Wikimedia Blog/Drafts/How I make video newsreels for social media - so you can too: Difference between revisions
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== Title ideas == |
== Title ideas == |
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*''How to make a video 'newsreel' for social media'' |
*''How to make a Wikimedia video 'newsreel' for social media'' |
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:''How I make video newsreels for social media - so you can too'' |
:''How I make video Wikimedia newsreels for social media - so you can too'' |
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* ''How you can make video newsreels for the Wikimedia movement'' |
* ''How you can make video newsreels for the Wikimedia movement'' |
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* ... |
* ... |
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==Body== |
==Body== |
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ROUGH DRAFT - NEEDS WORK |
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This is a 'silent newsreel' about the value and purpose of the public domain. |
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]] |
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⚫ | Have you ever seen a video on social media that taught you something? Did that video have big fat text on the screen? Did you need to turn on the sound to understand what what being communicated? Just a few years ago, Facebook tweaked their user interaction and enabled video that auto-plays on your Facebook feed with the sound off. The result influenced video production globally and revived the 100+ year-old 'silent newsreel' as a way to communicate information to people on their phones (there is a good analysis of this style of video [https://medium.com/@jkalven/how-facebook-is-bringing-back-the-silent-newsreel-e1b8d75f1bb1 here]). As a video producer for the Wikimedia Foundation, I've produced a few of these types of videos, and I wanted to write this to share how you can do this too. Basically, you need to aim to make a video that's 10 seconds to 3 minutes in length, can be understood with or without the audio on, and starts giving you information right away because in all likelihood your audience's thumb is ready to swipe up to the next thing. |
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⚫ | |||
Intro: |
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⚫ | Have you ever seen a video on social media that taught you something? Did that video have big fat text on the screen? Did you need to turn on the sound to understand what what being communicated? Just a few years ago, Facebook tweaked their user interaction and enabled video that auto-plays on your Facebook feed with the sound off. The result influenced video production globally and revived the 100+ year-old 'silent newsreel' as a way to communicate information to people on their phones (there is a good analysis of this style of video [https://medium.com/@jkalven/how-facebook-is-bringing-back-the-silent-newsreel-e1b8d75f1bb1 here]). As a video producer for the Wikimedia Foundation, I've produced a few of these types of videos, and I wanted to write this to share how you can do this too. Basically, you need to aim to make a video that's 10 seconds to 3 minutes in length, can be understood with or without the audio on, and starts giving you information right away because in all likelihood your audience's thumb is ready to swipe up to the next thing. |
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So this is what a 100-year-old newsreel looks like: |
So this is what a 100-year-old newsreel looks like: |
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You can see stuff happening with people in it, and then you see text that explains the stuff you saw (in this case you need to speak Russian to understand it). Today's video editing software makes it relatively easy to imitate this format using digital video and photography. |
You can see stuff happening with people in it, and then you see text that explains the stuff you saw (in this case you need to speak Russian to understand it). Today's video editing software makes it relatively easy to imitate this format using digital video and photography. |
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Part 1 - Write your copy |
'''Part 1 - Write your copy''' |
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This sounds easy, but to make it good can take some time. What are you trying to communicate? What's your topic? Generally I find that to be able to read the text on your phone, it has to be BIG FAT TEXT and that means that you have to write little skinny sentences. It's kind of like writing one or two haikus. Usually I end up with maybe three or four short sentences of text to put on screen. Sometimes you have to chop the sentences in half and let the audience read the first half of the text before you show the next half. This gives you the opportunity to |
This sounds easy, but to make it good can take some time. What are you trying to communicate? What's your topic? Generally I find that to be able to read the text on your phone, it has to be BIG FAT TEXT and that means that you have to write little skinny sentences. It's kind of like writing one or two haikus. Usually I end up with maybe three or four short sentences of text to put on screen. Sometimes you have to chop the sentences in half and let the audience read the first half of the text before you show the next half. This gives you the opportunity to show half a sentence with one image and then swap to another image and show the second half of the sentence. This gives you a way to think about how you may want to write, and what in what order you may want to show things to your audience. |
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[[File:Wikilovesmonuments.org.webm|thumb|center|600px|This video for Wiki Loves Monuments is made of still images, music and short sentences of text that is placed over the images.]] |
[[File:Wikilovesmonuments.org.webm|thumb|center|600px|This video for Wiki Loves Monuments is made of still images, music and short sentences of text that is placed over the images.]] |
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Part 2 - Music |
'''Part 2 - Music''' |
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Now you should find some music. I have used all these sites to find media that's public domain, cc0, cc-by |
Now you should find some music. If you are a musician, you can use music you've recorded, otherwise you need to find some. Try to find instrumental music that you would be comfortable hearing over and over (while you edit). I have used all these sites to find media that's public domain, cc0, cc-by or cc by-sa so that it's free to remix and is compatible with Wikimedia projects: |
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* https://musopen.org/ - Mostly western classical music, mostly cc0-licensed |
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* Musopen.org |
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* http://freemusicarchive.org/ |
* http://freemusicarchive.org/ - music under various licenses. Lots made just for video. |
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* https://www.jamendo.com/ - music under various licenses. Unfortunately searching by license has been removed, and you have to be logged in to see the license of any track, but much can be found here. |
