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Shoot, Share, Succeed: 6 Video Tips for Faculty
Creating videos for your courses doesn’t have to be overwhelming. These tips will help you produce clear, engaging content without spending hours in frustration. Even if you don’t have the perfect recording space and equipment, you can still make an engaging video and look good in it.
1: Script
Creating a video is time-consuming, especially if you’re sorting through dozens of takes. No one is going to nail it on their first take, but there are ways to help recording go smoothly and look natural.
Write a script to keep you on track. While recording, it’s easy to lose track, ramble, and forget something. However, a wordy script on your lap with exactly what you intend to say can make you look distracted on camera. Try instead a simple bullet-point list with bolded keywords. This way you can quickly glance between the script and the camera. It’s best to keep these notes close to the camera, so you don’t have to move your head or look down at your lap. Color-coding can really improve readability so you know exactly where you are in the script.
This doesn’t mean that a detailed script isn’t still helpful. Memorizing what you intend to say will guarantee fewer takes and noticeable confidence on camera.
It’s okay to hold your notes at camera level. On recording day, if you find yourself heavily relying on notes and can’t get through a take without staring at them, don’t hide them from the camera. The camera will catch you looking away and hesitating for seemingly no reason. Hold your notes up where the camera can see them. It’ll make for a more confident presence.
Have someone by the camera to help you. They can follow where you are at in your script and quickly put you back on track without having to do another take. It’s simpler to cut out their voice prompting you than cutting together multiple takes. It’s also great to have someone behind the camera to make sure it’s actually recording, as well.
2: Audio
Students will forgive a fuzzy video, but will not listen to poor audio. Audio is the most important aspect of your video. Students don’t really care about grainy video, your messy hat hair, or poorly formatted slides. If they have to turn the volume all the way up and struggle to discern your voice from background noise, they won’t be focused on learning and will most likely click away.
Use an external microphone. Whether it’s airpods or a loaned studio mic, it will not only be better than your internal laptop/camera mic, but a second source can ensure no recording mishaps.
Check your audio before you record. Do a test recording at the volume level you intend to speak. If it sounds quiet or noisy, raise your voice and/or speak closer to the mic. It’s okay to show the mic on camera if it means better audio quality.
Find a quiet space. If you are doing voice-over, you can get away with covering yourself in a blanket to improve the sound. It sounds silly, but the difference in quality is actually quite monumental. It dampens echoes and noise, while keeping your voice close to the mic.
If you can’t find a quiet place in your home or office, try loaning a room on campus:
If you can’t find a quiet space, there’s one last resort. Don’t hide from the viewer where the noise is coming from. If there’s strange unexplainable noises, it is distracting and confusing. If you can, at the beginning of the video subtly establish the source of the noise.
For example, sometimes my noisy cat won’t stop meowing and I can’t get her to go away. I will do two takes of my introduction: One with her in the background, and one without. This way later in the video when she’s yowled over all my takes, there is no unexpected mystery to the viewer what’s happening. I’ve established that there is a cat in my house. When they hear the strange noise, they will think back “oh, that’s a cat” and move on.
This can work for most noises. If there’s loud traffic, I will shoot by a window. At work, show the bustling office behind me.
“A 2001 research effort into the interaction of audio and video factors on viewer assessment of quality found that audio quality affects perceived quality of video, but video quality does not have the same effect on perception of audio (Joly, Montard, & Buttin, 2001). The same year, a study on correlation between improved audio and user quality assessment of video concluded that “audio fidelity has a more pronounced impact than visual fidelity on attention and memory… good quality audio can enhance the perceived fidelity of the visuals” (Lessiter, Freeman, & Davidoff, 2001)
If pedagogy is a process of communication, then those engaged in the process are obliged to make this communication as clear—and noise free—as they are able.” (Wilkinson 2022)
3: Lighting
A professional camera will not help you with low lighting. Natural lighting is great for a DIY set-up as it’s very bright, but at times unpredictable.
Place your recording set-up near a window. You want the light on your face, so put the camera by the window (avoid casting a shadow on yourself) and face the window. Shoot within the hour, though! The sun moves and the lighting will change.
Avoid harsh lighting from far sources. If you’re wondering why you look tired and old on camera, it’s probably that overhead light casting hard shadows on your face.
The angle makes a difference. Use your height as a guide. Avoid lights that are far overhead and underneath the height of your eyes. You want a light that is slightly pointed down at you, preferably near the camera pointed at the front of your face.
Use a light. You’ve probably seen influencers use those strange ring lights. They’re cheap, simple, and can double as a tripod for your phone or camera.
If you’re in a pinch, point a desk light at you or move a floor lamp close. Use a model to help determine your lighting situation. This could be your dog, a pillow in a chair, or a person that’s around.
4. Format
Different devices record in different file formats. When you upload your footage to your computer, you may find that the video is not a supported file format. Don’t worry, though, there’s still a way to open your file and avoid this in the future.
Check your device to see what format it’s recording. See if you can change it to one of these common video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .MPEG, or H.264.
iPhones take pictures in .HEIC, an often unsupported format. You can change this by going to Settings>Camera>File Format>Most Compatible. This will change photos to .JPEG and video to H.264.
Download VLC. https://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC is a free and open source media player that plays most multimedia files, even those weird unsupported ones. It can convert these files as well by going to File>Convert/Stream.
5. Edit
Editing can take your video to the next level, and it doesn’t have to always be a time-sink either. Prioritize what makes the biggest impact:
Don’t stress about your ums and stumbles. Watching yourself on video can be very difficult, but remember that students value authenticity.
Keep the video short and concise. Cut repetitive statements.
Students can read and listen at the same time. Think about cutting a voiced line and replacing it with text instead to make the video more concise.
Sprinkle in images or b-roll to make it visually engaging.
Set the pace. Add transitions between topic shifts or takes. A snazzy wipe or cube-flip transition between topics indicates progression through the video. It makes the video feel shorter and more organized.
You don’t need a cross-dissolve for every cut. Jump cuts can be okay, as long as it’s not too distracting. Be more careful of how the audio sounds between cuts. I always put a super short fade between audio tracks where there’s a cut.
Try editing with WeVideo. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G6PknBxP5oMkYxpn-YENmO5X_BleIyVqIJVnSZbkBxo/edit?tab=t.0
UAF Center for Teaching and Learning provides access to WeVideo to all UAF staff, students and faculty. WeVideo is a cloud-based video editor that allows collaboration on video edits and the ease of working with shared media, along with screen recording capabilities.
6. Upload
Before hitting “upload,” take these final steps:
Watch your video all the way through. You can always watch at 2x speed, but make sure there’s no export errors.
Share it with colleagues to catch any big mistakes.Keep an eye on file size. In most cases, you want the video fairly compressed. You don’t want a huge file taking space on your computer or to suffer a snail speed upload. For a 10 minute video, make sure the video is under 1 GB. Under 500 MB is better.
Resources
Wilkinson, Ian. Effects of Audio Quality on Retention and Viewer Perception in Online Educational Video, 2022. Texas Tech University, Master’s thesis. https://hdl.handle.net/2346/89317.
