Audio and visual elements come together in the rich medium of video. The video as a context can provide for a vast array of supplementary media elements. There are an endless amount of ways in which video can be added to a subject matter to further explain and bring together all the elements which text alone can not account for. The expressive nature of video can benefit your work on multiple levels as well as visual demonstrate your comprehension of the material.

Video, when present in an academic environment, is generally better when it is shorter; try to get your point across as concisely as possible. When thinking about creating a video watch some informational videos by a variety of people. Perhaps even write up a brief paper on what information you want to be in the video, this is a good technique for formulating your thoughts on the video project.  Another good idea is to try to find clips others have made on the subject you are creating. Be careful though as you don’t want to just copy what other have done before! Get a general outline for what you want to present, even creating bullet points on the subject will enable you better understand what you viewers will be watching.

As is with a lot of academic work your subject matter may be a dense topic of discussion. Instead of trying to hit on every small detail, try and include broader details that explain your main idea. Of course, if you know your viewers are going to be subject matter experts on the topic, such is the case when everyone in the class is studying the same areas, you can afford to go into great detail in the video. Just be sure you account for who ever your audience is.

Now that you have a general outline of what you want in your video, you should story board your ideas. Creating a storyboard is much simpler than it sounds. Lets take an example to examine what a storyboard is: I am going to be creating a video to demonstrate how the Ancient Greeks would solve a relations problem. I have spent some time examining what I want to include in my video and have three major points: Explain the number system differences between now and the Ancient Greeks, explain how limited their mathematics was in their time as compared to ours, demonstrate a simple relations problem as the Ancient Greeks would of. Now these three major topics can be split up into subtopics of what I want to show during the video. Each of these different “scenes” should be written down and included in together to create the storyboard. When you have completed what each topics and scene will include, for how long, and what elements are introduced, discussed and demonstrated; you will then have a completed storyboard.

Now that you have your storyboard together you are ready to review what you are presenting to your audience. Consider the paper you wrote and make sure all of its topics are covered in the storyboard. Make sure you have all the assets you need to record your video: lights, camera, action! Next, we will go over how to edit your video to ensure it is as presentable as possible to your audience.