General best practices
Start with a script
When you start making a video, create a script FIRST. Use your created script to do the video’s voice over or acting on camera. This method has several advantages.
- No ums, ahhs or awkward pauses
- No rambling or meandering thoughts
- Concise, well-structured speaking/instruction
- Ability to change and correct before recording
- Accessibility fast-track:
- Audio descriptions: Everything important to the understanding of the video must be said out loud (not just depicted on screen). Writing out a script helps ensure video actors say out loud everything that’s important to the understanding of the video.
- Captions: After the video is recorded, you can upload its script to YouTube and let YouTube do the timing. Then, you’ll just have some quick adjustments to do and voilà, captions.
Keep colleagues in mind
Using the experts available to you within our College, Experiment Station and Extension as you create your video will result in a higher-quality product. It will crosspromote our programs and add value to the information we are sharing. Here are a few examples of ways you could collaborate on your next video project.
- A nutrition professional creating a recipe video on baking with zucchini can collaborate with a horticulture professional who can speak to growing or harvesting zucchini.
- Collaboration on easy mode looks like the nutrition professional encouraging viewers to read a factsheet by the horticulture professional or to contact a Master Gardener to learn more.
- A more in-depth collaboration looks like both professionals working together on one video or like each professional creating separate videos that include a call to view the other.
- A 4-H Youth Development professional creating a STEAM video can collaborate with a professor in a degree program related to the video’s content.
- Collaboration on easy mode looks like the 4-H profesonal saying, “If you enjoyed this experiment, you might be a future [insert career here]. Consider attending our University and majoring in [degree program].
- A more in-depth collaboration looks like the professor and/or the professor’s students helping to create the video and/or appearing in it.
Fill in the blanks
- Enhance the description of your video by including a link to your program page. Here’s an example:
- “To learn more about our 4-H Youth Development Program, visit extension.unr.edu/4H.” (Notice the URL is not to Extension’s old site, unce.unr.edu.)
- As we are a research-based institution, please be sure to also include in your video’s description your references and/or your footnotes and provide appropriate credit.
Follow the rules
Follow all University policies and procedures as you create your video. This includes those related to COVID-19, such as those on mask wearing and physical distancing.
- If the actors in your videos are wearing masks on camera, the masks must be worn correctly at all times and must not be worn around necks or arms, pulled down below mouths and/or noses, etc.
- Refer to the University’s COVID-19 training to learn more about proper maskwearing.
- Make sure the actors in your videos are modeling on camera the behavior that health experts and the University expect us to follow during the pandemic, including maintaining physical distancing of 6 feet.
