"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera."
-- Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940)A real turtle (no animation this time!) is the hero of this great little short film series. Life starts out pretty tough for a turtle in the city… he seems to be a “born loser.” But in the last two videos, he finds his way out of town, and out of trouble, with a happy ending at last in number five. This series was shot entirely on the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR, using fast-aperture lenses. Great humor and visuals, well worth your time to watch!
“Overcoming Tough Times,” Parts 1-V, by Donald Kilgore:
What I really like about this series is the great story arc…
A clothing company has a creative campaign to sell T-shirts and contribute humanitarian aid. This short film shot entirely with the Canon 5D Mk II full-frame 35mm still camera features musical groups participating in the innovative program called “Stop the Nakedness!”
Pretty clever title: attention-grabbing but no actual “nakedness” in the video. I thought this was a well produced piece, except for the audio…
This is going to sound like a Twilight Zone episode just describing what the video is. Apparently Lexus, the car company, a division of Toyota, has gotten into the short film/web video business. They have a site called “L Studio,” and one of the videos there is a really interesting short film called “Rift.” It’s got pretty high production value for a short film: really good special effects, cinematography, lighting and sound. It’s also very much like a mini-episode of the Twilight Zone all by itself…
Click the photo to watch the film:
Click the photo to watch "Rift" at L Studio
The good folks at Lexus put an explanation for their L Studio site way down at the bottom, on their “About L Studio” link, which releases a pop-up that says this:
Making a short film doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t really even need a script. All it really needs is you and a camera, with a strong sense of curiosity and adventure.
Super simple concept: take a sharp focusing video camera or DSLR, and hit the streets, asking people the same question. Find the flow of similar answers, cut it with some good music and tweak the images until they look like film. Jeremy Aiken and Jon Rawlinson did it with a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR, a Rode VideoMic, and some color grading software. In the news business, we used to call these “MOS” features: “Man (or Woman) On the Street.”
Today’s question: “What Makes You Happy?”
When I first started viewing this short film, I thought it was just a bunch of people answering a question. As it progresses, you can tell that there is a definite flow to the groups of answers…
A short film about a little girl with a big imagination. It starts out pretty normal, with an endearing and well-photographed subject, then gets a lot more more interesting toward the end:
Adventure Glue:
It’s a really simple concept, very well executed. Here is the page at Vimeo, where you can see more of filmmaker Karen Abad’s work…
New technology about to make it just as easy to use the internet on your TV as it is to channel-surf. At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, which just wrapped up this week, an award-winning software company unveiled a production model of the kind of device that will make this possible. Here’s a photo:
Full Qwerty keyboard on back; trackpad with home page button and play button on front
It’s the Qwerty-keyboard-integrated remote control for the Boxee Box, a Web TV unit that will ship in the second quarter of 2010. It’s a brilliant design that someone should have thought about long ago: combine a keyboard like you would find on a Blackberry or smart phone with a television remote control. It’s the first one I’ve seen, but you can bet it won’t be the last. As U.S. consumers become increasingly used to texting with their thumbs, a keyboard-remote will become an obvious household must-have.
Here’s a link to the Vimeo video that explains the Boxee solution to getting the Internet on your TV:
I had originally envisioned a remote with a trackball paired with an ergonomic wireless keyboard, but the keyboard on the back of the remote is even better for casual TV and web video viewing. I am sure this design will become a copied and common way to interact with the internet through your HDTV monitor over the next year or two, unless an even better design trumps it. I still think a small trackball would be better than the 4-way, game-controller-like trackpad, but that’s for someone else to decide.
By the way, I am not endorsing the Boxee Box or its software, which is free; there are other, similar set-top boxes that integrate the internet with your television. But this remote controller design is a game-changer, in my opinion: one of those things that’s so simple, it makes you think, “Wow, why didn’t I think of that?”
Along with new technology like Web-TV boxes, I am seeing another trend summarized in this article about a fresh crop of new app stores opening up for use with Web-TV. This is just a continuation of the trend of offering popular, useful computer applications on mobile devices like the iPhone and its competitors.
What is it that makes you listen to someone else tell a story? It’s a question that is always important to writers, producers, filmmakers, reporters, and people on porches entertaining friends. If you want to make short films, or write a book, or be on the radio, or make speeches, you’ll probably want to be a lifelong learner when it comes to storytelling skills.
Today I found a couple of great videos featuring two successful radio storytellers, Scott Simon and Ira Glass, both of whom can be heard on National Public Radio. I found these links on D. Eric Franks’ great website for web video producers, Videopia. A long time ago, I was a morning radio news announcer at an NPR affiliate at the University of Alabama. I can tell you from personal experience that weaving a story with just words and sounds for radio is not nearly as easy as it is with video. But the principles of storytelling are timeless and universal, so anything you learn about it in one field can apply to another.
I invite you to watch these short pieces and think about how their suggestions can help improve your ability to win the attention, emotions and memories of your audience:
The Scott Simon video is part of the YouTube Reporters’ Center, which has lots of great videos for helping journalists improve their skills, and many of them work for storytellers in any medium.
And for today’s bonus video, it’s snowing in Alabama and many places across the Southeast today…
