Hey guys! I went a long way from my first videos on Youtube to the videos you are watching now.
And many of you are probably wondering what is my process of creating videos,
how do I come up with what exactly to say on the camera, how do I
make sure that the video flows well and I don’t just waste your time saying ehm and mmm all
the time. And maybe which equipment I use for lightning, for the audio and so on.
So today I’ll take you behind the scenes and show you my entire creative process.
If you are thinking to start your own Youtube channel, stay tuned until the
end because I will tell you how you can get this Youtube Launch Checklist for free
Hi I'm Anastasia of anastasiablogger.com and on this channel, I share my tips on blogging,
Pinterest marketing, and online business in general. If that sounds interesting,
Subscribe and hit the bell button to get notifications about my new videos going live.
Let’s start with the lighting as one of the elements that make a good video for Youtube.
When I started my channel, I only used natural light coming from the window.
With natural light I can just tell you that a lot of beginners make a common mistake. They
think it will look better if they film the video with direct sunlight coming from the window.
But I recommend using a window facing North (or South if you are in the Southern hemisphere..),
or film your video at a time when there is no direct sunlight. This is because the sunlight
gives harsh shadows on your face, and since the sun's position is changing,
it could create a lot of lighting differences throughout the video.
But don't get me wrong, I encourage you to start your channel even if you don’t have
any additional equipment for lighting. You CAN and you should always improve your equipment
as you go. That’s what I did. I started with the daylight and then added a lighting kit.
For the lighting, one of the things I’m using is the Neewer 660 PRO.
This is a budget-friendly lighting kit. You can see the light has these barn doors, which
help you to dirEct the light where you need to. This light also comes with the diffuser,
and this diffuser is great to create smoother lighting, so you won't have very harsh shadows.
What I really like about these led lights, is that you can select both the color temperature
of the light or any color you want. This way I can have better control over what type of
scenario I want to create for my videos. - For example, I'm using the main light with
5600-kelvin color temperature for my face and then I'm using a rim light about 4000-kelvin
color temperature, this gives a nice highlight on the edge of my face.
- And you can control all of these settings directly from the back of the light,
or use the app on your smartphone. Now let's talk about my camera. Just as
a side note, you don't have to use a professional camera to start a Youtube channel. You can start
with a good smartphone. I know multiple examples of very popular youtubers who started that way
and what people really cared about was the information they shared.
I started recording my videos with an 11-year-old photo camera that didn't have any auto-focus. So,
I had to stay still almost through the entire video. Every time I moved even 5cm away,
I would be out of focus and the image would be blurry. And since that camera was one of the
first photo cameras on the market that was also able to record video, it recorded with a heavily
compressed image, which means we couldn't do much in post-processing, without damaging the image.
When my channel was about a year old, we purchased a new camera, the Sony alpha seven three. I'll
link it in the description below the video. This camera has an amazing autofocus feature,
which helps a lot, especially if you are moving, and it can shoot in a flat profile!
What does this even mean? Now imagine it's my husband talking to you because I don't know a
lot about cameras, he is always behind the camera while I am recording my videos. So he
gave me this information to share with you. A flat profile basically means that the camera
shoots without any compression, color correction or any effects applied to the image, so when you
take it to edit in your video editing software, you can adjust the image according to your style,
without losing any image quality! This to be honest is something only professional video
editors like to do. If you are just a beginner, I think it would be difficult to learn all these
details right away as you are starting your channel. But hey this video is about how to
make videos like you see on my channel, so I am sharing both how I started and how I make videos.
You can use the information that better applies to your situation.
Getting back to the camera. You should also take into consideration the lens that you are using.
If you use the kit lens that comes with the camera, this is the best
result we are getting with this camera. You noticed my background is quite visible
and the image doesn't look so professional right? This is because the lens that comes
with the camera doesn't have a big aperture. We bought a new lens that's the best for portraits,
an 85mm lens with a 1.8 aperture. Look at the difference between the kit lens and this one!
Big difference, right? Ok, my husband had a word and now it's Anastasia talking again :)
Now get ready for a bit of compromising information about me. I rarely speak
on camera without a script in front of me. No, I’m joking, it's not really a secret that most
of the videos that you see on TV or on Youtube are just people reading from a teleprompter.
Some youtubers claim that they don’t use a teleprompter and I believe that some people
are naturally capable of speaking non-stop. Plus, it can also be easier for someone to speak their
first language, while others like me run a channel in English and English is not my first language,
so sometimes I literally can’t find the right word in my head and having a script is very helpful.
It’s really up to you if you want to have a script word for word, or just some key pointers
and then go with the flow. I personally speak on camera without a script in two cases.
When I am showing my screen and walking you through some tutorial click by click. In that
case creating a script doesn’t make any sense. And also when it’s an interview, obviously I
have to look at the person on the other side. I don't know what questions or answers I'll get,
so the script doesn't work here as well. Other than that, when I speak directly
to the camera you bet I am reading my script. Some big youtubers who create multiple videos
a week or even a few videos a day, use content writers and they just read the text their team
prepared for them. In my case, I am writing my scripts myself because I find it’s really
hard to put all my thoughts and my voice and style of speaking in someone else’s head.
