Fifth year Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of International Studies. Co-Founder & Secretary @UOWDMS
President & Co-founder @UOWDMS // Digital Media & International Relations (Dean’s Scholar) @UOW // Sydney Publications Director @YDSociety // @Unicatt alumnus
Fourth Year UOW ~ BCMS (Digital Media and Marketing and Advertising) (Dean’s Scholar) // Marketing Coordinator at @UOWDMS//
Pitching a project is a core aspect of many BCM classes. Therefore, it is a skill that you will quickly have to master. It can be very difficult to navigate complex marking criteria and produce a compelling and engaging pitch. So, we’ve brought together some BCM veterans to give you the do’s and don’ts of pitching projects.
The art of constructing the perfect video
TIP ONE: Produce your audio and videos separately.
The beauty of having audio & video as seperate files is its easy to chop and change, change speeds and have more control with the finished product
Kelsea
Kelsea: On my Macbook to record a pitch I will normally use QuickTime players screen recording & audio recording functions, either Canva slides or PowerPoint slides for text based visual content and then just iMovie to put it all together. The beauty of having audio & video as seperate files is its easy to chop and change, change speeds and have more control with the finished product
Callum: For the actual recording, I usually capture audio and video separately. Video (usually Google slides) is recorded using OBS, but the screen recording function for Quicktime on a Mac works just as well. Audio I record through Audacity or using the voice memo function on my phone, and I edit the whole thing in Premiere but again, any old editor does the trick. Upload to YouTube rather than directly onto Moodle and you’re set.
TIP TWO: Write a script
It doesn’t matter how good your slides or your Prezi are (assuming this is the traditional, “get up in front of the class and do a 10 minute presentation on your assignment” deal),
Callum
Kelsea: A script is super important even just to refer back to when lining up the audio with the video content (slides and other screen recorded content). And, by writing a script, you can make sure that you’ve covered all of the necessary dot points in the marking criteria.
Callum: For video having a script is essential because you don’t have an audience to bounce off and you lose a lot of that spontaneity you might otherwise get. That said, its critical that students speak slowly and don’t cram too much in (learnt that from experience).
TIP THREE: Make your video exciting
I like to give myself a pretend audience I am speaking to, and a scenario where I would be giving this pitch. It helps me speak with conviction and speak with an end-user in mind.
Jasmyn
Jasmyn: These days, you have so many tools which will help you create quick, easy and professional-looking audio-visual aids – so use them! When I create my pitch videos, I like to keep the graphics simple. Only put the essential words and images on your slides. And, make the audio/video compliment the visual aids.
When presenting, don’t just read off your slides. Pull together footage to demonstrate what you are saying, or just include a summary of what you are saying out loud. Practice your audio/vlog ON CAMERA and speak naturally, rather than read off a script. This will take time and lots of takes! Getting comfortable speaking while being recorded is a huge, and often overlooked step for a successful presentation.
I use canva to create my presentation slides – there’s so many good templates there that are completely customisable. I use premiere pro to put my audio and visuals together but you can edit videos using free software like Canva, Quik and iMovie and achieve very professional results. Don’t forget to use background music – it sets the tone! Export your video as a H264 if you can. This will be a compressed file that hasn’t compromised much quality, making it perfect for quickly uploading to Youtube.
So there you have it, expert advice from very experienced project-pitches. We hope you can take this advice on board and produce some really awesome work in the future.
Check out our most recent pitches here, here and here.
My favourite tip was…
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