- In this video, we're gonna go through how you create a vlog
from start to finish. This is a special video that
I'm putting together for you, because I'm taking you
through the entire process, rather than just giving
you some tips and tricks. We're gonna go from idea creation, to planning to the gear, how I shot, and then we're gonna get into the edit and I'll show you step by step, how I develop my edit
it's so that the footage turns into a story that's
entertaining to watch. Now, recently I started a second channel. That's all gonna be story-driven content, none of this tutorial
stuff that you see here. And I think that's a great
way for me to show a different side of what I create. And those videos are a great example of that different concepts that
I teach here on my channel. So the video that we're
gonna go through is a vlog that I shot recently about
my trip up to Butler Peak, which is a fire lookout
way out in the mountains. Now it's not the best
vlog that I've ever shot, but that's not what matters. It's a video that really
uses storytelling techniques to help drive the video. Now, one of the big pitfalls when it comes to creating YouTube content is this idea of get over the
fear and just hit record, which is great. But the issue is if you
don't have a plan in place and you don't have an
idea of where your video is gonna go, then a
lot of times your video is gonna fall flat. No, one's gonna watch your video. I see this all the time in my comments, especially in my original,
how to vlog video. What I see a lot of the
times are people saying like, "I've been doing this for two years "and I've gotten no views." Or they're on the other side of the fence where they just started their vlog. And they're like, alright, great. I'm gonna go out, I'm
gonna start shooting. Now having motivation and being
able to get over your fear and just hitting record
and just going for it, is a great way to approach YouTube. But unless you've sat down and really thought through your videos, a lot of times just hitting
record and recording everything, and then trying to edit it
into a video doesn't work. You'll keep hearing this again and again, the more you watch like YouTube education and filmmaking tutorials, you'll hear people say story matters most. Well that's great, but
you need to understand how to craft a story. So in this video, storytelling
is gonna be one aspect that we're gonna cover. And I'm gonna show you how
I created a simple story out of a vlog, because if you can tie
story into the vlogs that you're creating, it's gonna become more
engaging for your audience. If you have a setup, you have
a history, you have a journey and then there is a
climax with a resolution. When you put all those
pieces into a YouTube video, your audience is going to
be more into the video. And then they're gonna wanna
watch another one videos. This is why some creators do so well. You don't think about
the storytelling elements because it's just super engaging and you wanna keep watching. But if you take a step back and you look at these big creators, you'll notice that these
same storytelling elements go across every video on their channels. Look at someone like "CaseyNeistat", or you look at "Yes Theory". They are using storytelling
elements to craft their videos, and if you take a step back and look at every one of their videos, you can look at the structure
and understand that, oh, that's their hook,
or that's their setup, or that's the buildup to the climax. And that's the resolution
like these components. They seem very easy, especially if someone's just
saying here's storytelling, ABCD it seems easy to do, but to put that in practice
is actually much harder. And it's a skill that you have to learn. It's something you have to
practice over and over and over. And part of the reason I
started my second channel, is to have a place where I can create more story-driven content
and not just do tutorials. Like these are great, I
love helping you guys, I love creating tutorials, but I originally got into filmmaking and creating YouTube videos because I wanted to just
create and tell stories. Now, if you're always teaching and you're never telling stories, then you start to lose that
skill of telling stories. And before I got into YouTube, I was a documentary filmmaker. I did a lot of reality TV. And so there was a lot of
story that I was working. I would work with producers and we'd be trying to craft the story as we're dealing with real situations. And that's essentially what you're doing. And you need to craft a story around these different elements
that you're filming so that they're engaging
for a viewer to watch it. And there's something that
someone's gonna stick around, hit subscribe, hit, like
watch your entire video, and watch more videos. 'Cause that's, what's
most important on YouTube. If you can master that element,
get people to watch longer, watch more videos, then
you'll find success. And all of us are on here on YouTube because we wanna grow following, and we wanna build this
into a sustainable business. That is something that we can do full time and be able to keep
creating and enjoy creating, because creating is fun. And once you've learned your skills and you know where you're
going with your channel, being able to create
and make money from it, it's an awesome career. And there's also a lot
of really positive things that you can do with video. You can really tell some
stories that will make an impact in the world. And there's just so many different ways that you can approach YouTube so that you can make an impact. So I know that was a huge
long intro, but in this video, what we're gonna go
into is how you've vlog from start to finish. And we're gonna go through
every step of the process. You're gonna come alongside me, and we're gonna make a vlog together. All right, guys, let's get into. (upbeat music) Step one, of the process
is the idea of phase. Now, before we get into the idea phase, I just wanna ask you guys, you know, this is around story-driven vlog content. If you're interested in
seeing a breakdown like this, for say a tutorial or a review, I would love to hear from you guys. So go down the comments and just tell me what style
of videos you'd like to see an entire breakdown of. Let's get into the idea phase. So before you even go
out and start shooting, you really need to come
up with the concept of what it is that
you're going to go shoot. When I started the process
of wanting to create this Butler Peak vlog, I didn't just pick up my
camera and go out to this trail and start shooting. If I started in that, I would have no idea where
this video was gonna go. And I think that's key, obviously there's that element of surprise when you're creating content, but you wanna have a trajectory. You wanna have a goal of
what you're planning to do, in your video. And when I first started this channel, if you go way back in the
history, it's like 500 videos ago. I did a lot of vlogs and a lot
of times I would hit record and just start shooting and
then just see where it goes, and then cut all that together. And those videos, weren't
that entertaining. I mean, yeah, if you wanna
come along for the journey and you just wanna like,
see my day like that, some people watched it. A lot of my family, my
grandma loves those, but like, that's not gonna
build you a bigger audience. You wanna approach your
video with a goal in mind. So when I started coming up with concepts for my second channel, my goal with that channel is to tell stories from adventures. That's kind of where I'm
positioning that channel. Obviously it's a new channel
and just playing around. But this video specifically, I wanted to find somewhere
that I could hide too. That would be unique and have this ending, like have something at the end
that makes worth the journey. (upbeat music) Like, I didn't want to just
go down a random hiking trail and then get to the
end and be like, great. We finished the hiking
trail, that was fun. I enjoyed a hike. That's not an interesting
story for a viewer. There has to be an obstacle. There has, to be not only obstacles, but there has to be
somewhere that we're going. So I started doing research just online. I started looking up the little area that I was gonna go shoot
this video, which is Big Bear. So I started typing in, you
know, Big Bear hiking spots. Now, from there, I started
just reading a ton of blogs, looking for different and unique places that might be interesting to film. Obviously, when you start typing in things like Big Bear hiking, you're gonna find a ton of trails and there's gonna be a lot
