THIS LOOKS LONG! BUT THAT'S ONLY B/C I'M DETAIL ORIENTED… IT'S ACTUALLY QUITE EASY!…

Start by watching this quick start video showing you how EASY it is to create a talking head video 🙂

To view in FULL SCREEN MODE, just click the little X looking thing towards the bottom right hand corner of the video/Vimeo player and logo!

 

 

 

GET THE TECHNOLOGY

Let's get started! When you have the right tools, it's actually not that hard to create a video with your talking head on it.

EQUIPMENT

  1. Webcam – Your laptop is fine! Ideally, you'll use your NEWEST computer with the most RAM and storage… but just about any recent computer should be fine!
  2. Microphone – You do NOT need a get a new one. Have an smartphone? Just plug in your wired, handsfree earphones and speak into the mic!

 

SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS/PC USERS

This applies to most of you 🙂

  1. Microsoft PowerPoint
  2. Screencast-o-matic for Windows

SOFTWARE FOR MAC

  1. Microsoft PowerPoint
  2. Screencast-o-matic for MAC

 

If you aren't sure about how to install the software… watch this!

 

 

 

MAKE THE RECORDING – ESSENTIALLY THE SAME FOR MAC & PC USERS!

  1. Open your PowerPoint file
  2. Launch Screencast-o-matic
    • PC? – Go to your start button area and find it in your programs.
    • Mac? Do a spotlight search with the magnifying glass in the top right corner, or hit command + space bar and search for Screencast-o-matic
  3. Click Use Free Version during our interviews. Please get the FULL version once we've decided to move forward. It's only $15 and I'll reimburse you for it!
  4. ACTIVATE MIC: Click the SECOND button and select your microphone (Built-in Microphone)
  5. ADJUST VOLUME: Click the THIRD button (green bars) to make sure your audio is working well. Follow these steps to ensure you have good audio
    • Tap your microphone to make sure the green bar shoots forward. If it doesn't, it's possible that you need to select a different mic from the mic button.
    • Adjust the slider to 100% so that the mic captures as much audio as possible
    • Now TEST your volume
      • Turn your computer's volume to 50%
      • Click Record and introduction yourself in your best James Bond voice
      • Click Play to hear how you sound
        • Volume too low? Speak louder OR increase the volume level to 100% on the slider at the top of the floating box
        • Volume too high? That's okay… I'll fix it!
      • Click OK
  6. SELECT SCREEN SIZE TO RECORD: Click the THRID button (blue arrows) and select FULLSCREEN
  7. ACTIVATE WEBCAM: Click the FIFTH button (webcam and arrow) and select your webcam
    • During your actual recording, you will NOT see yourself. Be sure to:
      • Make sure you look pretty 🙂
      • Center yourself
      • Understand the approximate area in which you can interact with the camera
      • Have your eyes as level with the webcam as possible
      • Have your full head in view (not chopped off)
      • Have your mouth towards the middle of the webcam preview box. If you draw an X in the preview window, your mouth should be in the middle or slightly lower.
  8. START RECORDING: Click the FIRST button (big red button)
    • Click OK on the popup window. It basically says that you're recording in fullscreen mode and that your face will disappear, though it will still be recorded 🙂
  9. START SLIDESHOW: Go to the menubar in PowerPoint and start the slideshow
  10. POP POP POP: Look at the webcam and say “Pop Pop Pop!”
  11. PAUSE WHEN NEEDED! – Don't worry about mistakes. Redo slides when you need to. We'll cut out the mistakes. All you have to do to pause is click ALT P (or OPITON P for Mac). You can then click the red RECORD button again to continue where you left off. You can also pause to get a look at your field of view in case you want to do anything silly on camera!
  12. FINISH THE RECORDING PHASE – PLEASE TRY TO LIMIT YOUR SCREENCAST-O-MATIC SESSIONS AND VIDEOS TO ABOUT 30 MIN EACH SO THAT THE FILE SIZES ARE NOT HUGE.
    • Hit ALT P (or OPTION P for Mac)
    • Click DONE
  13. LINE UP YOUR WEBCAM “TALKING HEAD BOX” WITH THE BLUE BOX
    • You'll see your “talking head” on the side. Click RED area at the bottom right corner and make the box as small as possible
    • Scroll in the video box to the middle of your presentation. You should see the fullscreen view of the presentation and the blue box in the bottom right corner
    • Drag your talking head box to the blue box and line up the top left corner of the talking head box with the top left corner of the blue box
    • Now expand the talking head box again by using the red corner. Expand it until it overlaps with the bottom right corner of the blue box
  14. SAVE THE FILE
    • Click PUBLISH TO VIDEO FILE on the right side of the user interface
    • Make sure it says the format is Quicktime MP4, and the size is Full Size
    • Click the SAVE VIDEO button
    • Select a location to save the file. If you and I are sharing a Dropbox folder, save it to that folder and click SAVE
    • Upon completion, click the magnifying glass to locate the video. Open the video and scroll to the middle to make sure that the placement of the talking head box is in the correct location. If so, great! If not, go back to screencast-o-matic and adjust it.
  15. CLOSE DOWN SCREENCAST-O-MATIC: Go back to screencast-o-matic, click BACK, click Done with this video recording, click OK. This will delete screencast-o-matic's version of the two separate files (talking head recording and the webcam recording). It will NOT delete the MP4 you created.

YOU'RE DONE! Now just make sure you get the file to us!

Need a Dropbox account? – CLICK HERE!

Got questions? Email me…