~| 7 minute read |~
Before I started creating videos, I consumed hours of education about the best way to go it without falling flat on my face. I started by sitting down with my video creation guru husband and made a list of everything I should know. I thought the list was long then… but over the last 10 weeks of practice the list has gotten longer and much much MUCH more detailed. Today I want to share this unedited, unfiltered list with you!
Whether you are a content creator wanting to see someone else’s system, you want to make videos but feel overwhelmed and need a realistic expectation of what it takes, or simply want to nosey around my brain, I welcome you here. I hope this gives us all a better appreciation of what it takes to create media in any form. It’s made me much more grateful for the channels I watch!!
This document on my computer is titled “What To Do When Filming A New Video.” I left all the wording exactly as I use it, but feel free to skip over the technical jargon as I know it can get lost when out of context.
I always welcome questions and comments! If you have a constructive critique (or 10) I would love to hear them!! This is what I’ve learned in just 10 weeks and I know I have lots more to learn and am grateful to you wonderful people who want to make me better.
Creating:
Pre-Production
- Have a plan/script
- Know who I’m talking to (learn through analytics, comments, target audience)
- Anticipate what my audience wants/needs
- Bullet point outline of everything to talk about in the video (digital notes are faster and easy to template)
- Get camera ready (hair done (or not), makeup done (or not), etc)
- Gather items for the video, set up station
- Set up camera tripod (make sure SD card has enough space, battery is charged, etc)
- Turn lights on
- Check background
- Set exposure and white balance on camera
- Set up audio (mic plugged in and on, correct position, input selected, etc)
- Run a video and audio test
- Troubleshoot (if needed, text John :))
- Film (clap to sync)
- Upload files
- Camera: SD card in computer, drop files in Shared Drive
- Audio: folders on John’s desktop, drag and drop to Shared Drive
*Quick shout out to my husband and biggest supporter! Knowing how much space video and audio files take, he created a cloud based folder that’s tethered to his desktop so my laptop is never slowed down. He did this several weeks before I even admitted filming was something I wanted to do. So grateful for him! If you want to know how he created that system, I’ll have to start another list. 😂
Back to our list:
Editing:
- Video
- Post production editing in HitFilm Express
- Upload all project files and drop onto editor slide
- Sync audio and visual files, mute the camera audio
- Delete unnecessary pieces/repeats
- Jump cut edits
- Insert title card (moving slide at the moment with voiceover)
- Change title or other video specific details
- Add visual and audio transitions
- Add captions with white background (font size 46, background 1920×200, 20% opacity)
- Add watermark (scale size: 14%x14%, 70% opacity)
- Insert music track (if applicable)
- Add anything else lol
- Leave 10~ seconds blank (or insert image) for end card screen (make sure the file is the right size on the preview screen)
- Review for mistakes
- Export to Shared Drive
- Thumbnail
- Edit thumbnail picture in PhotoScape X
- Grab raw file image(s) from beginning of video footage and/or stills
- Open in editor page in PhotoScape X
- Brighten image(s), blur background so subject pops, eliminate items, etc
- Basically create the most alluring image(s) possible while accurately representing the video’s content
- Download as jpeg
- Create thumbnail in Canva
- Use custom youtube & blog templates
- Upload freshly edited photo(s) to template
- Add captions (less is more)
- Make it pretty (don’t change the angle of the slant but move accordingly)
- Download
- Edit thumbnail picture in PhotoScape X
Uploading & Meta Data:
- Upload video to YouTube as unlisted
- Write title and description (greeting, important info about video, any products, links, contact info, hashtags (limit of 3))
- Enter tags (see Evernote hashtag list for reference)
- Upload and assign thumbnail photo
- Set privacy settings and add to playlist
- Under Advanced Settings
- Select Category (HowTo & Style or People & Blog)
- Select Video Language
- Once complete, review for upload errors
- Make video public
Final Additions:
- In YouTube Studio Beta post uploading
- Set End Card template
- Add any YouTube Cards
- Publish
- Embed video link in blog post on CandidClass.com (which comes with all the pre established automated systems of the blog: RSS emails, Candid Class Facebook post, Twitter post)
The document I use after this is one I’ve titled, “What To Do After Content Goes Live.” It has to do with how to promote a new video and whatnot. That list still needs a lot of work as I’ve been focusing on the creation primarily.
Thanks for reading this nitty gritty behind-the-scenes style post! If you have any feedback PLEASE don’t hesitate to let me know either in the comments, through a private message, with smoke signals…
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!
x,
Victoria