Advanced Multimedia Storytelling

Individual Multimedia – Coffee & Community

Over the past year, I have realized what I am passionate about and where my skills lie. I love telling stories through the use of video and narrative writing. At the beginning of this semester, I was struggling to figure out what I was going to do for my individual multimedia project. I wanted to produce a project that I was excited to work on and one that I was going to be proud to share.

I decided to focus on something related to Greenville because I felt that went along with the overall brand that I have already created. So, for my individual multimedia project, I create a guide to coffee and community in Greenville. Greenville is a coffee town and there are 17 local coffee shops that families and entrepreneurs have created. With that being said, I wanted to help them tell their stories and get their names out there for the Greenville community and Furman students to support them.

For this project, I decided to hone in on my passion for videography. I chose 4 coffee shops to feature out of the 17 that exist here. Out of the 4, I then chose 2 that I would create short videos for, highlighting what makes their coffee shop unique. For the other 2 features, I used elements of photography and a narrative to fill the gaps.

To make my multimedia project an interactive one, I included elements that is meant to engage the viewer. On the main page of my longform, I created a section called ‘Visit the Shops’ where viewers can click on each coffee shop and it will redirect them to a page where videography, photography, and a short narrative will showcase what the shop is all about! Another engaging aspect of this project that I believe is extremely unique and a niche, is the interactive map that I created of all the coffee shops in Greenville. The map provides the address and a list of all 17 shops.Below you will see both of these elements, and I am sharing these because they are something I am very proud of.

The reason that I chose to create my project with color, interactive elements, interesting photos and videos is because of the idea of ‘The Gaze’ that is taught in Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton. She explains that “our gaze is drawn to points of intrigue” (pg 120). Keeping this in mind helped me to create a visually pleasing website that encourages people to continue exploring and stay engaged. When we create, we should have a goal in mind and part of that goal should be to inspire others. That is what I tried to accomplish here and I believe I was able to do that.

I have already had friends reach out and ask for the link to this multimedia story so that they can find coffee shops in Greenville to do work and spend time with their friends! That is such a rewarding feeling.

Group Multimedia – A Child’s Haven

Amidst the craziness of working on one project, I was also working on a second multimedia project throughout the course of the semester. My partner, Hadley Robbins were given A Child’s Haven as our client in the beginning of this course. The goal of this multimedia project was much different than both of our individual projects. Our video for ACH had the purpose of evoking emotion and a deep feeling for the work A Child’s Haven is doing. We faced many challenges along the way, but were able to create a beautiful video for this amazing client.

For this video, I kept referring back to the chapter on emotion in Design is Storytelling. Lupton persuades the reader when she writes, “Emotions are often what move people to use a product. Products can move users from one emotional state to another” (pg 65). This was a very important part of the book to remember because it helped me create the most emotion evoking video I could.

Those two sentences alone helped me in choosing the kind of music for the background, when to turn the music up versus when to let Shantel’s audio stand as the focus, what b-roll to use and when to use it, the types of textual graphics to use as transitions, etc.

An emotional, textual graphic that Hadley and I used as a transition.

Hadley and I were able to work with ACH’s amazing marketing director, Emily Harper who made the vision for us clear. Below is a post that Emily tagged me in on LinkedIn after she saw our video for the first time.

Overall, I am genuinely so proud of how our video turned out. We were able to capture and create some raw emotion that I know will inspire and truly touch people. Thank you Dr. Kwami for helping me accomplish these two projects and thank you to my classmates who gave me such incredible and honest feedback. Y’all are awesome!

By: Hadley Robbins

Have you ever felt like you’ve hit an inspiration block where you can’t come up with anything creative or exciting to do for a project? Well, that was me at the beginning of the semester. I felt like I had already covered the topics I was passionate about in other projects and wanted to do something new. That’s when it hit me – I haven’t done anything on fashion or feminism yet. After brainstorming and chatting with friends, I decided that for my individual multimedia project, I would combine the two topics to show feminism’s effect on women’s fashion between the 50’s through the 80’s. 

