In his introduction to this project, Martin reminded us that “vision without action is a day dream”, and similarly, “action without vision is a nightmare”. Even though I thought it fairly apparent at the time, I would in hindsight say that we have experienced quite a bit of both. The real lows such as the heartbreak of a cracked concrete model or a fatal computer crash, were all eventually overcome. I think the essential trait to our team has been our persistence; continuing to question and experiment to push the scheme further. I believe that the project has not only taught us to ask the right questions, but also how to provide useful answers.
Our Method:
Physical Models
The One Sentence
A dialogue through models
Our scheme developed over eight weeks of questions and answers, and more questions, a process in which the models were key. Imagining and developing a building in a team of four can be challenging if the conversation takes place only in words. I found that arguments more often arose due to miscommunication than actual differences and disagreements. In order to lead a constructive design conversation and share ideas between us we have used a wealth of cardboard and foam models. Also a useful tool in all of the tutorials, acting as tangible objects of dialogue. The model making has been effective in terms of communication, but also to test and interrogate ideas. We detected flaws and made improvements through continuous material experimentation.
Towards the last stages, our cardboard models grew in scale and were eventually tested in plaster and concrete. We spent many days, even weeks, sawing formwork in the workshop, testing plaster pigment levels, cutting foam and pouring concrete in the lab. We learnt fantastic things from the skilful department staff; Walter, Miles and Eve, patiently guiding us through the hands-on making. Obvious as it may sound; by building our building again and again, we developed a clear and coherent material and structural strategy, tried and tested by the critical method. To me, the confidence that this rationale of physical evidence and tangible iterations provides, has been valuable.
One sentence to focus our design
Often during the project we would be asked to repeat the single sentence that defined our scheme. Our sentence was “A monument to Oxford’s literary heritage” and was decided in the second week. While a simple exercise, that sentence on the wall was helpful in decision making and reminded us of the initial motivation and foundation for our project. Our one core idea evolved and developed rather than drastically altered. Although we had many days of doubt and indecisiveness, we were always able to gather in consensus around that core sentence, and thereby drive the process forward.
The group dynamic
I am incredibly grateful to have been through this exact project with these exact people. The dynamic within the group has been exciting and invigorating; I do really believe that we have played on each other’s strengths towards an end product that is more confident, clear and thoughtful than any of us could have thought of on our own. And in turn, inherent to our building is Matt’s wonderful clarity of thought, Helen’s conviction and drive for the scheme, Zach’s patience and brilliance and my own continuous efforts to question, improve and imagine our scheme. After the blood, sweat, tears and sleep invested in this project I am glad to see our Basil Spence finally come together. And, I am proud of the work we presented, which I believe is a perfect culmination of all of our efforts and the methods we have learnt over the past three years in Bath.
Unity of thought
Working together is the foundation on which the Basil Spence project is built. The integration of disciplines to create something inspiring is both an exciting and daunting prospect. Emma and Matt have been close friends since the beginning of university, and are now almost like brother and sister. My place in the team dynamic has occasionally been to balance this, trying to resolve slight tension by helping them realise they are often saying the same thing! We were incredibly lucky to have worked with Zach, our engineer, who shared our desire to create something more. He appreciated our architectural ambitions, and worked with us to enrich them with structural and environmental strategies which elevated the design to another level.
I think that throughout the project we have all endeavoured to not take the “easy way out” in any aspect. If ideas felt that their only justification was being the obvious, or easiest solution, we wouldn’t accept them. I think this unity of thought helped us create something with a truly strong concept, which stood the test of time - each of our moments of unwillingness to compromise has paid off. A new experience for me has been the sheer volume of models we have created during this project. As a bold initial move was the key to our design, considering its scale - modelling it from the outset was unavoidable. We tested any and every eventuality and suggestion given to us in tutorials, resulting in a rapid iterative process which allowed us to become comfortable with our scale and form. The process of making these models also meant that there have been very few instances where the team has not been “on the same page” with what we are trying to express.
Confidence to answer our critics
Throughout the project, my confidence has experienced true peaks and troughs, as has the confidence of the group as a whole. In week two our proposal began to be referred to by tutors and colleagues as something “bold”. A building of this scale, standing out amongst its context is not something I believe would have been any of our initial ideas had we been working alone. The reaction to this risk-taking approach was more often than not, positive and something we were commended for.
