Telestream Screenflow: An Podcasters Guide to Creating Professional Screencasts and Tutorials

In this post, we will be reviewing Telestream Screenflow and how it can be used by educators to create and produce educational podcasts.  Since 2011, ScreenFlow has been the Screencasting Application of choice for the TeacherCast Educational Network and today we will look at key features that set Screenflow apart in the video production category.  If you have any thoughts on this post, please leave us a comment below or tweet to us @PodcastingToday.

---

When it comes to video editing and screen capturing, there are two types of applications available.

1. Applications that will allow you to capture your screen, audio, and perhaps your webcam and provide you with a nice exported video of exactly what you recorded.
2. Applications that not only record video but offer a dynamic editing and publishing experience.

For the last 8 years, I have been a dedicated user of Telestream ScreenFlow and all of it's powerful and easy to use tools to create the majority of video projects found on our TeacherCast YouTube channel. Today, we are going to dive in and share what makes ScreenFlow a great application for you and your video projects.

About Telestream

Telestream® specializes in products that make it possible to get video content to any audience regardless of how it is created, distributed or viewed. Throughout the entire digital media lifecycle, from capture to viewing, for consumers through high-end professionals, Telestream products range from desktop components and cross-platform applications to fully-automated, enterprise-class digital media transcoding and workflow systems. Telestream enables users in a broad range of business environments to leverage the value of their video content.

Telestream customers include the world’s leading media and entertainment companies: content owners, creators, and distributors. In addition, a growing number of companies supplying and servicing much larger markets such as ad agencies, corporations, healthcare providers, government and educational facilities, as well as video prosumers and consumers, are turning to Telestream to simplify the access, creation, and exchange of digital media.

Founded in 1998, Telestream corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City. The company is privately held.

Price / Financials

• Full Version:$129.00 (available directly from Telestream Win/Mac or on the Mac App Store)
• Upgrade prices start as low as $39 depending on which version you currently own.
• Additional options include access to additional Stock Media and Premium Support by telephone.

Quick Tip: Where you have the opportunity to purchase ScreenFlow on the Mac App Store, my suggestion is to purchase directly through the Telestream website. By doing this, it allows you to take advantage of the $39 upgrade as Version 7 will be released as a brand new app on the App Store and not able to offer a discount for those who have previously purchased version 6 on the App Store.

What Can You Do With ScreenFlow?

In addition to creating video tutorials and making professional looking YouTube videos, there are several things that you can use ScreenFlow for when promoting your website or podcast.

“With ScreenFlow screen recording, you can record any part of your monitor while also capturing a video camera, iOS device, microphone, multi-channel audio device and computer audio” – Telestream’s Website

• Record from your iPhone or iPad in HD
• Create animated graphics, titles, and logos
• Add Closed Captioning to your videos
• Create Animated Gif's and Animated PNG's to share on Social Media

What Other Ways Can The Product Be Used?

On the surface, Telestream ScreenFlow markets itself as a fantastic screen capture application, however many use it as their primary video editing tool because of its versatility and robust toolset.

While recording, ScreenFlow gives you the opportunity to capture not only what is on the screen, but it allows you to take a video of yourself using your webcam. This feature can be used by teachers to create flipped classrooms, explainer videos, or even by administrators looking to speak directly to their community without needing to export out to another video editing platform. It simply is a complete television studio in one app.

How Does ScreenFlow Fit Into The Curriculum?

Screencasting simple How-to videos and creating standards-based flipped classroom videos is one of those skills that every teacher should have in their back pocket. As two of the popular “4C’s,” video editing tools promotes creativity and collaboration between teachers and students.

Popular Video Projects

• “Reading Rainbow” style book reviews
• Digital Presentations
• Editing sporting events and performing arts events

How Does ScreenFlow Fit Into The ISTE Standards?

ISTE Standards for Teachers

• Standard 2: Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments
• Standard 3: Model digital age work and learning
• Standard 4: Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility

Where Can We Find More Info?

• ScreenFlow Homepage
• ScreenFlow Video Tutorial Series
• @Telestream – Twitter
• @TelestreamInc – Facebook

What Prep Time Is Needed To Use ScreenFlow?

Starting your first screencast is as simple as launching the application, checking your camera and audio settings and clicking on the record icon. Although there are many buttons and features to the editing side, you don’t need many of them and editing your projects look fantastic with a simple cut and layering tools.

