There’s Gold in them thar screens!
When you have a chance to sit down with an expert and learn more about what he or she does, there is a big chance it’s going to involve a computer. In the book, Training on Bedrock, we talk about capturing screenshots or simply recording the screen so you have images of what you were looking at while talking about a particular task or step. I’m not going to repeat what you’ve read there but instead, I’d like to talk about the alternatives.
Depending on the computer system, you may not be able to record the expert’s screen as you’d like. That means you need to be creative. You need to look for alternatives to recording the expert’s actions as you observe them performing tasks.
The main alternate method I’ll talk about here involves using a video camera on a tripod pointed at the user’s screen. It’s not ideal and can be challenging to make it work.
Here are some challenges you’ll need to overcome.
Glare
Frame rate syncing
Sound
Glare
If you’ve ever tried taking a picture of someone with glasses, you’ve experienced the problems here.
The challenge comes from other lights bouncing off the expert’s computer screen and creating a glare for your camera. While it may feel like a small nuisance, it can obscure critical parts of the expert’s screen making it unreadable. Here’s what to do.
When you setup initially, you’ll normally look for some kind of “over the shoulder” shot so you can focus mostly on the screen but keep it usable for the expert.
But then, as you sit down and look through the monitor, you notice a glare in part of the screen.
Of course turning off the offending light is a great first step but depending on your office situation, that may not be an option. In that case you need to adjust your camera position. It doesn’t need to be a lot and my be up, down, left, or right to remove the glares from the expert’s screen.
That should be it. Glares aren’t a big deal but they can easily creep in if you aren’t paying attention. A few simple adjustments can usually eliminate them.
Frame Rate Syncing and Flicker
It’s likely you’ve seen video before where a computer screen seems to have lines rolling through it. It may flicker or just not look right. A lot of this has to do with the frame rates you record and the refresh rate of the monitor.
Here is a fun example of what things can look like when your camera’s frame rate syncs with things in your shot.
Kyle Lawrence has a great video on YouTube I highly recommend to see more about what you may need to consider when recording a monitor with an external camera.
Sound
Next, consider that if your camera is off to the side, it’s built in microphone may not be able to capture your conversation with the expert. It may sound like you are talking in the next room. In the book, we talk about using a simple USB microphone connected directly to the expert’s computer so everything is captured in one file while you record their screen.
There are two methods to consider when capturing sound outside of the camera.
Sound Recorder
Lavalier Microphone
Sound Recorder
Some cameras offer an audio input. You can connect a shotgun microphone directly into some cameras and aim it at you and your expert to still capture things all at once. However, some higher quality microphones have different connections and won’t connect directly to a computer. To use these types of microphones, you may consider a simple external audio recorder.
Some external recorders come with their own built-in microphones. You could use a small digital recorder you can get most places, but I’d recommend you get something a little higher quality. While it may be a little more expensive, you’ll appreciate how the sound is more clear and easier to work with if you later combine the external sound with the video file in editing.
For an external recorder, here is a good model I’d recommend starting with.
Zoom H5
You can find this at B&H
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1026852-REG/zoom_h5_handy_recorder.html
The nice thing about these external recorders is how they have a built in microphone but also have inputs for additional high quality microphones.
Lavalier Microphones
I’m sure you’ve seen people wearing a lavalier microphone when talking in a video. A lavalier microphone is a small microphone attached to a person’s shirt and does a great job of capturing what the person says even if she turns away from the camera. The expert wears a small pack attached to her waist or belt.
Some lavaliers wirelessly send the sound to a recorder. Some other models capture the sound internally on a memory card the pack. Here are two models I’d recommend you look at.
Rode Wireless GO Compact Digital Wireless Microphone System
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1471382-REG/rode_wireless_go_compact_wireless.html
Tentacle Sync TRACK E Pocket Audio Recorder with Lavalier Mic and Timecode Support
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1506356-REG/tentacle_sync_track_e_pocket_audio.html
Using one of these options will capture amazing sound of your conversation with the expert and allow you to easily pair the audio file with the video later as you edit. This can make for very usable clips you may use later in the training itself.