How to Make Your First YouTube Video

– My name is Nolan Molt and
I am a full-time YouTuber and today, I’m giving you 10 tips to make your first YouTube video. But first, you guys gotta see this. Look at that sunrise. Gorgeous. Okay. Let’s get into tip number one. Now, I know even just the thought of shooting a YouTube
video and posting online is super overwhelming
and honestly really scary and that’s why I wanted to make this video to walk you step-by-step on actually how to make a cup of coffee. Not really. Actually, we’re gonna
make a YouTube video. I’m just thirsty. (coffee maker gearing up) Now, I’m not just gonna show you how to make a YouTube video. I’m gonna show you how to
make a good YouTube video. One that has good audio, good video, it’s easy to make, and that can get views. (gentle music) (coffee brewing) Step one in the process is
to come up with an idea.

Now, you can take ideas from
other creators you see online, just make sure you write them down so when you get an idea
for a video you wanna make, you can remember that
because you wrote it down. If you literally have no idea
what you’re going to make, what you can do is just shoot a vlog. If you wanna make a video for fun and you’re not sure what about, making a vlog is a really good idea because you just in what
you’re doing in the day and really, your content
is just what’s happened. Oh, baby, we’re getting somewhere. Now, if you already know what your channel is going to be about, think about what do people actually want to watch? What are the things that
people are searching for? Another way to think about this is think, what do I watch on YouTube? What do I search for on YouTube? And then just make a video about that.

Oh, baby, I love you, coffee. Oh, yeah. Oh! I love it. Let’s get into step number two. (upbeat music) When writing a script, keep it simple. What I do, and I still do this today, is I write down bullet points
on what I want to talk about. I don’t do this word for word. Some people do need word for
word exactly what to say, but I prefer just to use bullet points and I make sure to write those down because I promise you when
you get a camera on you, you are going to forget everything.

All right, my first YouTube
video. Let’s do this. (internet modem dialing) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to shoot a video on the fly and I just forgot certain bullet points that I really needed to cover in a video. So make sure you write
down some sort of script. Now, step number three,
or tip number three, and this is actually a huge mistake I see a lot of people do. It’s don’t focus so much on the equipment. Let me explain. Starting a new YouTube channel is daunting and then when you add on a whole new hobby of shooting video,
taking photos, thumbnail, doing graphic design, all
this stuff that you need to do for a YouTube channel, it
gets really overwhelming. And that’s why if you’re making
your first YouTube video, do not worry about the camera equipment. If you have a smartphone, that
is going to be good enough.

This entire video has
been shot on my iPhone, so all you really need to
get started is a phone. Of course, if you have a
camera, use that camera, but if you don’t know how use
it, then don’t use the camera. Use your phone because
what should come first is shooting YouTube videos
and then in your spare time, you can learn how to
actually use a camera, but first, you just wanna get started and everyone knows how to
pick up a phone, hit record. There’s no settings you have
to change. It’s super simple.

Now, if it is your first YouTube video, I do recommend using
that front facing camera. It’s just gonna make things a lot easier. You can see if you are in the shot. However, I’m not using the
front facing camera right now. I’m actually using the ultra wide angle and I have my Apple
watch actually strapped to the back of my smartphone so that I can see if I am in the frame. Now in setting up your
shot, you wanna make sure that your head isn’t in
the center of the frame. You don’t want it to be like this when you’re shooting your video. You want to fill that
top third of the frame.

So I’m gonna set up like this and this is gonna be good composition. As far as lighting goes,
just remember front lighting. All you wanna do is get
some light in front of you. Right now, I am sitting
in front of a window and this is lighting me up super nicely. If your main light source is behind you, you did something wrong. Number four, audio is really important. To get started on YouTube, you don’t have to have a microphone because our cameras have
built in microphones in them and we can start off
with just using that mic. However, you still wanna make sure that you’re choosing a
place that is quiet enough to shoot a YouTube video because
if your audio is terrible, people are going to click off
and not watch your videos. So make sure to look around and listen. See if you have any fans on, AC unit, stuff that you can pause for a
few moments to shoot a video.

If you can turn those things off that are making a lot of
noise or go into a room that doesn’t have a bunch of noise, then this is gonna be your best bet. Now, another tip here is if
you have a wide angle lens like I do on this iPhone, you can use that and actually sit closer to the camera and this is gonna give you better audio because the farther away
you are from your camera, the farther you are
away from the microphone and it’s just gonna sound worse. Honestly, guys, this
tip is really difficult, but if you can do this, this is going to help you out so much.

And that is look into the lens and smile. If you have a camera
with a flip out screen or you’re filming on your phone with that front facing camera, naturally, you wanna
look yourself in the eye when you are talking. But if I were to record
the video like this, this doesn’t look like I’m talking to you. It just looks really weird. So you wanna look into the lens because YouTube is about
connecting with the audience.

