Video Storytelling: Storyboard - A Day in Life

 In class today we created a storyboard using LTX Studio.  I created a day in the life storyboard and this is the story I created.  This studio is using using AI however as this a pre-visulaisation -no AI will be in my final work. 

I then created the cast 

I also created a timeline which can be seen here

Then LTX studio created my storyboard

Video Storytelling: Storyboarding

 I have created my storyboards using LTX Studio.  This is AI assisted however you just write in detail your own story so that is can create an accurate storyboard with shots and a timeline.  The timeline was quite fun and I added a soundtrack!

This storyboarding really helped to solidify the shots and ideas and so now the project is called Crafting Joy: Sock Monkey Magic

The storyboard is here and although I could not do more as I only had a free amount of credits this really does go through the range of shots that will be used and the shots needed. 

 

Finalising Idea & Initial Research: Video Storytelling

 After much consideration, my final idea will be Making a Monkey.  I will make a sock monkey in an explainer video.  The shots are not too many, however, getting the different shots and angles will take time (as well as making the monkey!).  I will create a plan and shot list to ensure that this can be successful.  I intend to shoot either on the Canon 700D or an Olympus DSLR.  I may use my phone for some shots in different set up but I am still considering this. 

Sock Monkey's

Sewing explainer videos are very popular, in this example, there is no voice over or explanation - just music and the action is the creation of the monkey.  The shot is just one shot and there are extra instructions on screen as well as the pattern to download and you can subscribe to the channel

This is one approach; the other approach is to have an explanation and a person showing you how this is done.  Again, most of the video below is a top down shot of the actions, there is also the man's voice over and subtitles so the explanation is clear at all times. This video is detailed and you could easily follow this real time and watch and copy.  

Explainer videos are great for, obviously, explaining things! However, this is not their only purpose and they are used for many purposes for small and large businesses. They are an easy way to hook in users to products and services.  They can help boost search engine optimisation, boost conversion rates, have easy links to social media and are easily shared and so they improve business.  They are also good for people as people learn from them, they gain an understanding and sometimes a skill, and they can help people connect with a community online that enjoys the same things as they do.  They can also appeal to a range of learning styles and people find their favourite people to explain things and often subscribe and follow them online.  

It is important for this project to understand what makes the explainer video not just okay, but really good so people want to watch this and learn something from it. Forbes states that there are five key elements that make an explainer video great, and they are: 

• 'A clear and concise script
• A clear voice-over
• An understandable video caption
• Engaging visuals
• A catchy and memorable soundtrack' (YEC, 2022)

Forbes also states that, 'The average user will not spend more than 20 seconds on your site if they're not hooked.' (YEC, 2022).  On the internet, people will click away as soon as they are not interested, and now there is so much choice - why should they look at my video?  Looking further at the research, Forbes advises the following: 'Plan the script, make it short and sweet, use simple language, keep the tone light and create rich visuals'  (YEC, 2022).  In my own video, I plan to set up to shots that will be constant so I have a constant recording from two angles, and so I don't have to shoot them separately.  I also plan to complete a voice over just on the computer so that I can add this over the explanation as well as any straight to camera shots.  I also plan to make a storyboard and shot list tro ensure it is absolutely clear how I will be doing this.  Pre-production will be the key to making this really work.

Frontiers in Communication state: 'The use and importance of online videos about news, science, and climate change are continuously increasing (Allgaier, 2019; Frees et al., 2019; Galan et al., 2019). For example, 62% of Germans use YouTube frequently or occasionally as a search engine for specific questions and issues (Koch and Bleisch, 2020). Almost 70% watch videos on general knowledge topics, and 65% watch explainer videos or tutorials, with the share being even higher among young people (Koch and Bleisch, 2020; Wissenschaft im Dialog, 2021).' (Schorn, 2022).  The importance of this is that most people receive and learn information from websites, particularly YouTube, and younger people are even more likely to watch YouTube for explainer videos and tutorials.  The increasing use of explainer videos, tutorials and learning online has changed how people learn and what learning means.  The impact of Covid had a massive effect on people's attitude to online learning and how institutions and websites changed to accommodate how people wanted to learn and in what way.  

I may here be creating a fairly simple explainer video about making a sock monkey, but thinking about how this could mean I could teach others to do this, and how they might enjoy this, and it would bring joy to others - it is important and I do not take that lightly. There is nothing forgivable about a bad explainer video!

References

Mezzolab (n.d.). Top 30 Benefits of Explainer Videos. [online] www.mezzolab.com. Available at: https://www.mezzolab.com/blog/top-30-benefits-of-explainer-videos [Accessed 4 May 2025].

Schorn, A. (2022). Online explainer videos: Features, benefits, and effects. Frontiers in Communication, 7. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.1034199.

