen host/narrator, on-screen authority/model, and dramatization. Separate videotapes were Separate videotapes were prepared on two topics in each of the four formats and shown to groups of college-level chemistry students. The topics addressed personal values and professional ethics. The authority/model format was the most effective for both learning the material and in viewer appeal, followed by dramatization, on-screen narration, and off-screen narration. P136-137
• Presentation Pacing: In instructional video it has become an axiom to condemn this use of medium in favour of a more deliberate pace intended to give the viewer to digest and integrate the information as it is presented. P138
• Program Length: The other major time effect relates to the effects of presentation length and the relative rise and fall in viewer attention during a program. The matter of program length has not been widely researched. The available studies tend to favour shorter presentation periods, with an upper limit or about 25 to 30 minutes (Baggaley, 1973).
• Based on the well-known “serial-position effect” video producers might assume that the viewer’s attention and learning would be greatest at the beginning of a program and would then gradually fall off through the middle portion. P139
• Retention of information at the end of the program would rise if tested immediately, but not after a delay. P139
• Brandon (1956) found more learning from the middle portion of an instructional video program than from either the beginning or the end. Jorgensen (1955) found more retention from the end of a programme than from the middle or beginning. P139
• Idea: because of the idea of a better retention at the beginning of a shot, an index would be good, because there are as many beginnings as indexed points.
• Encouraging Student Participation: A variety of presentation techniques have been explored in efforts to encourage viewer involvement and participation. Some of the experimental interventions used in early investigations were eventually better adapted to more interactive programmed learning or learner-managed techniques than to more conventional fixed-paced linear presentations of films and videos. P139-140
• Inserting questions: Merely inserting questions in linear, noninteractive presentations to generally arouse viewer interest in material has little effect unless knowledge of correct answers is induced in some way. P140
• Devices to increase General Viewer Arousal: The introduction of specific visual and sound effects purely to attract the viewer’s attention to the program, but without any relation to instructional content per se, has had limited success. P141
• Devices to increase General Viewer Arousal: Setting Verisimilitude, Cutting, Sound Effects, Music, Humour, Colour.
• …special visual effects inserted between scenes, such as wipes, fades, or complex, visual patterns, have no apparent effect on learning. P142
• Cutting: Rapid cutting (transitions between shots) in a video or film presentation also acts to increase viewer attention) (Kraft 1986) P142
• Sound Effects: The use of sound effects in video has been inconsistent in its effect on learning, despite its ability to arouse and sustain interest in a presentation. P143
• Music: Music has generally shown little positive effect on the instructional effectiveness of a video or film presentation (Morris 1988b). P143
• Humour: The use of humour in instructional films or video was generally discouraged in the early research literature for its lack of effect on learning. Despite its effectiveness of increasing viewer attention. P144
• Arguments agains the use of humour include suggestions that I promotes a “playful” state in which information cannot be processed efficiently (McGhee, 1980). P144
• Colour: The most common finding has been that adding colour has a small positive effect on viewer learning. P145
• Increasing Attention and Learning through cuing: Zooming, Dollying, Shot Length, Panning, Camera Angle, Cutting and Editing.
• This use of production techniques refers to specific attempts to increase the viewer’s attention and learning by highlighting important element of a video presentation, cuing and focusing the viewer’s attention, and clarifying the content to ease comprehension. P147
• Specific cuing techniques include camera effects; cutting editing, and composition effects; uses of captions; and uses of accompanying commentary/narration. P147
• Zooming: The camera technique of zooming (e.i., enlarging or shrinking a video image by changing the focal length of a lens) is a commonly used method for achieving changes in the length of shots without moving the camera or the subject. Baggaley (1973) suggested that the “zoom-out” technique might be used to cue the learner that the presenter is temporarily disengaging, for example to allow the viewer to take notes or to reflect on what was said. P147
• Dollying. This techniques is sometimes used in instructional and commercial video productions to simulate physical movement of a character through space as seen from a subjective point of view. P148
• Although there is no significant difference in the attention level of students to close-up and medium-length shots (R. Williams, 1965) a sustained use of long shots results in a loss of viewer attention over time. P149
• Shot Length. For instructional video, students apparently prefer presentations that use simple, fixed, and consistent shot lengths to presentations that vary the location and length of shots (Corbin and McIntyre, 1961), contrary to the professional judgement that a variety of shots is necessary to sustain viewer interest and attention (Cartwrith, 1986). P149
• Panning: A related piece of research (of Huston and Wright 1983) suggests that being able to orient persons and objects within a spatial context is an important element in learning. P149
• Camera Angle: Camera Angle effects have been studied primarily for their effect on the viewer’s perception of an actor or on-screen presenter… From an instructional standpoint, these effects are important whenever an on-screen dramatic character or a presenter is used to convey information. P149
• Experimental data suggest that presenting a narrator, lecturer or other on-screen “expert” from a half profile angle, so that the speaker is perceived as speaking to a listener just off-screen, increases the speaker’s perceived reliability and expertise, compared to a direct, full-face presentation into the camera. Baggaley, 1975)
• The study was intended to inform the producers of television commercials on ways to counter the tendency of viewers to skip past commercials in videotaped programs- a practice called zapping. P150
• Cutting and Editing: As already discussed, cutting and editing techniques influence viewer’s level of attention, comprehension, and retention through control of the pace of a presentation. P151
• Kraft (1986) found that viewers tend to prefer video presentations that have been cut into a series of shots over ones that are uncut, continuous sequences. P151
• The so-called establishing shot is usually the first shot of a new scene –a long or wide-angle shot that places subsequent medium and close-up shots within a larger context. Directional continuity refers to the frequently stated rule that a series of camera shots should always preserve the same relative orientation to subjects in the scene. P152
• Presenting Verbal Material: A final set of production techniques relates to the use of verbal material to supplement the visual image in a video presentation. Verbal material may be introduced either through on-screen text or audio narrative. P153
• Text on the Screen. The production variables related to the use of text on the screen centre on the location of the text; the number of words that should be displayed at one time; the style, colour, size and spacing of the text; the length of time the text should remain on the screen; and whether the words should be displayed before, after, or at the same time as the visual or audio material they are intended to explain or supplement. P154
• Narration. Production variations in the use of spoken information include the use of an on-screen or off-screen narrator, speed of speech, intermittence of speech, and the relative reading level and complexity of the verbal material. P156
• The speed of narrationshould depend on the complexity of the material and the other visual and auditory information being presented at the same time. Too rapid a presentation results in a loss of comprehension, and some loss may also be associated with too slow a rate of delivery (Travers, 1967) P156
• Narration speed should be slowed slightly when used to accompany full-motion video images, but the speed of narration for an average audience presented with simple content should be about 160 words per minute. P157

Alberto Ramirez Martinell