Library Video Using Xtranormal

You might have seen these types of videos floating around -- people are making these for a vast variety of reasons.  I've seen library-related and educational videos made with this online software, and my husband commented last night that people on his Corvette forum have posted these types of videos as well (I didn't ask what, exactly, the videos on his forum were about).

Here's one I created about our library's one-on-one consultation service. It was easy and fun to do.  

And this one was created by my co-worker, Jessica Ambrose.

Here's another one that I really liked that was posted by Sheila Webber on her blog.



From a pedagogical standpoint, I admit I really didn't understand the point of these until I made one. I think that, as with any technology, it's what you do with it and how well and soundly you use it. 

A few points/rules of thumb that I can think of:

• Keep them short.  More than two-three minutes and you've lost your audience with these. All of the above videos are 40-50 seconds long, but they each serve their purpose: to inform about one concept, service, or process. 
• Make them as content-rich as possible in that limited time. 
• Think about your audience and write the script accordingly.  Don't be overly corny or trying-too-hard-to-be-cool if you are writing for students. 
• Make use of humor to capture the audience's attention.  Selecting two characters who are just plain-looking, for example, and having a boring script defeats the purpose. If you want to make a boring video, then make a regular video and make it professional-looking.  Only use Xtranormal or a similar script-reading video technology if you are going to capitalize on the tongue-in-cheek nature of the graphics and crudeness of the technology. (Disclaimer: by crudeness I am referring to the "low-tech" nature of it -- I am NOT suggesting that it should be used to create lewd or lascivious videos!)