Sample Videos: Crucible: the Hot Pot / Chinese bronzes, the Mystic Vessels
The link above will take you to two sample videos created as examples, and mentioned at various points in this tutorial. You may want to start by watching them.
The bulk of this tutorial was written by David Larreina (who writes in the first person), with minor edits by Marcos Martinon-Torres. Any users are welcome to make further additions and modifications. It was created as a guide for students in the process of creating a video as one of the two assessments for the Archaeometallurgy (ARCL3001) course at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, but it is hoped that it may be of use for others seeking guidance on how to create basic documentary videos. The practical examples discussed in the various sections are based on two separate sample videos created by David Larreina for this purpose. You can find a link to them at the very beginning of this tutorial.
The aim of this tutorial is to provide some basic guidance on how to create relatively simple videos, mostly by inexperienced people. There are no long explanations concerning filming or editing techniques but basic notes and links to further information in case this is needed. This is not about how to become a professional video maker but about giving you some tips about how to create successfully a short documentary. Therefore these notes are strongly focused on the first of the three basic steps (planning, shooting and editing) of every video making process.
There is another reason for this: planning is by far the most important part when creating films. I know you are anxious to go out and start shooting but let's make a point very clear: shooting requires considerably less time than planning and also a shorter time than editing. To give you an example, the pre-production of Jurassic Park lasted for 25 months whereas the other two tasks together were solved in 9 months, with uniquely 3 months and one week devoted to the shooting (DVD production notes).
As a matter of fact and for the aim of this exercise, shooting and editing are 'simple' tasks (although time consuming!) in comparison to planning. We can get very decent image recording with a smartphone or a photographic camera, and several free software packages are available, uncomplicated to use without any previous experience. The difficulty does not remain in the technical process but in getting a good final result -having images recorded does not make a documentary-, and to get a good result you need a strategy and previous work. It is not so different from writing an essay, only the format changes and this change will increase greatly your possibilities of being creative.
I basically used three sources to compile this tutorial, although several more are indicated along the text: the primary one are my own notes and experience, the second one is Directing the documentary by Michael Rabiger and the last one is a short book in Spanish titled Quiero hacer un documental by Manuel Gómez Segarra (an equivalent to the last reference in English could be How to make a documentary script by Trisha Das).
You can think of this exercise in a similar way as when composing any essay, although of course there are some differences as well. Don't forget to check the marking criteria given by the course co-ordinator, to get a better sense of the benchmarks you will be marked against.
Unlike an academic essay, one of the great possibilities allowed by a video is that you can include not only educational or academic aspects but some dramatism. Actually, if you want to produce an interesting podcast you better include some dramatic elements.
There are some tips in the section #The Story about how to create dramatism
You need an argument to make a documentary but a documentary does something in addition to informing or explaining: it tells a story. The same argument can lead to very different stories. For example, if the main argument is how bronze battle axes were cast during the Bronze Age, a story can trace the evolution throughout the Bronze Age and the huge variety in types of axes in contrast with the somewhat more limited repetitiveness of the casting technique; or it can tell the whole technological process from the mining to the casting of a particular specimen; or highlight the advantages of a particular type for warfare (especially considering the relatively simple casting techniques); or it may compare European axes to the Chinese ones, its different shapes, uses and production; or; or; or; ...
So you are going to tell a story, but this does not mean that you are going to tell a fiction story. If you look up 'documentary' in a dictionary you will find something similar to this:
pieces of written, printed, or other matter based on or re-creating an actual event, era, life story, etc., that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements (Dictionary.com)
A documentary is linked to reality and therefore your data must be truthful and absolutely accurate. Don't forget that you are going to be assessed not only by your creativity but also, especially, by the educational content.
The objective of this particular exercise is to create a short educational documentary based around an archaeological metal object from any museum or collection,or an archaeometallurgical problem, project or site. Pretty much anything relevant to the syllabus of the course is allowed, with substantial flexibility as to the angle. The audience is made of educated people - but not experts on archaeometallurgy - and the duration must be between 3 and 6 minutes (excluding credits).
Since a documentary consists of, or is based on, reality it might seem that there is not much space for creativity. Quite on the contrary, a documentary is a very flexible format that supports practically any type of composition, the way in which the facts are presented is extremely diverse.
