Category Archives: Online Video Experiments

End of Semester Reflection Essay (1000 Words)

During this semester we’ve all focused on different elements of online video and sketching. We started our first assignment by focusing on a case study and then spent the remainder of our assignments expanding from that focal point. For my assignment I chose to study the websites “The Katering Show”, which is about two sassy, Melburnian comedian’s that attempt to follow and deconstruct different food trends. In this essay, I will attempt to reflect on the many ideas and issue’s I have encountered throughout this semester through each project I have completed and what I have learnt within those assignments.

Project Brief One:
During the first assignment, the task was find a video that we could use as a case study, although this was unknown to us at the start. The criteria asked us to find a video, online or on any other media, that we enjoyed or inspired us. My choice was “The Katering Show”, “an online video web series hosted by two sassy Melburnian comedians called Kate“, I had never been a fan of any webseries, however this one caught my eye a week back and their comedy style had really caught my interest. The show itself “explore[s] and hilariously break down the food trends that have come and gone”, and I believed that it “shines in the comedic and satirical theme that underlines its episodes”. Despite this assignment not being marked, it was something that I really enjoyed doing, because I enjoyed digging up background knowledge on something I was interested on, rather than being forced to research something that was simply provided for me. I did multiple posts on my blog  on the characters, overall theme of the show and my rating criteria on the show’s humour and presentation.

Project Brief Two:
This assignment required us to gain a partner, I ended up with Troy, due to our similar case studies during the first assignment. We both had a webseries that were comedy based, and therefore it only made sense to work together to produce our sketches. We were to produce 10 sketches in relation to the nature and narrative of our case study. However this is when we began to have some issues, initially we were unable to choose on which case study to focus on and so we thought we could do both, but as time went by the “main issue we encountered was fitting out sketches into our concept statement” which spurred from us trying to use both case studies. We ultimately chose to focus on “The Katering Show” as the episodes were a lot shorter and easier to manage. After receiving feedback for our sketches we realised that “we were making sketches based upon the themes of the series rather then the actual video concepts that were being used”. Our sketches relied too much on reflecting on what we had already seen in the shower and “focused too much on the actual structure of our case study, and instead we needed to experiment and branch out on the way our sketches should me filmed and presented”, rather than the actual concepts and narrative of the show.

Project Brief Three:
Similar to the first assignment, we had to create sketches based on our case study. However the difference in this brief was that we could use digital images and that we had to do a minimum of 14, but if we wanted to we could create as many as we liked. The more we created the higher our grade would be, this encouraged us to generate more ideas and so we would be able to spawn more sketches. I started exploring other media platforms – that was previously suggested to me – such as Snapchat, “where people could take pictures of themselves/their environment, caption it and then send it to whoever they have on their friendlist”. I also made a storyboard where it showed images of food that needed to be put together to create a cake, this was done through Photoshop and was inspired by another image I had seen online. Our “main idea is “Instructional” but we also want to incorporate other elements into our main idea as well”, despite having a more structural and solid foundation for our sketches this time around we still had trouble because “we haven’t branched out enough from our original ideas”. We still needed too explore the different concepts that had been presented in the show and stop focusing on the cooking aspect of it all. We presented our final sketches to a panel of judges, from our videos the main interest that was derived from it was “a tutorial/instructional video with a non-linear fashion”. Many of Troy’s videos had begun focusing on a non-linear theme which is what we ended up focusing on in the next assignment.

Project Brief Four:
We started off our final project with this prompt:

To focus on the non-linear aspect of our videos and how the information can be presented in non-traditional ways and how this can be combined with other mediums.

After the past experiences we’ve had in the other assignments, Troy and I, discovered that it was a lot easier to come up with a final and singular idea to present as our prototype. We spent a little less time outside of class, refining our idea and then the time in class we would work with Seth on expanding our prompt a little more, so it was a little clearer. Our prompt then became:

We are interested in the way a tutorial video is communicated in regards to linear step-by-step processes.

After brainstorming together we both decided on a video that uses the annotative system on YouTube. A single video will be a focal point that have annotations and links to different videos that show the different steps in the recipe – in this case Red Velvet Cake – and each will be in a different form. “Looking back on our previous sketches we really enjoyed all the videos that have been created and we really couldn’t decide on a certain form”, the most popular ones we ended up choosing was: speed painting, flash game, vine and a comical talk show theme. We also ended up having a more comical element to the videos, however this wasn’t a major focus that we wanted to use. The final issue Troy and I encountered was our presenting skills, despite improving throughout the course of the term we still had issues will clearly presenting our information and the concepts we explored. “It was obvious to us that we did have a more to do before we were going to be ready for our presentations”.

