Creating and editing videos
Before making a video, you should plan the story, ideally using a story board, and write the script of the audio narration of the video. You can use a lot of different software tools to create a video, but if you have no experience, you can start by using PowerPoint.
Downloadable Resources
Useful links and external resources
Useful tips and design strategies (opens in a new tab)
Accessibility
Choose a good contrast between background and text. To check if the colours chosen have good contrast so they will be clear to read, even for people with colour deficiency, you can use Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Achieving WCAG grade of AA or AAA grading means that your colour choice is good. To test the colours, you need to do the following:
Choose a colour from here: https://htmlcolorcodes.com/ (opens in a new tab) and take a note of its HEX code (and RGB codes if you would like to match it in an older version of Word or PowerPoint)
Go to https://whocanuse.com/ (opens in a new tab) and type in the HEX code of the colour into the relevant box (background or text) and it will display the WCAG grading of that colour combination.
More information is available on the Creating with accessibility in mind page.
Images
Remember that when using images, you must state your source and reference them properly. If you are using Harvard referencing, you can use the the guide from the Cite Them Right website (opens in a new tab).
You can find free images on Pixabay and Unsplash websites (open in a new tab).
The Library (opens in a new tab) also has a good selection of image sources.
If you prefer to use Google to search for images, just make sure that you filter the results by using the appropriate license filter as shown below. To do that, when searching with Google, click on the Tools option under the search icon and a new set of tools will open. One of the options is to choose a Usage rights filter. Click on it and change it from the default setting ("Not filtered by license") to "Creative commons license".
Links are also available on the Useful stuff page.
Music and sound
You can find royalty free music from Purple Planet (opens in a new tab).
Don't forget, if using a background music in your stories to make sure that it is not too loud so the voice narration can be heard. If using music from this source, remember to credit your source as explained on the Purple Planet's website (opens in a new tab).
A 16,000 BBC Sound Effects library archive (opens in a new tab), have been made available by the BBC in WAV format to download for use under the terms of the RemArc Licence. The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license.
Another sound effect library is available from https://www.freesfx.co.uk/ (opens in a new tab). You must credit freesfx.co.uk if you use their sound effects or music in your project. You have to include their website URL in your credits.