Barnett Koryan & Alan Ho Final Project Write-up

Overview

Our media project was to create a series of post game videos which would allow for more people to get to know the MIT varsity basketball team. We interviewed members of the team after games to get their thoughts on the game. We also asked a different question each video that gave more insight about the players outside of basketball.


Video Production

We interviewed the players with a Sony digital camera. The camera was easy to use. It recorded the video onto a hard that was part of the camera. This made it easy to transfer the video to a computer and keep video quality. We used game film which taped for coaches and players to break down and learn. In order to use the game tape which was in VHS format had to be transferred to DVD. Alan ripped the DVD so we could edit it. In the editing process we used the software, Windows Moviemaker. Windows Moviemaker is similar to Apple’s iMovie. It allows for video with music or sound over it. We can also create video out of still shots.

For our video series, we decided that a standard format for the video was good. It connected our videos together. The beginning and end of all the videos were same. We also created a frame that we could put still pictures and allow space for additional information to be given.


Findings / Problems

Working on this project we ran into a few conflicts. As members of the basketball program, we found it hard to conduct the interview right after games. MIT basketball is a division 3 program that is not use to “media” and interviews. The season has started not as we expected. We have not been playing well to our coach’s standard which becomes our standard though our record says we’re a winning team. After our games since we have not played great in any of them, no one on the team really wanted to be interviewed. And we did not want to interview them in that state. Our videos are meant to portray the basketball team in the best way. Anger and devastation were not images that we wanted to record for all to see.

We also had conflicts with retrieving the game tapes. We had to work around our coaches’ schedule. The coaches had to turn the VHS tape into DVD and this took time. We also found it hard to want to retrieve the tapes because it is hard to watch and cut out clips of a bad game. Many amateur athletes just want forget or at least not have a bad performance be pointed out to them.

The volume of games has been difficult to deal with, especially with delays in getting a usable format of our game film. We have had five games in twelve days with a Thanksgiving holiday where parents were around.


Achievements

We were able to create post game videos for our game scrimmages. They have been seen by many people that have connections to the basketball team. In order to help us expand our audience, and reach out to all our fans, we are currently in the process of embedding our videos on mitathletics.com, our school’s official NCAA website. Additionally, students from the nearby Cambridge school have seen it and gave some feedback. They really liked the videos that we made. The students from the school have talked about the video with the players that visit the school to help tutor. They are looking forward to our first home game that is on December 2nd. So we have accomplished our secret goal of getting more and a wider variety of fans.