Working on technical content means that you usually need to show real code. But other times, you need to show something that looks like code but isn't – faux code. These are super useful in explainer-style videos where you want to use placeholder code and not distract viewers with
You need to create tension to tell a good story, inspire someone to action, and get them to pay attention. And not just any old tension: generous tension. A concept I learned from one of my favorite (copy)writers, Margo Aaron. But what does that look like in practice and
Here are two video stats from the top 2 Pluralsight clips I posted on YT. They are different in length; one is 6 minutes the other is 3. Both are informational-style videos. Notice how one has a marked drop-off in viewing retention, whereas the other has a well-sustained viewing retention:
There's not an "ideal" video length, but there are guidelines. TechSmith (creators of Camtasia) found the preference by viewers falls into two primary buckets: 3-6 minutes and 10-19 minutes. When planning videos, I usually have "explainers" (informational) be less than 6 minutes long. "
I specifically included competitor comparison info when I made the Time Series feature explainer video for RavenDB. Why? Because that's exactly the info developers evaluating you are researching themselves. Your dev tool doesn't exist in a black box, so don't pretend it does. Know
I'm working on a showcase video for RavenDB this week, and part of my video creation process is creating a storyboard. It's nothing too fancy – just Google Slides with screencaps, rough diagrams, and placeholders for what the video will eventually contain. A storyboard is supposed to
