Video Assignment

Assignment Overview and Goals

This assignment invites you to explore possibilities of video composition. This project offers you the
opportunity to think about composing with moving and still images, sound, and text. The instructions
below provide you with an overview of video editing that you can use to begin crafting your project as
you consider the affordances of video to construct an argument, elucidate a question, or tell a story.

Assignment instructions
1. Begin by collecting images and/or video that relate to your research paper.
2. Write a short paragraph or series of sentences that describes or explores a theme that runs
throughout your collection. Imagine that the image/video files from your collection will serve as
examples/evidence in your written text. At those places where you will use images/video as
example/evidence, add a bracketed note {insert /filename/}.
o Example: The sight of construction may indicate progress, but for many people, it might
also represent disruption. {insert jackhammer.m4v}
3. Using the video editing program of your choice, create a video text that sequences the files from
your collection. Use the text that you wrote in your video in title screens to provide the narrative for
your video text. You should also layer a piece of music that best matches the tone and mood you
hope to achieve in your video text, using Audacity or another audio program to mix, layer, or clean
up the audio as necessary.
4. When you are finished, export your file as an .mp4 file and/or share it to your YouTube account.
5. Add captions to the video, using YouTube or other captioning software

Goals and outcomes for Video Project

• Your video text should use to the fullest extent the affordances of text, sound, and moving image.
The audio may be constructed from archived/found audio, captured audio, audio stripped from
video, or a combination thereof.
• You should carefully consider short form content as you imagine and compose your video. Your text
should illustrate concision and economy in rhetorically effective ways.
• Your video should include a title screen and credits. You must give yourself credit as the video
author/composer somewhere in the video text.
• Your video text should take a critical, reflective, and/or interpretive approach to its subject matter.
• Your video text must be composed for a genuine, public audience.
• When appropriate, you should show facility with both literal and non-literal video and audio
matching as well as facility with layering and sequencing audio assets.
• You must secure permissions for all materials used in your project; this includes using permission
forms for interviews.

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• In addition to your original captured and crafted material, you should use materials that exist in the
public domain, anything that falls under your careful interpretation of Fair Use, and anything with a
Creative Commons license.
• You must give credit for all materials used in your project. You should include the names of anyone
you interviewed and the dates and locations of the interviews.
• You must write a 2-3 sentence description that summarizes the video, that attempts to capture and
convey its meaning, and that describes its form and materials.
• Your video composition must be captioned.

Getting Started
Collecting your assets
The process of creating a video starts with collecting your assets—the individual videos, photos, and
audio files that you will combine in your final project. Some of these assets will come from your Media
Collection, others will come from third-party sources, and still others will be created as you work on
your project and discover gaps that need to be filled.

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Choosing an aspect ratio
The choice of aspect ratio (the relationship between the width and height of the image) for your video
project will depend on how your video will be viewed and its purpose. This choice is best made when
you are collecting your assets, but most video editing software provides tools to crop videos into the
desired aspect ratio (see Figure 1). If users are likely to view your project on a computer screen or TV, it

A B

C
Figure 1: Three aspect ratios. A) 16:9 (HD), B) 9:16 (cellphone), C) 4:3 (SD)
is best to choose a traditional landscape aspect ratio such as 16:9 (HD video) or 4:3 (standard definition
television). If your viewers are likely to see your content on a phone or similar device, you could choose
a portrait orientation like 9:16 (typical of cellphone videos like those used on Tik Tok).

Aspect ratio choices can also be used for narrative or dramatic effect. For example, a project that is
primarily in a landscape aspect ratio might include a sequence in a portrait aspect ratio to indicate that a
character in the video recorded the sequence on their cellphone.

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A short taxonomy of film shots
The following section contains names and examples of common types of film shots that you can use to
arrange your video projects and tell a story (see Figure 2).

Wide shot: A shot that captures the
widest picture possible in the frame to
show a landscape, scene, or context.
Medium shot: A shot at the medial
level that limits some background
context but provides a focus for
viewer’s attention. On a person, a shot
from the hips up.

Long shot: A camera shot from some Close up: A shot in which the camera is
distance away to provide context for zoomed in as tightly as possible,
the action. showing a small field, but with greater
detail.

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 Full shot: On a person, a shot that
captures the whole body from head to
toe.
Figure 2: Taxonomy of film shots
The rule of thirds: To compose a shot,
divide the frame up into thirds—both
by length and width. Put the focal point
for a shot in the left or right third of the
frame rather than in the center third.

