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Guide to Successful Video Submissionsby John Tang and Steve WhittakerLast Revised: February 9, 1998 For questions, email: stevew@research.att.com Due date: (for submissions) Friday, May 1, 1998 Note: This document has drawn heavily on the Guides for Submission written by previous CHI and CSCW Video chairs. It will be updated regularly as we collect more guidelines on producing the video and build a list of frequently asked questions. This document is meant to complement the CSCW 98 Call for Participation. IntroductionVideos are a great way to present work that involves dynamic interaction, ranging from demonstrations of new systems to complex aspects of group communication and work practice. A panel of international reviewers will review videos for their technical content, interest to the CSCW community, communication effectiveness, and production quality. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
CSCW is an international conference, and we would like to encourage submissions from around the world. One of the ways we can reflect our research goal is by involving the many different geographic communities in the field. The video program is a great opportunity for bringing together a collection of work that might be otherwise difficult to see first-hand due to geographical distances. The video program will be playing continuously at the conference and in the conference hotel, and will be published and sold by the ACM (although copyright will be retained by the authors).
In addition to the video, prepare six (6) copies of a cover sheet that has:
Submission DeadlineThe deadline for submitting videos is May 1st 1998. It would help us if you could send us an informal statement of intent to submit ahead of time.Submit toSteve WhittakerATT Labs-Research, 180 Park Ave, PO Box 971, Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971 USA For all tapes which are sent from outside the United States, please mark clearly on the package that the contents are for educational purposes and have no commercial value. This will avoid the need to pay import duty or tax unnecessarily. Some international customs agents are also requiring more information about the video (e.g., duration, brief description of contents, and disclaimer statements about no pornographic content or no material to incite action against any government), so you might be prepared to provide such information. You will receive an electronic mail confirmation of the receipt of your videotape. Questions?Steve Whittakeremail: stevew@research.att.com phone: +1 973 360 8339 fax: +1 973 360 8970 PermissionsIn order to publish the CSCW 98 Video, which will be sold through the ACM following the conference, we will need the authors of videos to sign a permission form. You (or your company) will keep ownership of the copyright on the video, but you give the ACM the right to show and sell it. As the producer of a video, you should be careful about obtaining appropriate permission for using the material included in the video. This is both an issue of legal copyrights and ethical use of video and audio records.The legal issue is that you must observe copyright laws. If you are including copyrighted video clips, music, or other copyrighted material in your video, make sure you have the appropriate permissions to use them. Video production places usually have a library of stock music that can be used for a nominal fee. As the submitter of the video, you are responsible for obtaining permissions for using copyrighted material on your video, and you will be held personally responsible. The ethical issue is that you must make sure that people whose images or voices are on the video provide their consent on presenting the video in such a public forum. By their very nature, images and voices do not allow the participants in the video to remain anonymous. You need to apply your own judgement to make sure that their participation in the video is not embarrassing or uncomfortable to them. While a CSCW conference video is not like broadcasting it on public TV, it does involve a fair amount of public exposure. You should make sure that participants in the video are aware of and comfortable with this public showing (e.g., it will be playing continuously in hotel rooms during the conference and will be available for sale to the public). A signed consent form is a good way of documenting agreement on how the video is intended to be used. One of us still remembers the reaction that a participant in one of our videos had when he checked into his conference hotel, turned on the TV, and saw himself on TV! Review ProcessVideos will be reviewed by a panel of international experts:
We will notify authors if their video is accepted by June 19, 1998, and will provide all authors with the feedback collected from the review process. If your video is accepted, you will be given the opportunity to make minor revisions before the final CSCW videotape is prepared. If the committee feels that a tape would be better with some minor edits, improvements will be suggested in the acceptance letter. We recognize that making video editing changes can be complex, and will work with you to try to achieve the best end result that is practical. The final versions of the accepted tapes must be received by September 4, 1998 to be edited together into the CSCW 98 Video Program. For the final version, a high quality format will be required: Beta SP, 3/4", Hi-8, or Super VHS (in decreasing order of preference). Although we will accept submissions in PAL, SECAM, or NTSC