Sorry if someone thinks I'm cross-posting too much, but I just wanted to get opinions from everyone who might have a stake in this :)
Alright, so I'm trying to think how I can do my part for this little community, and since I've got some degree of proficiency with Adobe Premiere and After Effects, I thought I might be able to put together a little video to explain exactly what Drupal is. I'm envisioning something with a catchy beat, and graphic/text elements -- no voice-overs. I'm in the really early stages of thinking about this, but I'm considering this picture to be my biggest influence right now as to the feel of the presentation:
(I really like the tetris-like style of it, and think that's something to work with!)
Target Audience
At this point, I'm imagining the true target audience would be folks in the development community who've heard about Drupal, but haven't been able to invest the time into understanding why it's so great, nor what all the terminology means. But I also want someone who's not especially web-dev-savvy to understand by the end of it what Drupal does -- while they might not understand the details, the graphics will help convey how relatively simple website-building can be while using it.
Honestly, part of this is that I want to create a video to explain to my family and friends exactly what this thing is that I've become so gung-ho about :)
Not the I'm realistically aiming for this, but I want this to be something universal enough that it could forseeably get dugg, if that makes sense!
Music
The way I see it, this is actually rather important, as it will likely inspire how the whole things comes together. I'm looking for something instrumental or a mash-up, without too many distracting words (if any at all). Should be up-beat, and possibly change tempo a few times. Something indie is much better, as I'd like to actually get the artist's blessing! I can even cut up a song pretty cleanly if need be.
So far, this is all I have, but I've got a big library to go through, and I'm sure more options will surface:
The Darchives - Monogamy Is a Type Of Wood
A.M. - The First Cut - words don't fit, but I like the tempo and progression
Creaky List - A Neon Vogue Purveying
(ha?) Anyone have any other suggestions?
Outline
So far, here's what I'm thinking we should include:
-
Graphical technical overview
What I really want to try to convey is how everything just sort of fits together -- like an ecosystem overview. This would involve some sort of sweeping summary of all the technical bits.
- Fields
- Nodes
- Entities
- Modules
- Features
- Install Profiles
- Themes
- Multisite
- Drush?
- Aegir
- Services
- Hooks?
- OG?
- Panels?
- User?
- Roles?
Am I missing anything? Is that scope too wide?
In terms of making it easy to grasp, I'm still trying to decide whether it's best to start at the bottom and work up (fields), or start at the top (site), which is probably the most familiar for laypersons, and work down.
I'd also like to have a section (right after this tech overview?) showing a site getting assembled. If I end up taking a tetris-like approach with the graphics, then perhaps this could be a split-screen, with a website on one side, and the pieces falling into place on the other as it's built. (Perhaps even drush commands at the bottom, just to drive that home for the geeks?) Just a thought, but I'm not committed to any idea yet.
-
The community (How it works)
I'm still doing some thinking on this one... so I'll have to add specifics later. But I think it's important, because I find it truly inspiring. Honestly, this community has got me thinking about how much can be accomplished when the citizens design their own tools (or at least have a say). It's really given me faith in how far other realms (science & government, particularly) could advance if they adopted similar principles and practices. But that's a whole other topic, so I won't get ranting...!
Not sure if it's too technical, but I think I should give some indication of how unit testing works with the issue queue. While I'm not versed in it yet, it seems to be one of the coolest tools that the community has built for itself.
-
Who's using it
Do a quick hope around to show who's using drupal, and how. Again, need to work on details of this.
So has this been done already? Any good examples out there? Is there enough interest to start a wiki? I'd be totally interested in hearing feedback from people, and if anyone wants to chip in expertise, then that'd be wonderful!
Comments
Front to Back
I think your best bet is to start from the frontend and work your way back behind the scenes . This way you can interest the non-developers at least in the beginning. Perhaps start with demoing some basic features all sites typically need and then work into how those are built with ease using Drupal Dev features you itemized earlier. The following features are part of most of our pitches to both clients and developers:
Good call on starting at the
Good call on starting at the front-end... maybe I could figure out some sort of visualization technique that would allow for "peeling back" the layers to show what components have gone into building each...
Thanks for the insight Jerod!
i think the list of
i think the list of priorities can be something like this:
Thanks for your in-depth take
Thanks for your in-depth take on it, takpar! I'll try to do up some mockups when I get some time. The hardest part of explaining all this with graphics will be figuring out how to visualize it in a way that's intuitive to grasp...
