Over the last few years, my understanding
of filmmaking significantly changed. While back then I focused mainly on
making things look good on camera, today my goal with every video is to tell
a compelling and authentic story. And as the storytelling aspect became
a more and more important part of my work, I realized that I needed an organised
structure for my videos in order to turn these complex stories into reality. Back then, I used to draft my ideas in Apple notes, write my scripts in Google Docs, and
plan my shot lists in Google Sheets. Overall, my workflow was pretty inefficient and messy, as all of this information was stored
on different platforms, even though it all belonged to the same project. But around six months ago,
I discovered a program called Notion, which unified all of these programs
in an incredibly simple way. It completely changed the way I organised my work, and massively helped me put
bigger video projects into action. And today, I'm going to walk you through my workflow and the different systems I developed within Notion in order to help you plan and organise your own videos. So, this was one of the most requested videos. You guys sent me hundreds of comments and also emails, asking if I could share my Notion workflow
on how I plan my videos. And then I reached out to Notion
with all of this feedback, and I'm happy to say that
this video is sponsored by Notion. So, for everybody who doesn't know Notion yet,
how does it work? So, Notion is an all-in-one platform,
which basically allows you to do anything. You can take notes, create different lists, like to-do lists with checkboxes, bullet points,
numbered lists or toggle lists. You can build different pages and create databases, which allow you to show one in the same
information in a variety of layouts. You can also embed photos and videos by just dragging
and dropping the files, or pasting a link into Notion. And there are a ton of other things you can do. So, Notion offers almost any tool you can imagine, and it's completely up to you to build your own systems
and create your own workflow with these tools. To be honest, I only scratched the surface
of what this platform is capable of, but I already saw a huge impact on
my productivity and also my clarity of mind, because I just don't have to jump in between
different programs, like I did before. So, there are basically two main ways to
build up your organisation workflow within Notion, and the first one, is you just use a blank page
and, with a forward slash, you can choose between different kinds of blocks. And blocks are all of the things that I just mentioned, like to-do lists, numbered lists, databases, and you can just add them to your page, and you can also divide those blocks into different
sections, by just dragging and dropping them. So, everything is just very intuitive and you will
quickly understand how everything works. Or as a second way, you can just choose
one of the thousands of templates, which are either created by Notion themselves, or by other people in the community. And as more and more people
are starting to use Notion, actually I was surprised that so many
of you guys already use it, we can only expect the number of templates to grow. Also, if you're just searching for an
overall very specific workflow, you can search for Notion on YouTube,
and there will be a lot of creators sharing their workflow just like I do here, and oftentimes, they will include a link
to their template in the description, so you can use their workspace as well. And obviously, you will also find a link
to my workspace in the description, so you can use it for yourself, if you want to. But first off, I'm just going to show you
how I organise everything. So, right now we are here on my home page,
which is the first thing I open up each morning, and up here I have two different sections. So, one is the creative section, and
the other one is the organisational section. So, I basically organise anything which needs some
sort of structural organisation within Notion. So, it would be my videos, my ideas, my sponsorships, online shop and product development,
also my taxes and overall notes. But today we're going to focus on the creative aspect, and I'm going to walk you through how
I plan all of my different videos. So, it always starts in the ideas page. So, as soon as I have a new video idea,
I just come here to my ideas page, and I just want to write it down in the most simple way, without too much planning and organisation,
just the overall idea. And that's why I created 3 different
columns for the different topics that I create videos about on my channel,
so for me that would be... Filmmaking, self-development and travel content. And for each individual idea,
I just create a new toggle list, like for example "how to find your passion"
or "6 tips to become a full-time filmmaker", and with all of these toggle lists, you can just click
on the arrow, and then it will unfold, and then I can add different bullet
points within that toggle list, where I just briefly explain what the idea is about, and that's actually everything I do on this page. I think that it is very important not to overcomplicate
that first step of your creative workflow. It's just about getting your ideas into
the program and remembering them. You don't need to organise everything straight away, but you just have to keep it simple, or else you won't write down some of your ideas
because it will just be too much effort. And the times where I have most of my ideas
are actually when I'm on the go, and I just have some freedom to let my mind wander. Like, for example, when I'm on the train
and I have nothing else to do, that's when I get my best ideas. And the cool thing is that your Notion workspace