YEC (2022). Explainer Videos And The Key To Making Them Great. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/councils/theyec/2022/09/16/explainer-videos-and-the-key-to-making-them-great/ [Accessed 4 May 2025].

Video Storytelling: Timed Practice One

 In this timed practice we all chose an emotion and shot footage for 30 minutes with a partner showing that emotion.  As the teacher I did not shoot this however I created a video with stock footage as we spent 30 minutes editing.  I edited on clipchamp.  I added music from the free music archive, I used crossfades and added titles and credits 

This is the video I created - I added this to Youtube and so this easy to view and publicly available.  This was a nice quick edit, I obviously did not shoot this but I did think about the shots and I like teh shots with miovement and moving from close up to long shots works well.  I enjoyed this short exercise. 

Introduction: Video Storytelling Project

 Over the next three weeks I will be working on my video storytelling project.  In this project I can choose to make an Explainer video, A Day in the Life Video or an Event Video.  We looked at examples in class of all three types of video and after this I began to think of ideas about what I would like to make for this project.  The project could be filmed on any device and needed to be doable in the time given with the shooting and editing.   

I started by brainstorming and making a mindmap Lucidspark

Explainer Video Ideas

After completing this and thinking about my ideas, and considering time available and what I need to do in terms of filming and editing, I have chosen to do 'Making a Monkey'.  I like this as it links to a project I did in the first term which was making sequential monkey images.  I can plan and storyboard this easily and although I will need lots of different shots. The set up at home should not be too complicated and I can reshoot and take many shots so I should have lots of choices when I edit this together.  My next post will be the planning of the shoot.  

Photography Project: Curation, Quality Control & Finalising Images

 My next step was to curate my images, I needed to find the best 10 images that would be consistent for my Neonate Tarot Collection.  

To curate the images I went through every image and first narrowed this down to around 25 images that were the correct light, did not have any flaws and were composed as I envisioned them for the project.  I wrote the image file numbers for all the images down:

The Fool: 1251/1268

The Star:1278/1268

The Moon: 1291/1290

The Devil: 1321/1320

High Priestess; 1339/1355/1360

Death: 1404/1399/1394/1378

The Lovers: 1425/1415/1451/1455

The Magician: 1464/1474

The Wheel of Fortune: 1522/1508/1505/1523

The Hanged Man: 1503/1564

After narrowing the images ,down I uploaded a set for each card to make a final decision and then I began quality control.  Here is an example of what I did for all images.  

I opened Photoshop and opened the images. I chose the one to work on in this case 'The Star'

I then unlocked and duplicated the background to make a new layer in the layers panel.

I wanted to even out the dark backdrop shade and ensure the bright areas were bright and the dark, dark, so I went to 'Image' in the top menu, then 'Adjustments' and then 'Curves'.

On this panel, I can adjust the image gently and subtly by just moving the line carefully in the dialog box

After this adjustment, I needed to get rid of a small spot of light that had come through in the corner of the image. To do this, I went to the tools panel on the left-hand side and right-clicked on the clone stamp tool.  I then took the tool into the image and pressed Alt and clicked where I wanted to clone from, and then went to the corner and gently clicked over it to clone the black over the error.

The image was now consistent, clean, and the contrast was correct.  I now wanted to make this into a round-sided Tarot Card, so I began by going to to tools panel and clicking on the Rectangle Tool

I then drew the rectangle onto the image.  I went to the tools control in the top menu and used fill and just filled this blue and checked that the stroke was transparent.  I then gently pulled the edge down in one corner to create my curved corners. 

Now I just needed to move the layer over the top of this layer in the layers panel and then I clicked on the layer and in the drop down box clicked on 'Create Clipping Mask'  I now have an image with rounded edges.  

My last stage is to finalise the image.  I have mocked one up in my previous post.  Now I will show this process.  I will now just add the Text layers to create the card. I click on 'T' in the tools panel and then click on the image. In the text tools in the top menu, I change the font to 'Harrington' and Type in the title of the card. I also changed the colour to white. The size of the font is 400pts. This is only because my image was very large, and I did not resize it as I wanted to see the original size while I was adjusting. I will now merge down the image before saving.

The image was now ready to save as a jpeg file in my final images ready for my portfolio on my website.  I click on 'File', 'Save as a Copy', and choose jpeg.  I will also save them as a psd in case I need to go back and adjust again for any reason. 

This is my final image of 'The Star'

I will now follow this process for my other nine images, and they will now be ready for my final portfolio

Photo Project Shoot: Neonate Tarot

 My ideas for this photoshoot were to create ten of the twenty two major acana of the tarot cards.  My idea was using baby heads as this was a portrait project so I had purchased a bag of baby heads.

