One of my friends, Rachel, recently offered to list Story Secrets from Scripture – my book on storytelling – in her catalog of ministry resources for parents. Rachel asked me to send her 1-2 minutes of me introducing the book, and she would edit my footage for the final video. After sending her the videos, I decided to make my own promo video.

Here is my completed promo video …

Initial Outline

Below is my outline for the video I sent to Rachel …

While I typed and printed these talking points, I actually decided to record without glasses so I memorized the script and recorded four short videos.

Adding Variety

ANIMATED KEYNOTE. Rather than just keeping video of me talking to the camera, I decided to add some variety. For the story, when my brother kicked a hole in the wall and blamed me, I created a simple, animated Keynote and used screen capture to record it as a video. Below are the scenes (slides) I created using backgrounds, a character, and a hole (transparent png).

I found images on the internet to build different scenes and used the ToonCamera app to give them an illustrated feel.

VIDEOSCRIBE. Towards the end of the video, where I discuss what readers will learn, I used VideoScribe Anywhere on my iPad to create a whiteboard video. The app is really designed to supplement a paid subscription to the desktop app, but it is possible to create short animations and capture them as videos using the iPad screen capture tool.

Editing

I had already consolidated the four short videos using the LumaFusion video editing app on my iPad for Rachel, and to this I added the scenes described above, a few captions, and a music track.

I also added an end graphic with a QR code and the cover of Story Secrets from Scripture.

Time Considerations

I enjoyed this process, but it did take some time. The initial video that I sent to Rachel took about and hour to record and edit. The additions of the story scenes and whiteboard animation probably took a couple of hours, with editing consuming another hour.

Is a ratio of approximately 1 minute of video to 4 hours of production worth it? Considering that there were no costs involved other than time, I will definitely be creating more videos like this.