Making a short video
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| storyboard | 分镜脚本 | fēn jìng jiǎo běn |
| script | 脚本 | jiǎo běn |
| audio quality | 音质 | yīn zhì |
Two minutes of video takes an hour of planning, or five of editing
- A video with no plan is recorded three times and cut badly. A storyboarded one is recorded once.
- GAC005's video is assessed like any academic product: planned, sourced and edited.
- The plan is where the marks are, and it is the part students skip.
The storyboard
- A storyboard 分镜脚本 plans each shot: what is on screen, what is said, how long it lasts.
- Eight shots of fifteen seconds is a two-minute video, and now you know what to record.
- ⚠ Deciding the length first is what stops the script growing to four minutes.
A storyboard has eight shots of about fifteen seconds each. How long is the video, in seconds?
Two minutes. Fixing the length first is what stops the script growing.
Script it, then time it
- A script 脚本 keeps a two-minute video to two minutes. Unscripted speech takes three times as long and says less.
- Read it aloud with a timer before recording anything.
- Write for the ear: short sentences, one idea each, no clause that needs re-reading.
Speaking without a script is a good way to sound natural in a two-minute video.
Unscripted speech takes about three times as long and says less. Write it, then read it aloud against a timer.
Put the making of a short video in order.
Every step constrains the next. Recording before the script is what produces five hours of editing.
Audio matters more than video
- Audio quality 音质 is what an audience notices. A quiet room beats an expensive camera, every time.
- Record away from windows and air conditioning, and close to the microphone.
- Bad audio makes a viewer stop watching; slightly soft focus does not.
You can improve either the camera or the room. Which improves the video more?
Bad audio makes a viewer stop watching; slightly soft focus does not.
A two-minute explainer on plastic recycling.
The storyboard has eight shots of about fifteen seconds. Shot 3 is a chart of what one city actually recycles, on screen for twelve seconds, with one spoken sentence and the source credited in the corner.
Because the storyboard fixed the length first, the script was written to fit the time — instead of the video being cut to fit a script that was always too long.
Use licensed material only, and credit it on screen. Images, music and clips need a licence that permits reuse. Academic integrity applies to a video exactly as it applies to an essay.
What needs a licence and a credit in your video? Choose all that apply.
Everything you did not make. Academic integrity applies to media exactly as it applies to text.
Export to a common format and play it on a machine that is not yours before you submit. A file that opens only on your laptop, or a link nobody can access, is marked as what the teacher can actually watch — which is nothing.