After several weeks of recording, the complete Films from the Future is now freely available on YouTube!
You can watch/listen to all 114 videos on the Films from the Future YouTube channel. But by far the easiest way to listen is to browse the book chapters and sections over on the Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future page here.
I’ve had a few people ask why this isn’t a podcast, pointing out that it’s much harder to listen to content like this on YouTube.
Here’s an odd thing:
For the past few months, a 2014 Risk Bites video on nanoscale silver has been getting hundreds of views a day — up from 30 – 50 views per day pre-coronavirus. Yet between May 7 – May 9, views from YouTube searches dropped from over 200 per day to zero.
Has the video somehow been blacklisted by YouTube?
In a moment of insanity the other day, I decided to record myself reading Films from the Future aloud, and post the videos on my personal Youtube channel.
It’s a decision I may come to regret for many reasons. But heck, now I’ve started, I might as well persevere …
There was some method to my madness — I wanted to make Films as accessible as possible to people who are grappling with the isolation brought about by coronavirus. And in the absence of being able to give the book away, I set out to do the next best thing and post recordings of myself reading from the book on YouTube.
A few years ago, I developed and ran a couple of workshops for scientists on how to create simple but effective whiteboard-style videos, using little more than a smartphone, tripod and computer.
At the time, I produced a series of training modules to accompany the workshops. I’ve just posted these on this website as a resource for anyone who’s interested in creating effective science communication videos, and is looking for some guidance.
There are eight modules and an overview – it’s worth starting with the overview, but you can jump straight to the different modules here:
The training modules use the short video below as an example of what can be achieved on a budget.
(This is one of two example videos – the other uses a whiteboard to produce the visuals)
Please feel free to use, and pass along!