10 Step Video Checklist for Content Creators

Introduction

Ever had a thought that you could be a vlogger? Don’t say no because I know we have all had that thought at some point. Deep down I think that we all aspire to be content creators and showcase all the great and amazing moments of our lives! What if I told you that it’s not that hard as long as you follow these 10 simple steps for content creators!

1) Do Your Research

Get a good understanding of what your target audience is! Let’s say you’re a content creator that makes videos about skincare products and routines. You might already have followers that care about skincare, but it’s great to figure out what else they care about. Don’t assume that you know exactly what your audience wants to see and definitely don’t be afraid to ask them what they want! Having trouble figuring out what kind of content creator you want to be? Don’t stress, there are so many ever changing industries that can fit your interests! All you need to do is find one thing that you are passionate about and BOOM that’s your niche. Change in any industry happens fast, and ongoing education is important. That means not only do you have to create content that people love, you also have to read others’ content. The best content creators are curious and look for topics their target audience likely cares about. Learn from others and keep improving!

2) Prepare Some Notes

Make sure to plan ahead and prepare a couple notes in advance! Recording yourself can sometimes feel awkward or uncomfortable and screw ups are inevitable. Try to make your recording time more efficient by keeping a couple notes on the side so you know exactly what you’re going to be talking about in the video. Helpful tips when note taking is keeping things short and to the point! You don’t want to be reading through an entire paragraph of words when trying to look at the camera and record a video. Make sure to have them taped up somewhere close to your camera so you won’t be looking down at your notes while recording.

3) Find Your Voice

This ties in nicely with doing your research and what makes researching so important! You don’t want to be like every other Youtuber, blogger, content creator etc., you want to be unique and stand out! Don’t hesitate to let your personality come through and just overall be you! People will want to watch your content if you are as genuine as possible.

4) Set Everything Up

This is from checking your gear to setting up your camera to doing a test run. Checking your filming gear is vital to the set-up process especially in order to make sure you have everything you need to start filming – microphones, camera, batteries, spare memory cards, etc. This will also give you a chance to check out the lighting, audio, and fix any flaws that need fixing. You get the picture – this step is all about getting set up so that you won’t run into issues while filming.

5) Practice, Practice, Practice!

Practice truly makes perfect. If you think that your favorite content creator did all their content in one take, sorry to break it to you but there were probably hours and hours of work that went into creating that perfect shot. But at the end of the day, it’s totally worth it. Don’t over exhaust yourself, but make sure to rehearse a couple times before hitting that record button.

6) Keep Track of KPIs

A key performance indicator (aka KPI) is a technical phrase that’s basically a metric that you choose to measure how well your content is doing. Your KPIs could be based around an increase in followers or subscribers, number of likes or shares, amount of organic traffic, etc. KPIs are helpful for setting goals and measuring how well you’re doing at reaching those goals.

7) Stay relevant

Creating great content that really resonates with your target audience requires you to know what's going on in your industry. The best content creators stay on top of industry trends. Every. Single. Day. And it’s not enough just to browse — you need to devour content relevant to you and your target audience. Set up Google alerts for digital media to stay on top of niche trends. Network with industry leaders on social media. Read relevant trade publications. Do it all!

8) NetworK every chance you get

Successful content creators know their success is due not only to their passion, but also to those who taught them, inspired them, and pushed them to think in different ways. Get in the habit of networking by seizing the countless opportunities you have to do it. They aren't called social networks for nothing! Spend some time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to check out who the thought leaders are in your industry and follow them!

9) Stay busy

As your own boss, you can’t wait for work to come to you, you need to go to it. If you’re serious about becoming a good content creator, you must create daily. Pick the time of day that works best for you. Shut down distractions. Start small. Doing even a couple tasks a day to create content adds up fast. Make sure to think from different perspectives, then crystallize your thoughts. Getting content ideas becomes easier. In turn, you build an audience that’s interested in what you have to say.

10) Above all, don’t give up!

