Is it a
Video-illustrated, audio book?
Or an
Audio-augmented, video book?
YES!
Described is an alternative, electronic publishing format that combines elements of four standard media:
¬ An audio-only “”talking” book.
¬ A narrated slide show.
¬ A video.
¬ A manuscript.
The reader-listener-viewer can move at will between these media.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for authors to have their work published in print, yet electronic publishing via the internet, and “social networking” via such media as You Tube, Face Book, blogging and email, is increasing exponentially. It seems that everyone has a story to tell, and whether told in a Twitter or a Flash Drive, the storyteller is bursting to send it rolling down the great information highway.
The Bookeo allows authors to tell their own stories out loud without the need for, or distraction of, continuous visual images, yet such images as are available may be viewed either before, during or after the storytelling.
Unlike a printed book whose pictures are gathered at the end of each chapter, the Bookeo’s images can be lavish and extensive, can include both video and stills, and can be orally narrated with “captions” of any length, all without concern for printing costs and without interrupting the oral-only storytelling. Furthermore the two media, when experienced separately, can augment one another in creative ways not possible with either medium alone. In fact, the dual content can be interactively combined by the listener-viewer to create one’s own, individualized production. The author can communicate verbally without the need for or distraction of continuous imagery. Conversely, he can also communicate visually without the need for or distraction of the audio-only body text.
The Bookeo lends itself to very inexpensive, amateur productions that allow the author to fully utilize his or her penchant for either written text that is read out loud, for extemporaneous yarnspinning and/or to mine one’s collection of slides, “home movies,” and that shoebox of shuffled snapshots all described by “voice over captions of any length.
These dual-media productions can be distributed on CD (audio only), on DVD (audio and video) or via internet downloads, all with minimal equipment and without the need for a trade publisher. Of course, if the popularity of a given Bookeo so indicates, it can be produced in minimal “on demand” print volumes with its imagery provided on line or on DVD.
The Bookeo can have up to six basic media components:
1. Spoken Narrative…
Sstory telling delivered by speakers or ear phones, no imagery. This component can be quickly downloaded to the likes of an iPod for complete portability as with audio books. In addition, when played on a computer or TV, this Spoken Narrative can be accompanied either by a blank screen, by a screen of abstract images, and/or by music.
2. Talking Head…
Shows the author speaking directly to the “reader” on-screen. This component can be used to separate and refer to related portions of the other components.
3. Imagery…
Illustrations, both still and moving, are gathered at intervals to run on
screen independently of the Spoken Narrative and Talking head segments.
4. Voice Over…
The author’s commentary is heard as narrated captions to still photos, and as running narrative to moving footage. Of any length, Voice over can create branching narratives relevant to – but not duplicating – the Spoken Narrative and Talking Head components.
5. Print…
Printed text transcribed from the Spoken Narrative can be quickly downloaded for on-screen reading or printing-out. Print productions can be trade published or printed “On Demand.” The Imagery component can be downloaded, sold separately on DVD, or provided with the book.
6. Call Outs…
When the Bookeo is played on a computer or other screen-equipped device, “Call Outs” on the screen can be clicked to shift between the Spoken Narrative and Imagery components. The viewer can see illustrations that relate to the narrative, and hear narrative that relates to the images. These components, while telling counterparts of the same story, can each be made to stand alone, yet by shifting between them the narrative can carry the story where there are no illustrations, and the spoken captions to illustrations can be mini-stories in themselves that augment the Spoken Narrative. Therefore, shifting between the two allows the viewer/listener to interactively create his own version of the story. Conversely, by ignoring the Call Outs, the Spoken Narrative and the Imagery components can be experienced separately, each played without interruption. By this means the Spoken Narrative can travel as a straight audio book, and its Imagery can be viewed on-screen either before or after hearing the narrative. This versatility opens to the author a new realm of creativity not present in ordinary books or movies.
The Bookeo can be produced and marketed entirely by the author using an entry-level video camera and a home computer. The format lends itself to very economical, amateur productions. However, because of their graphic components, they can have far greater depth than the usual audio books where there are no illustrations, or even printed books where illustrations are seriously limited by printing cost. Using digital photos, video footage or a simple home-office scanner, the author can mine those photo albums, slide collections, home movies and shuffled snapshots to produce anything from great family histories to real-life thrillers and even dissertations. Even works of art and fiction can be created, and the Bookeo may be the ultimate blogging format.
