Creative attempts to "cut the mustard" in a digital world.
Not too much on this one.
Draw a Batman in 15 seconds.
While process was not complex – the time limit allowed for creativity and a boost of fun and energy by not being complex.
I used my 53 Paper app on my iPad. It is like a coloring session in pre-school – so fun to use and I don’t use it enough.
I think I may have even had my tongue on my lip while doing this one! – The inner child – where the seeds of creativity are stored.
Here is the updated video of Eastside: Jerry.
It is an exercise in my learning about video editing software. Not the plug and play stuff that has templates and you just upload and find out what it became – but the stuff that makes you have to decide keyframes, audio, titles, voiceovers, transitions!!!
This is my baseline video. I hope to improve with each new attempt. I will still use some of the consumer type programs because they are really cool and have a short turn around. Videos are worse than new cars – they are outdated before they finish playing, usually have a great initial surge and then become history. Once seen – everyone wants something new and different.
The more complex tools allow for more voice and direction. I will use them for learning and also for stretching my own story telling and documentation skills.
It has clearly identified that organization and quality of content is foremost. Then story. The editing pulls it all together and can go much smoother, deeper, and more meaningful if the rest is done well. That said, you can edit some bad stuff into to reasonable outcomes- but it is definitely work!
In my first draft – transitions were clumsy. I thought it was because I used too many and should have gone with just cuts. That was not it at all. I had linked clips and transitions like dominos when they should be layers. Going back in and smoothing that out helped a lot.
Having more forms of media will make it interesting as well. So many stills makes it seem more like a slideshow. Another way to change the slide show feel would be to do narration – which means story writing. That will be a must on the future creations.
All in all – because the subject is my Dad – I like the outcome. But it also makes me want to do it better!
For comparison – you can take a look at the draft if you are curious…..
Music in Video:
The Ventures:
What a week! I should have stuck to some of the building block assignments. #noir106 was doing character assignments, so I decided maybe I should use Jerry and learn some Final Cut Pro and video editing. Early in the week it sounded sensible to do an overview video for future expansion of his story.
First – when you can start from scratch on a story and have all the artistic license I think it is easier. I struggled with using the facts, but not trying to over sell. I also found out how much isn’t collected or saved like you thought. It really makes me appreciate those who take a photo a day for 10 years or document over time effectively. So how does one apply those thoughts to new projects? Story telling needs planning, thought, direction, and collecting and creating. Or – making do with what you have and filling in or in some ways leaving parts of the story out.
The next challenge was in trying to condense 76 years into a short time period. As I worked – I realized there needs to be chapters and this would be more of an overview and have gaps. I was dependent on photos that were already scanned (not all in good quality) and many years of gaps. Jerry was not one who was friends with the camera and the little video there was has him in the background or non-existent aside from the pieces I used. I was very pleased that I did have the video – it actually is a very insightful piece of footage and genuine to who he was.
Uploading was another issue. The Share feature clocked at 4+ hours and timed out and failed. It was using something called the compression app. Second time I exported as a Quicktime movie – but quality dropped and frames dropped as well. It only took 10 minutes to export and 20 minutes to upload to YouTube. It looks great on my iMac, so-so on my laptop. Now I have to read about configuration settings on exports.
Here is my draft video. It is not a finished product at this point. IGNORE THE TIME stamp– it has 8 minutes of black space when it is finished for some reason – another tweak to be done! It is long in internet terms- but comes in at about 6 minutes with credits.
PROCESS:
I skipped the template based software to learn more about manipulating the content. I used Final Cut Pro 7. While my project was large for my skill level it was not huge. But the sheer quantity of photos and pieces got overwhelming. And just when you think you are about done – you hit a key and all goes out of whack or something disappears!
I set up 3 folders: Photos; Audio;Video; and imported them to the tool. I chose songs by the Ventures for the music from YouTube – it was one of his favorites. I had done some voiceover, but it seemed like too much and did not help the story – so that time was practice. I separated the video audio and had to make sure it stayed in sync so linked the video and audio for that part only so that it would not move or alter. I had to extract some photos from other sources and they became of lesser quality. Photos were organized and named for easier placement and moving around. As chapters go on, one solution may be to make the older ones have an older theme overall to look intentional.
From there it was learning to use the viewer and canvas. I watched some tutorials from Lynda.com on the software which helped see the built ins and how to maximize time with keys – really a timesaver!
