Posting YouTube videos is actually a very simple activity. If you already have a YouTube account, then all you need to do is simply record the footage using the devices that you have, either camera, DSLR, video camera or smartphones and upload it. However, if your footage is raw and unedited, your video might look bland and uninteresting. Here are 7 ways to improve your videos so that it looks better for the viewer and you can grow your audience.
1. Steady video
Making sure your video is steady is very important when you record your footage. There is nothing that make your audience feels dizzy from watching shaky video, especially when the video is recorded while running. Investing to buy a SteadyCam camera stabilising system can be worth as not only your video will look smoother, you can also make the camera move in a much more interesting way. However, if you are in a budget and just want to make simple and nice video, tripod can come in handy. Using tripod to record video will make your video looks static, as you cannot run while carrying a camera mounted on a tripod. If you want your video to have more movement and dynamic, you can also get certain tripod that can be disassembled and modified into cheap SteadyCam. If you are unwilling to invest in anything, then make sure when you record you keep this in mind and move slow enough so that your video do not appear shaky and jaggy.
2. Focus
Make sure that the objects that you are recording are in focus. Especially if you just bought your DSLR or mirror-less interchangeable lens camera. It is important to learn how to control the focus of your camera, which include learning to control the bokeh. While it can be exciting to create video with lots of beautiful bokeh, you must learn to balance the amount of bokeh with the amount of objects in focus.
3. Exposure
This depends on the style of video that you want to make, but making sure that your video is not over-exposed is very important. Over-exposed video means your footage loose a lot of details because there is too much light that went into the camera. Once the details lost because of over-exposure, there is no way to regain the details back with computer software. It is better to record your footage slightly under-exposed because it can be fixed with computer software.
4. Framing
Similar to photography, framing is crucial in videography too. General rule of thirds in photography applies in videography too. It is important to know that what you include in the framing will create a certain kinds of perception to the viewer, e.g. recording a person from a close distance will emphasise the importance of the person to the story of the video.
5. Story
Plan the story before making the video, so that you can plan the scenes and dialogues. Remember to also include how you are going to frame the different scenes and make the story smoothly connected through the actions done in the footage.
6. Music
Unless your video is a music video or you perform on an instrument, music is very important to retain the audience interest. Not only that, music can also heightened audience emotion to a certain important scene or story. Thus, it is important to choose the music wisely.
7. Editing
Well, all of the above will not be possible if you do not know how to edit your video. Most computers and tablets today have the capability to edit video to a certain degree. One of the easiest video editing software that give you quite a lot of options to improve your footage is iMovie. With iMovie, you can cut the video, combine different videos into one and put a background music or audio recording on top of the videos. The last one is important because it enables you to have a consistent audio throughout the different videos that you just combined. After all, a good video is not complete without having a good audio.
By Erik Tjahja
