BATFORK: Behind the scenes of a YouTube serial
What follows is, I’m sorry to say, shameless self-promotion. Please bear with me. It all started one day in a school cafeteria. My daughter, Elizabeth, broke off the two middle tines on her plastic fork, drew a face on it, and Batfork was born. (The internet being what it is, it turns out she wasn’t the only one to have this idea.) A series of comic strips followed based on the adventures of Batfork and his arch-nemesis, Spoon.
BATFORK Episode 1: “Something Diabolical”
A few weeks ago, Batfork had his YouTube debut (also my directoral debut). Elizabeth and her younger sister, Phoebe, had begged me to film Batfork and put it up on YouTube. So that’s what I did. Right now the series stands at three episodes.
BATFORK Episode 2: “Suspicious Pie”
Elizabeth writes the scripts, as comic strips, which work well for storyboards. It’s been interesting teaching the girls about the basics of movie-making, filming the series shot-by-shot, then editing it together. So far, everyone in our family has played a part in making the show except for our two-year-old son, who sometimes has to be taken from the room during filming because he laughs a lot.
The whole thing (in case it isn’t obvious) is a pretty low-tech affair. All has been shot on my Canon PowerShot A570 IS camera, then edited together using Windows Vista’s Movie Maker (a surprisingly useful application–much, much better than the Windows XP version of the program, which couldn’t really do much of at all). The video, and especially the audio, quality is not that great. But it’s good enough for YouTube, and the cinematography doesn’t have much to do with the series’ appeal.
BATFORK Episode 3: “Pudding of Doom”
I hope you enjoy our little corner of YouTube.
This Episode III is better than the last Episode III movie I saw.
Comment by Supergenius — September 3, 2008 @ 8:42 pm
Awesome! I love how it’s not just completely random fun (though there’s nothing wrong with that :-)) but learning some great skills with the storyboards and whatnot. More please!
Comment by sister blah 2 — September 3, 2008 @ 8:54 pm
Wow that’s awesome. I’ve wanted to do something like this with my kids but none of us are really creative enough—or at least not motivated enough.
Comment by Susan M — September 4, 2008 @ 7:57 am
Great video Greg. BTW…I just found out through Susan (who I’ve ironically never met) that I know you and your wife. Look at that–the internet really does make the world smaller.
Comment by shazbraz — September 4, 2008 @ 11:11 am
What a fun project to do with your kids!
Be careful though, if you’re not careful, they’ll end up working in the entertainment industry.
Comment by Brian G — September 4, 2008 @ 11:13 am
Shazbraz, how do we know each other?
Comment by Allison — September 4, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
Oh, hi Allison! From USU-we had just started getting to know each other when you guys moved. My real name is Sharon-married to Jacob. I think Jana Kay introduced us if I’m remembering back that far correctly!
Comment by shazbraz — September 4, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
Oh, hey! I don’t want to totally threadjack — I think I just found you on facebook. I’ll email you.
Comment by Allison — September 4, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
Oh man, I just lost my monopoly on shameless self promotion…
Comment by a random John — September 8, 2008 @ 11:49 am
That was funny, let’s watch again.
Comment by fMh Brick (I'm four) — September 22, 2008 @ 2:10 pm