WeVideo, Pt. II – Sharing projects

by Joe Miller

Once upon a time, I wrote a blog post about a recent online video editing program, WeVideo.  I even created a short video collage of found footage from the Occupy movement that focused on education, just to give you an idea of some of the possibilities.  Since then, I’ve revisited WeVideo after getting some great questions from teachers and students who are now implementing the program as part of class projects.

One of the more noteworthy discoveries was the project sharing capability of WeVideo.  This means that groups of students can work on the same project on their own computers and on their own time.  Anyone who has had to do group work knows that scheduling issues are the bane of any project.  This isn’t to say group work is avoided entirely because that would be missing the point of collaborative learning.  After all, video production demands some pretty serious diplomacy skills.  With WeVideo’s sharing ability, however, the more nitty-gritty editing stage of production can be attacked in much more manageable segments and delegated amongst the group members. That way everyone in the group can try their hand at video editing.

On the main project page, after signing into your WeVideo account, you can see at the bottom a list of your “project members.”  That’s showing you everyone who has access to your projects.  Inviting new members is as simple as clicking on the big “+” sign with “invite” underneath.  Remember, you won’t be able to invite someone until they have a registered WeVideo account, so be sure to get everyone in your group setup on WeVideo before you begin post-production (fancy industry word for editing, music, titles, etc.).

It might also be a good idea to get all of your media (the footage) loaded onto WeVideo after shooting. That way, everyone in your group has immediate access to your project media.  This also keeps everything stored in a (relatively) safe place, but it’s always a good idea to backup all of your media onto an external drive immediately after filming, just in case.  As you will come to learn in your media-based projects, always expect the worst – then you’re prepared for everything!