Tips for the 1 Second App + Our Philippines Video

Hi friends! Vacation is literally the greatest thing on the planet. For realz. I came home feeling so inspired and excited to make new things and share them with you of course. Vacation also tends to make me more willing to try new things and I am incredibly passionate about finding new ways to document your travels. I always want to make incredible videos of our travels, but I'm not very good at it and never have the time to come back and truly work on a long video. Case in point, our New Zealand video. Were gone for 3 weeks and the video is 11 seconds long. So, I decided to commit to making a 1 second video this week using the 1 Second A Day Freestyle App and feel in love with the process and the results. So, video and tips below!https://vimeo.com/160517997

Tips for using the 1 Second A Day Freestyle App to make an event video

The 1 Second A Day App vs The Freestyle Version: Ok, so like the name says the main function of the app is to take just a 1 second video each day and the app is very strict on only allowing 1 second from the exact date. But, they expanded the app and added the Freestyle version that is geared towards vacation type videos. You access it through the normal app (just click around until you see Freestyle) and it allows you to move around your videos and use as many as you like and edit the dates.Volume: Normally in more professional type videos you would delete the sound and use a song, etc but I have noticed that people like the 1 Second apps sound because it will be of something like their kids talking and the sound is part of the second they want to capture. I chose to keep the volume at about half as I really loved the sounds of the ocean coming through, but most of it was silent or background noise, hence the need for a song. Totally up to you and for short videos like these, the actual video sound can be just as important and fun! Ps I added the music in iMovie and could adjust the video sound in there, you cannot do this in the app, but that is all the editing I did!Rotating Videos app: For some strange reason some of my videos would not rotate correctly (and I wanted them all to be the same direction), so I had to download a Rotate and Flip app (free). So have one on hand, just in case because you cannot flip them on an iphone without an app.Video Types: Movement + Stills. When deciding what shots to capture look for a mixture of movement (people moving, sweeping the landscape, etc) and then stills (books, your hands, a plant, etc). This adds diversity and interest and also doesn't make you feel car sick. I try to do every other shot moving, still, moving, still, etc. I found that if there was too much movement back to back it was confusing and kind of dizzying to watch.Think 'Picture': I pretty much figured that 'anything' I wanted a picture of, I would also want to include in my video, especially since the videos are so short they are more of photos in a sense, so I would snapped a video also. I had about 120 videos at the end of my week-long trip, but most were only 2-5 seconds long and were pretty much anything-ish that I had also photographed. This is a good guideline to follow if you aren't sure what to put into your video, not everything makes the cut but its good to have options.Try Different Angles: Mix it up! Put your phone on the ground, take selfies, get really close. Your video will get boring if you only have detail shots or landscapes over and over. Certain shots may be awkward to look at for 10 seconds, but you can get away with so many more interesting shots that are just a second long! I would never share bathing suit type photos (especially a long awkward video) but with just a 1 second blip it's hardly time enough to see those and I feel better about sharing those kinds of things that way for something that really only I and my family will be looking at years later.Find a Consistent Time Maker: I chose sunsets to mark the end of each day. It made a very clear transition point. Maybe you start with breakfast each day or your new outfit or your feet to show a new location, if you are trying for a chronological type approach as I was. I arranged the videos in each day according to what flowed well, not necessarily chronologically inside the day. But this is totally up to you and you can mix it up however you like!Correct Dates: The dates show up on your videos (and I don't think this is optional), but you can change the date. For example, when I rotated my videos it changed the date on them to the day that I rotated them so I manually changed it to the correct dates. Again, personal preference.Use Locations or Phrases: I loved that in our New Zealand video some of the locations showed up automatically when the GPS was enabled! You can also manually type in a word or location to add in the bottom right corner.Short Short! Clips: Keep your videos short so that you can save space on your phone and not have so much footage to choose from! Obviously sometimes you have to 'wait for it', but normally if it's just a detail shot keep it to 2-4 seconds and it makes the whole process easier and faster.Work Each Day: I was honestly obsessed with making this video, so every time I shot some footage I wanted to add it in immediately. But it never took me more than 2-4 minutes each day to get all the clips in. It's amazing how fast and easy it is! Just be sure to take time to work on it everyday or else you may feel a bit overwhelmed and this way you can easily see what videos you have for that day and you will see what you like and what you don't and this will help with the next day's filming.Decide What's Important: These kind of videos are so particular to each person, so you have to decide what you want to capture. Near the end of the week I made a shot list of things that I hadn't gotten yet but wanted to be sure to include because they were proving important to us in that week. Also, there are some really fuzzy or dark clips in my video that I hesitated included because they are not the quality that I would normally share, but in the end it was my video, they are only 1 second long and they were important to the story so I kept them. You get to decide!Ideas for Shots: What you are reading, eating, wearing, candid shots of laughter, where you stand feet shots, landscapes, signs that tell where you are, details like plants or buildings, movement of people doing things, crowds, someone posing as if for a photo. Anything! Just experiment a ton!How to Cheat: Ok, I had this great idea of how to extend past the 1 second frame. If something is just too long and you have to have 2 or 3 seconds, just add it in in clips consecutively. The app tells you down to the millisecond where it is in the video, so just start it at the very next millisecond and you shouldn't see a jump but a continuation of your video into the next second. I planned to do this, but found that all my videos truly could be summed up in a second!Delete! Once you have chosen your second in the app, it will save and you can delete the videos off your phone as they take up SO much room. Also, delete the ones you dont like, no use wasting space ;)Oh man, as you can see I really love this app and am so happy with our video. If you want to know more about using the app each day to document a year, Elise wrote a great post here and so did Elizabeth. To see more of how I document my travels with minibooks (obv there is one for this trip to come later) you can see an example here and take my class on making your own here.Has anyone else used the freestyle app for an event video? If so I would LOVE to see! Leave me a link :)