How to find videos and what constitutes a good/great video

[ThatGarenGuy]

Starting a thread about what makes a good video. Some basics on principles of selecting and posting. 

1. Look for videos that follow Best practices. We don't want videos that cause more damage, or have potential
2. Don’t post a video that solves a thread unless you know the steps are correct
3. Find videos that do a better job solving a post than text or text and graphics – don’t add videos just because they’re about the thread
4. Watch out for videos that could cause problems for HP legally.
   Watch out for product placement of branded items. Don't use video that have Coke cans sitting around.
   Don't use videos using children anywhere in the video
   Don't use videos with people wandering through or walking by. This shouldn't apply very often. 
   Suggest we stay away from "In Your Face" type videos.
5. This is for Service and Support Videos only. We don't want dancing hamsters. Leave those on YouTube.

[skippyjohnson]

Here's some rough notes of additional suggestions that we use in creating videos for support documents. Most of the videos we use today are posted at www.youtube.com/justprintingaround.   Feel free to pick on my videos in this forum when they don't meet my guidelines.  Garen already touched on some of these suggestions.  Feel free to disagree with my suggestions or add your own.

1. Avoid distracting elements on hands, products, table, background audio.
2. Be specific as possible. Avoid generalizing instructions.
3. Show context (show transitions from one point to another – don’t jump to the next location or orientation without showing the user the change).
4. Less / no talking heads.  Talking heads are difficult to localize without looking like a remake of Godzilla.  In addition, if all you’re presenting is text, give the users the text.  You’re also giving away some privacy by putting your face in the video.
5. Make sure hands don’t get in the way of what you’re trying to show.
6. Lighting – make sure lighting is sufficient to show the subject (cartridges going into a black hole aren’t very helpful)
7. Add transcripts to YouTube.  Many people view these videos in an office with no headphones.  If you provide the transcript to YouTube, people can follow your instructions without hearing the audio.  In addition, users can also use some Beta features in YouTube to localize your transcript and view your video in languages other than English.
8. Audio tips – explain in the description if there is no audio so customers aren’t wondering why they can’t hear anythying.  Sometimes no audio means the video doesn’t need to be localized.
9. Choose topics where video is helpful (shows a task that’s difficult to explain) – video is not a magic bullet – sometimes text and graphics are much better – use tools appropriately.
10. Resolution – highest possible. Let YouTube compress your video – don’t provide them a low resolution format that they’re going to compress anyway.
11. Time limit.  There’s no set limit on this.  In general, YouTube won’t allow you to load videos longer than 10 minutes.  But if people need popcorn, soda, and bathroom breaks to get through your “how to” video, you’re not going to have a lot of people watch the whole video.
12. Some people suggest you should tell the user up front how long the video is.  Not sure how I feel about this yet.
13. Some people suggest breaking longer videos into steps and sections. Then users can choose the steps they want to watch a video on.  We’re doing some HFE testing on that in the next couple weeks. 
14. Keep source files in case you need to modify the video.  At least save a final raw version of the video.  You may find other destinations where you want to publish the video.  Some destinations will start paying you after your videos are used so many times.  Be careful of SBC issues.  If you use HP tools to create a video – you can’t accept payment for the video.
15. No product placement – Garen already touched on this one.
16. Maintain your privacy – goes along with putting your face in the video.
17. Focus on creating videos on topics with the greatest impact – video requires more resources than a text response – leverage from existing videos before new.
18. No copyright violations – know YouTube copyright rules and follow them – DO NOT post videos to the forum that violate copyright rules.
19. Be careful of transition / zoom.  Zooming in and out too much can create a visual distraction.  I’ve seen some videos that make people dizzy because of all the zoom.
20. Remember 420 x 380.  That’s the resolution we typically use to load videos into documents.  That applies less in the forums, but don’t assume that people will be viewing the video in a large format.
21. Plan for smaller screen.  More and more users are using mobile devices. Plan your video so users on mobile devices will still be able to use the video.