No Coding Required
Committed to both beginner and experienced interactive storytellers alike, Klynt, is a ready-to-use editing and publishing platform. It was originally created by the team at Honkytonk Films to assist in creating interactive documentary films in an affordable and easy-to-use way. Now, the latest release (2014) of Klynt is available for content producers in the fields of journalism, photography, or documentary filmmaking.
Whether your project is a short documentary film or a simple infographic, you’ll be able to make it as interactive as you want it to be. Klynt 3 is able to weave various forms of media such as videos, images or audio, with text. Alongside this, you can input buttons to trigger certain actions based on the interactive elements you would like to incorporate into the project.
To see what final products look like when using Klynt 3, check out their project gallery and view the various types of content creators have made.
To begin my own personal navigation of the program, I tested out Klynt’s project demo that comes with the program download. I found that the default setup for a new project is a storyboard mind map layout.
Featured in “Project Demo”.
This is helpful for those who like to visualize the progress of their project in this way, as compared to being limited to a video timeline featured in similar programs.
It took a series of trial and errors with the program when it came to putting together my own visual project, as it would happen with any new application I would try to learn. In comparison to an application like Adobe Premiere Pro, Klynt is definitely user friendly.
Ways to edit, cut and import media is straightforward and easy to find. First time users won’t be overwhelmed with unexplained symbols or windows when it comes to Klynt.
Timeline set up from a trial of my own personal project.
A challenge I came across at the beginning was how the application was laid out. As previously mentioned, the first thing you’d see is the storyboard mind map layout. To build on and add to it is as easy as a plus sign in the corner. But if you would want to create different segments off the main point you’ve created on the storyboard, the navigation on how to do it is hard to find. Eventually, it would be resolved by trying to click a series of random buttons until you’ve got the right one.
Although this prime example of unclear navigation is present for a first time user, the lack of an overload of symbols actually helps in lessening the confusion.
From cutting clips together and overlaying text to create a strong visual or simply just throwing together mixed media to see what your storyboard could look like, the program’s simplicity and power can attend to any kind of project.
For aspiring journalists or those new to the newsroom, creating an interactive piece is the latest and fastest development in storytelling. Don’t have coding quite under your belt? Great news, Klynt requires no coding at all. This opportunity allows anyone, no matter their technological background, to tell a powerful story in a new way.
