1,000 Screencasts and Counting...
Posted on Thursday September 17, 2009 by Betsy Weber
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I think we may have a new world record... 1,000 screencasts! I just heard from Bill Jelen, aka Mr Excel, that he's completed his 1,000th screencast. And, each screencast was created with Camtasia Studio!
Every day, Monday through Friday, Bill produces a new Excel screencast. The screencasts average in length around 2 minutes. His first episode went out on October 15, 2005 and the 1,000th episode went out on September 15, 2009. At five episodes per week, it took just under 4 years. Bill does take about 5 days off per year for various holidays.
I asked Bill how we got started screencasting. He mentioned to me that back in 2005, he was traveling to Toronto every month to tape two episodes each month on Call for Help with Leo Laporte. Both of the hosts were early podcasters; Leo Laporte had started his audio This Week in Tech podcast in April 2005 and Amber MacArthur had started her CommandN video podcast in June of 2005. Bill became aware of podcasting around the time he was taping the July episodes. In August, Leo suggested a MrExcel podcast. By September, Bill had taped a 25 minute pilot, and it was Leo who suggested a short daily podcast instead of a longer weekly podcast. The podcast went live October 15, 2005. And, the rest is history as they say.
That idea...five podcasts a week...allowed Bill to be one of the first to reach the 1000 episode mark early.
Bill also shared with me how he creates the screencasts. He records the camrec and then sends it off to Lora White who edits and produces. In the beginning, Lora spent 18-20 minutes on each episode to edit and produce them. Bill would send her detailed notes on every edit, like..."I screwed up this word at 1:07". Now, we use the term "Pickup" to indicate that I screwed up the last part and I am restarting. Now, Lora spends 10 minutes start to finish to edit and produce each 2-3 minute episode.
You can see all of Bill's screencasts here
Simply amazing! Congrats Bill! Can't wait to see the next 1,000 screencasts you create!
Comments (2)
Wow! That is very impressive. I tip my hat to this man. That is what you call dedication and being persistent. Obviously he is serious about what he does and has the discipline to get it done. That is a department a lot of people have trouble in. Me included and I am working on that. Keep up the great work Mr. Excel, love the material.
Fred G.
Posted by Fred G. | September 18, 2009 11:10 AM
Posted on September 18, 2009 11:10
That was very inspiring hope i could be like that someday.
can u help i have trouble on being consistent how can you maintain that high level of productivity all the time??
paper writing
Posted by nonyabiz | October 14, 2009 10:56 AM
Posted on October 14, 2009 10:56