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* Jamendo.com |
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* Commons |
* Wikimedia Commons: |
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** https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Audio_files_of_music |
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* freesound.org |
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** https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikiradio/ |
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If you are a musician you can also record stuff you made. |
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* http://freesound.org/ - This is primarily sound effects, but sometimes you can find bits of music. Uses various licenses. |
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Part |
'''Part 3 - Find your media''' |
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(working on this) |
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This format works well even with shaky video you shot on your cellphone, because the text ties it together, so don't be afraid to shoot footage of |
This format works well even with shaky video you shot on your cellphone, because the text ties it together, so don't be afraid to shoot footage of |
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Free b-roll |
Free b-roll |
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If you do shoot media on your own, here are my crash-course suggestions: |
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⚫ | |||
* try to keep the camera steady |
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* Make sure you record b-roll (extra footage of the event) that illustrates the setting, inside and outside. |
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* If you record an interview, record it in a quiet room, and use a lapel microphone. |
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* If you record a presentation where someone is speaking into a microphone, there may be an audio mixing board that you can plug into |
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⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
(working on this) |
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Part 5 - Edit! |
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⚫ | Today if you make a video for social media, you have a high chance that people will be watching on their phone, and that the sound will be off, so intertitles, subtitles and captions are key to communicating with video on social media. . What I’ve learned about this style: it helps to have FAT BOLD FONTS (I use OpenSans or Montserrat) for innertitles and when people talk, I use bold yellow subtitles with a blurred dropshadow. if there is text in the background, italicize the titles you use. |
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Mention the technical that I use |
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'''Part 5 - Edit everything together''' |
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(working on this) |
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You have images (still and video), music, possibly dialogue and text to use to get your ideas made. What order for each of these works best? Generally I find that you can put everything into an editing timeline and then trim down that works. |
You have images (still and video), music, possibly dialogue and text to use to get your ideas made. What order for each of these works best? Generally I find that you can put everything into an editing timeline and then trim down that works. |
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add bit about motion graphics... |
add bit about motion graphics... |
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Part |
'''Part 6 - Conversion''' |
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(working on this) |
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explain .webm vs .mov |
explain .webm vs .mov |
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add section about exporting version without titles so that others can fork it. |
add section about exporting version without titles so that others can fork it. |
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'''Part 7 - Captions, forking and formats''' |
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Part 6 - |
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(working on this) |
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⚫ | Today if you make a video for social media, you have a high chance that people will be watching on their phone, and that the sound will be off, so intertitles, subtitles and captions are key to communicating with video on social media. . What I’ve learned about this style: it helps to have FAT BOLD FONTS (I use OpenSans or Montserrat) for innertitles and when people talk, I use bold yellow subtitles with a blurred dropshadow. if there is text in the background, italicize the titles you use. |
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-conversion |
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video2commons |
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⚫ | |||
Below are a few examples of silent newsreels I’ve made for the Wikimedia Foundation: |
Below are a few examples of silent newsreels I’ve made for the Wikimedia Foundation: |
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[[File:What_is_Creative_Commons%3F.webm|thumbtime=01:08|thumb|600px|center|This newreel uses text and a few images with a few of video filters to make the point that images can be remixed. Note that the text and images are paced to the beat of the music, which must be done carefully so that everything appears in sync. If a few frames are off, it can ''feel'' off.]] |
[[File:What_is_Creative_Commons%3F.webm|thumbtime=01:08|thumb|600px|center|This newreel uses text and a few images with a few of video filters to make the point that images can be remixed. Note that the text and images are paced to the beat of the music, which must be done carefully so that everything appears in sync. If a few frames are off, it can ''feel'' off.]] |
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⚫ | |||
[[File:The 2016 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon.webm|thumb|center|600px|This was made using footage sent in by volunteers. Each shot needed written approval from the shooter for a joint copyright agreement with WMF so that the video could then be shared on the Wikipedia social media accounts.]] |
[[File:The 2016 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon.webm|thumb|center|600px|This was made using footage sent in by volunteers. Each shot needed written approval from the shooter for a joint copyright agreement with WMF so that the video could then be shared on the Wikipedia social media accounts.]] |
Revision as of 16:10, 16 October 2017
This page is currently a draft. More information pertaining to this may be available on the talk page. Translation admins: Normally, drafts should not be marked for translation. |
Title ideas
- How to make a Wikimedia video 'newsreel' for social media
- How I make video Wikimedia newsreels for social media - so you can too
- How you can make video newsreels for the Wikimedia movement
- ...