As a somewhat extreme but very illustrative example, take a look at this video clip. The information given regarding Stonehenge is largely correct, it is engaging, memorable, and it raises suitable questions. If we were to judge it as an educational video, the main problems are that surely all the data comes from the same source, that the information is superficial and not up to date with the latest research, and that there is no balance between the facts and the fictional elements since the purpose here is to amuse the audience (which, in my opinion, is achieved brilliantly) not to educate. However, if the emphasis is on the historical data supported by a good corpus of references there is no rule saying that a documentary cannot be presented as a musical video clip. See the possibilities?
Apart from the video, you will also need to write a 200 word abstract and a list of all the sources used.
A successful podcast (after media players international):
Meets online expectations: specific, chunk-sized information, delivered quickly
Is pitched perfectly to a intended audience
Tells a good story
The first thing you need to do is to identify what you want to achieve with your podcast, who are you presenting to, and what level of understanding they have. Watching is a tiring attitude therefore to pitch to the audience you need to empathize with them, asking the questions that they would want to be answered, not merely present to them a video podcast but accompany throughout it.
Then is time to focus on how are we going to satisfy those three expectations addressing three fundamental concepts: these are Idea, Story and Topic. They are fundamental because they are going to make the foundational stone for the script, that is responsible in a 75% of the success of a video.
In principle any idea is acceptable, there are no constraints about the planning of your video other than it must be relevant to archaeometallurgy #See Aims, simply choose something that is of your interest - in case of doubts about the suitability of a certain idea, you can discuss it with the course co-ordinator. However, you should pose some probing questions when getting inspiration: e.g. what lies in a documentary about furnaces? Would you watch a documentary about ancient furnaces? If the answer is not a definite yes, then what should it contain to attract you to watch it? How do you think this should be created? These questions will help you check the suitability of your idea and decide from which angle it seems more interesting to build it. In addition, there are two important aspects that you will have to deal with: structure and ending.
You've got an idea (great!) but an idea is nothing if is not framed within a bigger structure to support it. To create this support there are two crucial tasks: research to create the background, and development of the idea (which also needs the previous research).
Frequently there is no much thinking behind the ending of a video. This is quite peculiar because when we write a story a lot of care is put in finding an appropriate end - J.R.R. Tolkien devoted two whole chapters just to close all the arguments opened in The Lord of the Rings, even when the main plot (the ring) was already resolved!-.
When filming, a lot of people just press stop and the screen goes black. This is a huge mistake. You must know or forecast from the beginning how you want to end your story, e.g. with a summary of your arguments, an interview, launching new questions, symbolic images, music and text? A bad video is one that finishes simply because the allocated time is over, with the result that arguments remain unsolved and the viewer does not realises it is the end until the credits appear.
I mentioned before that you need to tell a story if you want to make your video interesting. You will need to manage a certain amount of information, build your story and transmit it in a way that impresses your public. This may be further complicated by the fact that some of your viewers are already familiar with your arguments; that is the reason why they are watching, but they will expect something extra. When watching a video we expect to feel some emotion: curiosity, amusement, surprise… This is relevant because when you read an academic article the only think you typically expect is accurate information - not necessarily to enjoy the reading as you enjoy a novel. Although this would be ideal, very few scholars pay attention to creating and maintaining interest in their readers: they take interest in the topic for granted and expect readers to go through the article no matter how arid it is.
If you don't engage with your audience they will stop watching, so you need to tell a story.
Any story will have Setup, Conflict and Resolution. Any story needs the support of a structure or it will collapse. Even if the pictures are attractive, a video without structure fails.
Establish a beginning, a body and an end may reveal as embroiling tasks. Often you need to begin with something that requires no previous explanation: your spectators should recognise what they are watching and then you introduce the variable, an aspect that intrigues them and leads them to ask …and what's next? . Curiosly, however, one trick to attract your audience is doing the opposite: presenting to them something challenging so they want to know what are you going on about. This beginning must lead to somewhere else that expands the initial offer (I had no idea that the terracotta warriors were fully equipped with real weapons!, So, each warrior has a unique face, hair-style and their clothes were painted in different colors?, They started to built the warriors 35 years before the Emperor died when he wasn't even Emperor!) but arguments have to be presented harmoniously, so leading to an ending that settles all the questions formulated.
