Writing Large Differently

Writing Large Differently

I’ve just finished a major writing project. A kind of writing that I’d never done before: I created a script for a DVD. This was a part of a larger project I served as Director.

As an active member of my community, I’d seen several proposals for promotional DVD’s or video programs be proposed over the years. A hand would then be extended for a substantial advance payment, “for expenses”, some “busy activity”, and no final result. No hold-in-your-hand product that actually did anything to promote the community, or the larger area.

Times change. The technology for production of such material is more available today than ever. More and more people are learning through the use of their own home computers and available software how to go about assembling a combination of still pictures, video, and sound tracks.

I have had a very small amount of experience with producing such a project, just enough to be intrigued with the concept and the process. I happen to know a retired teckie junkie that is more of an expert than I’ll ever become. Freak is much too unkind a word. His working career was working with computers. He loves the digital machines, and what they can do. His personal history also includes extensive scuba diving and underwater photography that morphed into video and video productions for public TV. The last few years he has been creating DVD’s for that purpose. The point of all this is that he is knowledgeable, and highly skilled in this particular arena.

I approached my friend with a concept: to create a DVD promoting our community and area. I would go out and find financial support for the project and do most of the grunt work. He would do the technical audio visual “stuff” in his personal studio. After some negotiating and establishing limits, parameters, responsibilities, and deciding on a basic concept framework for the project, we decided we had a “go”.

The concept was to work out a DVD video tour of the community and area. I needed to do historical research, and begin to rough out a script. I had to start the long process of collecting photographs to match the script, seek out other photographers that would contribute their work, with attributions, and be prepared to deal with legal releases for use of personal photographs wherein the person could be identified. I also had to work through the expected sets of script revisions.

Research was the key. You will find when you do a similar kind of project that you have entered into a Herculean task. There is a tremendous history to any location. My area happens to have a history 2,000 years deep. There is no option, you must deal with the past, the present, and the future.

You must also sort, and delete, and make decisions of what to keep and what to discard. You must do the same with both pictures and words. What is essential, what is necessary, and what is to be filed circularly?

As our collection of stills began to grow, my techie friend produced a rough initial version of the proposed DVD, basically a “stacking”, a sequence of photos that would roughly follow the plan we had originally chosen. At the same time I came up with Version A of the narrative script. We then sat down to cross compare our current results. Remember a writer in this atmosphere is a collaborative worker. We quickly knew that we had a long way to go.

We needed a lot more photos, but we could also identify and list what we thought had to be acquired. We set responsibilities for acquiring them.

We went out on separate personal drives, searching out places and things, most commonly going to places with which we were familiar, and taking a lot of digital photographs. Lighting in such a project is critical. I can authoritatively inform you that the rolling in of a cool fog may be romantic, and a great way to create a written story atmosphere, but with a camera in your hand, fog is a giant pain in the derriere. Equally photographically painful is the glaring light of midday and early afternoon.

Once taken, photos had to be loaded into computers, studied, carefully selected for use, and placed, located, within the script. At all times the missing pictures list had to be kept up to date. Unless you have unlimited funds for gasoline and travel, it is much easier to take advantage of needed and incidental travel to acquire missing pictures. This was particularly important in our remote location. In 2006, where we live, regular gasoline hit a high of $3.87.9 per gallon at one point. I vividly remember the gulp around the knot in my throat that I experienced when it took $224 for a single fill up of my truck.

Revisions of the Script continued. Versions B, C, D, and E came and departed. A second version of the DVD was created with titles, headers, credits, and background music. We sensed that we were getting closer. We began a timing of oral readings of the script, and tried to begin matching words to pictures. Script Version F came into a more polished existence.

Word smithing is a creative process with which you are hopefully intimately familiar. Every word counts. Can a different word be used? Will it convey the message better? Remember, also that we are talking about a combined medium: the written language is a basis for a spoken message. The two do not always mesh well together. Speaking clearly and well is hard work. A narrator must not sound as if he or she is reading aloud from a script. All of the above is connected together in a smooth presentation of photos and video.

Version F turned out to be rougher than we had originally thought. A tough three and a half hour detailed study and analysis revealed a lot of problems to be ironed out. We both made a lot of notes.

I went back to the word-processor and deep think time. I threw on a new paint job, and a new coat of wax, and buffed that baby out to a high gloss shine. Version G of the script was born. I searched for a last few missing, or useable photos from my pix archives bank files, and found a way to move the files from my Mac to my PC and burned a CD to move the data to my friend’s equipment.

Today I delivered the CD’s and we spent an hour doing a high quality digital vocal recording of my reading of the final script. All the digital input is now done. Now the whole tennis ball is on my friend’s side of the net.

I’m feeing both a high sense of relief and satisfaction. I believe that we have done a good job. I believe that when my friend is done with his work, we will have a high quality audio-visual product which can be reproduced, used for tourism promotion, and even sold as an important information source for people contemplating visiting our part of Hawaii.

Equally important, I want to do some more of this kind of writing. It is an interesting way to reach an audience. As a writer, I am always concerned with my audience.

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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