Tag Archives: review

How to Make a Science Video Without Film Footage

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What if you would like to make a video about a topic but you don’t have a lot of footage?  Or perhaps you would like to describe a new technique, but have only still shots of your equipment and procedures.  Maybe you would like to describe a science concept, but have only audio of someone explaining their work?  Can you still make a video?  Of course.  In fact, there is an editing technique called “montage”, in which the videographer creates a narrative using a sequence of still images to tell a story.  This approach can be very effective, as this video illustrates:

You’ll note that in this video, “Congo River: Artery of the Forest”, the creators not only used montage, but also some other ideas I’ve discussed in previous posts.  Like many scientists, they had taken lots of pictures of various scenes and people, known a B-roll, which were the basis for this video.  As I described earlier, it’s important to shoot lots of still images and video footage in addition to your primary footage (e.g., interviews with key subjects), which can be used for opening and closing credit sequences, for transitions between video segments, and especially to break up long interviews (“talking heads”).

In addition to B-roll, the video also asks (and answers) a dramatic question:  “Will the scientists get their samples despite all the logistical challenges?” In a previous post, I explained the purpose of the dramatic question and why we should try to identify and incorporate the dramatic question into science videos.  The basic idea is to grab the viewer’s attention and keep them watching to see how things turn out.

Finally, it’s possible to mesh film clips with still images very effectively to create a more interesting video than one that is composed entirely of video clips.  In fact, by using a Ken Burns effect on still images, you can create the impression of movement, which blends well with film clips; the viewer often does not notice that the video contains a montage of still images. Here is one of my videos in which I used a combination of footage and still images (as well as animations) to explain sea-level rise and impacts on coastal wetlands (see minute 6:50 to 7:22 for one sequence):

In addition, you can also incorporate sound effects and voiceover to enhance a montage of still images. The “Congo River: Artery of the Forest” video does this very effectively (sounds of stamping along with passport images, for example).  In my video, I added sounds of water movement and frogs chirping to give life to still images.

So if you have an idea for a video, don’t be deterred by the lack of film clips. If you have still images of your research and a good dramatic question, you still can develop a compelling video.  In upcoming tutorials, I’ll show in greater detail how to incorporate the montage technique into your movie editing repertoire.

Science: It’s a Girl Thing! (or How To Send the Wrong Message)

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Some of you may have heard of the European Commission’s recent blunder, which involved a public service announcement in the form of a slick video called “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!”  Although the intent was good (attracting more girls to consider science as a career), the implementation was awful.  The EC actually has a good YouTube channel with other videos showing real female scientists….doing science or talking about their experiences as scientists.

In this case, however, I’m guessing that they hired professionals who were more experienced in doing cosmetics commercials and really did not understand the EC’s campaign.  The video was a cross between a high fashion or cosmetics commercial (high heels, designer sunglasses, lipstick, and face powder) and a trailer for a TV show like Sex and the City.  The video was chock full of stereotypical images and seemed to send the message that women in science can still be beautiful, sexy fashionistas who love to be ogled by male scientists (it doesn’t indicate where that leaves us more ordinary-looking females).  There were no women in the video being shown actually doing science or talking about all the interesting reasons why one would want to choose science as a career.

The outcry from scientists and women resounded across the internet, and the EC pulled the video from YouTube within days of the video’s release.  Fortunately, some quick viewers had already downloaded the video and reposted it on YouTube.  You can take a look here:

My objective in showing this video is not to critique it, but to use it as a lead-in to the other videos that were made in reaction to this one by the EC.  Several enterprising and creative women produced a few interesting video responses that captured the overall outrage felt by many viewers.

Here is a sampling of my favorites:

This sampling shows a nice variety of approaches to rebutting the EC video and the stereotypes displayed therein.  The first one used an interview format in which a female scientist is asked for her opinion about the EC video.  The second one used an animation approach quite effectively to make its points.  In the third one, the creator used humor and sarcasm, which was delivered like a stand-up routine.  A fourth example was shot like a news media interview, with the reporter talking to a variety of women (and one man who clearly didn’t “get it”) about their reactions to the EC video.  The last example was fashioned after a music video and featured a group of female marine scientists on a research cruise.

Although none of these examples is as slick as the EC video, they are much more effective in getting across their message in a passionate, entertaining, or informative manner.

Science Video Review: Up Your Nose

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Here’s a great video showing how a flu virus invades your body and replicates itself.

