If you have been following my posts on Content Insiders, then you have trekked step by step beside me on my journey into the world of video marketing. Presently, I am engaged in training for Adobe Premier CC video editing software via Lynda.com, newly acquired by Linkedin.
After completing my first two video projects, I am amazed at how many options that are before you when it comes to telling your story. My first project was to assemble the video clips, provided by the course, to a musical background. I was to form a story about a French chocolatier and his wife, who migrated to Los Angeles to open a chocolate shop. This first video was soundless clips set to an old-world French folk instrumental.
The second exercise was to tell the story, built around interviews with Jean-Paul and his wife. While they told their tale, I inserted video clips that showed the process he described. I also used clips of the shop and the customers enjoying his finished product. All this was set to a different French instrumental, playing underneath the voices.
What I learned in my second exercise is that the storytelling options are virtually unlimited. The tools I was learning to master afforded me the opportunity to tell the story any way I wanted to. I could start with Jean-Paul speaking about his migration and opening the shop, while clips of the shop’s signage and interior played. Or, I could start by showing the candy making process with just the music playing underneath it. Another option was to start out with customers raving about the chocolate while sampling it in the shop.
I had many ways to approach and tell my story in interesting ways. This was easy to do since the course had provided me with closeups, medium and full shots for each of the scenes. Pans of the subjects going left to right, up or down, and blurred shots coming into focus, to add extra flavor to the tale.
It all starts with planning out your video shoot in advance to come away with the video stock needed to tell the story in an interesting manner. A valuable lesson indeed. In my next post, I speak more about this aspect.
Famous Last Words
“If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.”
― John Steinbeck
The Big Kumbaya in Cyberspace
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To hear the rantings of other voices on the same subject:
The Basics of Video Storytelling by Neil Davidson
How to Enhance Your Brand’s Storytelling with Video by Kimbe McMaster
