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Video Capabilities at Innovative Media Research and Extension

  • Writer: Jeffrey Buras, Tomilee Turner & Arturo Ruiloba
    Jeffrey Buras, Tomilee Turner & Arturo Ruiloba
  • Jul 21
  • 3 min read

The Department of Innovative Media Research and Extension provides two types of video services that are closely related. One service is designed to produce in-depth educational and promotional videos that usually range from 2 to 5 minutes, sometimes longer. Our other very popular service is for educational and promotional social media campaigns containing video posts or stories that are 1 minute or less. These video services can be synergistic. Often, we can take a long-form educational video and promote that subject matter by creating shorter social media videos. Our primary goal – and specialty – is always to distribute your research-based information in a format and a location (phone, computer monitor, TV,  projection screen) that will best reach your audience. 


How to Decide Which Format to Use

Extension educators know their audience best. When we design and produce our products we start by considering the primary audience. Who are they? What do they need to know (your message)? How will they receive that information (in person, online – a website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)? Knowing the audience – and how they get their information – informs every decision in creating the video, such as our design style, the length of video, the shape of the video (square, vertical, horizontal), how much text is in the video, who should be featured, and much more. 


It’s crucial to capture/record the footage in an orientation that will give us the most options when we deliver the product. We strive to always fill the screen of the viewer. On a phone, that most likely means vertical or portrait orientation. But once we film the video holding the phone in a vertical format, we cannot go back and change that format to horizontal without losing some of the picture. When we film horizontal or landscape orientation for computer screens, we have to crop the picture if we want to distribute using a vertical format. An extra challenge for us is to think ahead to future uses for the footage. Agriculture has seasonal cycles: sometimes we can only film an event once or once a year. Should we shoot it horizontally or vertically? Right now, we try to do what’s most appropriate for the current project. As always, we aim to use resources wisely, and may adjust our strategy as needs shift.


May be a graphic of video formats for social media.
Vertical and horizontal video formats.

Here is a general guide to our most popular video formats, along with some examples:


Mini-Video 

Mini-videos are vertical, <2 minutes, off-the-cuff videos that get directly to the point.


Examples

How-To Demo (How does one perform a particular task?)

  • How To Track Cattle Remotely With a LoRaWAN Antennae

  • How To Set up a Lamb in a Livestock Show


FYI (What is just good to know?)


Event Recap (Where are we and what’s going on?)


Educational product promo

  • Praise for Night of the Living Debt


Comprehensive Video 

Comprehensive videos are typically horizontal, 2+ minutes, include an introduction and context, and may be scripted before footage is captured.


Program Overview (What are the program goals and benefits?)


Research overview (What's being studied and how?)


How-To Instruction (How do you go about doing a thing?)

  • How to Make Prickly Pear Cactus Juice


Useful Information ("Big Idea" takeaways from research)


Event Promotion (What's happening when?)

  • NMSU College of ACES Open House


Personal Profile (What's special about this individual?)

  • Jeanne Gleason, EdD


Impact Stories (How has this work made a difference?)

Well Water Monitoring Example



Written by: Jeffrey Buras, Social Media Specialist; Amy Smith Muise, Instructional Designer, Tomilee Turner, Instructional Designer, Video; Arturo Ruiloba, Media Specialist, Department of Innovative Media Research and Extension

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 Innovative Media, Box 30003, MSC 3AI, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003

Phone Number: (575)  646 - 1866

mmedia@nmsu.edu

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