The Making of a Short Video: Making Coffee
Using FilmicPro video app on iPhone 7 Plus with help from MeFoto BackPacker Air tripod.
This is my second short video for the new Video Stories series on my YouTube channel. I did this one (1:41 minutes) for two reasons: to document a simple, everyday routine and to practice creating a video with lots of cuts to close-ups of what you see happening in the wide shot. I succeeded with my first objective and definitely with my second as well! I shot all the footage using FilmicPro on my iPhone 7 Plus with the iPhone mounted on the MeFoto Backpacker Air.
The exercise of shooting the many clips that make up this simple video was both instructive and fun. It was eye-opening for me to see how you have to pay attention to the smallest things when shooting such a video. For example, I shot the whole process - well, almost the whole process - from a wide angle and then shot the close-ups of the various steps I go through to brew a simple cup of coffee. And there is where the problems started!
I shot myself getting a coffee pod. I looked at the recording and it looked okay. I reviewed my wide shot clip again, which would serve as the thread for the whole video, to see what other close-ups I needed. When I watched myself getting a pod in that main clip I noticed that I had picked it up with my right hand. However, in the short close-up clip, I had used my left hand! Take 2! After seeing that mistake, I rewatched every action in the main clip for which I wanted a close-up clip! Even short videos - wait, perhaps, especially, short videos - require attention to all details.
I realized I needed a clip of getting the cream from the refrigerator after I had everything laid out. So, back to the kitchen for some more shooting. As mentioned, I shot all the footage on my iPhone 7 Plus. I used my SanDisk iXpand flash drive to copy the eleven clips I had to my iPad so I could use the LumaFusion video editing app from Luma Touch. I have the app on my iPhone but I've never used it since I'm so comfortable editing with this app on the iPad. I'll try a complete iPhone approach in a future Video Story, though.
When I was happy with the edit of my clips into a storytelling video, I chose a royalty-free piece from the royalty-free music included with LumaFusion and added it to my timeline. I made my intro screen for the video and added some closing credit screens. I then showed my 'masterpiece' to my wife. She watched intently, but close to the end she said, "Oops, that's not good!" "What? What's not good?" I quickly asked. And this is another lesson I learned: ask someone for a critical look at your video! What Mary Ann reacted to was where the video showed me putting the finished coffee on the counter and stirring it. However, what caught her eye was that I never showed the cup! What did I say about "attention to detail?" Wow! I missed that one. Back to the kitchen! Take 3!
Of course, she was absolutely correct. Adding that close-up was important to the flow. And she also felt there was too much cabinet in the shot of my getting ready and then drinking my first sip (see, I did actually make a cup of coffee!) of the brewed coffee. That, too, was spot on. I had never cropped a piece of footage in LumaFusion so I wasn't sure how to do it. Eventually, though, I kind of figured it out, but in the process of some false starts I'm afraid I made that part of the footage a tiny bit jumpy. However, zooming in more on my head did eliminate a lot of cabinet that had been dominating the clip.
Well, film #2 is now in the can as they used to say. I've embedded the finished video below and ask you to have a watch then give me some feedback on YouTube, Facebook, Google+, or via a comment posted to my Contact page. The process of creating short videos is fun yet challenging. Check out the planning piece I made up for this video that was only 1 minute and 41 seconds long (only 88 seconds of actual content footage!):
BVS-003 Making Coffee
The Story: The steps I take to make our morning coffee.
Shots:
- Wide shot of kitchen with ambient noise
- Close-in of getting fresh water
- Close-in of getting cup
- Close-in of getting coffee pod
- Close-in of placing pod in Keurig
- Close-in of putting in sugar
- Medium of getting and returning cream from/to refrigerator
- Close-in of pouring sugar
- Close-in of pouring cream
- Close-in of my face
- Close-in of starting the coffee and its brewing into cup
- Close-in of stirring the freshly brewed coffee
- Medium close of taking first sip
If this sort of thing is of interest to you and you are on Facebook, consider joining the "Making Digital Videos" group on Facebook and post your questions and video accomplishments for the growing number of members!
