Online video is a powerful medium for sharing compelling science stories to a broad audience. As many news outlets and institutions have embraced video, more and more print and digital science writers may find themselves tasked with adapting their stories for video. Good visual storytelling requires writers to not only write a snappy script but also to meld their words with graphics, narration, music and sound effects.
Making the shift to video can feel intimidating. But a lack of technical training and expensive equipment shouldn't deter science writers from dabbling in multimedia. You don't need a fancy camera or a studio set-up to make informative and entertaining science videos.
In this three-part virtual workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to learn the essential elements of making short science videos and start practicing those skills by producing their own 1-2 minute video by the last session. This workshop is supported by an NASW Peggy Girshman Idea Grant and will be taught by science video journalists Tien Nguyen and Helen Thompson.
Dates, cost, and other details:
Sessions will meet on Mondays from 7:30-8:45pm ET. Workshop size will be limited to 15 people and the total registration cost is $30. If you need financial assistance or accommodations for accessibility, please don’t hesitate to contact the organizers and we'll be happy to work with you (tiennguyenwrites@gmail.com or hthompson@sciencenews.org).
Although we welcome all experience levels, the workshop is designed to help professional science writers who have little to no scriptwriting/video experience develop a basic understanding of the medium. We encourage you to attend all the sessions, but we understand if you have to miss a class. We will make recordings of the class available for participants.
Class 1: April 12. Intro to science video and scriptwriting. We'll also provide instructions for the workshop video project.
Class 2: April 19. Intro to video editing in Adobe Premiere. (If you don't already have access to Premiere, we recommend participants download a free 30-day trial just before this class.)
OPTIONAL OFFICE HOURS: April 26. Instructors will be available on zoom to answer questions on video projects
Class 3: May 3. Participants will share their video projects with the group and receive feedback from the instructors and two guest video producers followed by a Q&A.
About the instructors:
Tien Nguyen is a freelance science journalist, video producer, and reformed chemist. She produced a video on surprising soap films that received DCSWA’s 2018 Newsbrief Award and her video on the environmental costs of burials won Gold in the digital/video category at the 2020 Association Media & Publishing’s EXCEL awards. She has scripted science videos for TED-Ed and ACS Reactions that total more than 9 million views. Her stories and videos have appeared in Knowable Magazine, Chemical & Engineering News, Insider, The Open Notebook, Nature, VICE News, Scientific American, and others.
Helen Thompson writes, produces and edits videos for Science News magazine and manages their YouTube channel. She has garnered two honorable mentions and one win in the multimedia category of the DCSWA Newsbrief Awards. Science News was also a finalist in the 2019 Online News Association Awards for their coverage of the EHT, which included an explainer video on black holes that she wrote and produced. Before Science News, she wrote for Smithsonian, NPR, Nature, National Geographic and others.
