Web Videos that are Made to Stick

This week was, again, very technical in nature.  Possibly my favorite part of Bourne's Web Video was the section on continuity.  In fact, I spent way too much time looking up continuity errors in my favorite movies stumbling upon blogs and short articles all over the internet about continuity errors (this is a good top 12 list ).  It just goes to show how closely people are paying attention sometimes.  And let me tell you, being a continuity director is not easy work.  I was continuity director on a weekend shoot in Charleston where it was really cold in the morning and blazing hot in the afternoon.  I had my little clipboard to write things down to ensure the continuity was correct, but I had a problem not with making sure the talent (and I use that term somewhat loosely) entered from the right direction and each item was discussed in each appropriate scene.  Instead, I had a problem convincing the talent to endure wearing a light jacket for each scene because, as is usual when shooting any type of video, the shots were out of chronological order and all needed to look uniform (i.e. all with or all without the jacket).  After much debate I realized it was a lost cause, so I checked my list and pinpointed exactly which scene we needed to see the talent take of the jacket and which scene the jacket needed to be put back on in order for the scenes to make sense without a jacket magically disappearing and reappearing.


The other section I found in this chapter of Web Video was the section on green screens.  One of the hardest lessons to learn by trial and error is the green screen lesson...or in my case the blue screen lesson.  I was told to make sure the subject didn't wear blue.  So I told her that she wasn't allowed to wear blue.  And she didn't.  What I didn't account for was her eye color.  You guessed it: blue.  When I took the blue background out, I didn't notice any difference in her eye color (mostly because I wasn't looking for any difference in her eye color).  However, when I went to put it a different background (in this case a black background with small silver bits "shimmering") I started watching and noticed something was happening with her eyes.  If only I had had this section to tell me to check the subject's eye color...


On to Heath and Heath's Made to Stick; I really enjoyed the chapter on credibility...especially the "Where's the beef?" section.  I don't know about anyone else, but I remember that commercial despite the fact that that particular campaign was launched the year before I was born...but I digress.  I never really thought about that campaign using credibility to sell the product.  I always assumed it was the cute, cantankerous old lady asking about the location of the beef.  Looking back I can see that they were indeed putting the credibility of the commercial in the hands of the consumer.  We can see that this is done a lot of times today.  For example, a lot of companies tell their consumers to "come on in and see for yourself" that x, y, z is true about the company, product, service, whatever.


The chapter on emotional resonated with me from the very start with Mother Theresa's quote about helping one, not a much larger group.  I find that this is true for just about everyone (especially beauty queens).  What I mean by this is that a majority of people from politicians to beauty queens to singer/songwriters are always talking about helping others and world peace, etc.  But it really does only start with one.  For example, I don't know how many of you have pets or go to Petsmart regularly, but I do.  I also see those commercials with Sarah McLachlan asking for donations to help all stray animals and animals and shelters.  That's a lot of animals.  But at Petsmart, you can help that one animal right there.  You can see the animal and touch the animal and you can help it.  I don't know about y'all, but I am more prone to give money every time I walk into Petsmart when they ask you at checkout because I know which animal my money is going to (or at least I like to think my money is going to help that animal right there...not some hypothetical animal an untold number of miles away).


This week there was a lot of reading and a lot of information to glean from all of this reading.  I know this is a somewhat superficial post about the reading, but I'm afraid if I go on much longer I'm going to go on forever.  Not to mention I'm sure someone else has already covered everything else I wanted to say and I'm sure no one wants to read duplicated posts if at all possible.  So I think I will end it there and try to post other ideas as comments should the need arise.