ScreenFlow, made by Telestream, was first released in 2008 and is known as a screen recorder with some video editing capability for the Apple Macintosh platform. With it you can record your own desktop, a webcam or external camera, or any iOS device, (at up to 60 fps!) to afford your audience a much-appreciated alternative to “Death by Power Point”.

With this latest 8.0 release, Telestream has given it new features that can significantly enhance the communication power of just about anyone.

As Bryce Stejskal, product manager with Telestream, told me during our one-on-one interview, “With this latest ScreenFlow release we wanted to boost its editing tools so anyone using ScreenFlow 8 to make a sales presentation, record a school lecture, or prepare an online marketing video can do it better and in less time.”

Styles

“Many presenters like to give each of their video presentations a similar look, or ‘style’ for consistency,” said Stejskal. For example, I may always want to have my camera in the bottom right corner of my video with a bit of Y-axis rotation and a hint of shadow. Previously I would have had to set this up for each new presentation. Now, with just a few clicks I can save these settings as a ‘Style’ and re-apply them to future projects.”

The new Styles feature offers customized media configurations so that users can now easily copy/paste video parameters such as scale, positioning, filters, axis rotation and more and apply them to individual pieces of media.

“This even applies to annotation,” Stejskal said, “which can be a major time saver.”

The new ScreenFlow 8 also presents thumbnail representations of each clip on the time line for easy identification.

“This lets you identify scene changes over time rather than having to scrub through the video to find it,” Stejskal said. Each thumbnail sequence stretches over the entire duration of a given video clip, with the amount of grabbed content representation of each individual thumbnail depending on your zoom level.”

Stock Library

Nothing gives a video more of a professional look than having some outside clips to enhance its production value, so Telestream is now offering access to an affordable stock library to users of the program.

“For an annual rate of just $60/year, in addition to the cost of ScreenFlow 8 itself since access to the Stock Library is built right into the application, you get unlimited access to over ½ million pieces of unique media,” he said. These include background music, sound effects, and shots of everything ranging from beautiful mountains to people buying ice cream.”

And they are ready to insert into your program instantaneously.

“Just click on the clip, drop it onto your time line,” Stejskal wrapped up, “and let your audience guess how you busted your budget to get this kind of production value.”

ScreenFlow is available for purchase from Telestream.net. through a network of Telestream resellers and affiliates, or on the Mac App Store.