Bookeos can be distributed on CDs and DVDs,,or they can be sent as internet downloads. The discs enjoy quality audio and full-screen images but must be played on a computer or DVD-TV player. The audio-only segments can be distributed on CDs for the usual audio book portability. To expedite video downloads they typically have tinny sound and small, low-resolution images,(improving) but they can be quickly downloaded to iPods, etc. for complete portability. They can be distributed without reliance on a print publisher and marketed by the author on his own Website. If a given Bookeo becomes popular it can be otherwise commercially distributed.
Moreover, snippets from larger works (or short, independent pieces) can be exchanged by readers via You Tube, blogs and chat rooms to maximize the social networking aspects of dynamic, electronic publishing. Such exchanges can drive sales of the complete works, made available as downloads via Pay Pal or on discs.
Just as the audio book depends on the reader’s ability to “perform” written text, the Bookeo will benefit from the author’s (or another reader’s) willingness to “hype” the work as a raconteur. Of course, written text may be simply read out loud to the lens-capped camera, but a Bookeo can be greatly enhanced by the “Don’t read it, TELL it” (DRI-TI) technique.
This audio-only, DRI-TI storytelling may be completely extemporaneous, not written at all, or the performer can be guided by flash card cues. Alternatively, instead of reading aloud from complete written text, a manuscript may be recorded as electronic text-to-speech and then played through ear phones as the author “tells” the story loosely while hearing the text as an audio “crib sheet.” For the on-camera Talking Head segments, a button earphone can be well concealed as the author, loosely guided by his audio crib sheet, speaks to the viewer on camera.
This approach takes practice, and will be challenging for those who feel tension in front of a camera. But with experience this format allows some authors to be far more expressive of their works than with the usual print-only text or written text that is read word-for word out loud.
The advantage of speaking to a lens-capped video camera instead of a voice recorder is this: The camera, with its own digital microphone, can record each spoken sentence or paragraph as a separate video clip – just no video image on a blank screen. When these clips are fed by firewire into a simple video editing program (now bundled with most computers), they can be easily trimmed, moved, deleted and replaced. While the clips show in a video editing program as black frames, they are each numbered, their duration is given, and they can be briefly labeled. This facilitates their manipulation to parallel – but not duplicate -- the video images to create an integrated program. Indeed the Bookeo has potential to induce great creativity without the costs, risks,complications – and even the limitations – of full-on movies or straight print books.
“Story First!” Outline the story you will tell, at least in your head but better yet, write down the outline and then, best yet, write the story as text.
Make a “shooting list” for the project showing the Talking Head shoots, AN story titles and illustrations;. THEN shoot video from the list. Or, you can gather existing shots, both stills and vidveo, from the list. It may be useful to select the illustrations first, then outline the story and, in any case, cross reference the story with the illustrations to develop the project.
Start your project by performing the blank screen narration into the video camera, with its lens cap on and one hand on the camera (or use the camera’s remote control). Start and stop the camera between each thought or paragraph, even each sentence. When capturing this video into any editing program, the starts and stops will divide the narrative into concise, but blank screen, video clips that can be easily trimmed, moved, or deleted and replaced. Insert a white still frame between sections of the Spoken Narrative.
The Spoken Narrative and Imagery segments can be created separately and listed as separate items in the Bookeo’s table of contents or menu. The menu should distinguish clearly between the components, allowing the listener/viewer to determine exactly where he wishes to go on the disc or in the download.
In the Imagery segments, insert a white frame where the Talking Head segments will be inserted. Then compose and shoot the Talking Head segments according to their function.
Perform the Voice Over segments last, after all other editing is complete.
Try to keep movie files down to 30 minutes. Save oftener as they get larger. Back up each work cession, ideally on a remote drive.
Try to compose your project so that one complete segment or chapter will fit on a single DV disc, about one hour or maximum 4gb.
This introductory treatise does not consider the acquisition of basic camera skills or minimal video editing prowess. Furthermore, much of the art of making a Bookeo, is yet to be developed. It is hoped that this document can be the start of a forum on the subject, and that the format will allow individuals to explore a rich new realm of communication that develops a cult following.
