The idea of this Screenwriting for Librarians series of blog posts is to share some screenwriting, storytelling and filmmaking techniques that I think might help fellow librarians who are interested in utilizing this medium to attract more users.
Librarians who are interested in making video tutorials should really check out cooking shows, which are possibly the most widely watched video tutorials today. Cooking shows are mainstream instructional videos designed to teach viewers how to do something. But they must also be entertaining and visually appealing, so that even those who don’t cook would watch them. We should try to impart these qualities to library video tutorials.
Research has shown that web viewers have extremely short attention spans. Most don’t watch web videos in their entirety. I know I tend to skip or fast forward most video tutorials, simply because most are too long, too slow or simply not engaging enough. With that in mind, note the pacing and the rhythm of the Gordon Ramsay video below.
In under 40 seconds, he teaches us how to make a very delicious looking Pasta with Crab, Chili, and Lime. It utilizes montage (a series of short shots edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information) to move the video at a frantic pace, with each cut lasting only about 1/2 second. So, in a 40 secs video, there are probably close to 80 cuts. You can’t afford to look away. You have to pay attention. There are roughly 18 steps to make the dish. The voice-over directions are concise and simple. We don’t need complete sentences. That just slows things down. The key information here is, the tutorial doesn’t have to happen in real time. No cooking show would make the viewer wait in real time for the food to be done. The same should apply to good video tutorials – trim all the unnecessary footage. I would much rather have a video that goes fast and the student has to rewind to re-watch portions of it, than a video that’s too slow and students miss information because they skip or not pay attention.
Nigella Lawson’s video below takes a very different approach to teach us how to make a similar pasta dish.
The video is longer and has a more leisurely pace, yet it engages, perhaps even more so than the faster paced video. Note how she assures us at the beginning that “this is so easy”. As she gives out the directions, she explains the reason for every step. It is truly a cooking lesson. She gives her personal opinions and she uses emotional language which humanizes the whole process. The images are gorgeous to look at. And even though the cuts are longer than the Gordon Ramsay video’s, there are still at least 3-4 cuts for each step of the cooking, which keeps the viewers from getting bored visually.
We naturally like to look at food, but we may not be that interested in looking at screencasts of databases. How do we make our tutorials visually interesting? It requires some creativity. For example, in a demo of a database search, you could pick a subject matter that is visually interesting, such as sports (or food!). There are plenty of royalty free images/videos/sound effects/music that you can find to edit into the video. Intercutting a keyword search on, let’s say Michael Jordon, with an image or a video clip of Jordon in action, combined with appropriate sounds, could make for a more engaging viewing. The same technique could be used in practically any subject, as along as you are willing to search for some interesting supplemental images/video clips/sounds (or produce your own) to incorporate into your video tutorial.
Yes, it takes time and efforts to make a good video tutorial. But think about how many hours an effective one will save you if you won’t have to spend 10, 15, 20 mins demonstrating the same thing in class in real time over and over again.
The Seabirds ladies are adorable. But 20 taquitos seems just a bit much, and I imagine the people behind would get really upset if the food ran out again because of me.