formats, we would prefer NTSC, if you have a choice. Providing the edit master or a direct copy of it will help assure the best quality for the final tape. Original tapes will be returned to the authors when the editing process is completed. PublicationThe CSCW Video Program will be shown in a designated area in the Conference Center during the conference. In addition, the Video Program will be shown on the TV channel in the conference hotel during the conference. The Video Program is also made into a publication of the ACM that is sold to its members and to the public. It will be available for sale at the conference and also available through the ACM after the conference.The title, author information, and abstract of accepted video submissions will be published in the conference proceedings. This will provide a brief archival description of your video, and a pointer to how to obtain a copy of the video. Video ProductionThe CSCW 98 audience, and everyone who buys the Video Program after the conference, will get the most benefit if the video is of high quality, both in content and in technical production. Beyond the content of the video, we encourage you to think carefully about the presentation (e.g. the right pace, clear explanations) and production quality (e.g., clear images of the screen, clear and understandable sound). While we would like to see high quality video production, we realize that it can be very expensive and we don't want to exclude people who don't have access to professional video resources. We encourage you to make the best use of the resources that you have available; even a consumer-level camcorder can produce acceptable results with clever usage and planning. Please read on for details of how to produce a good quality video.ContentYou should select a theme or message for the tape and present the work in a way that communicates this message. Viewers should be able to easily identify this message, and in fact, should be able to restate it in their own words. Every line and scene in the script should contribute toward developing the message. Just as with writing a paper, providing a good structure that follows a logical progression and works together to make some simple, clear points is a necessary foundation for effective communication. Developing a clear message for the video is a crucial requirement for developing a good video; failing to develop and communicate a clear message seems to be the most common reason for rejecting videos.A simple structure would include explaining the context for your work (what problem is being addressed), demonstrating your work, and summarizing what you've learned from it. Emphasize the problems or issues being addressed, and describe the concepts and principles upon which the work is based. It is generally not a good idea to simply show all the features of your system; you must identify what is novel and interesting. Always clearly state the status of what is being shown; if you are faking any aspect of the system, be sure to mention this. It's also a good idea to minimize the amount of time spent just viewing somebody talking--talking heads can quickly become uninteresting. Remember that your tape must stand alone, and be understandable to viewers who are not familiar with the subject. You cannot assume that the viewer has read your printed abstract or a related paper submission. Therefore, most videos will need a short introduction explaining the goals and context of the work. To maximize the utility of the video for the viewer, you should also provide pointers to further or related work. This can be done by providing one or two references that the viewer can follow up on. However, show these references only briefly, as the viewer can always pause or replay the video to copy down that information. Perhaps the best advice is that if you're not familiar with producing a videotape, team up with someone who is. Videos require much more planning and preparation than most people think, and experience is the best resource for making a good video. If you don't have video production resources within your institution, strongly consider working with an external resource (e.g., a video production house, a communications department, a local public access TV station). It would be impossible to adequately summarize how to produce a good video in a few paragraphs, but here are some guidelines to help in your planning (and identify areas where you will need outside help). The first step in developing a video (well before any taping begins) is to develop a detailed script of the video. The script will help you plan how to develop the message of your video, as well as track all the details that are involved in producing the video. Before you think about bringing in any video cameras, find someone who doesn't understand what you do, sit them down and act out your video according to the script. It's good practice in speaking and helps to clarify the delivery of your ideas. Allow enough time to repeat this process until you have refined your script. If your video involves a larger group of people, it will be especially important to have the major scripting and production problems worked out beforehand. Eventually, the script should be turned into a storyboard, where you sketch out every scene change. These don't have to be artistically elegant, but it will prompt you to think through the decisions you need to make about camera angles, transitions between shots, positioning of subjects, etc. Making a good storyboard will save more time than it takes to make by helping you plan out your