Steps in creating an informative video

[Les S]

I have scant experience in creating videos. I wish to create a series of short talks (10-15 minutes) that will be available for purchase on the internet. My intention is to use a series of photographs as backgrounds, plus some images I will draw that illustrate the narrative. There will be a voice-over and subtitles. My question concerns the order in which to take the steps required. My inclination is this: 1. Record the voice-over. 2. Create a dummy video of the length required, by which I mean just a blank background. 3. Dub the audio onto the video. 4. Add my images to match the audio, changing them at appropriate points. 5. Add subtitles to match the voice-over (I don't want to use voice to print for this, unless I can edit the subtitles later). At the moment I don't know how I'm going to accomplish this. Your input would be much appreciated. I have to say I'm scared by some of the online video editing programs, as they seem a bit of a challenge. I need something that will give me a professional look but is more suited to a newbie and user-friendly. I should mention I have devised this procedure because I need to have control over the length of time for each image to remain in view to match my narrative. Sorry for being so long-winded.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Mostly my videos are fishing action videos with recorded sound on the river bank but I have done pretty much what you describe,

I use Davinci resolve because it has everything I need for multi-layered sound and video but it's easy to use for what you want.

This video of mine is similar to what you describe though I haven't done sub-titles though I could.







To do what you ask you'd just put your audio in the audio timeline then add the images in the visual timeline, extending each as appropriate, then add text for sub tiitles.

 

[Nick on the Baltic]

Download the free DaVinci Resolve and their training video "Introduction to editing".

If you watch the video and work through the project with the sample files, you will learn a lot about basic editing capabilities and how you can structure a short video.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davinciresolve/training

 

[Les S]

Mark, thanks for your reply and your suggestions. It's very helpful.

Kind regards

Les

 

[Charlie BRM]

Not saying I am a total pro at this anymore but I did professional industrial and healthcare videos for many years. You didn't say what kind of topic you are covering but basically the order of things is (was) different from your draft plan.

Tackling the way we did it:

Voice over comes much later. It will change and be refined the more you collect visuals.

Start with point form lists of talking points and sort out what visuals you should have.

Create and collect visuals, edit as necessary for details you intend to point out if it's instructional/informative.

Go back to the point form list and make narrations from that. Leave separations between phrases. Don't try to to run it all together without breaks. You will be chopping it up in the timeline. Listen to some proper voice overs for clues on how to place emphasis and for God's sake change up the tone of how you end sentences. Keep it from getting mundane and boring. Especially don't always end with your voice on a down tone or lilting up in tone like everything is a question.

Dump your visuals on to the video editing timeline, arranged in the order needed.
Put the voice over on a track and match up beginnings of visuals and statements. Stretch visuals to fit. Nothing wrong with making the visual linger on screen longer than the statement. Leave some gaps in speaking for viewers to get a mental break to digest what they are seeing. If music would help cover the awkward silences keep it lower in volume than you think it should be. Find YT clips with a host's narration style you think would sound appropriate and get that host's style and temp in your head and work on recording your own delivery style to approach that.

Fine tune the whole thing to have a "feel" to it that you are after.

You can do all of the above in just about any video software, even free. I would attempt something more advanced though if you will be doing these in the future.
To edit audio in advance I find a free program like Audacity is quicker for simple work than higher end programs like Davinci Resolve which is what I use now but I only need the very basic fundamentals of DVR to do everything I described above.

 

[BobKo]

There are as many ways to make a video as there are people who make them. If you want to start with the voiceover and layer the rest of your material on that, that is as good a technique as any other. I've done a couple of videos where I wrote out the text, then read it from a prompter on-camera. In the text, I referred to various devices and steps, so I got video clips of all those things. Then I edited it together, starting with the video of me reading the script... the actual editing was a piece of cake. Writing the script took the most effort. Here's one such video of mine:



I used Adobe Premiere to edit this, but any video editing software can handle such a straightforward video. I now use the paid version of Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve, but the free version is more than capable. TikTok has free editing software called CapCut that is pretty good, and it is possibly less daunting than Resolve for beginners.

Here is the link for the free version of Resolve: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve You will have to scroll down to get to the box you can click to download the software. There is a version for both Windows and Apple.

Here is the link for CapCut: https://www.capcut.com/tools/desktop-video-editor It also has a version for both Windows and Apple.

Good luck!

 

[Les S]

Thank you, Nick. I look forward to following your advice. Much appreciated.

Les

 

[Les S]

Charlie, many thanks for the time and effort you put into your response. It's very helpful. Much appreciated.

