Best Practices in Developing Education, Outreach and Training Videos to Communicate NEES Research Findings
Prepared by:
Aditya Bhagath
Thomas Frankie
Under the advisement of:
Prof. Dan Kuchma
NEES MUST-SIM Testing Facility
University of IllinoisDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering
205 N Mathews Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
CONTENTS
1 Introduction 3
2 Education Outreach and Training videos 3
3 Equipment and software required for video creation 5
4 The process of developing a video 11
4.1 Writing a script 11
4.2 Capturing and managing audio 13
4.3 Capturing and managing video 14
4.4 Copyright and free media 16
5 Conclusions 17
1 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this best practices document is to equip the reader to leverage advanced research work and results obtained through NEES funding to produce high quality videos for the purpose of education, outreach and training. This document was developed throughout several testing programs taking place at the Illinois NEES MUST-SIM facility and is intended for use by researchers and educators prior to the start of the experimental phase of a project. Motivation for the document comes from the success and impact that these videos developed at Illinois have had in public outreach and education at K-12 levels.
WHAT IS EDUCATION, OUTREACH AND TRAINING?
Education and Outreach focuses chiefly on enhancing and improving education in schools, homes and communities. In addition to only educational advancement and learning, outreach efforts are intended to inform and educate the public on the importance of research work done and its impact on the lives of people. An educated society is a more engaged society, better capable of making informed decisions and providing assessment, feedback, and accountability to researchers regarding the impact and importance of their work in daily life. Training involves outreach to the profession(s) associated with the field of study, and seeks to provide support to enhance the personal and professional skills of local and national-level employees affected by the research work performed.
2 TYPES OF VIDEOS:
EDUCATION, OUTREACH AND TRAINING VIDEOS
The basic purpose of the videos is to serve as a means of effectively disseminating information in a format that is easily understood by a specific target user. These videos can be classified in two ways:
1) By purpose
2) By way they are captured
VIDEO TYPES BY PURPOSE:
The videos can be created to serve three different purposes, based on their intended usage:
EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS:
These videos aim to teach a particular concept or project and are tailor-made with a specific audience in mind.
OUTREACH VIDEOS:
These videos are intended to be generic in nature, keeping in mind that the audience does not have the technical background to understand the content.
TRAINING VIDEOS:
In this type of video, the intent is to train the viewer to be able to perform activities that can help educate people.
VIDEO TYPES BY TYPE OF FILMING:
These videos can also be classified by the way they are captured and in terms of the content being displayed. The person creating videos must ensure an ideal combination of these types of videos, so as to maximize benefit to the user and effectively capture his/her attention.
TALKING HEAD
This type of video involves a single person on screen giving a presentation. The video, then cuts back and forth between pictures, technical data on graphs, animations and technical videos.
INTERVIEW
There are two ways in which interview videos can be created. They are:
1) The interviewer has a set of prepared questions or points that he/she will ask the expert on the topic for answers.
2) In certain interview videos, the interviewer and interviewee both have entirely pre-written scripts i.e. the interviewer has pre-written questions and the person being interviewed has prepared answers to those questions.
VOICE-OVER NARRATION
This type of video consists of visuals accompanied by a person narrating the content off screen. The narrator will be describing the relevance and connection to the content being displayed. Videos describing experimental tests are generally in this category.
DEMONSTRATION
The person on camera demonstrates the process or experiment using a small scale specimen or model.
3 EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE REQUIRED FOR VIDEO CREATION
EQUIPMENT
a) HI-DEFINITION VIDEO CAMERA
The video camera is used to capture videos of the specimen and record interview sections. There are different types of video cameras available, each with different capabilities which may or may not be required in certain cases.
The video camera should have the following minimum features set, so as to be able to film high quality video content:
1) Capable of shooting in 1080p or 720p high definition or standard definition
2) 10x or greater zoom with optical image stabilization
3) Storage capabilities on a hard disk or flash memory cards
4) FireWire, A/V and USB connectivity for easy transfer of files
5) Microphone terminal for capturing audio with greater clarity
6) Automatic and manual modes to change the camera focus
Best Practices· While capturing video with the camera, record sample clips and check to
ensure that the audio, color balance and overall composition of the shot is correct.
