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The University of Kibangsaan Malaysia produced their latest corporate video, which is published on You Tube. Presumably, the video targets people such as Malaysians living in the West, whom the university would like to contribute money to their endowment, and or send their children back to Malaysia for their education.
Based on the video content, the University apparently decided to feature important discoveries and breakthroughs made at the University, which have lead to social, technological and economical advances for humanity. The approach is certainly meritorious, and as the corporate video describes the list of advances, one can appreciate that many of these contributions are exciting cutting edge scientific developments. The discoveries presented include computerized monitoring of the eye movements of a driver to look for evidence he is too tired to drive and a computerized robot with the capability of detecting even minute smells.
Having plotted out the content of the corporate video the university and videographers next had to decide how they wanted to organize their material. They chose a format not unlike the dialogue in the famous John Lennon song, Imagine. In Imagine, the late John Lennon presented his ideas as a series of parallel sentences each starting with the word imagine. The song was set to softe melodious music composed by Lennon.
This video presents its material about academic discoveries in form of a parallel series of captioned questions and responses. Each question is followed by a response and the whole interplay is set to soft background music. For example, the first caption starts with a question, “What if a computer could see what your eyes cannot?” Another caption responds: “Driver drowsiness detection system developed by the faculty of engineering.” Question: “What if we could invent a machine with a sense of smell? Response: “The optical e-nose detects smells up to a millionth of a micron.”
The entire 9 minute video consists of additional segments organized just like these, up until the very end. In the background we watch imagery related to the discovery begin touted, and or the people who developed it. In the final segment, the video poses a series of questions without answers. Who is driving the nation forward with a strong sense of national identity?” “Who has the will to advance humanity? Finally, “What if it is a National University? Then the video flashes the name University of Kibangsaan Malaysia.
While the video is long and repetitive, I think it would be a mistake to call it boring. The question response format calls attention to the amazing breakthrough each discovery has brought to ongoing human progress. However, with respect to the visual presentation I do believe the video missed presenting enough clips of the discoveries in action and therefore may not have reached to the level of excitement it could have.
To illustrate my point, the video starts by posing the question “What if a computer created by man could see things your human eye can’t see?” The question makes you think and then the next caption introduces the driver drowsiness detection system. The question and response arouses interest. However, the video fails to show a depiction of the produc being used in real life. A visual presentation of a driver driving down the road at night and almost falling asleep and being aroused by the computer and then pulling over, would have, in my opinion, added more excitement. This type of vidual segment would have been comparable to contemporary videos of androids, which feature the androids performing a variety of feats on screen and talking to people. The question and answer format wins for consistency, yet by the end everyone knows what to expect, and so it loses some effectiveness. Furthermore, after a while viewers probably would like to know the name of the university presenting this research. While this might make some of the watchers stay to the end, it could also cause some of them to lose focus on each individual discovery. Finally, the one short appearance of the name of the University, which is the subject of the video is probably not enough to create powerful image branding. I would recommend that the name should have come out at the beginning, so viewers can associate all the advancements with the University.
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A successful company is challenged when it is confronted with a new project, which requires them to meet a new challenge and new level of excellence. And when they meet that challenge, then their company grows and expands.
Diginovations, home of creative video solutions, was challenged to create a trade show video for Microwave Radio Communications for the 2007 NAB trade show. Microwave had rented prime space booth, and so their trade show video would be the first video seen by visitors to the 2007 NAB convention convention floor. By 2006, HD video was the accepted standard at NAD, so this added yet one more requirement to the exacting challenge.
Diginovations accepted the challenge, and created an exciting video, which drew myriads of spectators to the Microwave Booth.Their video was imagistic, it was a branding video, and it succeeded in capturing and conveying the excitement, which wireless radio communication has brought to broadcasting.
What is most spectacular about the Diginovations video is that is succeeds in the space of 4 compact minutes in presenting most of the exciting types of imagery that one would expect to be associated with the radio communications industry.We watch as television crews travel by helicopter to cover on the minute spots news events, accidents, sporting events, rescues, fires. We watch broadcasting crews setting up their equipment and dismantling it. We see several fast motion segments which transform the routine actions of the broadcast crew into rapid action scenes that serve to convey the sense of urgency and haste which we associate with on the spot broadcasting.
Spliced in with scenes depicting the news events being covered and the means of transmission, are shots of the front line cameraman capturing the raw news footage. Shots of skiing, and other winter sports are emphasized, in the video by the Boston video company.These scenes reflect strong editing inclusion choices because these are sports which connote speed, accuracy, action, all elements that enhance the image the video is creating about Microwave Radio Communications.
The visual story line is backed up by exciting synthesizer music, which presents an enlarged theme not unlike the short music spots we are used to hearing before live televised broadcasts. While the video presents occasional captions, which enhance the branding, they present some of the written material in a very creative way. The company name is blazoned on the inside of their large concave disc microwave broadcasting antennae, which appear in the video from time to time.
The Microwave Radio Communications %KLINK3% presents exciting ways in which branding can be conveyed through good choices of video footage, which convey the imagery that people expect and want to see, in the companies field of endeavor.