Learning By Example - Real Simple Breathing Video

One of the ways to learn how to do something is to watch others that do similar tasks. I was searching for household information at RealSimple.com and I stumbled into the How-To video section.

I check out a few of the videos and it hit me - this is a learning opportunity. Well, that and learning how to clean grout and fold a t-shirt.

I looked at the structure of the videos to see what I could observe. The videos are not all the same. Some of the videos were taken from the television program. Others were specifically designed for web viewing.

The one that I'll use as an example is How To: Relax and Breathe. This was a short video and this is what I observed:

• Five second introduction with music that contained the name of the creator and the topic of the video. Something to think about if you know your content is going to be distributed to other video portals or bloggers who like the video and may post it on their blogs.
• Introduction to the topic and topic titles are used to transition from one instructional step to the next.
• Alternates between close up of the speaker and an establishing shot of her in the scene.
• Constant branding of the source of video and additional tips about the topic.

A quibble I have is that there is a little too much white space at the bottom of the screen. However when the tips or the instructional step transitions are presented then it is the right amount of space to display the text.

I'd have to think about how that could have been done differently.

Deconstructing a successful video, or a lousy one for that matter, is a good way to understand what could work in your video production.