Target Audience
I would be very careful about mixing target audiences.
You can't please both web devs and laymen at the same time.
I would even suggest doing a separate video for each audience.
I agree. Perhaps, concepts
I agree. Perhaps, concepts can get compartmentalized into video shorts... they could get taxonimized (← real word?) so Drupal could relate them to each other, you could also set static playlists into the the orders that you intend them to be watched.
In any case, people of varying levels of technicity(← real word??) interact with drupal in different ways so coming at it from a static "all the people all the time" approach is destined to fall short.
oops.. i see now from
oops.. i see now from scrolling down that I didn't add anything new to the discussion D:
so I guess the question is which concepts do you START making the vids for... and I say prioritize the essentials that just about EVERY drupal site will have and expand from there, at which point the priority would become your arbitrary decision.
I love the idea though... let us know where those mockups can be seen.
BTW what are you using to produce this?
haha no worries cory -- at
haha no worries cory -- at least you've expanded my vocabulary, hey?
As for what I use, that's Adobe Premiere and After Effects CS3, and obviously a bit of Illustrator for the vector work, but haven't used to newer versions yet
Target Audiance
I agree with Lewis I think that theer are a diverse set of target audiances that you could possibly address and I think the answer to that question will shape the content and approach. As the Drupla community continues to grow I think that the growth of the community will come from folks who have traditional IT or Development job descriptions (db designers, system architetcs, programmers, project managers, business owners). These are pople many of which have specilaized skills based on the traditional web development practices and it may not be evident how their world aligns with the Drupal world. If this is the case then the I think that completing some further anaysis of the new drupal memebrs, their background and the problems they have encounted will hopefully identify the audiance of highest value (greatest impact for time spent) and the outline and content, I don't think that a one size fits approach will be effective.
i think making the
i think making the presentation with a base to advanced flow in mind would let everyone to profit it based on his/her need and knowledge.
and planning separate presentations just makes focus discrete; also i think there is no clear boundary between drupal users. they are in a continues range, some ordinary user might be interested in being familiar with more complex aspects of Drupal.
Target Audiance
I disagree MkeHack, I think focusing on developers would be a mistake. While you're right that you can't please everyone, Drupal regardless of skill level or job description needs a basic intro to be understood well. I think a Drupal basics video would be great, then you can think of doing an Advanced video later.
My original experience when I first looked at Drupal was lack luster because I didn't understand what to do after it was installed, lucky me I attended a Drupal meet up that helped me understand it better. I think a Drupal Basics video could help developers sell their clients on the system and help designers better understand why in the end Drupal is a better option than Wordpress, Joomla or a static site. A great sales pitch can make all the difference :)
-Dani
I suggest narrowing the
I suggest narrowing the scope, or as Lewis suggested above, producing multiple videos. Lullabot's excellent Understanding Drupal video is over an hour long, and still only covers the basics. Bear in mind, that this comes from some of the best Drupal trainers and communicators around.
From your original post, it sounds like what's got you so excited is Drupal's capability to build and manage complex, powerful websites and applications by virtue of it's modular nature and some very innovative tools (read drush, features, etc.). In that case, I'd also recommend taking a look at the graphic halfway down mig5's insightful post, for further inspiration.
For a non-developer audience, presenting solutions to problems they don't have won't get them any further towards understanding what makes this all so elegant. The left side of the Development Seed graphic, along with about half of Lullabot's video are just concerned with illustrating the problems inherent in building complex sites. Also, as we become more familiar with any topic, it becomes increasingly difficult not to sound like this guy to the uninitiated.
That said, I think it's a great idea, and wish you the best of luck in realizing it.
Narrow the scope
I think the narrower you focus, the more successful the video will be of expanding the Drupal audience.
I think it's more likely to entice devs then people looking for a quick blog solution.
If you can pick 3/4 main points of what makes Drupal great, then you're off to a good start.
Split into multiple videos
I agree with a couple of the previous posts saying to cover a bit less topics. A lot of the stuff like multisite, aegir, Domain access, Organic groups are all information architecture decisions so those might be good to group together as advanced setups. Maybe make a few videos with the first one that focuses on drupal core and then go from there.
Your art style above made me think of this video -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zEXdDO5JU
Very effective motion graphics style for presenting extremely complex concepts. I'd search for more things by Jonathan Jarvis as his style looks very similar to what you're going for (at least from your mock up).
