I was reading an article over at CNet on how Tiffen was introducing a “steadicam” for the iPhone. If you’re not familiar with steadicams, they’re camera mounts that are typically counter-balanced to smooth out the camera movement. If you’ve ever watched a video shot with a handheld camcorder, you’ll immediately understand the benefit of a steadicam. They remove all the camera shaking.
But this post isn’t about steadicams. I wanted to watch the video to learn more but what really caught my eye is that I think this entire video was produced with Apple’s Keynote presentation tool. This is important because the average user can create a video just like this. Where something like this used to cost thousands of dollars, we’re now able to produce this at home.
I see transitions & effects that are native to Keynote here. QuickTime video is easily embedded into Keynote and adding a soundtrack is easy too. What do you think? Was this created entirely in Keynote?
So here we have a decent size company producing videos with Keynote. It makes me wonder what individuals and small businesses can produce. Do you have any examples of professional “down & dirty” videos you’ve produced? Let me know in the comments.
hey Scott.. Can you use Keynote without Screenflow? I am about to shoot my own info product using Kajabi. I am trying to figure out the best software to use to add myself in video to.. Can I do that with just Keynote or do I also need Screenflow for this?
Thanks,
Lisa
Lisa,
I wouldn’t recommend recording your Keynote presentation with just Keynote. While Keynote allows you to record it and export your presentation as a QuickTime file, it’s note nearly as effective.
When you do you record with Keynote, it’s very difficult to edit the audio if you make a mistake. It’s not possible to just “cut” a mistake out. You have to re-record.
When I was researching the different tools, I found using ScreenFlow or Camtasia to be better because I could go back and edit my mistakes. We all make them and it’s okay. In fact, sometimes you may even want to do 2 takes on a slide. You can’t do that easily with Keynote. With screencasting software, I deliver it until I get it right and then move the next slide. I then cut the bad takes out while editing.
Now if you want to add yourself to your product, you could either use the Picture-in-Picture capabilities of the screencasting software OR you can shoot a separate video of you delivering the presentation with something like the Kodak Zi8. This allows you to then use the Kodak video as a video track along with your screencast video track so you can go back and forth between the two. I like this approach a lot.
If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll help anyway I can.
Thanks so much Scott! That was very helpful.. xo