video shooting. It is generally not appropriate to hire professional actors to appear in your video. Usually the most realistic and convincing advocate of an idea is the person responsible for the research. However, make sure the people who appear on camera speak naturally, rather than looking like they are reading. Remember that the value of video is as a way of demonstrating things, so try to minimize shots of researchers or authors discussing the project. It is far better to show your idea or system in action that to have it abstractly described. Try also not to make the viewers feel like they are watching a lecture. Pacing (Really Important!)The video medium is different from either a lecture or demonstration. The pacing of a videotape presentation must be appropriate for concentrated presentation through a TV monitor. Avoid a pace that is either too slow or too fast. A recording of a live demo will appear too slow. A large number of jump cuts (abrupt changes from one shot to the next) tends to create too fast a pace.Exposition and PresentationThe exposition style of your videotape presentation will greatly affect its impact. Use the multiple modes of communication that are available simultaneously in videotape. Always explain (briefly perhaps) what is about to happen or what is most interesting. Tell the viewer where to look and what to look for. You might speak aloud the directions to the camera operator, such as "if you zoom in on the top right corner of the display" which will help the viewers orient themselves. Display screens have few natural navigation aids, so you may have to provide them verbally or by superimposing graphic highlights. Make your point once, and make it effectively; avoid being repetitious.We are asking that you use the English language in the videos. If you are not comfortable speaking English, you should consider involving a fluent English speaker in the production and narration of your video. You can also rely on the visual nature of the video to demonstrate your work, and simplify and minimize the amount of narration needed in the video. Seek a variety of images: switch between face, screen, hands, and slides to keep the viewer's interest. Always start out with an establishing shot, which shows the context of the subject and/or group. This might be a wide shot of the group in a meeting room, a split-screen shot of users in different locations, a wide shot of a meeting participant at the computer, or of the entire computer screen. This helps the viewer stay oriented. Periodically return to an establishing shot to keep the viewer from getting confused. Each shot should be visually well-composed. Avoid having the subject in the exact middle of the screen. Pay attention to the background and colors; the eye is drawn to the most brightly colored part of the scene. Make the lightest and brightest part be the point of interest. Carefully consider lighting--this is perhaps where our intuitions as laypeople are least reliable (since we tend to take lighting for granted). Professionals spend a lot of effort to make sure that there are no strange shadows on faces (a common occurrence with overhead lighting), no dramatic shadows on walls, no glaring reflections on computer screens, and that there is enough light to provide crisp, sharp, high contrast images to be captured on videotape. Do not overuse panning, zooming and other moving shots. Begin and end each moving shot with a static shot. Avoid visual distractions, such as idly moving the mouse. Fades to black can be used as transitions between scenes, but they should not be overused. A full screen fade usually indicates a change in subject, time, or place, and can be confusing when used elsewhere. EquipmentThe final production quality of a video depends both on the quality of the equipment and the training and experience of the video maker. If you have access to a high-quality production studio and trained personnel, use them. However, production quality suitable for CSCW 98 can be achieved with the commercial equipment found in most universities and companies. The guidelines below are intended for researchers who have access to such equipment, but little experience in making videos.Camera BasicsKeeping the camera stable and level is vital. Use a tripod, whenever possible. Remember that camera jiggles are more apparent in telephoto shots; take extra care in zooms and closeups. To view what you are videotaping, you will need to use a TV in addition to the viewfinder of the camera during taping. It is impossible to tell if the shots are correct from just the little viewfinder built-in to the camera. Remember that the final picture will not be as clear as the picture in the monitor, so zoom in closer than might seem necessary, and make sure that no important parts are at the edge of the picture. Videotaping a computer screen requires some extra precautions, as addressed in the next section.Avoid using different sources of lights when shooting, as it will throw off your colors. For example, avoid taping in a room with both natural and artificial light sources. The white balance setting adjusts the camera to your lighting. When setting, focus the camera on the color that you want to be filmed as white. This could be a sheet of white paper or the whitest color in the scene, depending on the effect you want. Avoid having too much white in a scene because it will make all your other colors too dark. If possible, include 30 seconds of color bars and audio tone at the beginning of the tape. The color bars must be generated by the camera or editing