When you feel like giving up, think about why you started in the first place — a chance to use your creativity to make a great living. And you don’t need to try to become a content creator on your own. Get to know great content creators and learn from their mistakes. Local and online groups are both excellent options. Celebrate all the smallest victories and stay motivated!

Conclusion

At the end of the day, becoming a top-notch content creator isn’t easy, but the process is extremely rewarding and enjoyable for anyone who is passionate! As a content creator, you’ll get to do something you enjoy while helping others improve their lives. Comment below a topic that you would make your content about. What are you waiting for? Start creating!

Your fans are waiting for you!

Written by: Rena Wu

-

If you need help creating your own videos, we offer video production services that will help you grow your business!

We look forward to being a part of your success :)

8 Best Video Editing Tips For Beginners

You’ve just finished shooting the perfect movie, vlog, or music video and now it’s time to tackle the next phase of video production; post-production. One problem, you’re an absolute beginner. Well, the good news is you don’t need to know everything there is to know about video editing to produce a high-quality final product. Knowing the most important video editing tips and tricks will help you create a smooth workflow and a fantastic result. Here are 8 of the best video editing tips and tricks for beginner video editors!

1. Choosing the right software

This is the first and often one of the most important steps when starting your video editing journey. There is a plethora of video editing software to choose from so it is not always easy to decide which one suits your editing style and what works best for you.

The Top 3 video editing software on the market right now I would say are Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. Even if you are using a Mac, my recommendation for the best video editing software for a beginner is still either Premiere Pro or DaVinci. 

Premiere Pro is pricey but offers some of the most powerful tools available for editors right now. Plus, there is an extensive and long-lasting community surrounding Premiere Pro with endless amounts of resources and tutorials online for any tool or technique to use in the software. With DaVinci, there is a studio-paid version but a comprehensive free version as well. The software can do almost everything Premiere Pro can do and has the best tools for colorists out there right now at the consumer level. So if you want to get started editing for free, DaVinci Resolve is the best choice. 

2. Don’t bloat your edits

If you shoot 5 minutes of footage, your final draft after editing should not be 5 minutes. We live in a busy world and taking on the task of trying to keep an audience’s attention span is a challenging one. The most common mistake amateur filmmakers make in the editing room is that their clips are cut out too long. 

You should only be putting the best of the best of your clips. Aim to look for clips with the best lighting, the cleanest movements, and the best composition to put in your final edit. Be brutal with your own work – a 30-second edit with the best clips will always be more engaging than a 5-minute edit with all of the clips; including the mediocre ones.

3. Cut on action

When cutting between takes, different angles, or even different scenes altogether, try to cut midway through an action rather than when things are not moving. What this does is create a smoother cut as our minds fill in the gaps with any movement on-screen. 

If you cut from a close-up shot of someone to a wider shot of the same person as they move their arms out for a hug, for example, our brain will fill in the gaps we miss from that motion even though we are cutting in between the motion of the arms moving to their new position. This is an important technique to learn quickly as it creates fluid and interesting sequences and it makes your films look more professional. 

4. Use cutaways to great effect

As filmmakers, we try to create stories that are dynamic and interesting to consume. And as an editor, we can accomplish this with a number of techniques. Cutaways are a great way to change the look of a shot that is lingering for too long. It makes your videos feel less static and increases the pace. 

The most common example of a cutaway is when there are spoken dialogue scenes with two or more people. If one person is talking, cutting away to catch the other person's non-verbal response can add an extra layer of depth to the scene. Another common example of this is using B-Roll to add visuals to what is being said like when someone is vlogging to a camera. 

5. Colour Correcting and Colour Grading

Colour correcting is an important process to go through with every sequence you make. The essential goal here with correcting the colours of each clip on the timeline is to gain a basic consistency with each clip. Footage from two different cameras will use two different sensors that capture colour and light differently, so in this scenario, it is especially important that they match each other both when shooting and when in post. Make sure to take the time to balance and match each clip on the timeline. 