syncs across all of your devices automatically, so I can also access everything through my phone,
or also through an iPad, or through my laptop, and that is a really handy thing, because
if I'm on the train and if I have an idea, I can just immediately write it down
in my ideas list with my phone. You can also access all of your pages
on the left side here, and I'm just going to click on "YouTube videos", and this is where my video project database lies in. So, for each idea that I want to turn into a video,
I just create a new project. So, all of these different titles
here are different projects. And up here, for all of the individual columns, I have different properties that I fill out
for every single project, which would be information like a video number that matches exactly the video number of all
of my projects in my folder structure. So for example, if we look at
"what's in my camera bag 2021", we can find it with the same video
number in my database. As the second property, I have the video title, then I have the niche of the video
that you just saw in the ideas tab, so I'm just going to select if it's either filmmaking,
self-development or travel content. Then I have the status of the project, which allows me to keep track of which point
I'm currently at with this project, so I can choose between research/planning,
scripting, filming, editing or published, and that basically just shows me
where I'm at with this project. Then I have a sponsor, if a video is sponsored, I'm just going to add the sponsor right here. You can also add new options by just typing in here, so for example, if we say Nike, I just create Nike and then I also have the option
to choose Nike as a sponsor for this video. Next up, I have the publish date, so if I already know when the video is going to be
published, I'm just going to select the date here. And last but not least, I have the URL, so as soon as the video is published, I'm just going
to copy the YouTube link into this property, and that way I can easily just open up the link
if I want to get back to this video. Just like that. So, with all of these different properties, I just have a very quick overview of the most important
information about my video projects, and it's also super easy to add new columns. You just have to click on the plus
in the top right corner here, and then you can just easily select one
of the different property types, like for example a text, number, select, a multi-select, where you can just add... Multiple different choices, like, if you have two different sponsors on a project. Date, person, files & media, chechboxes,
all kinds of stuff. And that way you can easily build up your database. And as soon as I choose one of the ideas
that I wrote down on my list, I'm just going to create a new video project
by clicking up here on "new", and then I'm just going to type
in the title of the video, so let's say, for example, "how to fly FPV drones", then I can just add all of the different properties
that you saw in the individual columns. And as soon as I filled out all of these properties
and I go back to my database, you will see that now here is the new project
with all of the different properties, populated in the different columns. By the way, if you're wondering
what all of these X's mean, these are ideas that I want to do for sure, and where I also already did some research
on planning or scripting, but I don't have a dedicated publish date yet. And the cool thing about all of these properties, is that you can easily filter and sort all of
the video projects within your database. So, for example, I can click on "filter"
up here and add a new filter, and then I can select the property, so for example
"niche", "is", only "self-development", so now I would see only the video projects... That are about self-development. And I can also sort these projects, for example
by "video number", "descending", that's what I always have... As a default, so that all of the video numbers
are in the correct order. So, I just deactivated all of
the filter and sort options, and another powerful thing about database, is that you can preview all of this information
with specific views. So, for example, I have another view
called "published videos", and with that, I have specific filters and
sort options already applied. So you can save filters and sort options
that you use on a regular basis, and also you can use different layouts. So, for example, if I select "project status" as a view, then you see, I have a new layout
which is kind of similar to Trello, so I can just drag and drop
one project to the next status. So, if I come from "research/planning"
and I want to start scripting the video, I'm just going to drag it in here, and as soon as I start filming, I'm just going
to drag it into the next one, and then this way, with this layout, I can just
easily track where I'm at within my project. Another view that I sometimes use is a calendar view, and with this, I can for example
see the different publishing dates, and when my videos are scheduled,
which is also kind of nice to see. So, I hope that you're not overwhelmed so far,
but it gets even better than that. So, this video project database might
look like a simple spreadsheed, but it is much more than that, because you can open up every single
video project to its own page by just clicking on "open", and you can also
click on "open as page", and then... You can just add all of the different blocks
that you want to have in that video project, like for example a to-do list, and I just say "research for different FPV types",
something like that, and you can just add all of the different blocks
you want to have within that project. But as all of my video projects
