🎬 Guest Video Checklist

Record a talk with a guest in Ecamm, with an iPad for drawing notes. Do the boxes in order and tick each one when it's done.

0 done

1. Me

2. Guest

3. Me + Guest

4. Notes

These are the 4 scenes you'll build. You switch between them while you record.

🧰 Step 1 · Get ready

Set up once and you're done.

Open Ecamm Live and Zoom on the Mac. Put your AirPods in. Without them the guest's voice comes out of the speakers and echoes into your mic. In Ecamm, click the Zoom button at the bottom. Log in to Zoom in the browser window that opens and click Allow. In Zoom settings, set Camera to Ecamm Virtual Camera and Microphone to Same as system. Turn off every Zoom video effect (blur, touch-up, lighting). Leave only HD on.

🧱 Step 2 · Build the scenes

A scene is one look. You make it once and use it every time.

Open the Scenes window. Click Duplicate on your main scene and name the copy Me + Guest. In that scene, make your camera box smaller and slide it to the left. Hold Option and drag your box to the right. You now have two boxes. Make both boxes the same size. A blue line shows when they match, and the arrow keys move a box one pixel at a time. Keep the same gap on every side. Click the right-hand box, change its camera to Placeholder and name it Guest 1. Duplicate Me + Guest and make Guest 1 fill the screen. Name it Guest.

💡 Give every scene a clear name, like "Me", "Guest", "Me + Guest" and "Notes".

✏️ Step 3 · The iPad notes scene

This is the scene where you draw while you both talk.

Plug the iPad into the Mac with a cable, unlock it and tap Trust. Open a notes app on the iPad (GoodNotes or Freeform) with a blank page. In Ecamm, duplicate Me + Guest and name it Notes. Add the iPad to the scene. If Ecamm doesn't list the iPad, turn on Sidecar and add it with Screen Share → the notes window. Put the iPad page big in the middle, your box small on the left and Guest 1 small on the right. Hold Option and drag the edges of the iPad box to crop off the window bars.

👋 Step 4 · Bring the guest in

Do this on every call.

Invite the guest to a normal Zoom meeting. In the Zoom app click Schedule, pick the time and send them the link (or add it to a Google Calendar invite). They join from their own laptop like any Zoom call. Send the guest one line before the call: "Zoom will say 'this meeting is being live streamed'. Just click OK, I'm only recording." At call time, open Ecamm's Zoom button, find that meeting in the list and click Join. Don't use "New meeting", because that makes a different link from the one you sent. In the Sound Levels window, find "Zoom Guests: NOT CAPTURING" and click the +.

⚠️ People miss this step more than any other. If you skip it, the guest won't appear.

In Ecamm's Zoom panel, on the guest, click ••• → Assign to placeholder → Guest 1. Check: click the Me + Guest scene. Can you see both of you? 🎉 If you look further away than the guest, zoom in your own camera in Ecamm until you match.

🔴 Step 5 · Record

Press Record in Ecamm. Ecamm records whichever scene is on screen. Start on Me → switch to Me + Guest when you bring them in → Notes when you draw → Guest when they tell a story. Stop recording, then find the file in Ecamm's recordings folder.

💡 You can put each scene on a Stream Deck button so switching is one press.

⭐ All done!