The key to making a story attractive to a potential public is that your story must be well thought and built: from established premises to a solid argumentation that resolves satisfactorily all your points at the end. You can construct a good story from the documentation stage while you search for references and develop your idea, but if you don't go further you will obtain a good educational product (which is a good achievement) but one that may lack of passion or originality, resulting in something a bit boring to watch. To avoid this you need to add some dramatism. Here I list some of the most important tips but you can find more in this blog.
Finally, it is advisable to write an abstract of your documentary. Writing will oblige you to find the originality, the essence of your work: What is your story? What is the main contention? Why is that interesting? Who/What is your main character? What is the conflict, the core of your story? How does it start and end? What is your topic? What do you want to tell with your story?
The writing of the abstract is mandatory for this exercise: an abstract of 200 words must be submitted along with the video, as well as a list of references.
The topic is the aim of your work, what your video is truly about. It supports and guides the story. The complication with the topic is that often it is not evident, sometimes not even for the very author! Take Romeo and Juliet as an example: I do not know what Shakespeare had in mind when he started writing the drama but let's say that the original idea was to write about two star-crossed lovers. The story is telling their relationship throughout the formidable enemity of their respective families. The topic, however, is about the whims of fate and how a minor change (failure to send a messenger by Friar Laurence) can lead to tremendous consequences (deaths of Paris, Romeo and Juliet).
Another example is in the sample video 'Crucible: the Hot Pot'. My original idea was to explain what a crucible is. The story originally was going to be its evolution from the inception of metallurgy to modern times. When I had the script written I realised that actually my topic was about innovation of technology, how people with different necessities resorted to the same solution, modified according to their particular circumstances, it was much more interesting to see examples of uses of crucibles in space and time than my original story about the evolution of the instrument!
Do not struggle to come up artificially with a topic. In my experience this appears usually at advanced stages of the process. However, there is an important reason to be conscious about the topic of your documentary: when reading an essay, the reader has a lot of clues to follow all the details or changes in the arguments: indexation, titles, paragraph layout, calls to 'see above', etc. and it is possible to stop the reading and go back to previous points again and again. You don't have these possibilities when making a video and rarely - not to say never - is the watching interrupted to see a scene again. The topic is the element that is going to link all your scenes and give coherence to the video: if somebody gets lost in one sequence the attention can be recovered in the next one since it is still dealing with the same topic although within a different moment in the story.
The correct term to refer to this part is pre-production, however I entitled it as 'planning' since I wanted to differentiate the script from the more technical steps (equipment, location, shoot plan, etc.) and highlight its importance.
During the process of creating a video the pre-production is the moment with maximum creative options. At this stage all your options are open, just keep in mind your idea, story and topic and play with them imagining scenes, e.g.: What about including scenes with only images and music? What if I lead the story in front of the camera all the time as Michael Moore does? What if I introduce an interview with somebody impersonating a historical character? Make all the documentary based on interviews? etc. Then, take a while to think about them, some of your ideas will be more convenient than others to resolve the conflicts and questions of the story, others may not be feasible, and further ones could be beyond your skills, time schedule or equipment capacity.
Take control of your documentary. You can write the whole plot seated on your desk. Use your research notes and the abstract, outline which arguments you develop and which images and sounds are going to illustrate them. Think about locations where you need to film (essentials, optional, alternatives) and the people to involve - what do you want to ask them and which are the expected points to be cleared throughout the questions? There will be changes, no doubt, at the times of shooting and editing but you can have beforehand a very close idea of your images, sounds and duration.
There are several models to write a script. I propose here the one I find easier to work with but there are many more of possibilities, you can find more examples in these suggested links (simplyscripts, write-movie-scripts), both of them are focused on movie scripts but several of the tips are valid for a documentary as well.
