What Next?
Thanks go out to the V4C (Video for Change) network for inspiring this guide. We hope we have written the guide that we wished we had when we were learning to make videos ourselves.
We are aware that there are areas that could well be expanded. If you would like to contribute to the next update of this manual. Then please join the FLOSS Manuals community mailing list and introduce yourself. 1
Using this guide a course curriculum
If you are interested in teaching video editing as a curriculum we hope that this guide can be a valuable resource to help that happen. We have some tips that we hope may help you.
Each chapter can be a lesson: As you teach the contents of this guide you can use each chapter as a basis for a lesson plan. We aim to explain the concepts and terminology at the beginning of the chapter.
You can use the contents as a base for a short 60-90 minute workshop. 10-20 minutes should be enough to explain the ideas and demo the task. In the remaining time students work through the hands on task and the students who finish first can extend their learning by experimenting. The chapter can be printed as a hand out to support learning.
Preparing your materials: While it is tempting to work with real footage that has just been shot by the students, this can create a lot of complications. Why not teach first with clips and stills that are pre-prepared to allow students to concentrate on learning the techniques.
Due to time constraints on this first edition of the guide we have not created video materials and sample project files which you can download and use for the Hands On parts of the guide. If you are teaching, prepare materials which are suitable to demonstrate the different techniques and to save time troubleshooting. Perhaps you could share these with FLOSS manuals to help other teachers too.
Preparing your equipment: Teaching with Free Software involves a certain amount of troubleshooting. It is a idea to invest some time getting a working set up of your software. It is possible to get a working version of linux install ready with the software you need to copy on to lots of computers at once in, say, a learning centre or on some borrowed laptops for a one-off conference.
Transferring your skills to other video editing software
We hope that the sections on Transferring your skills will help you to map the knowledge learned onto other video editing software. We are aware that it is not always suitable to be install a Linux-based system on the computers you use especially if you are working with partner organisations that are using the computer you are working on for other things.
Taking your learning on video making further
There are other open guides that we would would like to let you know about that may be useful to you or to your students in deepening your knowledge about video making and using video as a tool for change.
Recent guides of V4C
There are other guides online from the network. The recent guides are on Secure My Video and Video Making on Android Devices.
Witness video-making guides
Witness have produces a series of guides and videos covering many areas of using video for change and evidence recording. These include the Video For Change book2, the chapters of which are available as a free downloads on the Witness website, and the Video Advocacy Toolkit which is an online learning resources with 32 videos and lots of supporting documents. 3
All of these resources are available on the How To page of Witness - http://www.witness.org/how-to
Insight Share - Participatory Video & rights-based approaches
Insight share have fantastic guides on participatory video making. Their original guide is called the Participatory Video Handbook.4 They have also published a follow up called A Rights-Based Approach to Participatory Video.5 The guides give a complete look at both the theory of change and practical examples of PV exercises. Both guides are available for download on their website.
Tactical Tech - Tactics for Information Activism
Tactical Tech have several guides on Information Activism and using technology for advocacy, of which the use of video is an important aspect. The guides are visually striking and can be used as a great source of information and inspiration.6