COM 561: Professional Multimedia Content Creation
Summer 2016 – Washington State University – Professor Lisa Waananen Jones
The purpose of COM 561 Multimedia Content Creation was to teach students to develop and communicate ideas clearly, concisely, and effectively through multimedia content. To accomplish this, each student was tasked with completing creative multimedia storytelling assignments centered around a common theme for the duration of the semester.
My topic for the semester was focused on workplace safety in the construction industry. As a marketer in the construction industry, safety communications have become an ever present part of my job. From jobsite signage to hard hat stickers to community outreach – the projects I complete have the potential to influence my colleagues, and the general public, to work safely every day.
My topic, Why We Work Safely, was created after completing initial research. I found that a common reason people want to work safely isn’t about improving metrics or the bottom line. No, the reason people work safely is so they can go home and spend time with their families and friends and enjoy their hobbies or interest.
I determined the best approach to influence the actions of my audience was to make an emotional connection between them and safety. I sought to accomplish this by reminding the audience what they have at stake through multimedia. After viewing or listening to my projects, employees would be more likely to choose safer alternatives to completing their work.
Narrative Graphic Collage
The first project we completed in this course was a graphic collage with Adobe Photoshop. This project provided a great opportunity for me to connect with multiple audiences by combining compelling and authentic imagery. My early research suggested family is the primary driver for why people chose to work safely, so I decided to make that the focus of this assignment.
My initial draft of this project combined roughly 30 images laid out in a grid. Images alternated between families, hobbies and construction activities. I experimented with layers to give the collage some depth and help make my hero family stand out as the focal point. I also included a small amount of copy to briefly explain the artwork and persuade the viewer to consider why they work safely.
Feedback about my first draft was that it was too busy to make the emotional connection I was seeking. Simply, the collage was overwhelming and lacked unity. To remedy this, I reduced the number of images used and sought to simplify the background. I spent time reviewing and applying the Gestalt theories of proximity, continuation, and similarity to my grid layout, which helped turn the collage into a more cohesive and compelling product. Finally, I took time to perfect the hero family image by experimenting in Photoshop with different effects and settings.
I am pleased with the final version of my collage, which you can see below. It is the result of creativity, software skill, and sound design theory and principles. To learn more about this project and how I created this collage (including a step-by-step guide), you can read my full post here.
Logo
Our second project required us to create a logo that effectively brands and represents our semester topic. My goal for this was to create a logo that was creative and fun, yet still able to make an emotional connection between my audience and safety. After spending a significant time sketching various ideas I finally settled on a design that focused on my hero family, similar to my collage.
Once I finalized the direction of my logo I got to work in Adobe Illustrator. I began by designing the hero family and chose to model them based of figures seen frequently in safety signage and graphics. This was relatively easy as the family is comprised of simple shapes including circles and rounded rectangles. After completing this step, I added a safety orange color scheme to make the connection to safety and add visual interest. My final step was adding copy to make a direct connection to my topic.
The revision process for this project really helped take my logo to the next level. Without the feedback from my professor and classmates my logo would not have been successful. Revisions included expanding the copy to include the entire Why We Work Safely phrase, fine tuning the hero family and adding hearts to make the emotional connection I sought. I love the result of these revisions and feel this approach will immediately connect my audience with their families, instead of strangers.
I did not know it at the time, but the logo I created for this project would become an integral part of the video project I discuss later in this post. To learn more about this project and how I created this logo, you can read my full post here.
Audio Story
Our third project required us to create an audio story using Adobe Audition. There were a variety of formats to choose from – news story, narrative or explanatory story segment, edited interview, promotional story, advertisement or public service announcement. Since I am most comfortable communicating visually, this project proved to be the most difficult for me.
I chose to record an interview with our Safety Director, Steve Brennan, to share his view of safety with my audience. I didn’t give up on my goal of making an emotional connection with my audience and sought to achieve this by reminding employees we enforce safety rules and regulations because we care about them.
Gathering content for this project was fairly straight forward. I began by scheduling the interview with Steve and prepared a list of questions. I didn’t want him to be caught off guard or waste his time, so I provided the questions to him in advance. After that we met for about an hour and recorded the interview which yielded a little over 30-minutes of audio.
With all my audio gathered I began working in Adobe Audition. Editing together the interview wasn’t difficult, but selecting which parts to use was. Cutting down 30+ minutes of audio into 2-minutes without changing the meaning or intent of his responses was. After completing that task, I spent time re-recording my voice overs so they were clear to the listener. To make sure there was a story and not just an interview, I spent more time finessing my introduction and conclusion before finalizing the project.
This project turned out to be really fun and I was glad I was able to spend time getting to know Steve’s safety perspective and why he works safely. To learn more about this project and how I created this logo, you can read my full post here.
Video Story
Our final project required us to create a video story. As I progressed through our projects I had the realization that some employees may understand the necessity of working safely, buy may simply not know how. With this in mind I chose create a safety training video that shares 5 tips for working safely.
The project began with researching which safety tips would be most impactful on jobsites. I met with Steve again to nail these down as well as suggestions on how and where to film these. The next step was to create my storyboard. This tool became my guide for everything. It enabled me to create title requirements, shot lists, sequences, photography lists and more. It was especially useful as I explained to construction workers exactly what I was trying to achieve and how it would all work together.
Before filming I used my storyboard and title list to map out my project in Adobe Premiere Pro. I started by creating titles in Photoshop and placed them on my timeline in Premiere. I gave each one the same time and added a bug I created to fill 3-minutes of time. Once this step was done I knew exactly how much video and audio I needed to film onsite.
I filmed at jobsite around the City of Seattle using my iPhone. In total, I had about an hour of footage to work with. I imported the video into Premiere and began creating my sequences. Next I added the voice overs and audio. Finally, I chose background music and fine-tuned the timing. The last steps were adding credits and exporting.
This was my favorite project because I created something very useful that I think people will enjoy. Additionally, I was happy that I was able to incorporate elements of my other projects in this one. To learn more about this project and how I created this video, you can read my full post here.
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Bill Michie 