Producing Effective Screencasts

Session Agenda
● Choosing the right recording tools (software vs.
hardware)
● Organizing your content
● Setting up your presentation computer
● Selecting a microphone for recording
● Using a pro camera via Thunderbolt or USBC
● Optimizing slides

Producing Eﬀective
Screencasts
with Richard Harrington
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richardharrington
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Description
Sharing the content of your screen has become a standard for
both prerecorded and live video. Whether you’re teaching
software, giving a slide presentation, or hosting a business
meeting this is a great technique. Rich Harrington has been
producing screencasts for 20 years and clients including Apple,
Adobe, Microsoft, Skylum, and many more.
In this course, he oﬀers practical advice for organizing,
producing, and running a screencast or webinar that works with
most hosting platforms. He explores choosing the right software
tools and web cameras. Learn how to get the best video and
sound from a computer screen.

Richard
Harrington
I'm a visual storyteller exploring
the fusion of photography and video.
I'm also a husband & father

Vital Statistics
• Author 40+ Books
• Author 200+ Video Courses
• Publisher of Photofocus & ThinkTAP Learn
• Conference Speaker
• Business Owner
• Photographer

Past Projects
• America Online
• American Diabetes
Association
• American Israel Public
Aﬀairs Committee
• American Red Cross
• Apple
• Children's National
Medical Center
• Department of Veterans
Administration
• Drobo
• Federal
Communications
Commission
• Google
• lynda.com
• Microsoft
• Skylum
• Smithsonian Institute
• Under Armour
• US Air Force

Advisory and Consultant Projects
• Television Networks
• ABC News
• CNN
• Discovery Channel
• Major League Baseball Network
• NASCAR
• Turner Networks
• Technology
• Adobe Creative Cloud
Advisory Board
• Apple
• Athentech
• Pearson Education
• Skylum Software

linkedin.com/in/richardharrington

Mobile Video Experience
• Understanding Adobe Photoshop
• Final Cut Help
• Photoshop for Video
• Secrets of Style with Kim Foley
• Peachpit Press Author Tips
• Tech on the Road
• Google Web Toolkit
• Photoshop CS4 Sneak Peek
• Producing Video Podcasts

Mobile Video Experience
• OnMicrosoft
• OnNetworking
• OnOpenSource
• OnSecurity
• OnSoftware
• MacBreak Work
• Inside Mac (consulting)
• Photoshop User TV (consulting)
• MommyCast (production)

Screencasting
• Very cost eﬀective
• Use a good microphone
• Use a capture application
• Create a quiet environment
• Practice before you record

The Beneﬁts of Screencasting
• Popular genre
• Allows for educational content
to be easily shared
• Works well for B2B content
• Extremely low costs
• Low bandwidth delivery

The Drawbacks of Screencasting
• Can be hard to consume at lower bandwidth due to
compression artifacts
• Content is often less polished
• Can be a cluttered genre
• Diﬃcult to standout and brand

Choosing the right recording tools

Recording the Screen
Software tools

Mac Screencasting Software
• ScreenFlow
• iShowU
• QuickTime
• Camtasia for Mac
• Snapz Pro X

PC Screencasting Software
• Snaggit
• Camtasia
• CamStudio

Media Factory Studios
Our Full-Service Studio

Project Objectives
• Schedule
• Performance
• Cost

Documentary Photo Techniques with Photoshop and After Effects
Author: Richard Harrington
Target Course Duration: 2h
Course Description:
In this course, author Rich Harrington explores the world of documentary storytelling, using various techniques in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects to
transform damaged photos into brand-new works of art. Basic image editing techniques in Photoshop such as toning, cropping, sharpening, and resizing
are covered. The course also shows how to add movement to photos in After Effects, helping to create a dramatic story.
Target Audience: Intermediate
Target Delivery: Q2 2017
Topics include:
Understanding resolution
Organizing photos with Adobe Bridge
Renaming ﬁles
Working in the right color space
Removing damage with the healing and cloning tools
Making Content-Aware Scale and Fill repairs
Controlling focus with blurring and sharpening
Correcting alignment
Restoring contrast with Curves and Levels
Importing images in After Effects
Using Ease and keyframe assistants
Adding vignettes
Rendering animations