of different places to go. So as I started doing this research, there's a few things
that started popping up, and I saw this Butler Peak
lookout pop up I was like, that looks like a great spot. I went on YouTube, I
started doing some research and I found videos of people, driving their Jeep up to the Butler Peak. While right there, I'm like, well, that's not that interesting because if that's super easily accessible, that might not be a video
that I wanna go after. These were all older
videos that I was seeing. And then I noticed that there
was an article recently, that showed that the road had been closed because of winter damage. All right, That becomes more
of an interesting story. I have this goal to get to
it's this longest trail, it's all up hill. So there's some challenge there, and there's the roads washed out. So this might be an
interesting story to go after, because there are some things in place that make it so that I can
tell a story about the journey from beginning to end. Now, this is where research
is super important. I spent a couple hours
just reading articles and blogs about this hike, trying to figure out best
routes, what to expect. And also just current conditions and the history behind the
Butler peak fire lookout, because all of that is
gonna come into play when you're actually shooting the vlog. Now you might think that's crazy. You're spending all this time,
just coming up with an idea, but that's important when
it comes to creating videos that people actually wanna watch. You need to spend time on
the idea and creation phase, and you might waste 1/2 a day trying to find a good story to tell, but once you can find a good story to tell something that people
might be interested in, it's gonna set you apart from the people who are just hitting record
and shooting their day. Like that's the biggest thing here. We're trying to create interest. We're trying to create stories that people will want to watch. And then they'll want to
watch more videos from now. Step two, in the process of
creating a vlog is planning. Now I did a whole video
around script writing and outlining process, and
I'll link to that description, but let's go through my process
for this video specifically. So let's go over to the
whiteboard real quick. And let me just walk you
through a basic story structure. So a story is made up
of a series of events. The first thing is your hook, and we're talking
specifically YouTube here, because we wanna get people
interested in your video and then stay to the end and
then watch another video. So you wanna start with the
hook first 10 to 15 seconds, this is something exciting
that you either pull from, that what happens in the vlog or it's something that you plan out, so that it gets people
hooked into your video. So for my video, I use
this opening drone shot, which gives you people
an idea of what's coming in the climax of this video. So your first act is basically setting up, what's gonna happen in this vlog. So in this first act,
you wanna set up problem or your conflict, and you also wanna give some back story. And this is basically, what happens before
you start your journey. So for my video, I set
up that I'm trying to get to the peak of this mountain
at this fire lookout. And I also set up in this first
act behind the fire lookout and just fire lookout in general. Now in storytelling, there's, what's called an inciting incident and this is what sends the
character on the journey. So if there's something specific that sends you on the
journey of this vlog, this is where you add it in. Now, the second act of
your story is your journey. And this is where you
have a series of events that either take you
closer to your objective or different challenges that
you face along the journey. So the idea is that you
have different obstacles in your way. So this is all the
exciting part of the vlog. This is the meat of the vlog, this is the you doing, the
thing that you set out to do. So for me, in the context of this video, it's the challenge of the mountain. It's the challenge of being
in the direct sunlight, the conflict that comes
with road, that's washed out like all these different
elements that help drive the story forward, but also make it harder
for me to get to my goal. Now that your third act
is gonna be your climax and your resolution. That's where your story
reaches crucial moment. You finally get to the place
or the thing finally happens that you set out to do. So for this it's that moment
when I get up to the fire hut and I'm almost there, that is the climax, that's the peak. And then the resolution is what happens once I actually reach that moment. So a basic diagram of how your
story should be structured for a vlog is you have your hook, you grab your audience
attention, you have your opening, exposition, your history, your conflict, that's your first act. Then you have your second act, which has all the obstacles
and different things that come along on the journey. You have your climax, which is the peak. You finally get to that thing
that you're set out to do, at the very beginning. And then you have your resolution, you tie everything up. And then for YouTube, you add this last little
bit that gets people to go watch another video. So you try to give your
viewers something at the end that makes them watch the
next video in your series, or the next video on your channel. Okay, so the challenge or
the conflict of the story is, will I get to the summit and
what will I find at the summit? That is what I set up right
at the beginning of the video, it gives you that starting
point of where this video is going and why you should
be interested and engaged. So beyond just setting up this conflict, I also need to set up the history. So a little bit of information
about the Butler Peak specifically, and also just
fire lookouts in general. That gives you the viewer, the
context of what my goal is, add some history behind the trail and just fire lookouts in general. Now, from that point to the climax, you got to build story beats. One of the story beats
that I was thinking through was the journey from my
house to the trailhead. That's gonna be one story beat. And then the trail itself
needs to be a story beat, you know, different conflicts
that I may encounter. And this is kind of loose because when you're creating a vlog, it's kind of like documentary
or reality in a way where you're not gonna plan
out every little thing. Now, some people might have
more structured vlogs where yes, you can plan out every
aspect of your video in terms of doing a video
where it's more reality-based where you're experiencing something, you're gonna have these rough
outlines of things that, you wanna capture. And as you shoot the video, it's going to evolve
and change like theirs. That's just the nature of
creating reality style content. So the next story beat is the journey up. So actually mountain biking up the path. And I changed it from
hiking to mountain biking after doing my research. Originally, I was gonna hike this trail, but I thought it was
gonna be more interesting to mountain biking personally, I just wanted to mountain bike it anyways. And it also saves me time
because I'm gonna be shooting a lot while I'm up there, and on a mountain bike
it's a little bit quicker, especially on the way down. So the next story beat that I wanna cover is actually approaching the fire lookout. And the climax of the story is when I get to the fire lookout, and then the resolution is actually finally getting to the top and finding what's there. So this is my plan. And what I did was I put it in my phone. I just have it in my notepad. That's what I use to create all my videos. And I wrote down these
different story beats, just so I was reminded of what I'm doing. I also wrote down any notes
about the trail itself. Anything that I wanna
remember to talk about so that I have it all in one place. Now, when it comes to
your creation process, you've got find a system
that works for you. For me on my iPhone, the notepad, it's the easiest way
for me to create videos and just keep writing
notes and add things. Because on your notepad, you can not only create notes,
but you can drop in photos, you can drop in, different
elements that you find so that when you're actually
