AVA – Nature (anti)matters

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From 15th-19th January 2018, QUASARs Bruno Galante, Volodymyr Rodin, Bianca Veglia and Milena Vujanovic who are all Fellows in the AVA network attended a media training week. This event was organized by Carbon Digital and QUASAR Group leader Prof Carsten Welsch at one of the UK’s premium creative hubs, MediaCityUK. They were joined by other researchers from this new European network on antimatter R&D. This unique training saw all participants develop the skills required to storyboard, script, film and produce their very own project video: AVA – Nature (anti)matters.

 

The week began with an overview of the creative process, followed by preproduction; storyboards and scripts were created and the overall ‘look and feel’ of the film was decided. Once completed, the Fellows moved onto green screen filming and everyone had the opportunity to film and be filmed for the video. The script was then recorded by professional voice-over artists. In addition, the Fellows recorded sections of the script relating to their own work packages and decided amongst themselves who should star in the final version.

In postproduction, they identified their strengths and split into groups to work on different aspects of the film. This included proofing, editing, soundscaping and rendering scenes for the final film. Postproduction can often be as intense and creative as preproduction and production combined. Postproduction offers dynamic opportunities to change the storyboard, 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 Welsch said, “Throughout their career, researchers are often expected to promote and advertise their research findings using professional media techniques. This novel training has introduced several QUASARs to the creative and technical processes behind modern media production. It has built on our previous experience of creating outreach videos. It will now serve us as a template for future trainings.”

The AVA film can be watched on YouTube.

 

 

AVA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721559.