Other video terms

• A-roll: The primary video for a particular scene. In a film, this might be video that includes the main
actors.
• B-roll: Secondary video or images used to provide context or establish mood. In a film, this might be
exterior shots of buildings.
• Cut away: When a videographer extracts A-roll audio from A-roll video and replaces the video
footage with still photographs or B-roll video to add texture and depth.
• Dolly shot (tracking shot): When the camera moves while filming, either closer or far away from the
subject (usually without zooming) or side to side.
• Establishing Shot/Sequence: A shot/sequence that opens a video, providing an orientation for the
viewer. Often, an establishing sequence begins with a wide or long shot that provides maximum
context and then zooms or dollies into a more particular location that marks the beginning of the
action.
• Pan: Turning or swiveling the camera horizontally, left or right, usually while the camera remains
stationary.
• Tilt: Tilting the camera up or down, usually while the camera remains stationary.
• Zoom: Zooming in on a figure or scene, usually while the camera remains stationary.

Editing Video, Images, and Audio

Choosing a video editing program
Institutional licenses and student access will generally play a determining factor in which software you
will choose for video projects. Fortunately, there are multiple options for powerful video editing (see
sidebar) with similar user interfaces and editing workflows.

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In this section we do not provide specific instructions for editing Video Editing Software
video in a particular program. Rather, we identify some
• Adobe Premiere Rush (Mac,
common editing tasks that will be important to your project Windows, iOS, iPadOS Android)
(and are available in each of these video editing programs) with Free mobile apps. Desktop app and
some guidelines on when you might use them. advanced mobile features require
paid version or institutional site
Getting started: Creating your project and adding license.
assets • DaVinci Resolve (Linux, Mac,
Windows) Free basic version.
The first step in video editing is to create and name a new video
project. While some programs will allow you to begin editing • iMovie (Mac, iOS, iPadOS) Free on
Apple devices.
video without naming and saving your project, it is a good
practice to take this step first as it allows for better file • WeVideo (browser-based) Free
management and helps with restoring your progress if your basic version limits you to 5 min of
video and 480p resolution.
program were to crash.

Once you have created a project, you can begin adding your assets to it. All the programs we have
suggested in the sidebar allow you to add files from your local device to your project, including video
files, images, and audio files, and each has additional functionality unique to it. Apple’s iMovie
integrates closely with other Apple apps like Photos and Music to allow you add assets from these
programs to your projects. Adobe’s Premiere Rush allows you to add files from sharing services as well
as their own cloud storage platform. If you have individual or institutional access to the Adobe Suite, you
can easily move your Rush projects between devices—for example, you can start editing a project on a
mobile device, then continue editing it on your desktop.

The editing workspace

Once you have added assets to your project, you will move to the project window where you will
complete most of your editing. While the layout of individual programs will differ, all will have some
version of the following—a timeline that shows your assets arranged in the sequence they will be in for
the project and allows you to arrange, layer, and edit them; a preview window that allows you to view
your project in its current form; and an assets window that shows all the assets available for arranging
on the timeline (see Figure 3).

Layering and sequencing assets

As you add assets to your timeline, can arrange them in the order you will see them in the final video.
Your primary editing tasks will be trimming, splitting, arranging, and layering your assets to assemble
your final project. Trimming an asset refers to editing the length of an asset by removing parts from the
beginning, end, or both. Splitting an asset allows you to divide a single asset, such as a video clip, into
two assets. This allows you to trim them separately or rearrange them on the timeline. Once your assets
have been trimmed to the proper length, you can arrange them on the timeline in the sequence that

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 C B

Figure 3: The editing workspace in Adobe Premiere Rush. The timeline (A) is in the bottom right, the preview
window (B) is in the top right, and the assets window (C) is on the left.

you want. Some assets, like audio files and textual effects can be layered on top of each other on the
timeline to achieve complex audio and video effects.

Most video editing programs will allow you to trim, split, arrange, and layer assets directly on the
timeline by selecting different tools. Consult the online help for your program if you aren’t sure how to
perform these tasks.

Working with audio

Although they are not as advanced as a dedicated audio program, video editing programs also allow for
some audio editing. At the minimum, you should learn how to change the volume or mute the audio for
individual assets, add and layer new clips (like music or narration), and activate audio ducking.

