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Storytelling 

Story Telling

Let's get creative with your story.  When you watch a TV show contestants are usually given a 'backstory' about themselves; a short 3-5 minute story about the person, their family, hobbies and achievements. 

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I will edit everyone's stories together in the vein of the film 'Love Actually' and see if we can connect people within the community via stories, places of interest, arts and more.

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What you need to do is:

  • Record a Video Diary of your story at least once a week, or when starting a new scene

  • Talk us through what you are doing - feeling - creating

  • Talk like you are telling someone a story face-to-face

  • Get creative with filming yourself or have someone film you.

  • You will learn how to shot a scene and it's these scenes that will make up part of your story

  • PLEASE NO EDITING OF SHOOTS - that is my job

  • Your goal is to film 2 to 6 scenes

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Technical Notes: 

  • Turn the lights on, and shoot in areas with good light

  • Each shot needs to be a minimum 10 seconds in duration

  • Where possible, use an external microphone to record sound 

  • Please don't have any music on in the background when talking to the camera 

  • All contributors that appear in the film receive an end credit in the final film 

  • If you film someone, they will need to sign a release form.

  • If you are a musician and playing original music you will need to sign an artist release form​​

  • When you telling your story make sure you cover the 5w's and the 1 H:

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Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

How?

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Meet Aidan - he attended one of my one day school holiday workshops and this is what he created:

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FILMING TIPS 

Videos to help you create better shots for your scenes
 

iPhone settings and
Tech Tips

Smart Phone:

  • Shoot in landscape mode
    (do not hold the camera vertically)

  • Don't use digital zoom

  • If you can, use a tripod

  • Set camera to highest quality:
    1920 x 1080 HD 16:9 2K/4K

  • Turn your camera to PAL Settings

  • Set your frame rates:
    25FPS, slo-mo, time-lapse

  • Record sound with an external microphone if you have one

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Camera/ Go Pro/ Drone:

  • Dimensions:    1920 x 1080 HD 16:9 2K/4K

  • Frame Rates:  25FPS, slo-mo, time-lapse

  • Codec:             Raw / Apple ProRes 422 HQ

  • Sound: 48K recorded with external microphone

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Screen Record & Zoom:

  • Customise video settings to the highest quality

  • Record sound with headset/earpiece/microphone

  • Zoom record both video and audio

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Extra Creative 

Movement - it never looks good to edit on a moving shot, so stay still and end the shot.  Keep pans, zooms and tilting to a minimum.

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Action or movement can add punctuation to a scene; for example: a person walking into the frame is the start of a scene and the walking out of the scene is like a full-stop at the end of a scene.  Pans and tilts also act as punctuation.  There are no rules on how to start or end a scene, however if you are using any movement the action of the movement must stop before cutting away to the next scene.

 

Take care when framing that you don’t frame your shots to cut people or objects off exactly at the joints (i.e. : neck, elbow, waist and knees).  Leave a little bit of extra room, otherwise people will look disembodied.

 

Indoors or outdoors?  Try and keep your "key" or main light behind the camera.  This helps illuminate your subject properly.

Shooting one scene with a lot of shots.  

(Shot on iPhone on my morning walks.  Editing on iMovies)

SlowMo also needs to be filmed in Landscape - or it looks like this:
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SLOW-MOTION & TIME-LAPSE

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In the iPhone camera settings, you can choose to shoot 120 frames-per-second at 1080p resolution or 240 frames-per-second at a reduced resolution of 720p.

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Time-lapses are a cool way to showcase works over a long time.  Here are some handy tips for capturing a seamless time-lapse video:

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  • If you can, put your phone on a tripod
     

  • Lock the focus and exposure for smooth and natural lighting changes
     

  • Launch the Camera app, set it to video, then tap and hold on the screen
    where you want to set focus and exposure
    (this is usually the subject you're shooting. Hold that tap until you see
    “AE/AF Lock” show up on the screen)
     

  • Put your phone in aeroplane mode before you hit record.
     

  • Position your canvas or sketchbook and don’t rotate it.
     

  • Position your phone where the artwork can clearly be seen
     

  • Use your smartphone’s main camera, not the 'selfie' camera
     

  • Don’t cover the artwork with your head or body
     

  • Most importantly, just give it a go!

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