Torley's 13 rules to making good video tutorials
Posted on: April 14, 2008
I'm not an avant-garde filmmaker, but I've learned to think like one: in the process of making well over 100 video tutorials, certain on-the-fly methods have congealed into formal structures, best practices which've served me well. By "formal", I don't mean they're impervious to reinterpretation and adaptation, but rather, they've worked consistently and aided in my creation process. Thus, a philosophy, a "series bible" of sorts emerges, inspired by the work of Dogme95 and others who made their own rules to live and film by.
Should future video tutorial/screencast makers wish to learn from what I've done, here is my manifesto of general guidelines:
- The action must be improvised, like vines snaked around a pillar of principles. Key points are allowed to be synthesized beforehand, but rehearsing what will be filmed is forbidden. (An exception to this is when collaborating with other teams at Linden Lab, who may prefer a more scripted approach.)
- No scenes can be staged, no fake enthusiasm is allowed. If bystanders' non-essential reaction is desired but not obtained, accept it and move on. Example: "Text chat macros".
- Bugs must be left in, to the extent that they do not grievously interfere with the overall work. Issue Tracker #s and context should, as often as possible, be provided for the education of the viewers. There will always be bugs, but hiding them is dishonest and causes unrealistic expectations.
- Surprise while filming is encouraged. While thorough inworld experience and knowledge of the user interface is admirable, one cannot be prepared for every situation and mishap. Explanations should be given as unexpected events happen.
- Maintain an emphasis on presenting an accurate portrayal of Second Life as a Resident will actually experience it. Everything shown must be doable by a computer meeting the System Recommendations. Video quality can have brightness and contrast added for clarity, but other undue artificial enhancements are forbidden unless they are blatant special effects.
- Narration must be memorable, and can be paced appropriately for the subject matter: rapid discourse is appropriate for a QUICKTIP, while newcomer-oriented material should be paced to allow time for breathing and learning.
- Text subtitles should be terse and arranged pleasingly as to not obscure elements of interest. Occasional trivia to add cultural flavor is welcome.
- Pans and zooms should be used to assist focus and compensate for deteriorated video quality on the World Wide Web.
- Multiple takes are allowed, but preferably kept to a minimum as they degrade the live process. 4 or less is a good rule of thumb.
- The video tutorial template file must be improved as new items for streamlining are identified. The slop must be chopped, with efficiency gains repeatedly applied in a cry of joyous attrition.
- Lucid agility is key. With minimal exceptions, no single video tutorial should take longer than 10 hours to film, edit, render, & publish. If more time-consuming, then proportional gains need to be measured and demonstrated. Else, the time spent was not worth it.
- New tools must regularly be identified and utilized to distribute and promote the video tutorials, making them easier to find. Education is useless if it is not accessible.
- Credit must be given as due, above and beyond, whenever possible. Openly thank fellow Residents for their contributions, including viewership, suggestions, and featured content. Be an avid replier to worthwhile commentary and discussion. Be gracious — "Friendly greetings!" is not a mere saying, it is a way of life. Second Life.
Any I didn't mention that should be on here?
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April 14th, 2008 at 8:57 AM PDT
Hrm… demonstrate menu option, then shortcut using mouse, and finally mention any keyboard shortcuts. Give folks options on which method of triggering the action they prefer, but don't let it slow down the tutorial to a crawl.
April 14th, 2008 at 3:45 PM PDT
I've got one … and this applies to any kind of tutorial. Don't make any assumptions about what people already know how to do. Or at least state those assumptions upfront. There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to follow a tutorial because they leave out things they assume you know how to do. In other words … don't leave out steps.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:19 PM PDT
Thank you for the tips Torley, I have been pondering the idea of creating Machinama for a fer short stories I have.
-S
April 14th, 2008 at 8:37 PM PDT
I think I violate just about every one of those rules when making my machinima tutorials. I am the anti-Torley.
1. All action is scripted. In fact I script and storyboard every scene before I begin filming. It's an invaluable organizational tool.
2. Everything is staged. Staging helps communicate complex concepts better. And I act for the part. I even fake enthusiasm.