The second step to colour correction is colour grading. Colour grading is an artistic process where you shape the current colours of the scene to match a certain “look” or “feel” that matches the tone of the story being told. Colour grading in itself is an in-depth process that serves its own blog post but most editing software come with pre-configured or user shared LUTs (Look Up Tables) that will apply either a good foundation to get you started or even grade the footage entirely with just the click of a button. At the end of the day, grading is a tool editors use for storytelling so use the right grade in the right scenario. 

6. Balance your Audio

You might be thinking, “what does sound have to do with video editing?” and the answer to that would be a lot! Audio is half of the viewing experience actually but in most cases, it is the most neglected part from beginner filmmakers. So before we can balance our audio in post, it is important that we capture good audio in the first place. That means using an external mic when recording important audio and taking the time to sound design.

When balancing our audio, a good rule of thumb is to balance speech first. Spoken audio is typically the most important part of a video's sound and thus takes top priority. If your music is too loud and it makes the dialogue hard to hear, you are doing more harm than good. Adjust the audio of the spoken dialogue so that the levels match closely to one another. Once that is set and locked in, adjust the other audio elements that surround your speech like music or sound effects. Make sure they don't overpower your spoken audio. 

7. Use these important cutting techniques

Two of the most important cuts every editor should know are the J Cut and the L Cut. The J Cut is when the audio from the next clip on the timeline comes in before the video of the previous clip on the timeline ends. J Cuts are fantastic when transitioning from one location to another. If we want to transition from the quiet indoors to a busy sidewalk, using a J Cut to bring in the bustling audio of the sidewalk before you show the sidewalk is a smooth and seamless way to transition. The J Cut gets its name as the cut itself when putting the video and audio elements on top of each other on the timeline is shaped like a “J”.

The L Cut is the opposite of a J Cut. It’s when the video of the next clip on the timeline comes in before the audio of the previous clip on the timeline ends. Like the J Cut, it is a smooth and seamless way to transition between shots. 

Here is a bonus technique – the Match Cut. A Match Cut is a cut between two visually similar shots or scenes. For example, if you end a shot with a close-up of someone’s eyes and start the next shot with a similar frames close-up of another character's eyes (or the same character's eyes at a different time period) that’s a Match Cut. Like the two previous cuts, it adds a smooth element to your sequences while at the same time, it makes things a bit more stylized. 

8. Always put story first

This notion applies to all videos we edit. Remember what your creative goal is for every project. What is the story you are trying to tell? When deciding on a shot to use or where to cut, always ask yourself this question and consider the impact the clip or cut adds to your product. Don’t just add a bunch of visual effects just to impress the viewer. Be purposefully in everything you do in the editing process. This way, your final product will always represent your vision and will always produce a stunning video. 

Conclusion

Keep these 8 video editing tips and tricks in mind when you edit your next project. It will make video editing seem like less of a daunting task. Always remember to put your story first and to use the techniques found here to create smooth and fluid sequences. Remember that audio is half of the viewing experience as well and to be brutal with your edits and show the best of the best takes. Do all this and you’ll be editing like a pro in no time!

Written by Zeeshan Khamis 

-

If you need further help creating your own videos, we offer video production services that will help you elevate your brand!

We look forward to being a part of your success. Contact us here to get started.

Sound Design: 6 Essential Tips for Cinematic Sounding Films

Sound design is an essential part of the filmmaking process. It can be a time consuming process and most of the professional films you see today have outsourced studios dedicated to just this element of filmmaking do the work. Not everyone’s budgets can account for this so here are the 6 essential things you need to know for cinematic sound design. 

Using Sound Effects

Sound effects are a critical component to creating cinematic sounding films. What sound effects do for our films is add realism to our visual content and set the mood for each moment within our story. There are a plethora of techniques for using sound effects but a couple of the most important are layering and using ambience.

Layering sound effects together is an easy way to make your films sound unique and original.  You can use layering to add more depth to your sound like adding transient sounds to match a visual such as footsteps. 

Using ambience sounds can make a sequence of shots feel more coherent with each other. If you are filming deep and close in a city filled with traffic, capturing what your characters hear immerses your audience within the scene. Using the sounds of gridlock traffic up close is a good starting point into doing that. 

