Tips for Screencasting | Hacker News Reader

Tips for Screencasting

brettterpstra.com

81 pointskawera11 comments

One thing I've found that is handy is to record the video while narrating the process (this will slow your actions to a comfortable pace) but only record the video. Go back after that and focus on the narration/explanation. You'll cut down on the "uh..." "um...". When you piece them together, the viewer won't know and your delivery will be much smoother.

A few other tips:

* If it's on YouTube, you can get an automatic transcription. That's not the best; you can use something like https://speechtotextservice.com/ (no relationship with them). Or hire someone on fiverr. Having searchable text is good for SEO but, more important, for visually impaired users.

* Though OP sort of poo-poos cool intros, brief ones (the best kind) can be done very cheaply on fiverr (again, no relationship) and help keep viewers awake and are simple to reuse.

* Watermarks are good if it has genuine editorial use, as should be the case, because it makes theft harder.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheGuideToCreatingQualityTechn... (2011)

Another tip that can save viewers (or readers) a lot of frustration - if your screencast (or blog) is specific to a particular technology, mention (or write) that at the outset.

Interestingly the page doesn't contain the string 'apple' or 'osx'. Some of the generic suggestions, early on, are almost platform agnostic, but by mid-way through we're clearly in the realm of OS and application features, and keyboard shortcuts, specific to one particular vendor.

For the record (from the author), 98% of my traffic is from Mac users, so I don't usually specify. I do, however, state in the second paragraph that it's very specific to ScreenFlow.

Thanks. I was not intending to sound overly snarky. I think perhaps only people outside a circle notice the assumptions made by people within it.

For example, it's usually easy to identify material written by people in the USA - they're more likely to assume their readers are within the USA. People in South America, Europe, and Asia seem to assume their readers could be anywhere.

Similarly with tech, though I think we all assume everyone knows what we're talking about, no matter where they are. : )

I had no idea what ScreenFlow is, other than a camelcased bonding of two common words. Yes, you may say, I could have looked at that link, find that it takes me to iTunes, and then intuit we're talking OSX ... but a) I was on mobile so it wasn't a simple hover, b) as you note it's an en passant reference in the second paragraph.

EDIT: Oh, and c) the page title is 'Tips for Screencasting'

Fair enough :).

Along the same lines, does anyone know of any guides/tips for recording interviews over Skype or something like that? Telling your guest to turn off downloads/torrents, quit other apps, use a good mic, and so on seems common sense but I still notice these issues in screencasts on YT.

This requires buy-in from both the interviewer/interviewee, as well as any other participants.

In general, you just need to take a few extra precautions.

- Situate each member in an room with minimal distractions and isolated from noises. If possible, go somewhere without pets - everyone loves pets, but everyone also knows that they have no sense of privacy, will make noise when they verily well feel, and in the case of dogs, their bladders know not the meaning of "Do not disturb". They're just doing what they do, but it's just an interruption that can maybe be avoided

- Likewise, avoid being too close to a window especially during the day - the sunlight may provide some really pretty back-lighting, but auto-color correction on a lot of web cameras will be constantly fighting with the sunlight should a cloud pass, shadows rise/fall, and so on

- A wired connection is strongly recommended just to remove the variable of WiFi interference kicking up unexpectedly

- Headsets are strongly recommended, or at least a quality microphone with the speaker having an earbud to isolate any possible feedback. Wired strongly preferred

- In a similar vein, fixed apparatuses are preferred (i.e., no in-line microphones like what you get with cell-phones). They tend to brush against fabric and make awful noises, or twist or turn

- Take some time prior to the actual recording to just sound-check and also get used to the tiny delays that often occur with interviews. 10-20 minutes is often good enough just as a warm up

- Make sure that all participants are used to speaking on video and through mics. There is a bit of an art to doing it right with video chat, avoiding either being too loud/blaring or too soft

- Finally, test whatever screen recording software you're using multiple times before the call and test it in a real call situation to ensure that there are no audio goofs. This can be part of the 10-20 minute test. It goes without saying, but you'll probably want to use a moderately modern machine that won't chug when recording, and also have enough space to store the recording

These are what we used for my workplace when we did Skype interviews and needed to record them for review later on.

I do a couple of podcasts, and one of them (Systematic) regularly interviews people who aren't terribly technical. I use Ecamm Call Recorder with Skype, and even when the remote interviewee is not prepared to record, I can get both sides of the conversation on separate tracks for EQ and mixing. I do request they have a small, quiet room, and a ban on any headphones with inline mics (like iPhone earbuds). I can usually make a headset work if they don't have a decent mic, though it takes a lot of EQ work and sometimes sucks even after editing.

Pet peeve as a viewer - avoid disguisting body nioses - lip smacking and sighing between sentences, sniffing and saliva sliding around the mouth. I guess that last one is a microphone thing.

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