· If there is a viewfinder on your video camera, use it instead of theLCD. Using the LCD would drain the batteries faster.
· If possible, use a remote control to control the camera while recording and zooming. Doing so would avoid the clicking noises you would otherwise get when using your hands to control the camera.
· In many camcorders, the recording starts a couple of seconds after the button is clicked. So allow yourself a couple of seconds before and after the video recording. This will also make the video editing easier.
· If possible, view the captured video on a large screen and make sure that the camera has focused correctly on the object/person on the screen. The focus is never evident on the LCD screen on the camera.
b) WIRELESS MICROPHONE KIT
The microphones can be used while recording video interviews and help capture audio with the least possible external disturbance.
The wireless microphone kit consists of 2 components: a transmitter and a receiver. The way a microphone works is that, the microphone transmits audio via the transmitter, which then modulates the signal into a radio frequency and sends it across to the receiver, which in turn demodulates the signal back into an audio signal.
The following features should be present in a wireless microphone kit:
1) Runs on UHF or Ultra High frequency to insure an uncluttered signal
2) A ¼” jack and male XLR cable so that it can be attached to an amplifier
3) It has a screen with battery level indicator and displays at what frequency the
transmitter is working
· Use an external microphone and make sure not to use the built-in microphone on the video camera as the built-in microphones are generally of low quality.
· Allow a clear line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver.
· Monitor the strength of the battery levels and always carry a spare set of batteries.
· Try and minimize disturbance from external sources like from fans, generators or phones.
c) LIGHTING KITS
These kits are used to provide additional lighting to make sure the specimen/interviewee can be seen clearly while filming the video. The use of these kits could be avoided if the filming is done inside a well lit room, especially with natural light. The following guidelines must be kept in mind while buying a lighting kit for video filming:
1) Choose either a soft box or umbrella type lighting equipment as they serve to reduce
the harshness of the light produced by the bulbs
2) Ensure that the light bulbs being used have a color temperature of 5500K because it
is the temperature of natural light
3) Choose a continuous light source so that the subject is lighted throughout the video
4) The higher the wattage of the bulb, the brighter the light. So for filming, ideally you
want a bulb between 500W to 750W
· Don not shoot your subject in front of a window or additional light source, unless you want you’re subject to appear in silhouette; the best light source comes from behind the camera.
· Make sure you tape down all cables to avoid people tripping over.
· Place the lighting to ensure there are no shadows on the subject.
SOFTWARE
The software’s required to produce videos are the following:
a) MICROSOFT POWERPOINT
Microsoft PowerPoint can be used extensively for creating media for the videos. The slides can be used to create introductory welcome screens and static pictures. Each individual slide can be saved as a picture using PowerPoint.
The smart art feature in PowerPoint can be used in the creation of animations. Smart art, clip art and other shapes in PowerPoint, can be saved as pictures and imported and sorted into individual layers in Adobe Photoshop. These layers can then be imported into Adobe Premiere and used to create the final animation.
b) ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
Adobe Photoshop is an image editingsoftware using which, you can edit and manipulate images using this software. With the powerful tools that Photoshop offers, there are a lot of features that can be used to create, even the most complex digital images easily.
Adobe Photoshop consists of a user-friendly interface and is very easy to navigate. It is easy to select precise parts of an image with the use of the magic wand and lasso tools. Thesoftwarealso comes with tools such as brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, color balance, levels, curves and many other tools which are useful in enhancing or changing the color of an image. Adobe Photoshop is integrated with the other software’s of Adobe Systems. Photoshop shares the same user interface as Adobe Premiere and Adobe AfterEffects. With the integration, you can work seamlessly between these software’s.
c) ADOBE PREMIERE
Adobe Premiere is a powerful video editing tool, capable of producing broadcast-quality and high-definition video. It is a very popular package amongst video enthusiasts and professionals. It has a nice cleaninterfacewhich makes it very easy to use. Adobe Premiere is capable of the following:
· Importing video, audio and graphics into a wide variety of formats.
