Data Stories, Nov 2011

As an initial experiment in using data to edit a story and control the narrative, I played with using values parsed from a letter as filter effects values in Final Cut Pro.

This is a still image of a video of me, my father and my cousin playing cards one New Year's Eve in Manila.

 

I used Processing to parse the text from an old letter from my father, paying attention to the number of words and the lengths of each one.

 

Once I had these, I generated an XML file that Final Cut Pro would understand. I used numbers from the letter as values for keyframe locations and video distortion.

 

 

 

 

Thus my father's letter to me is overlaid on this old family memory.

For the next iteration, I want the data to be able to tell the story by really editing -- rearranging the shots, controlling the timing and the pace. In this way the data will affect the narrative.