equipment. Color bars copied from another tape are worse than none at all. If you can, monitor your video levels. White levels should be at 100 units, and black levels should have a pedestal of 5 to 7.5 units. Make sure to allow enough time to shoot the video; record each segment more than once to give you some choices when it comes time to edit. Allow enough time to redo segments until you can get it right. Doing another "take" is much less time than discovering a flaw in the scene at edit time and having to reshoot the video. Since shooting the video usually involves other people, locations, and resources, everyone will appreciate organizing the shooting to be as efficient as possible (e.g., shoot scenes in the same setting together regardless of their order in the video, shoot scenes that involve the same people together). Videotaping Computer ScreensBecause of incompatibilities of resolution, refresh rate, and interlacing, it is often difficult to get good shots of computer screens on video. There are two ways to capture the image: by pointing a camera at the screen, or using a scan converter or video encoder to translate the computer's signal directly to an NTSC signal or videotape. You will probably need to experiment to find the best way of capturing screen images on video.Most people will film the screen with a camera. In this case, darken the room to enhance contrast, and set your white balance to match the white of the screen. Position your camera straight on center, to avoid rhomboidal windows from the curved face of the display. You will have to pan around the screen to show different parts, because the video will usually not show the entire display in sufficient resolution to read text and see the graphics. If you have problems with one camera, you might consider borrowing or renting different cameras to see if you can obtain better results when shooting from the screen. Shoot black and white displays with a black and white camera or only one gun of a color camera, usually green. Try to find a display that has a refresh rate that is compatible or synchronized with the video camera rate of 30 frames per second. Most displays are not, so you will get a crawling refresh line on the tape. In this case, try to wait until it is not visible before each video segment. If there is a continuous beating or flashing on the video, this means that the refresh rates are completely incompatible, and you should probably not make a video of that screen with that camera. There are cameras that allow you to tune their video capture frequency to match the display refresh frequency of the computer screen, to avoid the "rolling bars" problem. You might be able to rent such a camera (e.g., Sony video cameras with a "ClearScan" feature) for your final shooting. If you have hardware that converts your computer signal to NTSC, you can record directly from your computer to tape. A major problem with this approach is that single pixel horizontal lines will flicker badly (in fact, all odd number width horizontal lines will flicker somewhat). If your display is color, limit color saturation to 75 to 80% and choose hues carefully, especially reds, to avoid exceeding the NTSC color bandwidth (i.e., color "bleeding" or "beating"). Tape FormatUse the best quality camera and video format possible. In decreasing quality, the formats are: 1-inch, Beta SP, 3/4 inch U-matic, Hi-8mm, and Super VHS. Regular VHS format is strongly discouraged. Our preference is for 3/4 inch or better, if you have a choice. Regular home equipment will probably not be good enough, especially if the video requires several generations of editing.Although we will accept submissions in PAL, SECAM, or NTSC formats, we would prefer NTSC, if you have a choice. We will be doing our final editing in NTSC format, and conversions from other formats can be expensive, can reduce the final quality, and can crop out some of the picture around the edges. EditingMake sure to plan to complete your shooting of the video to allow plenty of time for editing. Much of the work that ultimately makes a video successful is in the editing. Editing will be much easier if you have access to video editing equipment and people who are trained to use it. Even so, it will be your job to review all the video that you've collected, pick which segments you want to use, and indicate where each scene starts and stops and how to transition from scene to scene. Preparing this "edit list" will help prompt the decisions you need to make beforehand and will make your editing time go quickly (very important if you're paying for using an editing studio).Because video editing involves copying from tape to tape, there can be a significant loss of quality from the raw footage to the final version. Every time the image is passed from one tape to another (called a 'generation'), the quality goes down, sometimes significantly (this is one reason why using the best tape format possible is so important). Therefore, you should be sure to edit your original raw footage directly onto the final master tape. The tape you submit to CSCW 98 should be a copy of this master. That way, it will only be third generation (two copies away from the original). Digital editingOver the last few years, the prices have come down on good quality digital video editing systems (often called non-linear editing systems). Given a reasonably fast Intel or Motorola based personal computer, editing software, storage, and digitizing hardware can be purchased for less than US$2000 to complete a non-linear video editing station. With such equipment, video clips