Videos for College Application Arts Supplement

[gogators]

Hi everyone!

 

Parent here of a dd who's working on completing her college applications and I could use your advice re: the DVD that will be part of her "Arts Supplement" which will be part of her overall application. (For most or all of the colleges on her list, she will be using the Common Application.)

 

I'm getting some help from others to create the DVD using a couple of video editor tools, and dd will include on the DVD a solo variation that she taped earlier this year.

 

But, I also think that she should include a snippet of some bar & floor work from one of her classes (preferably on pointe?) to show her strength in ballet, and to show that she's not just a casual ballet student. Is this recommended?

 

Also, we have DVDs of past performances, some of which include some modern or jazz pieces. But they are all mostly group pieces, with maybe a brief solo from her and the other "corps" members. Should I include a snippet from one or two of the contemporary pieces on the DVD to help show dd's breadth in other dance forms? Since I'll have help with the editing tools, I can do a "spotlight" on dd in the video, to help highlight her dancing in the piece. Do you think this would this help?

 

I should note that the DVD included in the Arts Supplement will probably be looked at by people in the admissions office (i.e., non-experts on dance), as well as dance dept heads or faculty at some or most of the colleges. (Most of these colleges do not have a strong dance dept, and there's at least one college that has stated they do not forward the Arts Supplement to their dance dept since all admissions are soley based on academics, test scores, outside interests, etc.) And some addt'l background: If asked to state her intended major, dd will not put down "Dance" but probably some other major like English or Literature (or even Undecided).

 

Oh, and dd will also be including her dance resume and a few photos (copied on one page) in the Arts Supplement.

 

But, I appreciate any and all input from those of you who have gone thru this college application process in creating the Arts Supplement with a ballet son or daughter!

 

Thanks everyone!

[fendrock]

As it turns out, my daughter will not be doing one of these, but I did give it some thought, having made videos for audition purposes.

 

iMovie and such will permit you to have a menu, ie, you could have choices like Barre, Center, Choreography, Performance.

 

Personally, I think the ideal DVD would include dancer introduction ("talking head" about goals, etc, as is required some places), barre, center, solo performance footage, sample of the student's choreography (done in studio, not necessarily on stage) and perhaps a "crowd pleaser" modern or jazz (also done in studio).

 

The DVD menu would enable the person viewing it to choose what they wanted to see.

[gogators]

Thanks fenrock! Oh boy...I think dd has some work ahead of her.

 

I think I'll wait until she's done with her SAT this Saturday before giving some suggestions to her on this --- inbetween ballet classes, Nut rehearsals, school and everything else going on in her life. I'm impressed with all those dks & their parents who have gone through this before us!

[Guest balletandsynchro]

gogators,

There is a video production company that is in OC (Laguna Niguel) that has done work for me with DVDs. They do a great job, and like you, I had to compile a DVD from multiple sources. If you are interested, PM me and I'll send you their number.

[namaste08]

Is there a ball-park price on a service like this - say for a 8-10 minute dvd ? My nephew is helping my dd with hers and I don't want to short change him!

[gogators]

Here's some more info I've come across in getting the DVD done for the Common App arts supplement:

 

Really liked using Nero for video editing, creating the DVD menu, video file conversion, burning the DVD, etc. It even will handle printing out a CD label for your DVD. Easy to use and I was able to take different clips from dd's past performance DVDs and piece it together to make it look decent. (Not bad for someone who had zero experience with video editing.) It was about $50, but I noticed this newer version is $79.

 

They just came out with a new version, Nero 9: http://www.nero.com

 

I had some trouble converting some video that was recorded on a Sony video camera (which has its own proprietary video format), and also bought AVS Vido Converter (you can Google it) -- couldn've used Nero instead, but this was before I found out about Nero. It takes any movie or video file format and converts it into any other format (AVI, MOV, MPG, WMV, etc.). It was pretty cheap too from what I recall.

 

Good luck!

[dancemaven]

namaste08, I deleted your post that was just a quote of the immediately preceding post. That happens quite often when folks first try to post, so no worries! Please, do try again! Go down to the end of the thread and hit the "Add Reply" button. That will open a fresh box in which you can type your post. When finished, then

scroll down to the end of your box and hit the "Add Reply" button and it will be added to the thread.

 

Welcome!

[namaste08]

Is there a ball-park price on a service like this - say for a 8-10 minute dvd ? My nephew is helping my dd with hers and I don't want to short change him!