Documentary Photo Techniques with Photoshop and After Effects
Outline:
0.0 Introduction
0.1 Welcome
0.2 Using the exercise ﬁles
1.0 Organize Your Photos with Adobe Bridge
1.1 Adding ratings to images
1.2 Checking focus in a photo
1.3 Using review mode to check your images
1.4 Batch renaming ﬁles
2.0 Understanding Resolution
2.1 Resolution requirements for video
2.2 Requirements for panning and scanning
2.3 Using the Place command to size an image
2.4 Doubling an Image
2.5 Batch processing with the Image Processor Script
3.0 Working in the Right Color Space
3.1 Requirements for video
3.2 Batch converting images
4.0 Removing Damage
4.1 Removing damage with the Clone Stamp tool
4.2 Removing damage with the Healing Brush tool
4.3 Removing damage with the Patch tool
5.0 Content-Aware Repairs
5.1 Using Content-Aware Scale
5.2 Removing objects with Content-Aware Fill

Managing Course Development
• Have a concept
• Have a plan
• Have a process

The Five W’s for Reﬁning
a Concept
• Who—Who is going to watch the program?
Who is going to host the program?
• What—What topics will the program cover?
What genre or format will it use?
• Where—Where will the program be recorded?
A studio? On location?
• When—When will the program come out?
Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
• Why—Why would a viewer subscribe/buy?
Why would they come back?

Analyze the Market
• Who is your competition?
• What makes your video diﬀerent?
• What can you do better?
• Who do you want to attract?
• What weaknesses does your competition show?
• How can you take advantage of these?

Questions to Ask
• Make-Up of Audience?
• Connection Speeds?
• Embedded into Page?
• Downloadable?
• Portable?
• Protected?

Balancing Production
• Carefully choose acquisition format
• Select talent carefully
• Keep it short
• Rehearse before recording

http://www.urlgoeshere.com
Title Text

Setting up your presentation computer

Screen Resolution Choices
• 4:3 (1.33:1)
• Old computer monitor standard
• Common until 2003
• 16:10 (1.6:1)
• 1280×800, 1680×1050, and 1920×1200 displays
• Popular between 2003—2008

• 16:9 (1.77:1)
• 1280×720, 1366×768, and 1920×1080 displays
• Became standard in 2010
• 4K Resolution
• Gaining in popularity
• Digital Cinema Initiatives is 4096×2160 (1.9:1)
• Ultra High Deﬁnition is 3840x2160 (1.77:1)

• Think about the viewing audience
• The rise in online video makes 16:9 most popular
• Some software platforms only support speciﬁc
resolutions
• Consider recording options and future playback

Removing Distractions and
Embarrassment
• Computer
• Hide clock
• Clear desktop
• Minimize fesktop pattern
• Hide dock/taskbar
• Cleanup shortcuts
• Dedicated user

Removing Distractions and
Embarrassment
• Web Browser
• Clear history
• Remove cache
• Hide unused tabs
• Hide favorites/bookmarks

Selecting a microphone for recording

Audiois Key
• Recording high-quality audio is essential.
• When shooting video, people tend to spend
the entire eﬀort focusing on the images and
leave little time or resources dedicated to
ensuring that good audio is recorded.
• This is a mistake that many come to regret
once they start the editing process.

Audio is Key
• Despite how good your video looks, in the
end if your audio is bad, the whole production
will come oﬀ as amateurish.
• People can forgive bad video, but stop
watching when they cannot hear.
• You will fail to retain the viewers you worked
so hard to attract.

