LYFT PROMO // VIDEO PROTOTYPE
 

CLASS

MHCI+D Prototyping Studio with Andy Davidson

ASSIGNMENT

Create a video prototype for one of the following applications: OneBusAway / Lyft / Uber / Car2Go / ZipCar / Pronto.

We chose Lyft.

PROCESS

Videos are a necessarily collaborative process. Although it is indeed possible to plan, shoot, edit, and star in a video without any outside help, most videos require additional team members to realize their full potential. Thus, for the video prototyping assignment, I decided to collaborate with fellow cohort member and good friend, Sara.

Sara and I spent Sunday morning in the studio, throwing ideas around, brainstorming, and storyboarding on giant whiteboards that cover the studio walls. We had just watched The Grand Budapest Hotel the night before, and were feeling inspired to create something fun, quirky, and perhaps even a bit edgy, in an attempt to express ourselves and showcase our personalities through film.

After throwing around many possible scenarios, we settled on a concept: our idea was to create two videos about a Tinder date gone wrong, one from a boy’s point of view and the other from a girl’s. Upon escaping the nightmarish date, the protagonist would climb out of the bathroom window and be heroically saved by a Lyft driver.

The following night we headed to Krakken, shot list and camera in hand. After hours of beer, bar food, and taking over the dive bar with our equipment, we believed we had our best attempt at the footage we had hoped for, and called it a wrap.

The bad date montage scenes consisted of the close-up, head-on framing we had envisioned, the climbing out of the bathroom scene was just as quirky and endearing as we had hoped, and, most importantly, we learned several invaluable lessons along the way.

LEARNINGS

1. Lighting is everything. Late night bar shots are difficult for amateurs (a problem we solved with two iPhone flashlights). I think that I’ll attempt to utilize natural daylight in my next film.

2. Collaboration is key. Working with Sara was paramount to creating the submitted final project. Bouncing ideas off of each other, brainstorming and problem solving together, and even the support of being “in it” together with a team member were all invaluable to the process and final product.

3. When it comes to making videos, the learning curve is steep. Although Sara and I are both very proud of our final videos, we learned a great deal throughout the process and are eager to try again. Video prototyping is perhaps my favorite thus far, and I believe my next attempt will be a much improved product.