planning, and scripting, and coming up with the process, you can put everything in one place. I've found for me that, if I start trying to use different apps and different pieces of software to do all of this planning, that I ended up getting lost in all of it, and I don't use any of it. So my notepad and my
whiteboard right here, are my two best friends
when it comes to planning and creating videos. So now that I have a plan, I just need to pick a day
that I'm gonna go do this, give myself the day to actually shoot and the freedom to actually
shoot and not be rushed, and go shoot it, that's the next process. Now we're gonna get into gear next. I just wanna talk about
this element of time because I have a five month old, she's upstairs sleeping right now. I'm shooting this video at 6:00 AM, trying to get stuff done before, she wakes up and wants to go play. And that you gotta remember that, life is more than just YouTube. Like there is more than just
one priority of making videos. Some of us, yeah, I mean, if you are single and this is
all you're doing right now, take advantage of the fact
that you can put more time into creating videos. The more time that you can
dedicate to the process, the faster you're gonna grow. And the more you're gonna find success. Now, if you have a job,
if you're a family, you're just gonna have to set aside time to make this happen. And this is also why planning scripting is gonna be even more important because if you're shooting videos that people aren't gonna wanna watch, you're just spinning your
wheels and wasting your time. Whereas if you spend time and
really focus in the content that you're producing, then yeah, the one day that you
have to shoot your video, your know that you're gonna shoot a video, that people are actually interested and that they wanna watch. And you won't go five years down the road without any growth on your channel because you know that you're setting yourself up for success. So for me, I chose a day where
I could go up to Big Bear, shoot this video, my parents
have a cabin up there. So I was going to go for the
entire day and spend the night that gives me the flexibility to go create and not having the pressure of time of me needing to drive back home, rushed back to do things. Part of the process of
creating YouTube videos and creating vlogs is setting yourself up, so that you can actually
do the whole process. So if you need to wake
up early before your job or before kids are up, then do that, so that you can do the
idea creation phase. If you need to set aside a
day to go shoot, do that. Because the more that you
think through the process, and you actually give
yourself the proper time, you need to make a video, the easier it's gonna be for you. And the more creative you can be. And that's the key, we're
in a creative endeavor. We are here to shoot videos that people are gonna wanna watch,
and you wanna be creative, which is the fun aspect
of creating videos. Now let's get into the next
step of the process for me, which is grabbing the gear that I to film. So for this vlog specifically, I used a bunch of
different pieces of gear. However, you need to just
pick your camera system and what lenses you're gonna bring. If you're just using your
phone, just use your phone. That's sometimes that's the best tool that you have is the phone in your pocket. And in this video, you'll see that I actually
shot a bunch of segments using my phone because
I was riding my bike. And I just wanted to get something quick, could have used a GoPro,
but I forgot a GoPro. But the gear that I brought
along was my camera. I brought along a couple of prime lenses because I wanted to get super
shallow depth of fields. I wanna get that cinematic
look, I brought along a drone. I brought along a point
and shoot the Sony ZV-1. It's kind of overkill 'cause
I was using my phone too. But the Sony ZV-1 what
I used at the beginning of the video. And I ended up leaving it in the car because I didn't wanna
actually bring it on the trail, but it was a good camera to
grab some quick bits with. I brought indie filters for
my lenses, because again, I'm trying to get that cinematic look. And some of the tools
that I use for my gear is Indie filters, prime lenses. I brought along a gimbal because I knew I wanted
to get super smooth shots. I didn't want shoot everything handheld. I brought enough batteries
and cards to last me the day. And then I brought my computer because at night I wanted
to review the footage and make sure there wasn't anything that, I needed to reshoot. And that's something that might come up when you're actually
producing your content. You might need to reshoot little elements. That's not a bad thing, but
as you're crafting your story, and when you're looking at your footage, if you're in a situation where
you can go out and reshoot something, maybe you need to
get a reaction from yourself, or you need to set something
up a little bit better, go out and do that. Even if you're not in
the exact same location. So for example, if you were doing something
in like a city environment and you forgot to set up a scene properly, then you could go find
like an alleyway or a wall or something that might look
like it was in that scene and go reshoot that
setup and then tie it in, and it will look seamless. You can find something that
has a similar background to where you were shooting
the original video. So, because I was going to Big Bear, which is a mountain town, it's a few hours away from where I live. I needed to bring my
computer so I could sit down and go through all the footage and kind of look at it
before I drove back home. And the backpack that
I use for all my gear is my Shimoda X50 that
holds all this gear. Plus my mountain biking, gear,
some water, a ton of food. Like you got to take care of yourself, while you're out shooting. And that's one reason why I
personally use a Shimoda bag. It's 'cause it allows me
to put a big water bottle on the side. One thing that, you know, a lot of people don't talk about
is the things that you need outside the camera gear. So when you're developing your kit of what you wanna bring
with you for your vlogs, you got to think through like yourself, like, what else do you need? Food, water, maybe rain gear, hats, like there's different things
that you would bring with you, to do your adventures or whatever it is that you're shooting. And you have to make sure
you bring that on top of your camera gear, 'cause you know, you don't
wanna get stuck in a situation where you don't have enough water. On this trip, I brought two
massive things with water and it really weighed me down. And weight is also something, you're gonna have to
take into consideration. My backpack was heavy with all this gear. And sometimes I don't bring all of this. This video specifically, I knew I had more time
to be able to shoot this. And I took a lot of breaks on the way up, just because I was carrying a
backpack that weighed a ton. So you have to think
through realistically, what can you bring with you, when I'm doing more of an expedition? So last year I went to Ecuador and climb some of the
tallest peaks down there. I brought very little gear for that, and focused mainly on
lightweight gear because I was, I needed more gear to
protect me from the elements when I'm at like 19,000
feet, that's insane. And now that I have a second channel, I can revisit all that footage. 'Cause I never actually produced
anything from those videos. And I think that's topic for
another video on this channel. And that is what happens
when you don't have a story because I shot two weeks of footage and I didn't go through this
planning and idea stage. And I ended up with a bunch of footage that doesn't tie together. So now I have to come up with
a way to put all this footage together and make a story out of it. And that's something I'm
trying to help you guys avoid, with this video, because personally I've done this, I've shot multiple weeks of footage. I've gone out with like
this Epic situation and ended up falling flat because I didn't get the key elements that I needed to tell my story. So I really want you guys
to think through process. I want you to think
through actually the idea and preparation stage, because that's gonna
help you find success. And the more that you do this, the more that you plan out videos and create your story structure, the easier it's gonna get, and it'll become natural. At first, it might seem
like a lot of work, but after you do a few videos, you'll start getting in a
rhythm and you'll be like, yep, I need a conflict. I need a resolution. I need something that I'm going towards. What is that? Boom, boom, boom, boom, figure it out. And you know, you won't necessarily need to spend so much