It’s about talking to the people and communicating with them,
so looking into the lens is gonna do that for you. And also, don’t forget to smile. It’s really easy to get on camera and you just lose all your
energy because you’re scared. You’re nervous. Maybe you’re anxious and just smiling before you actually hit
record and start talking is gonna help bring your energy up. Of course, we want you
to be you. Be authentic. People really connect when
you are just true to yourself. You don’t really care what people think. For example, I love to dance
and so every once in a while, I’ll just start dancing in my videos because oh, I’m feeling it. (screen beeping) Okay, everybody, step number
six is to press record and mess up a lot. Now, when you press record, remember you already had your idea. You had your script, so you know what you’re gonna talk about, but you’re going to mess up your words. You’re gonna fumble over your words and it’s gonna happen a lot. Now, when you mess up, you
do not have to stop recording and then start again
because we are gonna edit the video later and so we
can cut out all the mistakes.

Just hit record, talk to the camera. If you mess up, just wind back. Do it again until you get it right. For example, in this video,
I’ve messed up so many times, but every time I mess up, I go
back to my previous sentence and I just start doing again. I go back to my previous
sentence and I just say it again until I get it right. If you mess up in the
middle of the sentence, do not start right in the
middle of the sentence and moving on. Just actually redo that entire sentence and then record that all the way through. Trust me, this is gonna
help you a lot in editing. Tip number seven is to shoot
B-roll.

What is B-roll? Thanks for asking. B-roll is the footage that goes over so when you film this talking stuff, it’s the footage that goes over top of it. Just doing this is gonna make your videos so much more interesting. It’s definitely worth shooting some B-roll and then adding that in later in the edit. For example, if I was making a video on the best books for filmmakers and maybe I’m showed them as I’m talking to the camera like this. What I wanna do later after I hit record and I record all of my talking stuff, what I wanna do is I want
to actually get shots specifically of these books. So once I’m done talking, I
could either hold this book in front of the camera and
just get the B-roll right here. Or what I recommend is
actually go somewhere else to get your B-roll shots. I could take these books down. I could set them down on my coffee table and get video just of that. So when I’m editing the video together, I could actually overlay this video while I’m talking about this book.

Step number eight is to
edit your video together. Now, you can do this on your smartphone, if you have an iPad, a
computer, some sort of tablet. You can edit videos on
all of these devices. And by the way, if you check
the links in the description, we actually have full
entire videos dedicated to a lot of these steps
that I’m talking about. So if you’re like, well,
how do I shoot B-roll? Or how do I edit video? We have videos dedicated
to that specific step, so check the links down
in the description. Overall, when it comes to editing, there’s really endless
possibilities that you can do when it comes to adding in
text, sound effects, graphics, transitions, all sorts of stuff. But what do you wanna
do is keep it simple, but have fun with it. This is your first YouTube video, so you don’t have to make it crazy, but doing some simple things, like adding in a little bit of music, maybe a couple of sound effects, can be a really fun way
to spice up your edit and the music and sound effects
that we use at Think Media is by Epidemic Sound,
which is today’s sponsor.

Now, the coolest thing
about Epidemic Sound is that when you use their
music and sound effects in your YouTube videos,
you can still monetize them and you don’t have to worry about getting a copyright strike. You can make money on the
videos using their music and they have a really
cool library of music and sound effects to choose from. If you’ve ever watched any
of our Think Media videos, chances are, we are probably
using Epidemic Sound. And if you like the music that we use, then you can download
and use the same music, but they have a huge library
with tons of other music, too. Their website is super easy to use, so depending on the
videos that you’re making for your YouTube channel, you
can actually find a playlist that is going to fit that.

And they’re actually giving
all of you guys one month free. So if use the link down the description, you can get a month free off of your Epidemic Sound membership or you can just go to thinkmediasounds.com to get your first month for free. When it comes down to the edit, these are the basics that you need to do. First of all, you wanna
take all the talking pieces of your video. We call this the A-roll and
you wanna trim that down and all the mistakes that you filmed. We wanna cut that down and
have just the good parts in your timeline. After this, we wanna add
in those B-roll shots that we filmed earlier and
you’re gonna overlay that while you’re talking about it so that the viewers can see
what you’re talking about. After that, you can add
a little bit of music.

You can add some sound
effects and you’re good to go. For your first YouTube video, this is going to be better than most and you are going to be crushing it. After this step, number nine
is to create a thumbnail. There’s some really cool sites for free that you can create really cool
thumbnails, like canva.com. Even inside the YouTube studio, you can create a thumbnail
for free, add some text to it, but canva.com really is the best way to make a free thumbnail and
have it look really good. The power tip here is when
you’re filming your video, actually to prepare a
thumbnail right there. Taking that extra time to
look into the lens and smile. It’s gonna save you a lot of time, if you go through your
video and you realize that all of them are
just weird screen grabs and you can’t find a
good one of you smiling. It happens all the time. So when you are filming, just
take a photo or take a video, look into the camera and smile
and then you’re gonna be set to start editing a good thumbnail.

And step number 10 is to post your video. Once you post your video,
you want to share it. Instagram, Facebook, whatever you’re on. Share your video and get people to YouTube to check out your video. Also, make sure that you’re
responding to the comments. YouTube is all about community, so you want to engage with that community, with the people who are
coming to your channel and commenting on your videos. You can like their comment,
heart their comment, and reply to them.

Now, these are the practical
steps that you can take to shoot, edit, and post
your first YouTube video. But if you want this strategy to actually building a YouTube channel from zero subscribers, then
click on the screen right now and I’ll see you guys in the next video. (gentle, upbeat music).

As found on YouTube