5 Tips for Better Videos

Lavinia Lahrese

Lavinia Lahrese

Active Member
I recently came across a book called, ""How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck: Advice to Make Any Amateur Look Like a Pro". It had some really great tips in it that I thought I should share with my yttalk fam, so here goes:

Tip #1 "Think in Shots": Make your video more interesting by thinking in shots. Instead of recording one big lump of video from a single view, mix up the shots by including some close ups, medium shots, and wide angle shots.

Tip #2 "Don't Shoot Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes": Nothing tells a story better than a person's face. If you're recording people make sure you capture their emotion and details of their face to make for a better video.

Tip #3 "The Brightest Light": Good lighting is crucial for creating videos. Make sure the brightest light is behind the camera so it gives the subject the best lighting possible, instead of the subject being a dark silhouette.

Tip #4 "Treat Your Video Camera Like a Still Camera": Avoid moving and zooming frequently. Remember the first tip: think in shots. Position your camera, get the shot, press record, get your footage, press stop, and move on to the next shot.

Tip #5 "Keep Your Video Short": The attention span of people these days is incredibly low: like 8 seconds. No, really. So take the time you think your video should be and cut it by 2/3. A 10-minute video? No, make it 3 minutes instead.
 
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"Avoid moving and zooming frequently" - this depends entirely on what you're shooting. Sometimes a lot of movement or, for example, a crash zoom, can be an important factor in setting a video's tone. By the same logic, a still shot on a locked-off tripod might not be enough for a high-energy shot.
Otherwise, yeah, I agree with all your other points. Keeping videos short is a pretty important one, especially in regards to watch time. To expand on that point, though, having dead space at the start of a video can be a killer, so I think that's a good place to start when trimming a video down. I know I'm guilty of turning off videos right at start because of dull blocks of text or just simply a lack of anything really going on.
 
Johnny_Seagull said:
Sometimes a lot of movement or, for example, a crash zoom, can be an important factor in setting a video's tone. By the same logic, a still shot on a locked-off tripod might not be enough for a high-energy shot.
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But these are very specific effects. So you are right that you can use them if you do it intentionally but as general advice the ones above apply.
I's like to add "Move - Don't zoom!" as this is much more how one would experience the scene in real life which then let's the viewer feel more engaged.
 
Lavinia Lahrese said:
So take the time you think your video should be and cut it by 2/3. A 10-minute video? No, make it 3 minutes instead
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I've never agreed with this point. Don't limit yourself because people might not watch that long if that was the case all TV shows, films or whatever would only be 3 mins long. If whatever you are doing works better in short form then fine do it like that. If you can't hold people's interest then that's not because of short attention span it's because you aren't good enough keeping interest. My point is don't have length as a big factor make sure that you are achieving what you want in however long it takes to get there but obviously there are limits and keeping it fresh and interesting are the biggest points.
 
Johnny_Seagull said:
"Avoid moving and zooming frequently" - this depends entirely on what you're shooting. Sometimes a lot of movement or, for example, a crash zoom, can be an important factor in setting a video's tone. By the same logic, a still shot on a locked-off tripod might not be enough for a high-energy shot.
Otherwise, yeah, I agree with all your other points. Keeping videos short is a pretty important one, especially in regards to watch time. To expand on that point, though, having dead space at the start of a video can be a killer, so I think that's a good place to start when trimming a video down. I know I'm guilty of turning off videos right at start because of dull blocks of text or just simply a lack of anything really going on.
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For sure! I totally agree that it depends on what you're shooting. Just to clarify though, these tips are not mine. I've been doing a lot of research lately into making better videos and this is what I came across most recently. It's an excerpt from this book called, "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck: Advice to Make Any Amateur Look Like a Pro".. I'll see if there is a way to edit the thread starter on this point.[DOUBLEPOST=1462277308,1462277177][/DOUBLEPOST]
XXLRay said:
But these are very specific effects. So you are right that you can use them if you do it intentionally but as general advice the ones above apply.
I's like to add "Move - Don't zoom!" as this is much more how one would experience the scene in real life which then let's the viewer feel more engaged.
Click to expand...
Great point! The zoom can get a little loud as well, especially if the camera is of lower quality...[DOUBLEPOST=1462277419][/DOUBLEPOST]
GamingRack said:
I've never agreed with this point. Don't limit yourself because people might not watch that long if that was the case all TV shows, films or whatever would only be 3 mins long. If whatever you are doing works better in short form then fine do it like that. If you can't hold people's interest then that's not because of short attention span it's because you aren't good enough keeping interest. My point is don't have length as a big factor make sure that you are achieving what you want in however long it takes to get there but obviously there are limits and keeping it fresh and interesting are the biggest points.
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Hmmm, interesting point. I feel like people go on YouTube to learn things quickly or to find entertainment quickly. On the other hand, if they are interested in your video, they'll definitely stick around longer to see the very end as well. You're probably right that it comes down to whether or not the video is interesting..
 
Maybe my view is different because YouTube is my tv haha I haven't watched normal TV for around 3 years now I literally fill my time with youtube. 3 hour videos are easy for me to watch every now and then and I do watch 10-40min videos at a time regularly every day, all of them keep my interest and I don't turn off not because if I turned the video off I'd have nothing else to watch or just because the video is there I watch then because I want to, So that's why I think time is less important as apposed to how interesting is the content.
 
XXLRay said:
But these are very specific effects. So you are right that you can use them if you do it intentionally but as general advice the ones above apply.
I's like to add "Move - Don't zoom!" as this is much more how one would experience the scene in real life which then let's the viewer feel more engaged.
Click to expand...
For specific effects, yeah. I also mean shooting styles for videos as a whole, though. Like for a sit-down vlog or a formal interview obviously a locked-off tripod is your best option, but say for an action or comedy video, where the tone is a lot different, going handheld and getting a little free movement can change the feel a lot.
I agree though, as general advice [especially when starting out] its a solid rule to follow.
 
these are awesome tips for example mixing up shots on my channel would be a good notion but some of these are definitely subjective depends on what type of channel you have and the video.
 
Lavinia Lahrese said:
I recently came across a book called, ""How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck: Advice to Make Any Amateur Look Like a Pro". It had some really great tips in it that I thought I should share with my yttalk fam, so here goes:

Tip #1 "Think in Shots": Make your video more interesting by thinking in shots. Instead of recording one big lump of video from a single view, mix up the shots by including some close ups, medium shots, and wide angle shots.

Tip #2 "Don't Shoot Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes": Nothing tells a story better than a person's face. If you're recording people make sure you capture their emotion and details of their face to make for a better video.

Tip #3 "The Brightest Light": Good lighting is crucial for creating videos. Make sure the brightest light is behind the camera so it gives the subject the best lighting possible, instead of the subject being a dark silhouette.

Tip #4 "Treat Your Video Camera Like a Still Camera": Avoid moving and zooming frequently. Remember the first tip: think in shots. Position your camera, get the shot, press record, get your footage, press stop, and move on to the next shot.

Tip #5 "Keep Your Video Short": The attention span of people these days is incredibly low: like 8 seconds. No, really. So take the time you think your video should be and cut it by 2/3. A 10-minute video? No, make it 3 minutes instead.
Click to expand...
I like tip 5 the most. I have mentioned this in multiple threads, but people these days have serious ADD when it comes to videos and web pages. I even skip a lot of parts from some of my favorite channel's videos. One example is the SloMo Guys. I always skip past their talking and get right to the slow mo parts.
 
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