Tips for Making Screencast Videos.

To get started you'll need software to capture the output of your screen over time to a video file.

Some popular options are:

Mac OSX
iShowU 20.00 USD Documentation | Screencasts on how to make screencasts with iShowU
Snapz Pro X 69.00 USD FAQs | Screencast tutorial using Snapz X Pro
ScreenFlow 99.00 USD | Allows video and screen capture simultaneously
Jing(From the makers of Camtasia) FREE (for the moment)

Windows
Camtasia 299.00 USD | Getting started with Camtasia
Jing(From the makers of Camtasia) FREE (for the moment)

Linux
Xvidcap

More options at the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screencasting_software

Personally, I have used iShowU, Snapz Pro X and Camtasia and can say they all work well. Other options turned up by a quick Google search include Camstudio http://camstudio.org/ (free), and Capitvate from Adobe (expensive > $600 USD).

You'll also need a microphone. If you do not have one, you might consider an inexpensive Plantronics USB headset like this one. Good audio really helps make a good production. Here are some tips to making your audio sound good: http://geoffhankerson.com/10-tips-for-better-sounding-podcasts.html

Strategies and Workflow Styles
First, its a good idea to make an outline of the steps you wish to present in your screencast. Type A personality folks may like to script the whole thing. Run through the
lesson without recording once or twice get comfortable teaching the lesson.

There are 2 ways to approach making a screencast. The first is a completely "live to tape" workflow. In this case the producer records the audio and video (including mouse clicks and typing) all at the same time. If you are a new producer, you may find this like trying to pat your head and rub your belly at the same time. If this is the case for you, consider this alternative.

The alternative is to record the video first, and record a voiceover later. Simply record the steps you wish to present on your computer clicking your mouse and typing where need until you have shown all the steps you wish to present. Then record the voiceover with your audio appication and use you video editor to stitch it all together.

In this case you may wish to have a separate audio editing application.
Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ (Win, Mac, Linux)
GarageBand http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ (Mac)
Amadeus Pro http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html (Mac)

In this cases you may also wish to have a separate video editing application.
iMovie http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ (Mac)
Adobe Premiere Elements http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/ (Mac, Win)
Quicktime Pro http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/ (Mac, Win)

The Levelator is an application the really helps polish the audio portion of you presentation. http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator/ free and easy to use.

The Dojo has settled on 800 x 600 mpeg 4 video and Blip.tv as a hosting provider.

Links to Creative Common images (640 x 480):
Creative Commons slide (yellow, full-text)
Creative Commons slide (black, symbols)
Drupal Videocast bumper

Other Links
Original DROP task: http://drupal.org/node/201890
Jon Udell's tutorial on making a screencast: http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/11/16/wh...