AAM 2014 Tech Tutorial: Principles of Effective Video Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli Associate Director of Digital Media Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago alavatelli@mcachicago.org Peter Argentine Argentine Productions Inc. peter@argentineproductions.com Emily Lytle-Painter Education Technologist J. Paul Getty Museum @MuseumofEmily

1. AAM 2014 Seattle, WA
Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli, @annachiaretta
Emily Lytle-Painter, @MuseumofEmily
Peter Argentine
TECH TUTORIAL:
Principles of Effective Video

2. WHY VIDEO!?!
• Time
• Space
• Movement
• Sound effects
• Close ups
• Archive images
• Process images
• STORIES!

3. Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli
Associate Director of Digital Media
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
alavatelli@mcachicago.org
THE BASICS OF
VIDEO PRODUCTION

4. ANNA CHIARETTA LAVATELLI
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL
MEDIA
BALBOA PARK ONLINE
COLLABORATIVE
aclavatelli@bpoc.org
What is this video you speak of?!

5. Video Production can look like this…

6. Video Production can look like this…

7. Footage from a video made with an iPhone 4s

8. Behind the camera of that great shot

9. Phases of Production
Pre-Production
• Planning meetings
• Scripting, Storyboarding
Production
• Shooting footage
• gathering supplemental content
Post-Production
• Editing the acquired materials
into a final product.
• Montage, graphics, color,
sound mixing, etc.

10. Basic Elements of Video Production
SOUND
LIGHT
STABILITY
CAMERA

11. WORK LIGHT
CAMERA
STABILITY

12. SOUND

13. Sound
MICROPHONE
Audio-Technica
Omnidirectional
Lavalier Microphone
ATR-3350 $18-24

14. Sound
MICROPHONE
Audio-Technica
Omnidirectional
Lavalier Microphone
ATR-3350 $18-24
KV
Connection
iPhone
Mic adapter
$24

15. SOUND
ALWAYS USE
HEADPHONES!

16. Light

17. Stability
TRIPODS
Velbon EX-330 ($40)
Joby GorillaPod ($30)

18. Canon 3Ti ($600)
Canon 60D ($800 used)
Panasonic GH3 ($1500)
Camera
(DSLR)

19. Camera
(smartphone)
KV Connection iPhone
Mic adapter $24

20. PANASONIC V520
($250)
Also can livestream
Canon 8GB VIXIA HF R40
($250)
Has built in memory
Check that it has a mic input!
Camera
(consumer camcorder)

21. Sound
2 Microphones for
interview recording
Audio-Technica
Omnidirectional Lavalier
Microphone ATR-3350
+ Headphone Splitter
X2

22. Sound
ALWAYS USE
HEADPHONES!

23. Alternative Methods
Cameras are everywhere!
Why not use them?
• Quicktime Screen Capture
• YouTube Broadcast/Hangout
• YouTube Capture Now
• Google Hangout

24. Google Hangout

25. Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli
Associate Director of Digital Media
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
alavatelli@mcachicago.org
Thank you!

26. Emily Lytle-Painter
Education Technologist
J. Paul Getty Museum
@MuseumofEmily
THE BASICS OF
VIDEO CONTENT

27. DIGITAL STORYTELLING
• Surprise the viewer
• Make sure it is accessible
• Participatory Discussion
• Identify with the viewer’s story
• Connect with the viewer’s everyday
• These all interconnect!

28. DIGITAL STORY
“The story is told in the public space, in ‘active communities’. The streets, Facebook,
general media: all the places where the story happens are easily accessible for most
people and designed to foster discussion. Unlike your own website or Tuesday night
discussion group people come to these places for stories and are, therefore, more
likely to respond to them.
The story is about the audience. The most important lesson I took from Nancy
Duarte’s brilliant book Resonate is to treat your audience as a hero whenever you tell
them something. People should not only be involved and directly addressed, it should
be their story, the thing they are telling, to make it stand out. People usually listen to
themselves.
The story helps create real life connections, has a physical component. The most
heavily discussed issue in Leuven, I believe each great story in the digital age needs a
physical element to really turn people from simply interested into highly
enthusiastic.”
From the Museum of the Future Blog
“Digital storytelling: How to tell a story that stands out in the digital age?“
by Jasper Visser

29. CONTENT PLAN
This is the most important step of the process. If you
have a clear vision before going into a project it will be
much easier in all the other phases.
• VISION
How does it fit into your larger media goals?
• AUDIENCE
Who do you want to tell your story to?
• PLATFORM
Where will your video live?
• VOICE AND CONTENT TYPE
How will your video look and sound?