Whilst we were comfortable with the shape and form of the main building from the beginning there were a number of delays due to lack of confidence. This speck of doubt initially diluted our ideas and central concept. Throughout tutorials and discussions leading up to the interim review there was an “elephant in the room”, which surprisingly was not the large, bold main building. Each of us avoided designing these smaller modules - which were initially key to our concept. Just before the interim review these modules were removed from the proposal entirely. This move tested my confidence in the idea as a whole - however, it felt as though a weight had been lifted and allowed us to focus our efforts entirely on designing the central building. Our initial moves gained a positive reaction at the interim review, one major change to “tidy up” the diagram of our building was something we all agreed on. From here, there were more layers to add to achieve the level of detail we felt it required to reach its full potential - but it felt attainable.
As we planned our final critique, I was hit with a realisation of how deeply immersed we had become in the project. Going into the review I felt we would be able to guide the critics into elements of the design we felt best sold the proposal. Pushing and questioning each other and ourselves constantly meant when others asked questions - we had conviction in our answers.
Perseverance until the end
This was the longest project we have tackled so far in our university careers. It was an exciting prospect having the time to develop an idea so fully, but we've also needed perseverance. Once the idea of the “concrete box” was expressed, we universally agreed that some, or all of our models would ideally be concrete casts. The idea was beautiful, the reality was hours spent in the workshop, many failed attempts and ultimately - heartbreak. Creating formwork which we thought would be sturdy enough took days - only to have this be our downfall - the model could only be removed from its formwork by brute force. The concrete cracked, leaving us with only one or two intact fragments, the model was unsalvageable. Yet, we decided to pursue the goal of creating a casted model, just in a different medium. The end result perhaps was not as neat or accurate as we had envisioned, however the ceremony of opening it up during the review and revealing the spaces inside still achieved the desired effect and our time spent making it was worthwhile.
After experiencing the euphoria of winning the Basil Spence, knuckling down and ensuring all our thoughts and ideas were captured on our final report was a difficult process to begin. We had the well-known situation of “it’s all in our heads, we just need to draw it”. This week, having each focused on producing a section of the report, I have witnessed it come together into a piece of work I am immensely proud of and that I believe shows our scheme at its best - a place I would love to visit.
We were asked to create a short, educational video to inform school children of what engineering is. Which is important because engineering isn’t something which is taught in schools, so there is not much awareness of it. There wasn’t much else that was specified so there was quite a lot of freedom in what we could do, which benefited us as a group. We gelled from the start, we all get on. Having the tutor meetings helped to get everyone together. If we’d have had different ideas of what to do then it might have been harder, but we all wanted to get it done as quickly and simply as possible, and it just fell into place.
Developing our concept
We made an online group chat so everyone knew what was going on all the time. This meant we could do our bits without all meeting together at the same time, which was a lot more convenient. We researched some stuff beforehand, different points of view on engineering. It helped a lot that we had similar ideas of what we wanted to do. We all agreed early on that nobody wanted to be standing in front of the camera and talking. So we decided to narrate over drawings, illustrating our idea of what engineering is, and Katie’s drawing skills were excellent. We planned it as a group and then gave each of us a role - it was like a production line. It was a fairly quick process in the end.
The best bit
When we watched it for the first time – seeing the finished product was definitely the most enjoyable part of the project. We’d all done different bits so it was good to see it all come together. It was also great winning the competition, though we groaned when we realised we would have to go up on stage to receive it.
Our top tips for next year entrants
Try and do something different, to grab the attention of whoever’s watching. Make it stand out. Something unique. And don’t overstress it – keep it simple. It’s the first couple of weeks of university when there are lots of things going on, so don’t make it the be all and end all, just have fun doing it.
To evoke in visitor, user and designer the mystique and splendour of the railway station as a building type.
To use the station as a catalyst in the renewal (both physical and social) of the part of Oxford in which it sits.
To amplify the possibilities of station as a typology.
To foster a thoughtful and mutually respectful integration of the disciplines of engineering and architecture in order to achieve the above.
Our winning design
Our winning design for the Basil Spence project evolved naturally from our initial idea, that our station building should be a celebration of Oxford's literary heritage. We took the elements that were strong, that we believed were the core of our design and we refined and strengthened them, allowing the ideas to change naturally. At the same time we were ruthless when something felt like it didn't work, it was radically altered, no matter how long we'd spent working on it.
We agreed at the beginning of the project that this was our chance to do something bold and radical with both the architecture and engineering.
Perspective of the prosposed railway station
Overcoming design challenges in multidisciplinary teams
It was wonderful to see how different people with different specialties approached the same design challenges. This allowed the design to be fully integrated right from the start as people could identify issues early on, allowing them to be addressed in the design process and not worked around later in the project. It exposed me to new ideas and allowed me to work with a group of architects who were all wonderful, talented and patient people.
