The University of Kibangsaan Malaysia produced their latest corporate video, which is published on You Tube. The video emphasizes the work the University is doing to teach western topics in the native Malyasian language, so presumably the decision to create a corporate video in English is based on the desire to target wealthy Malaysians living in the west, who will potentially support the Univeristy.
After watching the video, I concluded that the University and videographers had decided to present important dicoveries made by University faculty, which are contributing to the social, technological and financial progress of mankind. 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. The videographers and or University decided on a video format, which somewhat resembles the song Imagine by Beetle John Lennon. 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.
The UKM corporate video, they presents a series of questions and responses about the future set to a soft slow playing background. 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.
I wouldn’t call this a boring video, because the question answer format does generate amazement about the achievements. The wording of the questions focuses on the remarkable aspect of each discovery. 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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