This script model is based on two columns, the actions (image) appear on the left and the sounds to the right. An optional third column is one with the estimated duration. I find this particularly useful because when filming I can control better the footage for every sequence and also estimate the number of scenes needed. This is part of the first script I wrote when producing the sample video about crucibles:
Wide shot image of the experimental archaeology group blowing the blowpipes or manipulating the crucibles. | Ambiance sounds of the experiment, sound vanishes and Miljana starts speaking | 30-40" |
Office of Professor Thilo Rehren, wide shot of him and close up of the crucibles | Thilo: Gives a definition of crucible / far more use than during the inception of metallurgy / variety in morphology in function of the goal | 45" |
Sample preparation lab, wide shot of cutting machines, liquids, polishing machines, etc. Harriet with the background of the lab. | Harriet: Explains why a sample is needed to study a crucible, and how to prepare it | 20-25" |
Optical Microscope lab, Rahil is seated operating the microscope, there is a box with samples and some specimens next to her. | Rahil: Explains her collection, speaks about crucible steel and the diference with Damascus steel | 45" |
SEM laboratory, Fred is operating the EPMA | Fred: Explains his project and which data can be obtained using EPMA. | 20-25" |
As you can see the script describes the action without any adornments. Try to keep it like that, you don't need to note what is on Thilo's desk or if the samples and crucibles of Rahil are to her right or to her left. Also note that when I wrote the script I could not know what my interviewees were going to say but I knew reasonably well the type of information I needed to get out of them according to the story that I planned to tell. Do not be afraid to direct your interviews, as a matter of fact I strongly recommend that you explain very clearly to your contributors what you are doing, what you need them for and how they can help you best. They will be happier to collaborate if they understand what that is for, and how long it is going to take.
Just in case: 'directing' the interview is nothing remotely similar to 'manipulating' the interview: your contributors are totally free to express their opinions, contradict you and organise the answer in the way they desire. They may come up with things you couldn't have envisaged, and while re-structuring your whole documentary around a new idea may not be advisable, you should certainly remain open to the unexpected!
The script is a powerful tool at your service,
is not just a compilation of words. It is a compilation of conceptual elements that tell a story. These elements when woven together with audiovisual elements create a good film (Das 2007, 23)
Another good advantage that a script offers is that it builds up the structure and your plan of action. Once you have the script you know how your story starts and ends, its development, the number of sequences needed to tell it and how many scenes are necessary to complete a sequence. At this point you can write a list of sequences. This is known as the step-outline.
The step-outline consists essentially of adding words to the documentary structure. It is extremely useful to know how many sequences you need because you can play with them, organising in the way you consider is more convenient to present an intelligible and attractive story. Try first a linear, conventional structure and later move this or that, play with different structures. Each sequence should make full sense, the step-outline is also useful because you will see clearly how many scenes you need to compose a sequence, the best way of linking (transition) different sequences, which music, sound, subtitles, divisions, etc to accompany them... About the scenes, you can write for each sequence something similar to the script but in 5 columns:
Order of sequence and scene | Location | Characters | Action | Sound |
3.1 | Sample preparation lab | Harriet | Harriet (spotlight) is seated holding a polished block with the sample lab as background | Harriet voice, grinding machine? |
3.2 | Sample preparation lab | Harriet | Harriet moves along the laboratory explaining the procedure to prepare a block | Harriet voice |
3.3 | Sample preparation lab | Crucible and sample | Close up of the original specimen (crucible) and the polished block after the preparation | Harriet voice |
To be honest, preparing this detailed column-schedule may not always be necessariy, although this is good practice and it will help you a lot. The factor given by the step-outline that you cannot ignore is to have a purpose for every shoot. When you get out your video camera, instead of thinking "This will look good on video" and starting to shoot whatever happens, you will already know "Why do I want this on video?". Furthermore, a detailed step-outline is useful as a checklist of things you need to shoot or prepare for. Needless to say, the order in which you film things may not be the same order in which they will appear, and this list will be useful for you to make sure you are not missing anything essential.
Any story depends upon three accentuated moments -Beginning, Middle and End- that must be perfectly recognisable by the audience. Here I describe briefly which are the more common elements expected to be there. For a more detailed explanation and good advice I suggest the reading of Trisha Das's paper, pages 24-31. This is a very recommendable reference that deals with the pillar aspects about writing of a documentary script and its screenplay.
Pre-production concerns to all the necessary steps to arrange previous to filming. Apart from the script, it typically includes people, equipment and locations.
People: In this exercise you will work on your own most of the time but still you need to set up schedules for your interviews or involve somebody else for a particular scene to assist you. Approach any contributor in advance, do not leave it for the last minute so you will avoid surprises.
Equipment: Although the only equipment you really need is a recording device, you must consider that the technical possibilities of a smartphone are limited when compared to those that a camera (even a photographic camera) offers, for example the smartphone typically records good quality images but integrates sounds and pictures in a single file whereas a camera usually records image and sounds in separate files, which is very convenient for editing. Other pieces of equipment quite convenient to consider are a tripod, a microphone and a lamp. The photographic department of the Institute can lend you pocket video cameras and other devices.
