Wednesday, February 29, 2012

How to Make a Badass YouTube Video

YouTube is the heart and soul of videos on the web. It is the place people go when they want a good laugh or they want to learn more about a product they saw on TV. In the world of multimedia careers, there will probably come a time when you want to post a video on YouTube. When that happens, you need to make sure it is as catchy as possible. With the right techniques at the right times, you could easily create a viral video that the web will be buzzing about. Here are some tips to help you make the best YouTube video you possibly can.

Pick a Good Topic

Before you do anything with regards to filming or creating your YouTube video, you need to make sure you have a good topic to work with. This has to be something that is interesting and entertaining at the same time. You probably won't get a lot of views for a video titled "How to Clean the Dirt in Your Toenails," so you need to make sure you address what people are looking for. This could be a tutorial, an opinion, a fun tact, a technique, or something else along those lines. You just have to make sure it is relevant to your audience.

Use a High Quality Camera

If you are going to be filming something to put on YouTube, make sure you use a quality camera to do so. Most people won't watch a video filmed on a cell phone, unless the phone happens to have a great camera built in. If you don't have the option to use a good camera, at least try to set the camera you have on the highest resolution possible. That way you will get the best looking video you can.

Maximize Lighting

Again, this is a suggestion for people actually filming a video of someone. If you are just editing images or making some sort of animation, move on to the next time. For the rest of you though, you really need to make sure that there is good lighting in the video. Natural lighting is ideal, but you don't always have the option to use that. If you can't get the sun to come up, you at least need to use the three point lighting system. Here is a video explaining how to do that:



With the lights in place, your audience will be able to clearly see what is going on in the video. Otherwise, you may lose them somewhere along the way.

Avoid Flashy Images

Some people think that having a ton of flashing images in a video will make it look cool and fun. This is especially true for videos with music in them because some directors try to match the images to the beat of the music. Such is the case in the video for "Glad You Came" by The Wanted/ you can see that here:



Flashy images like that may be fun in certain cases, but they can be distracting over time. They can also cause headaches and even seizures if people look at them too long. You just need to keep things simple if you want to make a video that people will really enjoy watching.

Make a Quick Intro and Outro

Make sure you put a blurb before and after your video explaining what it's about, how people can contact you, where they can find the video, etc. This can't be too long or you may cause some people to move on to another video. Just put something short, sweet, and graphically pleasing, and you should have an awesome YouTube video to call your own.

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