It’s safe to say that this is my favorite project I’ve ever done. I love how all the photos came out portraying the different fashion trends and the studio effect that they have. I also am really pleased with how interactive the page is through the use of visual, textual and audio elements incorporated. If I were to take this project farther, I would have loved to have done a video including interview’s with experts of each era on the impact of feminism on women’s fashion or a scripted voice-over with b-roll showing images of fashion icons of the eras. Adding this element would have driven the story even further by utilizing a tool discussed in “Design Is Storytelling” called multi sensory design. As stated in the text, multi sensory design goes beyond the traditional focus on vision – it entails a whole body experience. Including various elements to your story keeps viewers interested and engaged. Moving forward, it is my goal, for whenever I have any new projects, to find ways to incorporate different design elements to make the story stronger. 

On top of creating an individual multimedia project, I was also tasked with working on a group multimedia project this semester. As mentioned in my earlier blogs, my partner, Alexis Hildenbrandt, and I created a video for a non-profit organization called A Child’s Haven. Alexis and I encountered many roadblocks trying to get this video done, but nevertheless, we did it! We were both really happy with the final outcome of our video. Our main goal for this project was to evoke emotion out of our viewers. To do this, we had to think about “how users will anticipate an experience and how they will remember it moving forward”, as quoted in the same textbook previously mentioned. After finalizing and presenting the project, I feel confident that Alexis and I successfully captured emotion. One thing that I wish we were able to do was to have more than one interview in the video, but given the current state of our world with COVID-19, that was not permissible. 

All in all, despite my apprehensive feelings at the beginning of the semester, I feel proud of the two projects I created and am more confident in my abilities as a content creator. 

As I begin to look back on the multimedia projects that I have created, I have come to realize how much love, sweat and tears I‘ve put into these projects. Remembering how I initially envisioned my group and individual projects to look and how many step backs I had from having to change my initial plan to fit my clients needs to the final product. It was definitely a tiring process however I have learned a decent amount of tips and tricks from my classmates on how to produce a professional video. 

Group Multimedia Project

My group multimedia, also known as the “Football Fan Experience,” was the most difficult project out of my group and individual projects. My partner, Rosemary, and I tended to our client, Ty Obsorn, and his needs to increase fan attendance at the football game and the stigma of the low energy football games. Therefore, we created a very user friendly and minimalistic landing page and a hype video trying to advertise the new tailgate experience that the athletic department began to offer. 

Looking at my group project I have realized how proud I am of the profesionality of not only the landing page but the video. After a lot of suggestions from our client, Ty Obsorne, Rosemary and I began to add more digital transitions and include a variety of shots and nat sounds that really brought the hype environment to life as that was his main concern. One specific example that I loved was the use of the drone shots over the stadium and the fan zone!

 One area where I thought we could improve upon was the stability and quality of certain shots. It was very difficult to follow and keep a steady hand when filming the bouncy house shots and the football hitting shots. If those shots were more steady and stable I believe our fan experience video would have looked more professional. 

Individual Multimedia Project

For my individual project, “Kyra Cox Changes the Face of Golf,” I really wanted my work to reflect my values, passions, and interests. As sports, racial awareness, and inclusivity are three core values and passions of mine I wanted to include those not only to show others what I am passionate about but also open their eyes to the racial injustices within sports media. As a white female who has multiple friends and family of color I know my purpose is to also speak about the racial injustices that still happen even to this day within the sports industry. I chose to make my video more personal by speaking about one female athlete of color, to describe the challenges and responsibility she continues to face as being something other than a white male in a predominately white male sport. Her goal is to make golf more inclusive of not only women but also  minorities. 

When looking at my individual multimedia project I am very proud of the work I have produced not only to tell Kyra’s story but to speak on behalf of other female athletes of color. I am proud that I covered Kyra’s story but at the same time also making it relatable and interesting for other people to relate to as well.  Some specific aspects that I believe brought my video to the next level was the variation on interview shots and b-roll. I also believe how Kyra gave some good motivation and offered her advice to other female girls to end on a positive note was a good, positive concluding segment.  

One area where I thought I could have improved on was getting more nat sounds to enhance the story and b-roll. I only have two areas within my video were I include nat sounds of Kyra driving the ball. I also wish I was able to get video of Kyra interacting with her teammates rather than showing pictures of them all together. I believe videos would have suited the video better as you would be able to truly hear and see them interact with one another instead of a still posed or candid picture. 