The editing canvas is also set up in a way that makes sense if you have experience with other nonlinear editors and it’s easy to learn the simple keyboard shortcuts to increase your efficiency.

What Are The System Requirements For ScreenFlow?

• Intel-based1 Mac2 with 64-bit processor – Core i3+ recommended
• Operating Systems
• macOS Mojave 10.14
• macOS High Sierra 10.13
• macOS Sierra 10.12
• Minimum 2 GB RAM
• 20 GB hard drive
• Apple macOS approved graphics card3,4 required
• Cameras using the HDV codec are not supported

---

Getting Started

Once installed from either the Telestream Website or the Mac App Store, ScreenFlow gives you a robust dialogue box where you can set up your recordings. You can select from your various camera, and choose which microphone you wish to use. Screenflow gives you the ability to record not only from one camera but from multiple sources. Need support for your iPad or iPhone? ScreenFlow can even record these screens too.

How to Record

Once you have established your recording parameters, it’s time to start your recording. Learning simple keyboard commands will help you create your screencasts quickly. I have my commands set up as Command-2. This allows me to toggle on and off the recordings.

One of the neatest features of ScreenFlow is the ability to hide your desktop icons. I often find my desktop screens very cluttered and this option allows my audience to see a clean screen and not a cluttered mess.

Recording Advice

While recording, it’s inevitable that you will flub or mess up something. If this happens, my advice is to keep recording. Record everything… even if you have multiple takes… keep recording. This way, your final product will be one single video clip. If you stop and start your recording several times, your computer will now be dealing with multiple files and that becomes messy.

No matter what happens, I find it’s always best to have one single source file at the end from which to edit. There are times where, during the recording, you need to wait for apps to load, or websites to come up on screen… just remember that the editing station is where the power lies in your screencasts. You can always cut this time away by editing rather than starting and stopping the video recording.

Recording on your iPhone or iPad

One of the great features of ScreenFlow is the ability to record directly from your mobile device or tablet.

How to Edit

Once your video is recorded, ScreenFlow automatically enters you into a VERY powerful video editor. Most of my screencasts are very basic and don’t nearly take advantage of the tools that are offered in ScreenFlow. My advice here is to keep everything simple and only bring out the bells and whistles where needed.

There are many tools that you can use in your recordings. You can choose to make a video of just your desktop screen, or if interested,d you can layer in your second video camera to include yourself in the final edit. The editing screen allows direct access to your Photo and Audio/Video libraries in case you wish to bring in extra screenshots or B-Roll video.

ScreenFlow is packed with powerful editing tools that can help make your users have a very enjoyable learning experience.

• Video: Scale your video larger or smaller. Include a reflection or border around your video. Create a Picture in Picture type of experience.
• Audio: Overlap audio on top of other audio using “Ducking”. Add audio effects and filters to your project.
• Screen Recording: Are you interested in showing your mouse on the screen? Would you like your project to show every place you clicked your mouse?
• Call Out: Highlighting various places on your screen including a zoomed in follow on your mouse pointer.
• Annotations: Draw boxes or shapes on the screen to highlight various locations. Create text effects on the screen for simple instructions.

How to Publish

There are dozens of options that are available when exporting. From ScreenFlow, you can directly export to YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, and Facebook. You can also choose to export a master file at various sizes.

My advice when exporting is to export directly to your desktop and then upload into these various locations.

I also find my decisions for the export are all based on the size of the project I’m working on. If I’m working on a smaller screencast, perhaps 5 minutes or less, I don’t have a problem exporting to YouTube directly. If the project is close to an hour in length, it’s best to export to the desktop, and then upload from there. My reasoning behind this is that unless you are simply posting for fun, you will want to log into these services and play with the settings of your final project any way… so, to export to the desktop and publish at that point is actually saving you a bit of time.

Creating an Animated GIF

Archival Options

When you are finished, I always back up my projects onto a secondary hard drive. I have often found that year to year, things change and it’s very simple to go back into a project and update for the new school year to adjust for updating websites or technologies.

Conclusion

If you are searching for a professional video editing solution and one that can also double as an editor for your podcast then I would highly suggest checking out the free trial of ScreenFlow.  I have been using ScreenFlow for the last 8 years and plan on doing so in the future.  New features such as the Stock Media Library and the ability to export Animated PNG's and GIF's have also been great additions to the already robust feature set.

For additional information, please visit www.EducationalPodcasting.com.