capturing video from webcam and saving to a file
Cheese webcam studio can record Video and take photo's with effects.
As for cli recording, see if this will work
streamer -q -c /dev/video0 -f rgb24 -r 3 -t 00:30:00 -o ~/outfile.avi
ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -s 320x240 -i /dev/video0 out.mpg
Source:
[ubuntu] how to record the webcam with command line? [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums
webcam & microphone command line fun ....