8 best practices for video production
Below are some of the best practices to use when working with ScreenFlow. They will help to speed up your work, make a more creative production and prevent you from making mistakes.
Summary of page
Watch the 5-minute video below. It will help you relate to the rest of this page.
1. Best practices include checking configuration
Every time you start to record, check your configuration. It is so easy to forget your setup from a previous recording.
For example, if you were just recording the computer audio, you will have to check “Record Audio from” before recording your own voice.
2. Tell yourself to repeat
When you are recording yourself and make a mistake, just keep going. Some people stop and start over after making a mistake.
A simpler system is to just say “repeat” and say that last sentence over again.
Leave lots of space on either side of your “repeats” so that they are easy to spot. Then, after you have finished all of your recording, you simply remove the unwanted sections from your clip.
3. Keyboard shortcuts
My 5 favourite keyboard shortcuts are Cmd S, Cmd X, Cmd C, Cmd V, Cmd Z and Cmd/Shift/4. Respectively they stand for save, cut, copy, paste, delete previous action and screenshot of an area of my choosing.
Using keyboard shortcuts can save you a huge amount of time. 
Using them regularly definitely is on of the ScreenFlow best practices.
For splitting clips, simply use the letter T like you see in the animated GIF to the right.
If you do something often, go to ScreenFlow > Preferences. Click on the Shortcuts tab. You will see other shortcuts as you see in this animated GIF. You may find a shortcut that matches an action you do often.
4. Templates for repeated actions on many videos
The animated GIF to the right represents the template I’ve started using at the start of all of my new VideoGuy videos. You will have to understand Keynote in order to make these templates. To learn how to create these templates, click here.
5. Write out a script
Near the beginning of your video-creation process, briefly write out a script. When you get a brilliant idea during production, it often is easy to forget all the nuances of that brilliant idea unless you write them down.
6. One of the very important best practices: save frequently
It is amazing how often some little thing goes wrong while you are creating a video. For instance, something important may accidentally get deleted. If you had saved just before the deletion happened, all you have to do is close your program without saving and the previously deleted portion will show up again.
7. Hide desktop icons
Hide desktop icons while recording. When people watch your videos, you don’t want them to be distracted by what’s on your desktop. Also, it could be something quite personal.
So, after clicking the record icon and before clicking record, click Hide Desktop Icons.
8. Add one voice clip at a time
To add in voice clips into your video, read and record your entire script without stopping. After you are finished, save the recording with a descriptive name and select the entire audio clip.
In ScreenFlow, click the audio icon and experiment with different volume levels by dragging the slider. After you have your preferred volume, click on Cmd C to copy the entire audio clip into your clipboard.
Open the file that needs the voice clips and click the double arrows to move the scrubber to the beginning of the timeline. Cmd V to paste the video clips onto the timeline.
Listen to the first little voice message. Split the clip on either side of the message to isolate it. Drag it to the point where is lines up with the corresponding point on your video clip.
Do the same with the second little voice message. However, do not split it from the main clip until you have decided precisely where you want it. It is simply a more efficient use of time to do them one at a time like this. Sometimes you may want to add a freeze frame or else shorten the duration of a video clip so that it matches the audio clip more closely.