New York Technical Writer Talks Video Storytelling

I recently took a course on video storytelling at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Bob Sacha was an awesome teacher—smart, interesting, and instructive.

Sacha showed entertaining and inspiring examples of videos that have been shot on smartphones, including Hollywood blockbuster films such as Steven Soderbergh’s “High Flying Bird” and “Unsane.” Soderbergh used innovative techniques such as being pushed in a wheelchair instead of using a dolly.

6 Key Principles of Effective Video Storytelling

  • Choose an opening shot that is going to hook your viewer
  • Use a lot of close-ups and extreme close-ups to capture detail and evoke interest
  • Switch camera angles frequently to keep it interesting
  • Bring it on home with the closing shot—a reward for the viewer, with an image to remember that finishes the story
  • Use sound to help establish the mood
  • Evoke emotions in the viewer—we remember how we feel more than what we see or hear

Here’s an example of what I learned. Technical writing “how to” made into art! IMHO! 😉

Going to California” is a reference to a Led Zeppelin song lyric: “Took my chances on a big jet plane, never let ’em tell you that they’re all the same.” Each pair of students in the class made unique airplanes and unique videos!

Variations on a Theme – Adapting to Your Target Platform

Next I took the principles of great video storytelling and created 3 versions of a video:

Square for Instagram

This one is under 1 minute (timed for an Instagram feed), and square to display well in Instagram.

Short YouTube Version Captures Highlights

This is the length for my Another New York Love Affair art project, where each video is usually under two minutes. It captures the feel of the event, with behind-the-scenes warm-up and a flash on the audience at the beginning.

Full Length

This is the full length of the song. It’s my singing debut, and my Mom might want to see the whole thing!

Operating Procedures Helped New Bank to Open in NYC

CIO Linda Orlando, me, and CEO Judith Erwin on Orange Day at Grasshopper Bank
Former CIO Linda Orlando, technical writing consultant Karen Rempel, and CEO Judith Erwin celebrating Orange Day at Grasshopper Bank, May 2018 (working towards getting the bank ready for the official opening, which occurred in May 2019)

It was a day of celebration yesterday, as Grasshopper Bank completed its journey from conception to implementation. Grasshopper Bank is the first new bank to open in New York City since the housing crisis of 2008. The “C-Suite” team is led by CEO Judith Erwin, and some of the top women in the banking industry are the lights guiding this financial institution. The dynamic team, composed of industry heavyweights who have over 200 years of combined experience in commercial banking and financial services, raised close to $100 million in order to obtain OCC* approval. The bank will focus on New York’s “innovation economy,” with corporate, venture capital, and start-up clients.

I played a crucial role in helping the new bank obtain approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and make it to the starting line. I developed over 50 required standard operating procedures, working with various roles across the bank to determine procedures that would guide staff to perform all daily operations tasks in compliance with federal banking regulations. I brought my expertise in T24 to the task, and helped develop and document software requirements as well as procedures. My role included business analysis and training as well as technical writing, and I helped the team learn end-to-end processes for all daily and monthly procedures, from taking a deposit and boarding a loan to generating a financial statement.

I worked closely with the Chief Risk Officer, Sally Myers, to develop the required procedures to provide oversight from a risk mitigation and compliance perspective. I worked with CFO Sangeeta Kishore to ensure that the Operations team provided all required data and reports to her desk in a timely manner.

It was an exhilarating challenge and a great deal of fun, working with a fantastic team of people in an extremely dynamic, fast-paced environment. My daily compadres were the Operations team, under COO Gary Blumenthal,  and it was a real pleasure to work with this group to ensure they would be able to perform all required tasks on day one.

We focused on the user experience (UX) to ensure that staff and customers will love using the bank’s internal and external banking tools, developed for mobile and the web. The team of T24 consultants under Nikki Nelson were amazing to work with, and they were instrumental in bringing the bank to the point of opening the doors yesterday.

I wish the wonderful folks at Grasshopper Bank every success as they open their doors for business. Mazel tov!

*The OCC is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all national banks and thrift institutions and the federally licensed branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States.