Alright. if you're going to make a YouTube video, you're probably wondering like,
"Should I script it? How can I script my video to get better results?"
I used to script word-for-word. And now I've got a much better strategy. I'm
going to guide you through what I've done in the past. What I switched to and
improved and then what I do today that's even better.
Okay. So, I'm going to start with what I used to do in the beginning as far as
scripting. And then I'll go into the other two of what I did next that was an
improvement and what I do now that's so much better. So, I would use a
teleprompter. And these days, teleprompters are awesome. There's one
that I still have and it uses the phone as the projector. So, you clip the phone
in it. It's about a box that's this big and the reason that it's so small is it
actually attaches to the lens. It just clicks on the lens of my DSLR camera. So,
I'm looking through the teleprompter right at the lens. I don't have to look
a little bit to the side. So, if I look to the side maybe you can tell if my eyes
are off or not. Can you see my eyes moving back and forth? If you set the
script to the side, that's what it looks like. If I go off to the side there, you
can see that? But with the teleprompter, I can look right into the lens. And so a
teleprompter is really nice for that. Here's the disadvantages: It takes a long
time to write a script word-for-word. It takes me a long time. It takes at least
an hour to write a script for a video. Now, I will say that sales videos, promo
videos they should probably be scripted. Well, let's just talk about YouTube
episodes, okay? They definitely should not be scripted. One funny thing that I would
get a lot of comments about they're like, "This guy is creepy. He doesn't blink."
Because I'd be looking at the words and I guess I wouldn't... Now, I'm having to
force myself or trying not to blink. I guess I didn't blink when I used a
teleprompter. And that that kind of creeped people out. It kind of creeps me
out thinking about it. Or just not creeps me out but I like kind of makes me feel
weird like I've got dry eyes all of a sudden. Okay. One of the biggest... This is a
massive disadvantage to using a teleprompter is that you don't sound
conversational. Like let me try and read something. This is from the previous
video I filmed and I'll just read it. Pretend I'm looking right at you. I
believed I could hire someone else to do the editing. This one is true. I didn't
think I could hire someone else to do to the filming. This one was false.
So, even though I'm putting a little bit of tone of voice in there, I was
reading it and you can tell. And you can tell when people are using a
teleprompter. If you practice and practice and practice then
you can't tell anymore. Right? So, it is possible to use a teleprompter and have
people not tell that you're reading. But it takes a lot of work. Obviously the
people on television on the news, they're reading teleprompters because we see
some of the bloopers when they read something that's misspelled or whatnot.
But that's their profession. They are professional teleprompter readers. And if
you're going to use a teleprompter make sure you practice, practice, practice. And
it's really easy to lose energy and to lose steam and to lose excitement when
you're reading. Because you're getting caught into the words. You're wondering,
"It's going a little bit too slow. It's going a little bit too fast." You're just
focusing on what to say next and making sure you you say it the right way that
it wasn't intended when it was written. But if I just have bullet points, I look
at a point like, "Oh! Yeah, I'm going to talk about this point next." Then you just
talk about that and you use your own words you use your facial expression. You
don't have to worry about going too fast or too slow. You just talk when you're
done with that point, look down at your notes. Okay. And then you continue on with
the next point. One last disadvantage and it kind of sounds weird the way that I'm
going to say it. But teleprompters have me use correct grammar. So, I would say
things like, "I'm going to go to the store today and pick up some peanut butter." I
don't say I'm going to. The way that I really talk is with bad grammar. I'd say,
"Yeah, I'm gonna go to the store." I'm gonna go to the store. When I'm typing it, I
don't type "I'm gonna go", I type in "I'm going to go". Right? So, when you're writing
a script, there's a lot of things like that that you type but you don't
actually say. Because when we talk, we talk with bad grammar sometimes. At least,
I do. And so, you'll sound unnatural perhaps if
you have bad grammar like me. Okay. So, the next phase is you prepare an outline.
