Objectified – A Design Documentary Split Into Individual Interviews.

Byrichard

Objectified is a documentary about industrial design that has been divided into interviews with individuals about a diversity of designs, from the casing of the Mac Book Pro to chairs, a CD player that behaves like a fan and much more.


On Linkedin, this documentary has been cut up and split into chapters so that you can either watch the documentary in its entirety or you can watch it as video on demand with the designers you’re interested in or familiar with. It’s a contemporary implementation of the documentary genre because it assumes that you have five minutes at a time to devote to this documentary.


You also have the option of reading the transcript instead of watching the videos if desired. Some interviews are in French, German, Dutch, Japanese or English so you are not obliged to listen to an actor dubbing the interview or read the subtitles. You can simply lesson.


The reason for which I thought this documentary was blogworthy is that once you have watched the final edit version of the documentary you can watch the rushes. You can watch the interventions that were interesting but that was too long-winded or not compelling enough to make the final cut.


I like this. As an editor, we often work on videos and we rough cut to a video that’s three or four times longer than it should be and we listen, and we remove a phrase, and then another before we finally end up with the short version that is youtube or Instagram worthy. We feel that other sentences were interesting but because of limits with time and attention stay in the rushes bin.



In these clips we see the adjustments in shot size, we hear the person ramble and repeat themselves. We also see the video without cutaways or other embellishments. This lends a cinéma verité/direct cinema feel to the documentary. It’s easy to get half an hour to an hour’s worth of interview with each artist or designer and be forced to keep just the two most relevant minutes for the documentary.


Luckily with platforms like Linkedin Learning we can follow the course, i.e. Objectified, in this case, and call it a day, leaving the rest of the videos unwatched. We also have the option to expand and to learn more. I’m using Objectified as the example but there are plenty of topics and documentaries that would benefit from this approach to film making.


Plenty of Linkedin videos are of people reading from a prompter and you can see their eyes moving across the screen, and you can see that they’re pretending to be spontaneous rather than natural.


Documentaries, and Linkedin Learning are well suited, and more documentaries should make their way onto this platform.

Linkedin Learning

Byrichard

Summary


Linkedin Learning is a video resource for people who would like to learn new skills. These range from writing and painting to sound design, video lighting, project management and more. In following these courses individuals can learn new skills, perfect old ones, and learn new tricks. The point is always to move forward, whether you have five minutes or twenty seven and a half hours.


Individual Videos


Taylre Jones Film and Video Colorist – Film from Taylre Jones, Film and Video Colorist by Taylre Jones


For people who are new to Linkedin Learning, you have the opportunity to watch short self-contained videos before committing to courses. These cover a range of subjects and range in duration from three minutes to half an hour or more. All course videos can be watched individually as you would YouTube videos if you wanted to refresh your knowledge of how to do something.


Courses


Courses such as The History of Film And Video Editing are made up of videos divided into two chapters The first chapter is about A History of Film Editing and the second part is about The Technology of film and Video editing. Such courses will complement your knowledge and understanding of a topic.


Learning Google Adsense is another example of a course. It covers “Understanding Adsense, Getting started with adsense, configuring ads and more. By studying for one and a half hours you will come away from this course with a good understanding of how Google Adsense works.


When you complete these video courses you get a certificate of completion which can be added to Linkedin Learning, and the relevant PDFs can be included when applying to jobs where these skills are relevant.


Learning pathways


The next step up from one and a half hour courses is the Learning Pathway. Learning Pathways are designed to encompass a variety of skills and knowledge that are required to work as professionals within certain industries or professions.


I recently completed my first Learning pathway: Become a Project Manager and the experience was good. I feel that I did come away from this course having learned about project management. I saw how it relates to projects I have also worked on but also how it could contribute to future projects. Video and television production go well with project management.


The advantage of such a course is that it covers such a breadth of courses that you come away with a deep understanding of the topic. If you want to push further you can take each exam and get the NASBA equivalent in the process. As I live in Europe I didn’t push that far as I don’t know whether it would be recognised.


I am happy to come away from the course with a collection of certificates but I wish they had provided a learning pathway to recognise the entirety of the course, to save on paperwork when applying for jobs.


Continuing Education Credits



Studying Linkedin Learning Courses will provide you with certificates, skills on your Linkedin Learning and new knowledge but it can also count as credit for a number of other certifications of which a few are listed above. I know that many of the units I completed also provide learning credit towards PMI related courses.


When I looked at courses in French I saw that the certifications were the same and this disappoints me. At this moment in time Linkedin Learning is centered on American learning and could benefit from international certifications. Swiss and French Learning bodies should design and produce courses that people can take in Europe and have recognised. In fact the European Union should work towards this.


Constant Learning


We live in an age of constant learning and reskilling and online learning courses are a good method by which to keep our skills, knowledge and understanding up to date. By Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa working on courses that we can study online people who are between contracts could be earning value affordably by following these courses. Learning is constant, and the more variety we have, the better it will be.