Our Current Ideas:
Gaby: Natural Movers. Movement & Health vs. Aesthetics
Colin: Unlikely Companions. Braxton’s snake story.
Amber: What Motivates You? Montage of gooey stuff.
Clayton: Living in Tension. Tensions between Christianity and sexuality.
Cody: To Fit In. Story of dejected kid joining a club and finding his place.
David: Behind the Comedy. The darkness that is often “behind the comedy.”
Kennedy: Exploring the Ordinary. A 28 Day Challenge to explore Manhattan.
Hanna: What’s the time? Montage of interviews speeding up and acted out.
Derek: The Ties that Bind. Cinematic short exploring inner tensions.
Triston: Decolonizing Learning Spaces. Stories of Native Americans in Academia.
Valerie: Home. A Day in the Life of MHK. Showing dualities.
Joel: Moving On? Boy struggling with mother’s death and going on to start his own family.
Sav: A Unified Campus. Exploring race relations on campus.
Mattie: Music / “Soundtrack of Humanity” Compilation of music, moods, stages of life.
Logan: Not yet. Story of struggling woman with a Shyamalan twist.
Emily: Living Through Movement. Interviews with dancers cut with them dancing.
Story Sodoku
Last week we used this handout to explore “The Essence of Storytelling” We used Story Circles and Story Sodoku to learn how to shape a story. See how much of the following you can fill in from your own project.
(Quadrant 1: “The Gap” “The Stakes” and The Characters)
Once upon a time, there was this _______________________________________
who was ____________________, ____________________, and ________________
and he/she/it had a problem: ___________________________________________
and this is a big deal because _____________________
I mean, it’s a big deal to all of us because _________________
And this was a really hard problem because ____________________________
and there were people and forces not in their favor like __________________________
but they also had helpers and teachers like ____________________________________
(Threshold)
They were hesitant to solve the problem because ________________________________
But despite the odds, they set off on the adventure because _______________________
(Quadrant 2: Land of Adventure, Conflict, Problems, Lessons Learned)
They faced many challenges like _________, ___________, and ____________.
This happened __________________________
and they learned _______________________________
and then this _________________________________
and they learned _________________________________
and you wouldn’t #$#@%#%@ believe it but this _______________________________
and they learned ____________________________________
(Quadrant 3: Climax, Ultimate Test, Resolving ultimate contradictions/issues)
With all that they learned they were able to ______________________
Their enemies put them to the ultimate test by ____________________________
which forced them to deal with their final doubts about ______________________________
(Quadrant 4: Resolution, Return, Denouement)
They came back to _______________________________________
and they were no longer _________, ____________, and __________ (from line 2 above)
They were _______________, _______________, and ________________
And we can see it in the final scenes as we watch them ____________________________________
Through this story, the audience learns ________________________________________
experiences _____________________________________________________________
and changes _____________________________________________________________
I’m going to share this story with you using my skills and resources that include ________________________________________________ in __________ minutes.
But what if you only have 10 minutes or less? Can all those elements fit in?
Let’s analyze some great videos to see what elements are present:
Inspired by Momentum:
Next Challenge: The (Re)Edit
Three Options this week:
Option 1: Re-edit a TV or Movie scene or trailer to completely change the tone or genre.
Option 2: Find Public Domain or Fair Use clips to edit to your favorite speech (e.g. Alan Watts videos are very popular)
Option 3: Use Public Domain or Fair Use clips to illustrate the story you wrote for your project last week. Simply read your script and lay clips on top of it. (Note: You will need to re-write your script so that it is not about what you “will” do, but so that it is a story in and of itself.)
Your final video should include:
- Fair Use, Creative Commons, or Public Domain materials
- A copyright-free or copyright cleared music track / soundtrack
- A transformative use of other materials
Post to YouTube and share here along with your reflections on what worked, what didn’t, and how you hope to improve in the future.
Depending on your final project vision, try to practice most of the following:
- a voice-over from your very short story (may be a new version)
- legal music
- titles
- at least one overlay of a still image/graphic (may be part of the title)
- variable clip speeds (slow or fast motion)
- a crop and pan
- at least one very special effect transition of your choice
This will help us practice
- workflow
- file management
- finding good materials
- understanding copyright, creative commons, and fair use
- audio recording and processing
- editing
Re-Edit of a Scene Example:
Your Favorite Speech Edit Example:
Your Story with Stock Footage
Finding Footage
- Videvo.net has some great footage and sound effects
- Search YouTube, adding “,creativecommons” to find material you can use if you are not monetizing your video
- Use archive.org to find good historical footage
- You might also be able to use commercial footage if your use is “transformative” and you are not monetizing your content.
Fair Use Guidelines
The Four Factors:
- the purpose and character of your use
- the nature of the copyrighted work
- the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market.
The two guiding questions:
- Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
- Was the amount and nature of material taken appropriate in light of the nature of the
copyrighted work and of the use?
Four classes of material that are likely to be okay under Fair Use laws:
- Using material as the object of social, political, or cultural critique
- Quoting elements of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point
- Capturing media content in the process of filming something else
- Using copyrighted material in a historical sequence
For more, check out the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Online Video
Where to find Music
Click through for links.
- Go to Create/Music Policies in your YouTube Creator Studio
- Search for the song you want to use and check the permissions
- If you found a song, use a YouTube converter to download
- Find unknown artists and ask them if you can use their music
- Support a rising artist on Patreon in exchange for their music (I support Panthurr and Andrew Applepie)
- Check out the YouTube Audio Library (though these are sometimes over-used)
- Also consider purchasing a subscription to artlist.io or epidemic sound
