Once you have gathered some information for your first documentary video – and ONLY once you’ve got some good notes WITH SOURCE LINKS, you can start to play around with the program that we’re going to use to make the video.

For this one, I just want something quick, easy, and fun. This is not going to be the next summer blockbuster major motion picture.

There are many free video editing/building programs online. We’ll give Jeremy credit for introducing me to this one. If you’ve got questions about it, ask him.

Go to: https://biteable.com/

You’ll need to create a free account. 

It seems to work fine if you put in a fake email address, so you can choose whether to use your real one or not. You’ll need to know how you logged in so that you can work on your video again tomorrow, so make sure you know how you logged in.

I know you. You’ll be tempted to pick one of those fancy templates and go from there. But if you know me, that’s not going to fly. You’re going to need to do this the “hard” way. Choose 

Give your project a name that accurately reflects its content/purpose

ex: 

Your finished product needs to be:

INFORMATIVE!

INTERESTING!

IMPRESSIVE!

So you’ll want lots of good quality content and you’ll want to make something that makes sense and is interesting and fun to watch. Always make choices that serve the finished product. Don’t choose something silly and lighthearted unless you’re making a silly, lighthearted video. Don’t choose something plain and boring unless you’re making a plain and boring video. Get it?

You will need to UPLOAD photos and probably videos that you get from other sources.

You will probably also want to use some of the free footage that is included at the site 

Build your video by adding to your timeline at the bottom, adding text and images as you go.

Silent videos are BORING! Make sure your video has effective music and perhaps even sound effects or narration! Choose effective and appealing colours!

TAKE YOUR TIME and build a GOOD video! Do not try to do this as quickly as possible! Have someone else watch your video and give you feedback. When I watch your video, is it going to make sense? Is the information you’ve included COMPLETE? Are you missing important steps/concepts/ideas?

The content determines the length of the video. You need to be able to fully and completely tell whatever story you’ve set out to tell.

Once you’re done, you’ll need to PUBLISH your video. You may upload your video to YouTube if you wish. Use your channel or add it to our class channel! You can skip that step if you don’t want to do something that public. No matter what you do, when finished, you need to create a document (Google or Word, probably) containing the link to your video, and then drop that video into your OneDrive account for me to view/mark. If you don’t drop off a link, I won’t watch or mark your project.

For your first film, I want you to create a documentary about the history of cinema/film/motion pictures. This is a broad topic which can be explored in a number of ways, so I want you to think about what you are going to explain, and TALK TO ME ABOUT IT so that I can help make sure your topic is going to work.

One thing you could do is to describe the events leading up to modern day motion pictures. What was the first type of motion picture, and how did it evolve into the technology/process used today?

You could also describe one aspect of motion pictures, such as the development of sound. How did we get from silent films to the multi-channel audio that you now hear when you go to the movies?

You could also talk about some of the most significant films in history. What was the first movie? What was the first movie with sound? What was the first colour movie, etc.

You will use a mix of video clips and still pictures to tell your story. You will also need to provide some narration and use titles to help explain.

Try as much as possible to use CREATIVE COMMONS pictures and videos. These are ones that you are legally allowed to use in your film if you’re going to show it publicly (put it on YouTube, etc.). There are some great sources linked on my LINKS page.

Understanding, however, that your movie would be much more interesting and effective if you include pictures and clips from the actual movies you’re talking about, you may have to “borrow” some clips and pictures from YouTube or find some with your good friend Google Images. Use those carefully. MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE USING THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY IMAGES AND VIDEO!

WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PICTURES AND VIDEOS, YOU NEED TO KEEP A LIST OF THOSE SOURCES! Create a Google Document (or Word or something if you insist) where you list the items you use and where you got them from. These will be included in the credits for your film!

eg: Movie Camera photo: http://mrg.bz/TU90zv

Step #1 is ALWAYS to plan out your video a bit. You’ll want to gather some information and make some notes about the topic. If you have no information about the topic, it doesn’t matter how pretty your video is, because it won’t be good.

You can find some of your own sources of information, depending on your topic, but there are some that I highly recommend linked below, and in my “Video Production” playlist on my Youtube channel.

Brief History of Video Technology

Here is some good information about the development of motion pictures

Here is a look at some of the formats for recording, editing, and presenting video

DV/KB Course Outline