Significant stories: The roots of VOXUR

1 | VOXUR: Significant Stories

VOXURSignificant Stories: The Roots of VOXUR

55degrees.co.uk

April 2011

http://www.55degrees.co.uk


Significant Stories Recently 55degrees give a brief talk at a JISC conference. The theme of the conference was Enhancing Business Performance: The Role of Technology in Developing Skills and Knowledge.

We spoke about VOXUR, the tool created by 55degrees that enables people and organisations to capture, edit and share their own stories using video, data and other media. It is available as a portable device, and we are developing mobile, browser and kiosk versions. It is used through out the UK by the public sector, educational and research establishments, health organisations and business.

We explained some of the thinking and philosophy behind VOXUR. We think this helps highlights why it is such a useful tool. A product built on a strong philosophy has a good foundation that feeds into its development. Apple’s desire to make products and software that are user friendly and well designed can be seen today in the iPhone and iPad, Facebook’s desire to digitise peoples real social experience has led to it being responsible for 25% of all web traffic and Microsofts intention to put a computer into every home and that computer to run Windows ... they have done quiet well. You can tell a lot about a company and its products from its ethos. With VOXUR, 55degrees aim to make digital story capture, creation and sharing available to everyone ... anywhere.

Sometimes soundbites are not enough 55 believe that people and organisations should be able to tell their own stories using video, stills and other media and they should be able to do that well without the need to resort to professionals.

Video (in all its forms) is a very powerful way to tell stories, to share knowledge, to consult, to record progress and gather insight. But for many stories soundbites are not enough, they need a richer and more in depth approach. As a media company some would say devising tools for people to make their own stories is shooting ourselves in the foot, but we believe that there will always been a need for different story tellers and there is no reason why people and organisation themselves shouldn’t be one of them. Video is too powerful a communication tool to be in the hands of relatively few professionals and if organisations want to truly own their own stories need to master this medium.

And the appetite for rich stories and ideas delivered on video is growing and shown by the popularly of TED talks and RSA. It is one of 55degrees aims of VOXUR that the using video to communicate complex ideas should be an option available to everyone.


http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

NESTA and VOXURLike a lot of good ideas VOXUR was developed out of a need.In 2003 55degrees was commissioned by NESTA (National Endowment for Science and the Arts) to produce a series of video reports on projects they had funded.

These reports where to be filmed in location with the awardee. They would feature video interviews with the person and documentation of their work and practice.

The stories varied ranging from the development of new surgical techniques to film making, from inventors and artists to boat builders.

What they had in common was that they were rich stories that couldn’t be told in a few sound bites.

The challenge was that the projects were spread throughout the UK and there wasn’t the budget to send a film crew around the country. So 55degrees devised a plan to courier a kit around the country that would enable people to capture their own story.


What would we put in the kit?Kit contentsAs film makers what would we put in the kit to help people remotely capture films?

In 2003 55degrees was a small innovate video production company specialising in documentary, as we grew we added software and design to our services. In the early days many of us had been involved in community video, helping non-professionals to make films using broadcast video facilities so we were very aware of the challenges faced in enabling the public to produce films.

We ask our selves two questions:

“If we were capturing these stories ourselves using a traditional film crew, what would we want to capture?”

“What approaches do we use to ensure that we capture the material required to tell a good story?”.


What did we want to capture?The HARDE IndexAs film makers there are certain qualities and attributes that we require from of content we capture in order to build an engaging story. Whatever went in the kit would have to help our users to capture this type of content. The HARDE index brings together some of the key attributes of good content.

H- HumanThe Human element. Research says that in terms of trust and engagement humans take very little from the actual words people say and a lot more from who is saying it and how they are saying it. It’s the job of the interviewer to bring the best out the interviewee to ensure that their performance is engaging and truthful.

A - AestheticsAs film makers we are very keen on how a shot looks, and that the sound is good.

R - RelevanceWe need to gather content that is relevant, no point getting lots of shots of apples if we are making a film about monkeys.

D - DataWe need to be sure that we are getting the information that we need to deliver the story that we are communicating. So if the film is about the stages involved in a surgical procedure, then we should ensure that we captured the relevant elements of that procedure.

