YouTube Video Production Skills – A Guide For Your Next Video Production
Find That Winning Look
When it comes to improving your YouTube video production skills, you need to focus on some key factors. First, find that “look.” Now, what is a look? It’s the overall appearance of your videos, exemplified by backgrounds, memorable locations, props, decent audio, costumes, etc. This even stretches all the way into post-production! So make sure you choose your editing software wisely. The visual style provides cues as to the type of video you’re producing. You know the feeling you get when you instantly recognize your favorite channel? Aim to create that feeling for your viewers!
Picking memorable visual cues and locations can definitely help your videos stand out. Experiment with different shot types, or try using different angles to illustrate your story and give each moment the right look and feel. You can also capture spontaneous moments or record an entire series on a mobile device like Jean Bookishthoughts or MikeFalzone‘s channels. The camera on your cell phone can even help you quickly prototype your ideas like a visual storyboard! It’s become easier than ever to create content.
Below are three of the most important things one should keep in mind when honing their YouTube video production skills. And since they all happen to start with the letter ‘L’, let’s just call them the Three L’s!
Lighting
One of the most important YouTube video production skills to have is familiarity with lighting. There are so many different ways and styles and types of lighting out there! But for now, let’s stick with some basics. If you’re inside, you can use practical lights like a lamp, a simple lighting kit, or natural light from a window. Natural or practical lights are good if you have limited resources or want to give your video a simple and informal vibe. A lighting kit may give your video a more polished and formal feeling. For a more in-depth look at the many different types of lighting techniques, click here.
Listen (Audio)
Just as when you’re watching a video or speaking with another person, you want to be able to hear them clearly. When the audio is too low, people have to strain to hear what you’re saying, but when it’s too loud it can become uncomfortable to listen to. Make sure the volume of the sound in your video is in a nice mid-range, and try to record in a quiet space without any distracting sounds. Purchasing something as simple as a shotgun microphone goes a long way and is much better than a simple microphone on your phone! In your editing software, adjust your audio input, or gain, to a nice midrange. This is arbitrary, but -12 dB to -18 dB usually works pretty well.
Location
Picking the right location makes every one of the Three L’s easier to achieve. The perfect location is one that’s free of any distracting objects or background elements, quiet and well-lit. Unless you’re recording a specific location (such as your workplace), try to record in as clear an area as possible to keep the focus on the subject of the video. With sites like Airbnb and Peerspace at our disposal now, it’s easier than ever to find that perfect location for a video!
Shooting
When it comes to choosing the shot you want, and executing, the lists that makeup shot tips, shot tricks, shot types are extensive and full of information. To give you some very basic ideas, three of the most common shot choices are close up, medium, and wide shots. For a more detailed breakdown, click here.
A wide shot helps set up the scene and gives the viewer context. A medium shot is all-purpose and can offer clues or direct the focus of the user to what’s coming next. A close-up shot is often used to hone in on personal, intimate conversations without distractions.
Shot composition is simply how a shot looks through the camera lens. Many mobile devices today have surprisingly high-quality cameras, so much so that TV crews have used them for impromptu clips every now and then. Your mobile device should not be your main tool but don’t forget about it if you find yourself faced with a great, unexpected opportunity for a video. You can record it and upload it later or even use the YouTube app to share special clips while you’re on the go.
Editing
- Mac computers come with a built-in video editing program called iMovie.
- YouTube Video Editor lets you combine multiple videos and images you’ve uploaded to create a new video. You can also trim your clips to custom lengths or add music to your video from a library of approved tracks. Be sure to customize clips with special tools and effects.
- Third-party editing software is better than ever. The most popular are Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere. Final Cut Pro X is more or less an upgraded version of iMovie.
Video Editing – The Basics
- Trim: Cut the length of your clip by moving your cursor over the edges of your video in the timeline. Drag the handles toward the center of the video to shorten.
- Lengthen: Drag the handles outward from the center of the video to lengthen. This will result in the video repeating.
- Cut/Snip: Clips can be cut into portions. Move your mouse over the video and click the scissors icon to bring up the snip marker.
Customized YouTube Enhancements
- Rotate: Rotates your video 90 degrees.
- Effects: Use Video Enhancements on your video to color correct, stabilize, and add filters and other effects.
- Text: Apply a text overlay on the clip.
- Slow Motion: Modify the speed at which the clip plays.
Add music and customize the volume
You can add a new audio track to your video. By default, the audio from an added track will replace your clips’ original audio. Click the music note button in the upper left of the editor to bring up YouTube’s library of pre-approved songs. Browse the tracks by searching or filtering by artist and genre.
YouTube Ad Format:
- Display Assets: Standard banner/Multi-Purpose Unit (MPU). InVideo
- Video Assets: Standard In-stream, TrueView
- Other Assets: Homepage Masthead and Expandable, Rich Media
Distributing Your Videos By Cross-Posting
Once your video is shot, edited, and built the way you want it, you should share/post it on your accounts and with the world! The best way to help build up your accounts on StumbleUpon/Reddit/Digg is to cross-post the top posts on each website. For example, post the top recent posts on Digg into your StumbleUpon account, post the top recent posts on StumbleUpon into your Reddit account, etc. That way you will always have fresh material with proven popularity to post in your various social media accounts! Try it out with your StumbleUpon/Reddit/Digg accounts to increase their value, then share a ShortForm link in them to see if that has helped in increasing your views! Who knows, eventually if your channel gets big enough you could monetize these videos!
When it comes to improving one’s video production skills, it’s a never-ending process for improvement. There are always new things you can learn and get better at. If you have any questions regarding video production in any way, shape, or form, please comment below!