3. No bugs allowed. If I find a bug in my product during filming, I fix it and reshoot. Bugs only confuse the viewer.
7-8. I don't have the software that lets me pan/zoom, so I make do with camera moves.
9. Multiple takes are a necessity. Some scenes I shoot a dozen times or more. And after I shoot I will do voiceover repeatedly, trying to hit the exact intonation I need.
11. It takes me 3-4 days to produce tutorials.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:24 AM PDT
I'd like to know what the best tools are and maybe a brief explanation on why you use them.
April 15th, 2008 at 9:09 AM PDT
nice tips on your approach to tutorials. we followed nearly all for my one, and only, machinima so far (adressing Sabastian's ref). the only deviation was due to the fuff tween a tut and a story. ours was a simple story of moving from a ho hum life to a better life. so it had a very simple story to tell.
since it had a story, it was somewhat satisfying to watch. and the other point, we wanted it to be evident what the story was even without any narration. it does have narration, but after being involved a bit in the Deaf community isl, it was important to us that it stand just as well with no voice or music.
back to your post . . . thank you for posting this insight to your approach.
oh, side note on the time: plan, plan plan . . . we planned for two hours on our simple script and that allowed us to do the set creation, outfit selection, filming, editing, music selection, and narration in a total of 8 hours. including publishing to blip.tv
April 16th, 2008 at 12:44 PM PDT
14. Add watermelon.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:16 AM PDT
@Crap: In the future, I'm going to feel more strongly about an easy SL "cheat sheet". I've cited alternative ways to do things, but sometimes, I feel it becomes too repetitious — maybe I should do an intro QUICKTIP showing the various basic ways, the multiple paths to common things. I have covered them specifically as-needed, tho.
@Lena: Very true! Although sometimes, it's a judgment call re: "should I include this info or is that too much?" If anything tho, I believe in communicating, "If so-and-so details aren't covered in this tutorial, they are covered in another". Like how to open Advanced (ex-Debug) menu, which is such a generally useful thing to know.
@Sabastian: Would like to see that! Let me know when you've got something.
@Rifkin: Haha, "anti" or just parallel trains of thought? I can certainly learn from what you've shared and I'm happy you're making tutorials, incl. for your games — re: bugs, I wish some of these Second Life glitches (esp. little ones that make a big difference) got fixed sooner. But sometimes, if I have a hard time explaining them away, I'll followup with the Resident Experience Team to advocate for where workarounds are clunky and we need a better way altogether.
@Luke: Wonderful question, this is largely covered here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Torley_Linden/Vidtut_process . Let me know if you have further questions!
@Ener: Good planning can't be underestimated! What you spend some time on upfront may save you much time later. Perhaps you've already felt this way. Which video are you referring to? Would like to see.
@Laetizia: ALWAYS.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:24 PM PDT
oh gosh *nervous wreck* my vid? this is my first one, I want to make more but get distracted easily!
http://blip.tv/file/628228
April 26th, 2008 at 2:09 AM PDT
In my opion there is one rule missing in 'Torley's 13 rules to making good video tutorials':
Think about non native english speaking readers! Speak calm and clear and also let subtitles stay long enough to read.
Torley is doing well. He speaks very clear. I like his tutorials!
April 27th, 2008 at 8:27 AM PDT
@Vool: Very good point! And so true. I hope more internationalizations/adaptations will be done of my video tutorials, that'll make them more useful worldwidde.
@Ener: I certainly like the title and some of the angled shots. (Is there sound? I didn't hear any.) Thanks for sharing!
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:41 PM PDT
how interesting that you did not have sound? yes indeed, it has a music track and a voice over track. but I did make it heavily influenced by my endeavors with Deaf friends isl and aware that I wanted it to tell a story without the need for audio.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:51 AM PDT
Great and interesting site such as your tutorials. Keep it up! Just mentioning that you can create tuts with Wink as well which you can download here:
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
I am sure that it hasn't got the same features as Camnastia Studio has but is an easy-to-handle software and moreover it is FREE.