I should've guessed the painful price of my bitching about boring developer vanity videos yesterday: People sent me even more of them. The most promising clip shows Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak teaching Segway Polo. It's also an inadvertent lesson in what to do and not to do with a how-to video.
DO
- Replace boring, blurry whiteboard with a Segway and polo mallet.
- Replace little-known "geek rock star" with actual geek rock star.
- Make Woz look talller than he really is.
DON'T
- Focus on some guy talking forever. More polo, dammit! Use a voiceover on some action footage.
- Film speakers as if they're lecturing. Extreme close-up — yes, even on Woz — works better.
- If I want to share this video, I have to sign up at the site first? No wonder it's only been viewed 193 times.
In theory it's great that everyone can now shoot videos and post them for the world. In practice, I've developed a newfound respect for NBC.
