More tips on using text and graphics in video
The following notes were shared with students of Communicating Economics – find out more about the course and free tools online here
Always remember the two key questions: What is your message? Who is your audience?
Sometimes the message is better said with a full screen of text – check out this brilliant advert by CocaCola (although their grasp of causality would see their marketing team fail a course on Communicating Economics!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKDOWAf5M8
Sometimes the message is best with just graphics. Check out this brilliant animated graphics video about Wealth Inequality in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Sometimes you can mix the two to good effect, as in this Econ Films production for the IFS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96RcNajNiVo
Next question to ask: Is the ‘thing’ that I am adding to the video going to help take my message to my audience? If your answer isn’t: ‘yes!’, then it might be better to leave it out.
Often, graphs have too much information for the point you want to make at the time you want to make it. Here are two examples of where Econ Films took a graph and showed just what was needed: https://f.io/uaD5LB06 and https://f.io/zecsoNon
Bob Denham
June 2020