Live Action Video Design Guide

Index

Standard Story Outline

Documentary and informational video is most effective when it engages the audience's brain in four deliberate ways.

1. Our Tribal brain (The longing to belong)

2. Our Primal brain (this typically starts with, but is not limited to, a short bit at the beginning that primes the viewer emotionally.)

3. Our logical brain (Making sense of the information)

4. Our knowledgable brain (now that we have told this... what action should your viewer take with this new knowledge?)

For detailed guidelines and examples visit the i-See-U Socio-Emotional Design Guide and view the presentation.

Accessibility

Media that will be released for public consumption is required to include a version with audio descriptions, or include voice-over and dialogue written in a Audio-Visual-Storytelling Style. See the example below. In the scene a person is on their knees and looking directly into a dog's eyes from 6 " away

Video Writing Example 1 (Standard Form)

(2 versions needed - one with audio description and one without):

• • Narrator says: Sometimes I wonder what my dog is thinking

  • Audio description narrator says: Person on their knees looking directly into a dog's eyes.

Video Writing Example 2 (Integrated Audio Description Form)

(1 version needed - because the narrator describes the visual action):

• • Narrator says: Sometimes I get on my knees and stare directly into my dog's eyes, wondering what she is thinking.

Shot List

Sometimes it's helpful to start with a written shot list... that is just an outline description of the shots (in order). If you have a script, you can simply integrate the shot list into it.

Overall Considerations

• Include an establishing shot (usually at the beginning... but not always.

• Changing the camera angle 180 degrees between shots can be disorienting... unless the scene environment and character positions have been well established in previous shots.

• Leave space in the timing and dialogue for audio descriptions.

Camera Location Effects Emotion

• Close is intimate

• Far is isolating or establishing

• Medium is neutral

• Up shot empowers the actors

• Down shot diminishes the actors

• Tilt is disorienting

Editing

• Mix up the shots to support the narrative. Don't use one type of shot over and over in sequence.

• Leave "lead room". For example, if a character is facing left, position them towards the right (leaving room in the scene for them to look into).

• Pay attention to the lines of action. For example if a character exits stage left, have the next character in the next shot or same shot enter stage right. In other words, make the eye movements for your audience smooth not jerky.

• Try to keep the focal point from the end of one shot to the beginning of the following shot in the same place (as often as you can).

Considerations for Each Drawn Board

• What is the location setting?

• What are the persons, characters, props or vehicles in the shot?

• Do you need to include elements that show scale?

• What type of shot (close-up, wide-shot, establishing shot, and so on) do you need? Camera Shot Guide.

• Do any actors or vehicles need to move within a frame, and what is the direction of that action?

• Do you need any camera movement to add motion to this shot?

• Do you need any special lighting? The lighting depends on what type of mood you're trying to convey .

• Do you need any special effects? Special effects can include gunfire, explosions, etc.

• How will we transition from the previous shot and to the next shot?

• What is the dialogue?

Transitions

• Linear Cut (smooth & chronological)(use this most of the time)

• Jump Cut (abrupt and/or not chronological)

• Dissolve

• Transition to/from black

• Cut on motion (from action to action)

• Cut on pause (opposite of cutting on action)

Storyboard Examples and Templates

• Universal Design Storyboard Template: (includes a google slides and Adobe Animate version)

• Thumb Storyboards - Fischer

• Miscellaneous Storyboards

• Story Boarder - Free Software

• Famous Frames Examples

• KCAD DM Camera Shots Guide

• Story Board Ex: Famous Frames

• Ridley Scott: Storyboarding Light

• Hitchcock's hidden scene transitions (look for the black in-betweens adjacent to body close-ups)

Accessibility Design

All video released for public consumption id required to contain closed captioning. Place important scene element above the 280 pixels from the bottom so the captions do not cover them.

Sound Design

• Sound design does half the work in animation and video.

• Sometimes sound can tell parts of the story by itself. Example: a small bird on a tree branch hears the screech of a hawk. Even though the hawk is not in the frame, we know the hawk is there.

• Here are some other sound resources in the DLC:

  • Search and download sound and music using the DLC directory

  • Sound Design Tutorials on the DLC

Sound Accessibility

• Sound can be used to tell parts of the story for the sight impaired.

• Prairie Home Companion live radio broadcast video

  • Theme Song: 00:05 - 00:10 (setting up the cowboy genre)

  • Foley: 03:07 - 3:15 (traveling by horse)

  • Scoring: 03:23 - 3:50 (setting sense of mood)

  • Environment 04:50 - (piano &laughing in a saloon)"The Lives of the Cowboys" - 9/22/2012