Practicalities - Types of film

We’ve nothing against films that feature a presenter or teacher with a lab bench or whiteboard, showing and talking. It’s a useful standby, and it allows you to get a film done quickly — but do be aware that lots of films end up looking like that. Remember the first rule of SciCast: don’t be boring!

If your team are heading in that direction see if you can get them to think more creatively. Start simple, and use any spare time you have to personalise your film. Some approaches you might consider:

Music sequences — piece together images to music. It’s perfectly possible to make a SciCast film without needing to record sound. Just be sure to choose your music carefully.
Interview — stand beside the camera and lead somebody through the material. A great way of helping a nervous performer.
Think about genre — would your film benefit from being shot in black and white? As a spoof horror? As a Western? In the style of cheesy 80s Saturday evening American TV shows? Like a pop video?
Keep it simple — grainy video from your mobile phone might add atmosphere and immediacy, without being too complex to handle.
Play with time — speed up shots, slow them down, or go all the way and take time-lapse sequences.
Animation — Stop-motion animation can be time-consuming, but is also easier than you might think. Worth exploring — see the second on ‘Other sorts of films’ for notes on time-lapse and animation.
Stills — carefully-chosen stills can add enormously to a film, and are often easier to capture than video. See ‘Using music, photos, and video’ for more advice.
Voice-over — most software allows you to record voice-over (narration) after you’ve finished editing your film. This is a great way of avoiding the trickier bits of editing, and allows you to write a careful script once you know what your experiment looks like.