Adults and children love to listen to stories even when no lesson is embedded in the scenes. Classic books and movies have stood the test of time because of the characters, settings and plots that take us into another world. We choose our favorites over all the others because we enjoy traveling to far away lands for adventures that would never happen in real life. The stories that spark your emotions and remind you of a better time will stay in your heart and mind for many years.
Your videos can have the same effect on your viewers, but you might wonder how to start on your journey of producing your videos. A variation on the writing process makes storytelling on video easier than you can imagine. Even before you choose your tools, you will want to have an idea and a basic outline for your video message.
“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and
work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and
better tools will be found as you go along.” ~ George Herbert
Most of us think of a series of pictures, or rough sketches, when we hear the term “storyboard.” My approach is to take a sheet of paper and draw lines to make eight or more boxes. On some video ideas, I will start with the final slide to remember where I want to end. Just a couple of sentences in each box will allow me to assemble what I need and select my video creation tool. As you work on the video, you can insert scenes and narration that smooth the transitions and carry meaning for your viewers.
My next step is to gather images that tell the story for my video. Even if I decide to use a video camera, I still want to have an idea of what images to film. In video software, your images make up the slides that will be transformed into your video scenes. As I look at the available images, I can make adjustments and make changes to my storyboard before I spend any time creating a video.
Photo selection can provide so many great ideas for your video production phase. Your creative efforts will take you in directions that you did not see before you saw how many different choices you have. You will want to be sure to acquire the rights to your images. Ownership rights on images are not “up for grabs” in the online realm. Buy your images or use the royalty-free versions for images.
Narrative can accompany your video imagery to carry your message or bring your viewer’s attention to a character or action on the screen. As you review your storyboard and images, you will find the gaps that must be filled with written or spoken words. With some practice, you will find this part of the process to be the best place to smooth transitions.
As you become familiar with your stories and audience, captioning and scripting your videos becomes easier. Sometimes arranging the slides in a different order will reduce the number of words required to tell your story.
Perfection is not possible in this imperfect world. You might choose a tool that works right now for your storytelling. In a few months, you might decide to switch to another one. I promise that you will find better ways to make videos. Even if you use the same tools, your techniques will expand.
Whenever a project stalls, I simply walk away for awhile. I might work on other tasks for awhile before I come back to my video. My mind likes to process in the background whenever I encounter an obstacle. Direct focus on that problem does very little for finding the solution.
“Have patience with all things, but, first of all with yourself.”
~Saint Francis de Sales
