So a couple weeks ago,
I was watching YouTube on my phone,
and I came across a new feature.
In my watch next videos,
there was a new shelf called Short Videos.
When you click on one of these videos,
you get a short vertical video.
Swiping up on this video,
takes you to the next one, kinda like tic tok.
Now, whenever YouTube introduces new features like this,
they tend to promote them very heavily,
so using new features like short videos,
can be a great way to get some traction on your channel.
So I did a bit more research on YouTube’s Short Videos,
and today, we’ll take a look at how to make these in Final Cut Pro,
and what you can do to increase your chances
of getting one of your videos featured
on YouTube’s new Short Videos shelf.
Hey guys, whats up.
My name is Serge,
and if you’re new here, welcome to my channel.
In this video, we’ll be taking a look at how to make
and publish Short Videos on YouTube.
This new feature is still in Beta, so the information on this is still a little bit
muddy,
but here’s what I found out so far.
According to YouTube’s support page,
Shorts are any vertical video up to 60 seconds long.
You can record a short video on their mobile platform,
a feature that’s still in Beta, and not available to everyone,
or make your own short video and upload it to YouTube,
so that’s what we’ll focus on today using Final Cut Pro.
To make a short video, in Final Cut Pro,
create a new project, and in the popup window,
click the Use Custom Settings button.
From the Video Format dropdown menu, select Vertical,
change the video resolution to 1080 by 1920,
and select a frame rate that matches the clips you’re using in your project.
Click OK.
Now remember, for YouTube to recognize this video as a short,
it has to be under 60 seconds, so what I like to do is add a gap clip,
and set the length of it to use as a reference.
With your playhead at the start of your project,
use the keyboard shortcut Option W to add a gap clip,
select it, and press control D to set the duration of this clip.
Type in 58 seconds here, and press Enter.
The reason we do 58 seconds, is if your video is 59 or 60 seconds,
when you upload it to youtube,
the duration of your upload will be 60 seconds,
and it might not qualify for youtube shorts.
Next, Command click your video clips you want to use in the media browser,
and press Q to connect them to your gap clip.
Command click all your video clips,
and press Command G to make a connected timeline.
This way, you still retain all the timeline properties.
If your recorded clips are in a vertical video format,
you don’t have to do anything.
If you have 16 by 9 clips you want to use,
and you don’t want black bars on top and bottom,
select the clip, and in the video inspector,
scroll down to spacial conform,
and from the dropdown menu, select Fill.
Use the transform tool to reframe your clip if necessary.
Edit this video just like you would any other video,
just make sure it’s either the same length or shorter than your gap clip.
If your finished video is shorter than your gap clip,
ripple trim it to the same length as your video.
Your project is now ready for export.
Click the share button in the top left corner,
select your file type, and export your project.
Your video is ready for uploading to YouTube as a short.
But before we take a look at how to upload YouTube shorts,
let’s take a look at how to repurpose a 16 by 9 video for YouTube shorts.
The next project in our timeline, is a traditional, 16 by 9 HD video.
In Final Cut Pro, there’s an easy way to convert this
to a vertical video project to use as a YouTube short.
Select the project in the media browser, right click on it,
and select Duplicate Project As…
.
From the video format dropdown, select vertical,
and make sure the smart conform checkbox is selected.
What this does, is it analyzes all your clips, and reframes them,
so the important parts of your video don’t get cropped off.
You might have to tweak the framing a bit,
but for most part, this works really good.
Select your video resolution, and click OK.
After analyzing all your clip, Final Cut Pro creates a copy
of your project in a vertical video format.
We now need to cut this video down, so it’s under 60 seconds long.
Press Command A to select everything in your timeline,
and Option Command Up arrow to lift it out of your timeline.
Select the gap clip at the bottom,
press Control D and set the duration to 58 seconds.
Cut down your project, until it’s under 60 seconds long.
Once done, ripple trim your gap clip to the same length as your project,
and export your vertical video.
Now, let’s take a look at how to upload
one of these videos to YouTube as a Short Video.
Make sure you’re logged into your account,
click the create button in the top right corner, and select Upload Video.
Navigate to your vertical video, and click open.
For the most part, follow the same steps as you would uploading a normal video,
but there is a couple steps you can take to help YouTube
recognize this as a short video.
Either in your title, or the video description,
youtube recommends adding a #Shorts.
To give your video the best chance of getting picked up,
I’d recommend adding it in both places.
Also, even if your video does get picked to be promoted
on the Short Videos shelf,
it’s still going to show up as a regular video to your subscribers,
in search, or maybe even on the home page,
so its a good idea to add a custom thumbnail, tags,
and everything else you add to your normal videos.
Like I said at the start of this video,
YouTube does seem to promote new features,
so if you’re looking to gain some traction for your channel,
this is a great way to do it.
And, when people watch YouTube shorts, to go to the next video,
all they have to do is swipe up.
Keep this in mind when recording and editing your video.
The best way to gain traction is to make your video
interesting enough for people to keep watching.
Keep it short and to the point,
and if the video gets picked up by the YouTube algorithm,
you should see a healthy spike in your view count.
It might not happen right away, so be patient.
If you enjoyed this video, let me know by hitting the like button,
or in the comments below.
And, if you’re new here, make sure to check out the rest of my channel
for more tutorials like this one.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one