time on the research phase because you'll instinctually
be able to set up these story elements. That's gonna help you craft
a better, a better vlog. All right, so let's get
into shooting the video. Now this is where a lot of people start. So you could see how much
preparation that goes into, before you even hit record. Whenever you're shooting of vlog, you really want to shoot more than, you're actually gonna use it. So one of the key things that
I always suggest is to set up everything that you do and do it on camera because you may or may not use,
that as part of your video, but having all those elements, when it gets into the
editing is gonna help you, actually craft your story. When I woke up that morning
to shoot this video, 6:00 AM I needed to get my gear together. So I turned on a camera
and shot just a few things as I was setting up my gear, right? So the goal today is to go up to Big Bear, which there's this fight their lookout. It's like up on top off of a mountain it overlooks all of Big Bear. And she says, really cool structure. Now I also grabbed a bunch of B roll, and B roll is the footage that's gonna help tire video together. And you can use B roll in
so many different ways, whether it's on top of
when you're talking, or use it for transitions with a little bit of music, or add a voiceover, add some B roll, some music like you can tie B roll in so many different ways. And one of the things
you wanna do is coverage. You wanna overshoot
when it comes to B roll, I'm always shocked because
I shoot so much footage. And then when I get to the editing phase, I use almost every single shot because the more coverage that you get, the more flexibility you
have to craft your story, and you can do things like quicker cuts to just like get little hits of things. And when I shot this, I didn't know if I was gonna use this. I didn't know if I was gonna start, at the trailhead versus at home, but it's good to grab
these different elements. Now, as I drove to Big Bear, I grabbed a bunch of footage of the drive, whether it was out the side window, the front window perspective of my hand. And I did this throughout the drive. It was a two and a 1/2 hour
drive to get to Big Bear. And as the light changed
in different ways, in the different roads that I went on, I just grabbed some B roll shots. And I shot all this using the ZV-1. Now when the road changed and
there was no one on the road, that's when I was like, okay, this is a key element that
I'm gonna probably use. And so this shot right here, I shot a super long shot of this road because I thought potentially
this could be used as a timelapse if I wanted
to add that omen into it. So one thing you should be
thinking about is time change in your videos. Are there parts where you're gonna need
to show a time shift? Like you need to show time moving forward, and timelapses are a great way to do that. So transition scenes can be as quick as just a simple timeline. You watch a lot of "CaseyNeistat" videos. He always put his camera down
and did a quick timelapse 'cause it's just a quick transition that shows the passage of time. Now there's a whole section
when I met up with my parents, went to their house and I
didn't film any of that, because it didn't really think
it was relevant to the story. The next beat that I wanted to capture, 'cause I was looking at
my plan was the trailhead. And so as I was approaching the trailhead, I was on a dirt road. I pulled out the camera
and I started shooting just me talking to camera
again, setting up what's coming, what to expect, what my challenges are, need to think through
everything that's coming and talk about those elements. And you wanna try and do this in a way where you're not always
repeating the same information over and over. So when I was at home, I
said, one bit of information. Now I don't wanna say
that same exact thing, when I'm in the car, you
could repeat some stuff. And there are times where yes, I would suggest doing the
same kind of information over and over, but you're only gonna use one in the edit 'cause you wanna keep
the story moving forward. So you always want to be
thinking, what did I say last? And what do I need to say next, that's going to help keep
moving this story forward, getting me towards my goal. And also what are some interesting
things that are happening right now that makes this moment unique and why I'm capturing it. So this was a great opportunity
to talk about the trail because I'm about to get to the trail. So some of the key things
that I found in my research was that the road got washed out, that you have to park
their car at the bottom and you have to hike, the five, six miles to get to the summit. Any information that came up in research, this was a great opportunity
to talk about what to expect. So originally you could, four-wheel all the way to Butler Peak and you can park down below it, and be able to walk up to this fire hut. And because the road got
washed out a years ago, they've shut it down. So basically you have
to park at the bottom, and then get yourself up. It's about a 10 to 12 mile hike. And I don't really know what
to expect from this trail. So as you're getting into
a situation in your vlog, you can always set it
up by putting out there, what you're expecting and maybe what you're scared of, or what you're worried about,
or what you're excited for. What are some emotions that
you're feeling right now, before you go into that situation? Okay, so now that I'm at the
trail, this is the fun part. This is kind of the whole
purpose of creating vlogs is taking someone on a journey. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what I was gonna encounter, so as I started doing the trail, I started shooting different elements that were of interest to me. So when you're in a situation like this, where you don't know what
to expect, and it's all new, just keep an eye out for things
that might be interesting that help tell your story. This video is about getting
to the fire lookout. So I need to find elements
as I'm going up this trail that talk about the trail
itself, the conditions, maybe what I'm feeling,
maybe what I'm worried about. If I got lost, if I'm not sure of things, is there any conflict that's coming up as I'm going along on this journey? That's the elements that I wanna capture 'cause that's, those are the
elements that are interesting. And also because I'm doing
a mountain biking video, I wanna talk about, the trail. So part of what you wanna do, when you're creating a story driven vlog is think through your audience. So who is your audience? What would they actually care about? So for this style of video, I was catering it towards people who are interested in
outdoor style content. So what are those audience
members interested in? They're gonna be interested in, conditions of the trail,
what I was feeling like, things that were going on at that moment. They're not interested in
the cameras that I'm using. They're not interested in
the drone and using my drone. So I'm not gonna shoot
video of me playing around with my drone and almost
crashing my drone. Like my audience here on this channel cares about making YouTube videos. But my audience that I
was catering this towards was not necessarily people who are interested in
the creation process. It was more people who wanna
watch an adventure film or people who are interested
in mountain biking on this trail. Kind of serves two purposes here, 'cause somebody who might
be interested in this trail will watch this video to
get an experience of it, because they might wanna go do it. And also someone who's just
interested in watching adventure style vlogs would be interested
in watching this because it's a vlog about an adventure. So I'm not gonna stop and talk
about my camera and my gimbal and different things
that I was working with, because they have no place in the story. So you got to really think
through of who your audience is, and avoid creating
content that your audience wouldn't be interested in. So some of the things that
I encountered on this trail was the sun super hot beating down on me. I encountered a lot of areas
where it was washed out. The Hill itself was steep
and it was a long trek all the way to the top. So those are all conflicts
that I wanted to capture and talk about now beyond
just me talking to camera, which I did just using my iPhone. I had a point like this,
