"This Is Me" - Crafting my introduction

Last school year, one of my colleagues introduced Adobe Spark to his students. When I saw some

examples of what they did, I saw the potential. Spark is an online platform that allows for easy creation of social media posts, visual presentations, and brief videos. Once our school district committed to a 100% virtual return to school, I realized that learning Spark needed to move up on my priority list. 

A Spark video functions somewhat like a movie trailer. It should be brief, move quickly, keep viewers engaged, and communicate necessary information in a memorable manner. Spark allows you to add pictures, video, music, and text to your project (though it is more limited than platforms such as iMovie). The first project I decided to tackle was an introductory video to give students a good idea of who their teacher is. I approached the project much in the haphazard way I tend to approach things that I just want to get done, beginning the project and then deciding what I wanted to add as I went along. The procedure I'm going to outline here is the way I'll be instructing my students to do it. 

1. Create folder on your desktop titled "Adobe Project Files".
2. Choose your focus. For my video, it was to tell students about me, my family, my education, my career(s), my interests, and something I'm passionate about. 
3. Open a Word document, title it, and save it to your new folder. Use this document to outline the content of your video. The order shouldn't be a priority since Spark allows you to easily move content around.
4. Using your outline, determine what imagery you want to use in your video. If these are image files that you already have, save or copy them to your "APF" folder. If you need to download them from Google Images, make sure that they are saved as JPG files in your folder (you should also keep track of the sources for the images so they can be credited). 
5. Log in to Adobe Creative Cloud online using your SPS e-mail and password. Navigate to Spark.
6. Open a new SLIDESHOW project (there are several options), and either choose a "theme" (a template for specific types of presentations) or "start from scratch". 
   
7. You can then begin adding images by dragging and dropping, or uploading from your folder (once they are uploaded they will be stored in the Adobe Creative Cloud for you to use on future projects). 
8. To add text on top of an image, select "Caption" under the LAYOUT tab, and you can add your text.
9. To add voiceover, simply hold down the MIC icon and speak. Keep the voiceovers between 10-15 seconds per slide. You may re-record as many times as you'd like, and the new recording automatically replaces the old one.
10. Review your video to make sure that it flows smoothly, the information is in a logical order, and that the voice over is clear and expressive. Once you're confident that your video is ready for the world, click SHARE to get a shareable link or download your file to your "APF" folder.

I hit quite a few challenges in making the video. It took me a few days to figure out what I wanted. I knew I wanted to introduce myself, but how much was I going to include? Would I talk at all about the class itself? Would I let them know that I also direct plays at the school? How much would I tell them about my family and background? Should I include pictures of myself with famous people? (That last one was a pretty quick "no").

My first full cut came in at over six minutes long, though it only took about 30 seconds for me to realize that my voiceovers were too long and that I had way too many images. I had to trim the fat, which meant focusing the video on a single simple task - introduce myself. They'll have a full school year to get to know me, and some of the things I thought of including felt too forced, like I was a comedian trying to squeeze 30 minutes of material into a ten-minute set. 

During my first pass at trimming down what I had, I focused on the images. On the slide introducing my brothers, I had two photos - one of us from circa 1983, and one from 2015. I couldn't introduce them without having to specify which picture I was talking about, then had to remember that they won't really know what I look like either, so I had to be extra clear not only about my brothers and their names, but about which one in the picture was me. The solution, to eliminate the 1983 pic, also allowed me to change the frame layout and add a caption with our names, which makes the visual aspect of the slide much more digest-able. 

When it came down to the voice-overs, I had so many little pauses and awkward transitions that I had to

find the most direct way to explain each slide. Any asides or commentary had to go, and it had to be, in the words of the fictional Sgt. Joe Friday from Dragnet, "Just the facts." I kept recording, reviewing, and recording again, until I realized that I would never be satisfied and would always cringe at my voice, no matter what I said or how it actually sounded. 

The video comes in at just under four minutes, and will give students a solid introduction that doesn't overstay its welcome. As for the other information about the class, expectations, etc, I plan to create short Spark videos for each subtopic. Based on my experience, as well as the feedback of many a teenager, I have a better chance at getting them to watch and retain things from a shorter video with less going on than a self-indulgent epic. It remains to be seen (as does the video).

That said, here's the video in all its glory. I appreciate all of your commentary and feedback!