Sadly JoltMagazine.com seems to have fallen off of the internet.  Back in September 2008 they interviewed me, I’ve reprinted it below as the background should be useful to new screencasters:

I’ve been screencasting for over three years.  Within ProCasts.co.uk I create professional screencasts for companies and provide training, I’m also the co-founder of ShowMeDo.com.  ShowMeDo is a sort of YouTube for training screencasts on open-source software.  The site has a monthly audience of 100,000 world-wide users and over 100 authors, there I’ve personally created over 130 screencasts ranging from Python programming to Firefox to how-to-screencast.

To my mind the most important roles of the professional screencaster are to understand:

1. Who will watch the screencast and what they want to know (why does this tool make their life better than someone else’s?)
2. What the client wants to show (probably their main tool and unique-selling-points)
3. What the client wants to achieve (usually ‘more conversions’!)

Once you know the needs of the viewer and their background you can craft a presentation that conveys the client’s message.  The client probably wants more users to sign-up and try their service or buy a license.  There should be one clear message which is backed by supporting points.

If the client wants more users to sign-up to try a service, that should be the main point.  The supporting points are probably demonstrations of features that make the viewer’s life easier, these all build the viewer’s confidence towards the goal ‘this is the tool for me’.

I prefer to demonstrate the tool working with live action rather than to talk over a static presentation with screenshots, seeing the tool working sticks far more strongly in the mind.  It also shows the user what to expect when they try it, this gives them greater confidence and removes a barrier that might have formed in their mind.

The screencast can end with a call-to-action.  All interested users will want to know what they should do next – if you point them in the right direction after they’ve given you several minutes of their attention then there’s a high chance that they’ll follow that action.

I choose to guarantee my work – if it doesn’t achieve the desired action (e.g. increasing conversions) then I’ve not done my job and I don’t deserve my fee.  Generally speaking multiple screencasts get a discount compared to just one as less time is required overall, complex demos with polished graphics take more time and cost more than simple walkthroughs.  I’m always happy to give feedback on how and why screencasting might benefit a site and help increase conversions.

Professional tips?
Use great tools – on Windows get CamTasia, on a Mac get ScreenFlow.  For Linux you can use tools like ffmpeg or recordmydesktop to make a video but you’ll be stuck for decent screencast editors, I’d suggest exporting back to Windows or Mac for editing.  You could also try using a virtual Linux instance inside Windows or a Mac.

Try to use a good voice microphone.  Built-in laptop mics won’t do.  A quiet environment with a decent mic should give a good result, pro-audio equipment will be much better.  In post-production use an audio editor (Audacity is great and free) to remove breathing, compress the volume levels and remove noise.  If you breathe on the mic a lot, remember to breathe separately from speaking so it is easier to remove the whooshing sounds.

If you have strong sibilants (’esses’) then play with the microphone’s location, this usually solves the problem, angling it can be very helpful.  If you have plosives (’p’s and ‘b’s), try a pop-shield.

For the video I’d always plan the entire script.  For new presenters remember that the pause key is your friend, you can cut dead scenes in post-production and pausing lets you get your breath.

Be careful if you’re doing an off-the-cuff presentation, ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ can appear at awkward moments during key scenes and they’re harder to edit out if you’re speaking at the same time as all the sounds cut into each other.

I aim for 2-3 minutes for a marketing demo for first-time visitors and up to 8 minutes for a tutorial when the user is prepared to watch for longer.  Long videos for first-time visitors will make them bored so keep it snappy.

(Jolt) What are the worst mistakes you’ve seen?
Most people can create a credible demo if they plan and practice, have a quiet room and a decent mic.  Always get feedback from someone else before releasing the result to an unsuspecting world.

Some of the worse audio I’ve heard comes from cheap mics which are humming due to electrical interference.  The user then knocks the microphone a few times causing loud thumps and they breathe on the mic causing constant Darth Vader-like sounds.  Add in line-noise and street-noise and you’ve got a presentation which is really hard to listen to, it certainly won’t sound professional.  Post-production on the audio can only treat some of this, a good mic in a quiet room is always to be preferred.

With video I’ve seen people choose not to use audio (because they didn’t like their voice) and to compensate they’ve used a number of visual fade effects  and unhelpful annotations.

Rather than using 1 or 2 short fades, they’ve used a set of the whizziest ones for 5+ seconds each – this produces an inconsistent result with unhelpful graphical effects.  Unhelpful annotations might ask questions of the user which aren’t answered or present feature lists rather than showing benefits.  Leaving the user *more* confused is about the worst crime you can commit with a screencast!

Some presenters also forget about their screencast tool’s highlight effect and instead choose to whizz the mouse around in circles, this just looks odd.

Useful Links:
Examples at Procasts – http://procasts.co.uk/examples.html
ShowMeDo – http://showmedo.com/
Over 130 tutorials by the author at ShowMeDo – http://showmedo.com/videos/?author=2
Screencasts about screencasting – http://showmedo.com/videos/screencasting

Contact:
ian@procasts.co.uk

Become a better screencaster – read The Screencasting Handbook.  We’re distilling 4 years of experience into our book, the book will tell you everything you need to know to screencast faster, better and more efficiently.

The Interview Reprint: “Screencasting: an Expert Reveals the Dark Art” from JoltMagazine.com by ProCasts' Blog about Professional Screencast Production, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England License.

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