Toolbox talk: Lights, Camera, Action!
It is more important than ever for scientists to be concise, engaging and easy to understand. Most importantly, we need to diversify our means of communication to meet the audience where they live. In the age of TikToks and Reels, it seems our digital lives increasingly revolve around easily digestible visual media. So: time to go video! I realise, as I am writing this, the irony of that statement… But, as part of a recent communication course, I produced my first scientific videos for a general audience – and I think it should be part of every scientist’s toolbox! If you’re keen to see the finished product, head straight to the wrap up. Otherwise, if you’d like to hear more about the tools, tips and tricks I picked up along the way, read on! Who knows, maybe I’ll even make a video version.. 😉
The Art of Science Communication: A little learning, a lot of fun!
Last year I tackled my first official professional development course: The Art of Science Communication. Hosted by the ASBMB, this course covers basic communication skills for scientists looking to increase their public and professional impact. Thanks to a well-paced course, dedicated instructors and a diverse cohort of participants, this course was not only hugely informative but also a lot of fun!
The main goal, achieved over seven weeks, was to craft our own individual message which would introduce a general audience to our primary research topic. From the very start, we were thrust into the deep end as the first week required us to record a short video detailing our research for the cohort. This was something entirely new to me, and at first watching yourself on screen is incredibly daunting! But after the initial icky-ness wears off, these practice videos turned out to be a great resource for identifying areas of opportunity in our speaking practice. After establishing this ‘baseline’, the instructors set to work helping us take the bones of that video and craft the message, increase engagement, remove jargon, and improve production. Together, these iterative exercises left each of us with a developed skill set, covering everything from scientific presentations to a non-expert elevator pitch, and a video product showcasing these skills.
Scripting, recording, editing and posting a video was something I had never done, much less for science communication purposes. So, just in case you (like me) missed that whole YouTube vloggers phase, I thought I would cover here some of the hardware, software and general lessons that I learned along the way to creating my final video product.
Lights: Setting up for success means starting with software
While you certainly don’t need any fancy software to shoot videos (just take a look at everyday people shooting Reels) a handful of (free!) software programs can really make a difference for professional content. A few tools that I found useful were a teleprompter-style recording app, and a video editing suite.
When it comes to talking about science, many academics are used to giving presentations where some multimedia slides guide the content you deliver, and there is a conversational meandering that actually enhances talks like this. When you’re recording, however, maintaining eye contact with the camera is much trickier. This is where a good teleprompter app comes in – it allows you to take these cues in the form of text without breaking your connection to the audience through the screen. There are a bunch of free versions depending on your operating system – I used my iPhone for recording, so I found one on the App store. Features to look out for include the ability to change the text size and speed, and the option to export without a watermark.
For video editing, again this choice is OS-dependent. iMovie on macOS seems to be fantastic. On PC, I had reasonable success with OpenShot, but there are quite a few others gaining traction too. Most will have the same functionality – but, importantly, I would suggest looking for something that has a decent online community and plenty of resources for beginners. As novice filmmakers, it can be hard to know where to start otherwise!
Camera: A little investment goes a long way
As with software, you certainly do NOT need any expensive or fancy equipment. I shot all my videos on my phone, and the quality was sufficient. For a small investment though (~$50 AUD) you can get a great quality boost from two simple tools; a lapel microphone that connects to your recording device, and a tripod.
Lapel microphones help improve the sound quality, particularly as captured by a phone – and there are lots of cheap options available. The one I used has a built-in clip for attaching to clothing, allowing it to be positioned low on the chest out of frame during recording. These are particularly great for people living in places of high background noise (hello friendly neighbourhood leaf-blower that seemed to always be running when I wanted to record!), as they allow you to better isolate speech from contaminating noises during editing.
A tripod might seem like a large ask for a simple scicomm video. But hear me out – it has a few benefits! 1) It allows you to easily and stably position your recording device to free your hands entirely, letting you fall into a natural speaking rhythm with optional props, and 2) you can easily use a teleprompter app. Again, another excuse for all you online shopaholics to bust out your best bargain hunting skills!
