Five Avoidable Mistakes while Creating Video Tutorials

Not satisfied with the results from your video tutorials? Here is a discussion of the top 5 mistakes that people make when they record their video tutorials. Try to remove these obstacles, you will find amazing results.

Last Reviewed and Updated on February 7, 2020
Posted by Parveen(Hoven),
Aptitude Trainer and Software Developer

Are you not 100% satisfied with your videos? Are they not giving the results to your satisfaction? Here are five possible mistakes that you might be repeating all through. The problems listed here are very subtle in nature. They work in the subconscious of your audience. Nobody speaks about them to you but they are constantly hindering your progress. Go through each of these factors to get convinced about this dark side.

Mistake 1: Whiteboard Recording

Most people think that by recording a classroom lecture with the help of a DVD camera gives a "classroom feeling" to the viewer. This is a myth. A real classroom has human beings sitting in a group, but this major factor is missing when someone is watching your video on his tablet or laptop PC. A recorded lecture cannot be a substitute for a group of students learning together. More has to be done to compensate for this limitation. By merely recording a teacher standing in front of a blackboard and writing with chalk or marker pens is going to make things worse because -

  1. The audio quality might not be good.
  2. Problem of adequate lighting is also there.
  3. The teacher himself might be covering half the view.
  4. Unless the speaker is trained in an acting school, he might not be able to articulate his body language well. He could be stage conscious. He might be good in a classroom, but an entirely different personality is required on a camera. This is similar to when we say someone has photogenic face, but he is not that good looking in real life.

Mistake 2: Ignoring the Audio

Believe it or not, the audio is a very very crucial factor in a video. Every body sees the same picture, but everybody doesn't hear the same audio. The monitors are standardized. They are of the best quality today. It is not so with audio. Someone plays your video on a desktop speaker, someone plays it on a mobile phone speaker, some play it on bad quality ear plugs also. If your audio is not done well, people might start to feel your videos to be jarring. Remember, your videos are 100 in number, and there is only one actor: the teacher - in all of them. There are no songs and dance sequences in between. Your audience has to listen to your voice - don't ignore it.

Mistake 3: Extempore Recording

The easiest way to start a shoot is by going extempore. In one out of hundred chances, it works the best. But 99 times it falls flat. Watch your own throat for seven days, and you will be convinced that your own throat is not at its best always. The vocal cords go through phases. They are also impacted by the condition of your stomach. An extempore recording delivers badly only on account of an ignored throat condition. Things are different with playback and pop singers. They rest their vocal cords for hours before a recording. During stage performances, they prefer lip singing because they are aware of this problem.

Mistake 4: Over-speech

We tend to speak too many lines during a recording, when just one would have been sufficient. This is a tendency with classroom teachers. Students in a live classroom generally ignore it, but when it comes to a video, it causes a "drag", the watcher perceives you as a drag and a boring speaker. If the progress of a video is not consistent, and at a good pace, then it is only because of your over-speech.

Mistake 5: Video Background

White backgrounds cause a glare. Your viewers might not be consciously aware of this problem in your videos, but their eyes would surely feel the strain. The result? The watch time falls. Videos with darker background are pleasant to watch, especially after someone sits to watch your video after a whole hectic day, and the eyes are looking for rest.



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This Blog Post/Article "Five Avoidable Mistakes while Creating Video Tutorials" by Parveen (Hoven) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Updated on 2020-02-07. Published on: 2016-02-13


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