Les

 

[Les S]

Bob, many, many thanks for your comprehensive response. I'll look into what you suggest.

Your video is excellent. You have a fine presentation style.

Best regards

Les

 

[Gato Amarillo]

First, another vote for DaVinci. It does seem daunting at first, but there are beginner tutorials to get you started. From there you can keep it quick and simple, or you can go as far as you want. You don't have to worry about outgrowing your software and having to learn a new editor three months from now. The free version will do everything you need to start.

Your basic plan can work. Do some work on scripting and rehearsing your narration. I suggest you record it as a video, similar to BobKo above. People need to see your face and relate to you, especially if you're trying to sell them something. Spend some time on this. Think about the kind of personality you want to project and the atmosphere of your setting. Think about any props you may want to show. Divide the script into sections and do them one by one. Do as many takes as you need to get it smooth and natural. Leave a few seconds at the beginning and end of each clip for transitions.

You may need to invest in a light or two -- a simple ringlight or LED panel may be enough. You probably want a microphone, depending on how well your camera does audio. Good, clean audio is essential.

Now you can lay the narration clips into a timeline as your first track. Leave gaps if you expect there to be pauses between clips. Then put your visuals roughly in place on a track above them, maybe more than one track. With all the pieces pretty much in order you can adjust timing and work out the transitions.

If you have gaps in the narration you may consider adding a music track to smooth them out. There are any number of sources for free music.

Gato

 

[Les S]

Gato, thank you for your thoughtful and informative response. I'm very appreciative.

Best regards

Les

 

[arrr]

Do you need some kind of project plan? Some people can do it without... sadly I'm not one of those people. I end up with missing shots and not enough b-roll. Forget it if I actually have to talk. You can count on me to mess that up if there is no script.

I try to do some kind of project plan for most of my little vids. They include a minimum of a concept statement, script, shot list and storyboard. Sometimes it's a little more or a little less depending on what's needed.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Writing the script took the most effort.

Truer words were never spoken.

The script is the meat of the production, because it dictates everything else. You have to research and organize your material, decide on the order and style of presentation, come up with examples and references, etc. etc. That's where all the work is. If you get the script wrong, then the entire production will suffer.

 

[Off The Mark]

Just to make sure of oe thing, do the visuals "follow the pace" of the audio? Or will the audio "follow the pace" of the visuals?

The former would be akin to giving an old school lecture with a power point presentation.

The latter would be gicing priority to the visuals, and then just "adding" voice over to the visuals.

either way, as Bob and Sean me tinned above, developing a good script should (probably) be where you spend most of your time.

 

[Les S]

Thanks Sean. I'm putting all of my effort into the script, which is going tp take some months to complete. It's an educational series of 20-40 talks, each about 10-15 minutes. Then the marathon of creating visuals and finding images that will be suitable for subtitles only.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Thanks Sean. I'm putting all of my effort into the script, which is going tp take some months to complete. It's an educational series of 20-40 talks, each about 10-15 minutes. Then the marathon of creating visuals and finding images that will be suitable for subtitles only.

I think you'll find that with a script in hand it'll become pretty obvious just what kind of visual material you need to accompany it. Basically you just need to follow the images that appear in your imagination as you're writing the script.

For me, script writing is the hard part. I find the rest to be rather more fun.

One thing I'd suggest is to maybe take your first talk and see it all the way through from script creation to final video product before you carry on with the rest of them. This will give you experience with the process of sourcing and combining the video material together with your narrative, and you'll probably find some things that work well and some that work not so well. That'll be great feedback for you to incorporate into your subsequent lessons.

...creating visuals and finding images that will be suitable for subtitles only.

Don't forget that you have the ability to include animation with your images. For example, you can add arrows, circles, or use highlighting to point out the particular part of an image that you're referring to. Back when I was teaching part time my style was to show lots of diagrams and point/gesticulate at them as I explained things. That style is very readily adaptable to video.

For example, rather than saying "the 747's number three engine, which is the one closest to the fuselage on the right side" you could just show a picture of the aircraft and either circle the engine or dim everything except the engine while you say "the 747's number three engine".



A decent editor (such as DaVinci Resolve) lets you do these kinds of effects easily. Yes, there is a learning curve to adding visual effects, but if you're going to spend months working on a script then you really owe it to the production to invest some time in learning how to do this because it'll make a big difference to the result.

 

[Les S]

Thank you, Sean. That's a treasure trove of information and advice. I'll make good use of it.

Kind regards