Level Up Your Short-Form Videos: A Step-by-Step Master Guide

1. Welcome to the Class!: Hi, I'm Eddie. I'm a content creator with millions of views in short form content, and some of them even were covered by news outlets. Although I mainly focus on long form content, I edit short form videos for other clients all the time. I understand how the game is played differently between long form and short form content, and I truly believe anyone with a phone camera and little experience can do great shorts. In this class, we'll go step by step, starting from an idea, how to script or form a story, which really the most important part. And then we'll go into filming and then editing, which is also a crucial part. And don't worry. You don't need any fancy editing program. Just the basics will be more than enough. Having by the end of this course, your very own video that people want to watch until the end. And for the project, you can share this video for me or any other students to see and give feedback. I truly mean it when anyone can do great shorts. All you need is your phone. With that said, I'll see you in the first lesson. 2. How to Generate Ideas: Every video, long form or short form, it doesn't matter. Every video starts with one single thing, which is an idea. An idea of something you want to share, something you want to show. Ideas can be simple and don't really need to be overcomplicated. What is something you want to show the world? For me, let me show you a few examples. I started noticing that after work, I saw a lump in my pillow, and I realized that it was my dog sitting there actually in secret when I wasn't in the house or when no one was in the house. So basically the idea is, I want to show what my dog does when I'm not at home. Or, for example, another random one I had was that I had a conversation with friends in Germany, and they were saying that when they visited Portugal in Lidl, they had this orange juice machine, which at the time was very new. And I decided that I wanted to show everything that was unique about a Portuguese idle. Or last example, for example, in Germany, every time I use a rented car, I saw a little sticker, a sticker with a speed limit, and I was confused why I kept seeing this, especially because in Germany, there's no speed limit in some areas in the highways. So the idea would be to why do German rental cars have these stickers? All of these are just random ideas that suddenly pop in my mind. If you're into gaming, why not show minecraft traps, for example, or if you have a special talent, why not show it as well? I'm sure you have something in your mind right now that something that you always wanted to show the world. Take this idea and remember it because we will take this idea and will transform it into something that people want to watch. That's called a story. We will understand the algorithm first and what makes a video successful. And then, with that, with that mindframe, we will transform it into something we will write the script and transform this idea into a great story. With that said, I'll see you in the next one. 3. What Makes Shorts Go Viral: So now we have our idea, and before we transform it into a story, we have to understand the frame, the game we're playing, what makes a video successful. So this influences how we write and script and how we show things in the story. So here's the thing going viral or having a successful video isn't magic. When a video usually does well, it usually nails two of these things. Curiosity, the viewer wants to know what happens next. For example, when I show the problem that my dog sits on the bed, people are curious to know what actually happens when I leave home. The second one is relatability. This might be relatable for people who have pets, and they know exactly how dogs or cats might misbehave when they're not at home, so it's relatable. Entertainment. It's funny. You want to know what's going to happen, and it's just, it's purely entertaining. Or the last one, which is it adds value. People learn something from it. It teaches something that people want to know. It doesn't need to hit all of these points at the same time. Some videos are better, educational, some videos are better, entertainment wise. Now, this might seem like a lot. Like you're overwhelmed and even just before thinking of an ID, you have to think about these four points, but that's not the case at all. This is just so you know what might make a video valuable. I wouldn't at first bother with them. It's more simple than it seems. So let's first talk about what makes a video do well in any social media platform. I could be in TikToks or Instagram reels or YouTube shorts. It all serves the same purpose. It's all the same for you have your own video and it can be in all three social media platforms. It doesn't matter. For TikToks, reels, or shorts, it works a little bit like this. So your video here is shown to a small group of people. If they watch it until the end or they like or they have a lot of interactions like comments or share, then this smaller area will get pushed to even more people. And if they also look, watch until the end, and they like or they comment, but more importantly, they watch until the end, then it even gets shown into more, more and more people. That's how a video will get viral in terms of use. So basically summarizing everything that we talked about, the most important metric in any video in talking about Tik Tok, reels or shorts in YouTube. The most important metric is retention. This means how long do people keep watching? Do people watch your videos until the end? Then the algorithm thinks, Oh, this is a good video. If people watch maybe 3 seconds out of your 1 minute video, that's really bad. That means they didn't really care about the video, and the percentage of makes it into so that the video does well and keeps being pushed. The higher the retention, the more the video keeps being pushed more people to see. And the lower that means the video will eventually die out. So what it means is we want to make a video that people want to watch basically until the end. The longer, the better. And this influences the whole thing where we have an idea into a story, and we understand the game now. The game is retention. We understand that retention is really important, which will influence our story. So, naturally, in the next class, we will take this idea. We understand now how important retention is and see how your idea can be transformed into a story. This is really important. I'll see you there. 4. The Importance of the Beginning of the Story: So we already know you got your idea how important retention is. And this is, I would argue, the single most important part, which is the story, the scripting, or the thinking about how I should show this video and how I should film it. So the story. Now, talking about story, the game differs a little between long form and short form content because a video without a story is just an act. It's just a viral video. But for people to care and for ad story, it becomes kind of like a movie. So we have to understand for short form content, when people watch our videos, they give maybe, 2 seconds max to realize what is this video about and if it's worth their time. If it's not worth their time, they're just going to skip because there are million other shorts that I can watch. This might sound overwhelming or scary, but actually it's pretty simple if you understand. If you understand how it works, it simplifies so much how you show things in the screen. So to better understand how to organize your story, let me show you a few examples. I'm going to show you the first frame of many successful videos I've been watching. So this first one, we immediately see that a person is at the beach with a caption so satisfying. So we immediately know he's going to build something that's going to be satisfying. For this one, we see the title Ranking the top funniest Time Work scam fails. And we know it's just a compilation. Our brain just immediately captures all of that in a millisecond, we know, Oh, I want to watch this. Here is simpler how to make a quicksand trap. I guess it's a minecraft video. And I guess for gamers, this would be really interesting, and I will keep watching. And this is no wonder PS five controllers are so damn expensive. You see immediately in the title that it has to do with the PS five controller. And also the first frame shows part of a controller. And you're also curious to know what's so expensive. And this final one, immediately we see in the first frame, it's in some sort of martial arts place. And the title immediately gives us the context of, like, which worst kicks to be caught with. So just by looking at the first frame of the videos, what makes them so appealing to watch? There are two points that I want you to now focus when we go back to them again. And the first point is that they're super clear. You immediately understand what the video is going to be about without having any sort of doubts. And the second one is also really important is curiosity. You know enough what's going to happen, but you don't know what's the ending of it. You know what it's going to be about, but you don't know what's really going to happen. And this part, this unknown is the curiosity because you want to know you have to watch the video to really know what's going to happen at the end. So a big part that differs between a long form video or a short form video is that long form, it starts with a bit of an introduction. A classic YouTube style is like, Hey, guys, and welcome to my video. Capsule hotels are the first thing that comes to mind when people think about budget travel. But what if I told you there's one level deeper? I used to think that travel notebooks were useless. Why even bother when your phone does everything? Maps, notes, photos, all in one. Honestly, I thought people romanticized them. But you know what? I decided to try one anyway. But in short form, we cut the introduction. We start off with the hook of the video with something that makes it interesting. Time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow, and I think I know who's guilty. To make sure it wasn't ghosts or something, I decided to record to know exactly what happened. Things that are unique in the Portuguese idle. Liddle comes from Germany, but there are some awesome things you won't see there. There's a warning sticker that I only saw in German cars. That says you can go over 240 kilometers an hour. Wow, thanks for warning me. I definitely was planning on going at least 300. This video has the two points. First of all, it's clear. You know immediately has to do something with martial arts. And two, it's Parks curiosity. So the title has worst kicks to be caught with, and immediately, I'm curious. Okay, you know it's about martial arts and kicks, but which ones are the worst ones and you want to see further. You want to continue watch further. This one is also clear because you already know it's going to be about a PS five controller because of the title. And second, it sparks curiosity because you know it's about the PS five controller, but you don't know what makes them so expensive and you want to keep watching. Here's also the same. Clear as day, it's about Minecraft. There's no doubt about that. And second, the title makes already something curious. You want to know what's going to happen, what's going to be in the hole, how to make a quicksand trap, and you want to know how the trap will work, so you watch it further. In this final example, first one is clear as day. It's about something building at the beach, maybe a sand castle or something. And second, you also automatically want to know what's going to be so satisfying. And that's the curiosity. It's like an itch, but the only way to scratch this itch is to really watch the video. And that's why these videos have been doing great. Now you know what makes a great beginning of a short form content video. So first, it's clear what it's going to be about. And second, it sparks immediately the curiosity. There's no intro. There's no, Hey, guys, I'm going to show you this. It's immediately I'm immediately showing you this thing. It cuts away the intro. It starts off with the hook, which is something that sparks curiosity. And this is already a great beginning. Now, in the next one, I'm going to show you until when, do people watch it and how to end the video, how to think of the best ending that we can possibly do so that people watch from the beginning until the end. I'll see you there. 5. When to End Your Story: Once the beginning is clear and the viewer is already hooked, it has some sort of curiosity. It has an itch. Until when is the person going to watch the video. Our goal is until the end, until throughout the whole video. But imagine you have a great beginning, a great hook. You spark curiosity, but you tell everything, and in the middle of the video, they already know everything, then they're not going to watch until the end. In the middle, if you already tell everything, the itch has been scratched and people don't care anymore. So what we want to do is have the great beginning, great hook, sparks curiosity, and only at the end is that when they know everything they want to know. So this is the general let me go into more specific examples so you understand better. So, for example, my dog sitting somewhere secret secret behavior is something I immediately show in the first frame the problem. Every time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow. Immediately hooks the person into knowing, Oh, what's gonna happen? What is my dog gonna do when I set up this secret camera? To make sure it wasn't ghosts or something, I decided to record to know exactly what happened. Then the viewer is already hooked and they want to know at the end what's really going to happen. But until when do they watch it. So they'll watch the whole process. Me getting out. Bite her, and for a good 10 minutes, she just continues sleeping. And this surprised me. Instead of jumping immediately on the bed, she goes outside the room to check for any possible remaining humans in the vicinity. Once it's clear, she takes a leap. Imagine you're the viewer. You're not gonna stop here. You want to continue. You want to know. You still have that itch. It hasn't been scratched yet. So you continue watching and you see my dog, oh whoa, it jumps onto the bed. And what is it gonna do? You're not gonna get out of the video now, right? The itch is still there. What's gonna do? And sniffs around. Maybe the human scent comforts her. I don't know. She chose this pillow today and keeps her side at the door and hears for any possible disturbance. Still you still want to know what happens when I return home. The story lines still continuing. The itch is still there. You can still add more curiosity. If it's calm, she plops. Now, when I come back, she immediately jumps out of the bed and pretends like nothing ever happens. And that's the end of story. You already know everything, and then you're not interested anymore. So, beginning the hook, what's going to happen, and you see everything that my dog does. And if I were to continue the video further, it wouldn't be good. People wouldn't watch it because they already know what happened, and that's it. That's the short. That's the story. Or, for example, my idle video, I immediately have the first frame. You know, it's going to be about idle, and the title talks about what are unique things that I have in the Portuguese idle. If you're interested, then you want to continue watching it. Things that are unique in a Portuguese idle. And then I just go into these things. Lidle comes from Germany, but there are some awesome things you won't see there. Right at the start, we have the bakery section. Pitana for this cheap. And at the end, I show the amazing orange juice that my friend was so flabbergasted, which I didn't know it was that impressive. The next thing I honestly wish it could exist in other countries, it's a fresh orange juice machine. If there are no oranges loaded, you can do them yourself, and it essentially presses fresh natural oranges. If you're hooked in the beginning about litle and unique things that are in Portugal, then you want to continue watching. You see the pastries, but the itch hasn't been scratched because there's more to it. You see the seafood, and then Wow, this orange juice machine that does squeezes oranges, fresh oranges into this bottle. And that point is I showed everything, and the itch has been scratched, and that's when I end the video. If I were to continue with an outtrooh, thank you for watching this and that, then this is all fluff and people don't really care for short attention spans. Again, this is for short content, not long form. So we really have to start from the hook. The beginning has to be clear, and we end until the curiosity, the itch has been scratched. Everything has been told. There's no need for an outtro. And this is exactly what makes short form content so simple. You don't need to think about an introduction. You don't need to think about an ending. You just really need to show and structurize everything to be clear and to end in a well and satisfying manner. So to really summarize, the beginning has to be clear. You have to know what it's going to be about, and it has to spark some sort of curiosity. You forget the intro, you immediately show the interesting part or the thing that sparks curiosity and the ending, you only ended when you show everything. You don't show further, there's no need to have an outtro you really show until the itch that you set up in the beginning has been scratched, and that's it. You end it. So now you understand everything, how to structure your video from the beginning until the end. And in the next one, I'll take a few examples, everything that starts with just a simple idea and how I structure into a well told story for short form content. I'll give a few examples so that you understand and can do for yourself, also for your own idea, starting from here and ending here. I'll see you there. 6. Story Breakdown and Mistakes to Avoid: Remember when you had that idea for yourself, here is where we're going to transform it into a well told story. We're going to start here, we already learn everything we need to know, and we're going to finish here. This is where our goal is. To better understand, I'll give you three examples of three videos I made. So the first idea I had was, I know my dog jumps on the bed when I'm not there and I want to show that. That's the idea. Simple. That's the idea. So we have our video, and we have our timeline, the beginning and end of the video, and how we organize this. We have the idea of, I want to show what my dog does secretly when I'm out at home. We have to in the beginning, right in the beginning here, we really have to set up the whole thing. I start off with the problem. I show the problem and it creates curiosity. The rest of the timeline is really just showing the step, step one. The dog does this, step two, it does that, step three, step four, it goes on the bed and it sniffs and then the end is when basically, you understand that my dog goes out of bed immediately before just as if nothing happened. And that's the end of the video because that's when the itch has been scratched. A second example, the idea was, I painted a minecraft painting. That's the whole idea. We see that the beginning there was a big mistake I've made here in this video is that the beginning wasn't set up correctly. Okay. Mm hm. You really need to induce curiosity. You must have a good hook. You need it to also be clear. And I think in both of them, this video started off pretty weak, and that's why I didn't do that well. If only I had text saying something interesting, like, do you know where this famous painting comes from or something like that? It would have a stronger hook, and it would be clear. You see the video begins a bit slowly with a close up shot, which doesn't make it very clear. People watch so many things, and all of a sudden this rat That's why the beginning, it's so important. And the rest of the video, I would think it would be fine because if you have a clear, curious moment and people want to know more about it, then you can take a bit more time in your timeline until the end where you finally show the final picture. Strategically, by the way, I never show the picture the final ending, how the picture looks because people want to know what it looks like. Once they know the itch has been scratched and that's the end of the video. That's why in the beginning, I use a close up shots here and there. You don't really notice what it is, and you don't know what it's about, but you still want to know how it looks at the end. That's why you take this time only until the end where you finally show the picture. That was made well, only the beginning, the crucial moment, I think it wasn't really clear and the hook really wasn't there. It didn't spark any curiosity. So you already seen the mistake I've made for the Minecraft video. I will show you two other videos first, and then I will explain them what mistakes I've made and why they haven't done so well. This video was just a train passing by in Tokyo. I thought it was very aesthetic. I mean, it is a mistake in terms of you want the most amount of people to watch it. But you have to understand that this video was just purely made for fun. That's why I didn't include any voiceover. It didn't have any story, no hooks, no anything. Naturally, this video didn't do well. I really just wanted to post this on my Instagram because I thought it was a great shot, something aesthetic, something I just wanted to show, I guess, for the close environment I had for my followers. I didn't want this to explode into something, so I knew I didn't have to put any hook or any ending. People didn't need to watch it. It was just a short clip, and that's it. But if we were to analyze this in terms of, I want the maximum amount of people to watch it, and there are a few mistakes. There's no itch that was created. There's nothing to be scratched. You don't care. You watch. Oh, okay, it's a trend. Cool. Bye. But just as a side note, you can do videos for fun. And you understand now what makes a good video or a successful video to have the most amount of use. But you don't always need to follow these guidelines. Videos are made to be for fun. In this case, I made it purely for myself. I knew it didn't have a hook. I already knew it didn't have anything to be successful, but I made it purely for myself because I had fun filming the train, and I had fun compiling all the footage into on top of each other. And I thought it was very aesthetic. That's all. That's all I wanted to do for the video. I knew it wasn't going to be successful in terms of use. But that was just for fun, and that's completely okay. These are different goals. So remember, not all videos, you need to follow this. This you follow only if you really want the maximum amount of views or to favor the algorithm so that it's shown for the maximum amount of people possible. So this is the second video. I just want to be down. All you do is sit down with you, friends. I just want. Eight, Wow. You see, it was interesting video, I think, well made video, but it didn't do well because I believe there was not a good enough hook. People understood that it was just a compilation of videos taken with this old camera, and that was it. The hook was there. In the beginning, it was clear. It was about to be the camera and old footage. But the itch has been already scratched right at the beginning. So there was nothing more they wanted to see. They understood, Oh, okay, this is just old footage, and that's it. That's going to be the whole video. But again, again, this video I made for fun. I had fun filming the tiny videos, and I had fun doing the little short. It was for memories for myself, and that was the goal. I didn't care if people watched it or not until the end, because I just wanted to compile these videos for me in the future to watch it and feel nostalgic about. It was just a compilation of memories of my life at the time. That was the goal of the video. I was not to maximize. So you can call these mistakes or not. You willingly do the videos to make a maximum amount of people and structurize the story so that you have a great hook and clear, and the itch is only scratched at the end. But sometimes you can do videos just for yourself. And that's completely fine. So I hope you understand what kind of goals you want. So understand that if you want the maximum of people to watch, you have to appeal to the algorithm, have a lot of retention or you just doing this for fun. Less people are going to watch it because you care less about the hook or the retention, then that's also completely fine. You can do both. But for this course, of course, we are going into this direction. This concludes everything I have to say about structurizing from idea to story. And in the next class, we'll go into filming. I'll see you there. 7. How to Nail Hook & Story (Using a Real Student Project): Hey, this is a new update to the class. That's why you probably see me a little bit different with a black t shirt. And the reason I'm doing this is because some awesome reviews, they really let me know that they really enjoy the course, but they were just missing some real life examples regarding to hooks and the story line. So with that said, there's no better way than using one of your examples. In this case, it was someone that took this course and decided to share their videos in order to get some feedback. Therefore, I ask Sky's permission. That's her name, and thank you very much to use her video because she had exactly the same doubts about the and the story line and how to connect those both. So I'll first play the video. To go to this small London art gallery is the Dulwich picture gallery tucked away in Leafy Dulwich Village, only 20 minutes from Victoria Station. Before heading in, I field up with a poquet bowl and enjoyed the gardens, the perfect solo date moment. Inside, I always like to warm up with their permanent collection. I'm a big fan of 18th century European portraits, and Dulwich has some incredible ones. Right now, they're showing something completely different for Joan's exhibition Grand Canyons. I went in with an open mind, but honestly, I found it hard to connect, even with the audio guide. Some of the first works were inspired by ony tunes and how cartoons exaggerate human emotions, while the second room explore feelings through the shape of the mouth. It wasn't my favorite compared to Dige's usual caliber. They change what's on every few months, so you always discover something new. And whether you fall in love with art or not, going alone to a gallery like this is such a good solo day. Which is why? Basically, she start off the video with the following hook. You need to go to the small London art gallery, and the footage in the background is a train in the background. And her first doubt was if this hook was good enough, and after I watched the video several times and analyzed it, I came to the following conclusion. I think this hook isn't bad. It's really actually, you need to go to the small London Gallery. It's clear. You know exactly what it's going to be about the London Art Gallery and why you need to go. If I were to make it more clear, instead of using the train in the background shot, I would use something different. She already had some nice shots of this art gallery. So I would use that in the beginning. You don't need to have your shots going in chronological order, always. When you have your you use your best shots that really represent well what you want to show. So in this case, you'd really like to use the nice shots she had at the art gallery. I would use that. And then I could go back chronologically after the hook and showing everything in order how her day went, basically. So this is how I would make the hook better. If I couldn't really change the lines or anything, just make it clear with the shots. However, when I analyze the hook with the story included, I realized something else. The hook is there for you to expect something. And if the story doesn't really align with the hook, people are not going to watch it. So if your hook is something about a certain product and your video doesn't really deliver about that product, then people are hooked in the beginning, but they realize, and then they swipe away. And I think this was the problem exactly with the story part. Her story had three different parts. So it first had a general informative video, basically just explaining where it's located and just information about the gallery. It's the Dolch picture gallery tucked away in Leafy Dolch Village, only 20 minutes from Victoria Station. Then the story also had a solo date in London. Before heading in, I fieled up with a poquet bowl and enjoyed the gardens, the perfect solo date moment. And also, there was a third component of the story. It was her interpretation of the art. Some of the first works were inspired by Looney Tunes and how cartoons exaggerate human emotions. While the second room explore feelings through the shape of the mouth. It was. I feel like this is good to have maybe in a long form content. It would be acceptable, for example, in a vlog or something like that. But in a short, there is a bit less room for that. So it gets a little bit more simple. She thought about all these really great ideas, but in a short, we should really simplify it. She can either go here, here, or here. That's why she had so much difficulty when she was trying to get her best hook. Because the hook here it felt a bit vague. It could be more specific. You need to go to the small London art gallery. Yes, this would be good. But to be better in terms of words, not the shots, it could be a little bit more specific. And what could be more specific here? I would say she could choose her best idea and then scrape the other ones. Let's go with the solo date in London, for example. So let's go back to the hook. If I were to do the solo date in London, then the hook a better, more specific hook that maybe comes to mind right now would be three best things to do alone in London. Then that's the hook. That's the specific hook exactly for this, for the solo date in London. If we're looking maybe instead of interpretation of the art, then we could start with the first line to be something about something that she already said. I went in with an open mind, but honestly, I found it hard to connect, even with the audio guide. Again, remember, the hook has to match afterwards what you show in the story. If it doesn't match any uncertainty and doubt that people might have in the hook, and when they go to the story and they realize it's not about that, then usually they might swipe away. So make sure the hook and also the footage you have in the background match, and then you go into the story. Also, remember one last thing. The line that you say and also the footage that you say, don't need to necessarily make sense chronologically. You can use the footage that you use in the middle, but then you go back chronologically as you want to. So I hope this simple example got to clarify the ideas into hook and storytelling. And thank you again, Sky, for being so willing to receive feedback and also giving permission for me to use your video in order for others to learn as well. Thank you so much. And also, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next one. 8. The Power of Scripting (with examples): Now that you learn how to take an idea and convert it into a story and structurize how you tell the story in the best possible way for short form content, I'm just going to show you a few examples of real life examples. And this is a very crucial moment because here you can see you can edit really quickly. You can see where the hook is and how to make the structure of the story that much more concise and clear. Probably see here the tab, I just use one note for Windows. You can use a piece of paper, you can use word. It really doesn't matter. I just really like one note because I have all these tabs, and even for my long form video, I like that I can structurize the ideas here. And then eventually after I film, I write the script here. It's a bit longer. For a short is a bit shorter. It's easier. And in one go, you can see everything that you need to know about your video. Here is an example of the mochi video. Takes a leap and sniffs around. Maybe the human scent comforts her. I don't know. She chose this pillow today and keeps her side at the door and hears for any possible disturbance. You can already see this is the hook. Every time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow, and I think I know who's guilty. To make sure it wasn't ghosts or something, I decided to record to know exactly what happened. As you've learned already, you immediately want to lure the person and know immediately what the video is about. From there on, it's just a development until the conclusion where it ends. There's no need to go longer. This is unnecessary. You see, I have a lot of videos of experience. I've done a lot of reps, and this comes to me now more naturally. If for you, it's the first time, it's completely okay to maybe feel overwhelmed. If this is your first time, then you can write the story normally as introduction and then go to the conflict or resolution. And then there for conclusion, the third part. And then after you write the whole story in your piece of paper, you might want to identify, Oh, actually, the hook the thing that tells the story should be here, and then you move this into the beginning. And then you rearrange to have the hook in the beginning, and then the story goes on. So, for example, if I were to not have much experience, instead of writing this, I would have written, Oh, I find it annoying that Mochi every day goes to my pillow secretly without me knowing. But all of that is just the introduction. All of that is just act one, here introduction, which is not really necessary. But eventually, as you write more and more, you eventually go into and you reach the hook, and you can write the whole story, and that's completely fine. And then you see where the hook is and immediately put it in the beginning. Here. Every time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow. Let me maybe see other examples. For long form, I still have the hook right here. You see how I write here and the intro. This is really important because this structurizes everything I need to say in the beginning, how I edit and how I put my effort, and then I end the intro, and then I can get into the story. This is, of course, for long form content. This is a bit longer. You don't need to have this many lines for short form. But basically, I just give a little introduction here and immediately the hook is here. How will I spend the entire day in Lisbon? For those I don't know, I was born and raised in Portugal, so it was finally time to do the zero Euro challenge in Lisbon. After doing it in London, Tokyo, and Ghent, how will I spend the entire day in Lisbon, a place where I've been since a child without spending a single cent? What will I do with so much time, and how will I survive in terms of food? I'm starting today. If this were to be a short, maybe I would start with this because this is actually the hook. Because this is for a long form content, I can give myself a bit more space, a bit more breathing room for a bit of an introduction. But you see, I write the whole story. Immediately, I can identify the hook and then here, end of intro. There's nothing else you need, and you start the story through there. This, if it were to be short fm content. You don't have much experience, it's okay. You can write the whole story, identify where the hook is, and then rearrange because this is a text file, a digital text file. I can move around stuff easily. Maybe pen and paper is a bit harder, but this is all personal. You can choose your best method. I just wanted to show you this crucial step, real life examples, how writing this script can influence so much of your video. With that one, I'll see you in the next one. 9. The Only Filming Techniques You Need: The ones that don't know, I have already a course that's made for long form video, and there I really go into detail about some filming techniques here and there and how I actually film one of the scenes. But filming for short form content becomes a little less important because you can do and I've seen great shorts just made with a phone camera, and I believe you can do it, too, and it's not so serious. The quality of the video isn't so important. For example, you saw the example of the Minecraft video. It was literally just a square video in the middle with black bars on top. You still see how many likes it got because of how great of a hook it had and how well the structure of the video was. But when I watch something that's really low quality and it feels amateur, then I have I'm a little skeptical to watch until the end. That's a feeling I get. So it is somewhat important to