SpaceGeek: Really Slick Astronomy Videos

When I started making my own astronomy videos, one of the first things I did was see who else was out there doing something similar. At the time, there weren’t all that many, now it seems, more people are starting to make multimedia presentations on astronomy topics.

I have an extensive background in planetarium show production and so it came naturally to me to want to try and make astronomy videos for the web, and so far, I’ve made two. One on the Hubble Deep Field, and another on the chances of finding life in the universe. Both of those videos can be seen on my YouTube Channel as well as some video blogs I’ve made.

Making these videos is pretty time consuming so I don’t get to put them out as often as I’d like. I have several in various stages of completion, I plan to start knocking them out now that the summer is approaching and my schedule lightens up a bit.

But enough about me (what do you think of me?), during the course of my search to see what was out there, I happened upon SpaceGeek.com, a site run by Dr. Jean-Marc Perelmuter, a Canadian astrophysicist who now makes very slick looking astronomy videos. He has also written a book, The Sinusoidal Spaghetti, which he markets pretty hard on his site.

My impression of his videos is that, while they are very well done and professional looking (clearly a lot of time goes into each one), they are trying too hard. It seems he doesn’t trust his audience to take a minute and digest his information, he’s kinda shoving at us too quickly (in my opinion).

More than most, I realize that presenting information about astronomy is a hard thing to do, particularly in less than five minutes, but what I do is just cut down the quantity of information I’m asking my audience to learn.

The music and the jumping from one idea to the next, reminds me of the Saturday morning Bill Nye The Science Guy Show, a format that I find quite annoying.

The flow of the videos just aren’t my cup of tea. I actually have an attention span, and these videos are clearly produced to appeal to people who don’t. They flash very quickly from one idea to the next, the narration is very rushed, and the music is very cutesy. I understand why he picked that format though, it is a tried and true way to present ideas to a general audience and maintain their attention for longer than 30 seconds.

Each video is less than 5 minutes and by keeping each little scene short and sweet, speaking fast, and incorporating fast-tempo music, they effectively get their ideas across to the masses. Unfortunately, that format annoys the hell out of me.

The thing is, it isn’t very emotional. I like to appeal to people’s emotions, to not only teach them something, but to also get them to think about what they’ve learned after they’ve seen it. The best way I know to do that, is to get into their hearts because when the emotions kick in, the video stays with them for long after they’ve seen it and the viewer will keep thinking about it.

If I can hook them emotionally, then I’ll have their attention no matter how long the video is, and what’s more, they’ll keep watching it over and over.

Luckily for me, astronomy is one scientific topic that has the ability to capture our hearts. Looking up at the stars is romantic, inspiring, humbling, frightening, and moving. All of these emotions, and many more, are accessible when teaching people about our place in the cosmos. I’d have a much harder time of it if I was, say, an Entomologist.

But that’s just my style, I wouldn’t expect that from others. In fact, it’s what makes my videos unique and not just another cutesy science show for the masses.

Even though they are not how I would do it (and I really don’t think we need another Bill Nye, one’s plenty), I still highly recommend you check out SpaceGeek’s videos. They are very professional, thoughtful, accurate, and entertaining. Be warned though, he is trying to sell his book so you’ll be getting LOTS of chances to purchase it. I haven’t yet, but I will, and will offer a review sometime in the future.

Here’s one of his videos about the expansion of the universe that I particularly liked:

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