The second YouTube video on Jet52 with Tim is now posted. It’s titled, “The Cost to Get a Hallmark Christmas Movie Life.” There are some improvements over the first video but lots of things still to work on – like what? The list is long.
I’m too unanimated on the video. Relying on the teleprompter makes it difficult to seem spontaneous. Most great YouTubers look like they are just talking off the top of their heads Mine still look like I’m reading the news. Worse it looks like I’m giving a lecture with PowerPoint beside me. We all know how most people feel about attending a lecture.
On YT people will tune out in seconds if you don’t give them a reason to keep watching. A story has to pull you along with visuals. Things have to be filmed and shown for a reason. You don’t get better by relying on your personality because there are so many options out there of those with great personalities, fantastic stories and editing that pull you through 8 – 10 minutes before you know you’ve spent that much time. And you want to come back for more.
Currently on the first two videos (around 14 minutes each) my average watch duration is 4 minutes. That means a lot of people are tuning out not far into the video. I haven’t provided a compelling reason to stay with me. Plus especially for a new YTer my vids are way too long. Better to craft a six minute video with every scene calculated and interesting rather than racking up total watch time alone via 10+ minute creations. I’ve got about 20.5 hours of watch time total now. Which means a lot of (friends) viewers were kind enough to stay with it, but as you can see with 300 views a lot tuned out. So that average view duration has to get a lot better.
Other stuff I want to improve.
I had to shoot on two different days. I didn’t write down the details of lighting etc so there are significant issues with some parts very bright and the first day more reasonable. Ugh that makes it look strange when I’m cutting in second day shooting into first day scenes. A rookie mistake, but they say your first videos are your worst videos. I hope that is true.
My plan was to have my first video up in January 2020, but it didn’t happen for me until November of 2020. You can plan and cogitate over things forever before actually creating the video. Some top YTers I watched said, just the stop thinking about it and hit the record button and get going. Finally I did it. But before that there was a lot of playing around with lighting and camera settings. Another YT saying I like is, “don’t let perfection stop you getting to good.” A less than polished video, while not superb, is way better than one that was never attempted.
Video editing is also a high learning curve prospect. Post production is a challenge. Even the simplest tasks are slow for me because each one is new. You not only have to know what you want to do with a scene, but then how to edit it and understand what is happening with the software. My first video took over two days to edit. It was one location, one frame and 14 minutes long. (Not a good formula for getting to a happy benchmark. Ugh I’m hoping it gets easier a year from now. I’m editing on a free software that is popular called VSDC which is one of the more simple (and free) editing programs available.
I can say of the whole process from idea to scripting to filming and editing and uploading the most fun was editing. Shooting was the most tedious. You have to constantly think about what you’ll do when you edit it all together, meaning you have to have a vision of the final product even before turning on the camera. As you film you have to decide on the fly whether you got what you need or to redo something for the 8th time.
A lone YT creator is constantly paying attention to camera settings, the frame of the shot, lighting, sound, delivery (whether to do it on the fly or teleprompter), the quality of the shot of that scene and then the editing. Certainly not whining about it because it really is a blast to do.
Okay I digress – back to the Blog. When you are in camera mode you have to be careful everything is set to go before you starting filming. I lost two hours of work because the audio cable extension cord wasn’t all the way into the camera jack – though it looked like it was. Then I lost another hour because the camera would lose focus mid-shot. Still not sure why that was.
After two week long efforts, would I do it again? Yes,
Yet there are a hundred aspect I can pick to get better at little by little. The biggest of them all is I need to get better at telling a story in a way that pulls people through it and is entertaining. And not doing so by copying other creators out there. I need to find a Tim style that keeps improving.
If you want to see a mind blowing education on how to tell a story on YouTube seeing one of the best YouTube videos ever – check out Editor Hayden HillierSmith as he reacts to one of Casey N’s earlier works which is stellar. He breaks down why it is so cool scene by adventurous scene and how the techniques are all focused on making it amazing. It was eye opening and highly motivating. I’m not doing any of this YTing work to get income or get 10k subscribers. There is just something extremely desirable about putting content together that gets a little better each time.
There are lots of advances I need to make for number three. The key? It’s not a video until you stop conceptualizing and just hit record. Look for #3 to be shorter, better lit, have appealing visual color grading and better story telling style.
Thanks for reading all this and now I’ll go back to watching VSDC tutorials.