In our previous article we list different kinds of educational videos and some useful programs available for both Linux and Windows and Mac. Now we are going to start looking at the steps for its creation and to know some more software titles.
We insist on something we have already said. An educational video can be made with a mobile camera, a pen or a notebook. Also with a presentation program and a screen capture program. It's about the quality of the content and who exposes it rather than the production resources.
Creating scripts and storyboard for educational videos
Before you start recording an educational video you need to know three things
- What are you going to say.
- Who are you going to tell.
- How are you going to say it
Although different types of videos can have different lengths, none should exceed 40 minutes. Very complex topics are best divided into more manageable subtopics. Also, it is important to take into account the target audience. It is not the same to speak to high school students than to a group of engineers.
The way we say things will depend on these factors. For the group of high school students, an animated graph of a function can be useful, while for the engineers it may be enough to write the equation on a blackboard.
Winston Churchill said that his best improvisations had been written 48 hours before. The truth is that between a stiff video in which you repeat things like a parrot and another in which you hesitate in each sentence and do not know what to do with your hands, there is a world.
The script can be as basic or detailed as you like. It goes from a simple list of topics to be covered to a complete development of how you are going to say things, and what you are going to be doing as you say it.
Most screenwriting programs have the main functions conditional on the purchase of a license and they are too complex for our purposes anyway. The only exception is Trellby, but this program will not work on Linux distributions released this year as it requires Python version 2 which is no longer available.
Anyway, we can manage very well with any word processor or spreadsheet. The basic outline of a script is a 3-column table; one for the scene number, another for what we say and the last for what we do.
It is convenient rwrite the script the way we would explain the process to a friend, without forgetting that whenever something can be demonstrated it must be demonstrated in addition to describing it in words.
A very useful complement to the script is the storyboard.
A storyboard is a sketch of the main scenes of the video including the elements that will appear on the screen and their position.
To create a storyboard se begins by dividing the written script into scenes and they in turn into takes. A schematic drawing is made of what would be seen through the camera. And it repeats for every major change.
It is not necessary that the drawings be of high quality, they should only allow you to know where the camera has to be and what appears on the screen at all times.
As far as I could see the only tool available for storyboarding on Linux es storyboarderIt also has versions for Windows and Mac. In Ubuntu (Appimage format) it takes a long time to start up and (at least it gives me a problem with WebGL). It is a pity because for those of us who are not skilled at drawing, it allows us to search and use its image bank.
Some of its functions are:
- Basic drawing tools (fine pencil, thick pencil, drawing pen, brush and text)
- Ability to add information about dialogues, action and timeline.
- Easy import of storyboards in paper format (using a mobile device)
- Sheet-by-sheet storyboard printing.
- Export to pdf and Gif
- Editing program compatibility
Anyway, to make a storyboard any drawing program can be used as Chalk, Inkscape o LibreOffice Draw
We already started badly, when he asks for an email to download the package and it also turns out to be an AppImage.