The start of this week was set up for success as soon as I completed my project management system. When I opened Asana to review this week’s tasks for my It’s More Than Hair campaign, I was given a clear understanding of what needed to be done.
Continued TikTok Research
For one hour, I researched existing TikToks to obtain ideas for hashtags and editing styles. During my research, I added any toks I would refer to in my TikTok Inspirations artifact. For each selected tok I recorded its URL for future utilization. I also included detailed notes on what the tok discussed and how I will use it to ensure the creation of high-quality content for my campaign.
From this week’s research, I concluded that I will have my educational toks outdoors. Afros have been compared to treetops due to how full and round they can be. Delivering an educational tok under a huge tree will play into this concept. I also saw examples of captions being used at the top of videos or used as a divider between a narration video and supporting photos.
My goal is to offer a diversity of content. I want there to be a healthy mix of editing styles, so I will make sure to rotate my caption placement according to my toks’ specific needs. Another editing tool that I encountered through other creators is the utilization of a green screen, where I can appear on top of my supporting photos and video. Kaylatheshow created a tok where she added her supoprting content as stickers that pop in and out while she spoke.
My main goal is to hold my audience’s attention while not losing my video’s authenticity. These editing styles will assist my content’s success.
Create Production Journal
In creative industries, it is a standard practice to hold weekly production meetings. It provides team check-ins to ensure projects are moving along smoothly and that team members are on track. Creating a production journal helps creators hold themselves accountable to their workloads while providing documentation other team members can use to assess what still needs to be done.
When creating my production journal, I wrote out all of my listed Asana tasks first and then filled in supporting tasks. I chose to allocate 20 hours towards my project this week, and I split up that time amongst my tasks. Knowing that creating my 21 TikTok scripts would have the heaviest demand I allocated 10 hours to it, this translates to 2 hours per day (Mon-Fri).
To obtain my duration times, I ran my iPhone’s stopwatch to ensure that I did not go over my allocated times. This helped me eliminate the burnout I would have experienced if I dedicated one day to writing out all of my scripts. Another benefit of this approach was that I worked on different areas of my project, so forward motion was apparent because lighter tasks were being completed first.
Something that a project management system and a production journal share is the sense of fulfillment once they are completed. It takes a lot of hard work to put together quality projects; it is easy to get lost in the process. But when you can look at a physical representation of the work done, it helps keep morale and motivation up.
Drafting My Artifacts
Before this project, I had created my TikTok content without any scripts. I’ve left all that I have to convey for the day of filming. Although freestyling has worked for me on other projects, I wanted a more structured approach for, It’s More Than Hair. I will be sharing a lot of dense information, and I want to make sure that what I share is accurate and is delivered in a manner that my audience can receive it.
Writing out captions, intended hashtags, story arcs, call to actions, and film notes is just the same as creating my project management system or production journal. When it comes time to film and I get lost in wardrobe, going to film locations, and setting up equipment, I will have something to refer to that will keep me on track.
I created a template for my educational toks using TikTok’s recommended story arc:
Beginning- Hook
Middle- Name 3-5 points
End-Call to Action
Using this template made writing out my scripts an easier process because I knew what I needed to write out for each topic. They came together more cohesively than I initially expected, and I know I have a plan for my film days.
Once I finished writing out a script, I found supporting photos and video I would want to use and added them to my photo and video archive. I also included the URL for each archive listing so that if a photo of video breaks, I can go back to the original source and obtain a new copy. I also want to include photo and video credits so that other content creators and artist may recieve their credit for their work.
Conclusion
It has been an interesting experience attempting a creative project through a structured approach. There has been a lot of work involved in planning and drafting the intended content of my social media campaign. But I know next week, when I execute filming the content, all of my current hard work will pay off. What a gift it is to start Week 4 of my project with excitement versus exhaustion and confusion.