The project allowed me to develop my ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team and to come up with radical solutions to challenging problems that encompassed not only innovative and honest engineering, but fitted with the architectural intent of the project and added to the overall scheme. I also had the opportunity to experience the wonders and heartbreaks involved with casting concrete and plaster architectural models.
A perfect culmination to my university education
“I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,” said Alice a little timidly; “but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”― Lewis Carroll
This project has allowed me to delve into fields of research I never believed I would encounter; I have learnt the life cycle patterns of the endangered Euphydryas Aurinia butterfly, provided preliminary designs on a drainage system based on medieval agricultural earth works and been given the freedom to explore and provide feasible design work in areas outside of my comfort zone. I've been able to push the envelope of what was thought possible.
The beauty of this project is the removal of boundaries, to be encouraged to explore avenues which have thus far remained closed and which may never open again. I am proud of the work presented in this project. I believe it represents a perfect culmination to my university education, a summation of all work undertake in four and a half long years.
A section view of our project
A civil engineer working with architects
My heartfelt gratitude to my architects; Matt McClusky, Emma Moberg and Helen Needs, for their undying patience and support. Most of all I would like to thank them for treating me as an equal in all aspects of the project; whether architectural precedent, scale modelling or design integration. I have never worked with a group of people who were as wonderful, caring and gifted. They made the long hours which this project entailed not only bearable but enjoyable.
When Martin first e-mailed the year to encourage us to start assembling groups for Basil Spence, he suggested that a suitable team may consist of a visionary, a manager, and a deliverer. While I agree with him on principle, I would like to think that our team distributed these traits fairly evenly across the four of us, and that this enabled us to work cohesively and productively for the entire duration of the project.
Visualising our Basil Spence design
In terms of visualising the scheme, I always felt that the others within the group were seeing the scheme from the same perspective that I was. Although we sometimes had different opinions about how to develop the scheme, this was mainly resolved by making physical models. Not only did this highlight flaws in an idea through physical manifestation, but model making in itself provided much needed respite from endless debate, discussion and potential conflict. I was sometimes reluctant to spend time developing multiple solutions, but have realised that this was the only way that our scheme ever moved forward, and that without constantly modelling different ideas, we would have ended up with a very bland solution.
Delivering to our final goal
Individually, we were all self-motivated and set our own objectives, all the while bearing in mind the various milestones to work towards. Collectively, however, we sometimes struggled to commit to group goals and to decide who should complete which task, due to the unpredictability of the time taken to produce material. Once the scheme had been finalised, we realised that we faced a daunting task to produce all the necessary material for the final review. Emma and Helen had spent days in the workshop producing formwork for a concrete model which broke as soon as we prised the formwork off. This setback was extremely demoralising and frustrating in equal measure. We felt as if 5 days had been completely wasted, leaving us with less time than desired to produce the drawings for the final review. Helen took on the thankless task of building a 3D model to use for drawings and we managed to produce a cast model for the review.
Working as a team
In Zach, we not only had an incredibly gifted civil engineer, but a talented and immensely passionate designer who contributed greatly to every single aspect of the design process, while also producing an amazingly thorough engineering solution to our scheme. His positive outlook on the project and eagerness to push the boundaries of his knowledge have produced, in my opinion, a unique and innovative solution to a complex brief. I have never met an individual who works as hard or as unselfishly as Zach. Whether it was cutting tiny wooden buildings in the workshop, calculating the structural requirements of our building, or staying in studio hours after us to do his other coursework, his enthusiasm never wavered.
Thanks to Emma the main body of our scheme has stayed pure and undiluted in terms of its concept. Her amazing drawings brought to life the fantastical nature that we tried to instil in our scheme. Helen's calm demeanour and ability to think clearly and with reason has prevented several discussions from turning into arguments, as has her ability to weigh up the pros and cons of multiple solutions in order to produce the best result for the scheme. This is something that I occasionally found difficult, as I can develop tunnel-vision and struggle to imagine how another solution could work.
Without my team mates, I would not have had such a firm belief in our scheme. I can say whole-heartedly that I have enjoyed every single moment in their presence - our shared enjoyment of this process has made Basil Spence worthwhile; we have produced a scheme which I am proud to put our names on.
Daniel talks us through how he developed a walking device for toddlers. His product monitors and adjusts its speed to aid a child’s mobility and development.
