If you would like to contribute a videocast to the community here are some standards and policies, and some helpful hints on how to do it.

Policy on subscription-required video sites

Only post freely-available videos in this section; in other words, all links posted to videos should go directly to a page where someone can immediately watch the video without paying, registering, or subscribing.

The only exception is that if you have a site that offers relevant Drupal videos by subscription (or some free, some by subscription), you can have it added to the Video Repositories page. To request that a video site be added to that page, file an issue in the Documentation project.

Creating the Video

Some popular recording applications:

Mac

• Audio Hijack Pro $32 | Captures audio from any source on Mac OS X, including Skype.
• WireTap Studio $69 | Captures audio only, from any source that passes through Mac OS X, including Skype. Includes waveform viewer and library functions.
• ScreenFlow 99.00 USD | Allows video and screen capture simultaneously
• Camtasia for Mac 99.00 USD
• Snapz Pro (Commercial, Quicktime)
• iShowU (Commercial, Quicktime)
• Jing (Free, FLV format)

Windows

• Wink (Free, FLV format)
• CamStudio (Free, AVI, SWF)
• Camtasia (very commercial, editing suite)
• Jing (Free, FLV format)
• BB Flashback Three products to choose from, including an excellent free version.

Linux

• RecordMyDesktop
• Krut
• (also refer to an article on 5 Ways to Screencast your Linux Desktop)
• Xvidcap

Other screen recording software can be found on Wikipedia.

Video Production Tips

1. Make sure that the format of the videos is cross-platform! Windows Media (.wmv) is not universally supported on all platforms. We recommend QuickTime (.mov) which is available on Windows, Mac OS and Linux-based systems.
2. Add a Creative Commons license to your video. Without a clear license, we can't be sure whether it is "safe" to host these videocasts for you.
3. Use a resolution of 800x600 or higher. With smaller resolutions it becomes difficult to read text in the movie. When trying to resize your browser in preparation for recording, you can use a JavaScript snippet to resize your browser. Save the following as a bookmark:

   javascript:self.moveTo(8,28);self.resizeTo(800,600);

4. You'll also need a microphone. If you do not have one, you might consider an inexpensive Plantronics USB headset like this one. Good audio really helps make a good production. Here are some tips to making your audio sound good: http://geoffhankerson.com/10-tips-for-better-sounding-podcasts.html
5. Its a good idea to make an outline of the steps you wish to present in your screencast. Type A personality folks may like to script the whole thing. Run through the lesson without recording once or twice get comfortable teaching the lesson.
6. There are 2 ways to approach making a screencast. The first is a completely "live to tape" workflow. In this case the producer records the audio and video (including mouse clicks and typing) all at the same time. If you are a new producer, you may find this like trying to pat your head and rub your belly at the same time. If this is the case for you, consider this alternative.

   The alternative is to record the video first, and record a voiceover later. Simply record the steps you wish to present on your computer clicking your mouse and typing where need until you have shown all the steps you wish to present. Then record the voiceover with your audio application and use you video editor to stitch it all together.

Audio Editing Programs

• Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (Win, Mac, Linux)
• GarageBand http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ (Mac)
• Amadeus Pro http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html (Mac)
• Check out the Levelator to maximize and easily compress your audio

Video editing Programs

• iMovie http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ (Mac)
• Adobe Premiere Elements http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/ (Mac, Win)
• Quicktime Pro http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ (Mac, Win)

Recommended Settings

(as used for the Lullabot and Drupal Dojo videos)

• Compression: H.264
• Frame Rate: 10
• Key Frame Rate: 500
• Encoding mode: multi-pass
• Internet Streaming: yes

For a more detailed discussion on video settings, see Tips and Encoding Settings for Long Duration Screencasts.

Slides

Feel free to use these slides in your videocasts.

• Creative Commons slide (yellow, full-text)
• Creative Commons slide (black, symbols)
• Drupal Videocast bumper

Uploading the video

To save your bandwidth and make the video most accessible to people we recommend providing the video in two ways - a place to watch and place to download.

We recommend blip.tv or Vimeo to host movies for easy viewing, then you can use Embedded Media Field to display them on your site. You can access the source video once you have uploaded and they allow you to choose your license and offer the full array of Creative Commons licenses. When you link to the video from your handbook page, link to the "source" rather than the blip page to get the best quality. You can get the source link either on your account page or from the video's blip page under Share > Permalinks. Also, make sure you add the drupal tag to it along with any other appropriate tags.

For downloads we recommend setting it up as a torrent. We have found Zudeo to be a reliable and easy way to get torrents started.

Create your handbook page

Create a child page for the video under the appropriate section (see points 2 and 3 above under Additional Suggestions about being focused - videos that cover too many areas may end up confusing the viewer). Give a short summary of what the video is about and make sure the title is specific enough that someone just browsing the list has a decent idea of what it is. Remember to add the watch and download links (if you have both) to your video. If your video is in a language other then English just put the language at the end of the page title, e.g. My Video Tutorial - Spanish.)