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Project Animal Trivia

The purpose of videos in this project is to share intriguing facts about a specific species in short videos (less than 5min). The format enables the creation of a Short/Reel for each question. The facts are covering common interests about a species.

Last changed on 2024-12-14

Common Interest about a Species

About the Species

Humans and the Species

Science and the Species

Published Videos

Reaction to the first videos published indicates that the selection of facts and video quality should improve and that the presented facts and videos should align better. There is room to explore more complex topics with the selected facts.

There is a playlist which contains all "Animal Trivia" videos: Animal Trivia: Test Your Wildlife Knowledge

Workflow

Creating a 'Do you know the...' video starts with recording VO using DaVinci Resolve Fairlight. After recording, take advantage of DR's transcription feature to cut the voice recording into different questions and answers, labeling each with a different color. At this step, clean up the recording by removing repeated takes, shortening pauses, and so on. Lock the VO audio track (third audio track) to prevent accidentally deleting parts of it while editing the video.

Next, being aware of the approximate length of the video, I search the library for a continuous recording of the respective species with a similar duration. This will serve as the A-roll for the video and will be added to the timeline as Video Track 1. Then, I add the intro text to Video Track 2, along with reference text on the A-roll to indicate when and where it was recorded.

It's time to return to the VO audio track and fine-tune the spaces between questions and answers by inserting effects for 'yes' or 'no' (countdown/bell) and adjusting the spacing between the different questions. Effects are added to Video Track 2, and associated sounds to Audio Track 2. At the end, I lock the VO track again, as well as Video Tracks 1 and 2, and Audio Track 2. This ensures they remain intact while adding B-roll and optional background music.

Returning to the library, I look for B-roll clips that match the answers to each question. I trim these clips and add them (without sound) to Video Track 4. If the recorded sound associated with the A-roll isn't of good quality, I won't use it. Instead, I'll add background music from my own sound library to Audio Track 4.

With all video clips and sound bites arranged on the timeline, I start fine-tuning the video clips in DaVinci Resolve's Edit and Color pages. Since the result won't be a cinematic video, the editing and coloring are done quickly. Finally, I enhance the VO by adding dynamics and EQ, and adjust the mix of the different tracks in Fairlight. It's time for a break after delivering the first version for review on desktop, phone, and TV. After a day or two, some corrections may be necessary before the final delivery and publication on YouTube.

Shorts for each question are created in a new timeline. I duplicate the long format timeline and I play through the new timeline to ensure the question text is within the frame and that the main subject is always visible, adjusting with keyframes if necessary. Because the numbers of the countdown use a font format scaling with screen width, I have to resize them.

The Shorts are now exported by preparing different deliveries. I set the In and Out points for each Short and add the clip to the render queue. The filenames for each Short end with a number indicating the question/answer. Because there appears to be a DR Studio 19 Beta bug, I have to render each short separately and review immediately if sound has been rendered too. The 12 Shorts are now ready to be published.

Schedule

The goal is to publish a set of videos for a new species each week. Once a month though, creating a set of videos for a species which already has been produced previously taking advantage of new video feeds.