Category Archives: Science Video Tips

I provide various tips for improving your science videos, including information about lighting, sound, interviewing talent, shooting video, editing video, and sources of public domain images for use in your science video projects.

Don’t Be Afraid To Have Fun With Your Videos

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As I’ve tried to emphasize in previous posts, scientists need to lighten up a bit when communicating science. I’m certainly guilty of being too stiff and cerebral in interviews and in my own videos. The character of Mr. Spock on Star Trek epitomizes the public’s view of the logical, emotionless scientist; Spock was always being criticized by Bones, the ship’s doctor for his Vulcan nature:

Like Spock, I’m probably not going to be able to go against my nature, but can modify how I say things on camera so that I don’t sound so much like an egghead.

As scientists, we also make the mistake of assuming that the general public will be impressed by facts, facts, and more facts. When scientists approach a video project, our inclination is to present the facts in a straightforward and, yes, logical manner. It’s drummed into us throughout our training to follow set guidelines for our research and strict formats for our science articles. So it’s difficult to break out of these molds and be creative in presenting science information. We also shy away from anything that might seem like fun for fear of being thought frivolous or, worse, ignorant. However, by not being creative and frivolous, we lose a lot of potential viewers.

Before I go any further, take a look at this video that is focused on beach litter:

Now, there are lots of videos out there about beach litter put out by various environmental organizations….and they are mostly deadly dull…. but this one gets the message across in a clever and entertaining way. And I’m guessing it was fun to make. This approach is just one way to be creative about communicating a message or educating the public about an important environmental topic. Humor is very effective. Other approaches, such as stimulating the viewer’s curiosity about how something (a field expedition, a lab experiment) will turn out also works.

I’ll discuss some of these methods in coming posts.

Science Video Review: Attention Span and The Green Ninja

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In a previous post, I identified ten features that characterized an inspiring science video and pointed out four that I considered to be key to success. I thought I would elaborate a bit on those four key points.

In this post, I’ll talk a bit more about #1:  The video is short, less than three and a half minutes in length.

The average video viewer’s attention span is short.  People want their information in brief, entertaining packets. Unless they are really, really interested in you or your topic (e.g., your mother), they are not going to sit still for more than five minutes to watch your video.  I know that you will be tempted to try to cram a lot of information into your video, thinking it is important to instruct the viewer about all the various aspects of the science topic you are discussing.

I’ve made this mistake and so I know how hard it is to edit out all the footage you shot (of yourself or other scientists) talking about research or whatever the topic was.  This difficulty is not unlike editing a scientific paper:  we must be ruthless and cut out all the extraneous verbiage and data that do not contribute to the main conclusions.  We must be even more ruthless with editing our videos.

Most of the science videos I’ve done so far have been around ten minutes in length, which is probably way too long for all but the most interested viewers.  However, I did strive to include a variety of ways to impart information: talking heads, footage of people engaged in some activity, aerial and ground footage of landscapes, animations, historical images, and text explanations. Such tactics help to keep the viewer’s attention, but it’s better to strive for brevity with your message.

Here is an example of a video that successfully imparts its message in 2:49 minutes:

 

What Jurassic Park Can Teach Us About Making Science Videos

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You may remember this scene from Jurassic Park.  Scrub to minute 2:32 and watch from that point on (go on, I’ll wait for you):

OK, now the point I want to make is that humans and other predators like T. rex have evolved to notice movement.  Imagine early humans on the ancient plains of Africa scanning the horizon for any motion that might warn them of danger or the opportunity for food.  Anything hopping behind a tree or flitting through the grass caught our ancestors’ eyes.  Their very survival depended on distinguishing motion that indicated something of interest or something that could be ignored such as rocks or leaves blowing in the wind.

We are hard-wired to be fascinated with moving pictures. Furthermore, we are experts at analyzing movements, whether we realize it or not.

If you watched the TED talk by Chris Anderson in the previous post (if you didn’t, please do), you heard some startling statistics: “Humanity watches 80 million hours of YouTube every day. Cisco actually estimates that, within four years, more than 90 percent of the web’s data will be video….Video is high band-width for a reason. It packs a huge amount of data, and our brains are wired to decode it.”  Read that again: “more than 90 percent of the web’s data will be video”.  These data have been updated.  Google sites, driven mainly by YouTube viewings, had 146 million unique viewers in just the U.S. who watched 16 billion videos in March 2012 alone (comScore Video Metrics).  People are definitely watching a lot of online videos.

Why?  As Anderson explains in his video, even though it may be faster to read the information we seek, we seem to prefer to view it. It’s in our genes to seek information about our surroundings by watching for movement.

The TED talks demonstrate another important point.  People are fascinated with TED talks.  They are riveting. Even the ones in which the speaker is not showing any slides.  One of the most popular is by Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher, who studied her own stroke as it happened (here’s the link).  She shows a few slides, but that’s not what draws people in.  It’s seeing her body language and hearing her voice describing her experience that makes the video so fascinating.  The other reason is that she’s describing some amazing ideas and insights that spark the audience’s imagination.  It’s a powerful combination.

Scientists wishing to get their message out (about their latest research finding, an environmental issue, an important method to be shared) should take note of these points:

1. Humans are hard-wired to gather information from audio-visual sources (moving pictures, if you like).

2. A huge number of people are searching for information on the internet in the form of video.

3. Linking audio-visual information with ideas that stimulate the imagination is a powerful combination.

Scientists, as a group, are pretty smart people.  We should be able to figure out how to use these insights to create effective and powerful videos that will reach a wide audience.  The question I have is, why have scientists been so slow to catch onto this?

I hope to explore these ideas more in coming posts.  Stay tuned….

Science Video Tip: The Rule of Thirds

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The rule of thirds is a well-known principle of photography that generally leads to well-balanced and more interesting images.  Most photographers know about the rule of thirds, but it’s easy to forget this concept when shooting video.  If you look at amateur video (or photos), you will notice that the videographer often centers the subject, which is not very interesting composition-wise.  By following the rule of thirds, however, you would place your subject quite differently in the frame and may even prompt you to be more creative in your shooting.

Although you don’t have to follow this rule (or any rule, for that matter) in making your videos, it can be a useful guide in capturing well-composed footage, especially if you are just beginning and are unsure how to set up your shots.  By following the rule of thirds, your videos will look more professional and will be much more pleasing to the viewer.

In this short video, I describe how to use the rule of thirds to compose your shots so that they are visually pleasing (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).