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Library Tutorials Best Practices: Editing & Production Tips

Best practices for producing effective library tutorials. Adapted from Video Tutorials Best Practices (http://ncwc.libguides.com/videobestpractices) by Amy Brake NC Wesleyan College Library

Camtasia Editing Tips

Keep everything you use to create a video project (Camtasia video and audio recordings, images/PowerPoint slides, music files) together in one folder. Each project should have its own separate folder.

  • Camtasia uses a non-destructive editing process, that is, the original .camrec file is only referenced, not used directly in a project.  This means that it's always available for you to use again if you don't like the changes you've made in one version of your video. Because of this process, Camtasia needs to know where the original files are.
  • Using separate video project folders alsomakes it easier if you need to move a project to a different computer or to back up your video projects on a server or external hard drive.

Editing Tips

If you have 2 monitors available, think about using both: in Camtasia you can have the Editor on one screen and the Timeline on another.  A second monitor can also be handy for displaying your script while recording audio.  You can edit just fine, though, if you use one monitor.

Try not to feel rushed while editing.  The process takes time at first, but you'll get better & more fluent with practice.

Watch & listen to your video all the way through before starting to edit to give yourself an overall sense of what happened during recording and to develop a sense of what you want the final product to be.

Save your work.  If you think that you won't remember to save after every edit (a best practice), do come up with a system that works for you--don't wait to save your project until the end.  Check to see how often (or if) the video program you're using automatically saves your work.  Remember that programs can crash, operating systems can go haywire, or you can just forget to save.  You don't want to lose lots of work (trust us on this).

Production & Planning Tips

Planning

  • Adding other media:  If you will be adding other media to your video, be sure to leave several extra seconds (3-5) in the original video so that you have space to add the media or transitions and to edit the complete video.
  • Callouts & special effects: 
    • People learn best through repetition, so make sure that every major point you're making in the video is being reinforced in the audio AND callouts AND video. 
    • Don't add too many special effects.  Use them to reinforce important points, but too many callouts or special effects will take the viewer's attention away from the content. As always, think about your audience and the length of the video:  the shorter the video, the fewer the callouts.

Production

  • Timing and placement of clips and audio is crucial in reinforcing concepts.  You can make simple, professional looking videos by merely editing for alignment of video & audio, by either doing a voiceover while you do your screencast or by recording both separately and editing them together (in Camtasia). If you're editing with another software (such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker), you can achieve alignment by making sure that you choose music and visuals that fit the desired feel and theme of your video.
  • Always start with more raw material than you'll need for the completed project.  This is especiallytrue when you record audio and video separately.  For video, make sure that you spend enough time on each section so that you have enough footage for your audio.  For audio, make sure that you pause for several seconds between sentences or concepts.  You can edit the excess footage and silence out later, but it's much better to have too much than not enough.

Other Equipment

Some suggested equipment for producing video tutorials; there are many more products that you can successully use in creating videos.

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