Hi Community,
As you may know, this year's Spanish Technical Articles contest will be in May. I am going to make a series of articles to support you in the creation of your articles, giving tips and tricks. Perhaps they will be useful for the contest you have active in this community as well.
As you may know, one of the bonuses or extra points you can receive is to add a video tutorial to your article. You may not even know how to approach this issue, no problem! I'm here to give you some tips that you can apply not only to the creation of these videos, but to any other.
A GOOD SCRIPT
I'm sure you know someone who says: ‘I record myself and tell you what comes out’. It's fantastic, some people have a gift for talking and an incredibly structured head. For the rest of us mortals, and for those who don't want to spend hours in editing trying to make sense of the piece, it's essential to make a good script.
What makes a good script? A clear idea of what you want to tell.
It is the basis on which you are going to work. Spending time making a good script will save you time. It will also make you think about whether what you want to tell makes sense, or solve possible problems that could be overlooked. How to write a good script?
BEING ORIGINAL STARTS WITH THE SCRIPT
Perhaps one of the keys is to look for an original touch. Use comparisons, for example: make references to films, books, popular culture.
Another interesting point is to give it a special format, and this starts with the script. Tell your video in a special way. For example: instead of just telling your tutorial on camera, imitate the stand up format, with jokes, a brick background, etc. Just an idea!
A question that might help you is: How can I tell this in a way that hasn't been told before?
STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE
The good thing is that in a tutorial outline, it's easy to follow this. Every audiovisual piece has three parts: beginning, development and conclusion.
- Respect the structure and try to be eye-catching from the start. Start by posing the problem with a question at the beginning. Example: Have you had problems with your IRIS instance after installing it on Linux? I'll tell you how to solve it with Filecheck! I borrow it from @LuisAngel.PérezRamos' article.
- In the development you will highlight the point by point. Here it is best to be concrete and from the script to be very concise. If your tutorial is good, it will be seen more than once by the same person, and they will surely appreciate it if you go to the point in this part.
- Conclusion: a good conclusion has to respond to the beginning. You have to be able to read the beginning and the conclusion and think: clearly the latter solves the former.
Respect the structure and all will be well.
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR WRITING A SCRIPT
- Read it to someone else: before immersing yourself in the recording, read your script to someone else. It will help you to find problems of meaning, fluency and, above all, you can ask this person if they understand what you want to communicate.
- Write down in one sentence what you want to say: it is your objective, it is what you are going to deal with in the script. It will help you to think: does what I'm saying really add something to this video or am I going off the deep end?
- Keep it short: you know, sometimes it's better to get to the point.
- Think about what image elements can help in each part and write them down: it will help you not to forget to record anything. How do you imagine each part? Can you support something with stock footage? Obviously many of the images will be following the step-by-step.
- A tip for being original: since there are so many entries, try to make your script/video something original. If I make a video that is imitating the stand up format, everyone will think ‘oh yeah, I remember that one, that's the stand up guy’. It will make you different and maybe even memorable. But be careful, don't get sidetracked, remember that the goal is to make a good tutorial that supports the article.
I hope this is of some use to you, it's a humble contribution. I've written for different formats, video, novel, screen and I think that sometimes three or four tips can help a lot. I know there are real experts here who don't need help, but if it encourages you to go for the video bonus, my job is done.