5.4 Editing

Step 1: Selecting the Content

Your video will only be valuable if the content that it covers is valuable. Lecture videos are best if they:

  • Are a visual representation of the content
  • Show a process or an act
  • Take students outside of the "classroom" and into the community or other parts of the world (NOTE: Since your video is not due until after spring break, you might be encouraged to capture some video of the places you may visit. This would be a fun way to bring the "outside" into your videos. In fact, I encourage you to have fun with assignment! Make a fun video that reflects who you are and captures your sense of humor or invokes curiosity from your students. Apply the concepts we learned in Mod 5.3 for camera angles and shots to make sure what you capture is what you've meant to capture.)
  • Tell a story! Again, I encourage you to have fun with this project. Be courageous! Maybe, if you'd like, be a bit whacky or create mystery by using some of the video filming tactics you learned in 5.3.

Step 2: Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a critical step in the process. Storyboarding goes beyond a simple back-of-the-napkin outline for the video. A video is only as good as its storyboard, which is the blueprint or guide for how you will produced your video.

On your storyboard you should have a very brief description of your script with the accompanying visuals that you will show. The visuals can be hand drawn. The idea is that each scene of your video should be captured on the storyboard.

When I storyboard I like to use a table with two columns--one column for the script and another column for the visuals. For instance, watch the following video on how to tie a tie and notice how often they change the camera angle. All of that had to be on a storyboard before they started filming.

Important! Your video will need to be between 4 and 6 minutes long. When you plan your storyboard, you should keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind the elements that comprise a quality video.

Before you begin creating your video, you need to complete the storyboard. Use this TEMPLATE or find your own storyboard template. Your storyboard needs to depict each important scene with a graphical image and a brief description of the narration/dialog for the scene (See Examples).You will share this with your colleague's and they will give you feedback (and vice versa).

Storyboard link is posted to this Padlet by: April 2, 2017, 11:59 pm

Provide constructive feedback to at least one colleague. Consider how your colleague could make improvements. Post your comment in the Padlet by; April 4, 2017, 11:59 pm

*Important! You need to check back to Padlet to review any comments you received from your colleagues. Adjust your storyboard with any of their suggestions that you find will help you improve your video. I'll ask you later to reflect on how you incorporated any of their comments.

Step 3: Collecting and Creating Media

Now that you've got a storyboard, it's time to start collecting and creating the media that you will use. This is sort of like going shopping for ingredients to make a cake. Make sure you don't shoplift and follow Copy right and Fair Use guidelines. There are a few categories of media that I would like to talk about:

Video

If you are filming make sure to follow the guidelines covered in Mods 4.3 and 5.3.

There are times when you want to use a short clip from a YouTube video. There are several ways that you can do it but here are two that I've found to work the best.

  1. http://www.clipconverter.cc/ lets you download YouTube videos as well as videos that you find on some of the other video hosting sites. You can also upload a video and convert the video format using this site. That can be really helpful because not all video formats are compatible with the program that you are using. A quick Google search will let you know what formats are compatible with the program you are using.
  2. Go to the YouTube video that you want to download. Go to the URL and replace https://www. with ss and hit enter. For instance if I wanted to download the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGHQ6xpnahI I would change the URL to ssyoutube.com/watch?v=gGHQ6xpnahI and hit enter. Once there I can follow the directions to download the video.

You can record the screen if you like using screencast-o-matic. It is an easy program to use and it works on Macs and PCs. Here are some tutorials to help you. Screencasts can add a nice element to your video. For instance you can use it to record Google Earth zooming into a city.

Music

Your video has to use background music at some point in the video, even if it only during the intro or credits. I highly recommend that you find music at freeplaymusic.com because then you can use the entire song if you like. You can use other music that you have obtained legally but you are limited to 30 seconds.

Images

Remember Creative Commons sources, which are often great places to get material you can use for free and without worrying about using less than 10%.

Step 4: Editing the video

Once you've created and posted your storyboard to the Padlet, and you have improved it based on feedback from your colleagues, it's time to create and edit your video using iMovie (for Mac) or MovieMaker (for PC) or any other video-editing tool you prefer.

Probably the best way to learn how to use a program is to play with it. I would recommend just uploading some test video to the video editor and seeing everything that you can do with it. Additionally, I encourage you to Google how-tos or search YouTube for how-to edit. I've also created and gathered lots of tutorials to help you do specific things.

iMovie

iMovie is the free moviemaking tool that comes on the Macs and iPads. It is quite powerful and can do a lot of things and yet is pretty easy to learn. iMovie integrates easily with other Mac tools like iPhoto, iTunes, and iDVD. There are three versions of iMovie: iMovie 6, iMovie 9, iMovie 11. The following tutorials and instruction are for iMovie 11.

Vimeo created a great iMovie tutorial page. The video at the top of the page is about 10 minutes and goes over several different topics. They have also cut the 10 minute video into smaller clips at the bottom of the page which is nice if you are looking for something specific.

iMovie Tutorials that we made for a previous course.

Apple has also made lots of tutorials

MovieMaker

MovieMaker is a simple program that you may already have on your PC. If not you can download it here.

  • Transferring projects between computers with this tool is not easy. If you plan to use this tool plan to do the entire project on the same computer.
  • Many PCs do not have a firewire port which can make getting live video from a video camera on to your a difficult chore (if you plan to use live video).

Vimeo created a great MovieMaker tutorial page. The video at the top of the page is about 10 minutes and goes over several different topics. They have also cut the 10 minute video into smaller clips at the bottom of the page which is nice if you are looking for something specific.

Dan Randall has made several tutorials to help you learn MovieMaker

MovieMaker on the PC – I have not tried all of these tutorials yet, but Atomic Learning is usually a good company for tutorials. You can probably find others on Youtube.

Checklist for Edited Video

Your final edited video needs to include the following elements:

  • CONTENT: The video content clearly teaches the intended learning objective in a way that could not be accomplished using traditional learning teaching techniques such as lecture.
  • VISUAL ELEMENTS: There is at least 1 graphical image or video produced by someone else that is incorporated into the video and which clearly enhances the video. Visuals are engaging and meaningful.
  • NARRATION: The narration is clear, natural, and engaging.
  • MUSIC: Background music enhances what is being taught and does not distract the learner from the visuals and narration.
  • TRANSITIONS: Transitions are smooth and timed in ways that keep students engaged.
  • FAIR USE: Fair use and copyright guidelines are followed. You can include a list of resources at the end of your video if applicable.
  • QUALITY: The video follows the quality guidelines for edited video.
  • INTERACTIVITY: NOTE - This will be reviewed in 6.2. The final video is made interactive with YouTube features. You will tend to this in Mod 6.
  • LENGTH: The final video is between 4 and 6 minutes long.
  • POSTED: The final video is posted onto your YouTube Channel and is shared. See 6.3 for details. You will tend to this in Mod 6.

DUE DATES:

Your edited video project will be due after your spring break on April 16, 2017, 11:59 pm. See Mod 6.0 to complete this project.

When you are done with the materials in this section, move onto Mod 6.0.