Prepare Your Video

Prepare Your Video

  • An important part of your project is the 3 minute video showing your hack in action which you’ll make to show off your project to the competition judges
  • You are encouraged to include your team name, event location, team members, and to talk about the data you have used and your data reuse story
  • Videos can be a maximum 3 minutes long
  • Your video should not take more than a few hours out of your weekend if you keep it simple
  • We recommend you make a storyboard to help plan you video
  • The preferred method is to use screen capture with a voice-over narration explaining your hack, why you created it, and what is being shown in the video. Remember that the judging panel is viewing the videos in isolation and may not have any context about your project
  • You may mix in other elements with the screencast, such as footage demonstrating the issues your hack addresses, interviews, live action material and actors (i.e. team members and willing friends) you’ve filmed, etc. but be aware that videos that don’t primarily focus on showing off the hack itself will not be as useful as ones that do.

Storyboarding, screencasting, and editing

  • To help with storyboarding your video grab this huge pack of free storyboarding illustrations (https://dribbble.com/shots/1083617-430-FREE-storyboard-illustrations)
  • For screencasting check out software like ActivePresenter or OBS that will allow you to record demos of your application. If you have a mac, Quicktime will do the job.
  • For mixing clips together the YouTube Video Editor is super user-friendly; though VLC or LWKS may also be handy. iMovie on a mac or Movie Maker on Windows also work well.
  • Videos can be uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

Audio

Many experienced video producers will tell you that audio can be more important than the visuals in a video. Make sure you give some thought to how you can do this part well.

  • Find a quiet place to record audio.
  • Scripts often need to be recorded several times to fit with the video footage and edited accordingly.
  • Music is a nice touch but make sure you are licenced to use the content

Submitting your video

  • Make sure you allow at least 1 hour to submit your video before the deadline.
  • As soon as you have it, add the video URL to your project page
  • Remember you must have the actual URL of the video on your project page and not a link to another website where you have embedded the video. This is an important element used to validate the video was submitted before the deadline.