For the shoot, I set up a light box with a black backdrop This meant that I could arrange the heads in different ways, but the light and backdrop would keep the photographs consistent.  I had drawn the different set-ups, and I had ideas about how I would execute each one.  I also used felt, blu-tack, sticky tape, a needle and strong thread and scissors.  The shoot took several hours due to the nature of the set-ups, and the heads are very small, so it was quite fiddly to put them together.

I then shot each set-up using ISO 100, F4 and would adjust exposure compensation as I went along. I shot in black and white and really wanted to bring out the contrasting shades and tones.  I shot a few in colour just to see what these looked like.  I took around 350 shots in total. 

I then uploaded these to my desktop and completed the contact sheets on Photoshop, this means there are 12 sets of contact sheets, so I will add some here, but all the contact sheets can be found on this link: Neonate Contact Sheets

My first shots were of card 0 - 'The Fool'.  These shots were the simplest as they just included one head and the jester's ruff.  The fool doesn't know anything; he is a new beginning and is guided by intuition.  The fool is the beginning of a new journey. He is optimism and hope but can be foolish and make rash or spontaneous decisions. 

This shot was taken on F5 with a fairly slow shutter at 1/50, ISO 100 and slightly underexposed at 0.7, I underexposed slightly to bring out the black backdrop.  The slow shutter was okay as it was a fairly still shot. I did not use a tripod for these; however, as they were tabletop, I could balance my elbows on the table to keep static. I believe this shot came out exactly as I had hoped, it is kind of haunting, and the contrast of the black backdrop and baby face worked well. 

This shot is of XV - 'The Devil'.  The Devil is about being seduced by the material world, luxuries and pleasures.  It is also about over-indulgence and being trapped by fear, perhaps in a cycle of addiction to these things.  

This shot was taken on F4 nd at 1/80, ISO 100 and with a -2 exposure compensation.  Again, I underexposed the shot to bring out the blacks.  This shot really does work well for me as the devil looks pensive and downwards, suggesting where he has come from. This shot is very consistent with my first of 'The Fool'. 

The next shot I will share here is VI - 'The Lovers'.  The Lovers is about relationships and what needs to be sacrificed for a relationship, and often in this card, the snake may appear as in The Garden of Eden to show temptation.  This card is also ruled by Gemini, which is why I chose to show the two heads, like the twins, in this image. It is about finding a soulmate, but it could be about finding a reflection, and perhaps not liking what you become when looking at yourself through their eyes. 

In this shot, again fairly consistent with the other shots F4.5, ISO 100 and Shutter 1/80. This time the shot was exposure compensation -1.3 underexposed.  This double image I really enjoyed taking as head below, is not a reflection but a real head, but it looks like a reflection.  The face is slightly darker and in the shadows, and again, there is something strange and ethereal about it.

The next shot is I - 'The Magician'.  The Magician is the next step from the fool, and here the Magician is often at the crossroads, as this is where we make choices, or he points above and below.  The magician is about using our own abilities and resources and finding our way.  The magician, of course, cannot be trusted; he may lead you down the wrong path. 

Originally, in this image, I thought about adding arms to the head as they were in my original drawings in teh ideas post.  However, when creating this, instead, I added a shining orb that dangled from the head, the magician's magic ball.  Below this, I added an additional head, and this juxtaposition of the two heads above and below really balanced this image.  Here, the settings are again consistent and underexposed by -2.7, and the high contrast here does really work with the head at the top of the image, almost looking divine and beautific.

I will share one more in this post - I cannot share all ten here (I will be adding all of these to my final website portfolio).  The next image I would like to share is XII - Death'.  This was challenging as I did not want to add a scythe or skull, but give that impression of death. Death actually means in the tarot not usually physical death, but the end of something important, so it could be a job, a relationship or something else that has life-changing effects.  It is the end and then rebirth, change and transformation.  So it is a major upheaval and change, but not necessarily bad. 

Again similar setting and underexposing by -2.  In this image, the mass of heads closer to the camera causes a slight blur in the foreground, but this works well; the bodies (or heads, in this case) are buried right here, within you, below you.  The main head at the top of the image is wearing a black cap similar to what was once worn by Judges in the UK when passing a death sentence. 

Judge wearing the Black Cap

The last image I will show is just one of the examples in colour, I shot a few in colour just to see how they looked and felt.

The same setting were used, here just -1 underexposure.  The colours are vibrant and the red jesters' ruff really stands out and complements the red lips of the baby lips.  The purple string does not really work, and if I had shot in colour throughout, I would have changed this to black.  The head below is darker and duller, and this again works at the bottom of the 'wheel', this set-up is for X - 'The Wheel of Fortune'

My next steps will now be looking at curating the best 10 shots, and I may play with creating the tarot cards. Something like this..