We recently wrote about how we can bring video back into the spotlight.
At Akvo we’re not professional video people. But we think video is really important to our work and that of our partners. We use it to bring to life the people we meet and the interactions we have. We think it makes everything we do feel more real. We’ve been doing video for about three years and we’ve taken a distinct approach, which emphasises simplicity.
Last year, I became, for the first time in my life, an IAWAD. Better know as an International Award Winning Artistic Director. After Stockholm World Water Week 2015, I submitted a video to the #MyWeek Video Campaign contest, and we won. Thus, here I want to share two approaches and two apps which might be interesting to share around, in order to spark enthusiasm for video recording.
Shoot directly rom your phone
Akvo has a great track record of doing videos in a simple way. My last blog talked about this. Only going through Akvo.tv, WaterCube.tv and WaterCouch.tv will give you a sense of how innovative and progressive this was for our sector. You can learn from this video on how to shoot and upload them directly to Youtube.
Shoot with a high definition camera
Over a year ago, I decided to buy a GoPro. I’ve been using it a lot for my personal videos, but found it fantastic to use work related. With it I was able to shoot this two videos and later simply edit them with Movie. (Interested in learning how to edit with IMovie? Check out Tips to shoot more videos in 2016 – Part 3)
Story maker
I learned about storymaker during my attendance at the Open Development Camp in Amsterdam, back in 2014. There, the people from Free Press Unlimited brought people from Bahrein & Syria, to talk about (data) journalism in fragile areas – and more specifically about the App they have developed with built-in security features. I was immediately fascinated by the features the app had, and also the different templates and lessons it had in it.
StoryMaker is an open source app that enables existing and aspiring journalists all over the world to produce and publish professional-grade news with their Android phone, as safely and securely as possible. It provides an interactive training guide, walkthroughs, and templates for users to follow as they plan their piece and capture media. The app then helps assemble the content into a finished format, with cuts and basic graphics.
It contains some interesting lessons, templates to use on the field in order to frame your shots correctly, and its own mini editable features ready to upload to platformes like youtube or vimeo.
Website | Play store | Video walkthrough
Roadmovies
I first learned about Roadmovies through my colleague Lissy. Its a great app. Originally launched late 2012, the app has been climbing the iOS charts ever since, and is now the top free app in Japan. It also tops the photo and video category in Korea right now too. The app allows you to shoot a collection of very short video clips – either 24 x 1 second, 12 x 2 seconds, or 8 x 3 seconds – which are then stitched together to create a composite 24 second clip. its fantastic to give an insight of a place, without any voiceover.
After you’ve shot your 24 total seconds of video, you can then opt to add one of eight available filters to give your composite clip some extra pop. The next step is perhaps the most fun, as you can choose one of 14 available background music tracks included in the app, all of which are pretty snazzy.
I really like these videos shoot by Lissy or Josje, for example. I even shoot this one on the last day of our colleague Stefan. Unfortunately, I still suffer from some Vertical Video Syndrome.
iTunes store | Video tutorial
We are curious to see if you find these useful.
