The Craft of Scientific Films: How to Make Videos of Your Laboratory, Research, or Technical Projects

This book, the first of its kind, helps scientists and engineers of all stages and disciplines share their work in a new way—with movies. Today, much of scientific communication is embedded in papers and presentations, but these documents don’t often extend outside of a specific academic field. By adding movies as a medium of communication, scientists and engineers can better communicate with their colleagues while also increasing their reach to students, professors, peers, potential collaborators, and the public. Scientific films help translate complex technical topics into more accessible and consumable messages. By following Lauren Murphy’s filmmaking formula – planning, shooting, and editing – readers will create their very own scientific films that look professional and polished. Using tools as simple as a smartphone, readers can develop short, personal stories with no cost or experience needed. This book will guide readers through all steps of the movie making process to a finished product. Readers will evolve their creative thinking skills and use their movies to improve classroom presentations, network across student organizations, present at conferences, recruit students for their labs, secure grant money, and more. Adding a movie to your body of work can be the tool that sparks interest in audiences to learn more—driving traffic to your publications, research projects, and websites. This book will help you develop new skills to become a better communicator while spreading your ideas and research to new audiences.