I'm always amazed at the screencasts I see Camtasia users create. And, you're in for a treat with this week's Screencast of the Week! I heard from Anthony Osborn, at Red Gate Software about a recent screencast they made. This video is just a little different... in a good way for many reasons!
I love this screencast because Red Gate does a great job with storytelling to make this screencast engaging and interesting, You get to see inside <a href="Red Gate and hear their story of how a group of programmers were taken out of their office and spent a week living by the seaside to work on a product idea. I loved seeing behind the scenes at Red Gate. By escaping their daily grind, they were able to create a product, SQL Search, for use searching SQL Server databases.
Many product videos focus strictly on product features, specs and technical details. I like this screencast because this one shows the human side and the people behind the product. Who better to hear about the product from than the people who made it. You really get to see their personalities and connect with them. Plus it is interesting hearing from multiple people.
Anthony makes great use of many of Camtasia Studio's features like multiple audio tracks, PIP, screen recording, zoom & pans, transitions, captions etc... Plus, the video's musical track was written by a co-worker's band (Macca) so getting copywrite permission was a breeze.
Click the pic below to watch the video (give it a few seconds to load):

Anthony describes how this was created:
I was asked to create a product video telling the 'coding by the sea' story after the event had happened so it was an unusual way to work. However, the team had come back from the coast with some great photos, a good story and a new product. I really wanted to communicate the human side of this story to our customers and so used multiple voice narrations running behind these images. I also added in a quick screen recording of our product (SQL Search) to give a tempting glimpse and encourage viewers to find out more.
After making this screencast, Anthony has several tips to share:
- Step away from your PC and storyboard your idea first on the back of a piece of paper, cardboard box or whatever is available to you
- Pay as much attention to your audio as you do to 'what's happening on the screen'
- Static photos with a good voice narration work very well because your speakers can talk more freely without a camera in their face and videos with moving heads + lips need a really high frame rate to look good so you'll save on overall file size without them. If you want to further improve engagement add a little zoom + pan to these photos
- If possible, get lots of people involved in your video - it will give your video a 'team feel' & more momentum - they'll also chip in ideas, spot your spelling mistakes, poor color choices, hic-ups etc.
- Keep it short - let people see the 3 minute version not the 33 minute version
Credits:
Edited & produced by: Anthony Osborn
Script writer: Phil Scott
The original 'coders by the sea': Alex Davis, Robert Chipperfield, Dominick Reed & Nagashree Manjunath
Photography: Dominick Reed
Musical soundtrack: 'Ever wondered' by Macca
Microphone (a good amateur one): Sony ECM-MS907
Camera (not that you need a fancy one): Canon 5D SLR
Edited in: Camtasia Studio 6
What do you think of this style screencast?
Any nominations for next week's Screencast of the Week? Email me!