How to Make a Great Video for YouTube
Whether you are making documentary style videos, or How To videos, or even vlogs, it's our goal to help you get started! So, we've created this guide on how to make a great video for YouTube. After all, the better quality content you produce, the more viewers will want to watch your content. This often leads to more subscribers! And, a high number of subscribers often leads more trust from new potential subscribers! Quality content creates a snowball effect in this way, so it's important to work towards quality! Here's a list of the three subjects we'll be going over and breaking down:
- Planning
- Action
- Editing
Lets get started!
How to Make a Great Video for YouTube Step One: Planning
Most great projects start out with a very basic step! This is sitting down with a pen and a notepad and planning the project out. Basic as it may be, planning is the most important step. Without a well thought out plan, many projects fail or are slow to produce results. So, planning out your video is definitely worth the time it will take. Let's take a more in depth look at this first step.
Odds are that you've already have some ideas in your head for what your videos will be about. This is often the case, but if you haven't decided this yet, we will talk about how to decide!
What's it About?
Deciding on what your videos are going to be about can often be done in two different ways. The first is taking an interest of yours, or something that you have a lot of knowledge about and choosing that as the subject of your videos. If you take this route, you'll be starting out with a certain level of authority on the subject! And, you'll be saving a lot of time by not having to research the topic extensively. With this way you'll be able to approach the project with more confidence starting out.
The second way is by doing research to find out what sort of topics and videos are popular. Then, you'll be picking an option from that research. These are both great, and straightforward ways to pick the subject that you want your videos to be about. The second option however will take a little more work than the first. It is a good way of picking a valuable and highly viewed topic however.
Planning Stage 2
Once you've got this first phase of planning of the way, its time to decide on things like the style of your videos and what they will include. Will your video perhaps be you sitting in a themed setting educating the viewer on things related to your subject? Or will it perhaps be you visiting locations related to your subject? Maybe your videos will be hands on instructional guides.
There are many great options, and sometimes it's a good idea to include several different styles. Doing this will keep your videos more interesting and exciting to your viewers. This is a good time to decide on how much energy you're willing to put in on and off camera. Also, think about what will attract viewers and interest your viewers so that they return for more. Remember, your primary goal here is to decide on what sort and style of great content you are going to create for your viewers.
Planning Stage 3
Now it's time for the third stage of planning for how to make a great video for YouTube. In this stage you'll be picking out your equipment. Once you've decided on the styles that you want to use to make and shoot your videos, it's time to find out what sort of equipment you'll need to make it happen. To start, you'll need to have an idea of what your budget for the project will be. Also, decide on how much you're willing to increase your budget if need be.
Equipment
The first piece of equipment that you should consider will of course be your camera. There are many different types of cameras for many different purposes. This is why its important to plan out of the style of your videos before equipment shopping. We live in a particularly great time for video content creators! This is because there are now so many low cost HD quality options as far as cameras go. You no longer have to spend thousands to buy a camera with great quality!
Today, you can keep costs lower than before to get a camera with the quality you need. Plan on doing a lot of research before you head to the store or go online to buy. Doing this will ensure you get the right camera to make a great video for YouTube!
The next piece of equipment that you will want to research is a microphone. That is unless the camera that you have selected comes with a high quality mic. That of course isn't always the case, so this is the next important piece of equipment. Depending on the style of filming that you are going to do, you may want several mics. These can be setup around your scenes. Or maybe even just a simple lapel mic will do the job. If you planned your project out you'll often know exactly what you need. A good wireless lapel mic can create a world of difference in your scenes compared to many camera mics.
Supportive Equipment
Besides those two important pieces of equipment, you'll also need to figure out what sort of supportive equipment you'll need. This includes camera stands, mic stands, props, greenscreen equipment, and other various items.
Next you'll need to do some research to find out what kind of editing software you'll need. This is another important phase because the better your editing software is, the more you'll be able to do with it! This way your production will come out with a much higher quality. Take some time on this and really dig deep because with the right sort of editing software you can really do some cool things.
For example, if you decide to use greenscreen effects, you are definitely going to want to look for demonstrations of different software to ensure that you get the right one for your desired effects, capabilities, and budget. These days greenscreen effects often times don't take a large budget to pull off but you can still end up finding yourself blowing a lot of your budget on other types of green screen equipment.
