Tag Archives: video blogging

Don’t Be So Serious with Your Science Videos

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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).

Science Video Review: Best Quality Crab

Posted on by

I have a technique that I use to predict whether a movie is going to be good or not. I call it the Five Minute Rule…although this time limit is somewhat flexible. I might come to a decision in one minute or eight. Anyway, this is how it works. If the first five minutes of a film are boring, poorly shot, uninspiring, etc., then the rest of the film will likely follow suit (not always, but usually). On the other hand, if the first five minutes are interesting, elicit an emotional reaction, or make me hungry to see more, then I know I’m going to be entertained.

Two examples come to mind when I consider the Five Minute Rule:

The Joy Luck Club (1993 based on the book by Amy Tan)

and

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover (1989)

The Joy Luck Club not only grabbed me in the first five minutes, it elicited a strong emotional reaction:  I started crying during the opening scenes.  My first thought was, “Wow. If this is my reaction to the opening scenes, what’s to come?” And the rest of the film definitely did not disappoint.  Take a look at this opening clip and you’ll see what I’m talking about (also, the opening title sequence is excellent and predictive of what’s to come):

Now, I know you guys out there are thinking, “Aaarrghh. This is a chick flick.  No way am I going to watch it….unless my wife/girlfriend forces me to.”  What kind of film it is, however, is beside the point.  It has something to teach us budding videographers, which I will get to in a moment.

In the meantime, for you more macho types out there, consider the second example, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover.  I vividly remember the opening sequence and my visceral reaction to it. Within the first two minutes of the title sequence, I experienced an incredible sense of dread and even felt physically ill.  I almost got up and walked out.  In those two minutes, however, there is nothing obviously nauseating….just some dogs and then some vehicles pulling into a back alley parking area.  But there’s something dark and disturbing about the scenes, which is emphasized by the music.  By minute 2:20, you know that this is going to be a film about vicious cruelty.  Take a look:

As it turned out, my initial reaction was right on target.  About the dread, I mean.  This is a disturbing film and not for everyone (so be forewarned if you decide to see it).  However, the opening sequence had me hooked, and I had to stay until the end.  The experience was sort of like passing a gory traffic accident.  You know you shouldn’t look, but you just can’t help yourself.

OK, so what’s my point in describing these films and their opening sequences?  Whether consciously or subconsciously, we judge people, situations, and movies based on the first few seconds or minutes of our exposure to them.  As videographers, we need to keep this in mind when planning a project.  These two examples I described above provide an accurate preview of the mood, message, and quality of the entire film in the first few minutes.  Whether you like these films or not, they deliver what is promised in those opening sequences.

In the previous posts, I’ve listed some key ingredients to a compelling video.  However, one criterion I left off that list was that the video needs to capture the viewer’s attention right in the beginning (and never let it go).  For full-length films, this means that in the first five minutes or so, the audience needs to become invested in sticking around to see how it turns out.  For science videos of, say, five minutes in length, this works out to the first 12 seconds.  So that means the goal is to get the viewer invested in your video in about a quarter of a minute.  Is that even possible?  I think so.

In upcoming posts, I’ll explore this idea further and provide some examples.

Science Video Review: Keep it Moving

Posted on by

In the previous post, I talked about how brevity is a virtue in making a science video.  In this post, I will consider two more features of successful videos (from the list of 10 characterizing a video I analyzed previously):

#3:  The video keeps adding information at a steady, relatively rapid pace

#4: There is constant motion going on throughout the video.

The constant addition of new information (and new visual stimuli) keeps the viewer watching.  This point is an important one.  If you let a segment of your video drag on too long, the viewer will get bored and look for something else more fast-paced and that seems to be feeding them more and more information.  As I explained in a previous post, humans are hard-wired to be fascinated by motion. A lot of science videos feature talking heads. Not much going on….just someone droning on and on and on.  If you have talking heads in your video, interspersed with images or footage of something else (an animation, a landscape scene, people working), then you make the segment more interesting because you give the eye something to look at other than the talking head.  If you only have a talking head (e.g., TED talks), then your talking head must be describing something (an idea or concept or emotion) that sparks the viewer’s imagination or causes an emotional reaction.

Here’s a video that meets the two criteria (constant addition of new information, constant motion) listed above and also is shorter than 3 minutes:

This is an example of informational graphics (infographics), which is a hot trend in motion graphics.  It’s clearly an effective way to get science information across in an entertaining way.