Transforming ho-hum Powerpoint to video Wow!

We worked with Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development, in collaboration with the College of William & Mary (Center for Gifted Education), to create a series of five short videos for their new middle school English Language Arts course for gifted students of diverse backgrounds. They came to us with a deep understanding of the content but needed a refresh of their 10-year old video introduction of the series. The videos cover vocabulary and text analysis, reasoning, and writing. The course is delivered online but provides for lots of outside reading, plenty of peer interaction, and teacher guidance. Each video is under five minutes and is designed to motivate students and introduce the different course units. Here's the introductory video. I think the authors of the course itself are on to something.