When arranging video clips, there will be times when the audio for a particular clip is noticeably louder
or softer than other clips in your video or the audio that was recorded with a video is not appropriate for
the tone or purpose of the project. In such cases, you will need to adjust the relative volume or mute
the volume for individual video assets on your timeline.

As in audio editing, video editing programs will allow you to layer audio assets. This can be as complex as
adding multiple sound effects, dialogue, and music, or as simple as replacing the original audio in your
video assets with narration or background music. When layering audio, particularly when combining
narration with audio from your assets or music, it can be difficult to adjust the relative volume of each
clip so the speech is clear. To address this, video programs allow for audio ducking. When you turn on

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ducking, the software will automatically reduce the volume of a background sound (like music or a video
asset) when a foreground sound (like dialogue or narration) occurs in the timeline.

On some occasions, you may need more advanced audio tools than the video editor allows for. When
this happens, you may want to do your audio editing in a different program, like Audacity, and then
import it back into your video editor. This could be for spot editing, like cleaning up the audio for a
particular video or audio asset, or mixing together multiple sound effects. For more complex sequences,
you may want to wait until your video editing is done to edit the audio in another program so the audio
does not get out of sync with the video.

Adding titles and transitions

Your video editing program will also allow you to add text titles and manage transitions between your
video assets.

Most videos will require some basic titles: a main title screen with the name of the video, end credits,
and possibly explanatory titles in the body of the video (for example, names of interview subjects). Most
programs come with several preset templates for the font and placement of titles, captions, and credits.
It is a good idea to be consistent with these designs throughout your project.

Typically, you will add titles by selecting them in your project and sending or dragging them to the
timeline. Once they are on the timeline, you can edit the text and adjust the length of time the text
remains on the screen. If you add titles between other assets, they will appear on their own. If you layer
them over existing assets, the titles will appear over your video.

Editing programs also give you several options for managing transitions between your video assets.
When you arrange your video assets on the timeline without special transitions, one will instantly
change to the next in a direct cut. When these direct cuts aren’t appropriate or the best fit for your
purpose, you can choose from the other transition effects available in your program.

There is a visual language to transitions: direct cuts typically indicate continuity in time. A fade out
between two sequences indicates a change, like the passage of time or that a particular sequence has
ended. Certain transitions are heavily associated with time periods or genres. The iris or circle wipe,
where a scene ends with picture slowly shrinking to a circle was frequently used in the silent film era.
George Lucas’s Star Wars used many wipe transitions to call back to the style of movie serials from the
1940s and 1950s (see Figure 4).

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Figure 4: Diagonal wipes in Star Wars (1977, left) and Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953, right)

Video editing programs may offer many options for transitions, including ones that could be considered
distracting by some viewers. Unless it is your goal to draw attention to your transitions, direct cuts,
fading to and from black, and cross dissolves will work for most projects.

Accessibility: Captioning
Captions are essential accessibility tools for video projects. Transcribing text and syncing it with video
can be a challenging task for non-professionals, but with the assistance of digital tools it can be relatively
easy to add transcriptions to your videos which you can then edit. In this section, we describe how you
can use YouTube to generate captions for your videos. YouTube uses speech-to-text software to provide
automatic captions, and the following workflow describes how to generate a rough transcript of your
captions that you can then edit for accuracy.

Transcribing versus captioning

Generally, transcribing refers to capturing in text all the speech in a video or audio asset. Captioning
refers to supplementing the transcript with textual descriptions of other sounds that are relevant to
understanding the project—for example, describing background music or sound effects. YouTube’s
software will create a transcription of your video, but it does not describe other relevant sounds.
Additionally, the speech-to-text software will sometimes make errors in identifying words, making it
necessary to edit these transcriptions before sharing your videos. In some cases, a transcription will be
sufficient, but in most cases you will need to also include textual descriptions of audio elements that are
important to the meaning of the video. As you edit your captions (or create your own), you will need to
make contextual, rhetorical choices about what sounds you need to include in those captions.

Uploading your finished video to YouTube

Log into your YouTube account at studio.youtube.com and upload your finished video. All Google
accounts come with access to YouTube (for this assignment, it may be easiest to use the same account
you used for other assignments and workshops).

When you upload your video, you will be prompted to provide details about the video, such as a title
and a description. You can also choose a primary language for the video, for example, “English (United
States).” Choose the language that is used most often in the video as the primary language; this will help

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the automatic transcription process. Once the video is uploaded, automatic transcription will begin.
Depending on the complexity or length of the video, it may take some time for the system to process
the audio and produce a transcript for the captions.

