Today I want to talk a little bit about How to Make A Video. Maybe you want to create videos for your website for your blog or maybe you just want start a YouTube channel on a certain topic. Before you can jump in and start creating movies there are a few questions you need to ask yourself in order to be successful.
What Kind of Content do You Want To Create?
There are many different types of videos online and you need to decide what type of video you want to make initially. Once you get experienced you can begin to make multiple types of videos just starting out you probably want to stick with just one type of video. So what are the different types of videos can create?
Type 1: Talking Head
This is the basic style of content that’s very popular on YouTube and other user uploaded sites. The reason it’s very popular is because it only takes a basic WebCam set up to achieve this look and feel. It’s basically just somebody filming their head and talking to the camera and usually there’s a bunch of different cuts in the video see the example below.
Type 2: Whiteboard Style/ Animation
These types of movies can be a combination of hand-drawn effects and zoom effects. There are tons of software providers that can offer you a solution if you want to start creating these types of videos but the basic idea of these videos is usually to explain how to do something or to pitch a product or service. These types of videos are seen a lot in Internet marketing but are used commonly across the web. Check at the example I created to see for yourself. My example video was created in just a few minutes with Easy Sketch Pro 2.0
Type 3: Motion/ Kinetic Typography
These types of movies are pretty cool because they sync audio and video to show words on the screen as the voice-over artist is saying them. They usually involve fast cuts and motion graphics of the text. They can include other graphics so they’re not just text. Besides videos are popular with people who don’t want to get too much and the graphics but they can get boring on videos that are longer than five minutes. Check at the example I created to see for yourself. My example video was created in just a few minutes with Video Maker Fx.
What is the Purpose of Your Video?
Once you decide on the type of video you want to create you have to figure out what the purposes of your video. There are many different types of videos you can create and you want to come up with a script for your movie which I’ll talk about later but knowing the purpose of your video is essential so let’s discuss the different types of videos.
- Informative/Explainer
- Video Sales letter
- Welcome video
- Homepage video
- Funny / Comedy
- How to video
Coming Up With The Script
Once you decide on that kind of video you want to create and the purpose of your video it’s time to come up with a script for your video. Writing a good script for your video is essential to your videos success. In order to write a good script for your video you have to ask yourself a few questions
- Who is my target audience?
- Why should your audience care?
- How long does my video need to be?
- What are your main points?
- What is your call to action?
Great video usually starts out with a quick sentence or two about what the videos about you’ve probably seen this on YouTube more times than not wear soon as you click on a video the video creator will tell you something like “in this video I’m going to tell you about XYZ” using an intro like this will help your viewers know exactly what you’re going to talk about and will usually keep them watching your video. It’s essential to keep your viewer watching your video for the first five seconds of your movie and keep them engaged because if you can hook your viewer in the first five seconds then they will usually stick with you for the rest your video versus viewers who were bored in the first few seconds of video.
Your Video's Main Points
Now it’s time to come up with the main points of your video what is your introduction and how you can tell your audience about who you are and why you’re talking about your topic? It would make sense to watch a video about a plumber who is changing car tires would it? I’m not saying it couldn’t happen I’m just saying it would be weird usually it would be a car mechanic showing you how to change car tires but this doesn’t mean you have to be an expert on your topic for your video. For instance you could just say today I’m changing the tires on my car and I’m a car enthusiast I love all things automotive. This shows reviewers that you’re passionate about the subject more your may not be a qualified expert you do not want to convey that you’re an expert if you are not actually an expert as you could get into legal trouble. You also want to decide your main points so that you don’t ramble in your video. Depending on the type of video you’re creating you want to hit your main points be quick concise and you want your video to have a good flow.
Your Call to Action
After you’ve hit the main points in your video you then have to come up with how you want to END your video. So in my example earlier of the mechanic changing tires it could be as basic as “well that’s all you need to know to change your tires now you can do it yourself thanks for watching please subscribe” this is very important see what I did there? You in the video but you also have a call to action. A very common call to action on YouTube is asking your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel. You’re assuming that the viewer enjoyed your video and would like to get more content from you when it’s published. After you give your call to action on a video usually what people do on YouTube is they show a splash page that shows some of their other videos and has a YouTube subscribe button that viewers can click and instantly subscribe to their channel. All of the great YouTube channels are using these techniques to grow their YouTube subscribers and to keep their current subscribers watching more of their videos. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked another video on YouTube splash page after I watched somebody’s video because chances are if I watch their whole video I’m probably interested in another one of their topics in another video they’re talking about.
Editing Your Video
After you have completed all the steps above then it becomes time to edit your video. There have been many debates over which video editing software to use depending on your operating system. Windows users have the luxury of using the fantastic and my personal favorite software called Camtasia. Let me be clear there is a version of Camtasia for Mac users but I have tried it and it is a dumb down version of the version for Windows. So for Mac users I would like to recommend the use of video software called Screenflow. However if you don't have a budget for any type of video software and you can always use the built-in software on your Windows or Mac computer. On Windows that would be Windows movie maker and on Mac computers will be imovie. These free programs are great starting point when you start creating videos and if you stick with it you might want to pay and get some better software to help you create better videos faster and make them look more professional. You can add background music and sound effects to your videos with these types of software. You can even add visual effects like the pan and zoom and other cool features like adding images into your videos and depending on your software adding in screen recordings.
Publishing Your Video
Alright now are down to the final step here which could be a whole blog post in itself but you decided on which type of video you want to make you came up with your main points of the video and your script. You picked which type of video you wanted to create and you created it and edited it to make it look professional. Now it's time to upload your video which seems like an easy step but with millions of videos being uploaded every second to you to you have to have some sort of promotion strategy in order to get your videos seen by millions of viewers. If you have an ad budget promote your videos then you have a leg up on the competition but for most of us that's not possible initially. If you don't have money to buy views than a great way to promote your videos is social media. Whenever you post new video on YouTube or your blog then update your Facebook twitter and other social media profiles to show that you have a video available for your fans. People like to watch the videos right when they come out to stay on top of new material.
In Closing
So there you have it there’s the basics of How to Make A Video. All you have to do is follow these instructions step-by-step and you will have your own content to publish online in no time. If you haven't created your own videos before it can give you anxiety but just follow my guide and you will be okay. By the way I would love to hear your comments and thoughts below! Let me know if you've created your own videos and how it went. If you have your own videos than I would love to check them out just put a link to your video in the comments below.