Whether or not you’re an experienced videographer, you may decide to make a video showing your process or progress. Shooting video takes practice but it can add a lot – especially if your exhibit is a demonstration or focuses on performance art.
A smartphone or camera mounted on a tripod and pointed at what you want to record, with enough light to show what is happening, might be all you need to shoot video.
Placing Video in Your Exhibit
When you have a completed, rendered video file that you want people to be able to click on and watch in your exhibit, first you need to upload the video to a website that will host the video, where the video will play when someone clicks on the thumbnail in your Exhibit. YouTube is the most common platform to use. Vimeo is another platform suitable for hosting video of original performances.
The Athenaeum website cannot host video files, so video files should not be uploaded to the Media area.
If you don’t have a YouTube channel or Vimeo account, please go to one of those websites and follow the instructions to establish a channel, and upload your video.
“Embed” the video in your exhibit using the url of the video.
The Athenaeum Tech Team has access to a YouTube channel where video can be hosted, for those exhibitors who want to show video but are unable to manage a channel.
Please feel free to add links to helpful resources in the comments on this post.
Video Tips
The video camera and the sound pickup on your smartphone is fine for shooting video of your project. You can start by checking out this video for some advice: How to Record Art Videos with Your Phone. Feel free to search for other advice videos or articles.
The camera and microphone on your laptop, a DLSR camera, video camera or GoPro on a tripod or a gorilla pod, is another way to record video. You may need to add a microphone. Here’s a video with some advice: How I film my videos. Feel free to search for other advice videos or articles.
Editing Your Video Footage
Look up how to transfer a video file from your phone or camera to your computer.
Perhaps you shot video of your project or performance that is exactly what you wanted, starts where you wanted it to, and ends neatly. (This might happen if you have a camera operator while you perform or demonstrate.) Most of the time, when we shoot video, segments need to be stitched together to show a logical progression, or some of the video of a process is great and there are parts that need to be omitted: walking into the frame after turning the camera on, the dog starts barking in the background, or there’s a lengthy bit of process that you want to shorten. You will likely need to edit video.
Video editing takes practice. If you have never used video editing software before, expect that you will have a learning curve. Shoot some practice video and start learning basic processes like clipping and rendering. Start now; exhibit publish date is approaching! Alternatively, reach out to a friend who has done video editing and ask for help.
Check for video editing software that came loaded on your computer: for Mac it’s iMovie, and some Windows computers come with a basic video editing program. Some other video editing software that you may see recommended in advice videos or articles and that are available for download are: Adobe Premiere ($$), DaVinci Resolve (free version and $$ version), and OpenShot (free). We cannot make a recommendation; everyone has different needs and computer specifications.
