Forms are the DEVIL!!

[Mark Suszko]

Yeah, I think Perrone has enough ways to frame up the forms by now. My bigger worry was about the overall narrative framework around those shots, but it may be one of those times Morley was referring to when “less is more” and you just sit back and let stuff happen in front of the camera, without artifice.

I always get a little opinionated though, when I see clients/customers not making the most of what video offers. I hate it when all they want to do is read their powerpoint slides into a lens. People know how to read. It is pointless to make a video where all you do is read to people. Unless you’re Robert Frost reading poetry or something of that nature. But there’s always a line of people that are just fulfilling some written requirement to make a video, who don’t know better, and just want to read into a lens. It insults the audience. It says “you’re too lazy to read this document, so I’ll read it to you”. That adds nothing to the audience understanding anything about the document. Excuse the ranting, but this is just an area that’s near and dear to me.

Back towards contributing something concrete: when I handle the various election forms, the scanner sees thru to the other side of the flimsy paper they are printed on, and you see ghosting that’s very distracting to the eye. I take an intermediate step of xeroxing the forms onto heavier single-sided pages before I subsequently scan them, saves a lot of photoshopping otherwise and actually improves clarity for my applications. If I know some sections will need special attention, I may blow up special copies of those parts during the xeroxing, just to save some time in the scanning and editing later, regarding sizes. While you could just arbitrarily scan everything at a huge resolution, that’s inefficient use of drive space and RAM, and adds some extra effort to the graphics card that may not be necessary. So I precompose in the pre-scanning step wherever it is logical to do so.

[Perrone Ford]

Lots of good ideas here. And I think you guys hit the nail on the head. Sometimes we do have to put our creative juices aside, and just give the customer what they need/want. In this case, not only does the customer want certain forms on-screen, but there is a requirement to do so, even if it is boring!

I was just trying to find a way to do so that was a bit better than what I’d seen in the past. Given the responses here, and what I was already playing with in my head, I think I have what I need, and I thank you all for your thoughts.

This is a terrific site. Now on to more pressing matters, like how to convert my library of video from the past year over to DNxHD!

[Michael Hancock]

[Perrone Ford] “Now on to more pressing matters, like how to convert my library of video from the past year over to DNxHD! “

What’s the source material’s frame rate and resolution? Since it’s more of an Avid question, post over on the Avid forum and we’ll see if there’s an easy way to set this up.

https://forums.creativecow.net/forum/avidediting

Michael.

[Dan Brockett]

Not sure if many of you saw this but here is the most classy and artistic way to handle forms but you had better be a good artist and good in AE. What an engaging way to look at a document. https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_blogs/story/getting_animated_about_human_rights/

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[John Morley]

Thanks Dan,
These are inspiring, both in message and level of creativity. And are a refreshing contribution to a discussion of making written documents visual. I only wish this was the type of work I did for a living.

At the risk of being the curmudgeon on this post, I also feel compelled to point out that the purpose of these two pieces is different from the challenge that Perrone is facing, and is being discussed here.

These two pieces are to inspire; to convey a philosophy of life and social contract. The challenge addressed by this post–at least as I understand it–is to introduce and provide context for the tools of a trade, which happen to be forms. This is arguably the essence of the difference between training and educating: teaching specific cognitive skills as opposed to teaching general understanding.

Using this approach when your audience wants training would be a disconnect on several levels. It could be effective in presenting the organization’s mission statement, or an introduction to the training that stresses professionalism and commitment to serving your client, your community and the wider world. But not the best choice for pointing out what form to use for which purpose.

No creative approach is always the best choice. And I feel thankful that the approach demonstrated by these pieces on human rights is a good choice at least some of the time.

Happy New Year.

—
John Morley
Author of Scriptwriting for High-Impact Videos
John@OriginalVision.com