Music is far more interesting than messaging. Here’s how to make
sure your music is the star of the show.
- Pick music without regard to the pacing, tone, or purpose of the spoken
message.
- Avoid licensing fees. Any music you can download or rip from a CD
is cool to use.
- Save money on editing. Nobody really cares if the music track
sounds chopped up.
- Turn it up and leave it there. Don’t let that boring speaker hog
the spotlight!
Be sure to check out my earlier article, “Three Tips for Creating
a Bad Narration.” Bad narration and intrusive music go hand in hand when you’re
throwing together a video on a shoestring budget to meet an unrealistic
deadline.
Next time: How to Make a Training Video that Cures Insomnia
Rick Lamb is a writer, educator, and media producer who specializes in microlearning video. He makes none of these mistakes.
Many people have trouble sleeping. Follow these production tips
and your training video can give these unfortunates the relief they seek!
- Make it long. This isn’t hard. Any training video longer than two
minutes will probably do the trick.
- Use a lot of talking heads. Professorial types with bushy eyebrows
that go up and down when they talk are golden.
- Include extraneous content. Make the intro long and self-serving,
go off on tangents, and belabor the main points. Easy peasy.
- Avoid text. Never, ever display keywords or use concise phrases to tie ideas together or summarize takeaways.
- Chop chop … NOT. Cool it with all the editing. Real people
stumbling around trying to explain something is so painful to watch that sleep
will be an automatic defense mechanism.
Remember, your job is not to foster learning or deliver a message.
Your job is to help these poor folks catch a few winks. A poorly designed and produced training video
is just the ticket!
Next time: How to Utterly Defile a Microlearning Video
Rick Lamb is a writer, educator, and media producer who specializes in microlearning video. He makes none of these mistakes.
