Video:
First of all note that on page 81 of the syllabus, it states that the the length of the video is to be 2-7 minutes.
And remember that the main purpose of the video is to demonstrate:
A. your program works, to one degree or another
B. it works as completely as described in your evaluation
C. it is nicely extensible
Quicktime Player is the easiest application to use for recording your video; just go File, New Screen Recording, and change the settings so that you are using a microphone.
But then, you'll want/need to convert it from an .mov file to an .mp4 file so that it's not too ginourmous. Quicktime does not do this by itself. You could do so in a few steps via iMovie, or download a one-step converter, like "Adapter". But one way or another, since we are uploading these via the internet, and there are size limits, you need to get your .mov, or .mp4 file to be at least under 100 MB.
The Video's Introduction
- Introduce yourself by way of your IB number (but not your name, as per IB rules and regulations) and your program
- you can refer to your program as i-Pond, etc. 1.0, 1.1 etc.
- briefly mention the name and role of your client
- and what you program is intended to do for them
BUT all of this introduction should be no more than 30 seconds or so.
The Main Thing - show your program in operation
- Demonstrate that your program works by running it, inputting data etc, saving, opening, searching and so on
(As with Elsa's good example, you may want to do this in two stages: first talk about what should happen on each pane with each button etc., and then actually run though it; this way the viewer is given an overview first, and will know what to expect as you do the real run-through.)
BUT if you do it this way, the first "talk-through" should be brief and general; way briefer than the actual run through.
- Make sure to include at least a few examples of your error handling, but not everything because that would take too much time and be repetitive.
Things like JOptionPane pop-ups, you can just trigger with the appropriate error, and other try/catch situations, you could show in the code itself.
- And make sure to plug in more than one record during your demonstration, i.e. more than one entry to your database if that's what you are showing. It may seem like it's taking too long to enter multiple records, but you have to do this to A. show that your program does work for more than one record, and, simply, B. to give the viewer a good enough idea of how it works. If this takes you from a 4 minute video to a 7 minute video (the upper time limit) so be it.
Code & demonstrating extensibility
The grader will look at your source code you'll send to the IB to help ascertain extensibility. But since part of Criterion D is extensibility, it's a good idea to at least briefly show some code during the video; maybe just scrolling up and down through a class or two.
In doing so, you can point out and show your good class sturcture, your good variable names, and your comments etc. (refer back to the Mr Rayworth instructions page.) You may also want to show off some code that you are particulary proud of as you do so. But any time "behind the scenes" in Netbeans should be mainly talking about things like your class structure, naming conventions, and comments.
And anyway, remember that this is not the main purpose of the video, and spend most of your time showing how it works.
Miscellaneous
One other minor point, but one which can make a difference is if you are going to be clicking a lot during your video, a lot of track-pad clicks can end up sounding annoying. So it may be better to have "tap" enabled for your track pad, which is a lot less noisy - though I think this problem is solved with the 2018 Macbook Airs. And be careful of fan noise too, so cool it down first before recording if this may be an issue.
Personally, I kinda like seeing the application run from Netbeans, and having Netbeans, with all its techy glamor and messiness in the background of the video while you operate your application. But it's up to you how you frame it.
Note that it is a rare video that is done well in one take. So first of all, you should anticipate doing more than one take, and don't get frustrated when doing the second, third, or whatever take it takes. It's 2 - 7 minutes each take, but the effect of a well done video is certainly worth half an hour or more.
And note that the video is the one thing that I'm OK with you re-doing after your final glitches have been solved, shortly before we bundle everything and send it off. So the video that you do as part of your school grade does not have to necessarily be the one you send, since I allow you to keep on working on your program long after you have submitted the final A - E documents.
One More Note on Videography
Though the main goal of the video is to show a working program, you are free to do so in a quality way. So if you have good video editing skills, go ahead and apply them - but to a limit! So, for example, maybe a nice title, or nice transitions etc.
And a little originality would be ok. Here is an example of going a bit too far with this (and note that this is a non-working program also at this point.)