Example: A Hazard Communication Training Video From a PDF

The job

Every site that stores chemicals has a hazard communication policy. It says how containers are labelled, where the safety data sheets live, what protective equipment to wear and what to do about a spill. Warehouse and production staff are expected to know it, and most of them meet it as a PDF during induction.

The two rules people most need to remember are the label rule and the spill rule. Those are also the two rules a safety lead does not want paraphrased. So the brief for this video was narrow: a short clip for warehouse and production staff that states the label and spill rules exactly as the policy words them.

What we gave Interlace

We wrote a one-page sample policy in the format most sites use and saved it as hazard-communication-policy.pdf. Interlace read it as 229 words. This is the full text:

Hazard Communication Policy

Policy HS-04 · Version 3.2 · Owner: Health and Safety · Applies to all sites

1. Purpose. This policy makes sure everyone who handles, stores or works near hazardous chemicals knows what the hazards are and how to protect themselves.

2. Labels. Every container must carry the supplier label or a workplace label with the product name, hazard pictograms and signal word. Never remove or cover a label. Report a damaged label to your supervisor the same day. Decanted chemicals go into a labelled container before you leave the area.

3. Safety data sheets. A current safety data sheet (SDS) is kept for every chemical on site, in the SDS folder at each workstation and on the intranet. Read the SDS before you use a chemical for the first time. Sections 4 to 8 tell you first aid, fire, spill and protective equipment steps.

4. Protective equipment. Wear the gloves and eye protection named in section 8 of the SDS. Check equipment before each use and replace anything damaged.

5. Spills and exposure. Small spill: contain it with the spill kit, then tell your supervisor. Large spill or exposure: leave the area, raise the alarm and call the site first aider.

6. Training. All staff complete hazard communication training at induction and every twelve months. Completion is recorded in the learning system.

In the text box under the document we typed one direction:

For warehouse and production staff. Keep the label and spill rules word for word.

The settings:

• Mode: Document, with the PDF uploaded as a file
• Document use: Source of truth, so the script stays close to the wording of the file
• Style: Consulting Line
• Voice: Achernar
• Language: English (United States)
• Length: 15 seconds
• Format: 16:9, 1080p
• Narration pace: Normal
• Review script: on, so we saw the plan before anything was drawn

What came out

With Review script on, Interlace stopped at a scene plan first. It picked exactly the two rules the direction named and gave each one a scene.

We approved the plan without changes. The finished video has two scenes and runs about 16 seconds.

Scene 1: Container labels

Narration: "Every container must carry the supplier label or a workplace label with the product name, hazard pictograms and signal word."

That is the policy's sentence, unchanged. Each label on screen appears as the narrator says it.

Scene 2: Small spill response

Narration, from the approved plan: "Contain small spills with the spill kit, then tell your supervisor."

The policy says "Small spill: contain it with the spill kit, then tell your supervisor." The script kept the instruction and the order of the two steps but reworded the start of the sentence. If the exact sentence matters to your safety lead, this is the line to fix in the plan before you approve it.

Here is the finished video on its share page, with the scene strip and the transcript under the player:

What to change for your own team

• Upload your real policy, not a summary. Source of truth works from the words in the file. The closer the file is to the approved version, the less you correct later.
• Name the rules you want kept word for word. Our direction named two, and the plan built one scene for each. Without it, the script chooses what to cover.
• Check every line in the plan. Scene 2 shows why: the meaning held but the wording moved. The plan is the easiest place to fix it.
• Make one video per rule set. Labels and spills fit in 15 seconds. Safety data sheets, protective equipment and training dates would each make a clear second clip.
• Say who is watching. "For warehouse and production staff" tells the script who the video is for, so it can pick words they use.

Next steps

The first version is a draft. Everything below works on the finished video.

• Edit in chat. Open the video in the editor and type the change, for example "use the exact wording from the policy for the spill rule".
• Translate it. Make versions in any of 28 languages: subtitles only, new narration, or narration and on-screen text. See multilingual video.
• Add captions. Download SRT or VTT, or burn them into the video.
• Export. Download an MP4, or a SCORM 1.2 package for your LMS. Here is how to add it to Moodle.
• Share a link. Send the share page, with a password or an expiry date if you need one.

For the full workflow, read how to turn a PDF into a training video.