3,2,1 ACTION!

Hi there :)

Here I am once again to explain you our new ICT challenge: create a storyboard and a video related to our e-project. We had to take into account that the idea reflected in the storyboard had to be recorded in a video. Consequently, we had to thoroughly plan our idea.

After considering different possibilities, such as describing a character’s life or a major event, we all agree that it would be interesting use the storyboard as an explanation for students who will create a similar one.

The tool we used

Following that premise, the storyboard and the video were intended to be a challenge for students, since they have to create their own comic according to a period of time. We thought that it would be a good idea to introduce the challenge through the resource they are going to use and, in order to help them, we have included some scenes about different periods. So, by reading a comic, they will learn how to do it.

To make our video planning we used Storyboard, which is a very useful and simple tool to make comics. It offers a big amount of free resources for you to develop your ideas and create stories related to any topic you wish. On it, we found sketches of places, characters and different types of accessories you can use to decorate your scenes.

Our costumes!

As you can see, our story is about some different periods of History, so we needed to use very diverse landscapes and characters in order to represent them. During the process we found loads of options to create our comic, even finding inspiring ideas within the tool to carry it out. Although we thought it would be difficult to find all the tools we required, it was easier than we expected.

Besides, creating and decorating the sketches and the characters was also easy to do, as well as sequencing the images, writing the bubbles and organizing the story. We just had to drag with the mouse what we wanted to use and release it wherever we liked.

The main drawback we found was that the use of more than six vignettes implied paying, so that our work was restricted. We had to cut back the story in order to make it shorter and use only those six vignettes, so we couldn’t include many details we’d liked to. It would have been really nice to be able to do it just as we had prepared it.

Apart from that, a little detail that was an obstacle too, was the fact that the characters have only two positions (standing and sitting), and sometimes we couldn’t represent the scene exactly as we’d thought.

Here you have the result:

StoryboardThat

Once we had our storyboard ready, it was time to record the video. It wasn’t easy because we used different backgrounds and characters from other periods so we needed many costumes and a wide range of resources. Our classmate Salva, provided us with many costumes that we utilized to pretend to be the characters: Egyptians’ clothes, a fool’s cap, a sword and a top hat… it was just perfect!

The most difficult point was to create a background which represented certain period. For it, we tried to use a green fabric in order to use it as a chrome key and then we will add the appropriate background.

A picture from the video

We record all our scenes during the class but, when we tried to edit the video, a problem arose: the light wasn’t good enough to insert an image as background.

At the very beginning, we tried the programm Sony Vegas but it doesn't work in Laura’s computer, so we decided to download a free trial version of Adobe Premier cc, which is a professional video editor difficult to use and understand. We had to saw many tutorials till we found out how to use it and how to apply a croma effect. Then, we realized that the light in the videos recorded was not uniform so neither the green colour on the chroma key. This can give you a lot of problems when you are editing because you need the green color to be uniform and with now shadows.  In that point we thought that we would have to record the video again with a better light and being more careful. Of course, this had occurred because we are not experts and it was the first time we used a chroma key as well as the video editor. 

We have a lot of fun recording the video!

Then, we tried to find a solution in order to not record again and our peer Laura found a colour effect which eliminates all the green colour in the video, maintaining red and blue colours. This technique worked because it eliminated all the green background, however it also removed the green in our faces so that our faces may appear more red than really are.  Nevertheless, we decided to maintain the work because it was not a big problem. As a practical matter: if you are going to use a chroma key in your videos, take into account these aspects. 

Then, with the video finished, we used iMovie to add music and some effects easily.

Although we had to face some technical problems, the experience was worthy. We had a great time together while dressing up, recording again and again a sequence and pretending to be actors and actresses. 

The final outcome is in this YouTube link, but you can also see it below. Hope you like our team work! And remember, if you see us a little orange or red it is because of our chroma key!