Summary
- I've been making short video newsreels about Wikimedia for a few years, I thought I'd how you how I do it so you can do it too.
- ...
Body
Have you ever seen a video on social media that taught you something? Did that video have big fat text on the screen? Did you need to turn on the sound to understand what what being communicated? Just a few years ago, Facebook tweaked their user interaction and enabled video that auto-plays on your Facebook feed with the sound off. The result influenced video production globally and revived the 100+ year-old 'silent newsreel' as a way to communicate information to people on their phones (there is a good analysis of this style of video here). As a video producer for the Wikimedia Foundation, I've produced a few of these types of videos, and I wanted to write this to share how you can do this too. Basically, you need to aim to make a video that's 10 seconds to 3 minutes in length, can be understood with or without the audio on, and starts giving you information right away because in all likelihood your audience's thumb is ready to swipe up to the next thing.
So this is what a 100-year-old newsreel looks like:
You can see stuff happening with people in it, and then you see text that explains the stuff you saw (in this case you need to speak Russian to understand it). Today's video editing software makes it relatively easy to imitate this format using digital video and photography.
Part 1 - Write your copy
This sounds easy, but to make it good can take some time. What are you trying to communicate? What's your topic? Generally I find that to be able to read the text on your phone, it has to be BIG FAT TEXT and that means that you have to write little skinny sentences. It's kind of like writing one or two haikus. Usually I end up with maybe three or four short sentences of text to put on screen. Sometimes you have to chop the sentences in half and let the audience read the first half of the text before you show the next half. This gives you the opportunity to show half a sentence with one image and then swap to another image and show the second half of the sentence. This gives you a way to think about how you may want to write, and what in what order you may want to show things to your audience.
Part 2 - Music
Now you should find some music. If you are a musician, you can use music you've recorded, otherwise you need to find some. Try to find instrumental music that you would be comfortable hearing over and over (while you edit). I have used all these sites to find media that's public domain, cc0, cc-by or cc by-sa so that it's free to remix and is compatible with Wikimedia projects:
- https://musopen.org/ - Mostly western classical music, mostly cc0-licensed
- http://freemusicarchive.org/ - music under various licenses. Lots made just for video.
- https://www.jamendo.com/ - music under various licenses. Unfortunately searching by license has been removed, and you have to be logged in to see the license of any track, but much can be found here.
- Wikimedia Commons:
- http://freesound.org/ - This is primarily sound effects, but sometimes you can find bits of music. Uses various licenses.
Part 3 - Find your media
(working on this)
This format works well even with shaky video you shot on your cellphone, because the text ties it together, so don't be afraid to shoot footage of
dig for b-roll on vimeo, or shoot your own
Links to b-roll
Free b-roll
If you do shoot media on your own, here are my crash-course suggestions:
- try to keep the camera steady
- Make sure you record b-roll (extra footage of the event) that illustrates the setting, inside and outside.
- If you record an interview, record it in a quiet room, and use a lapel microphone.
- If you record a presentation where someone is speaking into a microphone, there may be an audio mixing board that you can plug into
Part 4 - Fonts, subtitles and captions
(working on this)
Today if you make a video for social media, you have a high chance that people will be watching on their phone, and that the sound will be off, so intertitles, subtitles and captions are key to communicating with video on social media. . What I’ve learned about this style: it helps to have FAT BOLD FONTS (I use OpenSans or Montserrat) for innertitles and when people talk, I use bold yellow subtitles with a blurred dropshadow. if there is text in the background, italicize the titles you use.
Mention the technical that I use
Part 5 - Edit everything together
(working on this)
You have images (still and video), music, possibly dialogue and text to use to get your ideas made. What order for each of these works best? Generally I find that you can put everything into an editing timeline and then trim down that works.
It's a good rule of thumb to read any text you put on screen aloud, so that you know people can read it for that amount of time.
add bit about motion graphics...
Part 6 - Conversion
(working on this)
explain .webm vs .mov
add section about exporting version without titles so that others can fork it.
Part 7 - Captions, forking and formats
(working on this)
-conversion
video2commons
- Amara
Below are a few examples of silent newsreels I’ve made for the Wikimedia Foundation:
...
Victor Grigas,
Wikimedia Foundation video production manager and storyteller