Locations: Think of where and when are you going to film. Consider that both for exterior and interior images you may want a particular moment of the day for different reasons: e.g. to avoid or to catch rush hours inside a museum or to picture a street at dusk. Also keep in mind that museums policies can vary and you may have to request permission for filming objects. When recording people, if they are going to appear as an important part of your shoot and can be recognised, courtesy is mandatory and you must ask them if they mind (most of them do not but - still be polite). In general, take some minutes to familiarise yourself with the place to film, which elements you are interested in framing. Considering if you want to set up the scene or go for a natural, spontaneous look, where the light is coming from, etc.
This tutorial is intended to be applicable to any type of recording device, therefore here I give only basic principles common to image capturing techniques. I merely highlight the fundamental aspects based largely on the web media college video, which I recommend you to visit for further information. This web offers very clear explanations about technical issues like shot types, rules of framing, camera movements, transitions or (simple) special effects. In general, the non-professional digital hardware and software are straightforward to use and rather than a handbook with instructions they require some practice. Learn what all the indicators mean, you need to get familiar with your device, instead of being afraid of pressing a button because you do not know what it is going to happen, you should press it and understand what it does. Play with your camera at home to avoid dramatic situations in front of the museum showcase, do not learn how to deal with an excess of light or brightness, or how to get the best out of scant lighting, when you are in front of your objective and creating a queue of furious museum visitors behind you. If your device has a lot of functions, it is a good idea to take quick notes that you can check at the moment of the real shooting.
Remember, the time for shooting is considerably shorter than the time employed for planning. All the previous work has a main aim: do not reach the post-production with a pile of footage randomly shot that you will try to collate desperately. Video making works exactly the other way around: there is a reason for every shot, you know perfectly why - its role in your story - and how - angle, light, framing, etc.- you want it.
This does not mean that there is no space for spontaneity: sometimes you just stumble upon something 'magical' that fits perfectly with your plan, or something curious which you do not know if it will be of any use... but better take it. In most cases you will end up discarding it but you never know.
Take your time to take the scenes (shots): choose the best angle, position the camera, frame your shot and check that your camera is recording. After taking it, watch it and consider if you want to try again with a different composition (you may end up combining the two shots), if you need to improve the audio quality, etc.
Make sure you have plenty of supplies of battery and memory... and don't forget to back up at the end of every filming session!
The frame is the picture you see in the screen of your device, whereas the composition is the layout of the elements withing the frame: e.g. the subject, the foreground, lighting, etc. There are several shots that you can use to frame a picture, the four basic ones that you are likely to use are these:
Decide which shot you want and how you are going to get it. How are you going to move the camera? Side-to-side (Pan), up-and-down (Tilt), in-and-out (Zoom)?
Position yourself and your camera and rehearse the movement to make before recording, to make sure that you can make it comfortably. It is not easy to get a stable image when you move.
A tripod will avoid the camera trembling, which is always quite annoying and substracts quality to the final result (unless you have a good reason for that 'spontaneous feel'). If you cannot find a tripod, just set your camera in a fixed position but check that is framing what you want to frame before you start shooting!
Bear editing in mind when you are shooting, try not to cut abruptly your shoots but take 1 or 2 seconds extra to facilitate the transition. Also think about which transtitions are going to link scenes or sequences. Consider taking some extra scenes just as 'backup' material.
Press stop record before moving, a lot of unwanted movement cannot be avoided when you are not using professional equipment, but certainly you can suppress those jerky movements.
It is hard to get the perfect shot at the first try, be ready to repeat and experiment with your device.
Avoid superfluous images: if your subject is the Rosetta Stone, it may not be necessary to shoot a very wide shot of the British Museum exteriors. However, your script may dictate that you want some kind of 'establishing shot' to show where you are, or to facilitate the transition between sequences.
If shooting people do not forget to ask for permisson, and to thank them once you have finished.
When recording for the sample video 'Crucible: the Hot-Pot' I realised that the smartphone I was using registered the sound very low. Photographic and video cameras usually offer a better quality of sound. Another trick is using separate devices to record the sound: put one next to the speaker for the sound, and then mount the voice with the image when editing or add the voice in 'off'. If the sound in a scene is not clear (especially in an interview) and you cannot repeat it, you can use subtitles at least for the most important commentaries. In case of doubts about the quality of the sound ask someone for a second opinion.
