One of the biggest challenges I face as a higher ed video creator is how to bring historical research to life. Because this sort of research involves things that have happened in the past, it can be challenging to find a captivating visual way to explain the findings. Recently, I was recently asked to showcase the research of Elizabeth Schrader, a graduate student from Duke Divinity School. She discovered Mary Magdalene’s name had been altered by scribes in numerous copies of the Bible to downplay her prominence. I asked Elizabeth to meet me at Duke’s Rubenstein Library archives where she’d found an example of the change to Mary’s name in a 12th-century manuscript. I planned to capture a few slider shots of her looking at the manuscript. I thought the visual would make a nice compliment to my colleague’s article on her research.

When I met with Elizabeth, we struck up a casual conversation and she described in detail the exact thing she’d discovered. On two adjacent bible pages, she showed me Mary’s name, Martha’s name and a third name where Mary’s name was altered to Martha’s name. Seeing all three ancient Greek words while simultaneously hearing Elizabeth’s explanation brought her discovery to life before my eyes. I wanted to help the public understand her work. A simple slider shot would not do her research justice.

I scrapped my initial visual plan. Instead, I asked my colleague to photograph the two bible pages where the three examples occurred.

I recorded audio of Elizabeth explaining her findings. Then I found each name in the digital version of the same manuscript pages and cropped them out.

Using Premiere Pro, I matched the three names to the actual spot in the Bible photograph where they appear. I laid the voice track of Elizabeth’s explanation below the visual.      

I used Premiere Pro’s spotlight effect to highlight each name as Elizabeth described them in detail.

The final visual showcased Elizabeth’s research in a way that made her discovery easy to comprehend.

The experience reminded me to take the time to talk to researchers I work with and really understand their work, which will result in finding the best possible way to showcase it.

I was also flexible and open to shifting gears on the fly, which can be tough to do but was the right move in telling this story effectively.

Shortly after Duke’s Communications Office shared her story, Elizabeth sent me an email:

 “Julie your videos are AMAZING!!! I am so impressed with the work you’ve done! Those videos are simply spectacular. They are so easy to understand, and pretty too. It makes the article stand out so much! … This is incredible work – thank you thank you for this amazing contribution to helping make people aware of my research! I hope our paths cross again soon so I can thank you in person :)”