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Arkansas State University

Video Design Guide

Choosing a video for your multimodal persuasive piece is a great choice, as the language we use to understand what makes videos compelling, effective, and even fun comes written into our cultural love of films. Sometimes the difficulty arrives when we are asked to express some of the concepts that we don’t usually express explicitly, but remain somewhat buried in the place between how we view things and how we talk or write about them. Another difficulty that video can present is that it can take resources that other genres might not. We hope that this guide can help you more efficiently make persuasive videos to educate and entertain your audience.

The first thing to think of when making a video is the purpose of your video. What is the main point you want your viewers to take from it, and how can you make this point in a thoughtful but entertaining way? Focusing only on facts without any bells or whistles (a phrase left over from a simpler time, when it took less to impress people) might be a safe bet, but you run the risk of losing your audience’s attention. Too many bells and whistles, however, might risk your audience losing your point. Making your point and approach clear will help you through the rest of the process.

Next, you will need to think about the resources available to you and your group. The following considerations can make a huge difference in the way you record and compose your video:

Script: How much time will the script and following revisions take to write, and who in the group will write it? Many of the other considerations follow directly from this one.
Settings: What kind of settings will you use, how easy will it be to film on these settings, and who will be available to film there at what times?
Video recording equipment: Most phones have acceptable video cameras on them now, but do you have access to anything that might more closely suit your needs? How easy will file formats translate across your recording equipment to your editing equipment?
Editing equipment and software: What kind of equipment and software will you need, and what is the learning curve on it? Give yourself time to play with it before beginning your project with it.
Publishing: Where and how will you make this public, and how will you make sure the public not only is able to find it, but actually excited about finding it to. The public aspect of this is very important, and a dead link or lack of publicity can make a big difference in your final product.

Providing a video for your audience can enhance your presentation in several ways: it can allow you to dive more deeply into your research process than you are able to show on a poster presentation, or creatively entice your viewer to care enough to do something about your topic, or it can simply offer additional information or perspectives. Typically, a video will not stand alone without you present to explain its presence in your presentation, but can be used as effective supplemental material to pull your audience deeper into your discussion.

As visual communication is an important aspect of human interaction, it is also a useful tool in academic discourse. Video presentations allow you to convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. You want to determine a specific purpose for your video so that it is clear to the viewer how it supplements your presentation and they are not confused by its content. Do you intend to raise awareness, call to action, explain your process, or demonstrate the problem at hand? Think about the audience you want to reach and what will be most effective for them.

Keep in mind that while videos can be dynamic and visually appealing, they cannot draw in an audience from across the room. You may also need to design a poster or tablescape to catch the attention of passersby. You may find it difficult to merge every group member’s spin on the topic into one cohesive video so, consider focusing on only those aspects of the work that can be considered common ground like your intended solution or action you would like them to take. You might also consider the limitations of your venue. Find out and plan for the possibility that you may not have consistent access to electricity or the internet. The location could be noisy, so consider bringing headphones and sanitation wipes for use between guests at your table.

Types

Video Slideshow with voiceover
Didactic Animations
Demonstrative
Process Review
Interactive

Potential Software/Genres

Adobe Spark Video & WeVideo (free browser-based video editing tools)
Whiteboard videos (e.g., with Animatron)
Animated videos (e.g., with Wyzowl, Powtoon, Animaker, or the app ChatterPix)
Keynote or PowerPoint

Other Sources for Video/Image Resources

Padlet (electronic bulletin board: use for text discussion, brainstorming, concept mapping)
PBS Learning Media
org
org
The Prelinger Archive (https://archive.org/details/prelinger)
Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
Free Music Archive (royalty-free music: https://freemusicarchive.org/)
SoundJay (for sound effects: https://www.soundjay.com/)

After you feel reasonably secure in your resources, the following guidelines should help you as you plan, compose, and publish your video:

Have fun.
Do not pay for anything. Between equipment the university can provide and free editing software, you should have everything that you might require without having to pay out of pocket for anything.
Rehearse and plan closely before recording. But if you record everything, make sure and compose a blooper reel.
Maintain focus while entertaining your audience.
Experiment with camera angles and effects, but not to the point that it distracts the viewers.
Include music to help enhance the rhetorical effect, but don’t slide into an overreliance on pathos.
Follow a logical organization pattern that the audience can follow easily.
End with a bang! Leave the audience with something to remember.
Finish your first cut early, in time to get feedback from people you trust, so that you can make any edits or changes that seem necessary.