Here is a list of things to do when you plan to create a good tutorial

1) Plan ahead

2) Think about the process you want to discuss.

3) Go through the process yourself and write down EVERYTHING you do, when you create the thing you are discussing.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they assume that you know some of the basics, (or forget to mention them because they do it automatically themselves without thinking).

Remember some of the people watching your tutorial may NEVER have attempted anything to do with brick filming before. So make sure your tutorial covers EVERYTHING they will need to know.

Obviously if you are creating a tutorial on an advanced technique, then you can't cover all the basics of things that go before it. But make sure you start by stating what they will need to have a good understanding of prior to attempting the procedure you are about to describe.

4) Write down exactly what you are going to say. Make sure it is concise and interesting/informative.

If you aren't appearing in the video yourself and plan to record a voice over to the images/video you are showing, then this is slightly easier as you can record the voice lines first and make sure that they are right.

You can read the lines out as you speak them, to make sure that you aren't saying erm and er every few seconds, but remember to not sound like a monotone robot when you are reading your lines.

Try and put some feeling into what you are saying. Imagine you are talking to your best friend, this will help you sound natural when you record your lines.

If you are appearing in the video yourself, so you are recording audio and visual at the same time, then practice the lines before hand try and memorize them. If you can't remember them all, then have a prompt sheet off camera that you can quickly glance at to remind you what you need to say. Again this will cut down on the erms and er's when you are recording your performance.

I watched a tutorial the other morning, it covered a great topic but the presenter was boring, monotone, it was like listening to someone who had their personality removed. Make sure your tutorials are interesting and fun. Try them out on a friend (or better still a few select friends) first to get their input and then re-edit as necessary.

5) Try and make it concise don't ramble on for hours, the best tutorials are the short ones that cover the topic well but don't kick the a*** out of it. People loose interest quickly.

6) Is your tutorial designed for everyone no matter what their equipment / software ?
If it is specific then make sure that people are aware of that.

If it is meant to be a generic subject for everyone no matter what set up they have then make sure that you have tried it yourself on different setups, to make sure that the procedures you are describing do work for everyone.

There have been some good tutorials recently, lets keep it going. The good thing is the more we do to help others, we also learn quite a lot ourselves. It is a win win situation.

Last edited by Si665 (January 13, 2009 (07:44am))