Becoming Audiovisual

A new way of providing technical information was presented by Angel Pariente, professional filmmaker who recently made aliyah. A small group of technical writers and colleagues met at Svi and Pnina Ben Elya’s home in Yokneam.  Outside in the cool air Angel showed us how to become audiovisual. In a hands-on demo he showed us how a rudimentary technical instruction leaflet is transformed into a video clip with concise and instructive audio.  He successfully made assembly of a household food processor seem so easy that immediately one wanted to pick up all the heavy manuals, toss ‘em, seize the challenge and move forward with the new technology and interface. Angel’s many years of film making experience in the commercial and entertainment world gave added value to his talk on how to successfully use the new technology. He led an open discussion as to whether video-audio instruction would and could replace today’s technical manuals.  Who would be most likely to immediately integrate and use it as a tool for instructing a market audience on how to use a product, and which market age group would be most likely to easily adapt.  In general the opinion was,  the younger the market - whether it be writer or user - the more receptive to new technologies and ways of accessing information.  He gave us a brief look at how a story-board is setup with two parallel columns, one for putting down the visuals, the other for the accompanying audio-script.

During the discussion Angel became aware of some real challenges technical writers face, such as documentation of a product that does not yet exist.  The viability of using a graphic mock-up providing a realistic model of what eventually will be the product was discussed as well as other solutions. Angel is creating a training module to familiarize technical writers to the medium and the big challenge they face in "switching minds". Consisting of five sessions he calls it the “Pink Elephant”. He recommends you close your eyes, and not think of an elephant!  Just squeeze your eyes tight, and relax. The little pink flashes sparking into the visual brain are, he explains, beautifully defined in Biblical Hebrew as “and they saw the voices”.  Or “heshmal” which we know as electricity, but it seems, originally meant the blurry interface between the various parts of the brain and the door into the unknown. That space where our ideas and creative thinking bubble around in and flow out of.  Angel says his Pink Elephant Training Module is designed to stimulate that precise area. If our writers have any topics in audio-visual narration that Angel may be able to assist in and perhaps include into the series please email Svi Ben Elya at svi@svi.co.il or Angel Pariente at angelepariente@mac.com directly.

A new way of providing technical information was presented by Angel Pariente, professional filmmaker who recently made aliyah.  A small group of technical writers and colleagues met at Svi and Pnina Ben Elya’s home in Yokneam.  Outside in the cool air Angel showed us how to become audiovisual. In a hands-on demo he showed us how a rudimentary technical instruction leaflet is transformed into a video clip with concise and instructive audio.  He successfully made assembly of a household food processor seem so easy that immediately one wanted to pick up all the heavy manuals, toss ‘em, seize the challenge and move forward with the new technology and interface.

Angel’s many years of film making experience in the commercial and entertainment world gave added value to his talk on how to successfully use the new technology. He led an open discussion as to whether video-audio instruction would and could replace today’s technical manuals.  Who would be most likely to immediately integrate and use it as a tool for instructing a market audience on how to use a product, and which market age group would be most likely to easily adapt.  In general the opinion was,  the younger the market - whether it be writer or user - the more receptive to new technologies and ways of accessing information.  He gave us a brief look at how a story-board is setup with two parallel columns, one for putting down the visuals, the other for the accompanying audio-script.

During the discussion Angel became aware of some real challenges technical writers face, such as documentation of a product that does not yet exist.  The viability of using a graphic mock-up providing a realistic model of what eventually will be the product was discussed as well as other solutions.

Angel is creating a training module to familiarize technical writers to the medium and the big challenge they face in "switching minds". Consisting of five sessions he calls it the “Pink Elephant”. He recommends you close your eyes, and not think of an elephant!  Just squeeze your eyes tight, and relax. The little pink flashes sparking into the visual brain are, he explains, beautifully defined in Biblical Hebrew as “and they saw the voices”.  Or “heshmal” which we know as electricity, but it seems, originally meant the blurry interface between the various parts of the brain and the door into the unknown. That space where our ideas and creative thinking bubble around in and flow out of.  Angel says his Pink Elephant Training Module is designed to stimulate that precise area.

If our writers have any topics in audio-visual narration that Angel may be able to assist in and perhaps include into the series please email Svi Ben Elya at svi@svi.co.il or Angel Pariente at angelepariente@mac.com directly.