Hello everyone! This week's video of the week is "A User's Guide to Applying for Food Stamps (SNAP) Online," by Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ). A few neat things that I noticed about the video right off the bat were (a) that the video is also available in Spanish, and (b) that there's a "Donate" button embedded right into the video page. I hadn't seen that before, so that's a pretty cool feature to include on your YouTube channel or videos (you can find a "Donate" button and other goodies through the YouTube Nonprofit Program).

The video itself is pretty slick-looking. LSNJ used a green screen like the one that the Northwest Justice Project uses (pictured below) to create a field of "computer screens" with a person layered over top clicking and sliding them around. It looks like an Apple commercial, or maybe Cerebro. After that, it features a visually appealing description of the process of applying for SNAP using clip art-type animations. Finally, it walks the viewer through using a screening calculator with screenshots and screen captures. LSNJ used a lot of cool techniques and methods for keeping a viewer's interest while still being informative.

And they didn't use software that's out of reach for anyone else to use, either - just Camtasia Studio (around $300, I think) for screen captures and Adobe After Effects ($20 for a year) for editing. You can even find cheaper ways to record short clips of your screen with tools like CamStudio (free, but caps out at I think a 3-minute clip). The video was made entirely in-house. Once again, you don't need a lot of fancy equipment to create solid educational videos - just some creativity and patience. For more information, get in touch with LSNJ at MAnderson@lsnj.org.

For more on making your own videos, check out some how-to videos by LSNTAP on our Video Camera & Editing Tech playlist.

Great job, LSNJ!
Liz