ENG 411B: Preparing for the Semester

In order to prepare for creating all of the videos for my grammar course, I watched a lot of tutorials on audio and video editing. I also gave myself a little project to upgrade my skills. I have seen others create course trailers, so thought that I would do the same. Since the Principles of Modern Grammar course has become one that many students fear, I decided to create a trailer as if it was a horror film.

I used the original trailer for Night of the Living Dead (1968) as my model and mashed up from there:

Overall, I was happy with the final clip, seeing it, obviously, as an exercise. But I'll share it with the students (and with all of you). I could do a lot more, and I'm not happy with my voice over (I plan to hire my youngest son, who has done some acting, to do voice overs in future videos), but it did help me get a sense of mix and mash.

My goal for the semester is to create quality videos. I realize the learning curve that comes from this new medium, and I plan to upgrade from semester to semester, but I hope to incorporate a full range of audio, video, image, and text so that they can be as helpful as possible to the students.

If you're interested, here's the original trailer from Night of the Living Dead: