Everyone has probably had the same experience. You visit a cool interactive website or watch a video on YouTube and as interesting as the project or storyline may be the audio quality leaves much to be desired. In fact when you listen to the audio it is so bad that it sends your brain into overdrive. Neurones fire in every direction as you slowly start to experience what can only be described as complete mental shutdown. After you finally reach the point of meltdown you quickly need to force what is left of your fried braincells to hunt for the mute button, which never seems to be in an obvious place. The audio quality completely ruined your experience and you will probably not want to share the project with anyone. You really don’t want this scenario to ever happen.

It may not seem that important but, believe it or not, good quality audio is the most important aspect, bar none, to any online project. Whether you’re making a video, recording a podcast, or even creating an interactive multimedia experience it is vitally important that you spend a significant amount of your production time making sure that your sound is perfect.

Why Is Audio So Important?

As humans much of our everyday life and the responses we make to our surrounding environment are measured or detected through our hearing. Our ability to hear is vital in even the simplest of activities like crossing the street.

When we cross the street, not only do we look in both directions, but we are constantly listening for approaching vehicles. We can tell, without even turning our heads, that a threat is immanent. Our bodies are fine-tuned to pick up on auditory signals and relay them back to our brain alerting us to what is happening in our environment. Even distance is something which our auditory senses can relay back to us without having to look. There has also been suggestions that hybrid and electric cars are in fact dangerous to pedestrians because they are too quiet for people to hear. Some experts have said that they should replicate the sounds made by other vehicles so that people, especially the blind and young children, can hear them coming. And if you needed more proof there has even been research which suggests that our skin plays a role in delivering sound to our brain. Humans are therefore wired for good sound.

Now the previous examples might be a very simple and possibly even crude example of what I’m talking about but take 5 minutes right now to think about everything you do in your day that relies on having good audio. If you then apply the same thinking to your project you will quickly realise that having poor quality audio can quickly ruin your audiences experience of your project.

Think of it like standing on a really busy street corner with trucks rolling past while you’re trying to carry on an in depth conversation with one of your friends. You can carry on the conversation but you will probably miss some really important information and have to get your friend to repeat themselves, it just makes the experience horrible.

We need to have good quality sound so that we can focus on what we are doing and it’s the same when we view or listen to a project. The absence of good audio can cause your audience to become distracted because their brains have to focus on trying to concentrate on sifting through the audio before they can focus on your content. Any experience where the audience has to do this is simply painful.

By focusing your efforts on creating good quality audio you can make sure that your viewers are not distracted and that they feel drawn into your story. The quality of your visual content is not really that important. It is easy to skip over bad visuals if the audio is great but great visuals with poor audio will not work.

Audio is the MOST important aspect of your project. Period.

What Makes Audio Sound Good?

Generally when people talk about audio quality they tend to instantly think of the technical aspects of the sound. These technical aspects can include everything from how loud the sound actually is, to what device you use to record it with, to whether it crackle like a radio going through a tunnel. But good quality sound is much more then just the technical aspects, it’s about the entire experience.

While all of the technicalities are vitally important to the success of your project (for instance you need to know how to record and produce crystal clear sound), they are not the only important things. You also need to think about how the audio can affect the flow of your story. Audio for projects needs to take your audience on a journey. They need to feel as if everything is happening in the same room as themselves, as if they could shut their eyes and still be driven by the powerful audio story through their mind. If you do it right then you can use your audio to affect your audiences emotions. Your overall audio track can be happy or sad, peaceful or angry, slow or urgent. It can take your audience anywhere you want to take them.

To create this experience you need to start thinking carefully about the overall audio structure by asking yourself some questions. These questions include:  What is your talent saying and what emotion are they conveying? Do you need to explain some of the story with a voiceover? How can you use silence effectively to draw out emotion? Where is it appropriate to use music or background tracks and can you use this music to propel the story? What sort of music suits the story you are trying to tell? How can you use your sound to cue different scenes? Does your audio match up with the visuals? What emotions do you want to convey throughout your project?… and most importantly…. Do you have a continuous flow of suitable audio which pulls your audience through your story creating an immersive experience?

If you start to think carefully about making your audio the best part of your project then you can really begin to make incredibly powerful experiences for your audience. So what are you waiting for??… Go make some great audio!

[Photo credits, [177], weglet, carolyn.will]

Pursuing excellence in your project can be a very exciting and thrilling ride. You can easily get into a zone where your efforts are focused entirely on the outcome of your project. While this might be what you love it becomes very easy to lose your perspective of everything else that is happening in the world. Suddenly your project might start to collapse from simple oversights which could have been avoided from the planning stages. One of those forgotten aspects is usually managing your money.

Now I will tell you up front that you MUST and I repeat MUST know how to manage your finances effectively from the planning stages so that you don’t run out of money or overspend when your project is nearing completion. While money is something we don’t like to think of when we are working on a project, without it there wouldn’t even be a project.

So to help you with managing your money here are some tips to make sure your project is financially secure from the start.

Create A Budget Before You Begin

Budgeting can be one of the most laborious processes in project planning but it is the most vital. Open up your favourite spreadsheet program and start listing all the different items you might require for your project and the costs associated with them. This includes the cost of any equipment or props you purchase, travelling costs, production costs, personnel costs, anything you can think of. Make sure you list everything you will need! One of the worst things is to come to the end of the project and overspend because you forgot some vital items in the planning stages.

If you are working solo on the project don’t neglect to include your own time as a cost in the project. Estimate the amount of hours you will spend on the project and calculate what you would like to earn per hour. Doing this will help you decide if your project is worth the time and effort you plan to put into it. Budgeting will also help you decide if you can afford the project you want or whether you need to scale it back.

Track Your Spending

It almost goes without saying that you need to make sure you keep up to date with what you have spent throughout the life of your project. Make sure you keep all your invoices and receipts. Stay in control of the time and hours you and your personnel work. Write all the spending into another column in your spreadsheet so that you can compare your expenses with your budgeted items and work out how much money you are using.

If you are starting to go over budget it means you will have to be more careful with further purchases or even cut back your project to make sure you stick to your budget. If it looks like you are under budget you might be able to finish the project and have some spare cash to kick off your next production.

Make Use Of Online Resources

There are also many online tools and resources which you can use to keep track of your budget online, some you will have to pay for but some are free. Using one of these systems will not only make life easier, but it will keep sure your budget safe on a secure server… just in case you lose your laptop while driving through a river in the Amazon. Here are just a few of these resources.

FreshBooks – Online accounting, billing, time-tracking, and bookkeeping.

Simplifythis – Appointment scheduling, invoices, payments.

Outright – Free easy to use online bookkeeping, (also integrates with FreshBooks).

Xero – A fully fledged online accounting system.

Don’t Overspend Stick To Your Budget

The worst thing you can do on your project is overspend. If you’re halfway through the project and about to interview someone important don’t go out spending money on new cameras or equipment unless you had included this in your budget. You went to all the hard work of preparing a budget, you started tracking all your spending, so don’t blow it by spending money on items you have not included in your budget.

The simple rule is that if it is not on your budget in the first place then you shouldn’t go out and spend money on it. Sure it might be nice to have but when you planned your project you obviously didn’t see that item as necessary. Careful planning and budgeting is only good if you actually make an effort to stick to your budget. So buy only what you have made allowances for in your budget and you should not have a problem with overspending.

Every so often I stumble across a video which really blows my mind and as a trained animator this video has really pushed the boundaries of what I thought possible. The Third & The Seventh is a film which is made entirely in 3D. That is, it is all computer generated! However don’t let that put you off, the entire film is incredibly photo-realistic.

Alex Roman is the brilliant mind behind this piece which examines architecture from the point of the camera. It is a very well thought out film that combines elements of 3D modelling and photographic work to gel together an incredibly well composited work of art.

There is no spoken audio in the piece, just music, but for some reason it just works. Watch and be amazed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you’re working on a multimedia project it is important that you know what has been done before. This is not just so you can find a niche for your story but so that you can gain inspiration from the work of others. In the next of our Finding Inspiration series I want to share with you some great documentary style films which are guaranteed to spark your imagination and trigger your emotions.

Here are 3 examples of good storytelling which I think will ignite your passion for storytelling and leave you inspired.

1. Still Hoping

Still Hoping depicts a series of personal stories and letters to President Barack Obama building off his ‘Yes We Can’ speech. Produced by Luceo Images, the stories create a touching piece about equality in American society. It is an incredibly powerful video which has been brilliantly edited to suit the way the story has been told. Particularly you should pay attention to how the stories have been linked together throughout the piece.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. King Justice

This is a film by Miguel Herrera documents the life of a musician who directs a group of young musicians. What grabs me most about this film is that the young musicians have suffered due to conflict in Sierra Leone. A great story will always make a great video if it is edited correctly and with King Justice the editing has helped make the story flow well. It is a good example of a film which shows someones everyday life but tells the story in a very powerful way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. LIVESTRONG: Missed

I always feel touched when I see stories of people living with cancer. Missed is a video made for the Livestrong foundation by Alpheus Media and documents stories of young adults who have cancer. Livestrong is a charity run by cyclist Lance Armstrong and is a great beacon for anyone who knows or is living with cancer. This is an incredibly powerful video which is really well edited. Pay close attention to the editing to see how you can turn a horrible story into one which is very powerful.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All of the above videos are very powerful and inspirational. Make sure you watch them over, take some notes, and try to identify for yourself what makes them great.

Whether you’re writing a news feature, producing a documentary, recording an audio interview, or creating a piece of multimedia journalism it is important that you find quality people to speak with. Often finding these quality talent, and convincing them to speak to you can be one of the hardest parts of the storytelling process.

Finding talent can be a daunting process especially if your new to the craft. Newcomers often don’t know where to look for interesting and informative people and can be timid when approaching those people for an interview.

So to help everyone in their quest to find better talent I have come up with five quick tips on places to find those important ‘hidden talent’.

1. Find authors who write on a topic

Authors are incredibly knowledgeable and interesting people. You will be able to get a feel for what they might talk about by reading some of their work. Once someone is a published author they are also a credible source as writing a book takes a considerable amount of time, thought, energy, and research. Many authors can also be very creative and eccentric people who will add colour, life, and variety to your project.

To get in contact with a published author look for websites and contact email addresses listed in their books. If they have them, write an email or leave a comment on their site. If they don’t then contact their agent to organise an interview. I guarantee you that many of them will be more then happy to speak with you.

2. Search university websites

Most universities have lists of all their key staff – lecturers, professors, researchers etc – available online. These lists can be invaluable for finding quality talent. Every one of the staff on a universities listing are experts in one field or another and most want to talk about what they do.

Journalists or storytellers can add a considerable amount of information and credibility to their stories by speaking with someone from a university. Look through university websites, identify some staff who will suit your story, and give them a call.

3. Find someone old

Sometimes there is nothing quite as interesting, informative, and exciting as speaking to the older generations. I’m talking about those who are past their prime but still have excellent stories to tell of the adventures they had in their youth.

You can find elderly people almost anywhere but you could try visiting an old peoples home and talking to some of the residents. Many of them will be more then happy to speak with you.

If you do find someone wise to speak to just be sure that you listen carefully to what they have to say. Their experience is life so they will have many important and valuable comments to make.

4. Check local noticeboards

Noticeboards are great for getting story ideas but are also great for finding talent who are the experts of a particular field in local communities.

You can find names of people who run everything from dance classes, to cooking lessons, to music classes, even flying or skydiving lessons.

Get their names and numbers off the board and give them a call. They will often be interesting people who will have a wealth of knowledge in their craft for you to tap into.

Another way to use noticeboards is to post a call for talent. If you ask for specific types of people you might end up with many different types of people to choose from, all who believe they have something to say on your topic.

5. Telephone directories

Your telephone directory can be an excellent place to find people to speak with. If your story requires an angle from a business owner then you can easily find a business which matches your needs. The majority of businesses you could want to speak with are listed in the telephone directory along with names and numbers for most people in your area.

Most telephone directory providers also have online versions which can save you a great deal of time and also allow you to search in other cities or states.

While this has not an exhaustive list it has served me well so far. The most important thing to remember is don’t be scared to call or talk to anyone for an interview. Often you will find that no matter how big a persons status in the community, people love talking about themselves. Use this fact to your advantage and you’re guaranteed to find great talent for your story.

Well it’s that time of year again. Time to dust off the Christmas decorations, find a big tree to hang them on, and spend all your money buying presents to give away. Now I want to get into the spirit and help you kick off 2010 with some great prizes, including a D-SLR camera! Yes, you heard correctly, you could have the chance to win a Digital SLR camera by helping MediaFire reach 30,000 Twitter followers.

I have decided that in the spirit of the season I’m going to give away my Canon 30D Digital SLR camera and Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 EX DG Macro lens to one lucky reader. That’s right! I am going to give it away.

My 30D and Sigma 24-70 lens have been one of the best camera kits I have ever used. Both the camera and lens are still in excellent condition with only about 8000 actuations on the camera, so it will definitely last you for a long time to come. I will even throw in an 8GB Sandisk Compact Flash card so you can start taking photos right away, and a spare battery! The total value of all of this, at current prices, is over $1100 AUD (around $970 US). I will even ship it anywhere in the world!

The only condition is that I need your help to reach 30,000 Twitter followers by 11:59PM on 28th February 2010, +10 UTC (Brisbane, Australia time). That means you have all the more reason to tell your friends and Twitter followers about the competition (or just encourage them to follow @mediafireau so you have a better shot at winning. Be sure to use the #challenge30k hash-tag). If we don’t hit 30,000 followers, don’t worry! I also have some other great prizes which will definitely be given away!

Not only am I giving away the camera, but I am also giving away 4 copies of the National Geographic Image Collection. This is an absolutely stunning book showcasing some of the best photographic work in the world. The book will be shipped to you, brand new, directly from Amazon.com. I will be randomly selecting 4 people to win the books when the competition closes. These prizes will be given away regardless of the follower count so be sure to enter! If we do hit 30,000 followers one of those 4 lucky people will also win the 30D. How cool is that!!???

Why am I doing this?

MediaFire is all about helping you tell the world’s stories. I want to help those of you who can’t afford a good camera, or who need a bit of creative inspiration, to start exploring photojournalism and digital storytelling.

The other reason is that I want to build MediaFire into a large resource which you can use for help and advice on any of your projects. I want to make sure that everyone who wants to tell a story can do so in the best possible way and to do this we need to get the word out there.

What must you do to enter?

Now it wouldn’t be a competition without an entry process. So here is the very simple 2 step process which you must complete to be eligible to win the big prize.

1. First you must sign up for an account with Twitter.com and follow @mediafireau

2. Second you must register for the MediaFire mailing list using the form below

Be sure to fill out your name, email address, and twitter username to be eligible to win.

It’s as simple as that.

After the competition closes I will randomly select 4 eligible people to win the book prizes. One of those 4, if we reach 30,000 followers, will be lucky enough to also win the 30D Body and D-SLR Camera.

Encourage others to enter and follow @mediafireau

One of the best ways to make sure we reach our goal of 30,000 followers in time is to tell everyone you know about the competition. If you’re a twitter user try tweeting the following message to your followers. The more followers we get to the @mediafireau twitter account the greater the chance to win the 30D!

Help @mediafireau reach 30k followers for your chance to win a Canon D-SLR camera and other great prizes. http://ow.ly/Obs1

Conditions

• The competition will close at 11:59PM (+10 UTC) 28th February 2010.
• The goal is to reach 30,000 twitter followers. If we don’t reach 30,000 people following the @mediafireau twitter account then the Digital SLR Camera will not be given away. I will be very strict on this. We MUST hit 30,000 followers (not 29,999) before the competition closes for the camera to be given away.
• The 4 National Geographic Books will be given away regardless of the follower count.
• It is your responsibility to ensure the laws of your country allow you to be the recipient of a prize.

So what are you waiting for? Get your entries in early for your chance to win and then focus on helping @mediafireau reach 30,000 followers.

UPDATE: The deadline has been extended till 28th of February, so get your entry in!

If you have been keeping up with the news recently you will be aware that social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are the talk of the town. Not only are they great for connecting on a personal level but they can be extremely valuable for your multimedia and storytelling projects. By utilising your social network effectively you can direct significant traffic towards your projects. You can, if you know how, make your projects viral and ones which are talked about all over the Internet. But with so many different social media websites around it can be difficult to know how best to approach social media.

There are many resources online which can help you learn the best methods for using social media, and many tools to make your life easier. I have put together a very brief list of four sites which I think will really help you become a social media pro.

1. Twitip

Darren Rowse runs this great site (www.twitip.com) which focuses on teaching you how to make the most of Twitter. There is a lot of really helpful and useful information on this site and it is a must read for anyone looking seriously at using Twitter to drive traffic to their website. No matter what you want to find out about, there is probably an article on Twitip for you.

2. Hootsuite

This is one of my favourite social networking applications. Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com) lets you manage several different social networks, Twitter, Facebook, etc.. all at once. There is also a great iPhone application and a bookmark button which allows you to post links directly one or all of your social networks. You also get fantastic statistics on who clicks on the links you share which can help you decide what suite your audience better.

3. Chris Brogan

Chris Brogan is one of the leading social networking experts. His website, www.chrisbrogan.com, is a wealth of great information that will help you not only build a large social networking presence but will help you grow a community of interested people. Not only does he have the website but Brogan also co-wrote a book, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, which has received many good reviews. I guarantee that you will get some great information from him.

4. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is another great social networking tool which allows you to manage and connect to multiple social networking websites. Unlike Hootsuite which runs in your Internet browser, TweetDeck is a desktop application which runs on Adobe Air. Many of the top social networkers have often commented about using TweetDeck as their main social networking client. If you would like to do all your networking from one easy desktop tool then head to www.tweetdeck.com.

No matter what resource or application you find best for you, the important thing to remember with social media is to stick with it. Eventually the hard work will pay off and you will have a great list of followers who are interested in you and your projects. You will then be able to leverage this audience to make your projects more successful.

Have you ever walked around an art gallery, looked at all of the beautiful paintings, and stated out loud to the people around you ‘I really wish I could paint like that’? Or maybe you have been having dinner at a fancy restaurant and in the corner of the room was someone playing the piano beautifully and you say to your date ‘I wish I knew how to play like that’? Like painting and playing the piano, interviewing is a true art.

At face value, some people were born to ask questions and some were not. But don’t be discouraged, the art of of interviewing, like painting and piano, can be learned. Here are five tips to help you become a successful interviewer.

1. Do Your Research

Photo by helgasms!

It probably goes without saying that it is important for an interviewer to have done some research into a topic before conducting an interview, yet it happens all the time. I hate seeing interviewers who don’t know at least the basics of what they want to talk about. It makes you as an interviewer sound lazy, and wastes valuable interview time as your talent gives you a crash course in the topic.

You MUST do plenty of research into both the topic and your talent before you arrive at your interview. Not only is it important so you, as the interviewer, can look knowledgeable, but it will give you the confidence you need to conduct the interview and ask skillful questions. It is also a well known fact that people like to talk to others with similar interests, so if you can connect on even a basic knowledge level with your talent then you have already broken down a barrier between you.

Sometimes you may not know much about the person, especially if you are just finding out about their story. If this is the case try to spend some considerable time with them beforehand without any recording equipment. Doing this will help give you some background into the situation and help make your talent more comfortable with you around.

Your talent wants to feel like your taking an interest in them, so if you have taken the extra step to do some research on their field or their background they will want to open up more with you. If you remember to research thoroughly you are well on your way to interview success.

2. Be Prepared To Ask Questions

Photo by e-magic

Have you ever been watching 60 minutes and wondered how, in just a few minutes, the interviewer can get someone to open their soul? The secret is simple. Not only have the interviewers done research, but many interviews are planned and structured. Good interviews take careful preparation.

Preparation in this sense means to go through your research and come up with a list of questions which you want to ask. Write them down, read them, re-word them, group like questions, sequence them, and order them.

Sometimes it is great to start off an interview with a ‘bombshell’ type question, but what you lead with really depends on who your interviewing. A major sporting talent who has been in the news for sex scandals might expect a question like that to lead an interview, but if your interviewing anyone else, generally, it is good to start with some softening questions. These are the type which make the talent feel like they are in control of the interview and makes them comfortable. E.g ‘What’s your latest movie about?’ ‘How did you find working with this person again?’ Gradually work your way to the harder or more confronting questions. Interviewing is a process.

Planing and structure will help you feel ready to ask the questions, it will give you some direction, and should give you plenty of interesting questions to ask.

3. Go With The Flow

Photo by derekadk

What I mean by this is to be prepared to change your interview on the fly based on what your talent is saying. Too often people go into interviews with their questions prepared and only willing to ask the questions they have in front of them. Doing so makes the interview sound scripted.

The art of a successful interview is as much about making your interview sound natural when your asking questions as it is about the preparation. This means using your script as a guide to get you started and being prepared to ask other questions and mould your interview as you go.

If you have been ready to ask questions, and have gotten the first few softening questions out of the road, then sometimes people will start to reveal really interesting things about themselves which you had not known about. How could you possibly have planned for such things? These are the comments which will make your interview really interesting. Don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper.

Knowing how to defer from your script, go with the flow, and take an interview deeper, is what will separate the experienced interviewer from the inexperienced.

4. Open Your Ears

Photo by tanakawho

Do you want to know why Oprah is such a popular talk-show host? It’s not just about all her big gifts to the audience, though I’m sure those help. But it is because she has mastered probably the most important art of interviewing – the ability to listen and pay attention. She likes to take interest in the talent.

As an interviewer the worst thing you can do during an interview is to not listen to what your talent is saying. If you don’t listen carefully then you are at risk of receiving answers which start with the dreaded ‘like I said before’. You really don’t want this! It makes your talent feel unappreciated and undervalued. They have given you the valuable commodity of time, don’t annoy them by not paying attention.

If you have been given the privilege of an interview, listen and pay attention. It will make your talent feel like you care about them and what they have to say. They will also feel more comfortable around you and more likely to open up.

5. Stay In Control

Photo by Lee Jordan

This is a difficult one to work on and may take quite a bit of practice. Sometimes during an interview you may find your talent will start going off on tangents and talking about all manner of topics. While this can sometimes be good, most of the time it is important to know when and how to draw them back to what you really want to talk about.

Media personalities, politicians, sporting legends, will all have had media training. They know how to take control an interview so that they can get their PR message out. Your job is to keep them focused on your questions. It is important that you try to remain in control.

If your new to interviewing this can be difficult, it’s hard to know the right time to cut someone off. You have to give them a short leash. Much of the skill of controlling an interview is in knowing how to bring someone back to the topic. A comment like ‘getting back to what you were saying about….’ is a good and easy way to refocus your interview.

One of the best ways to learn interviewing skills is to watch some interviewers whom you really admire and see how they do it. Becoming a successful interviewer takes a lot of time, practice, preparation and hard work.

If you are ready to to put in the extra effort you can become a successful interviewer. Doing so will in turn make you more confident as a person and help your projects to be more dynamic.

Whenever you’re designing a multimedia project and struggling for ideas it is important that you have some great inspiration to work with. There is nothing like the inspiration provided when a simple idea which has been executed extremely well; Fifty People One Question is a project which will provide you with that much needed inspiration.

As the name suggests Fifty People One question is a project where fifty people are asked just one question and their responses are recorded. What kind of questions? Well anything from ‘What do you wish would happen before the end of the day?’ to ‘What’s your Secret?’. And the fantastic thing is the project is extremely effective in eliciting responses. By asking just one very open-ended question to fifty people, the interviewers were able to get an incredibly wide variety of responses.

Benjamin Reece of Deltree and Nathan Heleine of Crush + Lovely, are the guys behind the project, which has even won a Webby award for its editing. There is also a website where people can post their answers to the same questions online.

At the time I am writing this there are five different videos, and I want to share them with you now. Please use the videos as inspiration when you’re struggling to come up with an idea for your next project; sometimes the best ideas are really simple.

Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow? London, UK

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before The End Of The Day, What Would You Wish To Happen? New York, NY

Click here to view the embedded video.

Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow? Brooklyn, NY

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before The End Of The Day, What Would You Wish To Happen? New Orleans, LA

Click here to view the embedded video.

PostSecret: What’s Your Secret?

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to find out more about the project, just head to fiftypeopleonequestion.com.

So in the spirit of the project….. What do you want to achieve in the next year?

With every project there are many aspects which come together to provide the overall result, but all of these elements take careful planning and consideration. In the first of our regular ‘Planning Your Project Series’ we examine how you can improve your project by setting, what I like to call, emotional goals.

Setting emotional goals refers to defining a direction or path for which you would like to take your audience. You need to take your viewers on a journey which not only tells your story effectively but delivers them to a point where they are willing to tell others about your project. Having an emotional goal will also help you clearly outline a plan for your entire project based on how you want your audience to feel at certain points in time.

Why Do I Need To Set Emotional Goals?

Deciding what you want to achieve emotionally from your project is important to making it successful. How the audience interacts and connects on a personal level will make a difference to whether people watch your project right through and especially whether they will share it with friends.

Think through all the projects, websites, films, which you have seen that you would never want to tell people about. What was wrong with them? Short of choosing a bad story, most people might answer one of the usual cliches such as ‘Oh it was boring’… or ‘it was a bad film’ – responses which indicate that you were emotionally unsatisfied. It is these responses which you want to avoid.

There are also many aspects of your project which will be decided on the goals you set for your audience, so it is important that you have an emotional goal in mind so you can connect different parts of your story with your audience.

Here is a short list of things, which may be affected by your choice of goal:

• What reaction you want people to have
• What equipment you decide to use
• What locations you decide to shoot in and how they are shot
• What questions you ask people
• What stories you include
• What music you choose
• Who you get to edit your project and how they edit it
• Whether you have a website and how it is designed

While it is clearly not an exhastive list, you probably get the picture – all of these things clearly rely on some kind of emotional direction. Being able to connect with your audience is key, and knowing where you want to take them is what makes your projects come to life.

How To Define Emotional Goals

Once you have decided to come up with an emotional goal for your audience, it’s important to think about what you want your audience to feel. There is going to be some very important questions which you need to ask yourself:

• Do you want them to be happy, or sad?
• Do you want them to feel empathetic, or apathetic?
• Do you want to really tug on their heartstrings or do you just want them to connect on superficial level?
• How do you want them to feel during your project?
• How do you want them to feel after they have seen your project?
• How do you want your project to be described to others?

There is no set key to defining the emotional goals which will work best for your project but all of the above questions will help you come up with goals that suit what you want to achieve.

One way to look at is by drawing out a small timeline of how you want your project to pan out. This timeline can be something you work on and revise throughout your project, but it represents the emotional journey you want people to take. Above the timeline might be happy points and below might be sad. You can gradually flesh this out as you get an idea of what your story might look like.

Your emotional goal will vary depending on each of your stories. If someone has had shocking events happen to them, and that is the focus of your story, you need to take that into consideration when thinking of your goal.

Inevitably your goals will change throughout the production of your project and that is perfectly OK. Emotional goals are simply guides which help give you some focus and direction for your project, but part of being a good storyteller is knowing how to adapt your project to changing situations.

Having an idea of where you want to take your audience will help give you a vision for your project. In the end this vision will help take your project to the next level.