filming myself as I was writing. It's more interesting
because it's in the process. So beyond that, I shot a ton of B roll. So I would stop at different
sections along the trail and shoot different batches of B roll. So first I stopped I just
wanted to get the forest that I was going through. So I really focused on just
the elements of nature. So getting some of these gimbal shots, then the next time I
stopped, it was at a washout. So I got a few different elements here. I got gimbal shots of the washout. I put the camera on a tripod. I shot myself walking through the scene, and then I got some detailed
elements of my bike. Now this is key. You wanna shoot a variety of content. You don't wanna just shoot
the same thing over and over. With your B roll you wanna
be getting a ton of coverage. So you wanna be getting different angles. You wanna be getting different shot sizes. You wanna be able to get reactions as well as POV of what you're doing. So if you haven't seen my video on how to shoot better B roll, I go through this idea of shooting B roll. And that's a great followup video to this, because it talks through
this idea of just shooting variety in more detail. So I'll put a link to that
down below in the description, more homework for you
to watch after this one. So it did take me a
while to get up the trail because I was stopping and shooting and getting all these different elements as I was going along. Now, when I got to the fire lookout, I turned this corner and boom, it was right there and I
could see it, and I was close. I knew at that point I needed to stop and shoot a scene here, because the approach to the
fire lookout is a key element to help tell the story. That's gonna be a buildup
moment because you'll see, this is the shot that I
was wanting to build up to. I got this drone shot of the fire lookout. It's an Epic shot. If I turned the corner and said, hey, there's the fire lookout. And then I show the shot. There's no buildup,
there's no anticipation. The climax in the final moment. The reason that we all came
up on this journey together. So I wanted to build this up. So here, I actually spent
some time and thought through, how am I gonna build up to this
fire lookout reveal moment. So I shot a bunch of different
elements as I was moving up to the fire lookout. I got the moment where I
had to sit down the bike. I did another talking bit to the camera. "That's said set up, I'm almost there." I did some different B roll shots going up to the fire lookout. And then I got reaction shots of me, as well as some shots where
the fire lookout was obscured in a way where you see me
moving through the frame and I'm getting there, but it's not fully showing
the entire thing yet. And the reason for that is
you wanna have a big reveal. You wanna have a buildup, whether it's a buildup
throughout your video, or you find these moments
where you can really build up to a revealing shot, you wanna take those moments
and really milk them, and really build them
out because in your edit, you're gonna find that these moments are gonna help craft your story, and they're gonna help
keep your audience engaged. So I got up to the top
of the fire lookout, obviously I kind of hung
out there for a little bit, drink some water chilled out, but then I got a bunch of
different shots up here, because this was the whole
reason I shot this video wanting to get to the fire lookout. I wanted to find what was up there. I wanted to tell the story of, you know, am I gonna be able to make it? And then once I'm up there, what's there. So I shot a bunch of different B roll. I did some talking bits
that wrap up the vlog that talk about, what I found
and some things about it, and finish the vlog there. Now, one thing that I
missed and something that, I know that I could've made better would be showing the trip down, because I talk about, I set
up that this is a big mountain I'm climbing that there's a
lot of obstacles in the way. And I think a lot of my
audience would be interested in seeing that downhill portion, because that's like the fun
part of a climb like this. And I just forgot a GoPro,
I forgot a three 60 camera. And because of that, I had to wrap up the
video at the fire lookout. So for me, I would have
extended this video a little bit longer, done a music sequence with
like a three 60 camera and then showed the whole element. When I was like bombing down
the mountain on a mountain bike in this Epic landscape. Now I could have done
some of it with the drone, but it just is not the same. Like I needed to have some more elements. So I just scratched that element. And I ended the video at
the top of the summit. So how do you know when
to enter your video? Well, you need to shoot to edit. So this is a concept that I
learned back in film school. It's something that you're gonna use in all of your videos, because you always wanna be
thinking of your final video. You don't wanna just shoot
and then go back in your edit and then try to piece it together. You wanna shoot to edit. So as you're shooting, always
be thinking in your head, okay, how is this gonna
tie into the story? Or how is this gonna work? Is this a setup? Is this a wrap up of this section? Am I tying this in a nice little bow, or do I need to add more to the story? So I need to set up something else, always be thinking
through how is the story gonna be crafted? And again, this is a skill
you're gonna be in the moment and you're gonna be shooting. And then once you start
thinking through the story and you have your plan,
you're gonna realize like, Oh, I need to capture this B roll 'cause that's gonna really
help tell the story. So always be shooting to edit, always be thinking through
what is the final project gonna look like? How am I gonna tie this footage together? And take a step back. Don't always be recording
and doing the thing. Take a step back sometimes. And just give yourself a moment
to think through the footage that you shot, pull up your
camera, review the clips, go through them and be like,
okay, I got this, this, this, this, okay, I'm missing this element. And I know I'm gonna need it in the edit. So shooting to edit is gonna
help you find more success because you're gonna make
sure that you get everything, that you need to tell your story. I was at the top of the mountain. I realized I was sitting there, I was looking at the trail and I was like, "Oh, I forgot my GoPro. "Forgot my three 60 camera." That is what I need to
finish up the story. So instead of wrapping up the story at the bottom of the trail, like I was planning to originally, because I would have had
this downhill adventure, I decided to just end the story
at the top of the lookout, because I knew I was gonna
need something to wrap up the video up there on the summit. So I just did it right
then and ended the video thought through the edit in my head, realized that I'm not gonna
have this whole section that I was planning to do. So I just wrapped it up. So let's talk about cinematic
shooting for a minute, because personally, I come
from a filmmaking background. When I approached my videos, I wanna have more of a
cinematic style to my B roll. Not everyone is gonna wanna achieve the same kind of cinematic look. You might just be running
around with your phone and you're happy with just
grabbing some B roll shots. You gotta remember you don't
have to have amazing B roll. You don't have to have drone shots. You don't have to have gimbal work. That's a personal preference. And that comes from a style that you're creating on your videos. There are plenty of
creators out there who have, mediocre, decent, you know, B roll. that's just, shot with like a phone and their videos crush it. And that's the thing like you really have
to think through story, 'cause that's more important. Is this B roll, helping
you tell your story, or is the B roll just there to, show off your skills as a cinematographer. Sometimes, that makes sense. And yes, you wanna show off your skills, but more importantly, you wanna help take your
viewer along on the journey. Unless you're someone who
does like specific camera reviewed style vlogs,
having the cinematic B roll, isn't always necessary and
having pointless cinematic B roll isn't necessary. I think if your B roll
helps tell your story, you can ramp up the level of your B roll, make it better, and
make it more cinematic, make it beautiful. But if it's not helping craft your story, then you know, get rid of it. This is something that, you hear about in filmmaking and that is you can leave it