have a similar structure, I created a template for my YouTube video. So I just click on "YouTube template", so what it does then, is that it automatically adds all kinds
of different blocks and sections that I created before, and now I can use this structure
to organise my video project. So, let's actually go back to my video
database and select a project, so that I can show you how this works. So, let's for example select "how to find your passion", which was one of the most complex
projects that I did so far, so I really needed to organise this one. So, down here I have 3 different toggle lists
to organise some overall information, like the title ideas, thumbnail ideas and sponsor information. So, if I open up one of them, here I write down all kinds of titles which
could work well for this YouTube video. In the "thumbnail ideas", I can just describe
what the thumbnail should look like, and I can also embed different photos, which are similar to the one I'm looking for, and in the "sponsor information", I will just add
the URL and CTA, the call to action, of what things I should talk about with the sponsor. But as I didn't have a sponsor for this video, there is nothing added here. As I scroll down, I have two main sections,
which are the content and the checklists, and... In the content, I have "research and notes",
so this is basically for brainstorming. I will just write down anything that comes
to my mind for structuring the video, and then I have the script of the video. With my checklists, I have an editing checklist
and a publishing checklist. I have a film schedule, and I have a shot list where everything
is defined very very specifically. And now I'm just going to walk you through
the different parts of my video project. So, let's just open up the script, and as I said before, my "how to find your passion" video
was definitely one of the most complex videos I did, because I had some different talking parts, I also had a small cinematic sidestory where I was like
searching for that passion, searching for that light. Also, I had some different overlays,
like animations, and... Just a lot of different stuff,
so I really needed to organise it, and to do that, I basically always separate
my videos into different chapters, like for example the introduction. Then, I explain what passion actually is, then I talk about the benefits of passion, and this really helps to just have different
chapters for the overall story. And as you can see, I sometimes have bullet points,
and sometimes I also have continuous text blocks, and those continuous text blocks
would be for example voice-overs, or also scripted talking parts,
where I just sit in front of the camera, and I know exactly what I want to say. And those bullet points would be more
for improvised talking parts, where it should just be more authentic and natural, and I just give myself some freedom
to add some other things in there. Also, I structure my different text blocks
by just clicking on those three dots, and changing the colour of them. You can change the colour of the text itself, and you can also change the background of it. So, for example, yellow background,
and then the whole block changes, and in this way, I for example determined that
gray blocks are always voice-overs for the side story, and brown blocks are voice-overs for normal
overlays, like animations or stock video. And all of the default text blocks are parts
where I'm just sitting in front of the camera. Another thing to separate those different sections, is that I switch to italic text
as soon as I describe a b-roll. So, for all of my videos I have a-roll and b-roll. So, a-roll are all of the parts where I'm sitting
in front of the camera and I'm talking to the camera, and b-roll is all of the overlays that I'm showing, so for example, when I'm walking
towards the light source, or if I want to show a specific stock video of
something that I'm explaining, that would be b-roll. And by the time I open up the script
in order to shoot the aerial parts of my videos, I immediately know that all of
the parts without any colour are the parts that I have to say in front of the camera, while the coloured blocks, I can just record
the voice-overs afterwards. Obviously, the complexity of my scripts
varies from video to video. So for example, if I do a vlog, I will just have a bullet point list with some things
that I want to mention and talk about, while with other videos where
I'm really trying to tell a cinematic story, I have everything scripted and sorted
in a very organised way. As soon as the script is done, I define the visual
side of my story by writing a shot list, which holds all kind of information on the shots
I need to capture, and how and where to capture them. So, we're just going to head back to the overall
project and I'm going to scroll down, and here we can find the shot list. So, the shot list again is a database within Notion,
and up here we have the different properties. So, the first one would be the Chapter, where you can find all of the chapters which
exactly match the ones in my script, and I can just easily select the one
for which this shot would be used. So, if I scroll down, you see all of
the different chapters in the right order, and for these, I just define the different shots. In the second property goes the description of the shot, where I just describe what's happening
in front of the camera, so for example, "waking up from dream, being surprised". Then I have Tags, where I specify what kind
of shot it is that I want to capture, if it is a-roll, b-roll, stock video that
I'm downloading from stock sites on the Internet, a screen recording that I'm recording on my laptop, an animation that I create in After Effects, or a photo, so for example
a thumbnail or Instagram post. Next up is the Shot Section, where I just
