Regardless of the tool used for production, creating effective screencasts is an art. Here is an overview of a presentation of this topic to Orange County STC.

1. SEVEN STEPS
TO CREATING
EFFECTIVE
SCREENCASTS
Connect with Matt Sullivan
 Newsletter-techcommtools.com
 Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn-
mattrsullivan
 YouTube-tc2ls or mattrsullivan
matt@mattrsullivan.com
714 798-7596
http://bit.ly/stc-video

2. SEVEN STEPS
TO CREATING
EFFECTIVE
SCREENCASTS
Design and deliver screencasts
with ease and confidence.

3. What are the
seven steps?
Improve branding
Choose proper length
Proper audio
Choose appropriate video tools & settings
Proper lighting
Tether goals to budget
Make speed/quality improvements to the process

4. Branding/Expectations
Question:
What’s the first thing you
judged me on?

5. Website announcement

6. Text version
The growing user preference for video over text content is a wake up call for technical communicators. Screencasts provide
added value to online documentation for today's users. Examples include: tutorials, simulations, and software demonstrations.
A screencast is a video recording of computer screen output, often containing audio narration and/or text annotations. Some
screencasts grab your attention, and demand to be watched! Others? Well, not so much.
Join OCSTC senior member Matt Sullivan for a presentation about how to create effective screencasts, including:
• Identifying candidates for screencasts
• Using a Title First approach to content and script
• Choosing resolution and recording size
• When to use audio, and maximizing audio quality
• Whether you should consider a ‘talking head’ video

7. What did you judge me on today?
Personal Appearance
Slides
Demeanor

8. Length
Your lesson is like a web page.
You only have a few seconds to
connect and convert

9. Important to get to the point
How many seconds
til you judged me?

10. Strategy for keeping it short
Title-first approach
•Establish your goal
•Write script to meet goal
•Granularize! Leverage your LMS

11. Conversion
Lessons have a goal
State the goal
Get there as fast as possible

12. Order of
operations
1. Clarify goal/create title
2. Storyboard/script
3. Record screen/video
4. Edit
5. Record audio
6. Apply branding elements
7. Publish/broadcast

13. Audio
Background noise
Quality of recording
Degree of confidence

14. Background noise
Acoustics
Environment
Method of saving to disk

15. Quality of recording
Microphone
•Voiceover
•Lavaliere
•Mixing board

16. Degree of confidence
Easy delivery
Knowledge of material
Uh’s, umm’s

17. Video
Webcam
DSLR or better

18. Webcam
Low cost
Works with conferencing/presentation software

19. DSLR or better
Better image
More control over color, zoom, etc.
*Requires transfer of video to PC

20. Lighting
3-point lighting
Lighting temperature
Lighting temperature

21. 3-point lighting basics
• 2 lights in front of subject, slightly
above eye/camera level
• 1 light behind/below subject,
lighting bkg or subject

22. Lighting temperature
5600° Kelvin is considered Daylight
Lower numbers are considered warmer
Most bulbs now have both a number and a temperature graphic
http://www.birddogdistributing.com/images/color-temp-chart.png

23. Lighting temperature
• Incandescent lights are hot, cheap, & expensive to run
• LED lights are cool, expensive, & cheap to run
Consider your environment & budget when purchasing

24. Goals v. cost
Training hours
Production hours
Hardware/software

25. Speed versus quality
Recording frames per second v. recording points in time
Camtasia is generally a frames per second recorder
Captivate is generally a point in time recorder

26. Generalizations
Good equipment is reasonably priced.
Great equipment will make you cry.
Assign hours for production based on size of
audience and significance of interaction
Take your time for title, script, and recording
If recording audio, harness your inner ShamWow!

27. SEVEN STEPS
TO CREATING
EFFECTIVE
SCREENCASTS
Connect with Matt Sullivan
 Newsletter-techcommtools.com
 Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn-
mattrsullivan
 YouTube-tc2ls or mattrsullivan
matt@mattrsullivan.com
714 798-7596
http://bit.ly/stc-video