What is the first thing that comes to ones' mind when you think of going to the moon? Reminiscent memories of the monstrous Saturn 5 rockets used to take the Apollo astronauts to our closest celestial neighbour perhaps? Or fantastical ideas of far-fetched future technology ferrying people back and forth in ease and comfort? A visionary space technology start-up in India has their own ideas, and are acting upon them, planning to send a robotic spacecraft to the moon in late 2017, depositing a rover and multiple other scientific payloads on the lunar surface.
Team Indus are a passionate team of driven aerospace engineers based in Bangalore who are taking part in the Google Lunar Xprize, an international competition challenging private companies around the world to land a spacecraft on the moon, deposit a rover that travels at least 500m and sends back to earth high-definition video and pictures. The first team to do so will be given a prize of US$30 million. As part of their planned mission, the company has left a little (and I mean little) room for extra payload. This is where Lab2Moon comes in.
The Lab2Moon challenge
Lab2Moon is another international competition hosted by Team Indus to pit the best student minds worldwide against each other to innovate, design and build an experimental payload that will aid the development of sustainable human presence on the moon. 3000 teams sent in their concepts. 25 were selected to advance to the next stage, where they will be flown out to Bangalore and will present prototypes to a board of judges. 'LunaDome' is three University of Bath aerospace students' entry to the competition, and is in the second round as one of the 25. If it wins the second round, we will have the opportunity to put our designed experiment onto a spacecraft and see it placed on the lunar surface.
Our LunaDome project
Effectively, 'LunaDome' aims to understand the effect of temperature fluctuations experienced on the lunar surface upon a pressure controlled environment. The critical payload specifications state that the experiment has to fit into a space the size of a generic coke can, and weigh no more than 250g. Our design is simple: a compressed CO2 canister will vent CO2 through a bespoke valve, designed and built by us, into a sealed, fixed volume 'dome'. Think shiny inflatable bag. This 'dome' will be filled to atmospheric pressure and controlled so as to maintain this pressure. The temperature variation experienced by the sealed CO2 will be measured and sent back to earth for analysis. The aim is to understand what heating and cooling capacity an environmental control and life support system (an air - con) would have to achieve for a habitable atmosphere on the lunar surface.
Keep track of our progress
This project has opened up a huge opportunity for the University of Bath to showcase its excellent engineering capabilities. We have the privilege of being a part of a movement aimed at inspiring younger generations and getting people excited about space and future technological prospects. Our team has been featured on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Berkshire, and we have a large social media drive to gain exposure and interest in what we are doing (like our Facebook page, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit our website). Please do find us, follow us and journey with us as we aim to bring humanity to the moon!
When people ask what I do, I say that I’m an engineer, completing the second year of my PhD. I work on control systems and simulation, and I want to go into the automotive industry. But in my spare time during my university career, I have developed video production and rendering skills to the point that I’m now earning some income on the side, and I love it! (The income, yes, but also what I do).
I’ve developed these skills gradually throughout a few years, but they’ve really been given a big boost when I joined Team Bath Racing - the Formula Student Racing team – back in 2014. I became business manager for that year, and marketing became a big part of my job. It included branding, media content, and making the team appealing to both students and sponsors. I can write letters, hand out flyers, I can tell you over and over again what makes TBR fantastic, but what I’ve found to be most effective tool is video content. It’s catchy, it’s exciting, and it’s dynamic, just like TBR!
As a result, we have a strong media presence both in the University and in the Formula Student world. If you don't know what Formula Student is, take a look at this fantastic video produced by my good friend and video editing partner Kevin Johnson, who filmed and edited this in one weekend!:
So, maybe you’re involved with a University project, and you want the world to know how great it is. Perhaps, like TBR, you need sponsors to survive, and you need to attract them to YOUR project, not the one at University X. Well, let me share my experience from the perspective of someone who is an engineer first, and an amateur video producer second.
PLAN IT!
The first step of video production for your university project is to assemble your V-Team. When you’ve got university deadlines and project timelines to meet, video production becomes much easier with a good team to share the workload and creative process.
The V-team includes stakeholders within the University project who have a say in how the project would be represented to the public. Ours included the project manager, business manager, sponsorship accounts manager, and the video grunts like myself. We sweetened the deal by meeting on a Friday afternoon and going for a crepe in the SU afterwards, so our attendance was usually quite high. If you’re a strong, independent lone wolf who “don’t need no team”, don’t skip this section! This is probably the most crucial phase of the video production process, and one that people rush over most often.
