- We've talked about thumbnails and banners,
but one of the other important and unfortunately
often overlooked parts of a video on YouTube
is the end screen.
So for quite a while I actually had a specific end screen
template that I designed, which is kind
of a pretty common technique.
It's sort of the same thing at the end
of every video.
You can throw up links to a few of
your other videos.
You can choose 'em.
You can have YouTube choose 'em.
And you can put, like, a subscribe button
in the middle or around 'em.
And it works pretty well for a lotta channels,
but for the past six months or so
I've made a much more active effort
to make the end screens an actual part
of my videos.
So if somebody watches one of your videos,
and then they decide to watch another
one of your videos, and possibly,
much like you might after this video,
even another video after that,
that's a pretty good thing, right?
And it also tells YouTube that,
hey, if you show people these videos, they keep watching,
and that helps your videos to be recommended
to a wider range of people.
So what I've actually been doing lately
is featuring a specific video
at the end of my videos.
For example, when I made a video about
this Rode microphone, I ended the video
by letting people know that I also have a review
for this Rodecaster Pro, which they might be interested in,
since it's related to the video they were already watching.
I also usually have a title on screen
that draws attention to that video
and explains what it's about
in just a few words.
I do also add the subscribe button
on the end screen, and even though
I don't like to spend time in my videos asking people
to subscribe, I figure that if someone has made it
all the way to the end of a video,
there's a good chance that they didn't hate it, (laughing)
and so why not make it easy for them
to subscribe and hopefully get more videos
that they'll like?
YouTube does allow 20 seconds for your end screens,
but to be safe I do usually keep mine at 19 seconds max,
and sometimes shorter.
And I just make them right inside Final Cut Pro,
but you can do something similar
with pretty much any editing software,
because it's super easy.
So I start first just by adding a basic color generator.
I change the duration to 19 seconds,
and then I change the opacity to 75% usually.
Instead of having that generator covering
up the entire screen, I use the Transform tool
to resize it into a bar that will sit
behind the title.
I usually like to make mine a little bit tilted
and have it come off the edge of the screen.
And rather than have my videos end
on a single frame of my face paused
in a potentially awkward position,
I do usually add a still image or video clip
for the final five seconds or so.
In the video I'm using here,
I actually did use a bluebird just
because I thought it was funny.
And I do usually keep the opacity
of that image or that B-roll footage
to, like, 20 or 25%, so that way it's totally
out of the way, and it keeps it in the background,
so that the focus is all on
the featured content of the end screen.
Once I have the first side done
with the subscribe button and the black bar,
I just duplicate the black bar
and transform it, so I can move it up
into the upper right-hand corner,
where I can then resize it and add in the teaser text
for that video, whatever video I happen
to be featuring.
In the case of this video,
it's all about Final Cut Pro,
so the teaser text is for a video
where I explain how to do other stuff
with Final Cut Pro.
So by the time I'm finished, I usually have four layers.
I have two of the generators that look like black bars,
one in the lower right side of the screen,
one in the upper left side of the screen.
Or wait, no, upper wait.
Okay, one in the lower left side of the screen,
and one in the upper right side of the screen,
because you're watching me and it's backwards.
Lower left is where the subscribe button pops up,
the words and everything,
and up here is where the words will tease
whatever video I decide to feature.
And then I do add simple transitions,
so that all those elements come on screen
in a visually appealing and hopefully
not super distracting way.
And that's pretty much all that there is to it.
Of course, it does take a little bit
of extra time and effort to go
on the YouTube dashboard and add in all
these extra elements once your video is finished uploading,
but I think that it is definitely worth
that extra effort, so watch me put it into action right now.
Since we're talking about small but important details
on YouTube, I put together an entire video
on how to build better channel banners
that also includes a totally free template
that you can download and use,
so click on that, and I will see you
over in that video.
(electronic music)