This tutorial is how to to Video Assignment 213, a one second video that tells a story. Honestly, the technical aspects are easy. Just edit a video down to one second with your preferred software. The storytelling aspect can be quite a bit harder.

A few things to keep in mind: 1 second is a lot longer than you think, and can say more than you would expect. This is a situation where more is better: you want as much detail as possible in that one second to tell the story the best that you can. The longer the source material, the more likely you are to find that one perfect second (although I would recommend something in the minutes long range). It’s easy to just set up some objects, take a video, and then cut it down to one second. I really recommend, though, that you use a video not originally intended for this assignment. It stretches those creative storytelling muscles a lot more than using a deliberate setup.

This was a fun little video to make. The thought behind it took significantly longer than the video did, obviously, but even then there were multiple takes. I really enjoyed making it though! The file was around 2 seconds which was as short as I could make it, and then I edited it down to a second by cutting. I think it’s a really effective one second story, I LOST MY WALLET BUT IT WAS ON THE TABLE THE WHOLE TIME OF COURSE!