Unified Brand
At your early team meetings, you need to figure out what why you want to make videos, because there’s no point wasting your effort. Before you start filming, start by developing the marketing concept and visual themes for your project. It’s important because it will give your video content a unified approach, building your brand and making it recognisable. Without discussing these themes, your videos will feel disjointed.
Indeed, the outcomes of these meetings will be valid for other areas of engagement, not just your videos; for TBR this included our social media, posters, presentations, events, our apparel, and even the racecar itself! We settled on our team colours of black, white, and BP green, along with the occasional hexagon pattern, and that bled into most areas of our brand for last year.
Black, White, BP Green and Hexagon theme, as seen on the TBR16 livery and headrest.
I’ve found coming up with a few key phrases to sum up the marketing campaign helps by making sure each video ultimately meets one or more of these requirements. Last year our three phrases were:
“Professional”
“Creates Loyal Fans”
“Visceral”
Our videos had to reflect these phrases as much as we could creatively manage.
Plan Your Video Content
Now that you have your unified approach figured out, it’s time to make a plan! Think about how many videos you want to (and are able to) produce. Should they coincide with some of your key dates? Who wants to take the lead on each one? In what way will these videos help your project along? You don’t want to end up with a huge video workload at the same time as that coursework you will inevitably procrastinate over until the week before hand-in.
Most of our videos had our big May 25th event in mind – TBR Car Launch. All of our videos pointed towards Car Launch because that is when we would unveil our car for the first time, and we want our fans to be loyal to our team throughout the subsequent race season. It’s also the only time when nearly all of our past and present sponsors travel to Bath to see us, so it has a lot of sponsorship money riding on it.
Once you have a gameplan for which videos you want to release in the year, make a plan for each one!
“Who are we trying to reach?” Is it sponsors? Fans? Schoolchildren? Students? This will almost certainly dictate the ‘mood’ of your video.
“What are we trying to tell them, or get them to do?” Each video has a purpose, and this needs to be discussed within your brand phrases. Is it to relay information to people who’ve never heard of you? To generate interest of people who have? Pitch a proposal for a sponsor? Set a goal for the video, and possibly write a script.
“How do we get them to watch it?” What use is the video if no-one watches it! Think about your distribution plans, and how will you make your video visible to your target audience. This discussion should also branch off into plans for expanding your overall marketing and public engagement strategy, whether it be through social media, the events you attend, flyers around campus etc. You need to maximise your marketing platform to give your videos the best reach they can.
“How do we put it into practice?” One of my tasks was to create a teaser one month before Car Launch to get people excited about it. So I looked back at ‘Professional’ and ‘Visceral’, and created a 360 video that included our colour themes and patterns. Watch it below!
Naturally, this is a render and not a filmed and edited piece, but it reflects how those early meetings drive your creativity and innovation.
With your plan ready, it’s time to get filming.
FILM IT!
Filming can be both the most fun and the most frustrating part of the process. It consists of equal parts joy of seeing the video develop before your eyes, and annoyance from not filming that perfect shot you want. But that’s video production for you.
There are plenty of guides on the internet on how to set up a perfect shot written by people much better at this than me, so I won’t waste your time here talking about it, but I will give you a few pointers as someone who’s probably in much the same position as you!
University Library has you covered: If you don’t have a camera, the University Library has some that you can hire out that come with a tripod. Follow this link for more information.
Multiple takes: Film the same shot at least three times from the same angle if you’re able to. Then film the same thing three times from a different angle! This makes editing much easier as you can splice the good bits from each one together, and you end up with a much better video.
Use a tripod: The shaky documentary-style video might be having a resurgence (think Parks and Recreation), but they use special equipment to not make it feel nauseating. The best thing you can do to make your videos not look like a home movie is to use a tripod. If you can get a slider, too, this will make your videos feel much more slick and professional (I’m sure someone in Mech Eng would have fun building one for you).
Use a microphone: If your video is to have any speaking in it, be sure to use an external microphone, not just the built-in one from the camera. Bad audio can ruin a video, usually more so than the visuals can! This link shows you what I mean.
Zoom: If like us you have a team member keen on photography who has a DSLR with a zoom lens, be sure to try out a 50mm zoom in some of your shots (strictly speaking it’s a 50mm ‘focal length’). This is the closest to the human eye zoom, and makes the video seem much more natural. Too little zoom and it feels like a home video. Too much and any shakiness gets amplified. For comparison, the new iPhone 7 has a 28mm zoom (again, "focal length"). The video camera from the University Library may also have a zoom function, so give it a try and see what you like.
