Project 3: Time-based Instructions
10/21/2020
The material I was assigned with was origami paper. I grew up with this stuff, folding paper cranes, tanks, and frogs since elementary school. Since the start of seventh grade, I never really got back into folding paper.
Origami paper is a very thin material, usually with one matt side and another glossy side—mine doesn’t have a glossy side. They usually come in 6" x 6" squares with multiple different colors. Origami paper can be folded in almost any direction because of how thin it is; because of this, origami paper is fragile and easily torn.
My assignment is to learn to teach someone to fold an origami butterfly, and so I took to Youtube to find a short guide on how to fold some. The first video I looked at told me I could make a butterfly in only 3 minutes. I found myself pausing and replaying parts of the video constantly because they went faster than I could fold. The video had millions of views so it must have done something right.
The second video I watched was for a more elaborate one. I like how this demonstration when over the creases with a pen, making it more clear where I was supposed to fold. However, when they went into the more difficult folds, I was completely lost and had to watch it over and over again to finally figure it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N94a0Hfyhug
Something I noticed when making my butterflies was that you had to be very precise with your folds. Otherwise, your butterfly would come out creased and bent in some places, ruining the overall pristine and clean appearance. From the videos, I noticed that minimizing the amount of screen space your hands took up really helped since the videos had no sound. Also, pointing to where corners should be folded worked really well in helping me understand what folds I was to make.
10/25/20
On 10/22, we covered a bunch of different videos from movies to bread baking tutorials that would help us better understand communication. Each video had its pros and its cons, some more than others—especially one of the spoke-tuning videos. I personally enjoyed the credit scene of Catch Me If You Can and the transitions it utilized to cut from scene to scene. Each transition led to another scene that I could anticipate would occur in the movie, with the two people chasing each other in the background to tie everything together. I also thoroughly enjoyed the integration of typography into to the graphics displayed on the screen. It was quite interesting to see how the 2D shapes suddenly showed depth and distance. They were able to tell a very elaborate story with some simple shapes and some moving objects.
I took away quite a bit from the other videos too. For example, one bicycle spoke tuning video had a man wearing very distracting wrap-around sunglasses that didn’t do him any favors. Furthermore, the camera focus was shifted from the bike and to his face. He stumbled over his words and seemed unsure of what he was trying to teach. A stark contrast to this was the second spoke tuning video we watched; the set up was very clean, and there weren’t any distractions in the background that would take away from the presentation of the subjects. The camera was placed at an angle where the viewer could see everything the person was talking about. He demonstrated clearly how the spokes worked and where they went wrong. However, he wasn’t very entertaining or interesting to watch.
Some prime examples of things to avoid showed up in a bread baking video. The lady baking the bread wasn’t very enthusiastic about what she was doing. It felt like a last-minute idea to put together the video; the background was busy and desperately grasping for your attention. The other making bread video we watched was a lot more entertaining. The guy seemed interested in what he was doing by singing along and passionately shouting towards the camera. It was inspiring and entertaining at the same time. I had a sudden urge to bake bread after his short tutorial.
With all these in mind, I was tasked with creating a storyboard and eventually a video of my task: folding an origami butterfly. I took a series of images that I felt best represented my process in making the origami butterfly.
One thing I noticed was that my fingernails could potentially distracting. I also could improve on showing the steps from a perspective that would make it feel like you were actually the one folding the paper. I struggled a bit with some folding steps. I tried zooming in on specific folds so the viewer could get a better look at what I was referring to, but it was ineffective since it looks like I’m holding the objects closer to the camera without any real intention. I was able to show some movement with the folds by keeping the paper in one orientation.
10/28/20
After class yesterday, reflected on my notes to see what I needed to work on. For starters, I needed to change the background of my process photos since they were too distracting. Because the grids didn’t line up with the perspective of the camera, they were very overpowering and took away from the overall presentation of the folding. I realized that I was too focused on trying to communicate the folds and forgot that the background plays a crucial role in supporting the communication of the tutorial. I fixed this by having a solid black background instead of a grid.
The second thing communicating certain folds better. I did this by changing the camera angle so that the viewer had a better understanding of the orientation and actions necessary to complete the fold. I changed from a POV shot to a shot of someone watching me fold the paper. This way, they could see how I folded the paper to attain the triangular shape.
The third thing I had to work on was lighting. I decided to film the video in the afternoon when the sun was still high up to catch some of the natural lighting coming into the house. I closed some blinds to keep the lighting soft as to not create any harsh shadows.
I also had to remove distractions from the frame. I wore a solid, dark brown shirt to keep attention away from me and towards the origami paper. I’m not sure if the bracelets on my wrist are distracting; I will have to consult with my peers.