Kyra has already started to share my landing page and video to not only enhance my brand but to also enhance her brand as well on her social Media. The book Multimedia Storytelling by Seth Gitner, states that social media is this day and ages main form of networking and content sharing so if you want other people to see something post it on instagram. The feedback from this project from other social media users has included great feedback!

Overall, I am very pleased with my multimedia projects that I have created this semester in Professor Kwami’s Advanced Multimedia Storytelling class and hope others will take this class to fully embrace the variety of options you have as a digital creator.

If I could give two pieces of advice to anyone getting into digital storytelling it would be:

1. To create something you are passionate about because you will not only be more proud of your work but you will feel as though it is a good representation of who you are as a creator. 
2. Keeping your videos within the 3-5 min duration because those videos are easier to share and keep the audience engaged. I learned this tip from the book Multimedia Storytelling by Seth Gitner, Tom Mason, the co-owner of New York City-based Redglass Pictures who specializes in short narrative films, gives that piece of advice for any digital creators.

As I begin to cross into the end zone, I realized how much of a hard run my group project has been. Not only did I have to change running routes but I had to change routes based upon my clients timeline.

fINAL PHASE

I have completed all content production and am in the Final Phase of my Group Multimedia Project, The Paladin Football Fan experience. My partner, Rosemary, and I have finished our fan experience landing page where we included ticketing sales, the football schedule, and the tailgate protocols. We realized the current football landing page was not incorporating good ascetics and user experience. In my Multimedia Storytelling Class we learned about how the UI (Design) and UX (Experience) are very important when creating any kind of digital content. It is appropriate to say you can’t build a website without either element. Although content creators think the website design is more important, the feel of the user experience is just as important as the look of the user interface. We are including the Fan Experience Video at the top of the Football Landing page in order to visually intrigue our intended audience to want to go to the games.

ui (Deisign)

User experience design is concerned with how well a website works: 

• How do users feel about the website? 
• How seamless is the users’ flow throughout the site?
• How easy is it for users to accomplish their goals?

UX (eXPERIENCE)

User interface design is concerned with the aesthetics of the website: 

• Do users find it attractive? 
• Are the interactive elements intuitive?
• Does the design feel natural and provoke a positive response?

What is LEFT?

The only additions/ edits my partner and I need to is an appropriate male voiceover that specifically sounds like a sports commentator to fit the sports vibe. Transitions need to be included in order to not have any jump cuts in between clips. Lastly, we need to make the volume the same throughout the entire video which is one simple task in Premiere Pro, where we are editing our fan Experience Video.

The Plan

My initial goal and vision for this guide to coffee and community in Greenville were to highlight five coffee shops out of the plethora of shops that thrive here. For the five shops that I was going to highlight, I wanted to make short video clips that focus on certain aspects of what our interview revolved around. My interview questions for each coffee shop were:

• Tell me why and how you started this coffee shop.
• What was your initial vision when creating the ideas for the shop?
• Can you think of the most impactful moment you have seen your shop provide? (i.e. communal moments)
• Where did the inspiration for your shop name come from/what does it mean?
• What is your favorite drink on your menu? – would love to film someone making this drink and use it over the interview

My idea was that each coffee shop would have its own short clip, similar to the format and style of a Tik Tok. Using the a-roll from the interview, I planned to shoot b-roll that correlated with the audio clips to make quick, but intriguing videos. I emailed all of the coffee shops I wanted to shoot at and interview, and only two out of the five got back to me. So, I emailed more. Still silence.

A Shift

Media

Because I did not hear back from the shops that I had hoped to, I had to shift my initial vision. Instead of making five short video clips, I now plan on creating less video media and using more of the photography element. I am still deciding on whether I am going to create multiple videos from the coffee shops I have talked to to balance out the videos I am missing from the other shops.

