Hey SciFund person!
We are super excited that you are going to be part of our SciFund intro video. The idea here is that this video will be on our site’s front page as a quick introduction to what we do. We’ll need your contribution by Sunday, November 20th.
1. The idea
As you know, SciFund is all about community and engaging with other scientists. We want to emphasize this point by including as many SciFunders as possible in our video. We have taken inspiration from the following video:
The idea here is that a bunch of SciFunders are going to read the same script and we’ll edit all of the resulting videos together. This means that we’ll use only a small part of your recording.
We have tried to make things as simple as possible, so this shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes of your time. In order for everything to go as smoothly as possible, it’s important that you read and follow these instructions to make sure we can get the best recording possible from you. We would really, really hate to cut your footage because of background noise or some other video quality issue.
By the way, a big thanks to Elliot Lowndes for putting together all of the pictures and video you find below.
2. The right location
The right filming location is essential for recording a great video. Here are a few considerations.
- Please record in a quiet space that is free of background noises like traffic, running lab equipment, ventilation fans, etc.
- It is really important that your recording does not seem like a hostage video. The key to this? Don’t film with a blank wall behind you. Instead, have something to break up the background behind you (like a bookshelf, for example).
- Don’t put yourself between the camera and a window. Otherwise the smartphone camera will struggle to expose your face.
Please be sure to record your video in landscape mode instead of portrait mode (that is hold your camera horizontally, not vertically). See the picture below for an illustration.
3. Recording the video
You are welcome to use your smartphone to record (please make sure that you are recording in high definition at 1080p). If you have a microphone that can plug into your video recording device, please do use it. If you don’t have one, don’t worry about it. The onboard microphone on your smartphone will be fine.
You’ll need to find a person to hold the camera that is recording you. Please ask your recorder to frame you correctly in the shot. That is, your head and shoulders should take up most the frame (but not all of it). Below, you’ll find two examples of incorrect framing and one example of correct framing.
4. Reading the script
At the end of these instructions, you’ll see the script for the video. You’ll notice that it is short! You’ll also notice that there are two places in the script where you need to fill in the blanks, based upon your own experiences. Because the final video will be highly edited, you absolutely don’t need to get one perfect take of the script. Let’s walk you through what you should do to get a great recording.
Take a look at the short video example of Jai reading the script well (above). You’ll notice a few things.
- First, Jai is recording a section at a time. After learning the lines for a section, he pauses, looks directly at the camera, and speaks the lines. And rinse and repeat for every section.
- Jai is speaking in a conversational tone.
- Jai is not looking at the script when he is saying his lines, he’s looking at the camera.
- The camera keeps rolling, even when Jai is just reading the lines of the next section (we can edit all of that out).
- If you make a mistake with a section (like Jai does), no problem and no need to start the recording over again. Instead, he pauses and says the section again.
To illustrate what not to do, there is a second short video (below) that shows Jai making every mistake possible.
5. Uploading your video
Once you have finished your video, please upload it to the this album in Google Photos. Please include your name as part of the file name.
6. Thank you!
SciFund Video Script
Black text: script
Blue italicized text: script instructions
I am SciFund!
I am SciFund Challenge!
Take a pause between saying each of the previous two lines.
Scifund challenge is you. We’re a community of researchers with one mission. To help scientists like you connect their science with____________
In this space above, insert the audience that you connect your science with (high school students, commercial fishermen, etc.) .
There are lots of people waiting to hear from you.
SciFund Challenge trains scientists. How do you talk to people about your research? We’ll show you how.
The training I got at Scifund helped me____________
In the blank above, please include the most positive outcome that came out of your SciFund experience. Tell us in as few words as possible. Here are a few real examples:
- ‘get a communications job’
- ‘improve my video skills’
- If you need to expand, here is another example: ‘find collaborators who supercharged my research’
And it wouldn’t have happened without the SciFund community. You want to connect people with your science.
Let’s do it together!
Join us!
Be part of it!
Take a pause between saying each of these last three lines. The reason for the pause is that, for any person, we’ll only be using one of the lines, and we will include your best one.