Using Screencast-O-Matic

SNL provides a free Premier Screencast-O-Matic account to all presenters to help you create and caption your video presentation. Screencast-O-Matic provides tools for recording, uploading, and captioning your video. For information, see the Screencast-O-Matic Training Videos.

You are not required to use Screencast-O-Matic to create your video. However, you will need to use the Screencast-O-Matic captioning tool to add captions to your video prior to uploading your video file.

Installing Screencast-O-Matic

  1. Go to https://screencast-o-matic.com/SNL2021.
  2. Enter the Password that was emailed to you. If you don’t know the password, please contact us at info@neurolang.org.
  3. Click Launch the Recorder. This will download and launch the Screencast-O-Matic screen recorder. If the recorder does not launch within a minute, click Download to manually download and install Screencast-O-Matic.
  4. After installation, you will be prompted to enter the SNL 2021 Team plan password again.
  5. The screen recorder should now appear on your screen. You are ready to record or caption. You have free access to all Screencast-O-Matic features.

Recording Video

Screencast-O-Matic has a screen recorder for creating presentation videos. Note: If you prefer, you may use another method for creating your video, and then import your video into Screencast-O-Matic for captioning (see “Importing Video” below).

  1. Go to https://screencast-o-matic.com/SNL2021 and click Launch the Recorder.
  2. When you initially launch Screencast-O-Matic, the Record options dialog is displayed. If not, click the gear icon.
  3. Set your recording preferences, such as screen size, audio, and embedded webcam. The size of the area to be recorded can be set by selecting one of the standard sizes (such as 720p), or you can adjust the recording area manually by dragging the recording frame corners. For additional options, click Preferences.
  4. Click the red Record button to start recording.
  5. Click Pause and then Done to save your recording. All recording are stored on your machine.
  6. From the menu that automatically pops up, click Edit Video.
  7. Make desired edits to your recording, then click Done.
  8. From here you can go Back to Recordings (upper left) or proceed to captioning your video following the instructions below.

Importing Video

If you don’t use Screencast-O-Matic to record your video, you can import a video from your computer.

  1. Go to https://screencast-o-matic.com/SNL2021 and click Open the Video Editor.
  2. From the Screencast-O-Matic Manage Recordings screen, click Import (upper right).
  3. Select a video file from your computer. The selected video is imported into Screencast-O-Matic.
  4. Click the video thumbnail image to edit your video.

Editing Your Video

  1. Go to https://screencast-o-matic.com/SNL2021 and click Open the Video Editor.
  2. From the Screencast-O-Matic Manage Recordings screen, select a video.
  3. Select Edit from the Options pop-up menu.
  4. You can trim your video and make other changes.
  5. Save your changes by clicking Done.

Captioning Your Video

All SNL presentation videos must be captioned. Screencast-O-Matic adds captions by adding a black bar below your video that contains the captions in white text. The captions bar does not obscure or overlay your video. The captions are open captions, which means that the captions are embedded into the video and cannot be turned off when playing the video.

Screencast-O-Matic’s auto-caption feature uses machine speech-to-text translation, which can have difficulty getting scientific terms correct, so you will need to carefully review your captions and edit them for accuracy. This can take time, so don’t leave this to the last minute.

Be sure your video is in its final state before captioning. Making changes to your video after you caption it can result in having to start the captioning process over.

  1. Go to https://screencast-o-matic.com/SNL2021 and click Open the Video Editor.
  2. From the Screencast-O-Matic Manage Recordings screen, select a video.
  3. Click the CC (Closed Caption) icon (lower right).
  4. Select Speech-to-Text (EN-US), then click Start.
  5. Screencast-O-Matic will start to auto-caption your video. This can take several minutes. You can verify progress by scrolling the Captions Text sidebar.
  6. After auto-captioning is completed, review the captions in the Captions Text sidebar and edit the text to make corrections.
  7. Click OK to save your captions.
  8. You can view your captioned video by clicking the Play icon (lower left).
    Note that in your published video your captions will not appear overlayed on your video, they will appear below your video.

Saving Your Video File

To complete the video process, save your captioned video to your computer, and then upload it following the instructions below.

  1. Go to https://screencast-o-matic.com/SNL2021 and click Open the Video Editor.
  2. From the Screencast-O-Matic Manage Recordings screen, select a video.
  3. Click Save as Video File from the Options menu (lower right).
  4. Set your publishing options:
    1. Type must be MP4.
    2. Enter a Filename. Your video filename should have your name in it so we can identify it when you upload it.
    3. Enter the Folder.
    4. Indicate if you want your screen Cursor to appear in your video.
    5. Set Open Captions to English.
  5. Click Publish.
  6. After the video is saved to your computer, play it to verify the quality and that the captions are embedded.

Uploading Your Video File

Log in to your SNL Account to upload your presentation video. Presentation upload opens on September 1, 2021, after which you will see presentation upload instructions on your SNL Account home page.

Upload Deadline: Your captioned video file must be uploaded no later than September 14, 2021.

More Information

Please also see Presenter Instructions and Preparing Your Presentation.

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