on the cutting room floor. There's a lot of times where
you end up pulling out B roll shots that you think were
the best in the world, but if they don't help tell your story, you're not gonna be using them. So don't get stuck on just
creating beautiful looking shots. They are great to add in, and that's why I bring extra gear with me. And that's why I bring gimbals and drones, because I want some of these
shots that look awesome because when you put them
in the context of a story, it really ramps up the quality,
but it's not necessary. You could just shoot
some quick B roll shots with your phone, and if
it helps tell your story, it's gonna be better than
the person who didn't capture story-driven B roll shots. So now after shooting
everything I needed for my vlog, I then head into editing. So let's pull up Final Cut. I use Final Cut for all of my edits. You might use different editing software. You don't have to use Final Cut, but I do like it for
creating YouTube content 'cause it makes it super easy to cut. So before we get into the actual editing, let me show you how I set up my files because file structure and organization is gonna make it easier to edit. So here is my Butler Peak folder. I do all of my folders based on the date. And then I put a title. Now
I have my Final Cut project. I do a specific Final Cut
project for each video. I have my exports and
then I have my media. And in my media, I've separated out by all
the cameras I'm using. So I have my drone, I
have my full frame camera, I have my phone, I have voiceover, which is, is something we add an edit and I'll get to that in a second. And then we have the ZV-1. So these are all the cameras
that I used for this project. Now I'm gonna bring all
these into Final Cut and here's a pro tip I actually
have a templated Final Cut file that I just copy every
time I start a new project and it has all my titles and
everything already built. So that every time I
go in to make a video, everything's there ready to go. And I don't really have to
rebuild different elements. So if you have things that
you use video after video, after video, create a
templated project file. And then whenever you start a new project, take that template, copy it, bring it into your folder so that you always are starting at a point where you have everything built. And let me know down the comments. If you want me to cover this
more specifically in a video talking about these templates. And because I made the folder structure before I even opened a Final Cut, you can see that all of those
are now appearing as keywords because I brought them in as the folders. So we need to start a timeline. And like I said, I have
template a timelines. So for this, we're gonna
make a new timeline and we'll work off that. So as you can see, when I pull
up this templated timeline, I have all these elements
that I've already built. So I have my name. I have some texts, lower texts, player, squares, like all these elements
they use in all my videos. Now I might not be using
these in these vlogs, but this is just something
I want you guys to see that if you use different
graphics and elements, create templates of this
and make it really easy to, do video, to video, to make things faster. So the first stage of my
process is I go through all my A roll. So all the parts where
I'm talking on camera and I chop these up, just so they're little sequences
of each of those sections. Okay, so the goal today is
to go up to the Big Bear, which there's this fire lookout. Originally, you could four-wheel
all the way to Butler Peak and you can park down. So I'll go through and
just cut out sections that are boring. So I try to make it move faster 'cause the key is you don't
wanna bore an audience. So I'll chop out little sections and make the story move faster. First part of this hill. So the first part I kind of left them
'cause I'm riding my bike. So the first part of
this, so this is gonna be, I'm riding my bike. So this is gonna be a way to climb, basically uphill the whole way. So what I'm doing is
cutting out any dead time or any parts where I repeat. So I just wanna make it
seamless from beginning to end and make it move. Now, obviously you don't wanna chop out every break when you're talking, but depending on the style
of content you're shooting, you might wanna cut out
a lot of these like, ums and oohs and ahs. And I did a video all about jump cuts, hiding, jump cuts. It might be something for you
to check out after this video. Again, I'm trying to give you guys as much information as possible. So I apologize if I'm giving
you guys a ton of homework, but we're doing jump cuts here. So you might need to hide these later. I'll put a link in description
on how you hide jump cuts. That's a ways out there. So this is gonna be... Since it's a ways up there, I can see Butler Peak off in the distance. You go up in the distance. It's a ways up there, but you can see Butler
Peak off in the distance. It's a ways out there. So this is gonna be a ready to climb, basically up until the
whole way, the whole way. It'd be a nice ride down to the Jeep. So after I've gone through
and cut all these story beats, I could see what I have on the timeline. So there's, I have all
these different sections that are me talking to camera. I have the setup at the beginning, which talks about what
I'm gonna encounter. I have this section here, which talks about getting to the trailhead some anticipation, these sections, which talk about trail different things, I'm encountering as I'm going along. So this is the actual journey
that I have this section that talks about getting to the lookout, and kind of building up the anticipation. And then I have the reveal, me on the summit and the wrap up. So when you're shooting, you're thinking through all these elements and because I thought about them, as I was shooting this video. Now, when you go to the edit, you can see clearly how all these elements start coming together and you actually have your
whole story, craft it out, just in these elements
of me talking to camera. We haven't gotten to the B roll yet. So the next step for me, is I actually start digging into music and I use Epidemic Sound
for all of my music. And what I'll do is start
looking for different sounds and ideas that might encompass the story. So let's go into moods, because I think when
you're looking for music, going by mood is a great way to do it. This, I have some elements
of this Epic adventure. So I really want some
cinematic, Epic music. And, you know, you can sort
by Epic and then maybe dreamy or let's do Epic and hopeful. And then we just start
listening to all the music. (upbeat music) (dynamic music) (upbeat epic music) You know, after skimming
through some songs, if that mood is not really working for me, then I'm gonna switch it up and try to find something else. (upbeat music) So once you find something you like, you can use this button,
that's find similar. And it's gonna show you similar tracks to the sound that you like. (epic music) (upbeat music) The ones I found different
sounds that I like, I'll create a new music
folder in the media and I'll drop all of it in there, just because I wanna keep
everything organized. Now I'm gonna grab more tracks than I think I'm gonna use, because you might wanna
switch some tracks out when you're actually creating the video. But if you find some general sounds, things that feel the way
that you want, then you know, you'll start playing around with that. And I like to use music
to help guide my edits. So a lot of times I'll put my music in and that's what I use
to help edit my B roll together and then tie scenes together. So music for me is super important. So I found this kind of epic sound, and I realized that I need
something before this footage of me talking, I'm gonna need a hook. That's one key element. When it comes to creating
vlogs is you need to hook. So you either plan out
a hook or in this case, I'm just trying to find
something that was really interesting in this
video to use as my hook. (dynamic music) Now this next track that I've found has this kind of like driving feel to it. It's kind of like anticipation. It's good to build up, ramp up the energy to get into
the actual meat of the video. (upbeat music) Now the next song that
I chose is gonna go over all the elements when I'm
actually mountain biking up to the summit. And I think just has this kind
of like adventure feel to it. It's kind of mellow, but
it's also got a driving beat. So music there's no right
