I recently downloaded an older version of Camtasia, which was free for a time. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet so I don’t know entirely what it can do. I don’t think it’s used for video you’ve captured with a camera, though I may be wrong. It’s mainly used for screen capture. Still it’s a relatively inexpensive way to create a video.

@James – I hope Kristine’s answer is enough info to get you started. I’m hardly the expert on video and still trying to think up ways to use it. It is a great way to market yourself if done right. Think of all the views some of the videos on YouTube get. Many of the most popular videos there are rather simple.

@David – The videos are great aren’t they. I really liked Jen’s video on the conference. I think it gets it’s message across to the right people in a simple and entertaining way.

I agree you still need to promote your videos. The beauty of video is how easy it can spread if you do it right. Sites like YouTube make it so easy to share that a good video can easily and quickly spread.

I can only tell you how we do it. I write a script which details all the spoken audio and usually gives suggestions for video. Then we see what raw footage we already have and make plans for what we have to shoot. Sometimes the shoot just involves taking the camera somewhere in the plant, although we have gone on location as well. We also go through all our still photos and see what, if any, of those we’ll want to use.

Once we have all that done, we usually cut the audio. This is necessary so we can make sure that the images sync up with the length of the audio. Once the audio is done, which, by the way, we cut in separate tracks, so each paragraph can be laid into the video separately, we start laying down images. Make no mistake, it’s a long process, we can spend hours on 40 seconds of footage.

Once we’ve got the pictures and audio in, we add music. Mostly we buy our music from download sites, or use CDs we bought for that purpose.

To be honest, I’m not really sure what program we use to create the footage. One of our IT guys does that. I’ll have to ask him what it is.

Making a video really isn’t hard to do, if you’re organized. The key is to have a good script and a firm idea of where you want to go and how you want to get there before you lay down a second of footage. The process is time consuming, so you don’t want to waste a lot of time trying to figure out what to do.

But, By themselves they would rarely be viewed. You need to have access to a promotional network. or a pre-existing audience to get eyes on this kind of thing – especially time sensitive promotions like the seminar.

I’m not being negative, just making an observation.

But what I’d be curious about is how to make one. Do you just use Windows Movie Maker to put together some images and audio every few seconds? Or find clips on the internet and paste them in somehow?

The idea sounds like it would be a fun thing to do, but I’d bet not many people would really know where to begin (such as myself).

All our videos have received compliments and are, I think, well done. We don’t spend a lot of money making any of them, but we do spend a lot of time. I think the time and effort we put in compensates for the lack of an editing bay and the latest high tech equipment.