Getting Ready To Shoot Your YouTube Video

Planning

Planning your video is probably the most important step in the entire process. Your planning is what gives direction to your video shoot and to the final product that you produce. Therefore, this is where most of your energy should be spent.

To be good at each step of the process… camera work, and editing, you must have a clear picture of the entire process; and what the finished product should look like. This is where the difference between an amateur and a professional shows up most dramatically; an amateur “points and shoots”, whereas a professional “plans and shoots”.

We simply can’t stress enough, planning is everything when it comes to creating a good video.

Shoot plan

A good plan should have a clear purpose for every shoot. As a general rule, everything should be moving you towards a larger plan. Your focus should be on “what do I want this to look like on video?” You will then shoot the action to achieve your goal.

You will need to decide how many shots of a scene you want to shoot. Do you want to shoot at several different angles so that you can capture different perspectives when you edit your project and assemble all the pieces into the final video? Is the location important? Is the time of day you shoot your video important? All of these things have to be taken into consideration as you lay out your shoot plan.

Planning to edit

It is important to remember that everything you capture on camera must be shot with editing in mind. There are two ways to edit your video: one is post-production and one is in-camera. Most of your editing will be done in post production but on-camera editing will make your post production editing easier.

Post-production editing is the process taking the video that you have recorded and assembling your shots into your storyboard via editing software. Post-editing is what gives your final product a professional look.

In-camera editing means that what you shoot is what you get. The difference is that you are making editing decisions as your shoot. An example of in-camera editing is when you decide to zoom in on your subject or pan the scene. In-camera editing requires more planning, foresight and experience than post-production editing.

Once you have your overall plan in mind, you are ready to plan individual shots. As I mentioned earlier, you should have a reason for every shot. Is the shot necessary to tell the story? Is your audience going to care about what is being shot?

Once you decide on a shot, you then need to think about what is the best way to get it. This is the time you should be thinking about the composition of the shot, not at the time of shooting. What angles should the shot be taken at. Should it be a close up or a full body shot? What are you trying to convey to your audience?

It is usually good to get several variations of the shot so that you can choose the best one later in the post-production editing process. One important note: it is important that you leave 5 seconds of picture at the beginning and end of each shot as a buffer for post-production work.

Framing

Shots are all about composition and framing is the process of creating that composition. It should be noted that framing techniques are very subjective. What one person finds pleasing another doesn’t. Therefore, it’s a good idea to follow the basic rules of still photography.

1. Make sure the shot is level with the horizon unless you are purposely going for a tilted effect. You do this by looking for horizontal and vertical lines in the frame.
2. The rule of thirds… divides the frame into nine sections. Your points of interest should occur at 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up or across the frame. It generally shouldn’t occur in the center of the frame.
3. “Headroom”, “looking room”, and “leading room”… refer to the area of the frame that is purposely left empty. Without this empty space, the subject will look uncomfortably close. A common mistake of amateur’s is to leave too much headroom, which doesn’t look good.
4. Everything in your frame is important… what does the background look like? You also need to pay attention to the edges of the frame. It looks ok to cut a person off at the waist, but not at their knees.
5. To become good at understanding these rules and seeing good composition, watch some TV and movies. Notice which shots stand out. When shooting video, it’s all about camera positioning and frame composition.

Here are seven tips you should know before you shoot an Internet marketing video. Knowing these tips will make your video more professional. They will also save you from some costly mistakes.

1.  Know your equipment

It is important to understand that every camcorder is different and every model has its own idiosyncrasies. It usually takes a while before you become comfortable using your camcorder.

Start with the basics. Know where the start and stop recording button is and learn just how far you can move your thumb before you hit a button that will accidently activate a feature you don’t want to activate. Learn when your camcorder is recording and when it’s not.

You should also practice using the zoom feature. Each camcorder seams to require a different touch to work the zoom.

Finally, you should learn to manually focus your camcorder. You may find shots that require you to manually focus instead of using the auto focus feature.

2.  Learn to use your backlight button

The backlight is designed for those situations where you are shooting video with someone against a brigt background and the only thing you get is a silhouette. Normally you should move your subject to a position where they are properly lit, but sometimes that’s not possible. The backlight control opens the aperture a few stops, which makes your subject more properly exposed.

Fortunately, with the type of video you will normally shoot for you online products, you can avoid poorly lit situations with proper planning.

3.  Setting up and using your tripod

You also need to practice using your tripod. Tripods very in many ways, some pan and tilt smoother than others, and some use different ways to make height and leveling adjustments. You want to know what loosens what and which lock does what.

4.  Be prepared for the shoot

• Are your batteries fully charged?
• Do you have your AC power supply if your batteries run dead? Did you bring an extension cord? Do you have extra batteries?
• Do you have enough tape or digital memory? Do you have extras in case the tape or memory card is bad?
• Are you shooting with special lighting? Do you have extra bulbs in case one burns out?

5.  Overshoot if possible

Due to the fact that your finished video will be created in post-production editing, we recommend that you overshoot when possible. You will want to get close-ups of faces and any products that you are demonstrating. Adding these shots to your final video can mean the difference between a boring video and one that is lively and exciting. Therefore, as long as you have power and tape, shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.

6.  Use a good microphone to capture your audio

Be aware, built in microphones on camcorders aren’t very good. They capture all the noise in a room so your videos will end up having a lot of background noise.

You should use an external microphone that is plugged into your camcorders audio jack if you want to have quality audio with your video.

7.  Have a plan

Every video you shoot tells a story. What is your story?

