09

Reverse Engineer a Social Video

Reverse Engineer Post: A Social Video

Instructions: For a reverse engineer post you will go out and find examples of good design. Each REP assignment has a specific type of design your are looking to critique. The post should go into detail to explain the principles of design used. Sketching over top the design will help the user understand the points your are illustrating and are expected.
For this reverse engineer post find a video on social media and talk about the design.

content_designed_discussion Content Designed Blog Post. Make sure to post this to the content designed blog, choose relevant categories and tags. Watch this video for instructions.

First due date

Initial Post

Use Tag: d09s16

For the first due date write a post and publish it on the Content Designed Blog. Try and answer the following:

  1. What are the video’s strengths?
  2. What are the video’s weaknesses?
  3. What is the video trying to accomplish with its design?
  4. How has the design used: Composition, Fundamentals, Contrast, Lines, Layout, Golden Section, Rule of Thirds, Not Half, Swiss Grid or Custom Grids?
  5. What metrics (likes, shares, re-tweets, etc.) will be used to determine if the video is successful?

Post your article to the coinciding Facebook post.

Second due date

Replies

Step 1: Respond to your class mates Facebook posts and leave a comment to at least three classmates posts which adds value. Questions which could be answered:

  • Do you agree or disagree? Suggest a source or site that supports your position.
  • Did they leave something out? Explain what was missing.

Step 2: Put together a multi-page PDF and submit it on ILearn.

What to Submit on iLearn

After you have made comments, you will collect screenshots and create a PDF to be submitted on ILearn with the following:

  1. Your First and Last Name
  2. Professor’s Name
  3. Section Number
  4. A screen shot of your original blog post
  5. A screen shot (from Facebook) of each of the three comments (expanded view) on a classmates post

Article Promotion Project Description

Background

Much of what drives traffic and revenue online is the proper promotion of engaging content. The best article that no one knows about doesn't do anyone any good. Conversely, a really solid promotion plan that drives a ton of traffic to garbage content is clickbait and isn't sustainable. The best situation is to create engaging content and a solid promotion plan that drives traffic to that content. In this unit, you will be writing an article and creating visuals to accompany that article.

Remember! A successful campaign uses multiple tweets or posts to promote an article. One tweet or post is not sufficient.

Project Components

Article

The article should be written with a specific message and with an audience in mind. The article should use best practices for online writing including the subject, formatting and length. While there is no specific length for this assignment, it should have enough value to satisfy the reader.

Visuals

The visuals that accompany the article will serve two purposes. First, they will be used in the promotion of the article on social media channels. Second, they will be used in the article to help guide the reader and reinforce or expand the concepts in the article. Due to the different sizes and displaying options of different channels, the visuals may need to be redesigned or reformatted for different channels. The visuals can take any form including, but not limited to, photography, photo manipulation, illustration, design, video, motion graphic, etc or any combination of those.

While there is not a specific number required, when you create more visuals you have more opportunities to promote your content. Remember that this is a Social Media Design course and the visuals will carry significant weight in the grading of this project.

Word lists:

A wordlist is a brainstorming activity to help you create scroll stopping images. Scroll stopping images are needed in today's current seascape to stand out amoungst the floods of content. To create a word list you will:

  1. Identify 3-5 themes, ideas or concepts from the article.
  2. Write them on top of the page.
  3. Under each one, make a list of words or phrases (should be extensive)
  4. Combine a word from 2 or more lists and see what ideas you come up with to visually represent the combination of those words

A good wordlist should help you combine/create visuals in a new way to encourage your audience to stop themselves from scrolling on social media and check out your content.

