THE SCREENCASTER
The Official Newsletter of dapper|text

 In this issue:

    * Honestly Compelling VO: What the voiceover acting industry
      can teach us about narrating a screencast.
    * How Not to Waste Your Audience's Time: Making use of the new
      and improved Clip Speed tool in Camtasia Studio, and why
      you'll want to use it.
    * The Grumpy Old FAQ: Daniel dives into the ol' mailbag, and
      answers all your questions and concerns about the Definitive
      Guide.

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Dear :

Before we dive in, let me quickly remind you that this is the final
day to take advantage of our 30% launch special on Camtasia Studio
7: The Definitive Guide. The price goes back up to $49 tomorrow at
5pm EST, and it's not coming down again any time soon.

We've gotten a lot of kudos as well as a few critical comments
(thankfully all related to the format, not the content itself). If
you haven't yet downloaded, you can do so here:

http://cs7book.s3.amazonaws.com/CS7_DG.exe

If you are checking it out, and just wanted a bit of time to put
the free content through its paces, now's the time to get off the
fence, and onto the road to screencasting gurudom. Don't forget to
check out our Definitive Guide Grumpy Old FAQ at the end of this
issue for answers to all your burning questions.

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HONESTLY COMPELLING VO.

"The was lovely, Daniel. You clearly have a lot of experience in
front of the mic. But you sound like a radio announcer. Remember,
it can't sound like acting."

I was a little offended.

Back in June, I attended a special workshop on voiceover acting for
video games, put on by Outsource Media in London. Aspiring
performers come from all over the UK to train themselves up on the
art and business of delivering a convincing voiceover performance
in the increasingly sophisticated world of interactive
entertainment. I had come all the way from Spain.

I had always taken pride on being myself in front of the mic, on
staying genuine even when specifically creating a screencast with
the goal of hard-selling a product. And yet there I was, being told
that I sounded no more convincing than the schlock-jocks who hawk
fan belts, fast food, and financial services down at Lite-FM.

Days after the workshop, I went back and listened to the segments I
had recorded that day, and my eyes went wide. My instructor was
right.

Honesty's a rare commodity in VO delivery. The slick, singsongy
warbles of the radio pitchman almost invite suspicion nowadays.
Consumers have been taken in before. We're wiser now.
 
Voice acting and screencasting narration aren't remotely the same
animal, of course. There are wildly different goals for each, but
do remember that honesty in the delivery transcends all genres of
voiceover work. It's essential no matter what reason you're going
behind the mic.
 
So how to attain it, that's the question. The cliché answer is "be
yourself." It sounds like something out of an after-school special.
But sometimes clichés are so often repeated for a good reason. This
one happens to be "right as rain."
 
So let's talk specific tips...

    * First, take a look your script. Are there 75-cent words that
have no place in everyday conversation? Strike them. Industry
jargon that only a portion of your audience will understand?
Simplify. The goal of your screencast isn't to demonstrate how much
smarter you are than they. Whether training or marketing, you need
to connect on a basic, human level. That's a little hard to
accomplish when you're talking down to them.

    * On a related note, try to use the first person in your
narration when possible. When working for a large organization, I
know this isn't always feasible. A lot of companies shy away from
letting individuals in their group be, well, individuals. But think
about the last time you were on hold after dialing up some
corporate entity: "Your call is very important to us." Yeah, right.
Now think about the times (increasingly rare nowadays) that you
actually managed to reach a human being on the other end who was
compassionate, personable, and eager to help. In screencasting, you
want to be that dude (or dudette). When one person is empowered by
their large, impersonal employer to spread their knowledge and
enthusiasm in a personal way, good things happen. Check out The
Cluetrain Manifesto for more information on this.

    * Try to avoid too many layers of polish. It is of course vital
to be professional. But one thing that's always bothered me about
products like Adobe Captivate, with its smooth-as-glass mouse
movements, is that the content looks like a robot did it. In both
your visuals and your narration, try to keep it a bit loose. Make
an off-topic aside or a corny joke. Show a little emotion (so long
as it's genuine). Let 'em know there's an actual human being behind
the scenes. Of course, these assorted bits of personality tend to
be first on the chopping block if you're one of those unlucky souls
who must submit their storyboards for committee review. Narrow
minds will always try to suck the humanity out of your work in the
interest of "professionalism." Fight to maintain it when possible.

Based on this last point, it seems even I have some work to do, if
my abysmal demo tape from that workshop is any indication. Radio
announcers belong on the radio. Not in your screencast.

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CLIP SPEED AND SCREENCAST EFFICIENCY

As any of my screencasting students will tell you, one of my
biggest pet peeves is work that's polluted by pointless content and
pauses through which you could drive a Mack truck. I'll even go as
far as to say that it's disrespectful to waste your users' time in
that manner. If you show hunt-n-peck typing of whole paragraphs,
endless loading screens, and progress bars that progress at the
rate of drying paint, then you're guilty of this. When I as a user
have one of these atrocities inflicted upon me, I more often than
not end up shouting at the screen: Get to the damned point!
 