or wrong way to do it. And it also comes down to style. These are the styles of
tracks that I like using. You might have a
completely different style, but you wanna think, how is it gonna make your audience feel when they're watching the video? (upbeat music) (dynamic music) Okay, so this is a great
track for the reveal 'cause I love the build of this song. And then it gets to this
point where it's like, boom, there's a moment for a reveal. (dynamic music) Cool, so I got my music. I have these four tracks that I'm gonna use throughout the video, and this is gonna help
drive the rest of the edits for the B roll. So now I just cut the hook. And what I found was
the shot was the reveal. So I have an Epic landscape, drone pulls back to
reveal the fire lookout. And then I figured use this, to kind of preface what's coming. So you understand that, like I get there, but I'm gonna set up, you know, everything that goes along the journey. There is still this idea of like, what is gonna be there once I get there. So I'm revealing a little
bit early, but to do that, I'm trying to hook my audience and you can see that
I'm walking up the path as I get to this hut. So there is some of that
anticipation of like, well, what happens when
he gets to the top? And then I use this first track, I cut it up a little bit,
just so I could have, 15 seconds of it versus a longer portion. (upbeat music) Blackout screen, go into me talking about, what is about to happen. So that was a hook draws your audience in. So you wanna look for these hook moments. That was a reveal that I used as a hook. So then I go into the talking bits where I'm setting up the story. And then at the end of
this, didn't really pack on. I got to get all my stuff ready to go. Didn't really pack last
night, like I should have. So I bring in the music, right
as I finish up this wrap up and I go into just some B roll shots. So I talk about the
fact that I didn't pack. So I wanna show some of that
show packing of the car. This is all B roll that I captured. And I didn't really know what
I was gonna do with it yet. Now I was playing around with
this footage of the drive originally, I thought, okay, I'll do a bunch of shots of me driving, but ended up being pretty boring. So I needed to add in some history, and this is where voiceover
could come into play. So because I'm doing something
that has a little bit of a history, this fire
lookout was built in 1931. There's a little bit of
history that I need to set up to talk about what a fire lookout is. This is a great opportunity. I've set up the story. Now it's time to give some backstory on, fire huts in general. So as I'm setting this up, I have the music playing
underneath, down here. You can see I've added a little (upbeat music)
(engine revs) truck sound effect. That's a sound effect that I
got just off Epidemic Sound. You can use sound effects, put them in places to just
enhance the story a little bit. I set up that I'm driving
two hours, 16 minutes. I got a shot of me, a reaction shot. Like I said, you always
wanna get reaction shots. And then it's just a bunch
of boring driving shots. So instead of doing a bunch
of boring driving shots, I brought down my music,
and I added this voiceover. So let's just listen to this voiceover. The Butler Peak fire lookout
was originally built in 1931 and fire lookouts were built
so that Rangers could see the three 60 panoramic view. And they'd be able to
see the smoke coming off of where a fire started. So I created this voiceover, I just use my Zoom H4N right here, did this boom made a voiceover. Now, instead of just putting
this over driving footage, I wanted to find some archival footage. So I found this shot of
Butler Peak in the forties. Then I have this shot that
I actually shot from the top when I was there, and I
added some effects to it. So I went through, I added some aged film
and a color originally. It was just that shot, but because I was trying to
make something feel like, it was old, I added some color and
aged and I aged the shots so that it looks like
it's part of history. We're playing into this whole
idea of crafting your history behind this fire lookout. So these two shots with the voiceover, I use this shot of driving up the mountain to kind of get into the scene. And then I came out on the mountain. So it bookended these
two historical shots. So it shows the PA and I use
this to help pass the time because I needed to get from
driving to the trailhead. Eric and I just met. I just got up to Big Bear. And I just met up with my parents who have a place up here, and they're actually gonna drive with me to the trailhead. So now we got into the scene
where I'm talking about, what to expect and where we're going. You can see I'm transitioning time and trying to give you more information in the vlog so that it keeps your interest and keeps you watching longer. So music wise, I use the music to kind
of lay over the section. I brought it down when
I'm doing the voiceover, and then I had it fade out
before I got into me talking. So I let the music drift away. You don't always need
music to fill everything. I like to use it and come up,
back down, go up, back down. I like to use pacing in my videos. So you wanna pace things out, and not always be blanketing
music from beginning to end. So when I finished my talk
here, we get into the trailhead. So I have some B roll of that. I cut a few shots together
and I added some music. Expect from this trail. (engine revs) Shoot on my Jeep, then I go into the road,
closed sign that sets up, I got to the trailhead. And then in my bike sitting there. This was actually shot later, but I needed some footage to set up that I was about to go
on this bike adventure. So you might not always use your B roll in chronological order. If you need to just capture
all these different elements and something you capture later, it might actually work earlier. So in this case, I need to
set up the mountain bike. So I had the shot that I captured
from like two hours later and it ended up working
great and I also reversed it. So it had this kind of reveal on it. Normal, the shot looks like this, (upbeat music) and I decided just to reverse it, just a personal preference to show trail. You kind of see the trail
off to the right hand side, but I'm more focusing on the bike. And then I go into an empty
shot and I would go into frame. It's a great way to kind of start a scene is start with an empty frame
and then work your way into it. Whether you're walking into it, or your other people are coming into it, but having something
where it's an empty frame, and then you appear into it. That's kind of like the
beginning of a journey. (upbeat music) And I actually had my mom for this section because they helped hike at the beginning. So I had my mom shoot some footage. She just shot on her iPhone. If you have people around
you to grab these quick shots of like you doing something
because you're vlogging and you need someone to shoot you and say, hey, do this horizontal for me, and just stay in this one position. And then you can do what you need to do, or just use a tripod. But if you have people around, you can ask them to shoot for you. And these kind of shots are more important than like sexy B roll. Because some of these shots
where it's just a simple, you coming into frame has
more emphasis in your story rather than just like
beautiful shot of landscape. (upbeat music) All right, so my... So I've set up the trail and now I need to start
talking about, what's going on. So I added another vlog element here, kind of set up what's going on. And if you have B roll that goes over when you're talking about your footage, you can include that. And so you could use B
roll to go over shots, to help show what you're talking about. So that's why you wanna
grab B roll of things that you're talking about,
and then extra B roll as well. See, that's a ways out there. So more shots of me riding, and then some of the scene. And because I'm on a mountain bike, I wanna make sure I'm
capturing things in motion. This is why I wanted to
bring along in gimbal. I have, you know, shots
moving forward to the side. You can see I'm getting a
range of different shots. I have shot of me riding again. So I'm just setting up the ride. And then we get into this next
section where I talk about, some of the issues that
are coming up on the trail. I've just been climbing, and climbing into views of the valley,
where I started way out there, in the distance, but is
