This week I am continuing with the video assignments with a five star assignment entitled Vintage Educational Video. The overall process took longer than I was expecting it to, but I also did a lot of exploring and experimenting for this video. Looking back I could probably have completed it in half the time now that I have some extra tools up my sleeve!

My first step was to find inspiration. I viewed a few of the suggested videos listed in the assignment instructions (there is a link to 1950’s educational videos on YouTube that are helpful). I tried to think of a process that would be easy to talk about and find a video for. I decided to link my video to my topic for the Supercut last week and went with Hand Washing (I know it might be a bit overkill, but hey why not ).

On my quest for inspiration I found a video intro I liked. I wanted to keep it simple and went to Canva to create a plain poster to introduce the title.

I continued my search and stumbled upon the famous “Duck and Cover” video with Bert the Turtle that was published 1951. It was used to instruct people, specifically children, on what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion. After watching the first few seconds I realized, while my topic is not related to the topic of Duck and Cover, I could utilize the opening sequence where it explains who produced the video. Now the Civil Defense was specifically designed to prepare people in the event of military attacks, but I figured it is still a gov’t sponsored film making is *slightly* related.

Next step: I opened iMovie and got to work. I first input my title page and cute the Duck and Cover video to just the few seconds I wanted. Something I find very distinct about old commercials, shows, movies, news clips, radio segments etc. from this time is their sound. They often are crackled from the sound of vinyl. Before I moved forward I wanted to get as close a possible to the sound! I searched for tips on YouTube. After watching one video I realized I could overall sounds from FreeSound.org. Unfortunately, my first pick was not working properly – so I went back to the drawing board. I finally found a vinyl crawling sound to use in the bringing of the film. I later discovered a feature in iMovie that allows you to manipulate sound with their Audio filters located just above the preview (it is the same symbol for photo filters on the iPhone). The also have video filters as well!

Next up I found a clip produced by Johns Hopkins Medicine on proper hand washing technique. I wanted to do a voice over, so I went to “Voice Memo” on my phone and recorded the voice over as I watched the video. Again, I wanted to see if I could make it sound a little muffled to fit with the style of video. I uploaded the audio into GarageBand and found a video that explains how to manipulate audio to give it certain effects (a new technique I have yet to use). Unfortunately, my version (10.3.2) is slightly outdated, so I used the video to establish that it could be done and hit the road running (i.e. started experimenting with GarageBand). I found some neat features and finally located what I was looking for.

The last step was to find music to go in the background of the video, as it was too bare without any. I searched for 1950’s commercial music and actually found a recording of some 1950’s background music being played on a record player.

Finally I put everything together in iMovie and used iMovie templates for my closing credits. While it’s not perfect, I really enjoyed creating it and am happy with how it turned out in the end. Most importantly I learned a ton of new tools in iMovie and GarageBand!

#ds106

So again, I hate the video assignments. I feel like I’m cheating and not doing any of the work because I’m using video guides to help me. But then again, I’m still struggling a lot to put things together so that has to count for something? This one, for example, took me almost two hours.

I like the content I created better, but still not a fan.

https://promo.com/share/5dbc553c861eda6d36657cb4?utm_source=v1_shareDialog2_copy

Since today is Father’s Day, it is only fitting that we present to you this old-timey educational video from the Assignment Bank (5 stars).

This video was a lot of fun to make, and the whole family chipped in. After some brainstorming, I had the idea and wrote the script in MS Word. We all got dressed and started filming, shooting 26 takes to get it all. Brenda suggested we shoot in black and white and helped me find the setting on my camera. 

After shooting and recording narration, I went looking for supporting music, but found nothing online that was suitable and didn’t require that I enter a credit card number to download. Elvis was already on my hard drive, so I went with him.

I started by laying the music track down. Going through our 26 takes, I set in and out points at the portions I wanted to use, laying them into the timeline and then un-linking and deleting the audio. Once I had a rough cut, I went back through and did some fine-tune editing, trimming or extending shots as needed.

Now that the video and audio stood where I wanted them, I went in to add audio and video fades and transitions. Strangely, one of the free video effects that is included in VideoPad is ‘old film,’ which was definately the look I wanted for the movie. I used the shift key to select all the video clips and applied the effect, then exported the completed video.

Share the Knowledge

For my second assignment this week, I completed the Vintage Educational Video for five stars. I have seen many workplace instructional videos, which are very similar to the old educational videos, so the styling for this video was familiar.

Why this Knowledge is Important

It took me many years to learn how to properly hold a cat. After hundreds of bites and scratches from my mom’s and grandma’s cats, I finally began to understand how to make cats feel comfortable in my arms. When Meg and I got Dina, she was not a fan of being picked up or being placed in a lap. However, after two years of persistent use of my acquired cat-holding techniques, Dina enjoys being held and receives great pleasure from sitting on my lap. Dina has become so comfortable being held that my brother can pick her up upside-down without her minding; after building the trust with holding techniques, she allows us to hold her however. By employing the techniques used in this video, others can have friendlier, cuddlier cats as well.

Floor to Arm to Lap

How It All Came to Be

To create this video, I used iMovie, video recoded from my phone, and a background track from Free Music Archive.

I began by creating a new movie and inserting the video into my project from my Photos library.

To add the visual effect, I went to the clip filters and audio effects section in the browser, clicked on Clip Filter, and then selected the Silent Era filter.

I removed the original audio from the video by right-clicking the audio area of the clips and selecting Detach Audio, then selecting the audio, right-clicking, and selecting delete.

Next, I split the video into various chunks by moving the playback cursor and using Modify > Split Clip.

To insert my transitions, I went to Transitions and drag-and-dropped the transitions between the chunks of video.

To insert text, I went to Titles and drag-and-dropped the titles above the points in the video where I wanted them. Editing the text can then be done in the browser after double-clicking the title bubble.

To zoom in on parts of the video, I went to the cropping section in the browser and selected Crop to Fill, then dragged the box to the desired size.

Next, to add the music I drag-and-dropped the track from a Finder window into the timeline.

Finally, to put in the instructions I click the voice-over button, lined the cursor up with the point I wanted to record voice for, then pressed the record button to begin and again to stop. I had to try this a couple times to get it right.