define the focal lenght of my shot, so if it's going to be a macro shot, close-up, medium or wide shot. Then the frames per second, where I can
just choose between 25, 50, 100 and 200 fps, so I know exactly if my shot should be in slow motion. Next, I have Comments, which are notes
on the camera movement or framings, so for this one, it would be "transition from dream,
turning left/up with head movement". So, this was like a transition where I would wake up
from a dream and I would land in another world, so I just wrote down those notes, so that
I'd know how to perform those shots. Then I have the Location, where
I also have a selection propery, and I have specific locations where
the shot is going to take place, and last but not least, I have a checkbox
if the shot was already captured. So, what I usually do when I finish my script, then I just open it up in a separate browser window, and I just define the shotlist paragraph by paragraph. And for these shot lists, I also created different views,
just like I did with my video projects database. So, I can just click up here where I have the overview,
I have one which is called "to shoot", if I just click on that, I only see the shots
which are not checked off yet. "A-roll", which are only the a-roll parts, only the b-roll parts, and only the photos that I have to capture,
like the thumbnail, for example. So, adding all of this different information into such
a detailed shot list is definitely a time-consuming task, but it also has a lot of benefits, because if you bring the shot list
with you on the shoot, you know exactly what kind of
things you need to capture, where you need to capture them,
how you need to capture them, and it's just a lot of help and it will
definitely improve your storytelling. And there are basically two different ways
on how I take the shot list with me on set, and the first one is to either bring my laptop
or an iPad with me on the shoot, where I can just look at all of the
different shots and check them off, because most of the time your phone is going
to be too small for such a detailed database. Or the second option is to just
export the shot list into a pdf, which you can easily do within Notion, and then I just AirDrop this one onto my phone, and then it's a lot easier to look through all
of the different things that I need to capture. And if we only have a limited time to shoot,
or we have some strict timings, or I really want the shoot to be organised, I also create something called a "film schedule",
in which I define the date, time, location, and also the people who are going to be there
with me in order to shoot that specific piece. And what's really cool, is that you can also
share those projects with other people, so they can access all the same information. So I just go up here to "share", and as you can see, this project
is shared with Patrizio, with whom I shot the "how to find your passion" video. And in this way, you can just easily give other people
access to all the same information within Notion. So they have access to the script, the shot list,
the film schedule, so everybody is up to date, and it's just a very easy way to collaborate
with other people as well. And as soon as I took care of my script
shot list and film schedule, then I'm ready to shoot my video, and as soon as I come back into the editing, I have two other... Helpful checklists. The first one is the editing checklist, and I use this one when I'm editing the video, so it says things like "import footage to Premiere Pro", "screen footage", "watch through
video to check for good flow", "sound design", "colour grading",
and all that kind of stuff, so all the different points that are included
in my editing workflow. I don't use this checklist too often anymore, because I'm just very used to how my workflow is. But another checklist that I use a lot
is the publishing checklist, so as soon as my video is done and it's rendered out,
I just open up the publishing checklist, and there I can see the different points
I need to take care of... In order to get everything right, because a lot of times you will forget something with all of the different things you have to do
when you upload a YouTube video. So, it starts with uploading a YouTube video,
adding a thumbnail, adding a title, adding tags, end cards, video cards, so many different things you need to take care of, and I definitely don't want to forget
any of these different steps. So I can easily just come to this list, check off the different to-do's, one after another, and I'm sure that I don't forget any of these steps. What I like to do with my videos,
if I'm currently working on them, is to add them to my favourites, and then... They will just appear here on my favourites,
and I have a quick access to all of these projects. And as soon as the project is done,
I just change the status to "published", and I'm finally done with this project. Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! We did it! Yeah, it feels so good. We did it, man! You're a goddamn rock star. I hope it was helpful to see how
I plan and organise all of my videos, and if you don't have a Notion account so far, I highly recommend you to get one, because this platform is super powerful,
I really like it and also, it is completely free to get an individual personal
subscription, which is kind of mind-blowing. You can sign up through the link in the description, and if you want to use my Notion workspace
in order to get you started, you can also find a clean version
of the one that I just showed you, and simply duplicate it into your own workspace. Yeah, also make sure to subscribe
and turn on notifications if you don't want to miss out on
any of the upcoming videos, and I'm going to see you guys in the next one. Goodbye.
