When tasked with making a video that needed to break down the topic – “the rise of crowdfunding: does it exemplify the democratisation of the online world”, I knew I was in for a bit of a challenge (or should I make that challenges, plural).

• Challenge one: learn how to edit videos…finally!
• Challenge two: ensure that the scholarly content made its mark, and keep it engaging
• Challenge three: be on camera (horror of all horrors)

 

When making this video, I realised that planning was paramount

1. I made sure that I got my head around the content – what is crowdfunding?
2. I then found a focus area within the topic – the use of crowdfunding by artists, makers and entrepreneurs.
3. This was followed by finding a key question within that topic – how is crowdfunding democratising for the artists/makers AND for the crowds?

 

Next steps: bring the theory to life

I needed to bring the theory behind those questions to life with examples.

• To illustrate the question of the democratising nature of crowdfunding for artists/makers – I used Brisbane based musical duo Gone Molly. The duo successfully used Pozible in 2017 to generate the funds for the their debut album.
• For the “crowds” I focused on the Underpinnings Museum. I have talked about this unique online museum in an earlier podcast. The project is a personal favourite kickstarter campaign, which has provided a unique resource for creatives, makers and others interested in the history of lingerie.

 

Making it visual

One of the biggest challenges I found was needing to bring a scholarly analysis and argument to life, in a public video format. I was really excited to bring my illustration work into this video to help achieve this. It was important that it fit in with the feel of my current work – so you’ll notice a variety of illustration stills and time lapse videos used (for an infographic feel). Consistency in how these look within a video is something I will definitely need to continue to work on.

I’m not someone who feels naturally inclined to be filmed on camera, which was definitely a challenge. I decided to use my “face to camera” time as an introduction to the video – to introduce myself and the topic. When looking back on the final video, getting more comfortable on camera is something I definitely aim on practicing more of for future projects.

 

The technical stuff….

Every project can be improved – but I’m a firm believer in #leaningbydoing.

My key takeaways and learning from this project include:

• When needing to record while visiting your parent’s home interstate, beware of the endlessly chirpy family cockatiel (birds have zero respect for your filming schedule). In the future I will be assessing what I can use for recording better quality audio on the go.
• Be mindful of how different the same recording device can be between recording methods. You’ll notice a change in the audio from the videoed introduction, to the voice recorded portions of the episode, which were both recorded on my iphone X.
• When loading onto Youtube, be wary of the potential decrease in video quality and allow more space for where the platform may crop the video (i.e. on text frames).
• Learn more about the limitations of the editing program. I found the restrictions with the title options and transitions in iMovie somewhat restrictive to some of the look and feel I had hoped to achieve. This was particularly important with the need to easily showcase scholarly quotes in a format that was easily consumable on video.

Watch the video here

 

Overall 

I think I made good headway on my initial challenges, but definitely look forward to improving greatly on them with practice:

• I can finally edit videos!
• I put myself on camera
• and I used my illustration skills to attempt to make the scholarly content more “visual” and engaging.

 

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Video/ Post Music & Visuals:

Intro/ Outro: “Catmosphere – Candy-Coloured Sky [Creative Commons]” by Argofox (CC BY 3.0) (Argofox – Catmosphere-candy-coloured-sky)

All visuals (including photos, illustrations and videos) by Natasha Dearden.

 

Reference List:

Bystrov, V & Galuszka, P 2014, The rise of fanvestors: a study of crowdfunding community, First Monday, retrieved 20 May 2018, http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4117/4072

Gall, J 2008, ‘Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything’, ETR&D-EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, JUN 2008, 56 3, p361-p364, retrieved 24 May 2018, http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=f68636a4-750c-4068-9198-8f6346d1b8f2%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JmF1dGh0eXBlPXNzbyZjdXN0aWQ9ZGVha2luJnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=000254901600007&db=edswss

Harris, S 2017, Gone Molly Debut Album, Pozible, retrieved 25 May 2018, https://pozible.com/project/gone-molly-debut-album

Laskowska, K 2018, The Underpinnings Museum, Kickstarter, retrieved 6 May 2018, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/812485396/the-underpinnings-museum

Schwienbacher, A 2017, ‘Entrepreneurial risk-taking in crowdfunding campaigns’, Small Business Economics, p. 1-17, Scopus®, EBSCOhost, retrieved 24 May 2018, https://link-springer-com.ezproxy-b.deakin.edu.au/article/10.1007/s11187-017-9965-4