This term has been a real eye opener for me in terms of online video and experimenting with different elements. I really enjoyed creating videos for platforms other than YouTube, as well as being able to focus on tutorial/instructional videos in terms of a non-linear structure. Ultimately I have enjoyed this class and the way it has taught me to be more open minded and creative when it comes to videos online.

Presentation feedback

Yesterday Troy and I presented our prototype and practiced our presentation in class. After the presentation it was obvious to us that we did have a more to do before we were going to be ready for our presentations. We had to further discuss the topic of YouTube as well as make it clearer to the read of our intentions rather then what we have achieved. There was a little confusion on the comedy aspect of our videos, which I had to make clear that it was not our focus but we thought that having some humour would make the videos seem less boring and tedious.

Final Product!!

Despite wanting to focus on the tutorial and instructional element in this assignment, Troy and I also wanted to breath some life into these videos and we were inspired by our original case study (Katering Show) and so our videos do have some humour to them. This is mostly shown through the use of music (Royalty free) and over dramatic acting on Troy’s behalf. Otherwise we kept to the original prompt of non-linear instructional videos.

Frosting – Picture Board

This video was made from the pictureboard I had create:

Frost

I did originally want to just post a video of the whole image, similarly to how I was going to post the “Kitchen” image. However I decided to change it up a little so that there was a little more texture in the sound and that there was actual movement rather then just a plain video of a single image. The reason for this was that the Kitchen would have links, but this image would be alone and not have any interactivity.

This image is also a little different from my original sketch idea because I added in measurements and instructions instead of just having the images by themselves.

Pouring – Vine

This step consisted of me pouring the cake batter into the tins and putting them into the oven. Despite the simplicity of the video itself, (being 6 seconds in nature) I found it difficult to select the scenes that I wanted to show. The restrictive nature of Vines forced me to consider the crucial parts of this video, as Troy had previously stated in his older vine sketches.

Painting Sketch – Set to Cool

The first video I filmed due to the fact that it would be the most tedious to film. I had to paint the whole picture of the cake cooling on the rack, which took a bit longer because the camera had to be at a certain angle which restricted the way I could move around the canvas.

Editing was also difficult due to the nature of the footage, the whole filming process took around 2 hours, which meant going through the 2 hours of footage and editing it down. It was main due to the size and less of the actual cutting of the footage, however, due to lagging etc.

Kitchen Setting – PJ4

DSC00321 copy

To create the setting and the first beginning video for our assignment, I just took a picture of my kitchen and edited the two Kate’s into the window. This idea occurred when Troy asked me to give the windows a more interesting twist and I thought back to our original case study. The editing itself was simple, all I had to do was grab an image of the girls off Google Images and paste them into the original Kitchen image.

What we are doing for P4!

So after some brainstorming and coffee, both Troy and I have decided upon what we want to create and present for our prototype in our final assignment. Looking back on our previous sketches we really enjoyed all the videos that have been created and we really couldn’t decide on a certain form. In the end we decided to develop a mix media video where we would explore all the different video formats we’ve tried throughout the semester and incorporate those elements into our final prototype.

The prototype would start off at the singular video and then, using the YouTube annotating system we would use it to link the video to the other videos that would depict a step to making the cake (that was the example we had chosen).

If all goes well our prototype will be something like a tree, branching out to different videos from one starting point.

New Prompt

We are interested in the way a tutorial video is communicated in regards to linear step-by-step processes. In our sketches we discovered that it could be useful to produce a linear video in a non-linear structure.

We plan to develop a prototype that explores a tutorial video in a non-linear form.

How can a non-linear structure be used to present a linear tutorial in an interesting way?

Project 4 – Beginning Ideas/Brainstorming

Despite the fact that Troy and I have missed the past few classes, we instead collaborated outside of class and brainstormed a few ideas together for Project 4.

1. Similar to Troy’s sketch where different steps are all overlapped in a single video, we instead use different tutorials completely all overlapping at different times.

2. A image of a Kitchen, where you could access different points to show you a step in the progress, done so as a video.

3. Do it yourself adventure.