Getting close to your microphone usually results in something called “the proximity effect.” As you get close, most microphones amplify your voice in a rich, deep way. The proximity effect can make you sound like a late-night DJ. Some microphones give you the best proximity effect when you’re practically kissing the mic.

Unfortunately, as you get closer to a microphone, the microphone starts to pick up more sounds from your mouth. Say the word “pick” or “pull” and you unleash a gust of wind toward the mic. Really, hold your hand up two inches from your mouth and say a few P or B words. Can you feel the gust? To your microphone, the puff is like a tsunami sound wave. This burst of air is known as a plosive. Read the rest of this entry »

A while ago I was gathering feedback on different tech comm deliverables. I asked a user if she preferred videos or written material when learning software. I thought she would immediately say “videos,” but it was a toss up for her. In her mind, videos involved long stretches of narration that included sitting passively at her computer, waiting for the narrator to get to her question but never really getting there.

A lot of people feel the same way about videos. In a recent post, Kristi Leach explains an attitude she once held about instructional videos:

I rarely appreciate video instructions, either–they take too long, because I’m pausing, following the step, playing, pausing again. I was having trouble imagining how videos were going to improve our help systems or fit into our schedules.

For Kristi, prior to her turnaround screencast moment, videos seemed to take too long and were difficult to follow along with in a step-by-step way.

When you write a script for a video (or when you create a general outline), you can avoid the problem of the eternal video — which I refer to as a sense of rambling — by simply keeping the video short. Don’t try to cover too much ground. You can generally speak about 100 words a minute, so keep that in mind with your script. 200 words is a good length. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my goals in creating engaging video tutorials is to develop a warm, personable, natural voice, like the voice of an encouraging friend or mentor.

In search of this more personable voice, last year I attended a voiceover workshop in my area. The voiceover coach explained that good voiceover artists start by imagining a situation—in their minds they imagine who they are, who they’re talking to, and what kind of situation and environment they’re in.

Voiceover artists have to stick carefully with the script they’ve been given, my coach explained. But they can inflect, add emphasis to control meaning, and play with the rhythm and intonation to bring it to life.

People told me that if I want to focus on the audio like this, I would be better off narrating the audio first and then recording the screen later—in two separate steps, rather than at the same time. I recorded at least 40 different video tutorials like this, narrating first (while trying to imagine myself in a situation); after recording the narration, I listened to the narration while following along to record the screen. Syncing it up took a little practice, but not much.

No matter how hard I tried, though, the narration always sounded stiff, slow, and a little dull. If I put too much inflection and rhythm into it, the narration sounded cheesy and fake. Maybe a background in acting would make it sound as if I weren’t reading a script, but I could never figure this acting thing out. It never sounded completely natural. Read the rest of this entry »

In Screencasts: So what?, Kristi Leach tells an engaging story about a turnaround screencast. She explains how one good screencast can change users’ attitudes about software. Here’s an excerpt:

I rarely watch video online. Unless it’s a funny meme I have deliberately searched for, or a show that I missed, or Netflix, I won’t press play. If a blog post is all video, I skip it. I rarely appreciate video instructions, either–they take too long, because I’m pausing, following the step, playing, pausing again. I was having trouble imagining how videos were going to improve our help systems or fit into our schedules.

To embed video on a web page, you don’t need to upload your video to youtube, vimeo, or some other video sharing service. A lot of times in a corporate setting, uploading your videos to a third-party site isn’t appropriate or allowed. Does this mean you have to resign yourself to a basic WMV output that opens up in the Windows Media Player? No. You can grab the embed code from Camtasia Studio’s html output and copy it to a custom page to embed your video. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent design review meeting, I showed some of my screencasts to our team for feedback. We also reviewed some screencasts created by voiceover talents in our audiovisual department and screencasts created by trainers. In listening to my voice in the screencasts, it’s clear that I still have a lot to learn. I’m not even close to the personal, conversational-sounding audio voice that I want to achieve. It sounds like I’m reading a script. It’s slow and dull.

My teammates recommended that I read a little faster, that I add more inflection and maybe even switch to an outline rather than read a script.

I agree, but it’s hard to do that. It’s hard to develop that personal voice. It’s not a technical problem to simply figure out. It’s a theater art, and I have no background in theater. (Okay, in 8th grade I had a one-line role in Oliver Twist.) Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of months ago I created some documentation on Joomla for some web admins using Joomla to build country sites. After delivering the documentation, the users needed something more visual, so I set about creating screencasts. I created 30 screencasts to match the tasks in the documentation (which I transferred from InDesign to Mediawiki). I then integrated the screencasts with the various pages of the wiki. You can see a list of the screencasts here. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re interested in the PowerPoint for my screencasting webinar, here it is below.

Powerpoint for Screencasting webinar (click the image to download the file)

I always smile a little when people ask for the PowerPoint, because it just consists of pictures. I resist detailed bullets points on each slide because it locks you into a certain order that may be at odds with your presentation’s flow. Also, when you give people text to read while you’re speaking, you lose some of their attention.

I promise to record a podcast this week covering some of the same screencasting content, so stay tuned for this.

By the way, the more presentations I give, the more I find that Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint really is true.

Also, someone asked for examples of screencasts I’ve done. Most of the screencasts I do are for work and are behind the firewall, unfortunately. But here are several of my screencasts (the first three in the list below) as well as screencasts from other sites.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XzwTcAyqkc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0DTvH0tr_k
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F8WUZBsLpg
• http://wordpress.tv/2009/05/29/getting-started-with-google-analytics
• http://commoncraft.com/world-wide-web
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgYTWRdTSU
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UylBZey1bs
• http://www.instantindesign.com/videos/InstantInDesign-6.mp4
• http://tv.adobe.com/watch/indesignsecrets-videocast/effects-sans-objects

I’m also finishing a bunch of screencasts for a public-facing project at work this week, so I’ll post those when they’re ready.

Brooks Andrus has a good post and video about including the human element in screencasts. Brooks writes:

Screen video alone is not enough. You need to humanize your content by getting in front of the camera and engaging your audience. And no, I’m not talking about long-winded monologues either. Several 5-7 second talking-head elements can go a long way toward winning over and maintaining the interest of your audience. Let people see your face and don’t be afraid to be emotive / loose. Let them see the twinkle in your eyes and the smirk on your face. As social creatures its how we empathize and bond with each other.

Brooks starts his videocast just this way. He gets in front of the camera.

Read the rest of this entry »

The other week I visited Performance Audio in downtown Salt Lake to see what recommendations they had for microphones. The clerk asked me what audio interface I was using. I said I was just plugging my mixer directly into the computer. He looked shocked and said no matter how good of a microphone I bought, the real increase in performance would come with an audio interface.

The Audio Interface

An audio interface converts the analog signal to a digital signal. It turns out that rather than buying a fancy audio interface for $150+, I could just use my Zoom H4 as an audio interface between the mixer and the computer. Here’s what that setup looks like:

Sound travels from the mic to mixer to H4 to laptop

That’s a Shure SM58 microphone plugged in to a Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer.  The mixer plugs into the ZoomH4, which connects to the laptop through a USB cable.

Listen to the difference:

Without the audio interface

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With the audio interface:

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Read the rest of this entry »