Turning Science into a Movie

Mario Martinoli
Publisher
youris.com
Bad practices … ?

 Key messages…?

 Scope of the video…?

 Audience of the video…?

 Technical realisation…?

 How can I use it…?

Did you know that…

 … the EC currently funds more than 3000

research projects?

 … part of this research is at the top of world

discoveries and innovation?

 … this way of making movies is widely the

most popular among RTD projects?
 Find a story to tell!

Witnesses of science and technology are

the best way to make science
communication successful
Find the right audience!
(… and talk to your editor first …)

 General Public
 Stakeholders
 Industry
 Scientists and Researchers
 Policy makers
 Kids
 …
Find the right angle!

 Social
 Technological
 Scientific
 Political
 Apocalyptic
 Military
 Esoteric
 …
Find the right professionals!

 Directors
 Journalists
 Script writers
 Cameramen
 “Cartoonists”
 Editing people
 Musicians
 …
Find the right tools!

 TV stations
 Websites
 Youtube
 Facebook
 Twitter
 DVD
 …
The SMARTHAND
“This paper presents progress towards the development of an
anthropomorphic 16 degree of freedom, 4 degree of mobility
prosthetic hand for use by transradial amputees, named
SmartHand. The hand is provided with 40 proprioceptive and
exteroceptive sensors in the fingers and with a customized
control architecture embedded in the palm. The compact size
and weight will allow its use to a wide range of amputees in the
near future. This paper shows the design and development of
the mechanical structure, control architecture, communication
protocol developed to deal with the hand, and briefly presents
the sensor set embedded in the fingers. Joint sensors plots
while a finger was closing at full speed demonstrate hand
functionalities in terms of sensory, control and actuation
systems. Finally a non-invasive user-prosthesis interface that
could be directly connected to the SmartHand for shared control
experiments is briefly presented.”
Make it sustainable!

 Always know what you want to say to the people you

want to reach

 Measure your expected impact and return in terms of

audience

 Costs and efforts for film making must be

proportioned to scope and coverage

 Be a teamworker
 Making movies on science

 A complex communication process involving several competences and

several people.

 Good audiovisual communication requires:

 Careful planning and set-up of realistic objectives
 A scientific knowledge background
 Technical ability to realise a film
 A rich distribution and monitoring network
 A “web2.0 mind”

 It’s not about taking some shots with a camera…

 Cannot be made by scientists (and PR people…)

?
Broadcast Media - 1
 Media refuse corporate stuff

 Media refuse packaged institutional films

 Media need trustworth sources

 Media require independent sources

 Media wish to build their on stories on valuable

resources
Broadcast Media - 2

 Focus on news

 Focus on content, not on RTD actors

 Focus on stories

 (… keep all logos in the background… )

 Editorial balance is a fundamental issue for entering

the media
Broadcast Media - 3
 Short teasers (up to 3 minutes) for web usage

 Extended footage (up to 12 minutes) for free editing

 No voiceover, just suggested commentaries and good

dopesheets

 No music

 Supporting stories and articles for web usage

Our Best Practice
 youris.com
 A TV production and distribution platform for the EU research

 Targets the general public throgh TV broadcast media

 100+ videos released from 2003 until now

 Short News on research results and innovation

 More than 350 tracked broadcasts on national TV stations in 70 countries in

the last 5 years

 Regularly broadcasts on Euronews, BBC, SkyNews, etc.

 Exploits convergence of media (TV and the web)

The SMARTHAND
“This paper presents progress towards the development of an
anthropomorphic 16 degree of freedom, 4 degree of mobility
prosthetic hand for use by transradial amputees, named
SmartHand. The hand is provided with 40 proprioceptive and
exteroceptive sensors in the fingers and with a customized
control architecture embedded in the palm. The compact size
and weight will allow its use to a wide range of amputees in the
near future. This paper shows the design and development of
the mechanical structure, control architecture, communication
protocol developed to deal with the hand, and briefly presents
the sensor set embedded in the fingers. Joint sensors plots
while a finger was closing at full speed demonstrate hand
functionalities in terms of sensory, control and actuation
systems. Finally a non-invasive user-prosthesis interface that
could be directly connected to the SmartHand for shared control
experiments is briefly presented.”
?
Interested in working with youris.com?

 We recruit journalists (up to 5) on a remote

and part-time basis for writing articles on our
website.

 Test: take any existing article on youris.com

and re-write it by changing focus, angle,
scope and audience.

 Send it to me (publisher@youris.com) by 31
March 2010.
Contact

Mario Martinoli
Publisher
youris.com
Via Dogana 3
I-20123 Milan
publisher@youris.com
www.youris.com