The only other equipment I used when recording was already lying around the house – a black sheet as a backdrop, and a floor lamp to help with even illumination of my glasses. For any fellow bespectacled scicommers out there, here are some great tips on getting rid of the annoying mirror effect light on glasses can have when recording.
Action: Time to talk the talk!
Now for the best (and most important) bit – the doing! All the great equipment in the world does nothing until you have a great science story to tell.
Before thinking about what you want to talk about, start by reflecting a little on the audience that you want to engage. Audiences composed of fellow scientists outside your field will of course require a very different approach to a collection of non-experts. Likewise, a room full of adults requires a different approach to a room full of children. It’s important to hit the right contextual notes, and this rings especially true in video format where people’s attention is so easily lost scrolling to the next video in line.
Once you know your audience, it’s time to draft your story. Unlike normal scientific presentations, I recommend writing a script here. This lets you make sure you have a reproducible story that can be honed, helping you to fit the time limit and minimise the number of recording attempts. Yes – attempts with an s – there will be many. But that’s ok, it’s just part of the process!
Some things to think about when honing your story:
- Be critical of how engaging your story will be for your audience – we all love our science emplicitly, but don’t forget to let your audience know why they should love your science too. What is the important problem or question? What makes your work unique?
- Be cautious of spewing facts, figures or findings – instead, take the audience on a journey with you, just like a good book they can’t put down. Have you woven a narrative? What are the challenges this research faces, how have you overcome these?
- Be creative in your description of complex topics – ditch the fancy words in favour of metaphors. A good metaphor can take some time to work through, but don’t underestimate their power in helping your audience grasp complicated concepts. Jargon is a huge no-no, even for scientists outside your field.
Ok, you have a story written out. Now, it’s time to set your scene. For example, I used a plain black backdrop, with some soft glasses-friendly lighting, and the tripod, phone and microphone about 1 m away. Then it’s time to record! This is the part where you really just have to feel it. Feel the right pace (conversational, not rushing, with nice pauses), feel your body in space (remember you are a person, not a robot, and if you’re anything like me you talk with your hands, like, a lot), and feel the excitement of your story (even on the fifth or sixth time you read it through). To start, I would suggest reading through the whole story on camera from start to finish – ignoring any missteps in favour of practising the whole story. From there, record a few more tries until you are happy. Depending on the video format (and if you plan to have cut sections along the way or a single-take read) you can even piece together sections from different versions that you like the most – this is where editing comes in!
Movie magic: remix your way to the red carpet.
Once you have recorded a few versions, this is where the movie magic happens. Head over to your editor, where you will be able to add transitions (fade-in, fade-out) music, images, sound effects, remove background noise, crop and combine different videos to get a final product you are proud of. In some cases, you might even want to bring in some B-roll – a little out of my league so far but something I am keen to try!
I decided to add a lead-in image from unsplash (a fantastic collection of images that are free to use with attribution) and in one case I recorded a PowerPoint slideshow that also had a black background, timed to match my finished video. I then overlayed the PowerPoint recording onto my video content, and viola, animated video! There are lots of neat ways to engage your audience beyond a talking head on the screen, so be sure to be creative and take full advantage of this aspect of the medium.
With the complete version, the last step is sharing it with the world. This is actually quite easy to do via youtube – simply sign up for an account (if you don’t have one already) then head to the “YouTube Studio” section where you will find the “Content” tab.
Uploading a video is as simple as selecting the “Create” icon, and following the prompts to upload your masterpiece. There are a few options, like whether or not your video should be indexed with the searchable youtube content, that you can toggle to suit your needs. Don’t forget a catchy title if you want your content to be found!
And that’s a wrap!
That’s it, you are officially a scicomm superstar! While producing video content can seem a daunting task, once you get past the weirdness of seeing yourself recorded it really is a great way to share your science. I am super proud of the content I produced during the course – with a few simple tools and a couple of hours work, for the first time I feel confident to share my passion for science in a whole new context. So, without further ado, here are the videos I created!
That’s all for now. Hopefully, I’ve inspired you to capture your story on camera and share it with the world! Have you made your own scicomm video? Do you have a favourite editing software? Head over to the contact page, or let me know on Twitter!
Image credits: @anniespratt via unsplash
