Some thoughts inspired by the wonderful videos produced in our database class

I’m not an expert in video making. However, after appreciating many excellent videos made by my classmates on the database class, I have been considerably inspired by their thoughts and skills. So, I can’t help keeping down my thoughts on how to make a good video.

Components on how to make a good video.

1.       Build a common theme which acts like a thread that weaves the whole video.

1)       Repeat the outline many times so that the watchers can exactly know where they are in the whole lecture. Nobody likes to get lost, so it’s significant to have your listeners know where they are in the lecture.

I have remembered that this technique is used by “Mr. Bookshelf” and the result is: until now I can clearly recall what they have done in the lecture. So this technique is really effective.

2)       Use a scene or a story to weave the whole video.

This is quite useful especially when we talk about something that is boring.

I have remembered that group ADAM has used the form of news report to organize their lecture. As all of us have been deeply impressed by the “murder” caused by data incompatibility and inconsistency. They have used this attractive and thrilling scene to highly emphasize the importance of a coherent way of storing data and transporting data.

2.       Try to make the video both entertaining and instructive

As we are telling something that is really academic, which is hard for the audience to catch up with us and sometimes the whole process is quite boring. So, how to make the audience interested, inspired and attracted is quite vital for a good video.

In order to achieve this goal, we should build a connection between familiar common life scenes with academic issues. The reason for building a connection is explained below:

I think everyone can be compared to a database which stores a huge amount of information. We continuously absorb information into our database. However, information can be acquired efficiently and effectively only when it has some connections to our previous knowledge and logic. Moreover, we will feel interested and attracted when the information has some linkage to our previous knowledge.

3.       Express your love and enthusiasm for the content you are conveying

Human beings are readily influenced by motions and attitudes. Whenever we are listening to something that is expressed with enthusiasm, we will be highly motivated and inspired. So we should try our best to convince ourselves about the meaningfulness of the work we are doing.

I have seen that many teams have a keen love for what they have done and they have expressed their love for their project, so when they are on stage, they actively share us with what they have learned

4.       Properly use visual language.

As we know, visual language has a lot of advantages such as being more direct and conveying much more information than oral language. So, if possible, we can always use it to clarify our ideas. However, there may be some inconsistency between visual information and the meaning we want to express. So, special attention should be paid on visual information to get an absolutely clear and consistent structure.

All in all, I’m continuously inspired by the excellent work of my classmates and they are all really brilliant teachers. We are cooperating with each other and learning from each other to make the learning process more creative and interesting.