I’ve worked on my fair share of these videos since WFH became reality for everyone (no longer just freelancers) and I’ve learned a few things about how to get the most from your video chats.
First off, let’s stop calling them video chats, everyone just says Zoom, whether they’re actually using that platform or not. I feel like Skype really missed an opportunity here. Maybe they were just too early to the game? Trying to do something before the people were ready? Let’s learn from them - if you’re finally ready to start recording and editing Zoom calls, you’re not inventing anything new here. You have limited options, so it didn’t take long to figure out pretty much everything you can figure out about recording and editing this content.
The Zoom platform itself does provide some great options for recording, and from my experience, the quality is much better than Teams. Since I think Zoom is better and I haven’t used Teams as much, let’s just focus on Zoom.
You need their paid account to be able to access all the features. Zoom has a desktop app and a web interface. In the desktop app, there is a little gear icon in the top right, click that, then click Recording along the left column. You should first choose a location where the local files will be saved, then enable these options:
Record a separate audio file for each participant who speaks
Optimize for 3rd party video editor
Record video during screen sharing
Look back at that left column, click on General, then at the bottom of that screen you’ll see “View More Settings” which will open the settings page on their site. Click the Recording tab at the top. With a paid account, you’ll have the options for cloud recording. Here, you’ll want to enable “Record active speaker, gallery view and shared screen separately” and you should also make sure “Display participants’ names in the recording” is disabled.
Now you have it all set up, you’re ready to record! This is where the behind-the-scenes type of stuff comes into play, the things you may not have noticed happening on set when you had a crew with you.
It’s highly recommended to have a producer or director on this chat. They will see and hear things that most clients won’t, and they can think about the edit as the speaker is talking. They can also be another set of eyes while you look at everything in the frame. And can provide valuable insight on what options you have to make it look good. Nitpick the background! Does the camera need to be moved up or down? Tilted in some way? Keep the subjects’ eyes on the top third of the frame. Are they going to look at the camera or are they going to look at the screen? Are they reading something or are they responding to interview questions? How much does that eye bounce bug you when they’re reading (Here’s a tip: If you shrug and say, “Well, it’s not bad,” chances are you’re going to regret that decision when you see the edit, and you’ll wish they were looking at the camera.) If being interviewed, are we also going to see the interviewer in the video? Let’s look at everything in their frame, too, their positioning, their lighting, etc. Speaking of lightning, it’s not uncommon for windows to play a big role as a light source, but keep in mind that the sun sets! If you’re recording in the evenings (or even the late afternoons in the winter) be prepared to lose all of that light. The subject may also have a tree outside their window, so while the sun might still be out, it may change significantly during the recording session.
Once the recording session is over, you can simply share the cloud download link with your editor, or talk to them about how best to transfer the locally recorded files.
Here are a few pro-tips from my Zoom editing experience.
Airpods provide TERRIBLE audio quality. Like, REALLY bad, AND it’s out of sync. DO NOT USE AIRPODS FOR ZOOM MEETINGS. EVER. A wired gaming headset actually does work really well, but those can look funny, so that’s your call on whether or not to use them.
Fake backgrounds are fine to hide things that you don’t want to show, but they’re also extremely distracting. I would recommend avoiding fake backgrounds whenever possible. It’s much better to spend a bit of time fixing up the background and/or repositioning the camera to get something that will work better.
While recording, either keep your camera or or keep your camera off. When the Gallery View video jumps around, your editor is going to have to spend way too much time making things look right when this situation is avoidable by simply doing less.
Recording the Active Speaker (full screen) vs recording Gallery View (4-up) doesn’t actually make their video better. Sure, it’s bigger but it’s just a punched in version of a low quality video, which is exactly what your editor would be doing if the speaker is sharing the screen with 3 others. It’s actually easier to keep everyone in the same place the entire time, that way your editor can pick and choose who to show, and when to show them. Active Speaker can actually flip to someone else’s camera and lose your speaker if that person makes any noise. Gallery View is what your editor wants.
Zoom is made to capture the human voice. Try this fun little experiment next time you’re on a call - have someone give you a round of applause (after all, you deserve it if you’ve made it this far into this post.) You may hear the first initial clap, but Zoom will eliminate the rest of the sound automatically since it knows that’s not a human voice. It’s the wrong frequency, it’s too loud, and it’s repetitive. Similarly, singing will come through on Zoom video, but instruments may not.
If you have any specific questions or if you want to discuss working together on your next Zoom edit, click the contact button to send a message and we can schedule our own personal Zoom meeting.
