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Vol. 42 No. 6 — July/August 2022

FEATURE
Making Videos With Camtasia—Tips and Techniques
by Stephen Fadel

First, one general suggestion: Pay attention to audio. It’s important. A headset microphone helps ensure consistency and quality (see Figure 1). Once adjusted, the  microphone remains a set distance from the speaker’s mouth, which helps ensure clarity and a consistent volume level, while preventing room echoes. Using a headset does have its downsides—notably, it looks awkward on camera. Still, many think the trade-off is worth it.

Planning

Some people develop an initial list of learning outcomes and then spend time writing a script. Script writing can sometimes lead to stilted, artificial narration. Instead of a script, consider developing a video narration outline. A two-column outline that lists topics on the left and details on the right is easy to use and revise. Additionally, it helps you visualize the items to be reviewed, as well as the sequence of instruction. Whatever process you use, have a clear and limited number of learning outcomes.  

Organizing Files  

In Camtasia, each video project can contain a number of files, including one or more recordings, a project file, images, captions, and any other items that go into creating a finished video. On Windows-based machines, Camtasia seems to favor one default file location: a Camtasia folder in the Documents section of the Windows OS (My Documents in earlier versions of Windows), in which files tend to be mixed all together. Anyone who has tried to revise or update  someone else’s—or even their own—screencasts will find the disorganized mass of files difficult to navigate. Instead, at the start of each new video project, create a project folder. Each project folder can then include all of the various files needed for that video. For example, one of our recent videos on the dataset ExecuComp included the following files under a folder labeled ExecuComp:

• 1.trec (the screencast recording)
• execucomp.tscproj (the screencast project file)
• execucomp.mp4 (the finalized video file)
• captions.srt (the captions file)
• Execucomp_Data_Definitions.pdf (the ExecuComp data definitions help document)
• Execucomp.docx (personal notes/tips about ExecuComp)

To ensure that Camtasia recording files are kept in locations you specify, bring up the Camtasia Recorder (i.e., click Record), select Tools, then Preferences. Under the Files tab, check the box labeled “Prompt for file name” (see Figure 2). Now, after completing a recording, Camtasia will ask you for the location to store it.  

As many know, Camtasia tends to work best when files are located on a user’s own computer hard drive. That said, it’s handy to store Camtasia project files in a backup location that’s accessible to co-workers, such as on a network. This helps ensure that others can access and download video project folders and files to their own machine and work on them from their own computer, if needed.

Recording

Moving to the recording process, you may find it useful to frame screencasts with a short, personal introductory video clip at the start of screencasts and a short concluding video clip at the end. Aside from helping to build a more authentic presentation, seeing an actual person should help promote stronger ties with viewers.  

Also, if you decide to include personal camera video clips, consider not introducing yourself at the start of each and every video. Instead, use a speaker caption box (a callout box in Camtasia). For instance, in my videos, the caption reads, “Stephen Fadel, CSUMB Business Librarian.” It appears at the bottom-left side of the screen and fades out as the video progresses (see Figure 3).  

To save time and effort, simply copy and paste the introductory caption box from one project to the next. Here’s the process. When working on a new video in the Camtasia editing desktop, click File, then Recent Projects. Pick a previous project that includes a speaker caption box. Once opened, right-click on the desired speaker caption box in the timeline and select Copy (see Figure 4). Then, return to your current project. Click on the camera introduction video track in the timeline and paste the caption box into the recording. The caption format, duration, and position are all retained. You can also use the same Camtasia  copy-and-paste process to add a concluding contact details caption box (i.e., email address, phone number) from one Camtasia project to the next.  

When naming Camtasia .trec recording files, you may find it simpler and more intuitive to use numbers. For example, you’ll notice that the contents of the ExecuComp project folder cited earlier included one recording labeled simply 1.trec. In another video project (an introduction to the library website), we created four recordings, which were labeled 1.trec, 2.trec, 3.trec, and 4.trec.  

