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Tips for Creating and Editing Videos

This guide will provide resources for creating video content.

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This guide will provide resources for creating great video content, whether you're at Harvard or developing content at another law library.

How to Record

Recording in Zoom

There is no need for fancy recording software to create great videos.  Use what you have.  Did you know you can record video to your computer in Zoom?  To learn more about recording in Zoom check out:

Recording on a Phone

You may decide to record on a phone for a number of reasons, including wanting to shoot footage on the go, or wanting to show how a resource appears on a small mobile screen.  Here are some resources for recording:

For Mac:

For Android:

General Resources

Paid Editing Software

The materials you need to step up your editing game will depend largely on what platform you use to edit.  There are suggestions for materials in common platforms below.  

Camtasia

Panopto

Adobe Premiere

iMovie

If your platform is not listed, or you are trying to do something beyond the bounds of the material provided there are additional options.  One of the best ways to learn new tricks on an editing platform is to run a google search that includes the task you are trying to complete and the platform you are editing on.  YouTube videos are often a great place to learn discrete editing tricks in your editing application of choice.

Longevity

Tips for Keeping Your Videos Evergreen

Here are a few recommendations to make your videos as long lasting as possible.  By observing the following your videos will be useful for longer and easier to edit as things change.

  • Introduce yourself in a way that accounts for change.  
    • Avoid. . ."My name is AJ and I'm a Student Services Research Librarian, who is working with section Seven."
    • Instead try. . ."My name is AJ and I'm one of the librarians here at HLS."

Why?  Departments reorg and job titles change.  The section you're teaching this semester may not be the same section you're teaching next time around.  By keeping your introduction general it allows for the greatest amount of change.

  • If you're webcasting, use more general terms to indicate your results in the narration.
    • Avoid. . ."When we search X and Y as keywords we get 472 results.  But now when we search in Digests we have only 10"
    • Instead try. . ."When we search X and Y as keywords we get a large number of results, more than we can reasonably read.  But now when we search in Digests we have significantly less results, and can likely review them all."

Why?  When platforms undergo updates we may need to reshoot the screencast and those numbers will almost certainly have changed when we rerun the searches.  By using terms like "more" and "less," instead we can get across the same idea, and may be able to update the webcast without reshooting the audio track.

  • When webcasting, refer to where results fall in a list in a general way, or not at all if possible.
    • Avoid. . ."Now let's click on the first result in our set, 'Free Speech and Constitutional Law'."
    • Instead try. . ."Look for Free Speech and Constitutional Law in our result set."

Why?  As above, platforms change and we may need to reshoot the webcast.  What's result number one today may be result number four tomorrow. It may also help to keep in mind that users following along may see their results in a different order depending on their settings.  Being general helps to avoid confusion.

  • Are you an editor?  If so, here are some additional tips:
    • hold onto your cmproj files long term.
    • keep all the assets for your project in a single folder that is easy to find.
    • make both the cmproj files and the assets available to others with the MP4 file

Why?  If updates need to be made to a video this allows the work to be spread around.  Just like we tell our students, why reinvent the wheel when we've got great material to use as a foundation already.  Not only that, but maybe a short clip from the video you created could be useful to another content creator.  By making your content easily accessible, we all open up a world of remixing possibilities. 

 

Copyright

Public Domain & Creative Commons Content

To learn more about how to locate public domain and Creative Commons content, please see our guide: 

Copyright First Responders

Harvard Affiliates may contact Copyright First Responders with copyright questions:

Harvard Affiliate Resources

Filming at Cabot

A few quick tips we learned at the library while using the filming studios at Cabot:

  • Bring a thumb drive with plenty of space on it with you when you go to film.
  • Always wait a few seconds to start talking after you start the filming otherwise the first few seconds will get cut off.
  • Film a couple of sentences at a time, pause compose yourself, then do a few more. 
  • You can edit out pauses and spaces after filming.
  • Mark your spot on the floor and stay still as much as possible.
  • Use a fade in/fade out in the editing process to smooth rougher transitions.
  • If using a teleprompter create plenty of space between sentences using a repeating symbol like ... or ---. 
  • Mark pauses in your script.
  • Take the time to get the lighting and sound exactly how you want them.  It's easier to fix problems while filming than it is in editing.

Contacts

For Scheduling Cabot Recording Rooms:  Ron Lacey <rlacey@fas.harvard.edu>

For Help in the Cabot Recording Rooms:

  • Berstler, Susan <berstler@fas.harvard.edu>
  • Joanna Huang <joanna_huang@harvard.edu>
  • Worster, Paul Milo <worster@fas.harvard.edu>

For Help with Filming, Editing, or Promotion:  Emily Coolidge-Toker <emily_coolidgetoker@harvard.edu> 

CC License

CC License

Creative Commons License

This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

You may reproduce any part of it for noncommercial purposes as long as credit is included and it is shared in the same manner. 

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