A key lesson was understanding that going forward the more organized and prepped the content is earlier to creating and editing the better. The feeling of wanting to get to the video and create has to be delayed. Making sure all the content is fixed, edited, logged and named correctly prior will make this easier and probably result in better outcomes.
I ended up creating a monster – 13 video tracks and 9 audio tracks in layers. They probably could have been condensed – but after losing some work, I began to lock layers so I didn’t alter them as I worked on other portions.
With so many still photos and looking at them for so long, it seemed necessary for transitions and not abrupt cuts. I WENT TRANSITION CRAZY! DON”T MAKE THAT SAME MISTAKE! In hindsight – this is one of the tweaks on the next iteration. Getting rid of transitions and equalizing the length of shots overall. The readings for the week were good – and transitions discussed – but once it was uploaded and watched outside of the tool – I don’t like so many of them. I had initially thought consistency would be better than too many ones – but again – that is not how it turned out.
Because of the content – the time was fun and meaningful. I will be remiss if I don’t go back and do this right or better. This being the first story of the family should not mean it is the roughest. I will continue to polish and improve in his detailed chapters.
While I was in the midst of all this – I did a short project in iMovie putting my audio assignment into visual format. The details are here. The video is below.
All in all – it is learning and video has a short shelf life in most cases – so on to the next one and making it better.
As I have struggled with taking on a larger video project than intended I thought I would take a break and try a shorter creation. I decided to take one of my commercials from audio week and visualize it.
I have been working in FinalCut Pro and really swimming in key points and adjustments! So I decided to try iMovie and see how I could manipulate or use the presets. I chose NO Theme and loaded my sound and video clips I downloaded from YouTube, plus some stills.
Since the sound was complete it was truly how to add the visuals. I was able to drop in, add some transitions and within 90 minutes start to finish I had my commercial done. I was happy with the sound and the visual iteration seems to work as well.
This was a good exercise to do at this point. It got me an outcome that I was happy with and went quickly. This helps in understanding all video does not need to be laborious and take forever. Good to remember there are different ranges and reasons that all can satisfy a time and place.
Here is the original Audio creation:
This assignment was submitted to the #ds106 Assignment Bank as VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments1638. I initially gave it 3 stars for the time to find video and time needed to understand how to download and extract only needed sections. Plus the possibility of using key frames and motion with video and stills.
Trying to figure out the meld of video week between #Noir106, open course – #ds106 and personalized learning plan.
I think I overshot on this week. Blended using my Dad as my character and video. I got caught up in the content – pics and some scarce video in trying to do an overview or what is becoming a 4-7 minute trailer for his future story. It will be about 6 minutes, but taking days – and still not be what I wanted in the end but a good learning experience.
In the meantime – the UMW students are following their instructor leads and creating building blocks and knocking the socks off me! Brian Goulet – a fantastic video of the assignment talking to myself! It has inspired me to try – but I am still stuck in the mud in getting going on it. His approach was awesome. Brian is a natural in the spotlight too.
This 4life person – Janelle Pierangelino did a smooth into and teaser. She makes it look so easy! It really is in the writing and telling before the tools.
Tiffany – wow! She has shown us how this is about the real person and that life is full of experiences that we can take as building or destroying. She shows us building is the route to take.
And Spencer – the man is a cranking machine! – Can’t wait to see the Lego stop motion!
So for me – I have been immersed in lots of still shots – figuring out keyframes and editing to try to tell a story. This first one will a re-do – a learning experience. As I progress I find how important organization of content and STORY is so important. Kinda like painting a room – it is all in the prep. Finding content, determining a focus and story line – finding the right content to go with the story and how to focus for a viewer without including everything (because you can’t) and getting it down to the high points.
I have spent almost 3.5 days on this so far and it will not show as that when I am finally done – but that is okay. I am already looking ahead at how to improve and what stories are next.
Looking at the assignments – I have also been trying to figure out the skill and when to just you a tool that gets you a product. The WYSIWYG tools are great if you have a specific story and it is complete. They are great for the quick, the temporary the need it for a flash in the pan now.
The difference really takes me back to even what @jimgroom is doing with the Atari games. There is a lot behind all the technology we use. It is becoming mainstream and easy to use so that everyone can look good. BUT – even with the ease – the best will be those with depth and thought. And appreciating all it took to make it so easy is still worthwhile. We will not all be programmers or developers – but it is necessary in creating good work to understand that there was a path to get to where we are now and it is important.
With all that – here is a use what there is template – with the learning point of trying to remember to turn my phone horizontal!
More to come…..watch for my Jerry video post!
