"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera."
-- Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940)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…
Well, Happy New Year!
For the first Backpack Cinema blog post of 2010, I wanted to find something really good and funny. I think you won’t be disappointed. The following short film was developed in 2008 using Blender: a completely free, open-source 3D animation software program, created by a team of top artists to show the flexibility and power of the software. The film result, “Big Buck Bunny,” is also licensed freely as open content. It’s also one of the funniest animated shorts on the web!
It’s the story of a lovable giant bunny who isn’t going to be pushed around by some ornery rodents.
Also, here’s a quick animated film with a clever visual reference to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which is not my favorite movie, but it’s pretty good….
Back from visiting with family last week, I went hunting for a good, funny short film for the last few days of 2009. I’ve been on the lookout for funny short scripts to actually produce, and for comedy writers with material that is (a) doable and (b) actually funny. So far, no luck. But I did find a really good video that is a compilation of a web series based on a short film called “Script Cops.”
If you’ve ever wanted to write a film script, or tried, or even finished one or more, you’ll get a kick out of this. And if you’re on the short list of former news videographers who are also interested in producing short films, you may find it gut-bustingly funny like I did. For some reason, I was not able to embed the video in this page; instead, just click here to watch the video or click on the picture:
Click here to watch "Script Cops"
They got all the details of “Cops” in the bag. My favorite gag is when the camera runs to keep up with the cop: if you’ve never done that for real, let me tell you it’s one of the most reckless things you can do. It’s physically dangerous, and your camera better be well insured. But in this bit, it’s a scream.
By the way, I got a Canon Powershot G11 for Christmas (thanks, Mimi!) and I’ve been experimenting with High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography. Some of the results are in my Flikr photostream, and some of those are in the sidebar on the right of this website…
Just in time for the holidays, I discovered this amazing time warp movie: Christmas morning, sometime in the late 1950s, shot on Kodachrome 16mm film stock. Jeff Altman recently uncovered his grandfather’s rolls of the film and had it developed, then converted to digital, and he did professional color-correction on it using a very expensive machine. Then he put it to some nice music and suddenly you are there in practically HD quality watching his mother and sisters as young children open their presents, just like it was yesterday.
It’s very nostalgic to see the toys, the decorations, the clothes, the hairstyles, etc., from that era just as they were. Step back in time:
If you would like to see more of Jeff Altman’s amazing vintage 16mm film footage, you can click this link to go to his Vimeo page.
I also found a short animated Christmas card from a couple of years ago called “Xmas Frog,” which is about what happens when Santa’s sleigh becomes too attractive to let it get away…
I promised some folks I would follow up “Last Minutes with ODEN” with something a lot lighter, and here it is:
Super Baozi vs Sushi Man: animated short by Sun Haipeng. Martial arts showdown between two classic Asian food favorites…
Baozi is a kind of steamed stuffed pastry common in Chinese cooking, and the Sushi Man has got red fish eggs on top…just a really funny idea.
The video in this post is two things: the best short documentary film I have ever seen, and a very raw look into one of the saddest days of a man’s life. A man whose life once meant only desperation, fear, crime and prison, but it was turned around by a faithful dog who showed him constant devotion and loyalty, and taught him the meaning of love and friendship. A dog now in too much pain so suffer any more.
This beautiful film is not easy to watch, and if you love dogs, it will be harder. If you have ever lost a beloved pet, you will probably be weeping by the end of it. It may be hard to watch if you are sensitive to rough language; the “F” word is a turn-off for some people (I’m looking at you, Mom), but you will come to understand this is a man who has been to Hell and back, and has found a new life, in part because of Oden.
Not long ago in a galaxy not far away…
Star Wars fans, get ready for a rare glimpse of how legendary filmmaker George Lucas and his friends get away from it all at his private ranch. Cutting edge cinematographer Philip Bloom recently spent a week there, wowing Lucas, Quenton Tarantino and many of their movie making friends with the stunning quality of HD video produced by Canon DSLR still/video cameras. In his blog, Philip confessed: the invitation and chance to show his work to Lucasfilm and company is the highlight of his career.
Click on the video title “Skywalker Ranch” to see a larger version on Vimeo.com or watch it right here:
