Tag Archives: movie editing

The Dramatic Question and How It Applies to Science Videography

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In film making, the dramatic question is what drives the story.  Will the good guy win? Will the boy get the girl? How will the journey end? Once the dramatic question is answered, the movie is over.

In science videos, we often fail to identify, much less answer, the dramatic question.  We are even stumped at the whole idea of a dramatic question because we are so focused on the facts and on educating the viewer.  However, what captures the average viewer’s attention and keeps it is a story (and its underlying dramatic question).  Will the researchers figure out how to collect their samples from an active volcano?  Which scientific team will sequence the human genome first?  How will the scientists navigate a wild river and reach their remote field site with their delicate instruments intact? What motivates a scientist to endure heat, biting insects, and muck to study wetlands?  Why should I care about climate change?

Those are all obvious dramatic questions, but can often lead to artificial conflicts or exaggerated challenges designed to imbue an otherwise dull story with drama.  The viewer is not fooled by such blatant stratagems. So the videographer must take care in selecting and incorporating a dramatic question into a movie project.  It’s possible to be more clever about this and create a video with a dramatic question that directly relates to the science, rather than to peripheral issues.  Here is an example in which the dramatic question focuses on the science topic and is even used as the title of the video:

It’s possible to pose a dramatic question about nature, which is not answered or only partially answered because the research is not complete or it’s a difficult question to answer.  The videographer has the opportunity to use such an instance to teach something about how science works and about how answers change over time as more information is uncovered.  An effective dramatic question is perhaps asked by a non-scientist, stimulating the viewer’s curiosity, and then answered by an expert who proceeds to conduct an experiment designed to answer that specific question because no-one thought to ask the question before.  Here is an example of an excellent video in which the dramatic question is about a phenomenon observed by an average person: why do some millipedes glow in the dark?

You notice that both of these examples involve an amazing visual display.  What if your topic is not so visual or not so amazing to the non-scientist?  I think the answer is that you just need to work a bit harder to show how amazing your topic is and to frame it as a dramatic question.

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.

Don’t Be So Serious with Your Science Videos

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Scientists are supposed to be serious…and most of us live up to this expectation.  However, this trait can be quite detracting and frustrating to non-scientists, unless it’s meant to be humorous as in this clip from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:

You might succeed in using such humor, making fun of an egghead speaking on camera.  But in general, this humorous approach is already a cliche, and it would take a really fresh twist to succeed.

In general, a talking head who is pompous or pedantic is going to turn off viewers. The viewer does not want to be lectured to (they got enough of that in school). As a scientist videographer, you will have two choices of (professional) talking heads in your projects:  you or your colleagues.  Both of you likely suffer from the “stuck in their heads” syndrome.  We think too much instead of just doing or saying what comes naturally to other people.  A book called, “Don’t Be Such a Scientist”, by Randy Olson addresses this very issue as it relates to science communication.  Olson has advice for scientist communicators, spelled out in his book chapters:

1. Don’t be so cerebral

2. Don’t be so literal-minded

3. Don’t be such a poor story-teller

4. Don’t be so unlikeable

Olson makes the case in his book that although accuracy is important, it’s even more important to grab the public’s attention so that the science message is heard.  I agree, but that’s easier said than done.

Many of my scientific colleagues are, to put it bluntly, boring on camera (and I include myself in this group).  We are, to borrow Olson’s list:  too cerebral, too literal-minded, poor story-tellers, and generally unlikeable.  It’s rare to see a scientist whose personality attracts rather than repels viewers.  Think Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and science communicator:

We can’t all be like Tyson, but we can strive to “get out of our heads” so that we can communicate like the average person.  It’s impossible to change someone’s natural demeanor (and you don’t want to try).  However, we can select our interview subjects carefully so that the message we want to convey is heard and accepted.  If you are uncomfortable on camera and this discomfort is contributing to a poor demeanor, then practice giving interviews.

I was absolutely terrible the first time I was interviewed on camera (at least it felt that way).  The interviewer kept restating my answers in a much clearer and appealing way without scientific jargon and asking, “Is this what you meant?” Although I felt like an idiot at the time, I learned a lot from the experience.  More recently, what has helped me improve my performance in front of a camera is interviewing other scientists.  Seeing how other scientists perform….which ones shine on camera and which ones are dreadful…is an eye-opening experience.  I highly recommend doing a few interviews with your colleagues and then reviewing the footage.  If I were going to teach a science videography course or workshop, that would be one of the exercises.

How to Create Animations for your Science Videos with PowerPoint: Part Two

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This is the second part of the tutorial on using PowerPoint to create simple effective animations for your movie projects. In part one, I covered how to set up your slides in sequence to create the animation. In part two, I finish up by showing how to export your project as a movie and then import it into your movie-editing program (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).

Animations can greatly enhance your videos, providing a way to better visualize concepts or techniques. In future tutorials, I’ll show how to use more sophisticated applications to create animations that will make your videos look more professional.

How to Create Animations for your Science Videos with PowerPoint: Part One

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Would you like to use animations in your videos to illustrate a concept or technique but think you need an expensive program and years of training? Well, think again. If you know how to create a presentation in PowerPoint, then you can use it to develop animations.

In this post, I offer a tutorial on using PowerPoint to create effective animations that can be exported as a movie to use in your video project. In part one, I show how to set up your slides to create a sequence of frames that will form your animation. I provide several examples of simple graphics that will help you develop your own ideas (for best viewing, select the HD version and full-screen options (see menu bar at bottom of player window).