TIP SHEET

WHERE YOU’LL FIND MEMake a simple video with ABC Open

Where are you at sunset on a Sunday? Or dawn on a Wednesday? Perhaps you’re out fishing, bird watching, at a BBQ with mates, or renovating your home.

How do you spend your summer days and nights? Make a 30 second video using a variety of shots that tells us “where you’ll find me”.

It’s about one person, one place and one moment.

Film yourself or someone else on your smartphone, camera or tablet. What are you doing there? Who with? How do you feel? Why?

View the project online here, or visit the ABC Open website: https://open.abc.net.au

DO film one person. Film yourself or someone else. We want individuals, not groups. People in the background are fine.

DO film in landscape Turn your smartphone or tablet sideways to film all shots in landscape (horizontal).

DO introduce your hangout. Tell us where you are? What day? What are you doing? Option 1: flip the camera (like a selfie) and film yourself talking. Option2: if the story is about someone else, ask them to speak to the camera. Option 3: Add narration later.

DO show us your hangout. Film your location and what’s happening there. Don’t forget to film some small details.

DO add narration. For some shots, record yourself or your subject talking over the video. Describe what’s happening. How you feel when you’re there? On a smartphone or tablet, try filming and narrating at the same time.

DON’T use any music. Avoid TV or radio, or music playing in the background. This can cause a breach of copyright if you don’t have permission.

DO keep it short. Keep your video under 30 seconds.

DON’T do anything illegal. Make sure what you do is safe, legal and keep it clean. For more detail check out our guidelines.

DO share your story. Tag it on Facebook and Twitter #abcopenwhereyoullfindme.

This project is easy. You can do it on a smartphone or tablet. You can even film, edit and share your video on one device without going near a computer.

Dos & Don’ts Choose your camera

The project

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Make a list

Think about the activity you’ll film. Make a list of 5 - 10 things to film. Include a shot that shows us the location, and some interesting actions and small details.

Before you film

Image by Dan Battley

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Find your lens and microphone.

On a smartphone or tablet, the lens is usually on the back or in the corner. The microphone is a small hole or a mesh rectangle, on the bottom or side.

Don’t cover the lens or microphone when you film. Video looks great when it sounds good. Bad audio can distract from your video even if it’s well shot.

Filming on a smartphone or tablet

Focus every shot

Focus every time you film a shot. Even if the video looks clear and sharp on your camera, phone or tablet, it could be slightly blurry when you see it on a bigger screen.

To focus a smartphone or tablet, tap on the screen and hold.

To focus a compact camera, hold the shutter button halfway down. A square displays and tells you what’s in focus.

WHERE YOU’LL FIND ME

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Film sideways and steady

Always hold your phone, tablet or camera in landscape orientation.

Hold it steady. Shaky shots are distracting.

Use: a tripod, or something to rest your phone on, or your body as a brace. Hold the phone/camera with both hands and keep your elbows close to your body.

Talk to the camera and tell us where you are, what you’re doing and the time of day.

Make sure you close your video with a sign off. You could include “On a <insert day>, I’ll be <insert activity>” as an ending.

If the story is about someone else, ask them to speak to the camera.

Get in really close to get good sound.

Introduce and end your video

For most digital cameras, move the dial to ‘movie mode’ - this is often symbolised as a film camera.

Photo by Jane Curtis

Photo by Dan Battley

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Different shots make your video more interesting and show us the different aspects of where you are.

Film each shot for around 10 seconds. You can shorten them later in editing. Use close up shots to show details, wide shots to show the location, and other shots that show the activities going on. Vary the angle and height of your shots too.

Film a variety of shots

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In one shot tell us what’s happening, in the next shot tell us who’s there, in the next, why you do this activity, how you’re feeling. Some shots can have no narration – this lets the viewer just watch what’s happening.

Add narration to some shots

If you use a phone or tablet, film and talk at the same time. Stand close to the camera (or ask your subject to) when you record the narration. Or add narration directly into the video using an editing app or program.

Nothing looks better than natural light. If you are indoors look for windows. Lack of light makes your video dark and grainy, especially on a bigger screen. Listen for background noise. Avoid TV or radio, or music playing in the background. This can cause a breach of copyright if you don’t have permission.

Light and sound

If you’re using a smartphone or tablet, you can edit your video on the same device.

On a tablet or smartphone, you can download a video editing app from your device app store. There are many to chose from:

IOS: iMovie ($), Videolicious ($ & free), Splice (free) Android: Kinemaster ($), Video Maker Pro Free (free)

Note: Some FREE apps insert watermarks on the video. Make sure your final video does not have a watermark.

Or, connect your phone, tablet or camera to a computer and edit your movie.

There’s free video editing software on PCs and Macs. PCs have Movie Maker Live (you may need to download this from the Windows website) and Macs have iMovie. Before you import your clips, set your app or editing program to 16:9 ratio and if possible, 25 fps frame rate.

Edit your video

Photo by Leandro Palacio

Image by Amy Tsilemanis

Image by Ben Shue

Image by Dan Battley

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“Export” means to save your finished video so it’s ready to upload to the internet.

We love good quality HD video. Export your video to HD setting 1280 x 720 - it’s a good balance between quality and file size.

Video exported to file types like WMV or MP4 are best, with good quality and a small file size. You may need to experiment and export a few versions of your file to get it under 50 MB.

Export your video

ABC Open uses the Vimeo website to host our videos. Vimeo is like Youtube without the ads.

Create a free account on Vimeo.com with your email, and then upload your video.

It will take about an hour to process.

You’ll get an email when your video is ready.

Publish your video

Go to the project section on the ABC Open website and select Where You’ll Find Me.

If you don’t have a free ABC Open account, you’ll be asked to register now.

Copy and paste in the URL of your Vimeo video and add a title and short description.

In the title, write the day and location eg “Blacks Beach on saturday morning or “Saturday evening on the Bendigo block.”

Click “Preview and Publish”. Your video may take 3 days to be moderated. You’ll get an email when it’s published.

Import the clips at full quality to your editing app or program. Arrange them in an order that flows and make sense. You’ll probably need to shorten them to around 3 - 5 seconds each. The total video should be 30 seconds long.

Edit your video