[Marketing] A Sugar on a Stick video storyboard proposition

[Sean DALY]

http://www.netbooknews.de/4750/kinder-betriebssystem-olpc-sugar-wird-netbook-tauglich/

Unfortunately, the writer merely copied what golem.de said, then
linked to very old material (screenshot/video) to illustrate it.

This is not unusual; many news outlets and bloggers give themselves 15
minutes to write a brief.

I think this underscores our need for an up-to-date explanatory video.

Let's try to work on this in Paris: agreeing on a storyboard and
filming rushes! I have a MiniDV PAL camcorder and possibly access to a
second one.

Rather than film randomly, marketing video production work can be
streamlined by working out the message & images in advance. We call
this a "storyboard" since the usual procedure is to mock up frames,
paste them onto cardboard, and show them at a meeting. TV commercials
and documentaries almost always start out as storyboards.

Film length: 3 minutes. YouTube style!

Film language: English, but we may want different subtitled versions
if the film turns out well (although dubbed voices over original
audio, Eastern European style, may be preferable)

I haven't yet identified a reliable screen recorder solution, but
Lionel Laské of OLPC France has given me some tips...


So here's a suggestion for a storyboard:

* First frame: Sugar home view (this will show Sugar when film is
embedded in sites from YouTube etc.)
* Card (SL logo on white background, SL URL, title / statement / CC
license), VO (voiceover): "This film demonstrates Sugar on a Stick,
the Sugar Learning Platform adapted to a USB stick. More information
at..."
* Caroline introducing herself, lower-third text overlay with name &
title (because some people adjust sound while film starting) and
saying "I want to present SoaS, an exciting new version of Sugar. It's
in beta today, but we will have Version 1 later this year..."
* Caroline VO over pictures of classrooms with XOs, brief intro of
Sugar history, text overlay: "originally part of the One Laptop per
Child project", "used by nearly 1 million children"
* Caroline stepping over to table with machines, "But Sugar is not
just for students in developing countries"
* Closeup on a USB key
* Caroline "go to sugarlabs dot org to download the beta", overlay
"load Sugar onto a 1 Gb USB key"
* View of table with e.g. XO-1 and 2 netbooks, a Mac, a PC
* Closeup of inserting USB key & a few seconds of booting, Caroline
VO: "You need to tell the computer to boot from the key not the hard
disk; some older computers can't do that but you can use a helper CD"
text overlay: "instructions are on the Sugar Labs website"
* Caroline VO: "Sugar on a Stick won't touch your hard drive or existing system"
* Cut to screen recorder view with Caroline VO: "here I am at what we
call the Home View. Now, if you have been using a computer for years,
you are used to looking at a screen as an office desktop. Sugar is
software specially designed to help children learn - for example, kids
have difficulty with double-clicks so * Sugar doesn't have any..."
etc.
* View of USB stick in PC, LED glowing
* Caroline VO over recorded screen: "the Journal is where a student's
work is automatically saved. It allows parents and teachers to
review..."
* "The heart of Sugar is its Activities. There are Activities for
writing, reading, making music, ..."
(demonstration of 1 or 2 Activities - which?)
* "What makes these Activities special is that on the Sugar Learning
Platform, Activities are meant to be shared between students in the
classroom. Let's see how that works..."
* (same 1 or 2 Activities, but shared and showing how to work together
- ideally a young person could do that :-)
* Screen: clicking on View Source, Caroline VO "Now, you might think
older students could get bored, but Sugar has another advantage: a
View Source function. Curious students can learn programming just by
looking at the program source. We call this 'low floor, no
ceiling'..."
* Walter seated with a few machines around, lower-third text overlay
with name & title: "We feel that Sugar is the best software there is
today for young minds from ages 5 to 12 to 'learn about learning'.
What we mean by that is...."
* Cut to Sean in front of a poster or logo or big screen, etc.: "With
affordable new netbooks and lots of old PCs around, Sugar is a great
way to get young kids interested in computing in a safe environment"
* Cut to still photos of Home View on 15 different machines, in
succession; Sean VO: "Sugar on a Stick is a great way to try out
Sugar, but other options are available: virtualization, distributions
such as Fedora and ..."
* A developer? "..."
* Sean: "Sugar Labs is composed of volunteers who are passionate about
educating kids. We need contributors: developers, testers, and so on.
Please join us! ..."
* Caroline: "I hope you've enjoyed this little tour. Now, this is
still in beta today, so please help us with feedback..." (text overlay
feedback at sugarlabs.org)
* (call to action) "Try Sugar with kids today!"
* Card (SL logo on white background, SL URL)
* (fade in credits & license)


Suggestions?

Thanks
Sean