Why video matters#
Video is your most powerful storytelling tool. FRC teams use it for social reels, sponsor thank-you videos, season recaps, the optional FIRST Impact Award video, and the separate Digital Animation Award. A great two-minute video can communicate your season better than a ten-page essay.
Types of FRC video#
- Match footage - mount a camera high and steady for full-field captures; The Blue Alliance archives match videos you can also pull from.
- Build season vlogs / reels - short, vertical (9:16) clips for Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
- Robot reveal video - the hype clip you drop right before competition showing your finished robot.
- Season recap / Impact video - a polished narrative of your outreach and team story.
- Animation - the Digital Animation Award (for the 2026 FIRST AGE season, sponsored by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, WPI) asks teams to tell a story about technology's impact on society. The 2026 theme is "The Artifact That Changed Everything," inviting teams to pick one invention or material and animate how future generations might view it. Entries are uploaded to YouTube (or a similar service) and submitted via the official entry form, not the FIRST Dashboard. A related Safety Animation Award (sponsored by UL Solutions) runs alongside it - check the current WPI/FIRST pages for length limits and deadlines, which change year to year.
Shooting fundamentals#
- Stabilize: use a tripod, gimbal, or at least brace against something. Shaky footage looks unprofessional.
- Frame rate: shoot 24-30 fps for normal motion; 60 fps or higher when you want smooth slow-motion of the robot.
- Capture B-roll: lots of short detail clips (hands wiring, a wheel spinning, sparks of a saw) make editing easy.
- Audio: capture interviews with an external or lapel mic; gym ambient noise destroys phone audio.
- Get releases: make sure you have media consent for students who appear, especially minors, per your team and school policy.
Editing#
Free and standard tools:
- DaVinci Resolve - powerful, free, with excellent color grading.
- CapCut - fast, mobile-friendly, ideal for vertical social clips.
- Adobe Premiere Pro - the industry standard (Adobe offers education pricing).
Editing workflow:
- Build a rough cut to your story or music beat.
- Tighten - cut anything that drags; social clips should hook in the first 2 seconds.
- Add lower-thirds, captions (most viewers watch muted), and your logo.
- Color correct so footage matches; warm up that gym lighting.
- Use licensed or royalty-free music (YouTube Audio Library, Epidemic Sound) to avoid copyright strikes.
Exporting and posting#
- Export 1080p (or 4K) MP4 (H.264).
- Export platform-specific aspect ratios: 16:9 for YouTube, 9:16 for Reels/Shorts/TikTok, 1:1 or 4:5 for the Instagram feed.
- Keep a master high-quality file archived for reuse next year.
the part worth keeping
Key takeaways
- Stabilize footage, shoot plenty of B-roll, and capture clean audio with an external mic for interviews
- Use free tools like DaVinci Resolve or CapCut and always use royalty-free music to avoid copyright strikes
- Tailor exports per platform (16:9, 9:16, 1:1) and consider the optional Impact Award video and the WPI-sponsored Digital Animation Award
Media, Branding & OutreachContent Creation: Photo, Video & Graphic Designlesson 2 of 3
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where this came from
Sources and corrections
This lesson is AI-assisted: drafted from primary sources, then reviewed and edited by hand. Errors still get through. When one is reported we fix it and write down what changed, in public, in the corrections log.
sources and further reading
- wpi.eduFIRST Digital Animation Award (WPI Robotics Resource Center)
- blackmagicdesign.comDaVinci Resolve (free)
- thebluealliance.comThe Blue Alliance match video archive
clipped to this lesson
Articles that go further on this
The lesson gets you through the topic. These go wider on it, and they read in one sitting.
- 7 min readFIRST Impact Award Executive Summary: Questions + Fill-In WorksheetThe current FIRST Impact Award (formerly Chairman's) executive summary questions, character limits, a fill-in worksheet with per-question guidance, and what strong answers look like./blogread it
- 7 min readHow to Win the FIRST Impact Award (FRC's Most Prestigious Award)What the FIRST Impact Award is, how it's judged, and how to write the essay, executive summaries, and pitch that win it — the most prestigious award in FRC./blogread it
- 13 min readFRC Awards Explained: Every FIRST Robotics Competition Award (Impact, EI, Autonomous & More)A complete guide to every FIRST Robotics Competition award — Impact, Engineering Inspiration, Autonomous, Innovation in Control, Dean's List and more — with judged criteria and how to win./blogread it
answer sheet
Lesson quiz
All 3 right completes the lesson. Miss one and only that question comes back, anything you already answered correctly stays banked.
0 of 3 answered
01You want crisp slow-motion shots of your robot scoring for a highlight video. What must you do at the time of filming?
02You are scoring your season recap video and want to avoid copyright strikes when it posts. What should you do about music?
03When exporting the same footage for different platforms, how should you handle aspect ratios?
Answer every question to submit.
All 29 lessons in Media, Branding & Outreachopenclose
01 / prerequisites
02 / team-brand-identity
03 / content-creation
04 / digital-presence
05 / outreach-awards-sponsorship
06 / worked-examples-mini-projects
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 1: A Repeatable Match-Day Photo Workflow
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 2: A 60-Second Highlight Reel in DaVinci Resolve (Free)
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 3: A CAD-to-Render Robot Reveal
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 4: A One-Page Press Release for Your Local Paper
- Not read yet:Mini-Project 5: Auto-Pull Match Results from The Blue Alliance API
07 / common-mistakes-troubleshooting
08 / advanced-techniques-case-studies