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You are better off telling a better story

Using iMovie to Tell a Story
Using iMovie to Tell a Story

One of the things organizations are often tasked with is getting the word out. Company’s get the word out about products, a government agency’s about programs and charitable organization’s reach out to their constituencies. Today that can seem easier than ever with so many tools available. Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools have taken their place in our quiver of capabilities for reaching out. Getting noticed though still requires telling a story.

I did our Spring 2014 ExAM4Government.com and ExAM4Enterprise.com campaigns using iMovie. Please let me know which you like better in the comments below and vote for Mission Attainable (the first one) or Finish Line (Second) in the comments below. The winner will be used in our Spring 2014 campaign.

ExAM & Salesforce1: Mission Attainable

or

ExAM & Salesforce1 – Spring 2014

Ok, I admit it I used a few other tools I’ll talk about down the road (Adobe Premier, Fireworks, SimCap, and IOS Simulator), but I want to focus on iMovie because it is probably the most accessible.

One of the things I like most about iMovie is the trailers. They provide you with a few different pre-made templates that allow you to tell your own story using a very high quality professional template.

iMovie1 Template Choices
iMovie1 Template Choices

The most important word in that last sentence was story. I’ve made lots of clips over the years and I’ve learned that you can overcome having lower end equipment and software, but you can’t skimp on the story. Scripting your words, shots and video is critical to making people care. I love the iMovie templates because they make it so easy to pull together the planning part of story telling with the work of actually creating it.

Unfortunately the templates that come with iMovie are all that you get and there is no ability to build your own in the app. However you can get almost the same value by simply grabbing a large (I use 11×17) sheet of paper and drawing boxes where you label your pictures and video clips along with narrative text. A little work up front will help you tell a much better story.

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Jonelle L. Hilleary

Definitely #2.

I like the idea of the iMovie trailer and the anticipation that it builds. (I would like to have had the same energy level lead into the overview of ExAM so that they two parts related better to each other, though.)

Very interesting way to present this product and build interest. Good post!