Using a pro camera via Thunderbolt or USBC

Plugging in Power
• To supply power, plug a standard IEC power cable into
your Blackmagic Web Presenter’s power input on the
rear panel.
• When powered, the status indicator at the bottom right
corner of your Web Presenter’s front panel will illuminate.

SDI PGM OUT
STEREO IN
L
USB WEB CAM
HDMI LOOP OUT
R
HDMI IN
SDI IN SDI LOOPOUT
LINE/MIC IN ANALOG AUDIO IN

Plugging in Video
• Next, plug your source video into the Blackmagic Web
Presenter’s SDI or HDMI video inputs.
• There are both loop SDI and loop HDMI outputs and you
can use these outputs if you want to connect Web
Presenter in line with a video connection to other
equipment.
• For example, you could loop the SDI output to a deck or
monitor or you could connect Web Presenter in between
a computer’s HDMI output and the HDMI input of a video
projector.

Plugging in Video
• There is also a program SDI output and this will output
video after the SDI and HDMI switch, but before the
down conversion to 720p video.
• This SDI program output is the same resolution as the
video inputs, so is perfect for connecting to a deck for
master recording.

Plugging in Video
• Blackmagic Web Presenter supports 12G-SDI and will
automatically switch between SD, HD and Ultra HD all the
way up to 2160p60 when the video input changes.
• You can input virtually any video signal and it will convert
the signal to 720p video for the USB video, which is both
high quality but also very low data rate for streaming video.
• What this means is you can do your production in higher
resolution 1080 HD or Ultra HD but the web presenter will
take care of lowering the resolution and frame rate for you,
all within the single unit.

Plugging in Audio
• The SDI and HDMI inputs include audio, however there
are also 2 additional analog audio inputs.
• The XLR audio input is a mono input that lets you plug in
microphones. It’s a single channel mono input because
microphones are mono and when you connect to this
balanced XLR audio input the audio will be sent to both
left and right audio channels internally.

Plugging in Audio
• The second analog audio input is a HiFi input using RCA
connectors.
• This input is good for computer audio or audio from a
music source such as smartphone, music player, audio
mixer or even a CD player.

Plugging in Audio
• All audio sources will be connected to an internal stereo
audio mixer and all blended together.
• If you don’t want audio to be included from any speciﬁc
audio source, then please ensure you disconnect the
analog audio sources, or turn down audio from HDMI
sources such as computers.
• Otherwise any audio on any of the inputs will be blended
together and sent to the USB audio output.

Reducing Audio Interference
• Remove cellphone from area
• Disable cell reception
• Avoid microphones crossing power cables
• Turn oﬀ connected drives and extra devices

Connecting to your Computer
• Now that you have plugged in your video and audio
sources, connect your Blackmagic
• Web Presenter to your computer via its USB port. Your
computer will instantly recognize the unit as a USB
webcam source.

Using Teranex Mini Smart Panel

Using Teranex Mini Smart Panel
• An optional Teranex Mini Smart Panel can be mounted to
the front of your Web Presenter, replacing the original
front panel.
• The Smart Panel buttons allow you to switch sources,
together with a built in LCD so you can monitor the input
video and status information, such as the input video
source, video format, plus the USB output frame rate.

1 MENU
Source Video Format USB
1 MENU
HDMI 525i59.94 NTSC 30 fps
2 VIDEO
2 VIDEO
SET AUDIO
SET AUDIO

Installing the
Teranex Mini Smart Panel
• Installing your optional Smart Panel is easy and because
the panels are hot swappable, you don’t even need to
turn oﬀ your Blackmagic Web Presenter when installing
it.
• Remove the two M3 screws on each side of your Web
Presenter’s basic front panel using a Pozidriv 2
screwdriver and gently pull the panel away from the front
of your Web Presenter.

