Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:02 PM
In the past two or three weeks I've produced 5-8 hours of video, a total of ten separate files. Some are screencasts, others PowerPoint presentations, some a mix of both. All of them contain full voice-over. I've one voice work in the past as well, but was, by far, the most painful series of sessions. I thought that I'd share a few tips, in the hopes that it makes life easier for someone else!
Tip #1: Get a good mic! I can't emphasize this one enough. I don't mean that you need to spend all of your money on a mic, but you can't use that little pencil-sized one that came with your computer. I use a USB headset. I bought a handheld mic for this project (Shure) thinking that I would recreate the "studio" setup in my recording area. This was a mistake. My audio was too uneven as I moved small amounts during speaking -- this came through as volume differences in the end. I was shocked by the difference. The headset has caused problems in the past if I'm not shaven close enough (it will sometimes scratch) and every breath is picked up. In the end, I used the headset, and removed breaths in an audio editor. Ideally I'd like to use the handheld (suspended in front of me) with better leveling. I'm still working on this one!
Tip #2: Speak in chunks. OK, that sounds weird. Speak in discrete sentences as much as possible. The problem is how often words tend to run together within and between sentences. If you flub up (and you will), you need to be able to dub over it. The more that runs together, the more difficult it will be to fix mistakes.
Tip #3: Voice quality. You may want to choose a certain part of the day to record, or watch your intake of hot or cold beverages. Phlegm makes a difference, too, of course. The bottom line is to keep your voice consistent. I find that my voice varies at different times. Trying to fix a mistake in a non-obvious manner might be difficult if your lilt, volume, speed, throatiness etc. varies between takes. The best thing is to record an entire video, then re-record as needed in the same session. Unfortunately this isn't always feasible or convenient, but it's a good idea when it works.
Tip #4: Script is important. Of course it depends on what you are going for. If your goal is to be completely casual (think lecturer in front of a group), then "uh," "um," breaths, etc. are going to be fine. For more professional results, you'll really need a script. It's obvious is you have one or not. Decide up-front if you need one, as it will probably affect how you shoot the video.
Tip #5: Various recording tips. It's tempting to do the voice while you record the video. This can lead to problems though. For one thing, that means that your eyes are probably watching the script pretty closely, while you also need your eyes fixed on your mouse pointer. It's going to get awkward! You also want to avoid keyboard and mouse clicks in the final video. Best bet: speak during recording to maintain pacing, but add real voice-over as a later stage (after video edits are done).
Tip #6: Edit short sections and watch that mouse! The more the mouse drifts around, the harder it's going to be to edit that video without jarring mouse jumps. You also may want to think about think of a consistent place to move the mouse between sections of video.By shooting video in shorter sections, your edits will be made much easier, but if you don't keep the pointer in a certain spot, you probably won't line it properly when you shoot the next section. Lining up between sections can be challenging enough for window positions, editor contents, toolbars/nested panes, Start menu items, etc. -- make it easy on your self as you can!
Tip #7: Watch that desktop. Turn off your desktop background. It will just look messy on the final streaming-friendly version. Turn off the system clock. Nothing makes edits more obvious that the clock jumping around!
Tip #8: Choose the right tools. I use Camtasia Studio and Audacity for most of my work. Both are good, but not all the way there. You need heavy-duty software to deal with lots of cuts, splices, rearranging, titles, transitions, etc. Think carefully about what you need to do, then try some trials. I think that Camtasia is probably the best for screencasts, but it's not without its bugs. I experienced two very bad ones in the course of this project and they nearly prevented me from completing it (I had to re-shoot a fair amount to compensate). Use an audio editor for better leveling (noise level equalization) and noise removal (which should be minimal, if present at all, with a good mic).
Tip #9: Back things up! Make frequent copies of your work in progress. If you hit save at the wrong moment, you'll be sorry! Make sure that you can easily revert. Hopefully the Vista Previous Versions feature will help in the future.
Tip #10: Quality, quality, quality! Only record audio in WAV format -- I use 44.1kHz, 16-bit mono. Save video in uncompressed frames, HuffYUV, Techsmith, or something similar. You will lose quality as you edit, or at least when you mix the final video file(s). Start with the best possible quality everywhere. For instance, if you work with MP3 compressed audio, any operation -- trim, silence, leveling -- will result in decompressing, applying the change, then recompressing. You should work with WAV until the final output. Still images should be BMP. Don't worry about space until you are preparing for streaming at the end. Until then, it's gonna be big -- let it be!
Alright, that was pretty long. I hope that it helps someone. Whether its for a video podcast, or a corporate training video, keep these in mind and maybe they'll save you some pain. They definitely help me!
Any tips that you think I should include? Let me know!