Reconnecting with QuickTime Pro

One of the neat things it can do is that it can record live video and compress it on the fly. This is great for recording presentations and such, since you don't have to do too much post-production work and it can be made available almost as soon as you're done recording. I recorded Spanier's last presentation to ITS using QT Pro and had it uploaded to the streaming server before I even left Heritage Hall in the HUB. All I had to do was to trim a little from the beginning and end, then export the movie with a hinted track for streaming. I wish this option was available for recording in the first place, but I have an Applescript that I can drop the movie on that will add the track easily.

Not only can you trim bits from the movie, but you can also add things to movies as well. As I demonstrated in my presentation today, you can save a series of slides from PowerPoint as JPEGs (to the same size as your movie), and paste them into a presentation where you may have a talking head.  Using the selection brackets, you just select the time span where you want the slides to appear (over the video) and use Add to Selection and Scale to fill that timeslot with the slide. Although there are no transitions, it makes a nice seamless presentation containing both the presenter and the slides. Another option would be to have the slides in a larger format and do a picture-in-picture effect with the talking head small in the corner. I can also add a title slide easily, add a watermark throughout the movie, and even put scrolling credits on the end of the movie with very little effort. QuickTime Pro is a nice lightweight video editor for quick n' dirty video production.