It’s informative but interesting; the narrators are funny even while talking about a serious subject; and there are excellent animations to illustrate what a virus might look like and how it gets a foothold in the tissues of your nose and throat.

Notice also how the narrator uses everyday language to describe what is being shown, followed by the correct terminology: “knobby things on the virus surface” = “keys”.  When the term “key” is introduced, there appear images of door keys along the surface of the virus, which drives home the idea of how the virus locks into the cell surface of a human throat cell.  Then as the virus makes contact with the cell surface, there is the sound of a lock turning. This is a brilliant use of visual and audio effects to help viewers learn and remember the lock and key concept of viral invasion. Later, when the narrator describes how viruses copy themselves, there are sounds and flashing lights resembling a copying machine as the animation shows new virus particles being produced.

The double-teaming narration is also very effective, using a conversation between the NPR interviewer (Robert Krulwich) and the medical illustrator (David Bolinsky) to describe the entire process of viral invasion and immune system response.  I found this approach to be very appealing because the interviewer is asking questions that a viewer might ask while watching the video.  What are those pink things?  Why is the virus doing that? When the interviewer gets an answer, he interprets it in everyday terms.

Nicely done!

Sources of Public Domain Images

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The scientist videographer will often have occasion to use a still image or video footage that s/he has not shot. If you plan to publish your video (on the internet or elsewhere), you will need to get permission to use anyone else’s images.  The exception is when the images are in the public domain.  Where do you find such image collections?  Government websites are a good place to start.  Many government agencies (in the U.S., for example) are creating collections of images and video that are freely available to the public.  In some cases, the images were taken by government employees or were acquired with government funds, automatically placing them in the public domain. In other instances, the agency has compiled scanned images from historical books, maps, and other sources into collections on their websites that can be searched and then downloaded for free.

Below, I list a few of these websites; the list is not exhaustive, but is designed to give you an idea of where to look for images and footage you might need.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a nice gallery of images, including topics such as animals, plants, field research, lab research, illustrations, and education; you can download images at 72 or 300 dpi. The image at right is of Giant Salvinia (USDA, Peggy Greb).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has an extensive collection of images taken in a variety of places around the world by scientists and other employees; high resolution images are available. The photo to the right is of pancake ice taken by Michael Van Woert (NOAA, NESDIS) in Antarctica (located in the Art in Nature Gallery (Patterns and Textures)).

 

Related NOAA sites contain more still images, animations, and video. An example is the NGDC Digital Marine Geology and Geophysics Images collection, which contains, for example, animations of dives to the ocean floor such as the Mariana Trench (click on photo at right to go directly to the animation).

The NOAA Fisheries Service (Northeast Fisheries Science Center) maintains an archive of historical photos related to fisheries in the northeastern U.S.  Hundreds of photos are available for download and free use with proper credit.  See photo of a basking shark at right (NEFSC, Paul Galtsof).  There are also photo galleries of marine mammals, seabirds, invertebrates, sharks, ships, and scenic views.

 

The National Marine Sanctuaries maintains a media library containing still images and many video clips of coastal areas, waves, reefs, deep sea views, fish, sharks, and invertebrates.  The media library is searchable.

 

 

 

The NASA Goddard Space Visualization Studio is the premier location for finding photos and especially animations of the earth and space processes.  Whether you’re looking for animations of arctic sea ice changes or volcanic eruptions, you’ll find them here. The NASA Earth Observatory contains an extensive set of photos, maps, and animations of the world that are downloadable and free to use.  NASA’s Visible Earth contains a massive catalog of images and animations, which are searchable.  See a high resolution image of the Sri Lankan coast during the 2004 Asian Tsunami (NASA, VE) below:

If you are looking for images of hazards, land, oceans, atmosphere, life, snow and ice, or human impacts, these NASA sites will likely contain the image or animation you need.

 

Another site I often visit for historical photos is the Library of Congress (LOC).  Their American Environmental Photographs 1891-1936 collection is a treasure-trove of material. Many of the images in this collection were taken by or of Henry Chandler Cowles (the “father” of American plant ecology); see his photo to the right with students on a botany field trip (note they are all female students!) (LOC, unknown photographer). Interestingly, I can trace my scientific lineage through my graduate adviser and several generations of professors back to Cowles.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a digital photo collection containing many historical and modern images of earthquakes, national parks, and mines.  See photo at right of an earthquake at Hawkes Bay, New Zealand (1931) (USGS, unknown photographer).  There is also a large collection of historical images taken by pioneer photographers of early USGS expeditions (see stereo photo below of an expedition camp, part of the W.H. Jackson collection).

