about 7 years ago
Four weeks left - begin planning your submission video
With less than four weeks left, we know you’re focused on preparing your Alexa skill for submission, but don't forget about your video. It's often the first thing that judges review.
A good video tells the story behind your submission, providing a clear and concise explanation of what your app is and does. Check out our recommendations below:
Establish your elevator pitch. In the first few seconds of your video, explain how your skill fits into one of the categories:
- Student Life - Such as finding student-friendly establishments, finding student jobs and internships, staying healthy, reducing stress, getting enough sleep, financial planning, and more.
- Learning - Such as study assistants, class scheduling, classroom experience improvements, interacting with teachers/ other students, mitigating procrastination, and more.
- Community - Such as connecting with other students, keeping in touch with friends and family, raising awareness on social issues affecting students, discovering campus events, activities, resources, and more.
You can get into the details of how it works later on in the video, but treat the opening seconds of your video as you would a movie trailer or TV ad: pique your audience’s interest.
Show, don't tell. Demonstrate your app’s functionality and features through screencasts. Explaining what it does and how it works helps judges understand and appreciate your product design.
Keep it simple. Per the official rules, your video shouldn't be more than five minutes long.
Don't wait until the last minute to upload your video. Due to file size, format, and your Internet connection, uploading a video to YouTube or Vimeo could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
Get organized. Write out a script of what you’ll say and demonstrate in your video, and rehearse it before recording.
Get even more video-making best practices and start working on your submission today!
Questions?
If you have any questions about the hackathon, please post on the discussion forum.