Educational Video

You may recognise yourself in one of these:

An educational video is built to teach something, not just to raise awareness. It isn’t judged by whether people watched. It’s judged by whether they understood, and whether they could act on it later.

That changes how it’s made. The learning objective is agreed before the script, and your subject experts check the detail before anything is filmed or animated. Most combine filmed storytelling with animation, so the human story and the thing no camera can reach sit in the same piece.

Where a flagship narrative makes people care, an educational video makes sure they understand.

For the University of Glasgow’s Living Lab, that meant a narrative built around a fictional student’s experience of codeine side effects, explaining genetic variation and drug metabolism to Higher Biology classes. It’s now approved for classroom use across Scotland.

Most content has a launch window. A campaign film does its work in weeks, then gives way to the next one.

An educational video works the other way. A classroom resource is taught year after year. A public health video sits wherever people look for what to do. Patient information stays on the page someone reads the night before an appointment.

That’s why we build it to last. Accuracy is checked before production, not after. Subtitles and other languages are planned from the start, because adding them later costs more. And the structure is kept modular where it can be, so a section can be updated or re-versioned without remaking the whole video.

That last one is where the savings add up over time.

Every educational video engagement delivers a complete package:

• The primary video. Built around an agreed learning objective, finished to broadcast standard.
• Short-form edits. Shorter versions for social, lessons, waiting rooms or events.
• The approval trail. Script, and animatic where animation is used, signed off by your subject experts before production.
• Accessibility as standard. Subtitled masters included in every delivery.
• Formats for the places it needs to work. Classroom, web, social, events and internal use.

Optional extras include supporting materials developed with your team, such as teaching notes, voiceover and subtitles in other languages, regional accent versions, presenter casting and studio production.

Final deliverables are confirmed once scope and learning objectives are locked.

Investment depends on how much of your material needs developing into audiovisual form, and how much of it then needs to be filmed or animated. Within each range, the biggest factors is the development time required, number of shoot days, locations and contributors, presenters or professional talent, how much bespoke illustration is needed, the number of languages, accents and versions, supporting materials, and how many reviewers need to sign off.

A note on how the range works:

Each tier is a range because the balance of filming and animation, the number of contributors and the number of versions aren’t fully known until the script is locked. We agree the range up front for delivery flexibility, and confirm the final figure once scope is locked. You’ll never receive an invoice above the range you approved.

Worth adding while we are here:

Most of the cost in any production is getting the right people, kit and access into one place. Once that is done, capturing more costs considerably less than commissioning it separately. When added to a production, these typically cost 30 to 50 per cent less than commissioning them separately.

Most educational videos run twelve to sixteen weeks from signed engagement to final delivery. Two things move it most: how developed your teaching materials are at the start, and how many experts need to review. Where a video has to fit a curriculum or a CPD programme, we agree a longer review window up front.

Working to a new term, a launch or an awareness day? Say so on the call. We plan backwards from your date and tell you honestly whether it is achievable before you commit anything.

Every educational video starts with what your audience needs to learn, not with a camera. We work out who it’s for, what they should understand or be able to do afterwards, and how developed your teaching materials already are. Then we turn that into something people can watch.

One: Discovery & Development

We agree the audience and the learning objectives, and work through any existing teaching materials, lesson plans or CPD frameworks the film needs to fit. From there we write the script, then the audiovisual script, which sets out what people will see and hear, line by line. Where the visuals need agreeing before anything is built, we storyboard them. Your experts feed into every draft.

Two: Pre-production

We organise everything the script needs: the experts and contributors, interviews and pieces to camera, presenters, locations and access, with consent and safeguarding agreed for everyone taking part. Where the video uses animation, the style, styleframes and animatic are developed and signed off here.

Three: Production & Animation

We capture it: interviews, pieces to camera, presenter scenes and supporting footage, on location or in our Glasgow studio. Where the video uses animation, it’s produced in this stage too, built from the approved storyboard and animatic.

Four: Post-production

The edit brings it all together. Animation, graphics and on-screen text are integrated, then sound, grade, subtitles and any language versions. BSL can also be added here once we have a version lock which can be delivered remotely or in our studio.

Five: Review, Approval & Delivery

Structured rounds through our online review system, a named approver and delivery by secure download, as with every format. The difference is time. Depending on the volume and detail, review can take longer, especially where several experts need to feed in or the video has to fit a curriculum or a CPD programme. We agree the review window at the start, so it’s planned in rather than discovered late.

Most teaching material is written to be read. A video has to work when it’s seen once, at the speed it’s spoken, alongside whatever is on screen. That’s why there are three steps before anything is filmed. The script settles what needs to be taught. The audiovisual script settles how, pairing every line with what the audience sees. The storyboard, where it’s needed, settles the visuals before anyone builds them.

Each step is cheaper to change than the one after it. A correction in the script takes minutes. The same correction after filming means a reshoot, and after animation it means rebuilding a scene. That’s why we ask for your subject experts at script stage, not at first edit.

Video for schools, patients, visitors and the public, across science, health, education and social impact.

For an educational project to land properly, a few things need to be true on your side:

• A single point of contact with authority to approve and consolidate feedback.
• A named subject matter expert, available at script stage rather than first edit.
• A sense check from the people who’ll use it, such as a teacher, facilitator or clinician, before the script is locked.
• Your existing teaching materials, lesson plans or CPD frameworks, however developed they are.
• Brand guidelines and existing assets.
• Realistic review windows, particularly where clinical, academic, curriculum or CPD sign off is involved.

Subject matter input is cheapest at script stage. Problems found there take a conversation to fix. Found later, they take a reshoot or a rebuild.