Project 3: Time-Based Instructions
For this project, we have been asked to make a video to instruct someone to do a specific task. I have been assigned the task of lacing and tying a shoes lace. This is going to be interesting since we aren’t allowed to speak or give directions through words on screen.
Initial Research and Movie Day in Class
In class we saw many different videos to understand the way one projects ideas through videos. We saw a couple of videos that were terrible. These helped us realise what characteristics and features to look out for while planning our videos. There were a bunch of other videos that we viewed in class. They were title videos for either movies or tv shows. They were amazing videos. There were two in particular that I really like: the credits video for ‘Catch Me if You Can’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio and the one for Mad Men. I tried to understand the roles of sounds and the visuals of the video and the impact it had on delivering the message and on the overall mood that it created.
For my initial research, I looked for the different ways in which one can lace a shoe. Here’s an image that I found on the web.
I am sure that there are many more ways to do this. For the sake of this project I am going to stick to the simple cross lacing.
To learn lacing myself, I watched a couple of videos. I found one really easy to follow.
It was five whole minutes long though. But I did learn how to lace a shoe.
STORY BOARD
The first step that we were supposed to do was to make a story board for videos.
The story board has helped me think about quite a few things. I understood the relationship between the background and the object, the impact of light intensity, shadows and also the importance of showing the required parts of the process only. The story board helped me create a pathway for this project.
After the review on the storyboard and the discussion in class I thought about exploring the following things: a white background and natural light.
The first Iteration
Here’s what the frame of my first video looked like. Okay, reality check: this is not right. The background is not totally white and I find it a little distracting. I would like to change this. The natural lighting does make the light intensity on the shoes less impactful and I think it’s a good thing but the shadow that it is casting is pretty harsh.
One other thing that I experimented with in this video is the point of view. From a top-down view I switched to a more angled version. I believed that it provided a more accessible view that would help understand the viewer the steps that I’m showing. I think it especially helped in the lacing bit.
One other obvious problem is the timing. I know I don’t have to worry about it right now but it will definitely have to be tackled in the future. I might have to cut down on the repetitive steps that I keep showing of the lacing.
As you can see above, here is another problem within the video. This part is really confusing. It is a little difficult to follow the steps. My hands keep coming in the way and this makes it a little ‘muddly.’
The Video for the Peer Review
With the take-aways from the feedback I got from class and my own reflection, I created another video for peer review.
You can see the stuff I changed for this. The background is all white. The shadows are less harsh and the video is just a minute long! My own reflection tells me that the frame is definitely a little smaller that it should be. The shadows are still a little harsh on just one side (the right-side).
My peers gave me a lot of constructive criticism to ponder upon. Here are a few points that they appreciated. The majority of the video is one clip because it doesn’t make it choppy. The placement of the shoes and the speed of the video is well thought of and easy to follow. The sequence of the steps is very logical. The sounds and POV make the video easier to understand. The shoe is nicely laced by the end of the video, which makes the viewers trust the video.
Here are a few things that they thought I should improve upon. Especially towards the beginning, as I thread the shoelace into the initial holes, and towards the end, as I’m tying the shoe, your hands block a lot of what I’m doing, making it difficult to tell what’s going on. There’s also a lot of fidgeting I do with the shoelaces and shoe at both those parts. The end of the video is clear, but the beginning is a bit confusing; There is just an unlaced shoe and no one is really sure where they’re going with it until they jump right into the lacing.
Final Video and Thoughts on the Project
For the final video, here are the things that I changed. To solve the problem for the shadow, I switched to artificial lighting. One thing I had a problem with was with making a make-shift tripod that stayed under the light without giving of it’s shadow on the shoe. After solving that, I chose to go with the top-down view rather than the angled view: the video seemed much more instructional in this manner. It helped me reduce the confusion caused by my hands.
To make the beginning more clearer, I start with an shot of the fully tied and laced shoes to give the viewers an idea of where the video is taking them. I feel that I’ve done a good job overall. My video looks good.
This project had taught me the importance of having people critique your work and the immense constructive impact it can have on the project. I also learned more about thinking from the viewers perspective. This was a low-key project considering others we’ve done in the past. It was a nice break. I enjoyed it :)