Accessing automatic captions

Once the transcription has been completed, go to your YouTube channel and select Videos from the left-
hand menu. Next to your video you will see a pencil icon with the label Details. Click this icon, then
select subtitles on the left of the video’s details page. Once the transcription has been completed, you
will see it listed on the page identified by the primary language and labeled Automatic.

Editing automatic captions

Click the options icon on the far right and select Edit on Classic Studio. This will open a new window with
the caption editing interface. On the left you will see the transcript of your video separated into chunks
identified by time signatures. These chunks are captions that appear together on the screen, and the
time signatures show how long they appear on the screen. Your video will appear on the right with the
segmented transcript below it in a Timeline. Once you click the Edit button in the top right, you will be
able to edit the transcript for accuracy and readability. By default, the video will pause once you start
typing to edit the captions. (You can change this by unchecking the box underneath the video.)

As you type, you can select shift + space to play or pause the video; shift + left or shift +
right to go back or forward one second; shift + down to skip to the next caption; and shift + up
to skip to the previous caption.

Authoring captions in YouTube

Go to the subtitles section of YouTube and select your video. You should see a subtitle “by Creator” and
an Add button next to it. Click the Add button and you will be taken to a screen that lets you select a
method for adding text. YouTube allows you to upload captions, and it offers two methods for writing
your own captions—Transcribe and auto-sync and Create new subtitles or CC.

Both the transcribe and create options allow you to listen to the video as you type captions. Transcribe
does this a in a single text. Once you’ve completed your captions, it will then split up the text into
chunks to accompany your video (this can take some time, depending on the video). The Create new
subtitles or CC interface has broken the video into sections that you can then add the captions for.

As the names suggest, the Transcribe option might be better for speech-heavy videos, as the Create new
subtitles or CC option will give you more control over the placement of audio descriptions.

For this assignment, provide at least partial captions for your project using one of the methods
described above. Captioning can be a time-consuming process, so if you don’t complete the captions
before our daily meeting, that is fine. However, you should familiarize yourself with the captioning
interfaces and process and plan to fully caption any video you choose for your final project.

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Downloading your captions
Once you have finished editing your captions, you can save them. Once you return to the subtitle screen
in YouTube studio, you will see your edits as a new set of captions. You can click on the Options for these
captions and continue to edit them if necessary. If you wish to share your video on a different service,
you can download a copy of your captions as an .SBV file. If you wish to share your project outside of
YouTube, you should check with the program or service to see which caption formats are accepted by
the service (.SRT files are common; if the system doesn’t support .SRT, there are many online converters
you can use). On this screen you can also upload caption files to YouTube if you author them elsewhere.

Editing Video and Images with Adobe Premiere Rush

Adobe’s Premiere Rush is the step-down product from Adobe’s professional video editor, Premiere. One
benefit of Rush is that the interface is consistent across operating systems and mobile devices, and if
you have individual or institutional access to Adobe software, your projects will sync across your devices
(i.e., if you start a project on your mobile device, you can continue to edit it on your laptop or desktop).
Additionally, the program offers the option of starting a project in Rush then moving it to the more
advanced Premiere.

Creating a project and adding images and video

When you open Rush, you will see the Home screen. If it is the first time you have used Rush, a tutorial
will appear offering to walk you through the process of creating and editing a file. Once you have
created some projects, they will appear here (for more information, here is an overview of the Home
screen).

Click on “Create a New Project” in the upper left. This will take you to the media browser. On the left
side bar, you can browse your device to find video, audio, and images to add to your project. The
browsing options are separated into Local and Cloud. Currently, the only cloud services Rush supports
are Adobe Creative Cloud and Dropbox. If you wish to use Box or Google Drive for your media, install the
desktop clients for these services, and use them to sync to your computer’s hard drive so you can access
them from the Rush desktop app.

Once you have picked your media source, available media will appear on the right side of the screen.
You can add media to your project by selecting videos or photos. The media will be added to the project
in the order you select them, indicated by numbers that appear on individual files, so you can use this
step to roughly sequence your project.

As you add files to your project, they will appear along the bottom of the screen in your project’s
Timeline. To the left of this pane, you will see a field for naming your project. Once you have added your
files and named your project, select Create in the bottom right. If you wish to work on your projects
both on your desktop and mobile devices, make sure the Sync with CC button is selected.