Like right now, from here to here, that's the the length of notes for this
video. You just prepare an outline. And what I did before is I would review the
whole outline right before I hit record and then I would go. And I would try and
remember you know as many points as I could.
And I would try and avoid looking at my notes. Because I didn't want to have
edits in there. And I mean, I guess I can understand the reason for that. But
editing is a good thing. We're gonna edit if I say an "uhm" or an "Ah". Or I pause too
long. Or if I say something and start over. My team can just edit that out.
That's what those editors... That's their job. That's what they're there for.
They're there to edit those things out. I can deliver much better content if I
pause after each point. So, let's say I've got 5 points. If I just say, "Okay, I'm
going to talk about point number one." I'm not worrying about how do I transition
to point number 2. "What is point number 2 again?" Right? I'm just focusing on
point one. And I talk all about point one. And I can really do it justice. Give it
the space it needs. When I'm done, I look down at my notes remind myself what
point number 2 is. And then I continue and I just focus on point number 2. It
actually makes the content much better. A little side tip for you: When I film with
my clients, I'm not doing that this way today. You know, you notice I'm
sitting in the same spot. But when I usually want to film with myself... And
always when I film with my clients, we'll have 2 tripods set up. So, this tripod
might be up higher for them to stand. This tripod aims the different direction
might be lower aiming at a chair. And each time they switch bullet points,
my assistant will move the camera to the other tripod. They'll take
a step. And it only takes a few seconds, right? But now in their video, it goes
from location 1 to location 2 to 1 to 2 to 1.
It's really cool. Sorry that I'm not doing that here. I got this really cool
background behind me. I'm here at kiln. I have their their monthly membership. It's
like 200 bucks a month it's here in Utah.
Just because my office is being cleaned right now. So, I'm over here using kiln. I
have both. So, I kind of jumped from what I improved to and that's using an
outline but trying to remember all the points and what I do now is I
intentionally stop after every bullet point for those reasons. It is
definitely the strategy I recommend today. Now, I know I showed you my outline
on paper form here. Because I can check it off with my pen.
Let me give you a better view on my computer. Okay. So, you can see I'm filming
video 6 right now. So, video 7 the one that I'm going to film next. You can see the
bullet points there. I'm just talking about the different costs that I have in
my business. So, I'm going to look down and talk about software. I'm going to talk
about... Yeah. I spend thousands of dollars every month on software. Mmm, let's see. Oh!
I want to talk about Adobe Premiere Pro. So, I'm going to talk about that going to
share what the cost is. And I'm going to talk about why we use it what I'm
thinking about. Because in my mind I'm like, I wonder if we could use
another software that's not so expensive. I mean Adobe is awesome." Right? So, I've
just got different bullet points. When I'm done talking about the Adobe
Creative Cloud or it'll be premiere, I'll look down. "Okay. Now, I'm going to talk about
Dropbox." And I'll talk about why I use Dropbox, the advantages, the pros and cons.
What it's costing me every single month and when I'm done with that I can look
down. That's how I have prepared this script. You can see the the script for
video number 8 or the outline. Look how short this is. Look how short this is but
I'm confident that's going to be you know in the 7 to 12 minute range. I like to
shoot for 10 to 12 minutes but on this one I adjusted it. Because it's short. I'm
like, "I'm confident we'll be at least seven minutes", right? So, hopefully this
was helpful. Being able to see some examples of my
outline and how I prepare. Now, because we're talking about scripting and
filming, I actually want to talk about the camera that I'm filming this right
now. Do you love this picture? If you love this picture quality, this is
the brand new one --the Canon 90-D. that Canon just came out with. I've been
waiting for this model because not only does it have an amazing picture quality.
It has the autofocus, right? I mean I can come like this and it totally blurs out
that background even more than... I mean this looks cool already.
But at shoots in 4k. It can shoot at 120 frames per second. So, I've got another
video right here where I go into more depth about why the Canon 90 D is the
best camera for YouTube. Go and watch that video next.