ABOUT

Concept:

This was a university assignment for a third year subject called Evolution & Development: make a 5-minute video presentation on an evo-devo subject. I picked the topic "The Origin of Viruses".

Execution:

The first stage was research, which took me a couple of weeks of reviewing existing scientific literature. The origin of viruses is anything but clear, so it was a big challenge. After I had an idea, or rather a collection of ideas, I wrote a script for the video and drew a rough storyboard for myself to follow.

While we were allowed to use something as simple as a PowerPoint presentation, I wanted to get creative and made myself some props in the form of little illustrations of viruses and other things. The concept of the video was talking about the subject while using these props dynamically to create drawings and charts. I recorded my voice with the script first, then used my phone and a tripod to record myself doing those things, using my storyboard as a guide. I then put the voice and video fragments together in Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, editing and speeding up certain parts as required. As a final touch, I found some free music online and added that to my video.

Result:

This was a very complex topic to research with a lot of conflicting information and different publications directly contradicting each other. Trying to make sense of this, systemise and explain it creatively in just 5 minutes really helped me refine my scientific research, analysis and communication skills. It was also my first experience using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, and I felt much more confident with video editing software after filming and editing this.

I was rewarded with a grade of 90, which is a very high first in the UK system.