A Process for Creating and Publishing Video Content

I’m sometimes asked for guidance on how to create a video course or technical content.

My process has evolved over the years so thought I’d effectively “open source” what I do.

I’m sure it can be optimized or done differently but may be helpful if creating courses is a path you’re considering.

The tasks can be split into the following categories:

• Brainstorming
• Creating
• Recording
• Refining
• Reviewing

Using Traffic light (RAG) colours in Excel help me quickly see, at-a-glance, progress and make it easy to dip in and out of course creation between other activities and family life.  It reduces the warm-up period and keeps context switching to a minimum.

Brainstorming

I might have an idea for a course or get approached by a training provider to create one.  During this first phase, I tease out an overview for a course using the title and/or the exam objectives (if the course is more geared towards exam prep).

A single spreadsheet is used to track all activities related to the course creation is also produced.

1. Creating the course overview.
2. Thinking about the story arc, clips, and key points to cover. I’m also considering the maximum course length.
3. Listing each module, description, and clips with timings. I verify these fall within the predefined course length. What the person will learn in the module is detailed.
4. I create a folder hierarchy on my laptop that mirrors the course structure:
5. I load all modules into spreadsheet and set background to RED:

Creating

6. Create the slides for a module (1-N clips) using PowerPoint
7. Whilst creating the slides and key points, I’m internally thinking about what I will say through the slide.  This primes my subconscious for script creation.  It also helps me tell if the slides will flow and are in line with the story arc and key points
8. I update the status of this to GREEN when done for the Module/clip:
9. I write the script for the slides. I dictate using speech to text in Word. This also helps me prepare for recording as I get a feel for what will sound good or not. Sometimes what you write down is “too wordy” when spoken.  This helps identify that before pressing [REC].
10. Update the status of scripting tasks to GREEN when done:
11. This process is done for ALL clips in a module.

Recording

12. When all clips have slides and script, it’s time to record. I use Camtasia and have 2 screens. My main screen has the slides open; my laptop screen is split into 2 halves. On the left of my laptop screen, I have the script open; on the right I have the PowerPoint controls.
13. I use the cursor keys to page through the slides. It reduces the noise of a mouse clicks and means less editing. I do the entire module in 1 go. If I fluff my lines, I often drop an f-bomb! or shout CUT then pause for a few seconds. It makes it easier to identify the offending footage and edit out later.
14. After I get to the end of the module. I add a timeline marker to each part of the entire clip and annotate Clip1, Clip2 etc. This makes it easy to identify where each clip for the module starts.  I save this entire recording as Module-X-Raw-Master in Camtasia:

Refining

15. I start to edit obvious things out of the raw recording, long pauses, f-bombs and CUT comments. At the end of this process, the content is about 80% done.
16. Next, I splice each clip in the master recording using the timeline markers and save these clips as individual projects in Camtasia. {CourseName}/M2-Clips/Clip1.tscproj etc :
17. When each clip in the course has been saved as a project, I add them all into the Camtasia Library. This gives me quick access to discrete clips. Most training providers prefer you to upload discrete clips for each module and stitch them together on the respective platform.