Video can be an engaging format to communicate ideas, tell stories, promote a project, or entertain. While you can start simply by picking up a camera and talking, your odds of creating a compelling video will be greater if you start with a little upfront planning.
The following outline covers a basic process for creating a video project. If you have any questions about research or about using technology in the library to create your video, contact the library at library@udayton.edu or chat with us by clicking the “Need Help?” button in the lower right-hand corner of this guide.
This is the "brainstorming stage" with the prime objective of getting all of your ideas on paper (or into a document or webpage). The process of creating a storyboard is important because it helps you determine what events will take place and in what order. This process can be done using software, websites, or pencil and paper (e.g. sketching a picture of each scene with the characters, objects, dialog and objectives).
Now that you have a storyboard, you should move on to writing the script. Plan out exactly what the scenes should look like, what each character should say and do and whether you need any additional media (music, text, etc).
A trick for script writing is to break your movie into 3 parts - the beginning, the middle and the end. Figure out which events fall into each part. Make sure that the majority of your content falls into the middle part of your script.
In addition to the words or the text that you use in your video, what other media could you include to help support your argument, interpretation, or story and keep your audience engaged?
The library has an excellent guide on Finding and Using Image Resources that might be useful to locate images for your project.
The Story Studio in the Roesch Library is one option for recording video in a studio setting when you want to record yourself speaking in front of a presentation, image, or video. The screen in the Story Studio is also a touch screen so you can interact with it while recording.
However, you may also choose to record video in other locations. Most smartphones provide excellent video quality and could be another option for capturing video.
More information about the Story Studio is included below, but if you have questions or would like an individual consultation, feel free to contact library@udayton.edu or chat with us by clicking the “Need Help?” button in the bottom right-hand corner.
There are several different programs available for you to edit your video with (depending on which operating system you're using). Faculty, staff and students at the University of Dayton can reserve an Editing Station in the Roesch Library. The Editing Station computers are equipped with Adobe Creative Suite, Camtasia, Audacity and other video post production editing tools.
For those with limited editing experience, we would recommend either iMovie or Camtasia, as both are easy to learn and have a full set of features to support arranging and trimming clips, titles, and transitions.
The following tutorials offer good introductions on the basics of editing in Camtasia and iMovie, but if you have questions, contact library@udayton.edu for help.
Apple offers an excellent set of tutorials on the basics of making a video with iMovie.
There are a variety of ways you can share your video with others. You can upload your video to Google Drive, Box, or Warpwire, all of which are services available to you through your University of Dayton account. If you would like to share your video more widely, you could also consider uploading it directly to YouTube or Vimeo.
Refer to your professor for direction on where to post your video.
For help with uploading video assignments to Warpwire, please visit the eLearning Wiki on how to use Warpwire as students.
