This morning I was looking for some short videos about the history of Labor Day. In doing so I came across The History of Labor Day as produced by TAPintoTV. The content of the video was accurate and it provided a nice summary of origins of Labor Day. That’s not what made me bookmark it. What made me stop and bookmark it was that it provides a good model to follow in formatting an audio slideshow video like those you can make with Adobe Spark. 

When you watch The History of Labor Day video (embedded below) you’ll see that it uses regular transitions every few seconds. You’ll also notice that some short video clips have been interspersed throughout the video. Finally, the video includes background music to go along with the narration. 

Frequent Transitions
Students have a tendency to narrate over the same image for too long when creating audio slideshow videos. When the narration goes for too long the audience tunes out. To keep the audience’s attention students should try to have a new image or at least a transition effect (zoom in, zoom out, pan) every few seconds.

Video Clips

Including a couple of short video clips within the audio slideshow is a good way to keep the overall video moving along. Obviously, it’s also helpful in illustrating a point within the video project.

Background Music

Including some background music helps to keep the video feel like it’s moving along. And it’s helpful in covering up some of the “uhs” and “ums” that students sometimes make when narrating a video.

Adobe Spark Makes This Easy

Adobe Spark makes it easy to incorporate all three of the above aspects of an audio slideshow video project. Adobe Spark limits the amount of narration that students can record on each slide within their videos. Adobe Spark also includes a library of background muic that students can have inserted into their videos. Finally, students can upload short audio clips to include in their audio slideshow video projects. In this short video I demonstrate how to create a video with Adobe Spark.