After having created an independent Engineering Through Redstone curriculum, I needed a medium to advertise it.
Scripting / Preparation
Since I've been running this class for many summers, I've seen a lot of talented students develop and create technical and eye-catching projects over the course of my class. I knew I wanted to have some of their creations in my advertisement, so I combed through all the previous lesson files which I had saved to find the best of the best.
I additionally wrote and endlessly tweaked a small script that I could begin the video with to grab the viewer's attention, tell them my credentials, and invite them to join the class before cutting to a montage.
I also conducted editing tests for the Minecraft content that would appear in the video
The small script for beginning of video.
Some of the Minecraft world files I searched through to find the best elements.
Live action filming
I wanted a classroom-like environment for my live-action intro scene, so I created a small set with a chalkboard, a set of colored furniture, and a theater parnel lamp for lighting. After rehearsing my lines and adjusting my video camera for the space, I took dozens of takes to ensure I had enough material I'd be happy with while editing.
Editing
I wanted to stretch myself with this process and decided to learn a new powerful editing software, Davinci Resolve. Since I had experience with Premiere, this took some time but became natural as I began to see the parallels between the software.
I knew I wanted more professional-looking in-game footage, so I learned a game modification that allows for smoother camera movements and custom video exports. I also played around with creating green screen elements in-game with a custom resource pack so that they could be isolated and added to the live-action shots.
This was accomplished through Davinci's Fusion. It is a node-based compositor that allows for multiple inputs and outputs to be combined intuitively, which I found comfortable from my experience in programming.
