To see the video directly on Youtube please click here or scroll down for the embedded video.

What is a blog dedicated to places to go and things to do supposed to talk about during a time when there are NO places to go or things to do?

The shelter in place order that’s been in effect in the Bay Area for a month now seriously changed the original plan I had for this video. I was originally planning to interview at least 3 people and talk about our favorite dog-friendly hiking trails that are shaded (given that summer is coming). Unfortunately, we are confined to our small condo and the open spaced we can walk/bike to. On the bright side, our quarantine experience hasn’t been terrible and one thing I’m sure has influenced this is the existence of Mocha. Dogs can be such a great company and this inspired me to do a micro-documentary on our experience.

The other thing that inspired me to do this story is the fact that I know how therapeutic and calming dogs can be. A pandemic is a stressful time, so we’re lucky to have a dog that can take our mind off of being “stuck” at home and not knowing when we’ll be able to travel internationally and see our family in Mexico.

If you didn’t know, Mocha is a “professional” therapy dog (yes, that’s a thing). Last year, he passed some tests and became an official member of Furry Friends, a wonderful organization that visits nursing homes, hospitals, retirement communities, libraries, schools, and other locations. Therapy dogs are believed to bring peace and good vibes to people going through tough times. Although we haven’t been able to do any visits because of COVID-19, we have experienced first-hand the calming effect a dog can have when feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Bringing the story to life

Given the circumstances, I was limited with my locations but had fun experimenting with different angles and shots. Since I did some recording outdoors and my only filming equipment is my smartphone, I used the credit card trick to get good audio. Once I was editing on Adobe Premiere, I found that I had to make minor adjustments to the audio from the footage filmed outside thanks to this.

My storyboard, which you can view here, turned out a bit different from my original plan but having a script helped me structure everything. I worked on 3 different scripts, timed them and followed the one I liked best.

As we learned in class, I shot (a lot) more footage than I thought I needed. I have at least 1 hour of video that I used to create this 2:30 mins video story. When filming I stuck to the basics learned in the first week: the 10-second rule and the 3×3 method. Sometimes, getting close-up shots was hard because while Mocha is a professional therapy dog (ha!), he’s not a dog actor hehe, so he moved a lot. The shots I got in open spaces, mostly in our local parks, were slightly rushed at times, considering I had to move if another person was walking by.

Setting scenes, sound effects and video transitions

I decided to use music for the introductory part of the video and not use any more music after that because I worried about making it feel stuffed. The song I used is literally called “sad song” and is free to use under Creative Commons License 0. I downloaded it from http://soundcloud.com/. The other effect I used was a typewriter sound I downloaded from http://freesound.org/. This sound was also free to use under CC License 0.

To animate the text I used keyframes, adding the letters one by one. This was super simple and I think effective at grabbing the viewer’s attention vs. displaying static text.

As far as video transitions, I used 3:

• Cross dissolve for most of them.
• Dip to black when the scene began or ended with black video.
• Dip to white for the interviews

If anything, this is a video on a positive thing that has happened as a consequence of sheltering in place due to COVID-19. As a family with a dog, we are so grateful to have him in our lives at this time.

We hope you enjoy, or at least laugh at how dog-obsessed we are.

Wags and kisses,

Mocha’s mom