Blog Posts About: production

Ideas for Videos - Where Do They Originate?

When people first learn about Common Craft, one of the first questions they ask is where we get ideas for new videos. Our answer usually has three parts.

Member Suggestions

Our best and most reliable source is Common Craft members, who have inspired over one third of the titles in our library. Members have a simple tool for suggesting and voting on video titles. As suggestions are made and bubble to the top of the list, we often choose to work on those videos. And as you might expect, member suggestions frequently become our most popular videos. Some examples:

If you are a Common Craft member, I encourage you to suggest or vote on video titles.

The Zeitgeist

From the earliest days of Common Craft, Sachi and I have discussed what emerging subjects needed explanations. In the early days, social media was new and confusing to most people. We could see this was a problem and explainer videos could help. Our videos on topics like wikis, social media and twitter helped millions of people understand why these new ideas mattered. 

We are constantly on the lookout for subjects "in the zeitgeist", growing in relevance and in need of a clear explanation. Examples of these include:

Filling Gaps

And finally, we choose to create videos that fill gaps in the library. Our videos are organized into seven categories and those categories become guides for choosing new titles. For example, our Net Safety category covers videos related to being aware and safe online. We are always looking for new titles that make the categories more complete.

Of course, we also love hearing suggestions from fans. If you have ideas for videos you'd like to see us produce, contact us or leave a comment below.

Lessons on Visualizing Complex Ideas

A good primer by Ted-Ed on the process of turning a complex idea into visuals that can be used in an animated explainer video.  

Reading in email? Watch the video here. 

While the major points are great, I think it leaves out the creativity and complexity involved in producing the visuals themselves. It's a huge barrier for DIY video creators because it often requires expensive programs and extensive know-how. That's why we're fans (and partners) of GoAnimate, which provides tons of ready-made visuals and simple tools for animating them, including Common Craft Cut-outs. 

NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.

Scenes from a Common Craft Video Shoot

People often wonder what it looks like to make a Common Craft video. So, every once in a while, we take photos as we're making a video. This video shoot is for a forthcoming title that's under wraps, but will come out within a month or two.

To acheive the light we want, we work with four really bright halogen lights. They're so bright that I wear sunglasses when recording - it feels like I get a bit of a tan each shoot. This is Sachi getting things set up.

Prior to shooting, we go through a phase we call "cut and color".  Basically we get all the visuals together, color them and then cut them out.  Most videos have over 100 of pieces of paper.  We try to stay organized by segregating the small pieces from everything else.

Learning to shoot the videos has been a constant experiment over the years. These days we can keep the materials in chronological order if we're careful during the cut and color process.  If it works, we can lay out the paper in little stacks for each scene and then shoot them in order. We're all about finding little efficiencies. And - I never would have guessed that I'd be so proficient with scissors.

A while back, we realized that attaching a monitor to the camera is important for seeing the layout of each scene. This is Sachi's station.

Recently we discovered something that has come be known at "the innovation."  Basically, we learned that we can write on the monitor screen with dry erase markers. This was a revelation. It meant that we could mark the exact position of images to create consistency in the stop-motion process.  When we needed to animate something across the screen, we could draw a line on the screen and follow it. It made our production lives easier.

Lastly I'd say we've changed our shooting schedule. We used to put our heads down and push through a 4-5 hour shoot. These days, we break up the work into 2-3 session over 1-2 days. As a plus, the shorter sessions create a smoother, more consistent tan. Seriously though, it's so much more manageable and made us ask why would we do it the other way?  At the end of the day, that's what doing something new is all about - always solving new problems.