A Film Studio for the University
“Achtung Aufnahme. Bitte Ruhe!” A neon red sign at the end of the corridor on the second floor of the university building B6 asks visitors to be quiet when recording is in progress, but the place was bustling with activity on this Wednesday morning. This was hardly surprising, for the Teaching and Learning Center (ZLL) and the University IT were celebrating the official opening of the new video studio, and numerous university employees had come to be a part of the festivities.
Credit: Jule Wiesmann
“We've been working with University IT to design and develop the video studio since 2019. After several provisional solutions, the studio has now arrived in B 6, 23–25, and offers a range of new possibilities,” said Melanie Klinger, the director of the ZLL, in her welcoming speech. In fact, it is quite amazing: spread over 91.4 m², the video studio offers a professional setting for recording instructional videos—complete with green screen, spotlights, a teleprompter, and sophisticated technology for controlling lights and sound. The best part: anyone who teaches at the University of Mannheim can now book the new video studio; the service includes camera operators, director Laura Gelb from University IT, and an array of sound and lighting technology.
It is also possible to arrange for the ZLL team to do the final editing. “We invite anyone interested in recording a video to a comprehensive preliminary meeting so that everything goes as planned on the day of shooting. At the moment, our shooting appointments are already well booked, which we are very happy about,” said Gelb, who directs the video shoots. Those who are unsure about how to create such a video can receive in-depth advising here, too, for not every instructional video is the same. In fact, the ZLL team itself introduced ten different types of videos at the opening: from a talking-head video to cutout animation. “Thanks to the new video studio with its professional equipment, we can now do almost anything teachers want,” Gelb said proudly as she led visitors through the studio.
Text: Jule Leger/
The new video studio is just one part of the InnoMA project made possible by funding from the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre since July 2021. The InnoMA project aims to promote lasting improvements to digital infrastructure and to facilitate the development of new digital teaching methods at the University of Mannheim. A central element of InnoMA is a grant comprising EUR 1.1 million to support innovative digital instruction and open new possibilities for teachers to incorporate these methods.
All information can be found at: https://www.uni-mannheim.de/en/information-for/researchers-and-teachers/teaching/innoma/our-services/