thank you for participating!
Please know that there are many tools that can be used to record these presentations, all of which usually provide high quality results. This document is an overview of using Zoom to record your presentation, but there are many other great tools, such as Camtasia, Screencast-o-Matic, Quicktime, Vimeo Pro, and more. You can also create very high quality presentation videos with PowerPoint and Keynote. The bottom line is, if you already have experience using any of these other tools and would prefer to use that tool instead of Zoom (and avoid the learning curve), we welcome you to do this. In the end however, you are expected to submit a high quality video (with clear and high quality audio) file to our team to edit and include in the master collection of presentations.
Recording Presentations using Zoom:
There are many great tutorials and support articles on the Zoom website. Here are two links if you need more support than is included in this document:
Zoom help center: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us
Recording on Zoom: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Local-recording
ZOOM SETTINGS:
Before recording, open up your Zoom app and open the "settings" panel.
In the Video Panel, select the camera you will use for your talking head video capture. Browse these settings to set your personal preferences for this.
Also in the Video Panel, make sure that "Enable HD" is checked.
In the “Recording” panel, do the following:
Establish where your recordings will be saved on your computer. Make sure you know where the recorded files are saved, so you can share them with our team when you are done.
CHECK the option to “Optimize for 3rd party editor”
DO NOT CHECK the option to add a timestamp to the recording
CHECK the option to “Record video during screen sharing”
Depending on the layout of your slides, you may wish to check the box for “Place video next to the shared screen in the recording”. If this is unchecked, Zoom will place your video on top of your slides in the upper right hand corner.
DO NOT record to the cloud for these presentations. Quality is always better when recording to your computer rather than recording to the cloud. If your preference is set to record to the cloud, please change it for these recordings.
In the AUDIO PANEL, be sure you have the correct microphone selected, that you have “Auto adjust” selected, and that “Suppress Background Noise” is set to Auto.
CAMERA AND COMPOSITION:
Camera: your built-in webcam will usually suffice. However, if you want to use a different camera you are certainly welcome. Make sure you know how to connect it and choose it as your recording camera, so plan time to proceed through all this. Use the settings I mention above to manage your preferences.
Composition: Make sure the computer's camera is level with your eyes - so you're not looking down or up at the camera. If you need to stack your computer on books or boxes to do this, go right ahead.
“Head Room” - don’t leave too much space at the top of your head, but don’t cut your head off, either! A small space between the top of your head and the top of the camera’s view is ideal.
LIGHTING:
Don't have any bright light sources behind you on camera;
Make sure your face is well lit. Try to avoid high contrast lighting; avoid dark shadows.
Best lighting for faces is indirect light (bounced off a wall) or natural light from a window (but indirect - ie on a cloudy day, shady side of the house, or with translucent curtains drawn).
Here are some great tutorial videos that cover simple & inexpensive lighting for Zoom meetings and recordings:
AUDIO:
Positioning yourself in a quiet room with no echo is always best, no matter what kind of mic you use. However - this is especially important if all you have is the built in microphone on your computer.
You’ll get the best results by using a headset that has a microphone. Wireless or wired are both fine, but make sure any bluetooth devices are fully charged before you record so they don’t fail mid-recording. Don’t forget to choose the correct microphone in the audio settings (above).
Some good headset suggestions would be this:
Apple Airpods (and Airpods Pro) work really well, and they are fairly well hidden - no big headphones to mess up your beautiful hair.
There are other brands out there - just make sure they have a microphone as well as the earphones if you go shopping:
As for wired headsets, most of the headset mic kits from Logitech are really good.
“Poly” makes great stuff, too.
PROCEDURE:
If you will be using some kind of slide deck for your presentation, be sure to open it up and get it ready for presenting before you start recording.
*Note: If you will be using slides (such as PPT, Keynote, or Google Slides) remember to follow best practices for simple and clean design of slide content.
You’ll need to start a new Zoom meeting before you can record. If the Zoom App is not open, open it up, sign in, and start a new meeting (or open up your personal meeting room). After you have adjusted your settings (see above), you can click the record button to begin recording your video file.
Once you begin recording, click on the “share screen” button on the bottom of the Zoom interface. Then you can select what exactly you wish to share for your presentation. If sharing a slide deck, be sure to select the software you’ll be presenting with. If you are sharing any video files, pay attention to the check boxes here that say “Share Sound” and “Optimize for Video Clip”. If appropriate, check these boxes!
When you start the slide deck in your presentation software, it usually defaults to fullscreen. This will result in the best quality, but if you don’t want to go fullscreen, it’s okay. You can review your recording after you're done to see what it looks like.
While you are recording, it's best to proceed all the way through your presentation. If you make any major mistakes during the presentation, it’s best to simply pause, take a few breaths, and start again at the last sentence break so there is a clean spot for an edit. If you want to be really helpful to your video editor, do something visually obvious, like putting both hands up in the air for a moment. That way the editor will see where the edit points are.
When you are done with your presentation, you must first STOP the recording. You’ll see a message that says “Zoom will write the recording files when you end the meeting”. Go ahead and end your Zoom meeting, and the recording file will be processed on your computer (you’ll see a progress bar).
FILES AND SHARING:
Zoom will usually give you plenty of opportunities to tell it where you want to save your recordings. Be sure to select a folder that you can easily find once you are done recording (or keep good track of where it defaults to). For each recording you make, Zoom will write a new folder with several contents, and they are each uniquely identified using the date and time of recording. You can rename these master folders if you want to.
If you want to review your recording, navigate to the folder where the recording files are, and look for the file with the “.mp4” file extension. It’s usually named “Zoom_01.mp4” or something similar. You can watch the video for review, and if you decide you want to re-record your presentation, you are welcome to do so.
Please also include a text document with any editing requests you may have. IE - if you know you made a mistake at 3:15 (3 mins 15 seconds) please let us know so we can be sure to edit that out. Simply add your edit notes document to the final Zipped file you submit to us as outlined below.
Sharing:
We prefer that you share your presentation recordings by uploading the files to the Dropbox folder specified below. You do not need a Dropbox account to do this.
First, we ask that you zip the entire folder that Zoom wrote containing your presentation. On a Mac, you can right-click or command-click on the folder and select the “Compress” command. This will create a new, singular .zip file containing everything from Zoom. Rename this .Zip file with your full name for identification purposes.
On a Windows machine, locate the file or folder that you want to zip. Press and hold (or right-click) the file or folder, select (or point to) Send to, and then select Compressed (zipped) folder. A new zipped folder with the same name is created in the same location.
For sharing via Dropbox, all you need to do is simply upload the .zip file using this URL:
https://www.dropbox.com/request/rpuOJtfmDs7gt73eryR0
Thank you for your attention and participation! Remember - at the top of this document are some very helpful links to the Zoom Help Center, where you can find lots of extra help for recording with Zoom. Also - don’t forget that you can find lots of great help online either via Youtube or other technology websites that will help you refine your practices when it comes to recording a presentation with Zoom.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you are recording Zoom meetings with multiple attendees at various remote locations, the protocols are all the same as above. In this case, we recommend that you also activate the following options in the Zoom “recording settings” panel:
Record a separate audio file for each participant
If you need further support, please browse the online support resources first. If you can’t find the support you need here or from the software support professionals, you may send an email to Pete McCauley at mrpeople.pete@gmail.com - and I will respond to you as soon as my schedule allows.
Good luck and happy recording!
Sincerely,
-Pete
Pete McCauley,
Multimedia Content Producer | Musician | Dad