How to take a video to share your story

We want you to take out your mobile phone or video camera and film your local Landcare group/activity in action to showcase across social media, websites, eNewsletters and more.

You don’t need to have any fancy cameras to do this, anything that records video will be perfect!

We need you to supply this in two parts so that we can put together the best story possible for your group!

PART ONE – TALK TO US!

We need to see and hear you talking about who you are and what you are doing.

This could be filmed as a vlog to camera “selfie style” or news-style with someone else holding the camera. You could do this as a kind of interview where someone asks you questions or you could prepare some information and talk to the camera like a presenter! Whatever is easier for you!

Things we want to hear:

• Who are you and where are you based? (required)
• Who is in your Landcare group – how many members and how young are they? (required)
• What is the local biodiversity – particularly flora, fauna?
• What does your local environment and community mean to you?
• What does your Landcare group do in the area and for the community?
• What does Landcare mean to you?
• Why is it important for young people to get involved in Landcare?
• What is your environmental issue? (required)
• What does this issue represent to the community? (required)
• What are you doing to improve this local environmental issue? (required)
• How successful have you been so far?
• What is the overall goal for this Landcare activity?
• How can Landcare offer young people the opportunity to restore their natural local environment, particularly in the aftermath of the bushfires or any other natural disaster?

Don’t feel you have to answer all of this but choose what is most interesting and relevant to you!

PART TWO – SHOW US!

We need some visuals to go along with the story you are telling in part one.

These visuals will ideally be video, but could also be photos, animation, stop motion whatever excites you! The visuals you send us are what brings your story to life on screen!

Things we want to see:

• The place you live: the biodiversity (local flora and fauna), the landscape and the people
• The environmental issue you are grappling with
• Your Landcare group in action – working, meeting, talking, having fun – that is the spirit of Landcare!
• Get your groups to make the Landcare ‘hands’! We would love to make a montage of this!

Basically anything you talk about, we would love to see so that we can show people what you are telling them about!

Tips that will help us to use more of your footage:

• Try to hold the camera as still as you can – wobbly footage can make people feel motion sick so that makes selfies tricky, try asking a friend to film you instead!
• Think about sound – we need to be able to hear you! When you are filming, get the person who is talking on camera to hold a mobile phone like a microphone and record the audio on a voice recording app like Voice Record Pro (Apple) so that we can use the audio when we edit!
• Think about what is in the background of your shot – what can you show us about your world when you talk to the camera? Can you show us things up close and at distance so that we can see what you see! Slow 360 degree shots of your site are a great way to help us feel like we are there!
• When you film an interview, only film the person talking to the camera, we don’t need the questions.
• Always shoot in landscape mode (when your phone is the way you hold it to watch a video on YouTube full screen). When you are filming visuals, try to film for at least 10 seconds, it will help us a lot in the edit!
• Get creative and think out of the box! Don’t be afraid to use some action shots of you guys walking, working and waving that we can speed up, slow down and use throughout your video to keep it fun and energetic. Also stop motion, animation, drawings and other kinds of visual art can make your video pop!
• It will help us if you give us some information about the photos and footage you are sending such as your location, description of what you are doing (if not obvious) and the species we are looking at. You could do that by talking to us while you film (off camera) or include a written description with the file name.
• DON’T FORGET YOUR LANDCARE HANDS 💚💚

And don’t worry about sending the footage, we will help you with that step! Contact us for more information.