It does take time to write down all the script in advance. But on the other hand,
by doing this I save a lot of time on re-recording the same thing because I didn’t say it right.
I heard from a popular youtuber who doesn’t use a script that she normally spends several hours
recording a video that in the end will be just about 10-15 min long. Why does it take her so
long? She said it’s because she speaks and thinks about what she wants to say next while recording.
As a result, she needs to re-record almost anything that she says 4 or 5 times. Then it adds
an enormous amount of work in the editing process because while editing you often end up re-watching
all the shots to find the perfect one. But you see, her channel has grown very
fast so I can’t tell her method is not working. It definitely wouldn’t work for me because I don’t
have the patience to re-record the same thing 4-5 times. I would get frustrated in this process too
much, so I personally find it’s easier for me to spend a few hours doing a proper research
on the topic and writing down a good script word for word, then recording it just once.
Another thing people are worried about with a teleprompter is that their eye movement will be
too visible. To be honest, I have done a bunch of videos in my early days on youtube where it was
quite easy to see my eyes moving left to right. But like in everything else, you eventually will
get better at it over time and you’ll find your way to read from a teleprompter so that people
can’t even tell that you were reading a script. For example, did you know that often you just
need to stay far enough from your teleprompter to make your eye movements barely noticeable?
And another little trick. Blink. Yes, the biggest beginner mistake with teleprompter is that people
just stare at the screen afraid to miss a word or lose the line, and they forget to
blink. While normally we all blink quite often. We don’t even notice how we do it naturally. But
when we focus on reading from a screen, our eyes are wide open and don’t blink at all.
So just remember to blink from time to time, initially you’ll need some brain effort
and later you’ll get used to it and your videos with a teleprompter will look much more natural.
Speaking of teleprompters, for starters you can use a very affordable option from Neewer X1
Mini Teleprompter and it has this nice remote control so you can
stop and restart the text as you speak. I said for starters because this teleprompter
doesn't work with my professional camera that has a very heavy lens. If you have a smaller camera
to shoot videos, it can work for you. And the device from which you’ll be reading the script
also should be either a smartphone or iPad mini or another tablet but it has to be a small tablet.
So it's a very beginner-friendly and also affordable option.
The next element of a perfect video is sound. You know they say, people can forgive a crappy quality
of an image but people HATE when the audio is bad. And you can purchase a great microphone,
for example you can use the one like this on a stand that I have. I’ll give you all the links to
the equipment I mentioned today in the description below, so you’ll find the model that I use.
But no matter how great your microphone is, your audio will sound really bad if you have echo
in the room where you record your videos. It’s just a problem with
the space and the microphone can’t fix it. As a beginner on Youtube, I used to drop blankets
on the floor in my living room where I recorded the videos. The worst place to record videos is
an empty room, sound is just bouncing from one wall to another and creates an enormous echo. So,
keep in mind it’s best to record in a room that has a sofa, a carpet, and some other furniture.
I said that over time I kept improving my equipment, so instead of blankets
thrown on the floor that I used in my early videos, I now added another type of gear.
It’s Neewer Photo Studio Backdrop Support System. In my case, I'm using this to hold an acoustic
blanket that absorbs the sound and helps reduce echo in the room. These supports hold a heavy
blanket like this quite well. The blanket itself I found in the US and a UK store and
I’ll drop a link to it in the description as well in case you are interested. Technically,
you could even use this support system for any blanket, but this one is really
professional and absorbs sound much better. Now if you care to know about the last part
of the video creating process – about editing the videos. We use Adobe Premiere
although I know there are several software options that are more beginner-friendly.
But you noticed I said WE. It’s because we work on editing videos together with my husband. And
he worked with Adobe Premiere for many years, so we just keep using what works for us.
I usually do the main cuts, removing whatever I said wrong and making notes on every part
of the video where I want to show you a screenshot or a b-roll or some text overlay.
Then my husband takes over the editing and adds some elements, like branding, graphics, animation,
sound effects and makes sure that the overall quality of the
sound and colors in the video look good. Then I upload the video and do some keyword
research to add relevant tags and text in the video title and description so that it has a
chance to rank for the keyword I am targeting. And that’s basically all the process from start to
finish. Now, remember I promised you my Youtube Launch Checklist? See I didn’t forget about it
because I have a script that reminds me, haha J I’ll give you a link in the top right corner
and in the description below this video. If you found this behind-the-scenes video with
all my secrets helpful, give me a like and comment below. Do you want me to make a whole series about
creating videos on Youtube? Let me know! Only from your feedback, I can see which
topics you want to see more because, honestly, the Youtube algorithm is not helpful in this. If
I look at the most popular videos, on my channel, and on other people’s channels, it looks like all
people want to hear is 5 millionaire habits that made them rich and this type of videos. I also
like watching motivational videos from time to time but come on, it can’t be just that.
When you are motivated enough, the next thing you need to do is actually do the work,
right? So anyway, let me know what you think and check out my previous videos about growing
on Youtube. I will drop the links here and there. I’ll see you next time!