Ex Uno Plures
http://elmsln.org/
http://btopro.com/
http://drupal.psu.edu/
Wow, thanks for all the
Wow, thanks for all the feedback folks! Really appreciate it.
@LewisNyman & MkeHack, You're totally right about not spreading myself too thin with audience. And maybe "laymen" was a poor choice of words. I suppose a better fit would be folks who know nothing of drupal (and perhaps very little of CMS's in general), but still could potentially enter the fold -- for instance, undergrad computer science students.
And on that note, this might fit nicely with Dries keynote. We need new recruits with the potential to become highly contributing users, and I suppose undergrads are the definition of that prime audience. And MkeHack, I think many of the IT profesessionals you mentioned would still get something out of the overview.
These lower-level comp-sci undergrads would seem to be one of the highest value audiences: They're entering a period of intense academic development, and deciding where to hone their skills and what tools they'll use -- perfect people to lure into Drupal.
Yeah, I'm inclined to agree that mildly curious newcomers would still be interested in advanced features, so long as we avoided the nitty-gritty
Oh man, same here. It's just dumb luck that I got invested in Drupal before I realized how pretty wordpress was...
@ergonlogic haha thanks for the links. I should try to get my hands on a copy of Understanding Drupal. We obviously have different scopes, but still.
@btopro liking that style A LOT... I wasn't intended to get into detail enough that voiceover was required, but that video managed to stay quick even with it...
Thanks again folks. I'll post something more concrete when I have it, but you've given me something better to chew on
Right on Track
I think that your assesment is right on. From a value engineering perspective I think that you get the greates return for your efforts from a project directed at this audiance. I think that the audiance you slected will have limited bias and in general minimally invested in one one technology an thus be very receptive. As you mentioned this would also be useful for the wider aduiance of thoes engaged in web development who have may have a general interest is this thing called Drupal. Thanks for taking on this project and hope you can keep us informed as you progress.
Steve
Thanks for the supportive
Thanks for the supportive words MkeHack :)
I'll be fairly busy until mid Dec when my contract expires, at which point I might live off my severance for a bit and take some "personal time" cough unemployment cough to work on my portfolio and contribute more to the community... So it might be a trickle until then.
Sell the community
Maybe it is a good idea to sell the community rather then the product.
Maybe a video coinciding with the release of the Drupal.org redesign would be a great way for new users to get stuck in to the community, which will be a great benefit in the long run both to them and Drupal.
I guess it would be something like:
Hmmm interesting... but I'll
Hmmm interesting... but I'll have to think about this, as the features have been what I've been putting most thought into, in terms of how the visuals would come together... I'll definitely think about it though!
Excellent idea - some creative suggestions
I've been following this thread since it was posted and I think the video is a great concept and there've been a lot of really good suggestions. I think that if all goes well, what you really have is the basis for multiple videos - a full marketing campaign really.
In your original post, you asked about music suggestions. Maybe check out http://ocremix.org/ - there's several thousand remixes there, and most aren't under copyright.
Also, from one AFX/Premiere user to another: good luck, have fun, and don't over use the effects... if there's ever a video where the content has all the bang that's needed, this is it. :D
Can't wait to see the results!
haha oy... I totally
haha oy... I totally appreciate the support, but the mention of "full marketing campaign" is a little scary! I should probably post something to make sure everyone's expectations are aligned... I know even the video I'm choosing to post has flaw, but hopefully it doesn't kill the enthusiasm :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-x4d6uM4JI
Sorry, just wanted to get that out of the way: I'm only a hobbyist with the motion graphics, and I just realized that maybe I wasn't clear on that...
But with that out of the way, thanks tlynnex! I'm really intrigued by that link btw. Doesn't seem that they rank songs, so it might take a bit of perusing, but it seems worth it.
And good call on the effects. I definitely don't wanna be the dude who steals every effect from the Video Copilot tutorials...
Random thought/suggestion?
Nice video. :)
Just a random thought - if you decide to take a "modules as building blocks" approach, maybe consider using one of the Tetris remixes to emphasize the point. http://ocremix.org/quicksearch/game/?qs_query=tetris
Lets be careful...
Lets not go overboard with the music guys, all you need is something repetitive with a beat, like the kind DJs talk over on the radio to cover up any long pauses.
I see too many videos on youtube when the music seems to take center stage instead of the actual content.