· Editing, manipulating and arranging the elements in a visual timeline.
· Adding effects, filters and titles to contribute more variation to the video.
· Rendering the edited video into a variety of formats, including video tape recordings, DV, DVD and common Internet video formats.
Best Practices· When producing the video, read the script and try to match the script and the audio with corresponding media so that the viewer can understand the content clearly by looking at the video.
· The audio, video and pictures required for these videos should be kept in a particular directory and should not be moved as Adobe Premiere will not be able to find the required files.
· The first and best rule to keep in mind when choosing a video codec is to select the codec that matches the format of the video you are editing. Thus, if you are shooting NTSC DV, the DV/DVCPRO - NTSC codec is the best one to choose.
· If you are selecting a codec to integrate multiple video formats, choose the codec that provides the highest quality.
· The following formats can be used to render the video based upon the users requirement :
v Medium Quality , Small File Size, Best Compatibility: WMV Format
v High Quality, Large File Size, Best Compatibility: 1080p/720p using the H.264 codec
4 PROCESS OF CREATING A VIDEO
The process behind creating a video is highly linear. It starts with visualizing the content, writing it down and then recording the audio track. Without the audio track, video creation cannot be started. The basic trick to creating a good video is to synchronize the voiceover and the content being displayed on the screen.
There are four steps in producing high quality educational videos. They are:
1. Writing a script
2. Capturing and managing audio
3. Capturing and managing video
4. Free and copyright media
4.1 WRITING A SCRIPT
The script is the “text” of the video that will be produced. In general, it should follow the outline of a thesis i.e. have modules like an introduction to the problem, concepts required to understand the problem, equipment/facility used to conduct the tests, the test results and the conclusions derived. Ask yourself the following questions before writing the script:
1. What do you want to use your video for?
2. Who would be your target audience?
3. What information should be included, and how should it be presented?
4. How will you make sure your video will stand out?
5. What style will your target audience respond to?
Once you have answers to these questions, you can start writing the script. Try to write the script in small sections. This way, it is easier to create the video and piece together relevant modules for a video being shown to a specific audience.
Modular Approach:
The script writer must try his/her best to make each video module independent of each other. Each module must be able to explain a concept or a result without being dependent on some other video to ensure its completeness.
Best Practices· Read out the script entirely, module by module and ensure the script flows well. Also note the time taken to read each module at a measured pace.
· Ideally try to limit each module to between 2 or 4 minutes so as to maximize user attention.
· Add page numbers to the script so that there is an easy way to refer to any section on the script.
· Double check the script for errors so that the recording goes smoothly.
· If you would like the reader to emphasize certain words in the script, make sure to indicate them by formatting them using bold or italicized text. Make certainto inform the narrator about this convention.
· Make sure to provide phonetic pronunciation on certain technical words that might be difficult to pronounce.
· In certain sections of the video, a pause might be required in the narration to accommodate graphical changes on the screen, or transition to a different picture. Indicate the pause on the script using “…” or the word “pause” between brackets.
· Make sure every section is completed within the page that it started on. This will avoid the narrator having to change pages while reading the script.
· Try to have the script reviewed by professional readers or journalists. Try approaching professors in the department of journalism or public media at universities, for feedback on the script.
· Lastly, provide the script a couple of days before the audio recording to the narrator so that he/she can be more comfortable and prepared. This will ensure fewer re-takes.
· It would also help to visualize what kind of background will be most suitable for an interview and noting it on the script. For example: An interview involving a professor with expertise in structural testing could have his video filmed with a structural lab as a background.
4.2 CAPTURING AUDIO
With a script in hand, the audio is ready to be recorded. There are two possible options for recording audio. If budget is an issue, audio captured by the video camera is sufficient. However, there are chances of ambient noise and disturbance being recorded as well. To avoid external noises, try and record the audio in a quiet room and during hours when there is the least disturbance. In the case where you are filming an interview of a person, make use of a wireless microphone set to capture the audio.