My First Video On YouTube
How do YouTubers do it?
In my first article on Medium, I talked about starting my YouTube channel. Besides working on consolidating my approach I also wanted to start my Diary Series videos. The series should help me get comfortable recording myself, editing my videos, and publishing them on my channel.
As the book goes, “Courage is calling”, I built up my home studio and started recording. The first 5 seconds were quite easy as I spoke the words “Hi guys, welcome to my channel”. Then it got all blurry, I just didn’t know what to say, what words to pull from my brain. At some point, I started laughing in front of the camera, as I was just amazed by the fact that I can’t be coherent. After the laughter stopped I actually said the words ”How do YouTubers do it?”
Everything changes when you’re recording
This lack of coherence was quite a surprise for me since my everyday “job” is being a consultant, which involved talking to business owners, keeping work sessions with top management teams, and occasionally Zoom meetings. It seems that talking in front of a mirrorless camera is quite different compared to a webcam 😀. I did several trials that day but none of the material was usable.
I picked up the task several days later, settled my thoughts, and planned the content in my head. When I started recording I noticed that the light was changed — that happened because I was recording at a different time during the day. I had to adjust the key light, and the white balance on the camera, check the framing and made sure I am recording the sound via the external microphone and not via the mics from my iPad. After all this effort I was already tired, my mood was different from when I have started. Again, How do YouTubers do it?
Editing my first video
I took a cup of coffee, sat in my chair, and started recording. This time I managed to record a total of 6 minutes, which for me felt like an hour. I stopped the recording, pulled out the flash card, and moved on to editing.
In the past I did some basic editing for the videos I shot with my DJI drone, but nothing fancy. Nevertheless, I felt comfortable that everything will go well. The first challenge was importing the raw footage into my MacBook (please be kind since I just switched to a Mac after 20 years of being a PC power user), which was not easy but I did it. After completing this task I understood the key difference between a MacBook Air and any other Mac with more ports. I move on to downloading the sound recorded on my iPad which was a breeze.
For the start of the channel, I plan to edit my videos in iMovie, which has a bunch of options and in synch with Keynote can deliver cool results. I plan on using it because it is free and comes in the macOS ecosystem. The synch of audio and video was quite easy, but not automated. I played around with increasing the volume and adding some effects to enhance the audio experience. All went nice and easy. Cropping the footage was also easy after I learned the keyboard shortcut to do it. From the 6 minutes that I filmed, I was able to put together about 2 minutes of edited video that made it on YouTube. By the end of the editing flow, I was pleased and said to myself “This is how YouTubers do it!”.
End result
I uploaded my first clip to YouTube, and I asked my mentor for feedback. My channel will most likely be in my native language (Romanian) since it will become an extension of my business, but nevertheless, you can watch my first video and if you feel like it, please give feedback from any point of view. If you think I did a good enough job then just hit the Thumbs Up button.
My key takeaways
- Write down the script
- Daylight changes throughout the day so adjust your lighting
- Make sure you can adjust everything while you are in front of the camera. Have remotes for everything, key light, background lighting, and if possible for the camera itself
- iMovie is a perfect tool to start learning to edit videos
- The first video is always the hardest
