Technical Video Rant
If you’re making technical videos on any platform, I’ve got a couple of suggestions for you:
- Turn down the music
Because of you, I keep the sound off on my computer. The music adds nothing to your video, and the levels are way too high. If I have earphones, I’d get hearing damage. If I use speakers, I get annoyed and so do the people around me. I don’t watch your video to dance. I watch it to learn something I can’t figure out on my own. - I can read OR look at pictures – NOT BOTH Simultaneously
If you’ve got some sort of visual content in your Youtube video, please realize that I can either see what’s in the video or read your sub-titles, I can’t do both at the same time. You’ve either got to deliver the text in a way I can hear and understand it, or give me more time to read AND see what you’re doing on the screen - Stop using tacky simulated voice
I know, I’m putting too many restrictions on you if you don’t have a midwestern US accent, right? Look at where your traffic comes from, and make content for your main audience. Computer simulated voices are tacky, and I know some big corporations use them. That doesn’t prevent them from being tacky. - Is your audio adding to the video?
So many Youtube videos I watch demonstrating CAD or software stuff in general somebody is mumbling over the video. I can’t understand it. Might be English, might not be, totally unrecognizable. Clarity in audio is as important as clarity in video. It’s not that hard. Enunciate. If you’re doing voice over in a language other than your native language, get some help or use subtitles – but give me enough time to read the subtitle and see what you are doing with the interface. - Check your resolution
Sure, you’ve got super high resolution on your screen, but most Youtube plays back in a much smaller frame, and I can’t see your interface at the playback resolution. So either zoom into the interface to show what you’re doing or shoot it at a lower resolution where you can see the interface. - Explain
People watch technical videos on Youtube to figure something out. Not just HOW but also WHY. Most of the time you aren’t showing exactly what they want to do anyway, so WHY is even more important than HOW. Also, you should show WHERE – where do you find the menu or the shortcut to access the command that you’re demonstrating. Sometimes that’s the real question that needs to be answered. I can’t tell you how many videos I’ve watched trying to remember where a certain command is or what it’s called, and very few videos actually show that kind of detail. - No Body Cares
Your pre-amble about this or that – NOBODY CARES. Just get to the point. Stop wasting my time. I already wasted all my free time on that 15 minute video about how to make a mold of your hand. - LinkedIn
If you’re making videos on LinkedIn, I’m ESPECIALLY talking to you. LinkedIn is for professional stuff. I unfollow everyone who puts facebook or twitter crap on LinkedIn. If you can’t tell the difference, then just stay off of LinkedIn. And by the way, please, no more polls on LinkedIn, especially the “Which CAD is better” stuff that’s just for people seeking attention. I know, all of social media is for people seeking attention (voyeurs and exhibitionists).
Hear Hear!!
Glad to see I scored 6/7 on your video requirements list.
The music track can be helpful in drowning out external noises as well as narrators with heavy breathing, but a proper mic setup (on an isolated base, with a pop filter) minimizes that.
Most important thing that happened to me in making video tutorials: I learned to speak without saying “Um…”.
The music isn’t bad if it’s low, and if it’s not thumping dance music.
The first audio recording I did, I got the advice that people would edit my words. It did two things – made me nervous that someone was actually going to listen, and made me realize that I could edit out things if I said them carefully.
So now when I record audio, my voice sounds unnatural because I kind of halt in between words so that there is enough gap to make an edit. It makes editing a nightmare because now I have to edit out the pauses between words. I can’t speak naturally into a microphone anymore.
When I make a mistake, I pause, and then re-say the phrase. The pause lets me do the edit.
Good checklist for making videos. I share all those same sentiments.
And I also learned to be more consistent in my tone of voice so there isn’t an audible “jump-cut”.
You forgot one. Make sure you know what you’re doing. Using the software for six months doesn’t make you an expert.
Yeah. I’m usually king of the obvious, but I missed the ball on that one. Right, make sure you know what you’re doing. Access to the internet doesn’t make you an expert.
And practice, practice, practice. Even folks who know what they are doing stumble through it the first time doing a video because the “conscious” starts to override the “unconscious” and they stumble (kind of like when you know someone is watching you work and you don’t want to make a mistake).