Adding Background Music

Use background music to elevate the story you are trying to tell. Background music is used to evoke emotion especially in the absence of dialogue. It sets the mood of a scene and can be used to represent a character’s feelings and emotions. Background music is also a great tool to alert the audience of things unseen or unknown by your characters in the story. 

A good rule of thumb when sound designing is to score first. Setting up a foundation with the overall framework or rhythm of your sequences with music or other sound effects used for scoring purposes can allow for all the other elements of sound design to fall into place naturally. It ensures that every beat and impact hits where intended! 

If you have a scene with no background music, you can still score the scene with clever sound effects. Using repetition of sound effects can give the illusion of a score and keep a consistent theme within your piece. 

DIY and Foley

When you don’t have or can’t find the right sound to portray the certain emotion you want to portray, record Foley yourself during post-production or create sounds using custom plug-ins offered in your video editor or a DAW. Foley itself is a great way to add realism to the sound of your film.

You don’t have to be an expert to add custom foley into your projects. Try recording everyday sounds or sounds that peak your interest and enhance your work with truly one of a kind sound effects. 

Another way to DIY your sound design is to use effects and plug-ins to modify existing sounds. Pitch shifting a sound for example can be an effective way to change the mood of a sound. Generally, pitching sounds up will make them sound more serene, while pitching sounds down can make them sound more intense and terrifying. 

Dialogue

Dialogue is the main motivating factor that keeps audiences captivated in your films so it should be your top priority when sound designing. 

Keep your dialogue as clear as possible. Be mindful of background noise when recording dialogue and choose to record lines of dialogue in isolation from each other. It’s best to use post-production to your advantage in this case to stitch together pieces of dialogue with fades. This way, you have full control over every line spoken and can make the dialogue flow seamlessly.  

Another tip when working with spoken dialogue is to use an equalization plug-in to enhance the vocal frequencies. Many plug-ins tend to have presets built specifically for this!

Effects and Plug-ins

Modifying sounds with effects and plug-ins are an important part of sound design ‒ even if the intended outcome is subtle. Using techniques such as increasing the intensity of a sound, panning a sound from ear to ear, or adding reverb to a sound can enhance the sound of a film tremendously. All of these can be done by using effects and plug-ins!

A riser is a specific type of sound effect that builds intensity with sound. You can create a riser with a consistent tone just by starting with the volume low and then raising the volume exponentially. Doing this when leading up to a climactic moment in your film can be an easy way to fully immerse your audience and raise their heart rate.

Panning sounds such as foley or dialogue can be a good way to add depth to your films. Let's say a car is to drive past the frame from right to left. Using foley sounds of the car driving past adds to the realism of the sequence but if you also pan the shot accordingly to move the sound in 2D space from ear-to-ear, you can effectively increase the realism of the sound even more with minimal effort. 

Adding reverb to sound effects can alter the scale of the sound at a dramatic scale. Reverb increase the scale and distance of a sound. Use it wisely to add weight to your sound.

Focus on Telling a Story

Sound design as a whole is a tool filmmakers use to tell their story. It’s one thing to add matching sound effects to a sequence to simply add realism to your work, but it’s another thing to add sounds that portray the mood of the film purposefully throughout a sequence. So at the grand scale, always have sound design in mind before starting production. 

Try to look for the right sound effects, music, and foley that match the mood you are trying to portray. The feeling of your scene is what matters the most when it comes to cinema! An example of this is using powerful hits of sound (also known as an impact sound) to punctuate an impactful moment within your story.  

Conclusion

And those are 6 of the most important tips to keep in mind when sound designing cinematic films. Use sound effects, background music and ambience to marry your visuals with sounds that fit the mood you are going for. When in a bind, look to creating sounds yourself and using effects to enhance existing sounds. And lastly, always keep your dialogue clear and always prioritize what story you are trying to tell when choosing the perfect sounds for your film.

Written by Zeeshan Khamis

-

If you’re wanting to learn more about sound design, music production, and business, we are developing a course called Producer Launch that will take you from beginner, all the way to knowing how to become a successful producer for a living!

Sign up here to be notified when it launches for an exclusive 50% off!