Vlogging

In this video, we’re going to explore making content designed for the web, and specifically vlogging. Now, I’ve been really fortunate in my career that I’ve had opportunities to meet many leading innovators, thought leaders, and for that matter of vloggers. And most recently, I was involved in a show online, which basically explored the concept of mobile content creation. And as part of that show, I got to speak to iJustine and her sister Jenna. Now, there’s a few takeaways that I can share with you that have been common to every single successful vlogger that I have spoken with. And these are key things that if you’re interested in launching a career as a vlogger, you really need to be mindful of. So number one, you need to find your passion. And it can be as niche as you want. Because whatever it is that you’re into, there is someone else out there who shares that same passion. And the whole idea of vlogging in many ways is to bring communities of people together around a key topic, but I’d strongly discourage you from just trying to go with all the top trending issues. Try and find something that you’re passionate about, because to be a successful blogger, there is one thing I can say coherently with everyone that I’ve spoken to. It’s that once you start to produce content on a regular shedule, it becomes a job. It’s no longer a hobby. And it really needs to be something that you still feel a fire in your belly about to keep the momentum going and to keep contributing content. Now finding that niche… Well, two or three quick Google’s and you’re going to find loads of top hits for the best topics and the best reviews and the videos that perform best on YouTube. And let’s face it, there are tonnes to choose from whether it’s listicles or explainer videos or just going on a plain old rant. Tutorials, demonstrations, parody accounts or pick from any one of those topics. All of them perform really, really well. But the bottom line is, authenticity is key. You need to find your voice. Remember vlogging is not the same as presenting. Vlogging is about striking up an intimate conversation with the viewer. You need to be yourself in front of the camera. And that in itself requires quite a lot of practice. Being able to let your guard down, speak normally, and yet coherently, and at the same time feel as though you’re not trying to sell something. It’s not marketing. It really is like a video diary. So finding your voice and learning how to be authentic in front of camera is probably one of the biggest skills that you need to acquire. And you don’t need to spend a lot on gear to do that you just need to practice. Get used to your own voice get used to seeing yourself on screen. And one of the most successful vloggers in my opinion, is Casey Neistat. If you have not heard of him, I would strongly encourage you to look at his YouTube channel, because for me, he has almost invented the vocabulary of vlogging. This is his very, very first vlog in 2015. If you scan the QR code, it’s up on full screen now. You can basically go straight to his YouTube channel and watch this vlog and pay attention to the structure of the story to the narrative of the story. To the different devices and techniques that he uses to keep it really visually interesting. And he may not be vlogging with the phone, he’s vlogging with a DSLR and mirrorless camera more than likely. But the bottom line is, is it’s just another camera. It’s got some strengths, and it’s got some weaknesses. But at the end of the day, it’s a tool for telling the story. I said a second ago that a key thing about blogging is understanding that you need to build around the community. Well, another aspect of that is getting to know them, getting to know the type of content that they actually want. It’s not a marketing pipeline. So you need to be willing to interact and willing to take criticism. I’m not suggesting trolling is a good thing. That’s a different issue altogether. But people may give you feedback on your videos telling you the audio is not great, the lighting is really poor. Look at that as a challenge and opportunity for you to improve and to get better at what you do. Don’t feel threatened by it. Part of the iterative process of becoming successful is being willing to take criticism on the chin and see what you can do to improve. I cannot stress this enough. visual storytelling, we covered it in our sequences module. Now it’s a chance for you to really stretch your wings in this and really try hard to tell visual stories. Now vlogging on YouTube and other platforms, mainly YouTube, of course, people are listening to the sound. So the same set of guiding principles that we referred to for social media don’t strictly apply. But at the same time, people have a vast array of content that they can click off to if your video is boring, so you need it to be engaging and entertaining if at all possible. Perfecting your visual storytelling style is a key to achieving that success.

