FIRST Parody Fatigue and other Media Things [long]

[TheMilkman01]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

It's tough to see HQ's marketing efforts shift, as well. In my day I've seen 8 different heads of that department, and I've seen the recycling of old ideas that are perceived as fresh because, well, no one at HQ was around when it was the old way and why we changed in the first place.

I can imagine. In order to be original, you have to understand what's been done before and it's not always that easy. How would you say that these ideas have impacted FIRST in general, and, if any, are there any consistently repeating trends?

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by TheMilkman01

Actually, could you link to that? I'd gladly give it consideration.

Here is the link to apply - http://goo.gl/forms/ERSqG2YYLa
Link to channel -

It is just starting out but, it is a really fun community. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVd...irbn0f71skmVIA

[Shrub]

A friend of mine (who does not have a CD account) and I have been discussing this thread since it has been posted. On her previous team, she had a hand in many of the design aspects, both graphically and on the robot. I also was able to marginally aid in many of the graphic design/web design aspects of my old team. I know there were many, many things I could do to make it better. As someone who was taking four IB and an AP course, I knew I did not have the time. Even so, I value more what I learned in the process than the actual outcome of the website. I do not take comfort in knowing the website I helped design may have been better than someone else's.

I think it's important to realize that many of the teams who are producing videos for the FIRST parody contest have had little-to-no video processing experience. FIRST is composed primarily of high school students - it would be unfair to hold them all to an equally high standard, given the diverse areas where FIRST programs are held. Some teams are able to push themselves and have members solely devoted to producing media content. Some teams have members that are just learning and are doing the FIRST parody contest to test their video skills.

One may consider the videos bad, or cringe-inducing, but one should not somehow use those videos to judge the whole production value of a team. For many teams, this is the first opportunity some members have to be introduced to media production because they have an opportunity and a reason to they may not otherwise have (and would then have to focus their efforts on something else relative to team size and capabilities). I honestly think it's disrespectful to discredit team efforts that they have put into their team videos and not give them recognition because you're feeling cringe-y.

My friend and I do agree on other teams with higher levels of video production experience (or experience of any kind, really) sharing their knowledge and efforts with others. I'm honestly excited any amazed by some team's efforts. It's awesome. I'm glad that "more than robots" activities within a FIRST team are getting recognition, and that people are learning skills that include video production and design.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Shrub

One may consider the videos bad, or cringe-inducing, but one should not somehow use those videos to judge the whole production value of a team. For many teams, this is the first opportunity some members have to be introduced to media production because they have an opportunity and a reason to they may not otherwise have (and would then have to focus their efforts on something else relative to team size and capabilities). I honestly think it's disrespectful to discredit team efforts that they have put into their team videos and not give them recognition because you're feeling cringe-y.

^This. Would you tell a rookie team "your robot struggles just do drive and looks horrible, can you stop playing since it makes all of us look bad to the potential sponsors and media?"?

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by TheMilkman01

TL;DR

Joined FIRST for the media, after two years FIRST finally had a contest for what I do, and most of the results were cringeworthy. Trying to impact FIRST community in a positive way so that the video quality improves.[/i]

Concentrating on this last comment about wanting to impact the community in a positive way:

I see you're from the Minneapolis area. I bet there are a lot of FIRST events that happen there. One way that you can positively impact your area, and improve video quality overall is to start helping create videos for FIRST in Minnesota.

In Indiana we now have a P.R. and Marketing committee that collects video and pictures at all of our events. It's a new committee, so it's still being developed, but so far it's been an awesome way to create more videos for IndianaFIRST. The committee developed after we had students working on video production for us last year. Here's the videos the STUDENTS created at our 2015 FRC events: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...DK8rSt1ijMeujg Pretty great in my opinion, for a few high school students working on it.

This year, with the expansion of our committee, we have been able to up the professionalism of our videos. The students now have professional and college A/V people mentoring them. Here's our videos from this year so far: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...PrEcVFsO4KZ7qJ

TL;DR:
Find a way to be part of events in your community. Make videos at events about the events. Include students from teams attending the event. Teach them how to make great videos.

[Metonym]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

^This. Would you tell a rookie team "your robot struggles just do drive and looks horrible, can you stop playing since it makes all of us look bad to the potential sponsors and media?"?

