My First MindBite: 10 Things I Learned

by Huntley in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing / 09.09.08

As a member of the MindBites team, it’s more than a little bit sad that six weeks passed between me starting my new gig here and me actually absconding with one of our video cameras to try out this whole “make a mindbite” thing. Nonetheless, I crossed that mountain a few weekends ago and am very proud of my inaugural film debut: How to Applique a Onesie Using Felt.

I’m not a particularly crafty person by nature, but my middle (and much craftier) sister and I concocted this project some time back when our oldest sister was expecting. I did a bunch of doodling and then we turned my better doodles into some swell felt applique onesies. They were so adorable and such a hit with everyone that the onesie project soon took on a life of its own. We’ve since hosted more than one baby shower where we used this as the activity (well, sans sewing, which we did for folks since sewing doesn’t lend itself well to large group activities). Anyhow, as a baby shower activity, these were also a tremendous success (and way better than the countless other baby shower games I’ve been subjected to… yuck)

Anyhow, I’m meaning to write about the experience, so here are my takeaways:

1. Filming is exhausting, but planning out the order of and practicing what I’d say made the process much easier. I cannot over-state how important it was to outline the steps to the process and what I wanted to say about them before I started.

2. I had a wholly irrational fear of editing, the inevitable next step after filming… Having a wary eye towards this process in filming definitely made for a pretty easy edit. The shots were already ordered and required just a few transitions and graphics to put together a fully presentable final product.

3. Vista got me again! We filmed on a flip camera, which meant we didn’t have to suffer through any capture process. Instead, we just had to plug the camera directly into the computer to transfer the files that were already in a usable AVI format for editing and putting the final product together. Unfortunately, my fancy Vista PC pretty much threw up all over my AVI files and imported them as audio-only over and over again. Apparently, I’m not the only one that’s had this problem, and I was able to easily find a site online to download some update to my “codec.” (I feel like I’m trying to speak a foreign language that I don’t know when I try to “talk technology”….or film). Anyhow, once downloaded, everything worked miraculously - phew!

4. If possible, don’t put everything away before you start editing. I didn’t end up re-shooting anything, but I definitely used my camera to get some stills of materials, etc after the fact. The downside of my easy camera selection was that the zoom left a little bit to be desired. Hence, in a few places, I used what I’d filmed as the audio track and used still photos as the visual track in lieu of what I’d actually recorded. While I know this actually isn’t particularly innovative, it still made me feel ridiculously proud.

5. My friends and family are suckers. They’re already hassling me about uploading the video so they can purchase it. Some of them are actually planning baby showers and exploring this as an activity option, but I think mostly they’re just eager to see me looking dorky on camera. :)

6. Having both a tripod and a person there to film helps - Alex and I actually both made mindbites at the same time. She filmed me for mine first and then I filmed hers for her afterwards… It worked really well for the both of us!

7. Dogs, while cute, do have jingly collars and sometimes bark unexpectedly at inopportune times. I love them anyways, though. Course, I do sometimes long for the days before my munchkin figured out how to cleverly open the back door and let herself into the house. Anyhow, once they settled in (and were stripped of their jingly collars), most of the problems were quelled.

8. Lights are hot - turn down the AC in advance to anticipate b/c they’ll heat things up quickly (and you’ll likely want the AC noises off during your shoot).

9. Be narrow - even with a project that’s as focused as mine, adding any extensions really makes the time add up. People definitely prefer for you to go deep versus going broad. Also, try not cover much that’s readily available elsewhere or is mostly intuitive.

10. The biggest hurdle is just getting started. Once I sat down to start planning, it all flowed pretty well. I’m much less hesitant to make additional videos now…

If you want to try your hand at making a MindBite, here are a few links to get you started:

Make Your Own How-To Video

Learn Video Production Tips