Project - Evaluation Week

First due date 

Upload a PDF in I-Learn document that Includes the following:

  1. First and Last Name
  2. Section, semester and professor
  3. Screenshots of implemented social media promotion (at least 3 channels)
  4. Evaluation of the metrics (NEW)
  5. Short write up of what went well and what could be improved upon (NEW)

Name it firstname_lastname_article_promotion_final.pdf

#1-5 are due by the FIRST due date of the Evaluation Week as a PDF in I-learn 

Native Video Project Description

Background

In this unit, you will create a branded video utilizing the brand voice created during the brand identity project. One of the most important strategies in content marketing today is video. The platforms of distribution for video content online have continued to shift. Facebook is getting more daily minutes watched than YouTube, Snapchat's daily views are now in the billions, and video on Twitter has taken listening and one to one branding to a whole new level.

The video you create should sell your brand. The video may be entertaining, educational or emotional. It should not feel like a hard sell. Social advertising generally feels like normal content, with just a hint of a brand attachment. Like we have learned this semester, it comes down to the content of your video. Also remember, native videos are first viewed without sound and therefore should use subtitles.

A video is not a slide show of photos. The project needs to be moving images, and not just photos with a kens burn effect.

(Transcript of Native Video Project Overview Video)

Project Components

Script

Any video is better when it has a little bit of a story behind it, and what’s the best way of creating a little story? You got it – by writing it down. Writing a script will also make your video more organized. You get into that planning mood where you are 100% thinking about what is the purpose of the video. You get to sit down and think about what is the message that you want to communicate and what is the outcome you expect to get.

The first thing you want to do is to break the video script into different sections or chapters if you will. Any video script should contain at least these 3 sections:

  1. The Hook
  2. The Body
  3. The Call To Action

Story Board

A storyboard is a piece of paper with boxes drawn on it that show how every shot in a marketing video will be visually represented. Shots can be quite elaborate creations or simply rough sketches. The purpose is to outline each shot to see how to help the director, the camera person, and the editor put the video together. Sometimes, the storyboarding process is used to flesh out the concept into more tangible action shots before scripting. Sometimes storyboarding comes first, and sometimes scripting comes first. The storyboarding process may be easier for you to complete if you think more visually than just words on a page.

Do not skip this step or shortchange it. Storyboarding will save you time when it comes time to filming.

Shot List

A good shot list maximizes shooting time and limits downtime across all departments. In this post, we lay out the essentials of a shot list, and provide the only film & photography shot list template you’ll ever need, free.

A shot list is a full list of all the shots that are part of your film, with minute information for each of them. Creative shot choices aside, it’s easy to forget that a shot list is a strategic document. Creating a shot list is essentially like creating a shooting gameplan for the day.

Music

Music needs to be added to the native video. Music can greatly enhance a video by evoking impactful emotions. Illegally obtained music is the quickest way to get your videos removed from social media. This means you need to use music where copyright license has been obtained. You can do this by using music from stock sites, using sites which provide music with the proper licensing or by contacting the artist.

Things to look for when shooting

Post Production Help

Project - Draft Week: Identify & Plan

First due date 

Develop the following and post to our Facebook group:

    1. IPPIE Plan – (the first two sections of the IPPIE Process) (NEW)
    2. Script – if you choose not to use a formal script write about how you will convey the story without dialog. A hint, videos without dialog are harder to execute well. (NEW)

facebook_discussion#1 & 2 are due by the FIRST due date as your initial post on the course Facebook group
Second due date

Step 1: Respond to your class mates Facebook posts and leave a comment to at least three classmates posts which adds value. Give quality feedback, not just “great stuff” or “this is amazing.” Your feedback should be a critique on the items produced and not on the individual.

Step 2: Put together a multi-page PDF and submit it on ILearn.

What to Submit on iLearn

After you have made comments, you will collect screenshots and create a PDF to be submitted on ILearn with all of the following:

    1. First and Last Name
    2. Section, semester and professor
    3. IPPIE Plan – screen shot of your expanded Facebook post comment
    4. Script – screen shot of your expanded Facebook post comment
    5. Storyboard (NEW)
    6. Shotlist (NEW)

Name it firstname_lastname_week09.pdf

#1-6 are due by the SECOND due date in I-learn as a PDF