Video Producer Guide
This guide documents the video production of the Montreal Elixir meetups.
We use Screenflow for video editing. If you do not have a license, please contact the meetup organizer.
Gather all media files
Create a working folder on your computer for the meetup (i.e. 20170914)
Create a subfolder for each presentation, using the title (i.e. community-updates)
Copy the files from the SD cards to the working folder. Video editing will be faster if the files are on your computer instead of the SD card.
Plug the Audio Recorder and extract the MP3 file for the backup audio. Place the fil in the meetup folder.
Now let's start video editing the presentation.
IMPORTANT: save your work often in Screenflow!!! It can crash, and it will crash.
Template
First, download the template to use. The templates (zipped) can be found in the Montreal Elixir Playbook.
If the presenter was to the left of the screen, use template-left,
otherwise use template-right.
Copy the template in each presentation folder. Change its name so that it reflects the presentation title.
Then, open up the file in Screenflow. Get familiar with the assets in the template. Watch it to see how the transitions are implemented.
Title
First, save your work. You may also want to turn of the "Show Audio Waveforms" option in the View menu to speed up Screenflow.
In the timeline, drag the "pointer" to the title slide and click on the title clip in the timeline (first row, first clip). You should see the presentation title in the preview pane. In the preview pane, double-click on the title and update it. Do the same with the presenter name and the date.
Sponsors
If required, add/remove sponsors. One sponsor per "slide".
Media Clips
Notice where the presentation clips are located in the timeline (second and third rows). We will remove them later. For now, let's keep them in the timeline.
In the toolbar panel at the right, click on the last icon. That should bring up the Media Library. At the bottom of the library, click on "Add Media..." and select the presenter's video clip in your working folder. Do the same with the HDMI video capture (.ts file). You have to drag the file to that panel (the Add media button does not allow selecting .ts files).
Presenter clip
Now locate the presenter's clip in the media library and drag it on the second row, at the end (after the dummy one we have there). It's around the 28s mark.
Preview the video and locate where the presentation should start. Right-click on the clip and select "Split Clip" (or T on the keyboard). The first part should automatically be selected. Hit "Delete" on the keyboard to delete it. Go at the end of the clip and locate where the presentation should stop. It should stop just before the questions, and after the audience stopped applauding. Split the clip at that location and delete the last part.
Now drag the preview pointer to approx. 5s into the presenter's clip. In the toolbar, click on the first icon. You should now see the Video pane. Click on the presenter's clip and then on the "+ Action" button in the Video pane. We are adding a video action to change the dimension and position of the video. Change the scale to 29%.
Leave the clip at this temporary location in the timeline. It will be useful for syncing the screen capture.
HDMI clip
Locate the HDMI clip in the media library and drag it on the third row at around 30s. Move the marker to a location where you can see both the presenter's clip and the HDMI clip. Click on the HDMI clip in the timeline.
The next step is to drag the presenter's video on the timeline so that both clips are synced. This can be a bit tedious. The frame should include a small portion of the projection screen at the right (or left). The presentation most likely has a change in the background colour. Locate that moment in the first few seconds of the presenter's clip. Use the left/right arrow on the keyboard to fine-tune the position. Now click on the HDMI clip, and drag it left or right in the frame untill the frames align.
Then you can split the HDMI clip and remove the "overflow".
At this point, you should have to clips synced and of the same length.
Layout & transitions
Move the preview pointer to approx. 2 seconds after the location where we we added the video action to shrink the presenter's clip. Click on the presenter's clip and set the proper cropping values in the Video pane:
Cropping - left: 200
Cropping - right: 200
Then in the preview pane, drag the video rectangle in the bottom corner. It will snap to the borders.
Click on the HDMI clip in the timeline. In the preview pane, locate the vertical handles (small circle in the middle). Click on it and drag to resize the video. Make the border snap with the presenter's clip.
Next, move the preview marker to the beginning of the presentation and click on the presenter's clip. The video in the preview pane should be fullscreen. We need to resize it. Click on the clip in the Preview pane, locate the resize handle on the side and drag towards the center until it snaps to the HDMI clip underneath.
Preview the clips. If the clips shrinks at the wrong moment, you can drag left or right the video action on the clip (small blue square).
For each clip, right-click and select "Add Starting & Ending Transaction".
Then click on the HDMI clip and drag the start of it to the right so that it starts after the transition of the presenter's clip, otherwise, it will bleed into it.
Now we can delete the dummy clips. Select them and select "Edit > Delete" (or Delete key).
For the next steps, it is useful to see the entire timeline. Use the zoom slider at the bottom so you can all the clips.
Select both the presenter's clip and HDMI clip (shift click on the second one). Then drag them to left until they touch the last sponsor slide.
Double-click the logo clip on the fourth row. Change the duration to the one you see in the footer + 2 seconds.
Do the same with the background clip on the fifth row.
Zoom the timeline and go at the end of the video and make sure the clips are aligned. Visually, it is nice to have the background and logo fade out after the presenter's clip. Adjust accordingly.
Export
First, review to make sure everything plays well.
Save your work.
Then in the File menu, select "Export..." and use these settings:
Web - High
Scale by 100%
Publish
Upload the video to YouTube but don't make it public yet. Send a secret private link to the meetup organizer for approval. Don't add anything else to the YouTube entry because if the video editing has to be updated, you cannot update a new version of the video and you will loose that data.
Upload a corrected to YouTube if necessary. Add meta-data to the entry (refer to a previous meetup video as a guide).
Let the organizer know that the video is ready for publishing.
Archiving
Send your files to the video organizer for archiving purposes.
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