Secrets of Shooting Student Videos in Radiologic Technology

Video can be used as an excellent tool to enhance the educational experience of student radiographers in the clinical setting. The production of the video over the course of one or two days with a small group of students can emphasize important issues such as how to prevent patient falls. I have found that the process is a fun way to teach terminology, work on communication skills as well as to explore the subject at hand. The bond that’s created between the participants is unforgettable when everyone reveals the actor within all of us.

Before going further, I’d suggest waiting long enough into a semester to gain the students’ trust and to casually discuss ideas. Make the project voluntary, as there are some who bristle at thought of being on camera. Others will turn around and surprise you when they suddenly volunteer to be the “drunken patient”. With a little instruction, most people can operate the camera instead of being in the video clip. You’ll note that I haven’t talked about the final product yet—ultimately showing the video is only the icing on the cake. The process itself yields the highest rewards.

Here’s an outline of my approach after making five or six student videos.

1) Pick a topic, have discussions with students and take notes. Brainstorm. Think about what can be visually represented without much dialogue. Take notes. Make lists. 2) Do a little research (for example: medical conditions contributing to patient falls.) Check textbooks. Look things up on the internet. Make sure you’re covering all the important points. 3) Go back to the students and refine ideas. Make a storyboard. 4) Use the storyboard to organize video into short sections with subtitles. Apply some kind of overarching format—for example: “Do’s and Don’ts” of Infant Radiography. This will assist you in creating a list of shots/scenes. Don’t fuss with this step too much, but be prepared to revise it as needed. 5) Shot list—who, where and what will be in each scene. Include props needed (such as a doll to pose as the infant). Close-ups, facial expressions and reactions really enhance a clip. Often, these occur to you when framing a scene. Show your enthusiasm by being willing to be an actor too. 6) Shooting day—Go over the shot list with your students. Pick who’ll be in each scene. Talk about what will happen in each scene. 7) Limit or eliminate dialogue. With dialogue, all must speak up. Turn up lights. Be aware of background sounds. I’ve often used clips with no speaking and added music and captioning later. 8) Use a variety of camera angles. Stand on a step stool. Lay on the floor. Stay close to your subjects. 9) Don’t move the camera around much. Don’t zoom in and out. Just hold it steady. Sometimes, it’s better to use a tripod and have the actor enter the frame. 10) Shoot lots of clips. Don’t delete anything. 11) Go with the flow—give new ideas from each participant a chance, but be in charge and move on to the next clip ASAP. 12) Review your clips. Give it a day or a week to think about what else you’ll need. 13) Do a second shoot. Everyone should be dressed the same. Think about continuity--use the old clips as reference.

14) Video editing: Look at your clips—pick some songs, some instrumental pieces. I use mp3s. Don’t worry about copyrights—unless you plan on selling your videos. Start with creating title slides in your video editing software. Create your videos in short sections, two or three minutes in length. Save these little clips with their captions and titles. If the video clip is no good, try creating a moving slide show by pulling out several images and captioning where necessary. Colorize or use repetition for emphasis. Avoid too many special effects. Make captions easy to read—no fancy fonts. Always save your individual clips first without music. Then add music. Save again.

Finally, put your clips in order and save the whole file. Your computer will be less likely to crash this way… and you can easily go back and revise a clip or change the music if you’ve saved a non-music version. Close any other programs while doing video edits and allow a full day for it. Show it to someone else to check for errors before burning a DVD. Or just keep it on a flash drive. If you’re going to show it on a computer, be aware that not all computers have the software to play all formats of videos. It pays to experiment. My Canon Powershot camera uses the AVI format which has worked well for me with Windows Media Player.

What follows are just parts one and two of our seven part Patient Identification and History Video, entitled, "Who? What? Why?" As you'll see, it's packed with useful information.