Guide
Screen recording with your face: how to put both in one vertical video
Updated
For a vertical video, the simplest way is to film your face and record your screen as two separate files. Then you put them together in the edit, by hand or with an AI editor.
In short
- To show your face and your screen in one vertical video, record them as two files and combine them in an editor.
- Your phone or computer records the screen for free, with Control Center on iPhone, Shift-Command-5 on a Mac and Snipping Tool on Windows.
- Recorders like Loom film your screen and your camera at once, which suits a desktop walkthrough better than a 9:16 video.
- In a tall 9:16 frame, your face and your screen can't both be big, so one of them is small or comes in for a moment.
- Cutroom's Magic Editor takes your face clip and your screen recording, and its AI editor puts the recording on the words where you talk about it.
How do you show your face and your screen in one video?
There are two ways. You record both at once with a recorder that films camera and screen together, or you record them separately and combine them.
For a vertical video, separate files work better. You can show the screen big when it matters, and your face big while you're talking.
- Loom records your screen, your webcam or both, and in Chrome you pick Screen and Camera to get both at once.
- Loom's free version records up to 720p, which is fine for a quick walkthrough.
- If you record separately, you stack the two files in an editor like CapCut, where the screen recording goes on an overlay layer above your face.
- An AI editor can do the stacking for you, so you only upload the two files.
What to record, and how
You need two files: a clip of you talking to the camera, and a recording of the screen you're talking about. Record the screen first, so you know what to say over it.
- On iPhone, open Control Center and tap the gray Record button. The recording starts after a three-second countdown and lands in Photos.
- On a Mac, press Shift-Command-5, pick the whole screen or a part of it, and click Record. The file is saved as a .mov.
- On Windows 11, open Snipping Tool, choose Record, press New, drag over the area you want and click Start.
- Film your face on your phone, held upright at eye level, and talk through the screen in the same order as the recording.
- Zoom in on the part of the screen you're showing. A full desktop shrunk into a phone-sized window is hard to read.
How Cutroom's Magic Editor edits a video like this
Jacob is the AI editor inside Cutroom's Magic Editor: it edits your video for you, then changes it when you ask in a chat.
The 4 styles, as example edits
Steps
Three steps, four angles
Skit
Hook, hard stop, demo card
Verdict
The tester's verdict
Poster
Typography does the talking
Hover or tap an example to play it, without sound. These are example edits of each style; the presenters in them are generated with AI.
- Your take: one video of you talking, up to 3 minutes
- Your style: one of 4: Steps, Skit, Verdict or Poster
- Your files: screenshots, a screen recording or a logo, if you have them
- Your goal: what the video is for, in a few words, if you like
- Jacob makes it: normally 10 to 15 minutes, and you get an email
- Your edit: ask Jacob for changes in a chat, then export
Then you ask Jacob, for example
- “Make this about 10 seconds shorter”
- “Put a clip on the strongest sentence”
- “Change the music to something calmer”
Each change is a new version, and going back is free. First cut 250 credits, each change 40, questions free, export 30 credits per started minute.
Layouts for face and screen in a 9:16 video
A vertical video is tall and narrow, so you choose which one gets the space at each moment. These are the layouts that work on a phone.
- The screen fills the top half and your face fills the bottom half, which is easy to follow but makes both smaller.
- Your face stays full screen and the screen recording floats in a window above you while you talk about it.
- The screen fills the frame and your face sits in a small box, which suits a detailed demo.
- The screen slides over your face for a moment and then slides away, so you stay the main thing on screen.
- The recording plays on a drawn phone or laptop, which shows people what kind of device it runs on.
Putting the two files together without stacking layers
In Cutroom's Magic Editor, you upload your face clip and add the screen recording and any screenshots as files. You press "Make my video" once, and Jacob, its AI editor, makes the whole edit.
The style you pick decides the layout. Skit is made for a product walkthrough with your face on screen.
- Skit slides a card with your screenshots over your face and closes on a phone playing your screen recording.
- Verdict keeps you full screen, then shrinks you into a small card while your screenshots play on a laptop.
- Steps shows your screenshots and recording in floating windows, with one big word at a time under them.
- Poster shows no screens at all, so it's the wrong style for a screen recording.
- It normally takes 10 to 15 minutes, and you get an email when your first cut is ready.
A founder's invoicing app: face clip and screen recording in one video
She uploaded her face clip, a 40-second screen recording of the app and one screenshot, dashboard.png. Jacob put each file on the words where she talks about it.
Drawing of an example clip, not a customer video
Before · the clip as filmed
A 40-second phone video of a founder talking about her invoicing app, plus a 40-second screen recording of the app
“So, um, here's the dashboard, uh, and this is how you send an invoice in, in in two clicks.”
struck through = what Jacob cuts
After · Jacob's first edit, Skit style
“Here's the dashboard, and this is how you send an invoice in two clicks.”
- On “dashboard”: your screenshot dashboard.png on a card that slides over your face
- On “clicks”: your screen recording playing on a phone as the video closes
- Under the whole video: captions that follow your voice
- Under the whole video: calm music under your voice
window: dashboard.png
Then you ask Jacob
- “Change the call to action to Try it free”v2the same edit, now ending on “Try it free”
- “Make this about 10 seconds shorter”v3a shorter version, with the dashboard card and the phone at the close still in it
Limits to know before you start
The Magic Editor makes short vertical videos. For a long tutorial or a wide YouTube video, a desktop recorder like Loom is the better tool.
- Your face clip can be up to 3 minutes long, as MP4, MOV or WebM.
- Pictures can be PNG, JPEG or WebP up to 25 MB; recordings can be MP4, MOV or WebM up to 200 MB.
- You can add up to 20 files to one video.
- The result is one vertical MP4, 1080 by 1920. There is no 16:9 or square version.
- Cutroom doesn't post for you, so you download the video and upload it to TikTok, Reels or Shorts yourself.
Questions people ask
- How do I record my screen and my face at the same time?
- Use a recorder that films both, like Loom, where you pick Screen and Camera in Chrome. For a vertical video, it's often better to record them as two files and put them together in an editor.
- How do I do a screen recording with my face on iPhone?
- Record them separately. Use the Record button in Control Center for the screen, then film yourself talking with the camera. Put the two clips together in an editor such as CapCut, or upload both to an AI editor.
- What is the best layout for a vertical screen recording with a face?
- Keep your face big while you talk and bring the screen in big when people need to read it. A permanent small bubble in a corner is hard to see on a phone.
- Can AI put my screen recording and my face together?
- Yes. In Cutroom's Magic Editor you upload your face clip and the recording, and Jacob puts the recording on the words where you talk about it. It normally takes 10 to 15 minutes, and you get an email when your first cut is ready.
- Can I make a horizontal YouTube tutorial this way?
- Not with the Magic Editor. It takes a clip of up to 3 minutes and makes one vertical 1080 by 1920 video. For a wide or long tutorial, use a desktop recorder like Loom.
Upload your face clip with your screen recording, and Jacob puts them together in one vertical video. Your first video is free.