By the ReScreen team · · 5 min read
Launch day is three weeks out. You asked for a quote on a SaaS launch video and the number came back larger than your marketing budget for the quarter, with a delivery date after the launch. So now it is you, a Mac, and a product that mostly exists as a browser tab.
That is enough. A launch video has one job, which is to make the right person stop scrolling and understand what is new. The product doing the thing, clearly framed, does that job better than an animated metaphor about rockets.
What does a launch video actually need to do?
Not explain the product. That is the job of the longer walkthrough; the method for that is in how to record a product demo video that converts. A launch video needs to do three smaller things:
- Make one specific person recognise their problem in the first few seconds.
- Show the new thing working, once, legibly.
- Tell them where to go next.
If a viewer comes away able to say "it's the tool that does X for people like me", the video worked.
A 60-second structure you can steal
| Time | Beat | What is on screen |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 s | The problem, in the customer's words | The "before": the messy spreadsheet, the manual step |
| 5–15 s | The claim | Your product, already open on the key screen |
| 15–45 s | Three proof moments | Three short interactions, each ending in a visible result |
| 45–55 s | The outcome | The finished state, held still |
| 55–60 s | The call to action | Your URL, spoken and visible in the address bar or product |
Three proof moments, not seven. Choose the three that are new, visual, and quick to show.
Step 1: Write the voiceover first
Write it as you would say it to a customer across a table, then cut a third. Sixty seconds holds far fewer words than you expect, so a first draft is almost always too long.
Read it aloud against a timer. Anywhere you run out of breath, the sentence is too long. Anywhere you say "and also", you have found a fourth proof moment that should be removed.
Step 2: Turn the script into a shot list
For each line of voiceover, write the clicks that happen underneath it. Then prepare the product so every shot starts in the right state:
- Demo data that looks like a real customer's account.
- Browser zoom and window size fixed, bookmarks bar hidden.
- Each of the three proof moments reachable in one or two clicks.
Rehearse the click path without recording. Pace comes from knowing where your cursor goes next.
Step 3: Record beat by beat, in one take
Do not try to perform sixty perfect seconds. Within a single recording, go beat by beat, pausing between them with ⌥⌘P, or repeat a beat a few times in a row and keep the best attempt in the edit. ReScreen edits one recording at a time and does not import separate clips, so keep it all in one take.
In ReScreen, choose the "Product Demo" recording preset, which sets 4K and 60 FPS. Launch footage gets cropped, zoomed and reposted, and the extra resolution is what keeps text sharp afterwards; the trade-offs are explained in the guide to 4K 60 FPS screen recording on Mac. Record the application or window, not the display, so nothing from the rest of your desktop appears.
A founder's face in the corner can add trust. The camera is recorded as its own track, so switch it on and choose its shape, size and position afterwards.
Step 4: Make raw footage look like a launch
This is the part agencies charge for, and most of it is framing.
Put the recording on a canvas. An edge-to-edge capture looks like a screenshot that moves. In the canvas and background settings, pick a Gradient or Image background in your brand colours, set "Padding" somewhere around 6–10 %, add a "Corner radius" and a soft shadow. The full range of options is covered in screen recording backgrounds and padding.
Let the zoom point. Smart Zoom builds a zoom for each click you made. For a launch video, try the Snappy or Spring animation, keep "Combine nearby clicks" on so a burst of clicks becomes one move, and delete any zoom that is not one of your three proof moments. Add a manual zoom on the outcome frame and hold it.
Make the cursor visible. Raise "Cursor size" a little above the 120 % default, set "Smoothing" to Smooth, and turn on a Ring or Pulse click effect so a viewer watching on mute still sees every press.
Cut hard. Use "Remove Range" on every breath, hesitation and page load. Speed any unavoidable wait to 3–4×.
What ReScreen will not do: title cards, logo stings, music, captions or transitions. If you want an opening card and a music bed, export from ReScreen and finish in a general-purpose editor, or skip them and open directly on the product.
Step 5: Export one edit for every channel
You will post this in at least four places, and they do not want the same shape. The export presets handle that without re-cutting:
- YouTube or LinkedIn preset: landscape 16:9, MP4, H.264. Use it for the launch post, the website and the email.
- YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels or TikTok preset: 9:16 with "Fill canvas", where the framing follows your clicks so the action stays in shot. The details are in the guide to vertical screen recording for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
Most feed video is watched without sound, so upload a caption file or use the platform's auto-captions on every post. ReScreen does not generate captions.
Launch-day distribution checklist
- Upload the file to each platform directly rather than pasting a link to one of them.
- Put the landscape cut at the top of the launch page and the announcement email (as a linked thumbnail).
- Post the vertical cut the same day, then one proof moment per day as a standalone clip for the following week. The rhythm for that is laid out in screen recordings for social media marketing.
Next step: block out one afternoon
Script, record, frame and cut, export. The second launch video is quicker, because your canvas and zoom settings can be saved as your own preset.
ReScreen is a native app for macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Every plan has every feature, no watermark and no time limits, with monthly, yearly and one-off lifetime options on the pricing page.
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