In this final project for my Kent State multimedia course,
the goal was to use a program called Camtasia to create online educational
videos. We’ve all used online tutorials for how to find your files in Windows
10 or how to use a specific program, videos that show the computer screen
actions while a narrator explains the process.
Now I feel empowered.
After learning to use Audacity to sound edit and to produce
podcasts, then learning to use Premiere to video edit and to post videos, the
final step was Camtasia, which captures the events on your computer monitor and
turns them into video – while you can mix in sound or other images.
Through the years, I’ve created many Powerpoint
demonstrations for my photo class, what we used to call “slide lectures.” I’d
show images on the screen while I gave a lecture, explaining the point of the
slide show. So I went through my old Powerpoiints and culled some material,
then went through some newer photos that were fresh in my mind to make a pair
of Camtasia tutorials.
The first tutorial on composition is a distillation of what
was originally two different classes. I used some of the basic rules of
composition, but the second class on using different angles (among other
techniques) seemed so basic to kick-starting good photography that I included
some of that. My photo class initially evolved from workshops I ran for the New
England Press Association and the New York Press Association called “Photography
for Reporters,” and the goal was to share techniques for approach, for actually
working a shoot by anticipating the right techniques for the situation.
The second tutorial is a bit of reality TV, sharing the hits
and misses of shooting news events that I covered. These were very routine
scheduled assignments, so they provide common problems and solutions.
I had my share of difficulty working with Camtasia. The
biggest was my inability to speak without my tongue getting tangled. The
Camtasia timeline was just similar enough to Audacity and Premiere to give my
courage, and just different enough to confuse me. It’s hard to believe that
such a short recording could take me an entire afternoon.
Much like making a video with Premiere, in the end I was
able to complete the task, but I look at all I learned from the experience and
see all the details that I could have done better and all the potential for the
program. In this era of online learning, it seems programs like Camtasia are as
essential as Word.
