The recording of bridge games has been accomplished since mankind has had the combination of contract bridge and cameras at the same time.

The world has seen technological advances that put man on the Moon, and then managed to film it! Today, recording your bridge game is even easier than that.

Bridge on BBO can be screen-captured, edited, overlayed with commentary recorded live or later, and then uploaded to your chosen viewing platform.

For your viewers, it’s obvious that you want to produce the best quality content possible. Most don’t have a professional recording studio or card room, and the good news is that you don’t need to.

Here are some secrets for recording your BBO game.

The Secret Is… Screen Capture Software

PC and smartphone videos aren’t taken by holding any button in for too long, and they aren’t filmed by pointing one camera at another. If the technology still seems new to you, step one is screen capture software.

Open source varieties and professional, usually paid ones are out there.

It allows whatever is happening on the screen (plus any audio overlays) to be recorded, and exported to a video file you can edit.

The Other Secrets Are… Editing & Compression

If you’ve just recorded a bridge game, well done. But now what do you do with it?

Editing is the next step in the content production process. Use a free video editor, or look for open source alternatives through your nearest search engine.

Use the editing process to include overlays, graphics, fade-ins or fade-outs, and to cut (or add) the necessary. Everyone makes mistakes, and almost everyone says something inappropriate or nervous during their first few recordings. That’s what editing (and sometimes another take) is for.

Once you’re happy with editing, export the appropriate video file and check the size.

If it’s too large for a proper upload, compress it before you do.

Some More Secrets… For Better Quality Results

Reducing Lag

Lag (or delays) can be a common problem when running screen capture, BBO, and several other things. The best way to fix this is to close as many of these “other things” as possible (usually through the Task Manager for your operating system).

If this doesn’t work, free up space, reboot, and try again. Reducing your recording quality is one more method if the first ones don’t produce the right results.

Practising Pacing

Actors don’t stumble on their words much after a few decades in acting for good reason. They practice, sometimes alone, and extremely often. Practice your speaking-while-recording skills, and listen back to yourself with a critical ear.

Eventually, it will feel more natural. Given even more practice, live mistakes will become less. I speak from personal experience when I recommend that almost nobody jump straight into the live-recording boat.

One More Secret… Is Your Promotion

Before moving on, answer the following question: How do you know which bridge (or cooking, or music…) videos are good and hot off the cutting room floor right this second?

Answering this question helps to tell you what the best avenues might be to promote content once you’ve created and uploaded it.