I teach a course in Text & Communications at Internationella Engelska Gymnasiet, as I’ve mentioned before.
As part of a project this year, the students have been required to make videos that market the school’s programmes to 9th graders. A particularly tough audience !
I wanted to showcase four here because I am so proud of the work the students have done. I’ll be posting a couple others when they’ve finished final editing.
Playing with Popular Culture
This film advertises the Arts Programme at IEGS and uses stop motion technique. It plays with the cultural popularity of Star Wars. The clip shows that art isn’t just paint and paper at IEGS. It shows that digital art is also a possibility.
Sure, there’s always the risk that the target audience (i.e. 9th graders in Stockholm) won’t see the clip compared to global Star Wars fans but we’ve got around that by playing it at Open House and encouraging students to share the clip of Facebook
Like the previous video, this group worked with pop culture: Harry Potter. The school’s unique brand proposition is that it is Stockholm’s premier international high school and has the House system as in the UK. This is totally unique for Sweden and often intrigues would-be applicants.
The group were really ambitious because as well as learning iMovie they also worked hard to get some great audio and used an external digital recorder along with the video camera. As well as a great concept, the group got a lot of praise for the quality of the sound.
As a tip: if you’re looking to introduce video to your online content marketing, get a video camera that enables you to use an external mic.
I also like this video because it includes a teacher playing along. What better way of showing that an academic school can also be fun.
Community Engagement
The third video is set to an original rap that one of the group, Olof Unge, wrote and recorded with the help of Yazan who did the sound for the Star Wars piece. The song totally augments the sentiments of the clip and is instrumental in the success of the clip.
I was really pleased by the way the video captures a strong sense of both the students at the school, the building and what it’s like to work there.
My favorite clip here is the shot of the teacher coming out of the Math staff room right near the end. He’s smiling and laughing. It’s completely natural and caught purely by accident. This is a perfect way of showing, again as opposed to telling, just how the school is.
Low Fi = Rocks!
When the group who made this film stood up and presented their film they were so nervous because they felt the quality wasn’t up to the film quality of the other films.
But the response from the rest of the group was amazing because the class really connected with the spirit of this film. The film shows the brand personas the students were targeting and the class loved this because it spoke to them too.
In many respects this film should inspire you as a content marketer if you’re afraid of video. Even a low-fi clip can strike a very positive chord with your audience.
Takeaways
All these students were working with iMovie or Adobe Premier for pretty much the first time. Many noted just how much work was involved, but their efforts should inspire you if you’re looking to introduce video into your marketing mix. With technology so easily accessible, only your imagination is holding you back.
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