SCIENCE VIDEOS MADE SIMPLE
A short guide to making simple whiteboard-style videos for scientists
8. FINISHING TOUCHES
This guide was created in early 2017 to guide a bunch of graduate students through the process of creating simple science videos for general audiences using whiteboards, stick figures, and video capture devices like smartphones (we used Apple iPods, which are no longer available, but the techniques still stand).
Since then the available technologies have improved – for instance, most smart phones will record good audio without the help of an external microphone, and recording apps have evolved. But the basic approaches and principles remain the same. For a more in-depth article on the underlying ideas and process, see here.
Before your sketch-video is ready to be unleashed on the world, it needs a few finishing touches. In more polished and professional video editing, this would include a number of steps not included here such as ensuring the color balance of the complete video is uniform, and balancing the sound across the movie (I do some of this in my videos).
For the type of video we’re producing though, there are just five finishing touches we’ll be focusing on:
- Soundtrack
- Opening titles
- Closing credits and graphics
- Finessing
- Final preview
These are often integrated into the video editing process (apart from the final preview), so you should feel free to blend them in as you edit. For instance, I often add the soundtrack at an early stage of editing.
Soundtrack
Having an engaging soundtrack on your video helps viewers focus on the information that’s being conveyed. It also cover a multitude of sins, including energizing a slight monotonous voiceover and increasing substantially the watchability of a video (i.e. people won’t get bored as fast).
However, care needs to be taken to select a soundtrack that isn’t distracting, and that doesn’t obscure the voiceover. It’s also not that easy to get hold of music that you can legally use.
One source of free tracks is YouTube’s audio library — this is well worth checking out. For my videos I typically pay for soundtracks, and use the web service PremiumBeats.com. These are usually around $40-$50 a track, but once you’ve paid for one, you have unlimited use rights (with a couple of restrictions).
When adding a soundtrack, there are a few things to look out for:
- Start the video with the soundtrack at a reasonable volume, but as the voice over starts, reduce the volume so that the voice over is very clear and the music isn’t distracting. While balancing the sound levels, make sure you listen to the balance through headphones, and good quality speakers — don’t rely on your computer’s speakers. However, at some point, make sure the balance also sounds OK through your computer.
- At the end of the video, increase the volume of the soundtrack again as the voice over ends. You should extend the soundtrack through to the end of the end credits, and even slightly beyond.
- If your soundtrack is longer than the video, you can fade it out at the end (the easy option), or you can cut and splice it to make it shorter. This option involves cutting a section out of the middle of the soundtrack and splicing the ends together to make a seamless join — something that takes a good ear and some practice.
- If your soundtrack is shorter than the video, you can either duplicate a section of it to fit the video, or use more than one piece of music. The easiest solution is just to repeat the soundtrack. In each case, care needs to be taken to ensure transitions are smooth and don’t miss a beat.
- Try and avoid soundtracks that have vocals (although they may work sometimes) and strident instrumentals (heavy percussion for instance is hard to balance with the voice over!). I also try to use soundtracks that immediately capture the viewer’s attention, and match the feel of the video.
Opening Titles
Having an opening set of titles on your video isn’t essential, but it can help establish the focus and brand of the video with your audience. It also gives you a chance to say up-front who the video creator was.
That said, I’m increasingly veering toward not having opening titles so that viewers get straight into the content.
An alternative approach is to start the video, then cut to opening credits. This is the technique I used on the video What Is Nanotechnology?
On the How Filters Work video, I use a simple title frame that shows the video name on a black background for a few seconds. Adding title frames like this is easy in most video editing programs.
To be more sophisticated, you can create a graphic frame in an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop and insert this at the beginning of the video. If you do this, your image size should be 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels if you are creating a HD video (you most likely are).
I usually just have opening titles up for 2-3 seconds before fading into the video itself, and start the soundtrack at the beginning of the opening titles.
Closing Credits and Graphics
Closing credits are important for acknowledging who was responsible for making or contributing to the video, and any associated or affiliated organizations or people who helped out. Most video editing programs have a number of ways to add closing credits.
Closing credits are definitely good practice. However, if it’s clear from the information provided on YouTube who the creators are, they are sometimes not necessary (but always recommended). For instance, the How Filters Work video has an end graphic, but no credits.
Closing graphics are useful for branding, or acknowledging a supporting organization. For instance, if the video was associated with an academic institution and funded through the NSF, this would be a good place to add the appropriate logos. In the How Filters Work video, we end with the Science Showcase branding.
It’s usually easiest to create closing graphics in an image editing program (your image size should be 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels if working in HD), and insert it into the video.
Finessing your Video
The timing of the video clips in relation to the voiceover can make the difference between a mediocre video and a really compelling one. Here, finessing video is similar to performing a piece of music – knowing how to craft the flow of the piece so that it becomes something special.
