After looking at the different ways to create an origami butterfly, I decided to choose the simplest and fastest method to teach in a 60 second video. Understanding how to fold an origami butterfly was easy enough since there were many suggestions online that had the same instructions. One of the goals I had in mind was to create an instruction that was different from all of the other videos I had seen from learning this folding technique. How can I make the quality of my video cleaner, easier to understand, and straight to the point? I am quite the impatient person, so having to sit through a 5 minute video to learn how to fold a paper butterfly got me skipping through the video clip online. I believe having a 60 second restriction for this project was good for my patience as well as a good solution to this problem I encountered.
So, to focus on making my video straight to the point, I decided to have a limited amount of thumbnails. I cut away the simple folds that you had to do in the beginning and jumped straight to the key folds.
I only had 8 points to show in my timeline. Out of all my photographs I chose the most important moments to create an origami butterfly. I decided to omit the folds that had to be made for the first thumbnail because it was easy to see how to make the folds from the lines. I decided to use this idea for the video and clipped those parts to make sure my video stays within one minute.
Other changes I made for the video was lighting, color, and background. I wanted my video to be visually appealing and calming to look at. I used a white background and used pink colored paper for my origami. I wanted to have a warm atmosphere in my video so that my hands don’t look discolored as well. I used two external warm toned lights to also compliment the pink colors. I also added a completed butterfly in the corner of my video so that there was a point of reference for the viewer. It was also used for decorative purposes. While I was filming, there was a lot of noise in the studio so I decided to mute the video. If I were to do this again, I would shoot during quite hours so that I can keep the audio of the paper folding. The audio was nice to listen to — almost like an ASMR video. I believe having that element can compliment the warm and calming undertones I have throughout the video.
I received several critiques for my first video from my peers. The biggest suggestion I received was to have better lighting. There were too many shadows in my video that distracted away from the content. I had two different light sources and the shadows created many shapes on the backdrop. Although it created a soft mood to my video, the purpose of this project is to be able to teach a new skill in a clear and efficient manner, and my first draft video was too distracting with its shadows. Another criticism I received was that my video was not bright enough. Some parts are a little unclear and it helps to have clear lighting.
The clipping I made at the beginning of the video was also another problem. I made too quick of an assumption that the viewers would know how to make the first folds. I was concentrating on keeping it within 1 minute that I failed to see that a quick finger pointing gesture could be a simple solution to the problem. For my final video, I plan to show where to make the folds and then jump to the folded part of the process. Another addition I would make to my final video is to zoom into a certain fold that may be hard to tell from an overhead shot. I’d like to mix up my viewpoint by including a clip of the camera zoomed in on a specific fold or section.
I made the improvements from my first draft video and the clips seem to move seamlessly. The one thing I feel that is missing in my video is the audio. My camera did not pick up the sounds I wanted for an ASMR like video, but rather picked up a lot of background noises. It seemed to be a better decision to mute the video than to have bad audio. Other than that, I feel my video serves its purpose in teaching someone how to fold a paper butterfly.