can be captured to disk, edited and assembled with an editing program, and played back for recording to tape. These kind of systems offer great flexibility in editing power, a variety of useful tools and effects not easily available via analog means. They also avoid losing a "generation" of image quality in the editing phase. A good system will allow you to capture, edit and play back in PAL or NTSC S-VHS at full frame rate.There is a wide range of digital video editing systems available. One successful combination is the MicroMotion DC20 capture board, Apple PowerMac 7500, Adobe Premier 4.2, and a 4.2gb Quantum Atlas AV disk. Another more expensive alternative is a Media100 system also running on an Apple PowerMac. There are many other systems available as well, including those made by Avid. A book (that we have not reviewed and can not personally recommend) is available called The Nonlinear Video Buyers Guide - a guide to nonlinear editors, hybrid editors, news editors, disk recorders and video servers. (ISBN 0-9517826-5-7 210x297mm 108pp September 1995) US$34.95. AudioAudio quality is probably more important than image quality to the overall impact of your video. Clever placement of microphones can really help improve audio quality. Try to place the microphone very close to the mouth of whoever is speaking (or other sound source) and away from any distracting sounds (e.g., the noise of computer fans and disks). People should talk clearly and "speak up" so the microphone can get a good audio signal. Avoid using the camcorder microphone, since it is omindirectional (tends to pick up all sounds everywhere, rather than just the sounds you want) and usually is not very close to your sound source.If you have introductory "talking heads," try to do these with the computer off, or with the microphones arranged so that the computer noise is not picked up. When describing what's being demonstrated, it is generally better to record the audio after the video by doing a voice-over in a studio or other quiet room. With a voice-over, you watch the video and record the sound that explains what is happening. Make sure that the discussion is synchronized with the action on the screen. Another motivation for doing a voice-over afterwards is that the person operating the computer can concentrate on the demo and go as fast as possible without awkward pauses while they think about what to say next. Many successful videos use trained readers for the audio, which you can find by calling acting schools or radio stations. If it is important to hear key clicks or computer audio output (beeps), record these on a separate audio track, and mix them with the voice-over in the editing studio. Similarly, if you are adding music to the video, this can go on a separate track, so it will be easy to fade out music when narration begins, etc. Usability TestingThey say that the children of shoemakers have no shoes, and that people at the human factors and ergonomics conference tend to use illegible slides! Participants in HCI conferences and publications need to make sure that their presentations and products are usable. Thus it makes sense for you to carry out usability testing on your video just as you would on any other product. You can start off by testing your script with colleagues and friends. Is it interesting and understandable? Next you may want to storyboard your video. Do the cuts and transitions make sense to people, can they visualize how it will look? As well as being useful for usability testing, the storyboard should be an important part of your planning process. Next you should do roughcuts of the video. Do people want to see more talking head shots or less? Is the demo clear? Is the pace too fast or too slow? Are there any particular usability problems with specific segments of the video?Anyone who has done video editing and post-production knows that it is a surprisingly time consuming business. However, it's garbage-in, garbage-out, and if you don't have good content or message, the best video editing in the world won't help it that much. So, make sure that you thoroughly usability test your video. The time will be well spent, and it will probably still only require a fraction of the time that you have to spend anyway on video production. Upon AcceptanceAuthors will be notified whether their video is accepted to the formal program by June 19, 1998. If the video is accepted it will be included in the CSCW 98 Video Program which will be shown at the conference, and available at significantly reduced cost to attendees. After the conference it will be published and sold by the ACM.The primary author of each accepted video will receive an Author Kit with permission forms and detailed instructions on how to submit the revised tape and the camera-ready and electronic materials for publication. These materials are due on September 4, 1998. Ground Rules
ChecklistPlease follow the steps in this checklist to ensure completeness in your submission.
Final WordsMaking a good video is hard work, but it also has potentially great rewards. One of us had the personal experience of creating a video for the CSCW 94 Video program and found that it was not only great to have as part of the conference, but it was a very effective medium for communicating our work within the company! The rich and compelling nature of the video medium makes it more likely that people will watch it and understand the work. We hope that you will take the time to make a video of your work and look forward to seeing your submissions!
SDM / cscw98-info@acm.org / February 12, 1998 |