One of the projects I have been working on this summer is making a few movies for BIP. As a journalism major, getting my hands on a camera again has been exciting. As an environmental science major, getting to make videos dealing with this subject matter has been very rewarding.
I won’t bore you with the intricacies of creating the videos, but I did want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the movie making process!
One set of videos are vlogs (video blogs) for our annual National Management Survey. In these videos Dennis vanEnglesdorp gives a quick summary of the major findings from each section. We record these videos in a studio space in our Non-Print Media Library here on campus. There is a fancy looking library set (ala Masterpiece Theater), a conference table with a UMD themed backdrop, and a green screen. We are using the green screen. The idea is to tape Dennis talking about the different results and then superimpose his image onto the slideshow behind him (or maybe I’ll have a little fun with it and superimpose Dennis in a beehive). We have completed filming all of last year’s survey videos, and are hoping to get those up shortly.
The other videos I am working on are for a grant from APHIS. We are creating videos aimed at beginner beekeepers with instructions on what gear they need and how to open the hives. These have been fun to make and we are trying to get everyone in the lab involved. Unfortunately the weather this summer has been less than ideal, either raining for days on end or unbearably hot. We have worked through these issues and are almost done filming all the material we need.
A few weeks ago we had a colleague come in and do the voice-overs for these videos, and we also used the fancy studio room, since it is nice and quiet.
Making the videos has been a fun, sometimes very very hot and sweaty process (you can only stay on top of a roof in 100 degree weather for so long). We just got a new computer in on Monday so the next step is editing. This will be the most time consuming process, but at least I will be in the AC!
Look out for some videos in the coming months. They may not win an Emmy but they will help more people “Bee Informed”!
