﻿We just hit 10,000 subscribers so if you clicked on this video and you’re already subscribed,
thank you so much for helping me reach that milestone.
And it you’re not subscribed, well my name is Shawn, I’m the person behind the Canvas and I
make video-essays analyzing different artworks from different time periods. If you’re interested
in that kind of thing, I invite you to check out the channel and subscribe if you like it.
Now, because we got to 10,000 subscribers, I wanted to make a special video and show you
how I make a video-essay. So here it is! How I make a video-essay from start to finish, from
A to Z. But right before, if you’re interested, I’m thinking of making a 10k subscriber Q&A so,
if you have any questions for me, pause the video now and write them in the comments.
I just finished making a video on Paul Signac’s
In the Time of Harmony, a painting which was originally titled In the
Time of Anarchy, but that Signac had to change because of the political landscape of the time.
It’s a very cool painting with an interesting story, so it should make for a good video.
So here are the steps I take to make my videos:
I first have to find the topic of the video, then do the research. Once that’s done, I can
write my script, then I need to record the script, edit the recording and, finally, edit the video.
Before jumping into the first step, I just want to let you know that this won’t be a technical step
by step demonstration of my workflow. I won’t go in depth into editing audio in Audition or
editing video in Premiere. I just want to show my workflow and hopefully inspire you in making your
own videos. These are just tips that I’ve learned since I started making these videos 2 years ago,
but I’m far from being a great video-essayist and I’m still learning every time I make a video.
For the first step, finding a topic, I usually never run out of inspiration.
The world is full of fascinating artworks and I always encounter amazing paintings in books,
online, on Instagram, Facebook or Reddit. You also sometimes recommend
topics in the comment section of my videos which is always super appreciated.
I usually keep a list of interesting artworks or topics for future videos on
my phone so I never run out.
Secondly, you have to do research. Research is the most important step in making a video-essay
and you cannot cut corners here. What’s more important than good editing or good narration
is a good analysis. This is what people click on your video for.
I usually start my research on YouTube and look at what has been made about the topic I’m doing
my video on. That way, I won’t just repeat the same information given in another video.
Also, if you encounter a video with better production value than you could ever create,
don’t worry, you can still provide a different insightful analysis of the topic.
After watching all these videos, I’ll watch longer documentaries, read different articles
about the artist or the painting itself and, even though I said you can’t cut corners with research,
I’ll also tell you to not go overboard with research. Spend time finding the
right resources for your analysis, not as many resources as possible.
If your video is shorter than 10 minutes long, too much information might make your content
disjointed. Focus on the right information that will help you deliver a clear analysis.
Luckily, I got to use an essay my girlfriend wrote for school on Signac’s In the Time of
Harmony, so thank you Valentina for letting me use your research.
Now, time to write your script. When I write my script, I like to read every
sentence I write out-loud to make sure that they feel somewhat conversational. Writing a
script for a video-essay is different from writing an essay. What you’re
writing needs to be understood when it’s read out-loud and must be coherent when read out-loud.
Also, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there’ll be a video on top of your narration, so you
don’t always have to say everything. Sometimes, an image or a graphic can do that for you.
I usually start writing my script by organizing it with bullet points at first.
For Signac’s In the Time of Harmony I organized it by starting with an intro,
followed by a deeper look into the painting, what is anarchism?, neo-impressionnism and anarchism,
anarchism in France in the 19th century and, finally,
I’ll answer the question “Why did Signac change the title of his painting?”.
It’s important to sometimes sacrifice some information to make the script more coherent. For
example, my girlfriend, in her essay, wrote about the different anarchist philosophies when
it came to advocating anarchism through art. Though it’s extremely interesting,
I didn’t want to go into all of that for the purpose of this video.
Now, I’ll write my script in one sitting to not disrupt the flow
I put myself in. I’ll also rarely go back and edit the script, but that’s just a personal preference,
just be yourself when you write and have fun writing.
I usually aim for between 1000-1200 words for my scripts, but for this specific one,
I had fun and wrote 1900 words, which is still fine. It’ll just make for a longer video.
So once I’m done writing, I read the whole thing out-loud to Valentina,
get her approval and then I record the script.
Recording is easily the hardest part of the process for me,
mainly because English is my second language. I’ll just make a lot of mistakes,
I’ll stutter and I’ll mispronounce words all the time. For example, it took me about an hour
of recording for a 13 minute narration, and that wasn’t too bad compared to some previous videos.
After I record myself, I edit the audio in Adobe Audition. I first delete all the mistakes I made,
I then compress the audio, I do some noise reduction and all that fun audio processing. I
also reduce all of my breaths individually because a friend once told me that it’s all they could
hear, so I took the habit to just lower the volume of all my breaths so you can barely hear them.
Once I finish editing my audio recording, I can finally start editing the video.
To do that, I just start by downloading the images and videos necessary for the production.
I can then place them on my timeline in Premiere and, once there’s an image
associated to every part of my script which I call the building blocs,
I can then animate the images, add text, add transitions, music etc…
After that, I can export the video, create a thumbnail and upload it to YouTube.
So these are the steps I take to make a video such as this one.
Usually it will take me a couple of days to make a single 6 minute video,
but as I make more videos, each step becomes easier and easier so if there’s one lesson
you should learn from this video is to go create your own video-essay. You don’t need the expensive
equipment or the fancy software, just create and get familiar with the process.
I hope you enjoyed the video, I hope you learned a bit and, if not, I hope it at least inspired
you to create something for yourself. The video on Signac will also be linked in the
description if you’re interested. Also, a special thanks to YouDesignIWrite and
all my other patrons who are amazing enough to support a tiny art history channel on YouTube,
it’s extremely appreciated. Finally, don’t forget to submit questions for the potential upcoming
Q&A. Any questions are welcomed! Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next video!