Leadership Advancement Scholarship Promotional Video

As a sophomore in college, I was one of the co-chairs of the marketing and publicity committee for the Leader Advancement Scholarship. This is basically a committee of twenty students that are charged with the on campus promotion of the Leadership Institute at CMU. The committee is also in charge of "LEAD Week" a week full of activities that promote leadership on campus. One of the primary goals of this committee since its inception in 1998 had been to produce a promotional video for the scholarship. Due to the terms of officers in the committee and lack of specialization, no one had been in office long enough to produce a video when I became a chair in 2004. Due to my prior experience with video editing and moderate education in shooting, I took the lead on the project and finished it by the summer 2005.

After Effects

I did quite a bit of advanced work for the intro of the video. It encompasses a lot of masks and rotoscoping. I also made custom titles using several layers within after effects that are used throughout the video.

One to Two Person Interviews

Thanks to the help of the Dvinfo forums and Walter Graff's great lighting tutorials that he has on line I am confident in staying that I think I really got pretty good at doing a one to two person interview. I used the strategy of scouting the location, taking pictures, then drawing up a light diagram for the day of the shoot. I also made a custom extension cable out of really heavy gage wire as well as a 1200 watt dimmer. I also learned a few tricks about how to ask the right questions to the people being interviewed so that their responses add to the video.

How is the Video Used?

To my knowledge, the video is always used annually when a new group of students are brought into the Leadership Advancement Scholarship. I think it is also used on a more sporadic schedule when the need of it arises. Thanks to the work I did on this video and in the committee, I was asked to be a part of the scholarship advisory board as a senior. In this role I was a mentor for the new chairs of the Lead Week committee and also worked with a core group to enact significant changes within the scholarship protocol that is still in effect today.