COMP1710: Laboratory 5: Storyboard and Video

Objectives

The object of this lab is to plan, edit and assemble a video, compress it and include it on a web page. You will also experiment with some advanced features of QuickTime such as presenting multiple QT videos as a playlist and implementing HREF tracks. Finally you will examine an online mash-up service.

Tasks

Task 1: Review & Tips

Make sure you have read all the online lecture notes, and especially, about Images, and about Video.

Important: Be sure to include a list of sources for any external media sources you use (the format could be plain text, or like this sample), with the list of media you used in your lab and the type of modification(s) you have done. Please read the rules about borrowing data in the context of COMP1710 labs and assignment

Task 2: Create a comic strip with Comic life

Download Comic life from here. Use it to create a sequence of still images telling a story. Use effects, speech bubbles and text boxes to deliver your narrative effectively.
Comic Life is a good tool to use to story-board the video for your assignment. A storyboard is sequence of images and accompanying text and directions which represent and explain what your video will contain and how it will be shot.

Task 3: Familiarise yourself with Apple iMovie

Have a look at the Apple iMovie tutorial: http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/tutorial/.

Task 4: Produce a Quicktime video using iMovie

I strongly recommend that when you start iMovie, you create your new Project on the Desktop as it is more efficient to work with data which is not remotely stored. Don't forget to copy the project to your home directory (over the network) before you log off.

There is some stock video footage available on Oracle in the directory COMP / COMP1710 / LAB6. Chose some video from the archive (or use your own). See the *.png snapshots (same name as the .mov file) for each video to get a rough idea of the video, without having to download the video itself).

Open iMovie and drag and drop the Quicktime / DV files you choose.

Import the other media elements, such as still images or additional sound/music (you may chose some images from other labs directories on the Oracle).

Trim the clip to the right length.

Arrange the clips and other elements along a timeline.

Add at least one of each of the following effects to your video:

Experiment with adding audio narration and music tracks into the movie (if you want to, and have some data to use).

Save the completed video in the proper format for the web:

Keep an eye on the size of your movie - you don't want your compressed video to end up bigger than 5MB! And remember you have limited space in your student folder - the full lab size should not be more than 15 MB.

Task 5: Inline the Video

Inline that video into a local HTML page, with a controller, and in such a way that it starts automatically when the page is loaded. Use CSS to add a border to the video.

You may want to try automatically generating the code using the freeware program PAGEot. This should be installed on your Mac (under applications), otherwise try it at: PAGEot. Examine the code it generates and the range of attributes available.

Task 6: Video played in turn: Play list

Quickly create 2 more small videos and put them into the page so that each of the 3 videos is played in turn (at the end of one video, the next one is loaded automatically in the viewer). If you have explored PAGEot, you should have found a section: "Tutor QuickTime: create a play list with PAGEot" (Tip: ignore the "Click on the item Advanced and select Mask, in order to reload films starting from the mask of the navigator" part).

Task 7: HREF track in Quicktime movies

Take the video you created in task 4 and add some HREF tracks to it using QuickTime Pro. The idea is to associate a different link for different sections of the video.

Don't use frame and frameset for this lab. Instead the video will be inlined into a page viewed in a browser window and the linked pages will open in a new window.
Just give any ID type name (without spaces, just alphanumeric characters) to the Target field and the browser should automatically open a new window and name it with the given ID. If you make sure to use always the same ID as the Target, all the pages linked will be opened in the same window.

You may either choose to use the Automatic behaviour (you don't have to click: the pages open automatically) or to let the user click to open a page different for every section of the video. If you chose the second option, you will make sure to add two text tracks: the HREFTrack (mode 'off') and a visible Text Track ('on'), that will give users some clue about when to click and what the user could expect to get.

For more details about how to do this exercise:

Apple tutorial: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/hreftracks.html (link updated in 2006) and: http://web.uvic.ca/akeller/pw408/ht_qt_HREF.html

Task 8: Video mash-up

Register with Searchles or some other similar on-line editing site. Make sure you read the Terms of Use, especially sections 4 (User Conduct) and 7 (Privacy).

Once you receive the confirmation e-mail, go to How do I get started? and follow the instructions:

Create an account or login.
Then open up searchles TV RemashTM and follow these instructions:

  1. Choose or search for videos
  2. Drag videos into the Timeline workspace
  3. Drag clip-marker from left or right to cut to desired length
  4. Name your Remash channel and click save!

That's it!