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Tips for making your video

upload a videoupload a paper/posterdescribe your contentadditional infofinish

Quick Start

We've created some tutorials (linked below) that you can use as a guide to make your video. If you are not a professional video editor with professional editing software, we recommend using Movie Maker on a Windows PC or iMovie on an Apple Macintosh. Using a webcam to record yourself can work nicely if you apply good lighting and sound (see the technical tips at the bottom of the page), but we do not recommend using the software that comes with your webcam.


Tutorials for recording and editing with a Mac or PC:

Mac users:

iMovie Tutorial: Creating your video using iSight (if you have a built-in webcam)
iMovie Tutorial: Importing your video from an external camera or other source

Windows users:

Movie Maker Tutorial: Creating your video (if you have a webcam)
Movie Maker Tutorial: Importing your video from an external camera or other source

How should I record, edit and export a video?

  1. Capture on a webcam or consumer video camera using MovieMaker or iMovie

  2. Edit in Windows Movie Maker or Mac iMovie (Movie Maker has been built into Windows since the Millennium Edition Version and iMovie has been built into the Mac OS since October 1999.)

  3. Export using our recommended export settings charted below:


    If you record your video using: use one of the following programs : then export your video as: using the following compression settings: with resolution (dimensions): Tutorial

    a webcam with computer audio or a consumer digital video camera

    Windows Movie Maker

    .wmv
    compression: H.264;
    Frame Rate: 29.97 fps;
    keyframes: automatic;
    Quality: High or Best;
    Data Rate: automatic
    		 480 X 360 (or 640 X 480 if Windows Media Encoder 9 Series is not installed)

    Creating your video

    Mac iMovie

    .mov (QuickTime)

    compression: H.264;
    Frame Rate: 29.97 fps;
    keyframes: automatic;
    Quality: High or Best;
    Data Rate: automatic

    		 480 X 360

    Creating your video



When using professional production assistance to create a video:

If you choose to hire professional help to create your video, give them the following specifications for the web deliverable file: H.264; 29.97 fps; 480 X 360; .mp4
Tip: Check your local university media services to see if they offer video production media services.

What should I talk about in my video?

It is likely that you have already presented your paper in person, so you could plan your video presentation in the same way as if you were presenting in front of a live audience possibly using PowerPoint slides as a teleprompter to guide you. Because the video duration we suggest is relatively short, you should emphasize and highlight the main points of your paper. It would be good to discuss any concepts that are particularly difficult to grasp from reading the text. As you are planning your video, consider that this might be the first time that someone has come across your paper. This is your chance to make an impression and establish a readership for your paper! Remember that video is a different medium than written word. Video is more suitable for communicating the big picture or difficult concepts rather than methodological details.



What technical tips can you give me about producing, editing, and preparing a video for the web myself?

  1. We suggest that you keep your video under 10 minutes and not over 1 GB.

  2. If you are recording yourself with the help of colleagues and a camcorder, make sure that you have a nice clean audio feed. By using a headset to listen to the audio and watching the audio input indicator on your camera, you can monitor audio to assure that it is not over 12db. If audio is too “hot” the recording will have pops and cracks in it and sound pretty bad.

  3. If you are recording yourself with a webcam, be sure to project your voice clearly toward the webcam microphone. Create a test video and play it back in iMovie or MovieMaker to see how the audio recorded. If the audio is still not loud enough even after projecting your voice well and toward the webcam microphone, you can change the amplitude to a higher level by editing the audio portion of the recorded file afterward in iMovie or MovieMaker.

  4. If you are the person speaking into the microphone, keep your mouth away from the microphone far enough when speaking into it so that the microphone does not pick up your breathing and/or your “p” and “t” sounds don’t cause feedback.

  5. Use a lot of light during recording. Video recordings need to be lit up more than what you would expect for the recording to show colors and contrast naturally. Use natural lighting from a window behind the camera pointing toward the person speaking or point lights from behind the camera toward the person speaking. Put as many existing lights and lamps on in the room to increase the room's overall light level. Replace existing lightbulbs with more powerful lightbulbs. Use a reflector to bounce an existing light source onto your subject. A reflector can be made with a foil covered large piece of cardboard or a large white poster board to help reflect light up from below the speaker to fill in the shadows under the chin and eye sockets when there is a lot of overhead light. Use lamps to produce a three point lighting set up. See additional lighting tips at: http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/light/index.html

  6. If you are using built in computer software like iMovie or MovieMaker make sure to use the export settings that constrain the file size to under 1 GB. Some built in software allows you to specify the file size you wish to constrain your movie and this automatically configures the bitrate.

  7. If you are using more advanced video software to edit your video like Adobe Primere or Final Cut Pro, set up your project to use: 480 X 360 resolution; H.264 compression; Export your file to constrain to 1 GB.
  8. If you have an existing video that you would like to upload and need to change the resolution and compression use software like Sorenson Squeeze (commercial product, but good and easy to use) or MPEG Streamclip by SQUARED 5 (freeware, easy to use). Both of these conversion programs actually allow you to convert your movie into an flash video file thus saving a step during upload to the SciVee server.

  9. Convert your movie to a flash video file (.flv) using a compression tool (like the ones mentioned in tip#7). This will cut down on the time that it take to upload your video because you will have already completed the conversion to flash step prior to upload on your local machine. Thus, the SciVee upload system will not need to convert the video to flv, and it will save you the time it takes to convert the video through the browser remotely on the server.


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