Installing the
• On the inside of the basic panel, you’ll notice a small
clear plastic tube attached to the bottom corner.
• This tube directs light from the LED inside the Web
Presenter toilluminate the status indicator on the basic
panel.
• This tube should stay attached to the basic front panel.

Installing the
• Align the connector on the rear of the Smart Panel with
the adjoining connector on the face of your Blackmagic
Web Presenter and gently push the Smart Panel towards
the unit until the connectors are firmly seated.
• The Smart Panel should make a firm connection and fit
neatly inside the face of your Web Presenter.
• Re-insert the M3 screws from the original panel.

Control Buttons
• When the smart panel is attached, the switching feature
is enabled on your Blackmagic Web Presenter. This
means when you are broadcasting, you can press
buttons 1 and 2 to switch between the SDI and HDMI
input sources.
• Pressing ‘1’ will select the SDI input, and pressing ‘2’ will
select the HDMI input.

Setting up a physical switcher and using software switchers

Optimizing Slides for a Webinar
• People scan; they don’t read word-for-word
• Use shorter bullets
• Avoid open captions for the thinking impaired
• Increase font point size to address compression
• Boldface important terms “keywords”
• Use links & images

Why Use Images?
• Visual Interest. Appealing images attract viewer’s
attention and encourage them to stick around to watch
the show.
• Layout. Images can be used to break up long blocks of
text and create hierarchy to the content.
• Information. Visuals can add a lot of information to a
slide

Images for Your Slides
• People are far more likely to look at slides with an image
than without one
• Don’t borrow images or content from other blogs or
online content
• Use images in public domain (Government, Wikipedia
Commons, Flickr) or your own images
• Use stock sites like Adobe Stock

Royalty Free Images
• Pay a one-time fee to use the image multiple times for
multiple purposes
• No time limits on when the image can be used
• No exclusive rights of a Royalty-free image
• Less administrative tracking issues

ADOBE PREMIERE PRO 2020
NEWFEATURES

The Public Beta is for those who want to share
their feedback directly with Adobe by
testing new fixes and features during product
development.
Beta builds are available in the Creative Cloud
Desktop app as separate installations.
You can run Beta builds side-by-side with the
released versions of the applications.
PUBLICBETA
ACCESS
KEY CHANGES TO SETUP AND PREFERENCES

The roll-out of the Beta apps takes place in
small, randomized increments, and will
ultimately be available to all Creative Cloud
members within a few months.
Beta apps send Adobe information about how
you use them. Your regular app settings do not
apply to Beta apps.
PUBLICBETA
ACCESS

- System information, such as devices, operating
system, amount of memory installed, and
screen resolution
- Adobe product information, such as version number
- Information about your documents (but not the
content in your documents)
- Document usage information, such as how many
times you open a document
- How you interact with the applications and how the
Adobe applications interact with your content,
including features used and the options selected.
COLLECTEDBETA
INFORMATION

AUTOMATICALLYUPDATE
AUDIODEVICES

- A macOS change
- Use the “System Default” option in the Audio
Hardware preferences to automatically switch to
changes in the OS audio device settings.
- Perfect for connecting headphones, AirPods, or
plugging in a USB microphone.
- Can be configured separately for input and output.
- Enable desktop apps to automatically switch to the
current system audio device when changed.
AUTOMATICALLY
UPDATEAUDIODEVICES

Filter the Effect Controls Panel to show only
changed parameters or parameters with keyframes.
Add a new keyboard shortcut to select filtering
mode in the Effect Controls Panel: Select Next Effect
Controls Properties Filter.
• Show All Properties
• Show Only Keyframed Properties
• Show Only Edited Properties
FILTERTHEEFFECT
CONTROLSPANEL
EDITING IMPROVEMENTS

Getting In Touch
twitter.com/rhedpixel
facebook.com/
RichHarringtonStuff
linkedin.com/in/
richardharrington
Photofocus.com
vimeo.com/rhedpixel

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Producing Effective Screencasts

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