Something to do with very short fiction
I posted this to my blog a while back but it seems like a good topic to revisit.
I made a little story film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu0L3Hp9JDY
I got the idea from Weird Tales, which is running a series of One Minute Weird Tales told as story films and posted to YouTube. Weird Tales is accepting submissions of very short fiction for this but be warned: they've received many 1000s of submissions to date and only intend on producing one vid a week so the chance of getting your short fiction accepted are very slim indeed.
As our Flash Club is running microfiction contests every other month, one thing you can do with your entry after the contest is make your own little story film. You could either use a plain background (which is what the Weird Tales films do) or use photographs (which is what I did). I used Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus editing software for mine but these films are very simple - just slideshows really - and Microsoft's Movie Editor (which comes pre-installed on most PCs) or any other movie editor would do just as well. You're basically just making a slideshow and adding text and a soundtrack.
It's a bit time consuming - I could have gone on tweaking mine forever but time is precious and all that so a couple of clunky bits will just have to stay clunky. But otherwise it's really very simple - all you need is a very short story, a bit of basic computer literacy, and a few hours. If you use photographs, make sure they're your own or Creative Commons pics or old shots out of copyright. And your soundtrack will have to be copyright free otherwise you'll likely find that YouTube will disable the audio on your film.
Why bother? Well, it won't advance your writing career but taking time out from your WIP to do other creative things can recharge your creative batteries. Plus a little story that might have wasted its life just sitting on your hard drive will instead get a few more readers.
So why not give it a go? And, if you do, be sure to upload it to YouTube and let your fellow Litopians know about it.
Litopia is the winner
Ooh, a new project....
That was brilliant Crowe. I remember seeing it before, so now you've brought the possibilities of it as a project back into my mind
Irene x
Recharging Creative Batteries
I enjoyed your clever story film. Only problem is, now I can't get the tune "Don't go into the woods at night; the woods will give you a terrible fright!" out of my mind.
I agree with you that making forays into uncharted creative territory recharges our batteries and may even help us solve a writing problem where we've run into a brick wall. Something about changing channels for awhile, I think.
Earlier this year, I fooled around with a little Flip Mino video camera and uploaded what I call a "Longleaf 6-Pack" to Vimeo (also posted them on my blog). It's basically just walks in our piney woods with my off-the-cuff ruminations. It was challenging to figure out how to do it, but fun. I was surprised at how well the film and voice (and even bird sounds!) turned out with such a simple machine.
Beth
I remember seeing this, too.
It's very good! I just searched for Microsoft Movie Editor and it doesn't live anywhere in my computer, which is probably a good thing because knowing me I'd spend far too many hours playing with it when I should be writing.
I enjoy photography - although my talent is nothing compared to yours - so maybe I'll find an inexpensive program and do something with my No Turning Back flash story.
Hi David. Thank you for your
Hi David. Thank you for your kind words. Try searching under "Windows Movie Editor" or "Movie Maker" instead - it should be there somewhere if you're running XP or Vista. If not, you can download any of the top 5 free movie editors via this site:
http://www.desktop-video-guide.com/top-5-free-video-editing-software-rev...
Got it! I'm running XP and
Got it! I'm running XP and it's under Movie Maker. Thanks!
Now I'll probably spend the next week or so learning how to use it.
I remember
I remember seeing this video before; it's really neat. I also took a look at the wildly entertaining "How to Photograph a Doberman," and I enjoyed the phrase "the rookiness of rooks" from another video you'd posted. :-)
I don't see MS Video Editor on my new laptop, but it's probably lurking somewhere. Don't know that I'd have the savvy to work it out, though.
Maybe I'll make a very simple
Maybe I'll make a very simple one for the winner of the next microfiction contest.