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, but you don’t need to shoot your video in chronological order. If you do shoot scenes out of order, you need to understand how they fit into your final product.

Finally, be flexible, because sometimes the unexpected happens, so be open to “found” shots. Sometimes, these shots can become the highlight of your video.

How do you apply this strategy to your internet marketing efforts?

If you are not using video with your online marketing efforts, you are leaving money on the table. Video increases sales, period. You need to learn to shoot video to use with your Internet marketing business.

If at all possible, shot your video indoors where you have more control over the elements such as sound and lighting.

We recommend that you create your videos using the storyboard method we describe in another video on this blog. This is the easiest form of video to create and one of the most powerful videos you can create for your online marketing business.

Authors Bio

For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.

Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.

Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .

Finally Revealed! Instant Strategy Anyone Can Use To Increase Sales From 1/2% to 12%… Add Video To Your Sales Process Using This Proven Tactic

There are many reasons why you want to use video in your internet marketing business, but one statistic stands out from all the rest.

Typically, only ½% to 2% of visitors to your website will purchase your product if your website is text only. If you ad sales-orientated videos to your site, of the people viewing them over half will take some sort of action, and 12% will actually purchase the product offered.

Simply put, if you’re not using video in your online marketing efforts, you’re leaving money on the table.

When you use video, you need to determine how you are going to use the video you produce….

• Will the video be used to pre-sell your product
• Will it be used to actually sell your product
• Will your video be used to demonstrate a feature of your product
• Will it be the information product itself.

Once you define how you want to use the video, the next step is to crystallize the message that you want to convey to your audience. We like to teach “The Seven Slide Solution” by Paul Kelly. A study from Princeton University on cognitive science reported that the average person can hold and process only seven pieces of information in short memory at one time.

Paul Kelly writes that: “people think in ideas, not in facts and that the structure by which people communicate ideas with one another is with stories.” When you build your video around a story, your audience will understand your ideas and can be persuaded to consider changing their status quo.

Stories are the most powerful communication device anyone can use to sell a product or idea.

To tell a great story, you need to storyboard the sequence of how you want to lay out your video. A storyboard conveys a visual line of reasoning and shows how each idea relates to the other ideas. It allows you to determine what should be included or excluded from the presentation.

What makes this process easy is that every good story has the same structure. As long as you follow that structure, you are guaranteed to make a great video.

1. You start with a premise – the premise is the message. It is the theme or central idea that the story is built around. A good story can only have one premise otherwise the story becomes unwieldy and meaningless.
2. Next you have the core conflict – this is the “hook” that holds your audience’s attention. People love conflict, especially when it can be observed from afar. Conflict holds our attention because people are naturally curious and want to see what happens when two forces or ideas are in opposition to one another.
3. Next, you examine the conflict from multiple viewpoints and build tension – when you look at the consequences of the conflict you build tension. Tension takes your audience on a journey and builds a desire to see what happens next.
4. When the tension is at its peak, you offer a choice – a fork in the road. This is the moment of truth when a decision must be made and the audience waits to see it it’s the right one.
5. This leads to the resolution of the core conflict and does a number of things… it shows the result of the choices that were made and leaves the audience feeling satisfied that they know the outcome.

Building the scenes of your presentation…

One of the advantages to creating videos using the storyboard method is that you can create chunks of material that can be inserted into the video using editing software. When you build your video you will focus on 7 scenes (mini-videos within the storyline). There is a specific role for each scene.

• Scene 1 – engagement
• Scene 2 – backstory
• Scene 3 – build tension
• Scene 4 – bring it to a boil
• Scene 5 – offer choices
• Scene 6 – provide resolution
• Scene 7 – set up the “sequel”

The role of scene 1 is to capture the audience’s attention. It is similar to reading the jacket cover summary of a book in the bookstore. It’s when you decide to buy it or put it back on the shelf. With your video, it’s when you decide to continue watching the video.

The role of scene 2 is to provide the backstory. It describes how you came to this point or how the main character came to this point. It is the part of the video where you want your audience to say: I can relate to that.

Scene 3 is where you create tension by exploring the consequences and repercussions of taking or not taking action to address the conflict.

Scene 4 is used to bring the tension to a boiling point. It is the point in the video where you want to bring your audience to where they want relief.  They want the main character of the story to make a decision so that they can see how the story turns out.

Scene 5 is used to relieve the tension which can only be done when someone makes a decision. It’s the turning point of the story and the point where a choice is made.

Scene 6 is when the core conflict is resolved and you learn what how the main characters life has changed to date.

Finally, scene 7 sets up the sequel. It sets the stage for the audience to go deeper and learn more.

One more structure needs to be discussed before you begin creating your scene layout. It is how to structure each scene for use in your storyline.

You should design the scene according to the following structure:

1. Plant a question
2. Evoke an emotion
3. Answer the question
4. Move the story forward

Authors Bio

For the past 11 years, Randy’s principle business enterprise has been in the top 5 listings on Google for his industry. His list of clients includes the Department of Defense, Department of State, Municipalities, Fortune 500 Companies, College and Universities, and several hundred small businesses.

Today, Randy is using his acquired knowledge to help businesses learn how to grow through the savvy use of internet marketing techniques. His central focus is to take complex online marketing strategies and tactics and break them down into easy to follow step-by-step processes.

Randy has written and published articles on internet marketing strategies to show businesses how to make money online. You can access these resources and learn how you can make more money online at www.InternetMonetizationUniversity.com .