Creating Stop Motion Videos with Powerpoint
The Bollywood Bounce is a Stop Motion Choreography video produced using 30 dance move photos from the Maharaja Palcace in Mysore India, which were then imported into Powerpoint and used to create a stop motion choreography sequence to the song Paper Planes by M.I.A.
The Making of The Bollywood Bounce
1. My photographer shot 30 photos of poses at the palace. We tried to vary the photos by being polar opposites. Like if one photo I stretched right, the other one I would stretch left.
2. I imported all of these photos, and then loaded the song Paper Planes into Camtasia for Mac.
3. I took key parts of the song and broke them down into 8-16 beat measures, then sequenced 4 or so photos in Powerpoint, to repeat in a pattern that matched the lyrics.
4. Using 86 BPM for the song (which I found by googling it), I set up each slide in Powerpoint to advance for either 0.35 seconds (for 8th notes) or 0.69 seconds (for longer quarter notes or pauses).
5. After exporting the movie from Powerpoint and syncing it to the song in Camtasia, I then copied and pasted it in other similar song segments.
6. I repeated this process over and over until the song was complete, and for reference, I did delete a whole verse and chorus from this version of the track so that the video would be more concise and easy to watch.
Below is an example of how I used Powerpoint to sequence 8 beats of the song “The Bollywood Bounce”, a stop motion animation video filmed at the Maharaja Palace in Mysore India, just outside of Bangalore, during the Bangalore Boon.
Stocking is the New Planking
Step 1: Find a stock photo on iStockPhoto.com.
Step 2: Make your own version of that photo and post it to StockingIsTheNewPlanking.com
Follow that simple two-step process and you’ve joined the latest participatory photo meme: Stocking.
Here’s an example that I thought was particularly funny from the site.
Meme-tracking is one of my favorite past times. I love seeing what the collective global consciousness can produce, and am always amazed when people willingly spend their precious time to submit user-generated content in the spirit of crowdsourced entertainment. Think of the effort marketers put in to trying to get people to do things like upload a photo of themselves with a product, or submit a comment. And then think about how all it takes for the guy above to upload his photo is a simple concept and social proof that other people are doing it.
Some co-workers and I were rattling off all the crazy photo memes that have come and gone recently: planking, owling, horse maning, leisure dives… and thankfully there’s a good post here with pictures and descriptions of all these photo memes and more.
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Is SpidVid the future of video production?
What would you do if you had a really great idea?
I’ve got this fantastic idea for an entertaining video series – 3 minute video pitches for social media start-ups, presented as auto-tuned music videos, featuring exclusively spoken clips and images of Betty White and The Old Spice Guy. Social Media + Auto-Tune + The Most Viral Couple Possible? A sure recipe for a viral video hit.
And I’ll think about how many views that video will get and how Mashable and TechCrunch will just be all over it. While going on with my daily life, content that even though I could probably write the words to a few pitches, there’s no way I could record killer music videos and audio tracks, and certainly not do all the work to find the right clips of Betty and Isaiah and mash it all together.
Thanks to SpidVid, a collaborative video production platform and community, the rest of the people in the world that like the idea and have the talent to lend a hand, can now get involved from wherever they are, for a stake in the project, by participating in video ideas and posting their own to the world.
I found out about SpidVid when some video producer friends shared an interview they’d done with Jeremy Campbell, Founder of SpidVid.com and parent company Socially Collaborative Media. And even though Jeremy is used to being the one doing the interview, I caught up with him to share his vision for the start-up, and the video production model.
Give me the elevator pitch for Spidvid.
Spidvid is where individuals go to connect, collaborate, and create video entertainment together.
What’s your business model?
In the short term sharing ad revenues with the production teams who release video content through our Spidvid platform, and long term we have some big opportunities to tap into that involves deeper partnerships with our community members.
Tell me the story of Spidvid in five years, and how you’ll get there.
In five years I see Spidvid powering the web’s open and collaborative video production ecosystem. Our path to this BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) is to provide the platform and support our community needs to create video entertainment that they wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to do. We also have to educate our community that the traditional video production process is evolving with new collaborative tools widely accessible to anyone who want to leverage them for their projects.
What’s the key to successful collaboration in the creative process?
I would say alignment. Individuals have to share a common project goal or passion, be on the same page throughout the project’s work flow, and each individual has to know what value they need to deliver to make the project an overall success. Also, at least one person has to sell the project’s vision, and get others to believe in it enough to buy in and be part of their team.
What’s your all time favorite viral video?
Hard to say since I’ve seen so many remarkable videos over the past few years that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would likely have to give the honor to one of OK Go’s music videos. Perhaps “This Too Shall Pass”. Their team has an incredible music video imagination, and it’s bringing them new fans and followers that they wouldn’t have otherwise attracted.
What entrepreneurs do you admire?
I admire entrepreneurs that work hard, are driven to succeed, have strong leadership skills, are creative, think big, and live their passion through their companies. Some entrepreneurs who fit that description are Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and I have a lot of respect for the world’s youngest billionaire ever Mark Zuckerberg. I think that Mark is the entrepreneur’s new poster boy, and he’s going to spawn a whole new crop of company visionaries.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
The passion of innovating the video production model through a new media connection framework, and seeing video entertainment created using Spidvid’s platform that otherwise wouldn’t exist in the world. I also see all of these creators on YouTube who now create “user generated content” and believe that in time a decent percentage of them will realize that if they reach out and connect to other talent they will be able to increase the entertainment and production value of their content. There’s a new wave of video creators coming up now, and Spidvid’s platform and community will be there for them when they’re ready to take their content to the next level.
