adapted from https://2020.pycon.org.au/speakers/

<aside> 💡 Reminder - if you need equipment, contact Catherine Nelson ([email protected]) with your requirements. We have the budget to buy you what you need for an awesome quality recording. If you need special software for recording your talk, we may also be able to help.

</aside>

<aside> 💡 If you have any questions about what software you should use or how you should edit your video, or absolutely anything else, please reach out to Catherine Nelson ( [email protected]). We're expecting a wide range of experience from our speakers — from those who've spoken a few remote conferences already and know the ropes, to those who are submitting a recorded talk for the first time. We're here to help!

</aside>

Note

It's highly recommended that you record the first 5 minutes of your talk, and then stop to double check the recording. Is your audio clear? Is your webcam covering your slides? Double check to make sure your video looks and sounds like you expect it to before jumping into the full 25 minute recording. It'll save time down the line if you need to make tweaks or adjustments.

A very, very common problem we see pre-recordings are audio quality issues:

• Extremely low input volume / gain set on microphones
  • Don't try to use "gain" plugins to fix this. Low audio = mic level or physical placement problem.
  • You can judge this by playing back your video, and comparing it to another video. If your video is a bit quieter it's OK, but you shouldn't have to massively crank the volume to hear yours.
• More than one microphone enabled, so there is an "echo" effect
• Wrong mic selected in recording software, so even though we can see a nice mic, but we hear echo'ey laptop mic instead!
• Using an external cardioid/condenser mic that has a 'direction' incorrectly. We can help you through this on a Tech Check.

Options

You have two options:

• Screencaster (easiest, but either no webcam, or limited embed)
• Video editing (capture separate webcam/display, edit in a video editor)

Focus primarily on clear audio, and clear slides or screen capture. Clear audio hands down is the most important aspect of an engaging video. See our tech tips below for some advice.

We strongly encourage you to embed your webcam too; you may prefer not being in the shot, but having a talking speaker in the shot does make the video more engaging; and being able to see a presenter speak can increase video accessibility (i.e. auditory processing difficulties).