Producing your Artifact Video Dr. Rob Stephan

Step 1: Organizing Your Assets

Why It's Important

When you're working on video production, one of the most important things is to keep all your files - your video segments and pictures and music, anything you want to include in the video - in a single folder that's easily accessible. This is because the software doesn't actually save your photos and videos. Instead, it looks for the files on your computer and notes where they are. If you lose your folder or the files move around, the software won't know where anything is. So create a folder and make it easily locatable.

Things to Do for This Project

1. Script your video (it should be about 1 page long, double-spaced)
2. Record yourself reading your script (it should be roughly 2 minutes long)
3. Find a few stock videos to use (Pexels or Pixabay are good stock video sites, you can download YouTube videos as MP4s here)
4. Find a few stock photos to use (Google Images is good, also you have free access to all Adobe Stock Photo - make sure the resolution on all photos is high!)
5. Place your speaker video, your stock video, and your stock photos in a single folder called something like "Artifact Analysis Video"

Step 3: Editing Your Speaker Video

Now you should see your Speaker Video on the timeline at the bottom of the screen and a preview of the video at the top.

You can move the timeline marker to see different moments in the video, and you can click the play button to see how it looks and sounds.

If you have anything you'd like to cut from the video - excess talking, awkward moments at the beginning or end, loud noises, etc. - move the timeline marker to where you want to start the cut, and click the scissors icon on the left side of the screen. Then move the timeline marker to where you want the cut to end and click the scissors again. Finally, select the snippet you want to remove and click the "Delete" key.

Step 5: Adding Text

Adding text can be a great way to highlight important information, reinforce a major point, or provide extra detail that you don't have time to verbally cover. In my video, I'm using text for a few different things.

What I Use Text For

1. Providing a definition for "kylix"
2. Introducing myself as the speaker
3. Detailed info about my object
4. Titles for intro and outro

How to Add Text

1. Start by clicking the "Graphics" button in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Then click "Add Graphic".
3. Then go to the left side of the screen and choose what sort of text block/box you'd like to add. Either click "Add" at the bottom or drag it to where you want.
4. Double click on the text to change it to whatever you want it to say.
5. For things like speaker or artifact info, try clicking the "browse" button in the top left, choosing the "titles" option, and searching for "lower thirds".
6. Just like images, you can drag to extend or shorten how long they appear on the screen.

NOTE: You'll want to make sure any text you add goes on the layer (or track) ABOVE what you want behind it. This will ensure that both your text and the image/video behind it are visible.

Step 7: Adding a Soundtrack

You can search for audio in the same way you can search for graphics.

(1) Start by clicking the little blue plus sign in the upper left corner. Then click "audio".

(2) Then you can search for any type of music you want. I used the keyword "cinema" to give it a movie-like feel, but feel free to try a variety of keywords (e.g., drama, epic, classical, soothing, etc.).

(3) Then choose what you want and click "Add" at the bottom. It should show up as a green line underneath your speaker video.

(4) The problem now is that it's going to be way too loud when I'm trying to talk about my artifact. To deal with that, click the "Audio" button on the far right side of the screen.

(5) Then click the "Auto Duck" button. This will make the music much quieter whenever you're talking, then it will get loud again once you've stopped. You might want to try "Auto Volume" as well.

NOTE: Make sure to trim your audio so that it ends at the same time as your video - otherwise the screen will go black and your audio will keep playing for several minutes.

Step 9: Adding Transitions

It can look a little jarring when the video jumps rather harshly from you talk to a stock image or video. To address this, we want to add in some transitions to smooth things out.

(1) Start by clicking the "Transitions" button in the upper right hand corner once again.

(2) Then click the image or video you want to apply the transition to. I tend to just select all my images and videos.

(3) With your image(s)/video(s) selected, click whichever transition you'd like to apply. I tend to go with "Dissolve" since it's subtle and looks nice. Sometimes I'll use "Black" for the beginning and end of the video.