Tag Archives: science communication

Coming Soon to a Journal Near You: Video Abstracts

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[note that this is an updated version of an article I wrote for another blog]

pointatcomputer copyA relatively new trend at some science journals is the publication of video abstracts alongside the written article—in which the authors explain their findings on camera. Video abstracts are typically short (3-5 minutes) and often are freely accessible, either on the journal’s website or on a video-sharing site.

What are the advantages for an author? By using video, authors can explain their work in a way that they are not able to do in print, such as showing footage of their experimental methods, field sites, and/or study organisms. The authors are able to provide a more personal explanation of their findings and put their work into a broader perspective. By posting a video on the internet, an author can raise the visibility of their research because search engines rank video high in comparison with text-only descriptions (especially if it’s the only video out there on the topic). People searching for information on a topic will be more likely to find their video abstract, and the video will lead viewers to the technical paper. The more people who are aware of the work, the more likely they are to cite it. Also, if the video is published on YouTube, the authors are free to embed their video abstract on their own websites, something they often cannot do with their journal publication because of copyright restrictions.

Another important point, often overlooked by authors, is that they can reach a broader audience with a video abstract. For example, a video abstract may reach end-users such as resource managers or health-care workers who might not read the technical paper but would watch a five-minute video. Colleagues in other fields might also find your video interesting even though they would not read your paper. For example, as a scientist, I’m interested in keeping up with major discoveries in other fields. Although I’m not likely to read a technical paper about the Higgs boson, I would watch a video that explains what’s been discovered and what it means. In other words, a video abstract can greatly expand your audience beyond fellow scientists who read your journal articles.

A video abstract that explains your work in everyday language also can be used to show the “broader impacts” of your work, for example, in a grant proposal to a government funding agency such as NSF or NIH. NSF, for example, requires proposers to show both the technical merit as well as the broader impact of the proposed activity on society. Videos that are accessible and understandable by a diverse audience meet the second criterion and serve as documentation of a scientist’s previous contributions in this regard.

What are the advantages for the reader? Video can provide a richer, more interactive experience for a reader. Anyone can access such media without having a subscription or paying a fee—unlike the journal article locked behind a paywall. For non-specialist readers, a video in which the authors explain their work in everyday language would provide greater insight, spark their curiosity about the topic, and possibly encourage them to learn more about it.

What if my journal does not publish video abstracts? Not that many journals support publication of video abstracts. However, this should not stop you from creating and publishing a video abstract on your own. The benefits, as outlined above, should be sufficiently motivating to justify the effort. You can publish your video abstracts on your own website on on a video-sharing site such as YouTube. In fact, because millions of people are searching YouTube for information, your video abstract will be more visible than if hidden on a less frequently visited website.

What will the future hold? Video abstracts are part of an overall trend in multimedia communication of information on the internet, which has been facilitated by the wide availability of digital devices and software for creating and sharing videos. Some science disciplines seem to be getting on the video abstract bandwagon faster than others. Whatever the future of video abstracts, we are clearly in a learning phase. Many of my colleagues have either never heard of video abstracts or expressed little interest in doing one, even if offered the opportunity. Students seem to be more receptive to the idea, possibly because they are more technically-savy and accustomed to watching YouTube videos than their professors.

If video abstracts become standard practice, authors will need to develop some skills at creating such videos (or have someone else do it for them (most likely for a fee)). At a minimum, scientists must understand how to design an effective video abstract. Unfortunately, there are few guidelines for authors who do want to create a video abstract.

To help, I’ve put together a short guide to creating an effective video abstract. It covers eight basic steps involved in planning and creating a video abstract and has links to other resources, including a tutorial showing how to make a video abstract with a smartphone and a simple movie-editing application. Feel free to download the pdf and share with colleagues and students:

Download (PDF, 1.25MB)

How to Make a Book Trailer: Part Four

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We are talking about how to create a media trailer for a book, which is designed to attract potential readers. In the previous posts, I described my own experience creating a trailer for my recent book, The Scientist Videographer. I explained that you need to study other book trailers (step one), identify the central message you wish to convey and elements from your book to include in the trailer (step two), and visualize and acquire the media to use in your trailer (step three).

In this post, I describe the fourth and final step, which is to compile your material and produce the trailer with a movie-editing application. You may be thinking at this point that movie editing is too technically challenging. To create my book trailer, I used the desktop version of iMovie and built the trailer from scratch. However, I will show you a really easy way to create a book trailer using iMovie for mobile devices. This application has an option for creating movie trailers, but it can be modified to make a book trailer. iMovie has templates and instructions that make it super easy to combine your video, still images, and text to produce a professional-looking trailer. iMovie does most of the work; all you have to do is drop your media into placeholders and then render the video. I used my iPad for the demonstration, but you can use an iPhone to shoot and edit your book trailer.

