The Stubborn Old Gardeners Format

The subject matter is always gardening instruction. Not promoting plant sale, not recruiting master gardeners, and not describing CAMGA activities. Horticultural how-to instruction. Always.
Always a custom thumbnail with MG’s face and some green and growing plant or bloom
Unless absolutely no option, all scenes are outside. Exception only when the subject matter demands it, as in a video about house plants
Talent always wears red apron (we have a supply of these)
Single talent always wears lavalier microphone wired to Zoom H2n recorder
If more than one speaker in a scene, fashion H2n into a “boom” microphone or hand-held mike. Boom mike held just outside the frame; hand-held is on camera and visible to audience.
Unless the circumstances demand it, master gardeners do not wear any hat or headgear
All videos have English captions. We actively encourage and fully cooperate with those willing to add foreign language captions.

Fast fade up from black to talent, looking at camera. Talent delivers initial thesis statement of 10 seconds or less
Stubborn Old Gardeners intro with title of this video over picture of talent working again and looking down

Target length of video is three minutes or less, never to exceed four
First shot of Master Gardener after video title should include 4-second left-justified super of the master gardener’s name on the first line and the word “Master Gardener” on the second line, as in “Cheri Bedford | Master Gardener.” No other title (that is, no Advanced Master Gardener, no President of CAMGA – just “Master Gardener”)
Generous use of close-up shots to illustrate technique or discovery
Stubborn Old Gardeners videos don’t use music. We did this at first but later realized it contributed nothing to our teaching function
Avoid on-camera zoom at all times. Pan, tilt, and move camera when necessary and seamless to follow action
No more than 30 seconds of outside talent. Stubborn Old Gardeners embraces Master Gardeners as authoritative
It’s fine to use more than one master gardener in the same video, and it’s fine to have interchange between them. Just make sure it’s natural and doesn’t seem too scripted

Stubborn Old Gardeners close with super slide and tagline. Final tagline changes with each video.
Fade to Black