2012 Global Intro Video - We Need Your Help!

Hello,

My name is Liam and I have created the global interview for the last two years. I have been asked to make another video this year. It will be my final year in such a role.

But I want this year's video to be great and also prepare as much as possible for the next person taking over.

The main role of the video has been to give a little bit of background on the events but also as a way to say thank you to everyone attending. We do this by getting celebrity (actors/writers/people involved with any of Joss' work inc tv shows, movies and comics) shout outs and thankyous.

This year will be much the same.

But the issue is, I live in Australia, which means the amount of Whedonverse actors/people involved with the show/verse I can ask to do a shout out is pretty limited. So that's where I need your help. I'd like to get as many shout outs as possible (even if we can't use it this year, giving next year's video extra content is a plus).

So here's the thread where we can discuss getting extra shoutouts when the actors/writers/other appear at conventions.

So the first thing we need to make sure if that we're not doubling up. We don't want multiple contacting convention organisers, so we'll have to work it out here. (In Australia, where any contact with the media guests involving a camera needs to go via the event organsiers and maybe even agents.) So you need to make contact in advance. If you plan to be one of the people helping out with footage collection, you'll need access to a camera and a mic.


Here's where I start to talk about the video requirements, this bit is going to be a bit long.


The global video plays at (almost) every event, most of which occur in cinemas. So it's important that the video is high enough quality (and in focus) (HD is very much prefered) and the audio needs to be clear and you actually need to be able to hear it (so if you have a handy cam/DSLR/phone/etc with no external mics, that's really not going to cut it. Conventions (as many of you know) are pretty noisy places, without a mic, the actor/star/guests voice is going to be lost in the backgound and thus not usable.

If you have access to a camera/audio gear or have a friend who can helped you out and you've contacted the event organisers: be aware, despite the fact that this is for a good, well established cause, you may not be able to get access to the guests. They could be too busy (massive, massive lines), they might not be doing any media or whatever reason. It sucks, but it happens. But if you get the guest, talk to them briefly about CSTS (they may not be aware of it, especially if they're a Whedonverse actor that wasn't in Firefly/Serenity). Tell them why we want them (eg. we're based around Firefly/Serenity, but most of us love all Joss' work and would be very keen to know/hear from this person).

The actual shot we want should be head and shoulders or head and upper body. We don't want too much head room (empty space above them) nor have them too small in the frame. Do a quick sound check before the filming starts (if the levels are too high, the sound will peak and be unusable, if it's too low, it's also no good.)

The shout outs should be between 10 seconds to 1 minute (longer I guess, as long as they're interesting/passionate/funny). Start with them introducing themselves/who they played/how they were involved. And than whatever message they want to leave.

The files of these interviews will than have to be given to me (you can upload onto something like Dropbox and I can than download).

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Thanks

Feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks. I think that is a great help. We know that Adam is coming to Calgary, Adam and Summer will be at Emerald City Comic Con - anyone from those cities think they could get anything for us?

We have Jewel coming to Adelaide at the start of March. That will be up to Jen to work her magic with the con organisers.

In the tail end of July we have another con that has both Jason Palmer and Scott Allie (the editor/top dog at dark horse - who do pretty much all of the whedon comics).

I think that what we are looking for is a callout to the fans and maybe a thank you for the fundraising they are doing. Some people may be happy to make it up as they go, others will want a script to read from so be prepared for either option.
Thanks Numindan. Keep us in the loop.

What Lioness said. It would also help if they didn't date the piece. We'd rather they not mention it was filmed in April 2012 at this con. Chances are, the footage will be used for more than one year, and that will just make it old.

I've put in a request for Jewel Staite to provide a video contribution during her visit to Adelaide, Australia this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

Everybody cross your fingers! Can I order that...?

Portland and Seattle are working on Emerald City Con guests.

Sadly, we weren't able to get any time with Jewel Staite last weekend to film a video contribution. So if anyone else has the opportunity...?