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Authoring
Authoring Tips
Here's a collection of helpful authoring tips that Overcast authors have shared with us.
Choosing a video
There's an old saying "you never make a more important business decision than choosing the people you hire" ... it's the same thing with choosing the underlying video (or Undercast) for your Overcast. It's not enough for you to enjoy the underlying video, the video needs to lend itself to the style of Overcast you intend to do. For example, if you want to talk about the plot arcs in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, make sure that a particular episode advances those arcs. Some of my favorite episodes, don't deal with any of the characters development or relationships, but might serve as great backdrops for scrutiny by a forensics expert.
Overcast genres
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of distinct types of Overcasts. Almost every time I give a talk about Overcasting, folks suggests another use we hadn't considered before. Let's look at just a few genres of Overcasts and their corresponding example:
- Commentary: Defend your LOST conspiracy theories
- Criticism: Didn't like the play calling in last nights NFL game? Let us know
- Comedy: What could Matt Stone and Trey Parker do with Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
- Shopping: Make it easy to find information or purchase songs from Grey's Anatomy
- Research & Analysis: Market analyst on Googles shareholder meeting
- Education: Discuss Lord of the Rings as a parable for the industrialization of Europe
How to make high-quality audio recordings
If you're adding audio to your Overcast, the Overcast Studio application has a number of features to help you achieve a professional sound. The following steps will help you achieve a high quality Overcast:
1. Test your microphone level - The most reliable way to do this is go to Control Panel->Sounds->Voice Tab->Test Hardware. This will run a system check and then allows you to talk into the mic and adjust the recording volume.
2. Set your default volume ratio - Record an audio clip in Overcast Studio. Now right-click on the audio clip on the timeline and select Volume. This dialog allows you to tweak the volume of your voice as well as "duck" (i.e. lower) the volume in the original source video. You'll notice that the source video volume is ducked a moderate amount by default.
3. Fade in/out - You can add a little more polish to your audio by right-clicking on an audio clip and making sure that Fade In/Out is selected. This will give you a nice smooth change in the source videos volume when coming into and out of your audio clip.
While Overcast Studio makes it easy to create a professional sound, some Overcasters want the control that can only be found in a dedicated audio editing suite. One of our favorite audio editing application (which is free) Audacity. After creating or modifying your sound clip in an editing application:
1. Export (or save) the clip as a wmv or mp3 file
2. Open your Overcast Project in Overcast Studio
3. Click in the timeline where you'd like to load your sound clip
4. Click Edit->Import Item->Audio and choose the sound clip
Now your clip should be loaded into your project and you can use the techniques above to adjust the audio levels relative to your source video.
Using third-party audio applications to create audio recordings
The Overcast Studio contains simple audio recording features to record your voice for audio clips. For more sophisticated audio recording and editing control such as panning, normalizing and special effects,
we recommend using specialized third-party audio record and editing applications. Once you've created and saved audio files from a third-party application, you can import your audio files using
Overcast Studio's Tools/Import Audio Clip... menu item. While there are many audio applications available to choose from, Audacity is a popular free recording and editing application which can be downloaded here.
Adjusting the volume between your audio and the video's audio
Often, you'll want to decrease the volume of the video during your audio clip. Right-click on any Audio Clip and selecting "Volume…" to open the Audio Clip Volume Dialog.
From this dialog, you can set the video volume level during the playback of this audio clip. Position the slider to the left to decrease the video volume.
Use tag clips to make multiple clips look like one clip in the Clip List
Here's a neat trick: imagine you have a scene that requires multiple sound clips and multiple text clips. You can make this set look like a single clip by creating a Tag Clip that encompasses the other clips. Give the Tag Clip a meaningful name. Next, switch the "In Overdrive" checkbox to off for the other audio and text clips.
By doing this, your audience will see a single clip, the Tag Clip, in the Clip List.
Use Markers in pre-production and audio recordings
Markers are simple but powerful objects for use in creating Overcasts. Markers are often used to mark scenes for clip creation during initial review of the video. They're also useful for marking exact timings for keyframes that you want to target and hit while making audio recordings.
Use the playhead to set clips to the same start or end point
Clips will snap to the playhead if they're positioned close enough. You can use this feature to easily set common start or end points for multiple clips.
Do not place clips over commercials
If the video that you're using has video commercials (e.g. from a Media Center TV recording), you should avoid positioning your Overcast content over the video commercial because your audience may playback your Overcast without commercials (e.g. a show purchased from Amazon Unbox).
Break long audio clips up into multiple clips
If you are importing an audio recording that is 10-30 minutes in length (e.g. a podcast commentary), it's helpful to break up a long audio clip into multiple clips to increase the synchronization quality of your Overcast.
To make multiple audio clips from a single clip, position the playhead at the correct spot and click on the "Split Audio Item" button. If your audio clips have silent sections, adjust the audio clip start or end points to remove the unnecessary silent sections and adjust the clip's position in the timeline accordingly.
Importing audio and copyright
If you import audio files for your Overcast, be sure to research the imported audio to know whether or not it contains copyright material. Copyrighted material must not be distributed without permission from the copyright owner.
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