I was debating on adding ink to trace over each fold so the viewer could better see where they were. I ended up not doing this because of time constraints but I want to try it to see if it makes a difference. I also need to find origami paper that has 2 colors on each side for clearer communication of the orientation of the paper. It will help the viewer better understand the position of the paper relative to the person.
The link above is to access the in-process video for today. The file is too large to be shown on Medium.
There are some things I want to address in my video for the next class. The background behind me needs to be cleaned up since it is slightly distracting. I also need to figure out if my bracelets are distracting or not. Finally, I need to work on my timing. I had to speed up the video a little bit in order to fit it into the 1 minute time frame.
11/02/20
Today I filmed a revised version of the video I filmed for last Thursday’s class. From the group critique, I received some feedback from my classmates on whether the video achieved its goals and how the video felt overall. The thing they pointed out first was whether the video was sped up or not, to which I responded “yes”. We came to the conclusion that the folding and actions felt very unnatural because I messed with the speed. However, though jump cuts felt natural and could cut down on time, badly timed cuts would make you lose critical information. For example, some people cut out a few steps which made the whole process very hard to follow along even when replaying the video. I was able to fix this issue by practicing a lot of folding; I was able to fit the entire process down in 1 minute without speeding the video up.
The second critique was whether or not I should include my brown crewneck and friendship bracelets in the frame. The brown seemed distracting because there were too many colors to focus on. The friendship bracelets were another issue since I couldn’t take them off. To combat these 2 issues, I wore a black sweater, the same color as my background, that would also cover my arms and wrists. I slid the bracelets back so you couldn’t see them even if the cuffs of my sweater moved.
I was able to showcase the before and after of the product I made by showing the square paper and then the folded butterfly by themselves. Since each step or fold was integral to making and understanding an origami butterfly, I didn’t have each step show for very long. The only steps where I placed more attention were the steps showing the orientation of the paper and what folds looked like.
One issue I had with this video was the lighting. For some reason, the lighting would shift from a red-orange shade to a cooler tone. I tried fixing it, but iMovie’s limited capabilities didn’t do a great job. I want to keep a more consistent lighting source and have better placement of my hands in my final iteration.
11/05/20
I made some final refinements to this iteration of my origami butterfly tutorial video based on the feedback I received from class today. We worked in small groups, where most people were from different groups aside from the origami butterfly group; everyone had a fresh pair of eyes and different experiences working on different topics which really helped diversify our perspectives.
The first criteria I wanted to cover was the lighting. My group members and Steve mentioned that the lighting was inconsistent in my last video. It flickered since the exposure wasn’t locked. The camera would autofocus whenever my hands left the frame. To combat this, my classmates told me I could lock the exposure of my camera to keep the lighting consistent.
The second criterion our group covered was the instructiveness of our videos. Steve and Stacie made a point I didn’t really think too much about until now. The task that was being displayed would have a certain amount of instructiveness depending on the point of view, speed, and certain actions that were displayed in the video. For example, Gia’s video felt very instructive because she pointed to different parts of the ballon that would be twisted and folded; she also worked slower to allow me to process how the task was actually being performed. In contrast, my video felt like someone was just observing me doing a certain task because I was going too fast. I tried to do the pointing but the three times I did it, my video ended up exceeding the 1 minute maximum length. I also found it very hard to point to where I was going to fold on some of the complicated folds too. I was able to slow down a bit; if I were to have more time, I would try to find the best places to point and where pointing would make sense.
The third criterion was transitions. My classmates pointed out that even though the changing point of view helped communicate the fold better, the sudden shift in perspective was very distracting and took away from the overall presentation. I decided to keep the entire process in one perspective, and I found a certain way to present it to the camera without losing too much information.
My working process during this project was building up an overall idea of what I wanted to do. I used class time and feedback as a means to iron out the creases and refine specifics. I didn’t experiment as much as liked to have compared to the carrier project since I thought there were only a couple of ways to create a clear video in under 1 minute.
I learned quite a bit about sound, and I also underestimated the importance of sound when it came to understanding the content and process. I didn’t realize how much information sound gave until I was watching Jaden’s video of him making tea. The sounds of the kettle whistling and the water rumbling gave me a lot of information regarding the state of the water even though I couldn’t see the water boiling. I also learned more about how certain actions portray certain ideas. I talked about this in the last paragraph where the speed of the actions being performed and the motions of one’s hands are indicative of how instructive a video seems. Also, depending on the crispness of each movement, a certain air of confidence is given off by the instructor. Clean and crisp movements show that the instructor is well versed in the subject.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BXFFYomshg8C8RQkt06Gf-Zo5uGKanKe/view?usp=sharing
Overall, I enjoyed the entire project because it was an informative learning experience without being too big of a source of stress like the last one. I’m excited to start the next one!
