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Way late to the party on this, but here's a comment on audio quality and narration:
Narration sound quality makes a huge difference. One small thing that can make a video seem cheesy is a narration track that was obviously recorded in an office, due to the echos.
Like most places, we couldn't even consider building a recording studio, but we did come up with a fairly simple solution to the problem: a box with one open end, and lined with sound absorbing material.
The sound absorbing material is simple packing foam I got from the discard pile in our manufacturing area.
Quick and easy to make, very effective. The one improvement it needs: better lighting inside.
Rick Lippincott, Technical Writer
American Science and Engineering, Inc. | www.as-e.com
829 Middlesex Turnpike | Billerica, MA 01821 USA | Fax +1-978-262-8702
Office +1-978-262-8807 | rlippincott -at- as-e -dot- com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+rlippincott=as-e -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rlippincott=as-e -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Erika Yanovich
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2014 7:02 AM
To: techwr-l
Subject: Professional how-to videos
We've been doing short training videos to demonstrate how to perform a task or to explain how something works. My initial idea was to keep them simple, with text-to-speech, so that tech writers can make them themselves. I was quite happy with the results until I was told that while the videos give value to users they convey a message about our company being cheap. How can I make them more polished beyond using professional voices and better graphics? What makes a video polished?
TIA
Erika
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