E - EngagementWe want material that is engaging. What is engaging is difficult to put your finger on, but passionate, lively and truthful interviews help, along with well made succinct points.


The film makers approachCOAST“COAST” outlines some of the things filmmakers do to gather the building blocks to capture a story. Encouraging our kit users to follow these approaches would help to ensure that their story could be told.

C- Coverage. Film-makers “shoot to edit”, they film knowing that they will chop up and rearrange the material they capture, so they cover an event or subject with multiple shots from a variety of positions. This means it is possible to edit that material together to build up a picture of the scene or event. Its a bit like cooking, when you are buying ingredients to make a dish you don’t have to buy them in the order you are going to put them in the pot, you just have to make sure you get the right, good quality ingredients.

O - Open Questions. When interviewing to get the best out of people, one technique is to ask open questions that don’t have yes/no answers. An example of a closed question is “Do you feel okay?” the answer would be yes or no. The open version would be “How do you feel today?”. Questions like “Why is xxx important to you”, “what first interested you about XXX?”. Questions that tap into a persons passion for a subject can illicit engaging responses.

A - Afterwards.Film makers are aware that they will have to make something from the material that they have captured. Thats why it is important to ensure that it is well documented and that you don’t create huge amounts of useless material that you will have to wade through. So capture less but keep it good and document what you have captured.

S - Structure.Even the most basic story has a structure, for example: beginning, middle and end. Structure is a set of rules that underpins your story that help the viewer understand and engage with what they are watching. There should be changes in tempo, texture, interest peaks and quieter parts. Having an idea of the structure you are aiming for helps you define what type of content you are trying to capture.

T - Theatre.There is a lot of theatre involved in film and video production, the lights, the cameras and the people involved. Done right it can help interviewees and subjects rise to the occasion.


Kit contentsA video camera: We found a small one with a good lens and flip round viewfinder so people could see themselves for framing and lighting.

An external microphone: important for capturing good sound.

A little tripod: to put the camera on while they were interviewing themselves.

A spec cam: To help with coverage and to get a variety of shots, users could film themselves at work and give us an “inventors eye view”.

A stills camera: Following action, carrying out pans and zooms takes a great deal of skill which is an issue with amateur filming. Using a stills camera means the user focuses on the framing at the moment of taking the shot.

...... and GuidanceThe physical kit was the easy part, what we wanted was for people to use that kit well. So we included a short video outlining what we were looking for, with tips on filming locations, framing, lighting and sound. Guidance on the type of shots we required for coverage. Instructions on how we wanted things filmed, eg: we wanted them to address the camera when answer questions. And we gave them a pile of open questions and telephone support.


We put all of this in a James Bond style case, this added to the theatre of the kit, so it was exciting when it turned up. We we give it a name the “Suitcase Acquisition Kit”. We asked everyone to take a picture of themselves with the kit and this formed part of the final films.

ImplementationThe UK tourWe made up 4 kits and we sent them away on an adventure, couriers transported the kits around the country. To add to the theatre, before people got their kit, we sent them a pre-arrival pack. This contained blank video tapes, an instructional video, a printed list of questions and a combination number for the lock that was on the case. It was all meant to be a bit “MI5” but this added to the fun of it.

People got their kits, carried out their filming, took their photos, and then packaged up their tapes and sent them back to us. The courier then picked up the kit and transported it onto the next person.


ImplementationThe presentation55degrees carried out the editing, but because people had followed their instructions we had the material we required so the process was fairly straight forward. In the end we made 18 short films.

These films where shown as part of that years NESTA awards. Interestingly we had gathered so much high quality information and content that NESTA was able to use quotes and information gleaned from the video in their company documentation and branding, and the imagery and ascetic formed the core of that years annual report.


DevelopmentOver the years VOXUR has under gone many changes and developments, and it is continuing to be developed with iPhone, iPad, kiosk and browser versions.

VOXUR has developed to combine qualitative and quantitate data to ensure that people and organisations have even greater control over shaping their own stories.

But core philosophy remains the same ... that people and organisations should be able to take control of their own stories, that they should be able to use digital media to capture, shape and share those stories, they should be able to tell significant stories and they should be able to do that very well.



!

55degreesIngram House227 Ingram StreetGlasgow, G1 1DAT: 0141 222 2855 www.55degrees.co.uk