trail is interesting. It's like a mix of sand and rock and... That's just a simple shot
that I got on my iPhone I just, I was talking about standing rock. So I grabbed a shot. I didn't know if I'd use it. Sure enough I mean, it, it shows what I'm talking about, and it's not even that good of
a shot, but it is what it is. A bunch of areas are washed out. So you have to carry
your bike here and there. So that's footage I captured
from earlier in the day, I just got a tripod shot. I walked through the frame with my bike. I got some shots of the washout, and I didn't know if I was
gonna make a whole section on the washout, but I ended up just
using it as visuals over, this part where I'm talking about, just helps move the story along. I didn't need to put like all
this emphasis on this washout. Like I have a bunch of shots
from it, but looking at it, it just made more sense
just to pop this in, get some B roll over me, talking, keep the story moving forward. And is a client. There's not a whole lot of shade. So it's just not stuffed sun
just beating down on you, the whole way up. Think I'm about halfway. I've set up a bunch of different elements. I've showed the trail,
I did it in this way, where you were closer
with me at the beginning, like shots that were on the trail. So because I have variety
of shots that I've captured, I figured this is a great moment to reveal more of the scene. So this of start close with
me and then reveal out. And that's why I decided
to do a drone section. (upbeat music) You get to see the surrounding land. It sets up what the trail
looks like, bigger shots of it. And then the super
extreme wide shots of me, in this vast landscape. So I didn't drag on too
much of this footage, but I really wanted to show, I am out in the middle of nowhere. And so I wanted to have
this emphasis around, the vast landscape. So I had to get, get
some of these drone shots and these drone shots were hard to get cause I was by myself. So I basically had to get the drone in these different positions and fly and get shots of myself. Now you don't wanna drag
on too much in your edit. So like I've showed the trail, I've showed some of the challenges that come up on the trail. I've milked that I've got
enough of that in the edit. I don't wanna do more and
more B roll sections of this. It'll get boring, like I
wanna keep the story moving. So the next section is we
need to get to something. And this is where I turn the corner. It's set up that, I see
the peak in the distance, a quick little B roll
section of some footage that shows this last moment. I've put my bike down, and I have this moment where
I say, "I'm almost there." All right, just made it to the spot where I need to drop my bike off. The last little bit, it's
just this walk up the trail, fire hut, just above. (dynamic music) And because this is the
final climax of the video, I'm gonna use music under the whole thing. And I'm gonna actually find the moment where I want the music to hit. (upbeat music) That's the moment I
wanna use for the reveal. So I have all this buildup
and I basically laid it out and changed the volume. So we started out with full
volume because it's some B roll kind of showing the
surrounding, we're almost there. There's Butler Peak, I
bring down the music. I talk for a minute. All right, just made
it to the spot where... I show that it's in the
distance out of focus. And then I bring the music back up for another little B roll section, but this is more of a specific move the story forward B roll. So I show the trail, I show my feet. I show my reaction. Again, you want variety of shots. I showed the trail again, but this time I pan up to
reveal where we're going. So you're, getting more
information with each shot and it's moving the
story towards that moment where we're gonna actually get the reveal. So then I grabbed the shot using a drone of me walking up the staircase, the music starts getting
a little bit more intense. I have this surrounding
shot that's from the summit. It kind of shows what the
view is, but at the same time, it's obscured in a way, and I like that. So like, it keeps you wanting more. And then I show POV
shot going up the stairs and you can see I'm
building to the big reveal. I'm putting all these shots together. That's moving you forward
and you're wanting more and you wanna see what happens. So if you have these moments where it comes to the big reveal, make sure you capture enough footage to get all these moments. I sat here and shot a ton of footage to be able to craft this
element of the story. You might think the reveals
coming, but I do a POV again, looking down again, obscuring the view. And I'm capturing all
these different elements, because I know in the edit, I'm gonna wanna put all
these pieces together to do this big reveal. (dynamic music) (upbeat music) This shot right here,
this is the money shot. This is the most important
shot of the film. It reveals the fire
lookout on top of the peak, I do this crazy circling
shot all around the lookout. So a couple of things, I made sure I had enough drone battery that I was gonna have it up there, because that was something
I was anticipating. And I've shot it in a few different ways to really show this reveal. This is the purpose of doing this vlog was getting to this fire lookout. And then, so the last section, I have these talking bits where, I'm talking about what it's like up there, what I'm finding and some
just different information for this video. And I did this all over music
because this is the finale. This is the grand finale. So I have the music go up and down and you can hear that it
let the music drop down and have the music go
lower when I'm talking, bring it up to ramp up the intensity. When I show the shots at the fire lookout. And again, I wanted to
crab shots of myself. So I have a shot like this, which is a drone shot of
just me on the lookout, more shots of my reaction,
as I'm finding this. You just wanna capture a lot of footage. And I ended up using only
a portion of the shots that I used, but all of
it does come into play. And I use snippets of everything. (upbeat music) Oh, look who just woke up. Someone wants to say hi. So got a little editing assistant. Now she's are you at what's up? You wanna edit you like the microphone. Someone wants to eat it. Does that feel good? Hey, someone that's taken my microphone, so I'm gonna switch cameras now. So after I have the video
cut, I have the music light. Then I go through and do my color grading and kind of clean up any little edits that look out of place. Now, from there, I'll build
out a title and thumbnail things that I think will match the story and something that's gonna be engaging. And if you guys wanna learn more about my YouTube upload process let
me know down in the comments, I'll make a video about that. The biggest takeaway that I want you guys to get from this video
is that you want to plan and think through story. I know you hear this again and again, story is most important, but it really is like story is gonna help make you different than
every other YouTube creator on the platform. Even for a very simple vlog are the ones that are gonna stand out from all the mess that is on YouTube. There's just so many
videos being produced. And there are so many creators out there, who just think that you can
hit record and make good videos and people will watch them. It comes from planning, it comes from storytelling,
and it comes from practice. So using this structure, playing around with the
different story elements and just doing it over and over and over. Like I said, at the
beginning of this video, this vlog, isn't the
best vlog in the world. However, I really approached it, as if I wanted to make the
best vlog in the world. And you'll just do this
time and time again, you'll get better at your craft. You'll create better stories and then you'll build your audience because people will be
interested in the videos that you are creating. All right, guys, in the description, I put a ton of resources that bounce off of all the
different things we talked about in this video. If you wanna go more in
depth in any of those topics, make sure you head down the description. And I highly suggest you check
out this video right here, which is my first guide on how to vlog. It's a great followup video to this, because it's gonna talk even
more about some different ideas and different things that
you should think about, before you press record. All right, guys, I'll see you over there.