Web design

I am pulling inspiration from the multimedia stories ‘One Block‘ and ‘African Warrior Women‘ on the look for my landing page. These stories have helped me to figure out how to maneuver the photography and video elements with how they are going to look on the website. Because of having these stories to use as inspiration, I have a vision for the style that I want to follow. While ‘One Block’ has the overall look of what I am going for, ‘African Warrior Women’ incorporates a ton of the smaller elements that I am hoping to use. Both of these stories include the 10 principles of good web design which are found in this article by Lillian Xiao. These 10 principles are:

• Seamless Navigation
• Responsive design
• Across the board consistency
• Smooth performance
• Frictionless conversion
• Clear communication
• Effective visual language
• Hierarchical content structure
• Familiar web conventions
• A reliable, transparent interface

When it comes to creating my website, the principle that I always am trying to accomplish the most is ‘across the board consistency.’ I love the aesthetics of web design, and this is where keeping the look consistent plays a role. It is important to keep the reader engaged and not allowing for any confusion. The audience is to be kept in mind while creating any multimedia story, and for mine, the audience is my main focus. The whole point of creating this guide to coffee shops is for others to use, so I have been trying to create what I think others will enjoy. Canva’s article on web design principles made me think about this much deeper when it discussed the section on “Keep the audience in mind.”

This is the aspect I have been working on the most with my landing page.

The Issues I have faced

Creating this multimedia story has taught me a lot already. One of the biggest things that this individual project and my group project have taught me is how to communicate with clients and outside people who are a part of the project. I have struggled to get a hold of coffee shop owners and because I am only a college student, I did not feel like I could be persistent and maybe even annoying with how often I communicate with these owners. I have learned that it is okay to be persistent in order to get something done. After I emailed the coffee shop owners, if I didn’t get a response, I waited weeks to send another email because I was afraid they would get annoyed and back out of helping me. Just the opposite happened, once I pushed a bit more, I got some responses.

This kind of multimedia project is much more than I ever thought it would be in terms of the amount of work that is required for it to come to fruition. Another thing that I have learned through the creating of this project is how to be even more organized when it comes to filming and taking photos. I never planned out my shots before this class. Now, I have a spreadsheet of all the shots I need to shoot before I arrive at the coffee shop.

All in all, there have been complications in trying to complete interviews with coffee shop owners and make time for shooting. All of what I have learned from the process of piecing together this project are skills that I know will take with me into my future career. Communication skills and not selling myself short are crucially important lessons to know going into work post-grad.

By: Hadley Robbins

For many college students like myself, it’s that time in the semester where everything is starting to pick up and move full steam ahead. Needless to say, I’m exhausted BUT it’s the final push and we have to keep going. Working on my individual project all semester means there shouldn’t be much left and luckily, there’s not. So, what’s left to do?

Wrapping Up The Photoshoots

This Sunday I will be shooting my last photoshoot of the project. This shoot will consist of 50’s and 70’s dress. Overall, this has been my favorite part of the project. Being able to see the pre-planning of what people will wear and how they will do their hair and makeup come to life is truly rewarding. From there, I will begin editing the photos and the behind the scenes film footage using different Adobe software’s like I have been with the content from the first shoot. To me, the editing process is relaxing (if and only if, the content comes out well). You can do it anywhere at any time whether you’re sitting outside or have thirty minutes to kill in between a class or meeting. To make this aspect of my project even stronger, after the editing process, I will need to go back in and fine tune everything to make it to ensure a consistent aesthetic.

Putting Words to Screen

Similar to the media sources of my project, I have also been working on the narrative aspect of my project over the course of the semester. My biggest struggle with this has been transitioning my brain away from formal, academic writing to informal, digital writing. If I can offer up any advice on digital writing it would be – ask yourself if you or your friends would read it and if not, make adjustments accordingly. In this final phase of my project, I will continue to tweak and edit my narrative. Since my target audience is women, I want some of my female friends and family members to read it so they can give constructive feedback on how to make it better.

Web Design

Lastly, the long form is where the narrative and media sources will all come together to create my individual multimedia project. I would say this is the part of my project that I most dread and where I have the most work cut out for me. I have decided to redo my personal website to tailor it more to my liking, which means more work, but if that’s what it takes to make my project better and for me to be proud of it, then that’s ok! With that being said, there is a lot that goes into web design. UX, user experience and UI, user interface, are two crucial web design concepts to be aware of. They are pretty self-explanatory but UX focuses on the functionality and UI focuses on the appearance. You can’t have one without the other. Therefore, as I get closer to the final product, it is crucial that my website is both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly in order for it to be great.