The week prior to submitting our Korsakow films was a very steep learning curve for me. I kept reading everyone’s posts seemingly so blase with everyone saying: just get in there and start mixing things up and trying things out. I was terrified and had no idea where to begin! After multiple near breakdowns I found two how-to-Korsakow blog posts which saved my life, and I’m making my own version here for any other wayward souls that might need a quick lesson in the future. In saying all that though, once I spent ten minutes reading the how tos, it really does become quite second nature and about trial and error.

First, this quickstart guide:

Second, my own little guide:

• Open Korsakow and save the file immediately.

• Upload your videos in the .mov format – use MPEGstreamclip to convert and resize if necessary.

• Make thumbnails for your videos by taking screenshots (Apple+Shift+3)

• Put them in a folder named thumbnail. Keeping everything tidy will be much less stressful.

• Double clicking on each of your files to get the the SNU editor to work out each clip’s functions.
• You have to add IN and OUT keywords, which determines which of the other video this video should link to (the out keywords) and how other videos will link to this video (the in keywords).
• In the next picture, the in keywords are done correctly, but the out keywords are wrong. It should only be one word in each box.

• If you want to add text to your project, you DON’T write it here:

• But here:

• Now we can play in the interface design bit: working out the sizes of the main video and thumbnails, and where to put our text.

• To make the text appear on the film, drag the Insert Text Widget into the interface.