Use QuickTime Player to record video on your Mac
QuickTime Player is the free, quasi-system version of the QuickTime video recording application. It is installed on your Mac.
Open the Applications folder, which you can access by clicking the Applications folder in the Mac Dock or Finder window. Then, click QuickTime Player to open it.
When QuickTime opens, click File in the menu bar. The drop-down menu has two movie options: new movie record or new screen record.
Select “New Movie Record” to turn on the Mac’s camera and record what it sees.
Select New Screen Recording to get the option to record what happens to the entire Mac screen or just one part of it.
After you select an option, the QuickTime control panel appears.
To start recording the video, click the button with the red dot. To stop recording, click the same button.
How do I record on a Mac without using an app
If you just want to record your screen activity, there is a way to skip some of the steps of going through QuickTime Player.
If you downloaded the Mojave update for MacOS, press Command + Shift + 5. If you’ve used similar keyboard shortcuts (Command + Shift + 4) to take screenshots, this should sound familiar.
When you use this keyboard shortcut, a toolbar opens with two options in the middle:
The first one looks like a solid box with a record symbol in the lower right corner. Select it to record the entire screen.
The other looks like a dotted box with the same record symbol. Use it to select the part of the screen you want to record.
For either option, stop the recording by clicking Stop in the toolbar or by pressing Command + Control + Esc.
Use Photo Booth to shoot video
Photo Booth is another application that can be used to capture video.
Open Photo Booth’s select icon in its Dock or open the Applications folder.
When the application opens, view the three ICONS in the lower left corner of the window. Starting from the left, your choices are:
Take four quick pictures.
Take a still photo.
Record a movie clip.
Select the third option and click on the red camera in the middle to begin recording. Click the red camera again to stop recording.
Import the application directly using iMovie
The final option for easily recording video on a Mac is to use iMovie. This application is more complex than the others described here, but it gives you more freedom when editing video.
Open the iMovie application.
Click the Import button indicated by the right down arrow.
Select the camera you want to use, usually the built-in camera.
In the Import to menu, select the event to which you want to add the video. You can open an existing one or create a new one.
To start recording a video, click the Record button at the bottom of the screen, and then click again to stop recording.
Close the video window when you have finished recording. The clip you recorded will be added to the selected event.
Edit clips using the standard iMovie suite of tools.
You don’t have to go through the whole process each time you record a new clip. A new clip is made each time the recording is started and stopped. You can create multiple in a row