Editing

If you decide to start and end videos with personal video clips, it’s nice to have those clips fade in and out. For example, in a recent video, the recording opens with a full-screen personal video introduction, which then zooms down to the bottom-right corner, shifting the viewer’s focus from the speaker to the information resource platform (i.e., ExecuComp). Fifteen seconds later, the speaker video fades away completely. To move and fade video while retaining the original audio and screen recording, you’ll need to split the camera introduction recording into separate audio and video tracks. Just right-click on the camera recording track in your timeline, and select Separate Audio and Video. The camera recording track should split into two tracks: One will be the camera recording, and the other will be the audio recording. You can then edit the camera recording as needed.  

At first, the headshot video in the Camtasia canvas may appear small and in one corner (see Figure 5). Just click on a corner of the headshot frame and drag the frame so that headshot fills the entire canvas. Next, in the timeline, cut the camera track where you want the in-person video introduction to end. If you make a mistake—which is easy to do with multiple tracks—use Ctrl and Z to undo any recent edits. To zoom out to the corner, click on Custom (under Animation on the Camtasia desktop,) and drag Custom onto the camera track (see Figure 6). Then, resize and  reposition the video on the screen.

When using zoom, movement should appear natural—not too fast and not too slow—and match the narration and action on the screen. Once completed, you can then cut and delete a large portion of the rest of the camera recording, being careful to leave a portion at the end for the concluding camera video recording. Other features librarians may find useful are Blur (to hide usernames at logins) and Spotlight (to highlight an area of the screen). Adding and editing these is fairly intuitive.  

One more complex option is the caption box that builds as the video progresses. For instance, in the ExecuComp project, the video reviews different content coverage dates of the database. The caption box first appears listing early content coverage. Then, a few seconds later, it adds more-current coverage dates. Behind the scenes, what viewers see as one caption box is actually two overlaid sequenced caption boxes. One caption lists “1992–1994: S&P 500,” and a second caption that overlays the first adds “1994–present: S&P 1500” (see Figure 7).  

The same technique was used in a video demonstrating the CRAAP (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose) evaluation method. It required multiple stacked boxes to define and highlight the CRAAP acronym. To save time when creating a stack of boxes, don’t create a new box each time. Instead, copy the first box. Then, paste and edit the rest.  

Another way to simplify and expedite editing is the option to select and simultaneously move multiple items on the Camtasia timeline. For example, if you’ve added something mid-recording and need to push all of the items that are on multiple tracks (e.g., audio, video, callouts, blurs) further down the timeline, simply hold down the Crtl key while clicking on the objects in the timeline to select multiple items, which you can then move en masse.  

Captions

After the editing process, it’s time to create the video. On the Camtasia toolbar, selecting Export, then Local File (instead of YouTube) allows users to choose the size and format (e.g., MP4 only, up to 1080) as well as the location of the MP4 file (i.e., your designated project folder). (For example, we placed our completed ExecuComp mp4 file in the ExecuComp folder created at the start of the project.) Then, log in to YouTube, and upload the video. At this point, videos are uncaptioned. YouTube’s automatic captioning works OK, but captions need to be corrected. Listening and making corrections to captions on YouTube is one of the more tedious and time-consuming steps in the video production process. For those not using scripts, the process of listening to and correcting captions usually heightens awareness of bad speech patterns and provides a strong incentive to improve speaking in future videos. Keep in mind that shorter videos mean fewer captions, which means less time spent correcting them.  

Once captions have been corrected and published, you may want to download a copy of the captions file to your project folder. Having a copy of the captions file saves time if a video is slightly modified or updated sometime in the future. Then, you won’t need to correct the entire transcript for a new video. Just upload the previously saved captions file and make edits as required.  

Assessment

For assessment, YouTube provides video and channel statistics. The Channel Analytics page (see Figure 8) defaults to statistics from the last 28 days. Other choices are available. Date limits that we found to be useful are “Last 7 days,” “Custom,” and “Lifetime.” Once selected, you’ll see a list of top videos ranked by number of views.

Clicking See More presents a spreadsheet of statistics (see Figure 9). On the left is a list of all videos, and at the top, users can choose from more than a dozen statistical categories (such as viewer age and geography). “Traffic source” seems useful since it provides some idea about community—your students, faculty members, and staffers—versus non-community viewers, such as the general public. Although imperfect, this section can shed some light on who is using your videos—is it the local community or the rest of the world?

Conclusion