THE FOLLOWINGE PASSAGES WERE CUT FROM THE FORWARD:
Oral narration and printed words are all symbolic; the sounds of words symbolize ideas and the hieroglyphics of writing just symbolize the words. They are each a major part of what makes us human, but again, vision is our primary sense. As infants we must “learn to see,” distinguish what it is we’re looking at, but seeing is believing and we don’t think of vision as symbolic, its more direct than that.
Enter the Bookeo …
As mentioned, The OutRig! Project is collecting lots of things to see, to watch. We also are creating many things to hear and read. Our challenge is to somehow integrate sights with symbols. It’s not like movie making where you write a script and then create the scene in falsity to shoot, and thereby generate a false reality. No, our stuff is coming from the real world “of ships and sails and sealing wax,” and in that world there may be long sections of narrative for which there are no graphics, or compelling graphics which tell a story parallel to, but different from, the narrative. Neither is it like a printed book with a few photos with brief captions that are gathered at the ends of the chapters, nor is it like a magazine with photos interspersed with text. No, it’s much closer to reality than those! The Bookeo can go on and on like an audio book, allowing the listener to form his or her own images as described by the words, all while doing something else at the same time. Then again, there can be graphics like in a video with imbedded sound plus voice-over captions of any length. Of course, you can see it all in writing if you want to struggle with reading reems of text on screen… or print it out… or even buy it in a book. What gets interesting is when all these media are on a mouse-click menu, and you can move between them any time you wish to create your own interactive version of the whole. Moreover, with this potential in mind the author can exercise a new kind of creativity, one that is freed from the tyranny of the tube and even the page, yet it comes complete with the audience’s power to imagine.
My situation certainly is not unique, We all have memories. We all tell stories. Most everyone has saved that shoebox full of shuffled snapshots, or of slides, videos or home movies. Sadly, most of it gets thrown out by our kids someday because it’s too big a task for anyone but Dad to distill it down and put it into context. I’m suggesting that this Bookeo format is the way for normal folks to get their lives in context, save their legacy and share it with the world. Making a Bookeo is easily achieved by using gadgets already on the shelf in most modern homes, a computer and a digital camera,either still or video. Yes, it takes practice and patience, but it’s fun and rewarding, especially if you have a place to post it on line for others to enjoy. If you’re interested, have a look at the examples on OutRig
For the past ten years or so I’ve been limited to reading books on tape and CD. Actually, I’ve been “reading” more this way than ever, and while these “audio books” depend somewhat on the prowess of the narrator,,I find the good ones can be quite engaging. Instead of simply reading text out loud, they make the story sound like it is being told.
Of course there’s nothing like sitting down with a good print book (assuming you can read). It has great portability and other conveniences, and its feel, the very sensation of reading with your eyes, can never be replaced by bits and bytes. The audio book, therefore, often times belongs in settings where the “reader” is doing something else at the same time like driving (assuming you can drive). Spoken words can be just about as good as written words at inducing readers to form their own images of what the story has to say. However, I find the only disadvantage, at least for non-fiction audio books is… no pictures!
Even in printed books, the amount of illustration they contain has a marked influence on their price. Print publishers are on the ropes these days, hard pressed by electronic publishing, so illustrations are often squeezed out of modern books, and at any rate they are confined to still images while video is streamed everywhere by internet.
Despite such electronic wonders, there is no way to shoot video of my phantom visions (at least not yet). Sharing them depends a lot on storytelling, and as my friends and family will wearily attest,,I have always been an inveterate teller of the tales from early-modern multihulls. It was a whacky and wonderful time, “the magnificent men in their sailing machines” zipping around the harbors and across the oceans in their back yard-built contraptions, behaving like the barnstorming “aerobats” in the early days of aviation. I know something of the almost fanatical enthusiasm that drove this maritime phenomenon, and I love to yak about it. In fact I get to be a broken record on the topic; I just can’t help myself!
When there’s no one around to listen I even talk to a video camera (yes, it’s that bad). There is often nothing to watch but my talking head,, so I put on the lens cap and, using the camera’s microphone as a digital voice recorder, just spin away the yarns. Then muey can be n posted on our website as audio-only downloads. It’s just another way that phantom visions can be shared.
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