Light can be other problem, normally the smartphones and other device cameras are not too powerful and tend to under-illuminate unless there is plenty of natural light. Try to focus from different angles and/or programs (if available) and move around the space you are interested to check the most convenient point. Your positioning has really different results in terms of lighting. Get extra light if you need it, often opening curtains or switching on artificial lights may be enough.
Interviews are specific material within a documentary and require some special attention. There are two types of possible interview likely to be used in this format: casual opinion and expert opinion. In the first case usually you look for spontaneity, e.g. to a visitor in a museum: why did you stop to look at this picture? whereas the second one you look for an authoritative voice, somebody with knowledge on the matter.
When looking for an opinion try to provide some background to your questions, or phrase them in a way that elicits interesting anwers. Otherwise you may end up with dull dialogues like this: 'Do you like this vessel? Yes, Why do you like it? Because is beautiful'.
A very easy technique is to launch a question and edit a variety of voices answering it (people of different ages, nationalities, gender, etc.). The contrast of reactions to the same question gives a broad view and can be entertaining.
I already mentioned that you should direct the interview for the second case (#The Script). In order to do so you must first research on the topic and (obviously) find out who can answer your questions.
In both cases you should normally tell your interviewees what you expect from them, possibly including their corporal language: where they have to look, if you want them to point at something, etc. Some directors, however, prefer a much more natural outlook, where the position of the interviewee, their reactions, body language... are not prepared at all. This often brings more spontaneity, but at the expense of poorer image quality and answers that may or may not be relevant to your topic. Prepare a battery of questions and adapt this questionnaire when doing the interview. You will use some of the prepared questions, discard others and launch new ones on the spot but be sure that you get the material you wanted to obtain. Finally, do not forget to set the camera first, do not interrupt filming to check if everything is OK.
If an interviewee asks you if their explanation is clear - '... are you still with me?' - you can use the opportunity and say 'no'. In my experience, a more complete and appropriate answer is coming.
This is the step in which you really feel that you are producing a video. Finally you check if your idea is valid; mount your scenes; add music, transitions and titles; and control if the sequences work and in which other. Frequently you discover that scenes that you were sure you would use, in the end do not look that good in the video or that part of them are simply not necessary.
The first step is checking all the material you have filmed, take your time to watch all the clips recorded. Usually you reach this point with a good number of shoots so is important to keep them organized, create folders (e.g. according to the sequences) and name the files, is much easier to manage them as “labscene1” than as “MVI_66293.THM”.
The goal is to know exactly how much and how long footage you have, and to assess it. Taking short notes will help you during the edition: what they contain, beginning and end, which scene you definitely want to include, where you need to cut, transitions that you can use from one to another, etc., for the interview scenes, it is very convenient to transcribe the whole dialogue.
Tip: Editing is a work of synthesis
All the previous efforts focused on the script and the building of a solid story are important because when editing you have to stick to your story, and cut anything superfluous. The key question is to know which parts should be omitted, but in general this is straightforward: if you have any doubt about the convenience of including a scene, it is because is not a mainstay of the story. They may be interesting because they introduce a different point of view or because they are beautiful visuals, so save them for posterior possible use.
When deciding which parts to include and which ones to discard it is fundamental to have your ending clear: keep in mind that your audience does not know where you are leading them but you do, you direct them. Therefore when gauging the material be sure that the arguments are clear, expose and resolve the conflict(s). Be sure that all that you want to tell is there and that your story flows. Once you finished watching all the footage and have a clear idea of the product to be created, it is time to mount the video.
Create a copy of all your original material and save it somewhere. Once you finish editing a sequence create two different files, save one in the software editing format (.wlmp in my case) and the other in any video format that allows you to see it in full quality, e.g. .mp4.
My experience comes from the linear edition (tapes) which is substantially different, so when I started to edit the first sample video about crucibles I was not familiar either with the editing software packages.
In case you do not have any previous experience the good news is that most of them are non-complicated to use. Laptops usually integrate some software that enables video editing, just be aware that frequently in these cases the software is limited and only reads files compatible with the computer maker. This is not a problem, there are other software packages to convert the file extensions into other format (for example I used the free software Videolan to do it) just be aware that extra time (and effort) is required,
If you need to download one take into account this possibility and double check that the software is compatible with your recording device. My advice is that you download a free amateur software, obviously the characteristics of these are limited in comparison with those offered by professional ones but still allow the production of good quality movies, frequently they are free to download and most important are considerably more simple to operate.
