The Science Media Centre and Mohawk Media will team up again in March to offer their popular science video training workshops in Wellington and Auckland.
These Science Media SAVVY workshops focus on giving scientists the tools and skills to communicate their research in 90 second videos aimed at an online audience and leveraging platforms like Youtube and Vimeo.
Great short videos can be produced using the high-definition camera built into your smartphone or tablet. How can you harness this technology to bring your science to life and what are the best ways to shoot, edit and distribute your video content?
Story telling and video production
The Mohawk team will answer all of your questions, give you some hands-on demos and introduce you to great tools that will help you in the video production process.
You will also get hands-on, shooting footage that will contribute to a short video crowdsourced from the SAVVY class.
Click below to see what Palmerston North workshop attendees came up with.
In Auckland, AUT University’s Professor Steve Pointing and Dr Stephen Archer, the creators of the Sci21 science video platform will also give their advice on what makes science videos work and offer the opportunity for your videos to be featured on Sci21. In Wellington, GNS Science videographer Julian Thomson will give attendees tips on getting the best out of their institution’s videographer.
Science video competition
The Science Media Centre is also offering $3,000 in prize money to help get into production up to three videos from participants at the workshops.
Workshop details
This workshop is free to attend, but is limited to 20 places – university and CRI researchers get top priority, but we welcome applications from people working in science-related fields in regional councils, NGOs, private research firms etc.
This is a competitive application process – the best applicants will be selected based on the video concepts outlined in the application form.
WHERE: Wellington (Wednesday March 30), Auckland (Thursday March 31)
PRICE: Free – by invitation only – apply below (applications close March 15)
The workshop will cover:
Video – the medium of the moment – why it is so powerful?
The best science videos and why they went viral
Scripting and storyboarding short videos
Finding images and footage to make your video
DIY video – harnessing your smartphone to make great videos.
Software and tools you can use to get the best out of video
Go Pro – working with professional videographers to take video to the next level
Finding Funding – from grants to crowdfunding
Your video project – we will workshop your concept for an science video into a script, giving you expert feedback.
Feedback on Science Media SAVVY video workshops from previous attendees:
“The workshop was an excellent introduction to creative ways to convey science to the general public. I learnt so much its hard to quantify but mostly I would just like to say that it made things possible.” – Christchurch SAVVY participant
“This has given me an excellent insight into the power of this media and the confidence to give it a go.” – Palmerston North SAVVY participant
Helen & Chelfyn Baxter, Mohawk Media
Helen and Chelfyn produce animated infographics and web-friendly videos. They enjoy making data-driven stories and were science and technology commentators on Afternoons, Radio New Zealand for three years.
Julian Thomson, GNS Science
Julian is an educational outreach research assistant and experience videographer at GNS Science. Julian will be outlining ways to assist your in-house videographer do your research justice.
Peter Griffin, Science Media Centre
Peter is the founding director of the Science Media Centre and has media trained dozens of scientists through the Science Media SAVVY programme. He has a degree in screenwriting and a passion for visual-based story-telling.