We Are All Tigers

August 27, 2019

Tigers United teaser trailer made by GC3400 students Alyssa, Megan, and Sydney which will play for over 350,000 football fans this Fall. Watch the full trailer here- https://youtu.be/oZX53JPVaGY

Written by: Alyssa Pittman, Megan Smith, & Sydney Thompson (all are class of 2021)

When we signed up to take GC 3400 with Dr. Walker this summer, we had no idea that we would be given a major opportunity to contribute to helping make an impact for endangered tigers in the wild. We had the chance to channel our creativity and technical skills from GC 3400 using videography. Interested in harnessing student creativity, the Tigers United University Consortium director, Dr. Brett Wright, and the U.S. Tiger University Consortium project coordinator, Rachelle Beckner, reached out to our class with a proposal for our video assignment. Our clients, Dr. Wright and Mrs. Beckner asked us to create a public awareness video for Tigers United that would display information about the consortium, identify the prominent dangers prompting the extinction of tigers, and incorporate each tiger mascot university involved with the organization. They also requested that we make a shorter thirty-second film that would inform and inspire students, faculty, and fans of Auburn University, Clemson University, University of Missouri, and Louisiana State University. The aim was to inspire viewers to get involved with this initiative. The parameters of this assignment dictated that we only had about a week to complete pre-production, production, and post-production for the two videos.

During pre-production, our group brainstormed and deliberated on the best way to incorporate each of the requests made by the client. We decided the theme of our videos was going to be “We Are All Tigers.” Our goals were to create a sense of unity among the schools and to relay the message that we should all care as much about wild tigers as we care about our own tiger mascots. Each member of our group took the role of either screenwriter, conceptual designer, producer, or production designer. Collaboratively, we created a script, storyboard, call sheet, and schedule to organize our vision for the overall video to prepare for production. Each component of this process was vital. The script was required for our group to have our questions organized for the interview with Dr. Wright. Desired framing and cutaways for the director of photography were pre-determined through illustrations on our storyboard. The call sheet and schedule were needed to ensure everyone knew where to be and what to do and also to verify we had all the supplies necessary during production.

In production, we took all of the planning we had done in pre-production and applied it in our real shoot. We had mental images of what shots we wanted and what answers we hoped Dr. Wright would provide. We set out from our GC lab with an impressive load of equipment. We towed a boom mic, a lavalier microphone, a portable LED light, a DJI Osmo mobile, two Sony cameras, two camera tripods, and a myriad of cords across campus to the Watt Center. In a reserved conference room, we set up our equipment quickly before Dr. Wright’s arrival. Once he was outfitted with his microphone, we did a soundcheck and began the interview. Just as we expected, Dr. Wright’s answers to the questions were exceptionally eloquent, thorough, and informative. We knew we had great material to work with! Throughout the interview, there were occasional moments when the sound of one channel dropped, but we hoped it would be very minor. Unfortunately, it was more of a problem, and that was dealt with in post-production. After the interview, we ventured to some of the most beloved spots on campus to record cutaway shots. At the end of the day, we returned to home base in Godfrey Hall feeling very pleased with the content we recorded.

Watch the full length video made by GC3400 students Alyssa, Megan, and Sydney here: https://youtu.be/Ih03gWGZ-eY

Once we collected all of the footage, we looked through the different shots and selected our favorites. We moved on to editing the interview footage shot on the main camera. In Adobe Premiere, we cut the pieces of the interview that we wanted to include. Afterwards, we added pictures and B-roll footage to the clips of the interview. A selection of shots from the second interview camera were also added to create a rough cut of the long video. One of our biggest obstacles during this whole process involved editing the interview audio. One of our microphones had a loose connection with the camera so it would cut in and out. We tried our best to edit the video around these audio issues, but ultimately, we had to switch the audio to only one channel of audio from our secondary microphone. Another audio edit we executed involved eliminating a buzzing noise that was being produced in our interview room. After locking in the audio, we moved into Adobe After Effects to create VFX for both the long and short videos. This included a numerical countdown, color replacement, and some 3D rendering and movements. The short video was completely done in After Effects. With the short video, music was a key part of the video so picking out the music was one of the first things we did. We then edited the video to the music to make it really stand out. The finishing touches to the long video were done in Premiere and included transitions, lighting adjustments, movement in the pictures, adding logos and miscellaneous graphics, and the end credits.

Once we had both videos completed and submitted, we had a class viewing with the great people of the Tigers United University Consortium in attendance as guests. The viewing went so well that we were later contacted and informed that the short video would be featured on the jumbotron for the Clemson/Texas A&M game, as well as being shown at the other three tiger schools, Auburn, LSU, and Missouri. We were ecstatic to hear this news! Later on, we got the offer to meet Clemson’s First Lady, Beth Clements, before the game and get a picture with her, which we are very excited about. We are also looking forward to entering an edited version of the video to the Greenville Zoo Film Festival later in the year. At the beginning of this project, we did not foresee the number of opportunities that would come from this classroom assignment. We want to thank Dr. Walker, Dr. Wright, and Rachelle Beckner for the amazing opportunities!