Re: Integrating movies into documentation

[voxwoman <voxwoman -at- gmail -dot- com>]

FYI, a parked car makes a very good sound booth. I have used this when
needed. Also, there are "relatively inexpensive" hand-held stereo recorders
available now that record in MP3 or uncompressed audio formats.

-Wendy

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 3:26 AM, Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> wrote:

> Erika,
>
> There is a plethora of new technologies that have yet to be tried.
> While I was documenting a manufacturing process in 2007, I discovered
> an application that our company couldn't afford: Acrobat 3D. Wow. Here
> I was, authoring work instructions in Word with imported 2D
> representations of 3D CAD images, and for just a few hundred dollars
> we could instead create frames for 3D CAD images the user could zoom,
> rotate. and disassemble at their leisure. The geek factor would have
> been way up there.
>
> Colleagues of mine create screen casts they distribute internally, to
> show the SMEs how to use an authoring/system design tool (for lack of
> a better term). The screen casts are embedded into DITA topics and
> published on the intranet in an info center. While I can vouch for the
> content, script, and demonstration, a few points stand out for me:
>
> 1) The average technical communicator tends to be more introverted
> than most, and needs to be coached on their presentation voice.
> 2) Most offices are not well-suited for audio recording. Either the
> background noise is too great, the walls are too resonant, or there
> are too many interruptions to make a smooth recording.
> 3) Most companies focused on developing a product cannot afford the
> proper equipment and software to produce these videos professionally,
> so they lack the polish of professional titles and background music.
> 4) More on background music: remember to seek appropriate licenses to
> use music clips or stock audio. It would be a good employee retention
> activity for companies to provide time for the musicians in our midst
> to record music for presentations.
> 5) Most techcom created videos don't observe the 3 second rule I
> learned when a production school shot my old band's video almost 20
> years ago. The human eye can only stay focused on one scene for about
> 3 seconds, so change the screen or merely shift the camera angle
> often. Talking heads cause fatigue (unless we're talking the band,
> then they're all right!)
>
> The above notwithstanding, I believe that if a picture says 1000
> words, a video speaks 10000. I'd like to use more video.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Tony Chung: Creative Communications
> Cell: +1-604-710-5164
> Email: tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca * Web: http://tonychung.ca
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Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author, 
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Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
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