For years, people have been asking. They say, “Scraster, when are going to do a video for an online product that effectively eliminates the expenses associated with traditional off-site and on-site tape storage and tracking methods?” We were almost getting tired of hearing the question when we were approached by Rocket Software, the parent company of Servergraph and makers of a product called Tape Vault Expert. TVE does just this.

In all seriousness, when Rocket came to Scraster, we knew nothing about tape storage. We were familiar with the ubiquitous Iron Mountain trucks on the road, but that’s about it. One of the beauties of professional screencasting is learning about so many different areas of business… like tape management. In the course of a few conversations and the exchange of few emails with photo attachments, Scraster figured out the best way to approach the subject visually. Scraster’s lead animator Rory Campbell fired off some rough sketches to the client to make sure we were on the right track. A week or so later, we had transformed the client’s vision into an reality. The animation Rory creatively crafted would serve as the needed conceptual introduction to support the walkthrough of the Tape Vault Expert interface. The client will be the first to admit that the UI of the TVE interface is far from sexy, but in terms of function, TVE gets the job done better than anything on the market and this screencast effectively demonstrates exactly how for potential customers.

We’re happy to have learned something new and interesting about an industry we’d otherwise never come across and Rocket Software was/is very happy with their video. Scraster will likely be producing some videos for other Rocket/Servergraph products in the coming months. If your organization has an online product or service that could benefit from a professional screencast like the one Scraster Professional Screencasting produced for Tape Vault Expert, please be in touch. You can get the ball rolling with a free quote. You can also email us at info@scraster.com or find us on Twitter.

Scraster recently completed an updated marketing video for IdeaScale, one of our oldest and most valued clients. IdeaScale has been working with Scraster since we began in the spring of 2008, so the starting blocks of this new marketing piece were in place well before we were started—Scraster knows the product inside out and IdeaScale is just as familiar with our workflow.

For the marketing video update, IdeaScale’s Rob Hoehn decided to part from the conventional sign-up process/feature tour screencast model. Working collaboratively with Scraster, Rob instead created a script that introduced the product in a more conceptual manner. To convey these concepts effectively, we used the impressive motion graphics work of Rory Campbell, who has been working consistently on Scraster’s recent videos. Rory’s animation not only looks great, but it effectively creates a context for the subsequent screencast video. If you enjoy this Scraster screencast, please share it via the social icons below. Thanks!

You might wonder while watching the IdeaScale video, “Is Bob & Terry’s a real ice cream company?” The answer is… Nnnnnyes. Bob & Terry’s is totally real. You might also wonder why so many of the names seen in the video match the names of characters from the Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast. That’s no coincidence. We’re fans.

Scraster Professional Screencasting’s founder and head screencaster John Basile was recently featured on Telestream’s ScreenFlow blog called The Screening Room. Since it’s John writing this post, let’s go ahead and switch out of third person and into the first. Done.

The Screening Room has been blogging strong–featuring teasers of upcoming releases, ScreenFlow tips, company news, and user profiles since around the time of their ScreenFlow 2 product launch in the fall of 2009. The folks at Telestream have done a good job of creating a much-needed and much-appreciated community around their popular screencasting software for Mac. (Next on the list: a crowdsourced idea portal for feature requests).

A few weeks ago, I was pleased to get a direct message on Twitter from Lynn Elliot, the main author of The Screening Room blog, which was complimentary of Scraster’s recent professional screencast work. I gladly accepted Lynn’s invitation to contribute to the regular “Meet the Screenflow-er” feature of the blog and was sent the standard Q&A via email. It was fun to share info about Scraster’s workflow and I was able to link to some of our work. There hasn’t been any noticeable swell of web traffic to scraster.com, but the exposure is super and I’m very grateful for it.

There was one question from the Q&A was particularly challenging to answer. It asked, “Do you have a screencast that you’re especially proud of? And why?” I referred to some recent professional screencast work, but also thought hard to word my answer as diplomatically as Screencasts Online producer Don MacAllister did few months back: “That’s a hard one! Each one seems to get better as I get more experienced!” Don said in his Q/A. I suppose this is the case with most creative work. It is certainly the case at Scraster Professional Screencasting, where our work continues to get better and better and we’re continually proud of the quality work we’re selling our clients.

Go to John’s Q/A at The Screening Room blog

Scraster has always been proud of its minimalist carbon footprint. So when we went to work to create a professional screencast for a green website called Welectricity, we were glad to know we’d have a chance to write a blog post boasting about how darn green we are. [winky emoticon here]. In all seriousness, Scraster is happy and proud to introduce Welectricity, an online social network designed to promote energy efficiency in households. The slick web service helps users monitor and decrease their electricity consumption.

After a quick set-up at Welectricity, where the user tells the site a bit about their appliances and household, Welectricity takes a few numbers from your monthly electricity bill and crunches the numbers. The service presents a graphical representation of how you’re doing and offers instructive advice of how you can be doing better. An interesting social component comes into play when you meet other Welectricity users in your area or with similar households and see how your energy use stacks up. There’s twitter-style messaging built right in to create dialogue between you and the friends you either invite to the service or those whom you meet while you’re logged on. Welectricity will save you money–and will help you and your family create a greener house and world. Sign up for free today at Welectricity.com.

Thanks to Rory Campbell for adding some nice AfterEffects elements and effects to this project. Rory’s touch is carrying Scraster to the next level these days. If you like what you see here and think that your organization’s product or service can benefit from a professional screencast, why not get a free quote? You can also email us at info@scraster.com.

Thanks for watching, commenting, and sharing!

Scraster Professional Screencasting recently produced a screencast for World Politics Review, a premium provider of information and analysis on international affairs found online at worldpoliticsreview.com. The general manager at WPR approached Scraster with a familiar problem among paid-content websites: “We have all this great content behind our homepage, but we’re afraid people don’t know it’s there”. It was the objective of WPR to create a site tour that would show off the site, inside and out. WPR wrote most of the screencast script, and Scraster took control from there. The end result is an engaging screencast that servers two main purposes. First, the video is a introduction of WPR to new visitors who are unfamiliar with how to navigate the content-rich free side of the site. As well as giving unsubscribed visitors a cursory tour of the free content, the later part of the WPR screencast invites free users to consider the many benefits of WPR’s premium subscription service, which include a wealth of additional reports, downloads, and other exclusive content.

If you manage subscription-based website or have a premium online product or service that could benefit from a professional screencast like WPR’s, please visit Scraster’s Get a Free Quote page today. You can also email us at info@scraster.com.

Thanks for sharing this World Politics Review video with others. Here is some short text that is handy for tweets:
>> Check out the new screencast from @scraster at http://scraster.com/wpr <<