HOW TO TELL A STORY WTH MOVING IMAGES

One rule I live by in moviemaking is the need for motion. There must be movement in the frame. If there is no movement it had just as well be print media!

With fiction stories there are usually actors to be directed creating movement of some kind. But in nonfiction stories sometimes known as documentaries there are normally no actors to direct. I usually make documentaries about past events. And moving images are used to illustrate a narrative.

Recently, I produced a video entitled "Skymaster Down". This was a story about an ill fated flight  of a marijauna smuggler's  aircraft   in 1979. I had a particular interest in this event which occurred near where I was born and grew up and there was an air of mystery about the crash. 

When writing a story whether a video script or blog post the first thing that must be done is research. Fortunately, I’m one of those people who enjoys digging up facts. And I have the insatiable curiosity of a ten-year-old boy. Where to start the search for information  is the most immediate question to answer.

In  my case I started with the date of the crash. Once I found the exact date of the crash I could look at local newspaper accounts. A person in the research section of a public library near the crash site was most helpful.  Not only did he find the newspaper articles I was looking for but remembered the event and had visited the crash site. He was able to point out discrepancies between the newspaper photograph and what he actually saw. While in the area I visited the crash site. Needless to say, it was hardly recognizable after some thirty years of reclamation by mother nature.  But I did shoot some onsite footage for the video.

After speaking to a relative about my project, he told me that a distant cousin had been duck hunting in the area of the crash when it occurred. Needless to say, I interviewed him via telephone. A few people were reluctant to talk about the crash and there was considerable speculation about local involvement with the smugglers. After gleaning all the information I could find about the crash, I turned my attention to the aircraft.The internet was an invaluable asset for determining aircraft specifications. Things such as range, speed, cargo hauling ability and crew requirements helped me better understand what had caused the crash. I was also able to speak with an Air force veteran who had actually piloted such aircraft. The reports of the National Transportation Safety Board were helpful in providing data about the crash site and the registry of the Federal Aviation Administration provided the history of the aircraft. Court records of lawsuits of the plane's owners provided even more details. 

Once I had all the information organized I set about writing the script. I would record the story and use photos, video, and whatever necessary to illustrate the story. The normal speaking rate of a newscaster is 145 words per minute.  My 1,000 word script would take about  about seven minutes to record. With pauses in speaking it would be a bit longer.

The only bid of live video I had was that of me near the crash site. For the balance of the video I would be doing a voice over. The only additional video I had was some stock footage of a similar aircraft in flight and a police car with lights flashing and siren blasting. The images seen with a narrator speaking off camera are called “B-roll”. I had less than a minute of video. My problem was how to tell an interesting story with very little video. 

I created a couple of animations. One of the plane’s crashing and another of the plane’s flight path from South America to South Carolina. A replica of the Columbian newspaper and a key fob were created as props. These props were used in reenactments. However, the majority of the B-roll was video of my cutting newspaper articles from the local paper and pasting them in a scrapbook. The articles being cut from the newspapers coincided with the narration.

The method worked fairly well and the video has nearly two thousand views.The methods of storytelling in video are varied and in many ways dictated by the subject and the creative choice of the producer..