Tag Archives: video

Why we love ScreenFlow: screen capture for the Mac

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If you spend any time teaching people about online tools, or documenting them, or pitching them, chances are you’ve thought about screen capture software. And last week, a post on the Web of Change email list asked for recommendations on just that topic.

I weighed in on the side of Telestream’s ScreenFlow, and I’m sharing it here in case you’re looking for something for your next computer or Internet tutorial:

I have a two-year torrid love affair with ScreenFlow (although Darren Barefoot has actually proposed to marry it, so consider me trumped). It’s Mac-only, but if you’re in the Apple universe, you get an awful lot for the $99 pricetag.

Here’s some of what I like:

  • A simple, intuitive editing interface that – for me, at least – beats the more recent versions of iMovie for making sense right off the bat
  • Fast and easy creation of callouts (that is, highlights, with background blurring and darkening, and foreground zooming)
  • Fast and easy annotation with text and shapes
  • Easy addition of new recordings
  • Simple adjustment of playback speed

And here’s some of what I’d like to see:

  • Clip masking or cropping
  • Integrating edited clips into one, so you can then apply affects to the whole
  • Customizable presets for text, annotations and callouts
  • More customization in the export settings, especially publishing
  • Better HTML5 support in publishing

Check out some of the other feature requests from the user community.

A note: because its export function relies on QuickTime, you’re limited to Apple’s selection of video formats (of which H.264 is probably the most universal). So if you have your heart set on WebM or Ogg, you’re out of luck.

How about you? Got a favourite screen capture tool? Do you use QuickTime’s free screen recording feature on the Mac? CamStudio on Windows? Camtasia? Jing? Make your case in the comments!*

* Vendors, you know we love you, but please leave this conversation for users and customers. Thanks!

Common Craft’s latest move helps point the way for content creators

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Sachi and Lee LeFever’s company Common Craft has reinvented itself a few times… and each time, they just get more and more useful. From an online community consulting firm, Common Craft turned into a creator and provider of simple, charming and monstrously popular explanatory videos – starting with the now-famous RSS in Plain English.

Now they’ve relaunched Common Craft with a membership model for anyone who wants to help educate others. Join for a reasonable fee (there’s a reduced rate for schools and non-profits) and you gain access to the entire Common Craft library, which you can use in presentations or embed on your site.

There are a lot of reasons I’m delighted by this latest evolution, not the least of which is my happiness at seeing friends succeed. But maybe the biggest one is this:

Nearly every traditional business model for content creation is in turmoil these days. Books, newspapers, television, movies, music — all of those industries are scrambling to cope with the challenges of a new and dynamic digital world. So when someone comes along who can create something terrific, who can do it really well, and can turn that into a viable business, it offers real hope for anyone who wants to earn a livelihood from their creative talents and skills.

Maybe, on a good day, I could whip up an explanation of what I mean using paper cutouts and a whiteboard. But I think I’ll leave that to the experts.

Let your fingers do the climbing… and the opting out.

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Two enterprising folks dropped by the Yellow Page Group corporate headquarters in Montreal and built a small mountain of more than 500 unwanted Yellow Page directories in front of it… and interviewed a YPG rep brave enough to defend the indefensible.

(How enterprising? One is Aimee Davison, who is currently blogging about doing 100 interesting jobs by the end of the year. The other is Kyle MacDonald, whom you may remember as the guy who traded a single red paper clip for a house.) (Not all at once. He traded steadily up.)

There’s a lot to like about this video, but let me single out just one thing: the fact that the corporate rep is there at all, and is allowed to make her case. That ultimately makes the piece far more effective and persuasive; you hear the pro-Yellow Pages argument, but see it contradicted by the video evidence the video-makers gathered.

The staggeringly bogus “only one per cent of Canadians opt out” argument might be my favourite moment, though. That number might well be accurate. But…

  • Given how little effort YPG puts into promoting their opt-out web page, and the fact you have to keep renewing your opted-out status, I’m pretty impressed that it’s that high.
  • And ask yourself: how high would it be if people had to opt in using the same process?

To opt out of getting the Yellow Pages:

Rob on what 2010 will bring for social media

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I missed passing this along when it first came out, because I didn’t know those nice CBC people had put it on YouTube. It’s their segment on what to expect in 2010 for social media, based on an interview they did with me in their stunning new Vancouver studios.

The key point for me is that I’m finding people are becoming more deliberate and discerning about where they direct their attention, whether it’s in who they friend, what they watch or which applications they install on Facebook. (That doesn’t mean I’ll always agree with the choices they make: witness the rise of FarmVille. [shudder])

And in the background, yes, you’ll see VanTrash on my screen.

Enjoy… and see what you think of how my predictions are turning out one month in.

Personalized video, Facebook widget raising funds for BC Children’s Hospital

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As causes go, you can’t get much closer to our hearts than with a children’s hospital. The thought of having to take one of our kids there is wrenching, and I’m sobered by the fact that thousands upon thousands of children – and their parents – go through that every day.

We want those kids to get the care they need swiftly and effectively. We want our best medical knowledge brought to bear, and we want clean, quality facilities that promote good health as well as healing sickness.

So we jumped at the chance to work with the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, helping them chart a social media strategy for engaging their audiences and raising money. The focus is their “Be a Superhero” campaign, in support of their $200-million plan to create one of the world’s top centres for children’s health.

Our first efforts are now live online, centered around what we believe is the first use of personalized video as a donor recognition and fundraising tool. The Be a Superhero video shows a newscast – using the donor’s or prospect’s name – that either thanks them for being a hero to BC kids, or invites them to step up to the plate.

Superhero Facebook applicationBut it doesn’t end there. You can add your superhero video to your Facebook profile and launch your own Facebook-based fundraising campaign, inviting your friends to be superheroes as well.

(We’ve also been helping the hospital engage their fans on Twitter – you can follow the foundation at @bcchf.)

It’s still early days, but we’re excited about breaking new ground for the hospital, and helping kids like ours across BC… and we’d love it to succeed. If you’d like to help, too, here’s how:

  1. Watch the video, and send it to as many of your friends as you can.
  2. Add the Facebook application, and install the fundraising widget on your profile.
  3. Become a fan of the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation Facebook page.
  4. Follow BCCHF on Twitter.

And finally…

Vancouver’s Twestival is coming on September 12, organized by the amazing Rebecca Bollwitt, aka Miss604.

Rebecca has launched an online poll to decide which local non-profit should be the beneficiary of the Twestival’s fundraising efforts – and the BC Children’s Hospital is a strong contender.

Voting closes tomorrow (Friday), so if you could take just a moment and vote now, or using the poll on the right-hand side of this page, we’d be delighted… thanks!


Why broadcast advertising isn’t working so well any more

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Funny that it would come from Microsoft, but they have been making some real strides in a more conversational approach to marketing. And while there isn’t a lot in here you couldn’t have read in the Cluetrain Manifesto almost a decade ago, it’s always a little reassuring to see ideas like these getting some traction with the bigger players.