I really hope my post didn't come off saying that I discredit the work of these teams with little video experience, because I can admit that I started in a similar place. I can also acknowledge that Jess' point "The method may not always be ideal, but the act of inspiring in new ways is always good," is very true.

What I am afraid of is that these contests provide students with a few one off opportunities to make a video and then forget about making more videos because their team might not think it is important enough or because they lack the drive to continue. FIRST will always be robots first, but if they get past that phase and make videos on a regular basis I will be ecstatic because it means people are working to achieve something that I didn't when I was a student.

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

This year, with the expansion of our committee, we have been able to up the professionalism of our videos. The students now have professional and college A/V people mentoring them. Here's our videos from this year so far: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...PrEcVFsO4KZ7qJ

Hey some of that is me!

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Metonym

What I am afraid of is that these contests provide students with a few one off opportunities to make a video and then forget about making more videos because their team might not think it is important enough or because they lack the drive to continue. FIRST will always be robots first, but if they get past that phase and make videos on a regular basis I will be ecstatic because it means people are working to achieve something that I didn't when I was a student.

Well, I can tell you that when we started our new team in September, I asked for a show of hands who would be interested in doing some video or photography work on the team. There was not a single hand raised. I think because nobody really knew why they would want to make a video.

Now looking back, students have seen that there are many opportunities to make videos, not even counting the song parody contest:
- safety animation
- chairman's video
- video to loop on a display in our pit or at a community event
- robot reveal video
- recordings of workshops or other "seminars" we have
- video tutorials, for example to set up our image processing software on a Raspberry Pi

We have purchased some team licenses of Premiere Elements and have at least one student and two mentors interested in video production work. Next year we should be able to push this even more.

[TheMilkman01]

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

Well, I can tell you that when we started our new team in September, I asked for a show of hands who would be interested in doing some video or photography work on the team. There was not a single hand raised. I think because nobody really knew why they would want to make a video.

This is the case for most teams. If they don't understand the potential, how can we expect them to devote their time to it? Not only that, but they recruited people wanting to build a robot, not necessarily anyone wanting to make videos or go into business. It's not really something that most people sign up for in FIRST partially due to less demand, partially due lack of marketing FIRST that way.

Originally Posted by XaulZan11;

I really hope my post didn't come off saying that I discredit the work of these teams with little video experience, because I can admit that I started in a similar place. I can also acknowledge that Jess' point "The method may not always be ideal, but the act of inspiring in new ways is always good," is very true.

I 100% agree with this. I realize in my original post I may have come off as belittling the teams who put the effort into making a video, but this couldn't be further from the truth. I was thrilled with the turnout and watched every single parody in order to see what each team thought up and produced.

Originally Posted by Shrub

One may consider the videos bad, or cringe-inducing, but one should not somehow use those videos to judge the whole production value of a team. For many teams, this is the first opportunity some members have to be introduced to media production because they have an opportunity and a reason to they may not otherwise have (and would then have to focus their efforts on something else relative to team size and capabilities). I honestly think it's disrespectful to discredit team efforts that they have put into their team videos and not give them recognition because you're feeling cringe-y.

Again, I in no way meant to take away recognition from the teams nor wish to disrespect them. It is, like you said, perhaps their first opportunity to be introduced to media. It just bugs me a little that their first opportunity had to be this way. Rather than starting with a smaller competition that most teams would create better content on and learn more from scratch, FIRST opted to more or less bandwagon on the success of the FIRST Rhapsody parody and cause many teams just starting out in media production to have to create one of the hardest video genres there is to create. I'm grateful for the teams that pushed through and submitted, but I personally know at least one team that decided to take their parody off of YouTube after it received a heavy wave of dislikes with no feedback. That's what frustrates me. I see teams trying and not getting much support. I see FIRST create video contests but not seem consistent or engaged with them. When they do recognize them, they overplay them, which lessens the experience for some people. I understand both sides––that FIRST should recognize the videos, but also that some people are getting tired of them already. It's a tricky situation. We can't change the past, though, and it doesn't do too much good to dwell on it. I hope that in the future my team––and others––will be able to impact FIRST for the better through video production and see it gain traction to become widespread in our great community.

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by TheMilkman01

snip snip

Thanks for the clarification! I can definitely see what you mean, and I hope that FIRST consistently continues to have a video contest every year of some sort - not just to #makeitloud (which is awesome) but to promote quality content and encourage teaching others non-technical skills.