Need Help Making a Video? It's Easier than you Think!

Remember that this is supposed to be fun, and the final product will be shown on YouTube. Content is much more important than Quality. Your standard consumer-level video camera or webcam will be sufficient. If you have a cell phone capable of shooting video, you can upload it directly from your phone. After you're done shooting, you can edit your videos on your computer with software like Apple's iMovie or upload your clips and edit online with YouTube's software. Make sure to save your videos in YouTube friendly formats like .AVI, .MOV or .MPEG4.

Please remember to abide by any Union rules or policies when producing this video.

Basic Suggestions during Filming

  • Images appear very small on the web, usually about 1/4 the size of a standard video image. It's often best to use close up or medium shots because these images will appear more clearly on screen. Objects shown at a distance will often look too small when viewed online.
  • Use a tripod as much as possible. Not just because it makes video look better for the viewer, but also because it will allow Internet viewers to watch your movie more quickly. Movie compression software works by comparing each frame of video to the one before it, and video with a lot of jiggles make the software work harder (and slower) to do that. If you don't have a tripod, a table or other fixed object will also work.
  • Film in a well-lit area, but avoid high contrast lighting and spots of very bright light, as these often come across as blurs of light when viewed on the Internet.
  • Make sure your audio is clear, and use microphones if possible. Viewers get impatient with audio that is unclear, more so than with unclear video.
  • Don't cut off heads when filming or sentences when editing.
  • If you plan to incorporate still images into your video, it's best to use pictures taken with a regular SLR digital camera. Most video cameras are terrible at taking still shots.

Further Reading

If you want to dig deeper into video production guidelines, hints, tricks and secrets, feel free to browse these tutorials below.