Up to now, the best option for addressing this was to make
judicious cuts while working through the video, but when you're
wanting to show an entire process in an expedient way, this can be
incredibly time-consuming. It's literally death by a thousand tiny
cuts.
 
Enter the Clip Speed feature of Camtasia Studio, formerly
practically unusable, but it got a HUGE facelift with the release
of version 7.1. I threw together a quick screencast showing you not
only how to use it, but why you'd want to. Check it...

http://screencastervids.s3.amazonaws.com/SC004/clipspeed.html

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GRUMPY OLD FAQ: A CANTANKEROUS AUTHOR DIVES INTO THE MAILBAG

Over the last week, I've gotten loads of good feedback, including
some questions and concerns. As a lot of the same ones tended to
turn up over and over, I assembled a quick document here to help
address them. NOTE: I was feeling a bit sassy when I sat down to
compose this section, so proceed at your peril. This ain't your
father's FAQ...


"I'm trying to figure out how to buy your book, but there's no link
or button for doing so. What gives? Don't you want my money?"

Oh, darling, don't be silly, of course I do. Here's what you do...
The first six chapters are free. Proceed to any point past chapter
six, and the activation window will automatically pop, so that you
can unlock the rest.

I too was puzzled by the reader vendor's decision to not let me add
an explicit button. I think it's because most authors only give
away a few pages, or a single chapter at most. I gave away a full
20% of the book, so it takes a little time before you hit that
threshold where the content isn't free any more.


"Why is your book an EXE file? I need admin privileges to open it,
and I don't have them."

Don't you hate that? The executable you downloaded is a combination
file that contains both the book document and a tiny (about 1mb)
reader application that gets invisibly installed on your machine.
This install does require admin privileges. Sorry about that. Have
your admin install it for you, or simply install on your personal
computer, away from the corporate lock-down.


"Can't you just give it to me as a PDF?"

Absolutely! Assuming of course you're willing to become a volunteer
employee, spending two arduous months painstakingly laying the book
out for a new format, complete with all screenshots and
accompanying screencasts, and then do custom programming to build
e-commerce and DRM protection right into the book...
 
Otherwise, no.
 

"DRM? As in Digital Rights Management? But DRM is pure,
unadulterated evil! I'm outta here!"
 
Easy, Sparky. Yes, you'll need to activate the book in order to use
it. But all my decisions regarding how to protect the book lean
decidedly away from the draconian. You can activate a single
license on up to three machines, and I also don't cripple printing
or the PrintScreen key. I wanted some basic protections in place,
but I'm not about hassling legitimate users.


"I downloaded it, and Norton/McAffee/some other app told me the
file was suspicious! What are you trying to pull here?"

Oops, you caught me. I'd actually like nothing better than to
infect your computer with a million viruses, which is of course
totally consistent with my goal of selling you a book.  ;-)

Look, when you have a container file that contains a document as
well as an application install, some of the more cautious security
tools will send up a red flag. But the file has been checked and
checked again. There are no viruses, malware, adware, spyware, or
any other kind of ware other than bookreader-ware. Scout's honor.
Destroying your machine would be very bad for business.


"I want to be able to zoom in on the text, OR only view one page at
a time instead of opposing pages, OR set up bookmarks, OR make some
other feature request related to the reader application."

I agree that those would all be useful features. The problem is
that I'm not directly empowered to do anything about it. I didn't
program the reader application, an Australian company called DNAML
did. I can pass your feedback on to them, and hereby promise to do
so. But I can't twitch my little nose like Samantha on "Bewitched"
and make it happen. The reader app does have its faults, but I
chose this format because it gets a lot more right than wrong. And
I'm certain it'll only improve over time.

---------------------------------------------------- 
 


dappertext LLC is a screencasting consultancy created and led by
Daniel Park (that's me). Started in 2003, we've created hundreds of
training and marketing screencasts for dozens of clients. Our
client roster includes the likes of Pfizer, the Mayo Clinic, the
Internal Revenue Service, Autodesk, The Cheesecake Factory, and
Microsoft.

If you lack the time or inclination to produce quality screencasts
for your organization, we'd love to help you out. We'll take your
materials, create an utterly splendid narration script and
storyboard, capture, edit, produce, and post. Zero hand-holding
required.

And if you're a do-it-yourselfer, you may want to have us come
onsite and train your team on Camtasia Studio and best practices
for screencasting in general. 

For all things screencasting, give us a shout: info@dappertext.com.



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All of the above is ©2011 by Daniel Park, except in the case of
articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own
musings.

Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o'
feedback to info@dappertext.com.

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