It takes longer than you think: If you’re in charge of filming a particular video, plan enough time to try the shots you want, and then double it. It takes much longer than you think, and other people involved need to be aware of that. As the old guy in Toy Story 2 said: “you can’t rush art.” Good planning makes the filming activity take twice as long as scheduled, bad planning makes it take much, much longer. Keep that in mind.
One final note, don’t be afraid to get creative! Just be sure to get the shots you feel you need within your timeframe; any extra time allows you to get really creative. A few people may have seen myself and my friend in the car park on Saturday, trying out a wheelchair to get some smooth dynamic shots of our cars… it sort of worked, by the way!
EDIT IT!
As an engineer, I like to tinker. Whether it be my computer code, my car, my electronics, I like to try and explore new ways to make my experience better. Consequently, editing is my favourite part of the video process, as I get to tweak this parameter or animate this gain… plus I get to avoid sunlight like a true engineer.
Pick your poison: After filming, you’ll already have visualised a vague sequence in your mind, and know how you want the video to look. The key is getting good at a chosen editing software to literally make your dreams come true. Difficult software can ruin the experience to the point you get so frustrated that you just say ‘that’ll do’ and end up with a poor video, so choose wisely. Something like Windows Movie Maker just isn’t going to cut it (pun intended), though iMovie is getting better. As a student, you get the benefit of discounts of many editing suites, so I would recommend something like Adobe Premiere. It’s part of a £15/month package, and includes Photoshop, After Effects and loads more Adobe products. Plus you get a free trial! Find out more here.
Again, there are plenty of online guides on editing software and how to use it, so chose an editing suite and get good at googling! However, as before, here are a few pointers to help your process:
Check music royalties: The world of copyright is a minefield, and one where you don’t want to put a foot wrong. Unfortunately, obtaining the rights to a particular song is usually expensive. We wanted to use a Jack Garratt song in one of our videos, but after contacting just the publisher the basic price was £2000! I explained it was for a good cause, but they said that was their ‘charities’ rate. Your best bet is to look for – and likely pay for – ‘royalty free’ music, like the ones found in here. Alternatively, you could compose your own…
Introduce yourselves: Most YouTube channels use some form of creative intro displaying their logo, as does TBR, and so should you! It’s a great way to tie your videos together so that they are recognisable, and lets you draw the viewers in. Think about it – Facebookers scroll through hundreds of videos a week, why would they want to stop and watch yours? You have two seconds to grab their attention. After Effects and Blender are my go-to tools for motion graphics, but you can equally film something for it instead.
Team Feedback: As the old adage goes ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, and that is certainly true for editing. Ever heard of famous bands splitting because of ‘creative differences’? It’s best not to have multiple people editing a video, as your creative vision gets clouded trying to constantly explain it to a pushy team member. However, you really should approach your V-Team after your first cut, as they will have really good feedback and should offer constructive creative criticism on how to make the video even better! The final cut lays on your lap, but they certainly help you get there.
Here is one of our favourite videos made by Team Bath Racing. It was for a competition here at the University hosted by Women in Engineering to help promote engineering amongst schoolchildren, particularly girls. We won by the way. Because the video wasn’t a classic promo for TBR, we didn’t implement all the marketing-related tips outlined above, but we did follow the general video production process, overall.
There you have it! Once you’ve finished your video and your team is happy, get it out there for the world to see.
Closing Remarks
Getting good at video editing is not an overnight event, but it is a skill that is worth every second you put in. It’s easier to learn video editing when you have a project you’re passionate about, like the project you’re involved with at the University. For example, I’ve been learning a rendering program called Blender by doing 3D renders for TBR for the past three years, just because I was passionate about the project. Now, my skill has developed to the point that I’m considering starting up a render and video production business with my friend, as we’ve had many people and companies approach us with paying contracts to produce videos and renders for them!
All this to say, don’t feel like you’re wasting your time being stuck doing editing. It’s a valuable life skill and a creative outlet, so why not take the opportunity to benefit your project while also developing yourself.
If you have any questions or queries, feel free to find me on Person Finder, or pop down to the TBR Buildroom in 4 East and ask around how you can get involved. Please also be sure to like Team Bath Racing on Facebook and follow us on Twitter so you can see the awesome activities we get up to. Look out for news about TBR Car Launch, and find out how you can attend! We have some big plans for this year, stay tuned.
Fay talks us through how she developed a machine that combines pills into a single dose to help patients take the correct medication and reduce hospital visits.
