Making of PROJECT HOME RUN 07 Vid ( Phase 1 ~ VIDEOGRAPHY )

Equipment Preparation
This year, Jurong Spring YEC IT Subgroup was placed in charge of filming Project Home Run 2007. The process was considerably tedious as we only had 2 people (myself and Weijun) to capture shots from around Republic Polytechnic. To worsen the situation, we did not manage to borrow a professional video camera and had to make do with a lower-end camcorder and a digital camera with built-in video-taking function.

Given the large campus of Republic Polytechnic, it was definitely a challenge for just 2 of us to go around capturing all the shots we needed. On top of that, we had to tackle the issue of different games ongoing at the same time at each station. We had to plan to film all stations so that the final video will look comprehensive.

As we were unable to get hold of professional video camera in time for the event, we had to rely on our Digital Camera with built-in Video-Taking function instead ... Casio Exilim EX S600. It performed fairly well, only that we had to take care of battery life and storage space.

Planning against Manpower Limitations

Fortunately, we had drawn up a concise plan of the videography of the day’s event so that we would not miss out on any major happenings. Thankfully, Weijun was there to help coordinate with me so that we could track most of the event’s flow. Even then, we had to constantly run from one location to another so that we could get hold of a variety of footages to make the video turn out well.

Given the Program Schedule of the day's event (above), Weijun and I promptly drafted out the our corresponding Video Plan (below)

We had to conceptualize the outlook of the final video so that we can effectively capture relevant footages. Our main idea was to:
1) Present background information of the event – participants involved and objectives of the event etc
2) Actual Game Play – string of clips of the children mingling with volunteers at the different stations
3) Celebrations and prize-giving ceremony
4) Photoslideshow

Weijun and I chose 1 Family Center each to follow the kids prior to the actual ceremony at Republic Polytechnic so as to track interesting happenings along the way.

Planning against Equipment Limitations
Equipment-wise, we ran the risk of inadequate storage space on the SD Cards and battery life unable to last the length of the event. In order to remedy the problems, we had to bring along a laptop to periodically transfer the recorded footages from the SD Cards to the laptop so as to free up space on the Cards. Low battery life posed yet another problem, so we had to equip ourselves with chargers to recharge our equipment during lunch hour when the activities stopped temporarily.

Running low on battery life was simply inevitable as we had to shoot for close to 7 hours in total. We thus had to periodically find plugpoints within RP as we move around the stations to recharge our equipment in order to continue with the filming.

Fujitsu Lifebook E8210 ... another equipment which came in handy... Especially because footages were shot at best resolution possibe, hence resulting in storage space of the SD cards being readily exhausted. Video files thus needed to be transferred into the laptop from time to time in order to free up space for continued shooting.

Limited to only 2GB space of video filming, we had to make use of the laptop to maximize the usage of the SD Cards for the entire day.

Throughout the 6-hour long event, I had to recharge and transfer about 3 to 4 times. Though tiring, we were glad to be a part of this meaningful event and to pick up some tips from the professional photographers engaged that day. As advised by James, the leader of the photography team, we should get more people to help film different areas next time, especially for such a big-scale project like this. Guess we pulled it off quite well despite the short-handedness…ha

In any case, it was a great learning experience. Proper planning definitely helps!