To make the sample videos I used Windows Movie Maker and the best advantage is that it is indeed very simple to use with very acceptable final results in image and animations. One weakness is that the edition of the sound is quite limited so I used another free software (Wafe editor) to edit the sound separately and then mount it with the visuals. If your recording device records image and audio in the same file, Videolan is also useful since you can create an audio file (mp3) and edit it separately.
The more professional the sofware is the more complicate the edition will be. Even if better software enables much more sophisticated results be aware that is also considerably more complicated to use. Some of the animations used in 'Crucible: the Hot-Pot' are the work of a professional enterprise: the world map with the red line connecting the sites was made using 3DS Max 2014 and it took 4 hours of work plus 5-6 hours of rendering and the more 'simple' introduction for each crucible type took a total of 6-8 hours using Final Cut Pro X. Balance your time and your skills, the result is certainly cool but 16 hours of work were invested in 54 seconds of footage and of course these softwares requires further expertise.
Apart from these basic pieces of advice, the choice is totally up to you. You can find short reviews of several available possibilities for both Windows and Mac in the webs techradar and yahoo answers.
When editing you need to go back to the script and ask yourself some questions: Is the beginning enthralling? Does the story go from less to more? Are the questions/arguments exposed properly and answered afterwards? Did the video offer everything it promised? Is the end satisfactory?
Ask as well questions concerning the video and experiment with the edition: Does the video flow? What is the effect if changing the order of this sequence? Which is/are the best scene(s)? Is there something special for the end? Which are the strongest points? How can it be improved?
Once you have all images mounted and you are happy with the result it is time to add all the effects: transitions, music, off voice, credits, captions, etc. Any video making software allows multiple effects: play with the software, take any clip and experiment with it integrating sound, cutting, inserting transitions, assembling clips and pictures, etc.
About transitions: avoid the cheesy ones. They can be tempting but the result is, most frequently, excessive (think of those Powerpoint presentations full of annoying annimations).
If you insert text, this should be legible before any considerations about it being eye-catching.
Check that volume and tone are audible and maintain the same levels throughout all the video.
Music is often constrained by copyrights therefore it is crucial to be sure you have the right to use it without violating the law. There are several online resources that you can use safely. Freesound, youtube/audiolibrary or Freemusicarchive contain collection tracks of licensed songs that you can add to videos for non-comercial purposes. For a range of other media also licensed I recommend creativecommons
ALWAYS reference your music in your credits, indicating the theme song title and the source.
In the credits you have to establish clearly who is the video author, contributors and any resource (images, music, etc.) utilised. You should also note the year of production.
At the end of the credits, the following statement must appear. 'This educational film is an unrevised version submitted by XXXXX for assessment at the undergraduate Archaeometallurgy course at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2014.
Many editing software packages work with low quality files so you can make the edition quickly. It is therefore normal if e.g. captions are seen blurred during the edition. When saving the cuts to a different format the volume increase considerably (the first video sample goes from 7.35KB to 658MB)
Video formats with good quality are heavy.
Digital video requires approximately 200 MB per minute of footage (VideoFormatsGuide)
3gp is a really light video format in contrast with .avi, mp4 or .mov, but it is only suitable for smartphones or very small screens, in any other device the image will appear pixelated and the audio faltering. My advice is that you pay more attention to the quality, edit our video in HD and save it in the most common formats - .avi,.mpg, .mov or .wmv- (the most common formats to upload videos in Youtube). One recomendable tool to convert videos in several formats is freemake, free download and easy to use.
Once the post-production is finished you should watch the video carefully to identify the weaknesses, pause the recording and take notes about any fault regarding the sound, images, story, etc.
Here I listed some of the most common mistakes that any beginner but also most experienced people is likely to commit, the majority of them are easily avoidable and typically demand more attention at the planning stage and -especially- more editing work. There is no a particular line-up from less to more important or vice versa since all of them can affect negatively to the quality of your video. However, my personal opinion is that the pre-production errors are more severe than the edition errors because the formers will require a more serious endeavour, but even at this final stage these can be satisfactorily solved.
Along the notes I refer to the video samples several times: some of the faults were intentionally made with the aim of showing that small mistakes do not affect seriously to the production; others I simply committed them either because there was a situation that I was not capable of correct when filming or because I miscalculated the abilities of the editing tools, and I couldn’t help but maintaining them.