These are just a few of the many government sites where you can find media in the public domain. There are some sites that purport to catalog public domain images, but beware. Many of these are commercial sites and contain a mixture of images grabbed from government sites (public domain) and images that may be copyrighted.  Try to obtain such media from their original sources, which often offer them at different resolutions and contain all relevant information about the image.  If you do use media from secondary sites, be sure the image is really in the public domain and abide by any restrictions listed with the image you wish to use. For the media offered for download on government sites, the only restriction is that you cannot copyright any public domain image, and it’s always appropriate to credit the source and the photographer, if their name is given.

Science Video Review: Seven Minutes of Terror

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No, this post is not about my recent trip to Sri Lanka and riding in their infamous tuc-tucs in crazy traffic.  It is the title of the recent video released by NASA describing the anticipated descent of the Mars rover Curiosity from orbit to the surface of the red planet planned for August 6 at 1:31 am ET.  The “seven minutes of terror” phrase refers to the time it will take for the vehicle to descend through the atmosphere and be deposited intact and functioning on the ground.  The terror will be experienced by the NASA scientists back on Earth as they wait to learn whether the mission has succeeded or not (60% of Mars missions have failed).

The video has been called “stunning”, “exciting”, and “terrifying” by various news outlets and bloggers.  I don’t think I would go that far, but I would describe the video as excellent and a successful effort to dramatize and advertise the upcoming Mars landing.  It also manages to get across some technical information but in a palatable way. It’s short: 5:07 minutes and highly visual, with outstanding animations and graphics.  Take a look and then read my assessment below:

The video starts off with a good “hook”:  The opening sequence shows Adam Steltzner (EDL engineer) who says, “When people look at it, it looks crazy.  That’s a natural thing. Sometimes when we look at it, it looks crazy.  It is the result of reasoned engineering and thought. But it still looks crazy.”  The video creators have identified an intriguing aspect of the landing, which is the untested approach to putting the rover safely onto the surface of Mars.  The viewer is immediately curious about what’s crazy and why NASA would be trying something so crazy.  The title is also a good attention grabber.  Right from the start, the viewer is wondering what the connection is between this crazy idea and the seven minutes of terror.  This video thus provides a good example of how to capture the attention of viewers and keep them watching.

Information and images are continually introduced, keeping the video moving forward at a steady clip. Each new segment adds a bit more information, e.g., about the challenges of the landing (thin atmosphere), the mechanics of the landing, what will happen if some step fails, how long it will take for scientists waiting back on Earth to learn if the rover has safely landed. Each new aspect is illustrated with a different animation and described by a different scientist who worked on that aspect of the landing.

They kept the text to a minimum and used it to get across startling statistics:  6 vehicle configurations, 76 pyrotechnic devices, 500,000 lines of code…..ZERO margin of error.  This text is superimposed on animations and other graphic sequences that illustrate what those numbers represent.  And the text is moving across the screen, further adding to the impression of movement.  This is the way to use text in a science video.

There is no traditional beginning, middle, and end.  That’s OK, as I’ve described previously.  The lack of these traditional components does not mean that the video is not organized around a logical manner.  In fact, the video has a definite sequence to it, which is highly organized and keyed to the actual landing sequence it is discussing:  what the 7 minutes refers to and what it means to the scientists waiting back on Earth, an explanation of EDL (entry, descent, landing) and all the steps in the landing sequence, violent entry through the atmosphere, Mars atmospheric characteristics and what it means for the landing process, the supersonic parachute and why it’s important, getting the heat shield off, cutting the parachute and coming down on rocket motors, the skycrane maneuver to avoid stirring up dust, and avoiding a collision between the descent vehicle and the rover once it’s on the ground. The ending screen image has a single, bold statement: “Dare Mighty Things” followed by the date and time of the landing event.

The style of the NASA video is more like a movie trailer than a movie, which is appealing and immediately recognizable by the average video viewer.  Most people have seen hundreds of movie trailers and are familiar with the format, so will readily relate to this style.  Even the music sounds reminiscent of movie trailers.  The major difference is the lack of a voice-over narrator, which is more typical of a movie trailer.  Instead, they used the voices of the scientists to substitute for the narration.

Overall, the NASA video has all ten attributes I identified previously as being important in making an interesting and appealing science video.  I recommend studying this video yourself to better understand the features that will help you create better science videos.