As you will see, I walk you through the iMovie 2013 app (for iOS) and show you how to create a book trailer. (be sure to select the HD version and full-screen for best viewing):

As you saw, the iMovie app is easy to navigate, and the movie-trailer templates provide a structure to guide you. You should be able to find one to fit your book type. If you don’t like any of the trailer templates, you can still use the basic movie editor in iMovie 2013 to create a book trailer from scratch, as I did. In fact, with this app, you can create several trailers for your book, each emphasizing a different aspect of the book or targeting different readerships. If you are working on a series of books, it would be easy to produce multiple trailers to advertise each one. There are a lot of possibilities once you learn the basics of movie editing.

If you want to learn more about planning, shooting, editing, and sharing videos to promote your work, check out my book, The Scientist Videographer (it’s not just for scientists).

How to Make a Book Trailer: Part Three

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camera_operation_klmckeeThis is step three in a series of instructions for creating a book trailer. If you’ve not read the previous two steps, you may want to do so before proceeding.

OK, now you’ve got the core message for your book trailer written and the key elements outlined. The next step is to gather or create the visuals for your book trailer. If at all possible, let pictures tell your story. In fact, it is helpful to make a storyboard, which shows the complete sequence of scenes that will comprise your trailer (easily done with post it notes or PowerPoint, as I describe in my book). Either sketch out or use a photo to illustrate each scene and indicate how many seconds will be spent on each one. By estimating the time for each scene, you can more easily keep your trailer within your target time limit.

If you watched my book trailer, you’ll see that most scenes lasted no more than one or two seconds. I was aiming for a fast-paced trailer that accelerated over time. What times you set will depend on the pacing you are going for (more than five seconds per scene, however, will make your trailer seem to drag). Important point to keep in mind: Even though you are describing a book, which may be read at a leisurely pace, your trailer should be designed differently—to satisfy the expectations of a video viewer, rather than a book reader. By this I mean that the content (what the book is about) should appeal to the book reader, but the way the information is delivered should meet the expectations of a video viewer (brief with mostly visual elements, constant movement and addition of new information, and appropriate music carefully keyed to the visual elements—to name a few). See my book for more detailed information about what video viewers expect.

The media you use will depend on a number of factors, including your book’s topic as well as your abilities. You can use video clips, still images, animations, or graphics to serve as visuals in your trailer. The big question is where do you get those media you want to use? In my case, I had a whole library of film clips and images I had shot during years of scientific research. My problem was deciding which ones to use. Authors of textbooks may also have a good library of images they’ve acquired about their topic. However, most authors will not have a lot of visual media at hand and will have two options: to go out and shoot whatever video or still images they need or use media from an outside source.

The latter option may appear to be the easiest approach, but let me caution you to use only media (images, music) for which you hold the copyright (or have gotten permission/paid a fee to the copyright holder) or use media in the public domain (and even this can be tricky). There are many misconceptions about copyright and “fair use”. Just because you can download it does not mean you are legally justified in using it.  But this is a good rule of thumb: Assume that anything on the Internet is copyright protected unless evidence to the contrary can be found. I devote an entire chapter in my book to copyright as it relates to video.

Your best option is to create your own content. Take your smartphone, iPad, or camera out and shoot whatever you need. If you’ve seen something online that you like, try to duplicate it with your own footage or still images. Collar some friends, relatives, or co-workers and get them to help you recreate a scene or action from your book. Use your imagination and have fun!

Once you’ve captured all the media necessary to tell your story, the next step will be to create the trailer. In the next post, I’ll provide a video tutorial that will walk you through the process of compiling your media into a book trailer using a powerful, but inexpensive movie-editing app for mobile devices.

How to Make a Book Trailer: Part Two

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In this series of posts, I’m describing how to make a book trailer, which is a video designed to attract more readers to a storyboard_cover_klmckeetextbook, a novel, or some other written document. In the previous post, I talked a bit about how book trailers are being used in publishing and then began describing the steps I went through to create a trailer for my recently published ebook—The Scientist Videographer. I explained that the first step is to study other book trailers to get some good ideas and to figure out what style of trailer might work for your book.

In this post, I will cover the second step in the process.

Step Two: Hone Your Story. In this step, identify your core message and then select key elements from your book and organize them in a way that will intrigue a potential reader. What your message will be and the elements you select will depend on the specifics of your book. Begin by describing what your book is about. Strip it down to the essential story it tells (or what it teaches, in the case of a textbook). Strive to condense your story into a single sentence. In my case, I wanted to get across the message that the reader will learn how to make science videos (for various purposes), which will help them reach a broader audience with their science message.

Next, you want to outline some key elements from your book that will serve to deliver that core message. Here is the text I outlined, which was organized into four main segments:

1. Opening sequence

-A few visuals to get the viewer’s attention
-Book title and author

2. What the reader will learn:

-How to shoot your video
-How to interview
-How to edit your video

3. How the reader can use what they learn:

-Film scientific methods
-Film class field trips
-Create animations
-Create video abstracts for journal articles
-Record class lectures
-Create online lessons
-Develop outreach materials
-Explain current events or discoveries
-Raise your visibility and build an online profile

4. Ending sequence:

-Book title and tagline
-Where to buy the book and get more information

That list probably doesn’t sound very exciting to most people, but it would be to a scientist who wants to learn how to use video to deliver a science message. So think about those elements that are likely to excite your readers. You don’t necessarily need as many as I outlined. For an adventure travel book, you might hone your list to five intriguing statements, for example:

They traveled into the wilderness.

