What did I learn in the Course «Video and Multimedia on the web» in my first semester of the master «Content Strategy» in Graz? Well, there were lot of useful things I can take back to my job:

  • Developing the right product message: it was great to learn how to develop a statement message for a product by creating a «Killer argument». Based on a «Boss-statement» (something like: Snickers consists of chocolate with peanuts and after eating you feel really good) you start to develop the «Reason» why people should buy your product. An example for a reason would be: “You loose your good mood when you are hungry”. Then you take it a step further and develop the “killer argument”, something that attacks your product in a surprising way. In the case of Snickers: You are not yourself when you are hungry. Ingenious – wish I had been part of that team.
  • Budgeting: I learned that budgets for professional videos have to be thoroughly calculated, including all material and the daily rate of professionals, as well as pre- and post-production. Good videos cost don’t come cheap.
  • Animated storyboards: as a newbie to the topic, I was surprised by the fact that an animated storyboard can already be created by simply using three different camera shots.

From Theory to Practice

A very useful part of this course was the “day of practice”. We created 360° pictures, Cinemagrams, Stopmotion Stories and a vertigo film. As you can see below, this really motivated me to keep on trying long after the day had finished. In my first 360° video I will explain to you how we created our first vertigo.

One note in advance: My next tiral session will be outdoors, where there is more light (and no backlight). And I really do hope that the next generation of cameras will not create such blurred recordings. However, I think this is the real additional benefit of this course: every time you start to put theory into practice, you keep learning new things. And this will definitely help me in my job as an online-communication specialist for Pro Natura, the Swiss NGO I currently work for.

If you cannot watch the video due to technical reasons, please try to watch it on youtube:

Link to Youtube «Howto create a Vertigo Effect – a 360° Video Explanation»

The Final Vertigo

Franziska Kissling

Selected Links for Further Information

Wikipedia Article about Camera Shots

Youtube Tutorial How NOT to shoot in 360

Description of the Course «Video and Multmedia on the Web»