How to Film Yourself – Planning: Idea, Script, and Shot List

how do you make an engaging highquality video that tells your story what's the process of filming yourself and what tools do you use to get it all done hello I'm Matthew and Cena a creative director and content creator and in this video I'll give a look behind the scenes for how I come up with ideas how I plan my shoots and how I manage it all myself using notion the sponsor of this video If you haven't seen it yet I've made an overview of my entire process as a followup I want to share a detailed breakdown of the pre-production process which is the critical planning stage of creating a video I'll cover developing an idea into a concept writing a script and how to create a shot list inspiration can strike at any time when an idea for a piece of content enters my mind I capture it with whatever I have in front of me this makes its way onto my notion project board where it sits until I have the headp space available to dedicate time to develop the idea into a concept at this stage I'm not trying to come up with a clever title rather I'm using simple descriptive language so I know what the idea is I have a template I use for all of my video projects but I'll build the components from scratch so you can follow along recently I finished designing and building out my creative studio and I wanted to create a piece of content to share the story behind it a tour of the office sharing the vision layout and features of the the space I aim to capture my Concept in as few words as possible usually I'll summarize the content in a sentence and may add a few bullet points for things I may cover if you struggle with this just write till you feel like you have your idea on the page then you can utilize a tool like notion AI to help you summarize your messy thoughts this first step establishes the direction of the video it creates guardrails to prevent going off track so I can concentrate my energy on developing a potent concept sometimes my thoughts are clear out of the gate more often it can take weeks to refine an idea into a strong concept since I'm creating a tour of my office I want to do a little research and find inspiration to help me develop my concept for my video I like to break down content I find interesting I note any insights I learn like how a video is structured how a photo is framed or how an author phrases an idea the more diverse my research the more interesting insights and Inspirations I might find to fuel my own Creations in the research process it's important to vary your sources from different authors subjects and mediums so you don't end up being a carbon copy of someone else your voice and perspective are what will make your piece unique from what's already out there the next part of my process is creating an outline here I flesh out my concept by establishing the major points of the video my outlines start as has drop downs with the title of the section and bullet points underneath from here I arrange add and remove sections until I'm happy with the flow of how the ideas build on top of each other I love writing a notion because I can easily rearrange blocks of type with an outline complete I begin the script writing process first I duplicate my outline and then I begin to turn my bullet points into full sentences eventually it becomes a rough draft at this agage I try my best to get everything complete regardless of how unrefined my writing is when I do any creative work I switch between two modes of working creating and critiquing first I create a pass of work then evaluate it objectively does it make sense does it flow what parts are uninteresting what can be shortened what needs expansion and most importantly does it accomplish the goal once I've made note of what can be improved I put my Creator hat back on and address the feedback in the next passive work one new tool I've recently incorporated into my process is notion AI here I can take what I've written and prompt it to improve my writing expand on it or make it shorter it's like having a writing partner look over your work and make suggestions what it creates isn't always usable as is but its suggestions help me move forward in my process it gives me new ways to phrase my ideas help me to expand my vocabulary and see my work from a different perspective which is helpful if I ever get stuck I usually take a few suggestions from notion Ai and the rest I rewrite and refine over a series of passes to finalize my scripts I create a three column document the left column notes the video sections the middle column contains the narration and the right column includes visual annotations this format helps me imagine the final video and find ways to illustrate IDE ideas through visuals eliminating excessive explanations as a result I can shorten my script and deliver a more impactful video after my script is complete the last thing I do before I shoot my content is create a shot list and organize checklist of everything I need to capture for my video some of the shots I've already documented in the process of Designing my office but a majority of the shots I still need to capture for my shot list I create a table in notion with columns that help me sort and organize my shots by sections shot type time of day and location I start by porting over my annotations from my script and renaming them to be as descriptive as possible to ensure I have enough coverage to play with in my edit I make sure that I have at least one wide establishing shot two to three medium shots and five close-up details of the subject in most cases I'll shoot variations of shots for safety or because I see something interesting in frame on the day of the shoot to give you an idea for a 10-minute video I usually end up with well over 100 shots it's a lot to keep track of so having a shot list is critical the nice thing about setting up a shot list with tags is that I can filter and organize shots I don't shoot everything in order but rather shoot similar shots together for example I may set up my camera for wide tracking shots on my slider to capture beauty shot shot of my office in the afternoon if I shot everything in sequence according to my script I would have to change the lens and position of the camera for every shot slowing everything down but if I shoot all of my related white shots together it minimizes setup time allowing me to capture more quickly since I love to utilize natural lighting which looks different throughout the day I know what time frame I'll capture a sequence and may shoot over multiple days to get the right shots with the exact lighting having an organized shot list that I can filter and check off helps me see the big picture and makes my production run efficiently I hope this overview of my pre-production process was helpful to you if you have any questions ask and I'll do my best to answer them if you're interested in the full notion template I use to create all of my videos check out the link in the description it includes examples of past projects so you can see how some of my most popular videos come to life thanks again to notion for sponsoring this video I've been a user for so many years and it's become the Central app to manage all of my projects write and organize my content and collaborate with others check out my link in the description to get started with notion for free and adding notion AI is only $10 a month with that out of the way it's time to get back to [Music] work

Channel: Matthew Encina

Views: 103,698

Keywords: Matthew Encina, filmmaking process, how to make youtube videos, how i edit my youtube videos, script writing, how to make a shot list, youtube tips, Notion tutorial, notion for film production, notion for filmmaking, notion template for content creators, how to build a shot list, how to film yourself cinematic, notion setup, how to plan your youtube videos, notion for content creators, notion templates, notion tour, shot list, cinematic vlog, mod musings, pre production

Id: t2P9Z_UPTdU

Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 11 2023