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Editing your project
Once you have selected your media and created a project, you will be taken to the Edit workspace. 1 The
top portion of the screen shows a preview of your project. Below this preview are a series of play
controls. The bottom of the screen shows your Timeline where the media you have added is arranged.

You can select individual clips/photos in the Timeline to rearrange them. Once you have selected a clip,
it is highlighted, and you can use the sliders on either side to trim the clip from the beginning or end.
Additionally, there is a Playhead that shows your current location in the project. If you wish to remove
media from the middle of a clip, you can place the Playhead where you wish to cut your video, then click
the scissors icon to the lower left of the Timeline. This will split your clip into two clips that can be
manipulated independently.

The playback window in the center of the screen shows the video at the Playhead. It has play controls,
including controls to move forward or backward by individual frames. On the bottom right, you can use
the Change sequence orientation button to switch your video between portrait, landscape, or square
frames. When you have images in your project, if you click on the image in the video window, you can
adjust its size to fill the screen or zoom into particular details.

If you click on the Control tracks button in the bottom left, additional tools will appear that allow you to
mute or hide entire tracks or lock them from additional editing. Selecting the Expand audio button will
show the audio tracks associated with your video.

Adding audio (music and voice overs)

You can add audio clips using the media browser or record voiceover directly in your project. To add
audio or other media, select the + button in the upper left. If you select Media, you will be taken back to
the media browser where you can select audio files to add to your project. New audio files will be added
as new tracks to the Timeline, where they can be moved, trimmed, or cut like other Timeline items.

In all audio tracks Rush will categorize the type of audio as either voice, music, or other. You will see
small icons on audio tracks indicating how they have been classified. This classification determines the
additional editing you can do with audio tracks. If Rush has misidentified a track, you can use the
Advanced audio editing menu in the top right, to change this designation for specific tracks.

To record a voiceover, click the Add Media button in the upper left and select Voiceover. A new track
will be created on the Timeline with a red record button. Place the Playhead where you wish to record
your voiceover, then select the record button. When you are finished, click the button again to stop
recording.

If you click on an audio track and select the Audio tab in the upper right, you can adjust the volume of
your audio or mute it completely. Under the Advanced tab you can adjust more detailed features of the

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Here is a more detailed overview of the Edit workspace:
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-rush/help/workspace-basics.html#PremiereRushEditworkspace

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track. For music, you can auto adjust the volume to match the rest of the audio or select auto duck,
which will lower the volume of your music when there is other speech or audio playing at the same
time. For voice tracks, you can reduce background noise or echo and enhance speech.

For audio associated with your video files, you can separate the audio track from the video track by
right-clicking on the video clip in the Timeline and selecting separate audio. This will allow you to move
and edit the audio independently of the video track.

For additional information, see Adobe’s user guide for adding and manipulating audio in Rush
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-rush/help/add-audio-rush.html#Recordaudio

Adding transitions
You can control the transitions between clips by selecting preset transitions from the Transitions panel
in the upper right. When you select a clip, you can choose to dissolve between clips or for the clip to
fade through black or white. You can adjust the duration of a transition by grabbing it either in the
Timeline or in the Transitions panel. By default, adding a transition to a clip will add the transition to
both the beginning and the end of the clip. Once these transitions are added, you can change them
independently.

For additional information, see Adobe’s user guide for transitions in Rush
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-rush/help/color-transitions-media-properties.html#transitions .

Adding text titles

To add text titles to your video, click on the Add Media button and select Title. This will create a title
animation in a new track and open the Title panel in the top right. The Title panel contains a range of
title template designs that you can choose from. There are also options to add your own title template
or download additional templates from Adobe.

Once you have selected a title template, you can edit the text of the title. Additional editing options
(such as font and text color) can be found on the Edit tab of the Title panel.

For additional information, see Adobe’s user guide for creating and editing titles in Rush
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-rush/help/add-titles-rush.html

Exporting your video

Once you have finished editing your video, you can either share it to your device or upload it directly to
hosting and social sites like YouTube (you will need to provide your Google credentials to log into
YouTube the first time). Rush exports videos as .MP4 files. You can use the Advanced dropdown menu
to adjust features like resolution and frame rate, if necessary.

Additional Resources
In addition to the images, video, and audio that you create, there is a wealth of media online that is
either in the public domain or licensed for reuse. You can find a list of these resources along with links to

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descriptions of copyright best practices at the DMAC website
(http://www.dmacinstitute.com/resources/) under the copyright tab.

The Digital Media and Composition Institute

Department of English
The Ohio State University
2021

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