The “What is SpidVid” Video
What is Spidvid? from Spidvid on Vimeo.
The “This Too Shall Pass” Music Video
Read MoreSeth Godin and the future of books
The future of books and reading are top of mind for me since Seth Godin, best-selling author of a dozen must-own books for marketers, sent a powerful message to the publishing industry with this announcement:
“I’ve decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way. 12 for 12 and I’m done. I like the people, but I can’t abide the long wait, the filters, the big push at launch, the nudging to get people to go to a store they don’t usually visit to buy something they don’t usually buy, to get them to pay for an idea in a form that’s hard to spread … I really don’t think the process is worth the effort that it now takes to make it work. I can reach 10 or 50 times as many people electronically. No, it’s not ‘better’, but it’s different. So while I’m not sure what format my writing will take, I’m not planning on it being the 1907 version of hardcover publishing any longer.” Read the MediaBistro article here.
I’m not reading this as “hardcopy books are dead” as much as “the system sucks, I’m going to find a better way.” And this leaves me to reflect on some of the trends in the book publishing industry that are paving Seth’s way.
Kindles and iPads and such
It’s no ephiphany that reading is headed the way of the e-reader or tablet. Amazon’s sold a billion dollars worth of stuff through mobile devices, a lot of it books on the Kindle or through the Kindle.app.
What surprises me about this market is one of the ways digital reading offerings are being positioned. I recently worked on a creative campaign for Zinio, a digital newsstand for interactive magazines and books with their own iPad app, and one of their selling points is the 60,000 issues of magazines available. The Nook ad hanging on the entrance to B&N touts over 1,000,000 titles. Same goes for Amazon and everyone else, “We’ve got x number of things you can read, isn’t that mind blowing?”.
To me it seems counterintuitive to where everything else digital is headed – curation, personalization and customization – to avoid massive information overload. Sure, I want to know that if I invest in a digital reader, I can find whatever I want. I get that. But never will 1,000,000 books be of any more value to me as a reader than the couple thousand books that I’m going to read in my lifetime.
In my opinion, the future of the digital reading experience is all about personalization. A smart reading list, delivered to me chapter by chapter from different books, based on my cultural and social needs for entertainment, education and professional development.
If you’re fascinated in where the digital reading experience is headed like me, or you have a long list of gripes about the form and function of e-readers, I recommend this incedible essay “Embracing the Digital Book” on the future of e-readers by Craig Mod.
There is No Book
So what about the word “book”? I hadn’t thought about the nomenclature until I came across Bob Stein and the if:book project by the Institute of the Future of the Book.
In this article, Bob imagines a future where “app” is the most likely term to replace “book”. Who knows what will happen here, I mean we’re still saying things like album and record despite the complete overhaul of the music industry. I personally think “book” has resiliance in spite of the medium. On a side note, I think “TV” is here to stay also, no matter what device we watch it on.
The most compelling quote from Bob Stein’s article I thought was this:
“The distinction between media types was a lot more important during the analog era of the mid-twentieth cenury. In 1950 no one would confuse a novel with a movie or a song with a TV show. But today we have e-books with video sequences, and movies published with extensive text-based supplements. Is Lady Gaga a music star or video star?”
Is he envisioning a future where everything is sensory-rich and our need to categorize media dwindles? Will there no longer be audio-only, text-only, image-only art and entertainment?
Fundraising for Books with Kickstartup
The dusty economics of 20th-century publishing have no doubt accelerated the massive shift in how books go to market. Just like movies and music, the hyper-connected entertainment landscape allows individuals with a good idea to find success without a corporate backer. Case in point is another great essay by Craig Mod on how he raised capital for a book project through Kickstartup.
Through the innovative micro-funding startup, Craig and his partner raised $24,000 to produce and distribute a new edition of their book thanks to the wonders of the internet. Not alone by any means, Writer 2.0 editor Pagan Kennedy documents similar success with the crowdfunding for publishing model here.
Book Promotions through Crowdsourcing
My final consideration for this post is the promotions aspects of books in the new millenium. What better case than a crowdsourcing campaign for a book about the transformation of the publishing and printed media industry, Richard Hine’s Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch.
The fiction-based-on-real-life novel (like a Devil Wears Prada for the print industry) authored by a veteran of the print world and published by Amazon Encore is sourcing video trailers, digital print ads and online banners by leveraging the power of social media to engage potential audience members in the creative marketing process. Below is the video brief for the Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch campaign on Zooppa (disclosure, I work with Zooppa).
I imagine a future where this kind of reader interaction in the marketing process and funding process (as noted above) extends into the entire creative and publishing model in ways difficult to imagine today.
Read MorefrogMob crowdsources solutions to the world’s smallest problems
NYC-based Frog Design is bringing open innovation from around the world to you.
Why should you care? Well, you know those little problems that we all deal with day in day out? I’m talking little, like, how do I manage the power cables coming from my desk, or how can I get my groceries on my bike. They’re not game-changing problems on an individual level, but when you consider the ubiquity of these scenarios, clever solutions make a small impact across an enormous pool. Think about all the a-ha moments you’ve had when someone showed you a nifty trick for dealing with a nuisance, like opening a beer bottle with a water bottle. Or inversely, the pleasure you derive from teaching someone your nifty trick.
Well that’s what frogMob is all about. Not to downplay the impact on industrial and consumer product design that this effort may have in the long run, because they could invent the next great thing from this crowdsourced research experiment, or alas, you could just find a really killer way to organize your stuff.
I came across this frogMob article thanks to Jackie Rangel of PSFK, who cites this Fast Company Design article on frogMob by Cliff Kuang as her inspiring source…
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