Video
Video can be visually engaging and intellectually rigorous. It can transform the communication and value of research.
In recent years, PublicSpace has demonstrated the value of video in research dissemination. Good video enables researchers to:
- engage directly with a wide audience (and a potentially global online audience) to communicate personally the research motivation and findings;
- communicate core concepts from the research, and also show visually the contexts of the research and its use, with visual detail and relevant examples;
- include the voices and complementary perspectives of researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, citizens and others to identify issues and priorities.
The role of video in research dissemination is to offer a visual and conceptual understanding that can inspire people to read more. Versions of a simple interview, or a full documentary, can be (i) streamed online, (ii) embedded within PowerPoint presentations for conferences, (iii) screened as an ‘installation’ for displays and events, and (iv) distributed to stakeholders and practitioners on DVD (with an accompanying document and more online) as a basis for discussion and/or a resource for professional development.
An example documentary
‘QSARs in REACH? Uses, issues and priorities’
- Introduction and Regulatory perspectives (8 mins)
- What makes a good QSAR
model? (9 mins)
- Click on the images to watch the videos
- Industry perspectives
(8 mins)
- Future directions and
list of contributors (4 mins)
- Careful analysis and informed expert editing of over 20 interviews means that this video communicates the key issues and perspectives effectively in minutes.
This 2011 documentary was produced by PublicSpace as part of the current EC-FP7 ORCHESTRA project, based on 20+ interviews with regulators, industry and developers. It is intended for industry and regulators concerned with chemical toxicity, though the concepts are explained to engage and inform non-specialists including industry shareholders, managers, NGOs and interested citizens. It was reviewed and approved by participants, including the European Chemicals Agency.
The video was ambitious in being designed to work in all four ways: we have used it as a looped installation in the SETAC Europe 2011 conference; it has been used by key organisations as a self-contained DVD; it is now publicly online in four parts; and we have used part 2 with conference PowerPoint presentations to include a range of expert voices.
Other example documentaries
In each documentary, we work hard to ensure that it is visually and intellectually engaging for the intended audience, as well as being authoritative and succinct. We try to show the relevant contexts and use the language of practice. This can be achieved in varied ways.
- ‘Literacies for Learning’ (2007) The visual and narrated opening for our first video, produced for the ESRC TLRP LfLFE project.
About the project…
- ‘Regeneration Games’ (2007)
Interviews with local people in the East End of London experiencing redevelopment.
About the video…
- Click on the images to watch the videos
- ‘Why teach?’ (2009) Interviews. An online version of the DVD ‘ideas everywhere’ produced for The Stirling Institute of Education, Universty of Stirling.
About the project…
- ‘ORCHESTRA News’ (2011)
Images, text and music to report the presentations, hands-on demonstrations and video installation at the SETAC Europe 2011 conference.
About the project…
The value of a good interview on video
PublicSpace has shown that a good interview with a key stakeholder, can have great value within a project. For example, after Simon Pardoe interviewed Professor Wim de Coen, Head of Evaluation 1 at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki for the ORCHESTRA project, we created a 20 minute version of the interview as a source of insight for project partners on current regulatory thinking (and his helpful advice for the project). We then created a looped 12-minute edit to screen on the main platform at the opening of the 2011 ORCHESTRA workshop for 100 regulators and industry representatives in Milan. That video is now on the ORCHESTRA website to be seen by a wider audience. We then used selections from the interview in the documentary above. (All three edits were reviewed and approved by Professor de Coen and ECHA.)
Conference and other presentations on video
- Click on the images to watch the videos
- ‘How to improve the safe use, explanation and acceptance of QSAR models within REACH’.
Presentation given by
Dr Emilio Benfenati
Istituto Mario Negri, Milan.
- ‘How can the cautious policy of acceptance ‘case-by-case’ become a mechanism of progress towards the rigorous and extensive use of QSARs within REACH?’
Presentation given by
Dr Simon Pardoe, PublicSpace.
Conference presentations can be moments of concise explanation and cross-institutional discussion, and are of value to others beyond the conference. Yet as too many examples online show, academic and policy presentatons can make extremely dull video.
We have therefore been determined to set a new standard for showing presentations on video. For example, with permission from the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), PublicSpace filmed the five platform presentations from partners in the ORCHESTRA project at the 2011 SETAC Europe conference, so that these could be viewed online as part of the dissemination. Five edited presentations are on the ORCHESTRA website; there are two examples above. (Dr Emilio Benefenati of the Istituto Mario Negri in Milan is the lead partner in the ORCHESTRA project.)
If you have a query, or would like us to help to disseminate your research using video, please contact us.
Lancaster UK