Where their knowledge and skills were tested.

Where perseverance was everything…

…and failure was not an option.

This summer—get ready to read..

[Insert title of adventure travel book]

Also, once the visuals and music are added, the words in your list will come alive. Note that I did not include every aspect of my book in the trailer—just a few tidbits that would convey the essence of the book. I planned to get my message across primarily with visuals, so I used minimal text and no voice over. This approach worked for me, but you might want to verbally explain (on camera or with a voice over) some aspect of your book or your motivation for writing it. Another idea is to have one or more people act out scenes from your book.

Also, I set a time limit of one minute (give or take a few seconds) to get my message across. Any longer, and most viewers will stop watching. By setting a time limit, you are forced to focus on the most important or intriguing aspects of your book and leave out things that are redundant or less interesting. You may find that setting a time limit for the trailer also will get your creative juices going (a topic I discuss in more detail in my book).

You can take the same outlining approach I used to identify key elements. Most authors are familiar with outlines and will find this approach most comfortable. However, eventually you are going to have to develop some visuals to compose your trailer. So if you can begin imagining those visuals as you outline, all the better. You can describe these visual elements in words or draw some simple scenes on your notepad to illustrate what you might include in the way of media in your trailer. I’ll expand on this point in the next post. For now, focus on honing your central message and identify what elements to use to deliver that message.

A Storymaking App for Your Science Videos

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As I’ve discussed in this blog previously, scientists are often hampered in getting their science message across because they fail to tell a compelling story that will appeal to others. Instead, we bombard the reader/viewer/listener with facts, facts, and more facts, in the mistaken idea that most people are as impressed with data as we are. If that were true, there would not be so many climate change skeptics or intelligent design enthusiasts.

We scientists may be fascinated with the bare facts, but our audience is likely not so enamored. It’s a paradox. How we are trained to communicate in science (by stating facts and figures in an unemotional, rational manner) is not necessarily the way our audience prefers to hear the message.

One approach that clearly works for many types of messages is to frame the information in the form of a story. Most people love stories and will stick around to find out how it all turns out. Hollywood knows this principle quite well and has been very successful at selling stories to millions of people (even while getting the science wrong). Scientists, however, tend to shy away from the idea of “storytelling” possibly because they think it involves an exaggeration or a twisting of the facts. This is a misinterpretation (or narrow interpretation) of the term, storytelling. Although storytelling can involve embellishment or even complete fantasy, it can also be a means of conveying accurate information about a scientific topic.

In an effort to bring the storytelling method to science, Randy Olson and coauthors Dorie Barton and Brian Palermo, have written a book called “Connection: Hollywood Storytelling Meets Critical Thinking” and created an app called “Connection Storymaker” (currently free in the App Store) to assist in structuring a story. In this post, I’m going to focus on the app and leave the review of the book until later (after I’ve read it…of course; I’m waiting for the Kindle version). Olson’s previous book, “Don’t Be Such a Scientist” takes us to task for being too cerebral, too literal minded, poor storytellers, and generally unlikeable (see my previous post on this topic). This new book offers guidance about how to be better storytellers, and the app is a tool designed to help that process along.

So I decided to give the app a whirl. In the video below, I use the app to construct a science story. As you will see, the app is designed around two basic models. The first is the WSP model, which stands for Word, Sentence, Paragraph. The Word helps you organize your story around a central theme (hope, perseverance, dignity). The sentence is based on another model, the ABT (And, But, Therefore) model, which is a template to begin structuring your story. The Paragraph is based on something called a Logline template, which is more complex and consists of 9 parts taken from Joseph Campbell’s storyline, “The Hero’s Journey” (aka, monomyth):

1. In an ordinary world….

2. A flawed protagonist…

3. A catalytic event happens…

4. After taking stock…

5. The hero commits to action…

6. The stakes get raised…

7. The hero must learn a lesson…

8. To stop the antagonist…

9. To achieve their goal…

The app is easy to understand and use. It will be helpful for those scientists who are poor storytellers to structure their message into the form of a story. The main shortcoming is that The Hero’s Journey Logline is the only one built into the app–so far. More Loglines based on other plots may be added in the future (and you’ll probably have to pay for the upgrade). The hero Logline does not necessarily fit all science stories. If the centerpiece of your story will be a scientist, then the app will work for you. If, on the other hand, you’ve got a different focus (like the science topic), then you’ll have to wait for more Loglines.

In the meantime, you can read more about applying storytelling methods to convey science information (especially in giving oral presentations) and see some other storylines in this blog post. A nice article on how to use storytelling in scientific writing can be found here.

In the video below, I show how I used the Storymaker app to create a story about the theory of continental drift (select the HD version and full-screen for best viewing).