30. TONE: CONTENT TYPES
This can be dictated by the tech and help you
have access to and the story you want to tell:
• Formal Documentary
• Documentation
• Conversational
• Casual/DIY/How-to
• Family-Friendly
• Social/Informal

31. DOCUMENTARY

32. DOCUMENTATION

33. MARKETING

34. SOCIAL MEDIA

35. SCRIPTED: HOW TO WRITE
Start with a list of the facts that have to be in the
video, and then…
• WRITE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE
Write a rough draft of your text.
• REVIEW OUT LOUD
Read through with your voices ~20 times.
Refine, refine, refine.
• ADD IN VISUAL NOTES
What do you want to have on screen
during each line?

37. UNSCRIPTED: HOW TO INTERVIEW
● DO YOUR RESEARCH
● KNOW YOUR INTERVIEWEE
A famed scholar will require a different form
of questioning than an emerging artist.
● BE RESPECTFUL
but ask the hard questions.
● MAKE IT CONVERSATIONAL
Your interviewee will be more comfortable!
● MAKE STEADY EYE CONTACT
Smile, but don’t be creepy. Don’t make
noise.
● LISTEN

39. TIPS FOR INTERVIEWEES
Nobody likes to be on camera, so how can you
mitigate the pain?
• SEND THE QUESTIONS
before so they can think about talking
points
• PRACTICE OUT LOUD
Before your subject is on set, talk it through
• FOCUS ON THE INTERVIEWER
(not the camera) and have a conversation
• LUCK
Wear a favorite clothing item, or lucky charm.

40. Emily Lytle-Painter
Education Technologist
J. Paul Getty Museum
@MuseumofEmily
THANK YOU!

41. EDITING THE VIDEO
Peter Argentine

42. POST-PRODUCTION
• iMovie
• YouTube editor
• Premiere Pro
• In camera editing

43. "What is drama, after all, but life with the dull
bits cut out.”
Hitchcock

44. Editing Basics
Editing is selecting portions of an event(s) and putting
them into a meaningful sequence.
Edit to tell a story that makes sense and has impact.
Plan from Day One

45. Continuity Editing: Creating seamless transitions from one event detail to
the next so the story flows
Non-linear Editing:
Phase 1: Capture/File Transfer
Transfer your source media to your hard drive and your project folder,
naming everything
Phase 2: Editing
Combining the recorded shots in the timeline
Phase 3: Export
Online, Videotapes or DVDs

46. Collapsing Time
To collapse a story that might span many years into a
realistic time length for a film
Flashbacks, flash-forwards, completion of sentences in
two separate times, showing the same happenings with
different outcomes (breakfast scenes to show time
lapse of marriage), etc.

47. ● Paper edit/transcribing
● Pacing--creative ways to move story
forward
● Assembly
● Rough Cut
● Fine Cut
● Finishing--Narration, Sound design, Mix

48. “There are no rules in
filmmaking. Only sins.
And the cardinal sin is
dullness."

49. What you should know
when hiring a contractor for
a video production

50. Link for av & accessibility:
http://www.nps.gov/hfc/products/av/av-accessibility.cfm
Key to successful Media
http://www.nps.gov/hfc/pdf/imi/media-success.pdf
Media Development Process
http://www.nps.gov/hfc/aboutus/mediaDevelopmentProcess.cfm

51. RESOURCES
http://www.creativecow.net/
https://castingwords.com/
http://museumvideo.blogspot.com
http://conservationreel.org/content/how-get-started
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/create-your-own-
content1.html
http://storycorps.org/great-questions/
Watch more museum videos, take notes!
http://artbabble.com/

52. THANK YOU
Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli
Associate Director of Digital Media
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
alavatelli@mcachicago.org
Peter Argentine
Argentine Productions Inc.
peter@argentineproductions.com
Emily Lytle-Painter
Education Technologist
J. Paul Getty Museum
@MuseumofEmily