Equipment Care and Maintenance
Remember, taking care of your equipment and cleaning it is a must! This is so that you get the best performance that you can out of it. This will help your production reach the highest level of quality that it can.
Planning Stage 4
Besides the equipment needed to make a great YouTube video, you'll also need to figure out what sort of help you'll need. Maybe it's a one person show, and you may decide on doing entire thing by yourself. Or, depending on your content, you may need people who are able to act.
If it's not in your budget to hire actors and actresses, see if any of your friends or family are willing to help you out. You can also talk to any local college level actors and actresses as often times they are willing to help out. In return they'll get experience and possible acting credit once your project starts to reach the level of popularity that you are going for. They'll also have the professionality and know how to ensure that the acting for your production is top notch.
If applicable, you'll need people to work the cameras, audio engineers, even a set designer. A director as well if you don't want to fill that role. These are of course things that you may not be able to start off with. You may not need these depending on the type of videos your shooting, but they are something to plan for. Remember, starting out you can often times find people willing to fill these roles in exchange for something other than immediate payment. They'll join your project in exchange for the experience or even just the fun and maybe a nice slice of the pie once your project becomes profitable if that is one of your goals.
Step Two: Action
Now it's time to put your plan into action. The most important thing will be your content! You'll need to start off by organizing the content for your video. Well organized content is easier to edit, and is often higher quality!
This is also the time to take care of any writing you'll need to do for the video, like script writing or maybe even simple intro and outro writing. Remember, this kind of organization is going to help you while you're learning how to make a great video for YouTube. When your plan is to shoot more of a free style of video like travel and exploration you will want to leave it open so that it sounds more natural and not planned, but it always helps to have an idea of what might happen or what you want to happen in the video.
Filming
If applicable, you'll want to have your set all prepared. Also, you will want to get some test footage just to see how everything looks and sounds. If acting is going to be a part of your video, you may want to start practicing at least a few days in advance so that when filming starts everything is well prepared and practiced. This can be a big time saver and less of a headache.
When you start filming, regardless of what you're filming, you may want to film the same scenes or portions of your videos several times. This is a good idea because something may happen that you didn't notice in one take. There may also be portions where mess ups occur and having multiple takes can save you from having to do it over again. It will also save you from having to cut out or ditch large portions of your videos because they didn't come out right. Even sometimes for vlogs this may be a good idea. However, keeping it natural and authentic for vlogs is often the best way to go.
Step Three: Editing a Great Video for YouTube
Editing your video once you're finished filming is a very important step in learning how to make a great YouTube video! You don't want to skip this step, even if its a simple two minute video. Remember editing doesn't have to be a big process for shorts. However, you'll still want to keep even those types of videos at the highest quality that you can.
For other larger videos, plan on editing being a major process, though it often times doesn't have to be as hard as it may sound. Depending on the type of video you've filmed it may take you just an hour, or it may take several days. Regardless of the type of video, you don't want to rush through this step, it's just as important as filming.
A great way to start is by watching through all the content you've filmed, whether you've only got one take, or multiple takes, and deciding on what order you'll want it in if you haven't already and deciding which takes you'll want to try out first. After this, put it all together to form your base video and rewatch to ensure that you have all the best parts that you want in it and that you aren't missing anything or duplicating anything.
Refinement
Once you have your video together and you've given it a good thorough rough edit, it's time to start refining the video. This includes adding in effects, editing the audio, and even cutting parts. For example, our specialty, adding something like music can be a good way to increase the entertainment value of the video. Music can do everything from starting the video off with a great and memorable intro, to helping add more to the theme and atmosphere that you're going for! We have tracks like this available here: Collections Archive - Stock Music Central
Editing can seem like a bit of a headache at time. It can be easy to get overwhelmed during this process if you're rushing, so remember to take your time. When you take your time you are going to end up with a much higher quality project! If you take your time, you'll even have fun doing it and be open to more creativity! This can be the most stressful part of the entire process, but it doesn't have to be. Remember, if you're having a good time editing and taking your time, it's a lot more likely that you are going to make a high quality video! And that's how you make a great video for YouTube!