Now, lots of people also think that you need to spend a small fortune on gear to be able to achieve the same levels of quality of the likes of iJustine or Casey Neistat or others. To some extent, there is a grain of truth in that I can’t deny it. But the flip side of it is, is that if you really want to just get started, then create a channel and start to vlog using your phone. Use the front facing camera Remember to look at the camera Not the screen. You want the viewer to know they’re talking, you’re talking to them, not to someone over there. So one of the biggest mistakes I see what people when they start out. If you’ve invested in basic audio gear like a lapel microphone or a wireless solution, use it. Because the sound is really important and dodgy sound is a real turnoff to the viewers. whatever you can afford, it will be good enough to start with anyway. So some people swear by a GoPro. Some people love the mirrorless camera like this G seven x from Canon, others, they’ll shoot with their phone and they’ll do a good job with it. And some again, prefer the little Osmo pocket from DJI whatever camera you can afford. It will be good enough to get started. If you start to make money doing it if you start to build a following and an audience doing it, maybe those brand deals will come banging on your door. But don’t be under any illusions for every one Casey Neistat in the world. There’s probably a million wannabes who just never managed to break through what the secret sauce is to theirluck success is probably a huge part luck, but another part personality, another part, networking skill, and storytelling, storytelling, storytelling. It’s not just enough to shoot the videos, they don’t edit themselves. So you’ve got to perfect your editing skill as well. And in a later module in this course, we’ll look at some of the fundamental skills required to start editing your videos in a proficient manner. You don’t need massive expensive software for this there are tools like KineMaster, or Luma fusion, which are available for Android and iOS, and they give you all the basic tools that you’ll need to be able to perfect your videos. Practice makes perfect. Once you’ve perfected the basics of editing, you’ll need to up your game and this is where looking at the likes of Peter McKinnon or Casey Neistat will give you lots of ideas. So they use a combination of time lapses which we covered in our photography module. Speed ramping, drone shots if you’re lucky enough to own a drone, stop frame animation sequences, sequences, sequences, All of these will help you improve your visual style. And together with perfecting your pieces to camera will give you all the assets you need to make a great vlog.

Do remember that not all platforms work the same. So if you’re making a vlog for YouTube, then you should be shooting it 16:9, and you should be shooting at a good frame rate and a high quality. But of course, if you’re going to something like Instagram, or Snapchat or Tick Tock then you’re going to have to do a vertical version of the story. widescreen won’t cut it. Some organisations do shoot in 4k resolution, which is extremely high quality. And that gives them the opportunity to crop that master widescreen footage down into square for the likes of Twitter or the Instagram main feed or vertical for Instagram stories and the other platforms. There’s a lot of benefit in doing it that way. But equally some vloggers I’ve spoken to say that to be authentic, you really should create content bespoke for that platform and develop a style for each one of those platforms as well. Remember, depending on what niche you choose, the audience numbers may not necessarily be generic across all. You may need to find where the community resides and then speak to them on the platform where they are. That will involve experimenting, researching, and perfecting your storytelling skill per platform. Remember that a vlog is not just talking at someone, you really do need to make it a conversation. So remember to invite people to engage with you to give you feedback, to share their experiences, and so on so forth. Do occasionally I would recommend, try Ask me anything or q&a sessions, giving your followers and audience a chance to basically ask questions of you that you might never thought to cover. It’s a good way of building up trust and a sense of loyalty with your audience. And remember, some people hate it, but it is a necessity. Certainly when you’re growing your actual your user base at the start, you need to put a call to action into your video so you know the classic line Like this video, subscribe hit the bell for notifications tedious though it may seem actually this is an important call to action to help you grow your audience. If for instance, they do hit the notifications, every time you upload a new video, they’ll get a little ping message to let them know that you’ve now posted a new video that guarantees driving your audience viewership numbers. And I strongly encourage you to choose a handful of vloggers that you really, really admire and respect and start to do some analysis on what it is about their videos that you particularly like, analyse their shooting style, analyse the way that they present, how dynamic how energetic are they on screen, and techniques or devices. Some of us really, really cool in camera transitions in their videos, others it’s straight down the lens and it’s all about personality, but identify what it is that makes you like them and maybe see which part of that you can, you know, emulate copy adopt as your own modify as you will. I’ll give you one example, this lady Janell Eliana came on the market about a year ago, when she launched her YouTube channel, which by the way, it was entirely shot in her phone, no DSLR third party, big expensive cameras, everything shot in her phone. Everything edited on Luma fusion on the phone. And basically within the space of three or four months, she’d managed to break into the 1 million subscribers territory. Now just over 10 months on and she’s already surpassed 2 million subs. Now, not everyone is going to achieve success like that. But you will see from her videos, even though she’s not throwing loads of equipment at her production. She has a very quirky personality. Clearly she’s very attractive. And she has a really interesting story. It’s a millennial who lives out of a van. It’s not common. Again, it’s niche, but it’s of interest to people. That’s what you’re looking for. So again, I’ve had an opportunity over the last few months to actually talk to a lot of vloggers among them Supersaf, Ryan Connolly from Film Riot, and Tyler Stallman, among others and you can catch all those videos online if you go and look for the Mobile Creator Summit mobile content creators and vloggers and filmmakers telling their story of how they got their ideas from concept to delivery and it might help you to spur you on to start your vlog.