Educational Videos
Videos are being used for education more and more. In the age of remote learning and people’s phones being able to shoot and view high-definition visual content, sites like Khan Academy and PBS Kids are household names for school-age educational videos, and YouTube, Curiosity Stream, and Nebula keep adults both entertained and educated with video. Sal Khan, who started out producing educational videos for his cousins in 2004, explains how his now 48 million students “enjoy his videos like his cousins can.. they can pause [the video], repeat, [learn] at their own pace…”
Even some creators themselves become items of pop culture, such as Veritaseum and Vsauce for science videos, Blippi for childhood entertainment, Hank and John Green for psychology and literature, and Atlas Pro and Wendover Productions for geography and logistics. Some of these creators have developed an extensive ‘persona’ around their content, while others, often those whose main audience is adults, have more of a straight and simple approach that may include dry humor, but less outlandish action. More senior readers of my site may also have fond memories of Mythbusters, Bill Nye, Sesame Street, and Fred Rogers, to name a few.
If you run a company or a school with any kind of lessons, training, and certifications for staff and/or students, then Yellow Spiral Media is in the business of helping make these lessons into a curriculum. I am a professionally certified teacher, and have 5 years of experience in education in addition to my video production experience. I have a passion for creating curricula around themes, organizing knowledge into either bite-sized chunks or meal-sized servings as appropriate, and delivering this content to audiences. To see an example of the process of creating such a series, I made this explainer below.
When you decide you need a video or video series about a curriculum or collection of ideas around a theme, send us a message using the Contact button below. We will begin with a free 15-minute consultation, in which you will lay out your goals, objectives, audience, and reasons you would like to create educational or training videos. Using this information, I will create an estimated quote for you.
After the consultation, I will write up a proposal. When you’re ready to begin working with me, you and I will begin writing an educational script. We will collaborate on the script via Google Docs. When the script is approved, we can move into the production phase.
Educational videos tend to have easier production processes than brand stories. This is relevant here, because they can often be done by the education producer themselves and do not usually require a trained crew or any specialized equipment. For this reason, the production can have a lower budget and more of the budget can go into preproduction and postproduction. For educational videos, this phase of the process may consist of me advising you on what equipment you may need, or on designing your setup.
In postproduction, I will edit your shots into the educational narrative that supports your mission. I will use continuity editing, sound mixing, and color grading, as well as titles, effects, and stock footage so that your video looks and sounds professional, while remaining both educational and entertaining, creating good audience retention. Towards the end of this phase, we will discuss your music needs. If you have a particular musical composition in mind, communicate this with me at the beginning of the postproduction phase.
I will produce a rough cut and a final cut as part of the standard package of deliverables. If you would like more versions of edits, be sure to discuss this with me around the time we begin postproduction, so I can optimize my workflow and your consultation time around the number of edit versions you require.
Pricing starts at $750 for local clients – for this price, you will receive a curriculum, script, and up to 3 minutes of edited video. For longer videos and more complex curricula, we will need to do an expanded costing depending on your requirements. Additional rates will depend on the level of service you require in these three different phases, and on the amounts of consultation you would like, and on the number of edits you would like. During our workflow, I will continue to update our itemized quote as appropriate.