Presenting the Videos the Youth Made at the Vodafone Offices in Chatswood

With CuriousWorks, I had an opportunity to work with the awesome OzGREEN folks and train some young leaders from around Australia on media making, interviewing and editing.  OzGREEN are an Australian environmental justice network that are just getting up and running with their social/digital media strategy.  Our main work with them was to train their young, regional leaders on media making tools to tell the local stories of environmental justice, challenge and opportunity in their communities.  OzGREEN simply serves as the ‘network connector’ of these stories/regions.  We did quite a bit in 3 days…

We used some basic tools like digital cameras (with video capabilities), Windows Movie Maker and iMovie.  We used 2 Macs and about 6 Windows XP computers with only one connected to the internet (which was slow and sporadic:(  Overall though, it was awesome.  We played a remixed version of the Social Media game, developed awesome projects, learned how to shoot video for live events and developed techniques for interviewing people.

We also made some awesome videos,  an OzGREEN/CuriousWorks Digital Media group on All Around You.net and a few blog posts with pix of our work. Here’s a quick recap of all the things we learned, broken into nice bitesized chunks.

Top 4 Things We Learned in the Past Two Days

• we had to reshoot our videos because the sound quality was bad
• we had good video because we had great lighting
• you can always use photos to overlay on spoken word
• you can even record yourself as you’re traveling about the conference, town and community

Techniques For Editing

• process of using the same questions and then edit all the answers together
• interviewee repeats question and then edits out the interviewer
• use of titles to show what the question is
• when editing, listen out for sections that relate to what you want to communicate

Tips for Using Photos in Interviews/Movies

• good to add in photos to give context to interviewee/place
• you can sometimes download photos of people – just be sure you let them know you are

Tips for Filming

• pay attention to the background of where you’re interviewing someone
• it’s good to have trees all around you:)
• variety of camera angles can keep attention when interviewing people/places

Tips for the Interviewing Process

• when interviewing/prepare what you want to say ahead of time
• if you have a particular focus, listen out for sections of the interview that relate to that point
  • for instance, if you’re interviewing about leadership, listen out for things that your subject says about leadership
  • if you’re interviewing about the environment, listen out for things that your subject says about the environment
• if you’re only using the mic on your camera to record sound, be sure to keep the camera relatively close to your subject
• dissolves can help to play with the sense of time in the video
• use the description of the video or the comments to give more info about the project – website to go to,
• photos can be used to represent the theme of the video
• you can use titles to clarify things in the video
• if you make a mistake, sometimes you can turn it around by some clever editing techniques;)
• it’s good to have natural light on people’s faces – medium close ups are good to use
• if you don’t have a tripod, look for things that can be used as a stable surface to place your cameras on

Tips for Using Sound/Music

• when adding music, try and make it instrumental – that way the singing doesn’t interfere with anyone speaking
• as soon as you’re at a venue where you want to record people, be sure you find a nice, quiet spot to record – watch out for air conditioners!
• if you’re interviewing people with differing heights, adjust the level of the camera to be on their level

Tips for Using AllAroundYou.net

• allaroundyou.net can be used to host your media – you can then embed your videos into other sites – you can even share links!
• it’s also how you can connect with Morgan and Shakthi (and anyone else you met and connected with at the workshop!)
• here’s a few tips on using it: http://toolkit.allaroundyou.com.au/tag/aay/

Tips for Using Facebook

• from the awesome Beth Kanter
  • So you want a Facebook Fan Page for Your Nonprofit? Here’s the Scoop!
  • Frank Barry, Guest Post: 4 Facebook Tips for Nonprofit Success – See What Others are Doing
  • A Guide to Facebook Activism
• from Mashable:
  • Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?

Tips for Using Windows Movie Maker

• 63 Video Tutorials For Rocking Windows Movie Maker (via Atomic Learning)