AVA – Nature (anti)matters

From 15^th-19^th January 2018, the award-winning creative team at Carbon Digital teamed up with Prof Carsten Welsch from the University of Liverpool to host a dedicated Media Training at MediaCityUK. This training was offered to a cohort of Fellows employed within the European Union-funded network AVA.

Prof Welsch, Head of Physics and coordinator of AVA, said: “Throughout their career, successful researchers need to promote and advertise their research using professional media techniques. They often have to do this without ever having received a dedicated training – we aim to fill this gap. To do this, we have developed an entirely new training concept with Carbon Digital. As a tangible outcome of the week, our Fellows were asked to produce their very own project video: AVA – Nature (anti)matters.”

The week began with an overview of the creative process followed by preproduction; storyboards, scripts and the overall ‘look and feel’ of the film was decided. Then, green screen filming started and everyone had the opportunity to film and be filmed for the video. The script was recorded by professional voice-over artists, and the researchers also recorded sections themselves and decided who should star in the final version.

In postproduction, the researchers split into groups to work on proofing, editing, soundscaping and rendering scenes for the final film. Postproduction can be as intense and creative as preproduction and production combined. It offers dynamic opportunities to change the storyline, add new audio effects to the soundscape and change visual elements. The Fellows actively engaged in postproduction, offering suggestions and comments to refresh & refine the film’s message.

Professor Carsten Welsch commented, “The Carbon Digital team has done an amazing job in introducing our researchers to the challenging creative and technical processes behind modern media production. I am absolutely fascinated by how much everyone engaged in the activities and in particular the quality of the final film. This is an example of successful industry-academia collaboration which will no doubt help improve the overall employment prospects of our researchers.”

Paul McHugh added: ‘We are delighted to be working with such a fantastic project, MediaCityUK is the ideal location to host a week-long event like this’.

Sue McHugh commented: ‘With 14 fellows recruited from across the world, it has been inspiring to see everyone converge in the North West. Having such a broad range of flexible facilities here in The Landing has enabled us to provide every part of the training event in one place’.

The AVA film can be viewed here.