Ideally, you should be finessing your video as you go, but once you have a rough cut together including the sound track and opening/closing credits, you should go back and add some final polish.
Finessing is an art that is learned over time, but there are a few tips that can help:
- Don’t make freeze frames too short. The viewer needs time to take these in. Rushing from one segment to the next can make the video feel too rushed, and risks loosing the attention of the viewer.
- It’s OK to make video segments faster to allow enough time for longer freeze frames.
- Sometimes, it’s better to cut a video sequence out to slow the pace of the video down – don’t think you need to cram everything in, just because you filmed it.
- Use occasional transitions where you erase a frame, or turn a page, but vary the transitions between scenes so that things don’t get tedious and predictable.
- If you’re struggling to match the video to the voice over, it’s OK to start a scene some way into the drawing.
- Keep watching the video from the beginning to feel how it’s flowing, and make adjustments so that the flow feels right – not too rushed, not too slow.
- Be precise with timings, so that transitions and drawings clearly match the voice over.
And the final tip is, take your time – good editing is a slow process (it will take me between 1 – 3 hours to finalize a 3 minute video from a rough cut).
Final Preview
Once you think your video is finished, spend some time watching it all the way through with a critical eye, and making final tweaks. These might include:
- Making sure transitions between clips and scenes are smooth.
- Checking that there aren’t any video shots that shouldn’t be there.
- Making sure you are happy with the pacing and flow of the video (for instance, checking that the video clips aren’t too fast, and that viewers that are new to the video will be able to follow the flow).
- Ensuring that the audio balance is correct, and that the voice over is clear throughout the video. Remember to listen through headphones and, if possible, good quality speakers, as well as through your computer speakers.
- Adding transitions such as fades where they make sense — for instance between the opening titles and the first sketch frame.
- Checking that, watched from start to end, the video looks good.
It’s always a good idea to ask someone else to watch the video with a critical eye before making it public!
Once you are happy with the video, it’s time to unleash it on the world. And importantly–to let people know it’s there, and to encourage them to tell others.
After all, if your aim is to communicate, there’s no point in staying quiet about it!
Uploading to YouTube and getting views!
Assuming you are using YouTube to get your video out there, the final step is to upload the the video to your YouTube channel and optimize it so that people can find it and benefit from it.
Here, Search Engine Optimization is critical, otherwise, your video will only bee seen by a few diehard friends and family – good content never sells itself without some help.
There are plenty of guides around on YouTube SEO, but these tips should be helpful to start the ball rolling.
Install a good YouTube Optimizer plugin for your bowser. I use VidIQ, but there are others (such as TubeBuddy). These help tweak everything from titles and descriptions to keywords and YouTube features to increase the discoverability of your video.
Create a compelling title. This shouldn’t be clickbait. But it should be short and clear, include keywords that users might be searching for, and let someone browsing YouTube know what the video is about.
Write a clear description that includes key words and phrases in the first couple of sentences. Most browsers will just read the first 1 – 2 sentences of your description, so make sure these are as clear and compelling as possible. After these openig sentences, be as detailed as you like – there’s lots of space there t go into detail. Also consider adding timestamps for important sections in the video – YouTube will convert these to links to the relevant sections (see this example for instance).
Create a compelling Custom Thumbnail for your video. The thumbnail is the first thing that browsers see, and can make the difference between a click and a pass (some guides suggest it’s one of the most important farctors in getting clicks). Look at what draws you to other videos while browsing, and learn fro this.
Include relevant tags for your video. These are important in letting the TouTube algorithm know what your video is about. If you use a pluginh like VidIQ it will let you know how your video ranks against different tags after its published.
Add subtitles/closed captions to your video. This is generally good practice and you should never publish a video without them. They also help with discoverability.
Tweak your SEO after publishing your video. It’s always good to check in on what’s working and what’s not, and tweak it after publishing your video.
These tips are just the start. To have an impact you’ll need to spread the word through as many channels as possible, and ideally post reguarly on the same YouTube channel. You’ll also need to realistic about what you might achieve and think critically about what success looks like (if you hit the right target, 1,000 views can be a win!).
And remember, in a crowded marketplace for attention it’s getting harder to get views on YouTube videos – but with time and perseverance it is possible, if you have a product that connects with viewers.
The finished product
To get a sense of how all of this comes together, here are the two videos that formed the basis of these modules–one using the pencil and paper technique, the other using a whiteboard:
Using pencil and paper …
… and using a whiteboard.
Postscript
The videos above were published on the YouTube channel Science Showcase – a channel set up for a time-limited purpose to showcase science videos from academic creators. They did OK, and at the time of writing (September 2024) the whiteboard video had over 7,000 views. However, just to show how fickle the YouTuve algorithm is, the same video was uploaded to the Risk Bites channel in January 2019, and since then has received over 76,000 views!
Which just goes to show – there’s more to reach and impact when using videos to communicate science than just having great content!
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