immediately have this first, like, Oh, this is good quality, and it was well thought, then having a low quality and you being skeptical and you want to scroll to the next video. The second point I wanted to highlight is camera versus phone. People have actual cameras. So people just have their phones. And I think you understand what I've talked previously here is that cameras and phones really don't matter. I guess cameras might have a different quality, more sharp or different focal length, but the phone is more than enough to really film everything you need to for any great short. You really don't need it. There are two things I want you to remember, two things to learn. And the first one is different types of shots. Right now, this first shot you're looking at in this rectangle is a medium shot. It's approximately at this distance, you get the overall background and me here occupying the space. It's the shot they're most going to use. I would call this a normal shot. It's a medium shot because it's just the most normal one. When you're filming something to show this is a medium shot, you're just showing the action. Then there's two other types of shots that you can also film because when you're editing, you can set up different things, and it makes the video more interesting. And the first one is the wide shot. Wide shots are very far away. It shows more the context. For example, the little video, I start off with a wideshot. It shows everything there. You immediately know, Oh, this is a little. It's a wideshot. Then you can go into a medium shot or the third one, which is a close up shot. If you want to show something in detail, then you film really close. These are three different types of shots. By mixing them, that's when you get a very interesting video. Instead of just filming normally always like this, you can add more variety. You can step a little back or use the ultra wide lens to have a wide shot, or you can go really close into the subject or whatever you're trying to film and have close up shots. That's how you can add variety to your video and make it more dynamic. It's more engaging than just watching a single long video of the same shot. Adding a few shots here and there makes it that more interesting. Just as this class, for example, if I was just talking like this without adding clips on top, as you've been seeing, I've been adding clips of examples here and there, showing you the examples. It wouldn't be interesting. It wouldn't be so engaging. And the second one, if you're specifically shooting for short form content is to actually film vertically, which I'm kind of opposed to, by the way. But if you're focusing specifically on short form content, it is more important that you film vertically, when you film vertically, you already compose the shots differently. You know when something was filmed horizontally and then stretched out to be in a vertical form video, you know that it has been shot horizontally, and it has a different feeling. If you're specifically doing shorts or short form content that it's vertical, then I would prioritize always filming in vertical. This and the three types of shots, then that's everything you need to know about filming. You already have your idea, your story. If you want to film it, don't forget. Use variety in different types of shots and film vertically if it's specifically for short form content. With that said, I'll see you in the next one, which is about sound. 10. The Power of Static Shots: This is also an update to this class as I fail to mention something really simple but really important regarding the filming. I've been filming for years now, and maybe because of it, it just comes to me as second nature to do this automatically. And what I'm talking about is the importance of static shots. Static shots are basically shots like these, where you have the camera standing somewhere at a tripod or certain object, but it has to be static. It has to be still. So there's no movement when you're filming. Because I think most people when they're starting out when they're filming with their phone, first tendency is to show everything. They move around. They show exactly what they want you to see. But the problem with this shot is that there is a lot of unnecessary movement. When you're looking at a screen, your brain usually doesn't like when there's too much unnecessary movement. It creates a lot of distractions and it's not pleasing to watch. Instead of just doing all of these movements, you just stay still, either like this, or you put the phone on a tripod or your camera or somewhere like on a table or a bench, that works out better. Even for me, who has been filming for years, I mostly just put my camera somewhere else. If I have no other chance, then I stay like this at a really stable position, two hands on the camera, your elbows tucked in, so it vibrates less. Just like so, trying my best to get the most stable static shot. So every time I go out or to another country, I always bring my small tripod for my camera. So I can have static shots anywhere I want. I mean, almost anywhere I want because of public spaces. But I really try my best to get static shots because I always find that those ones are the ones that look the best. The handheld shots where I have my camera on my hand, you can tell that they're handheld, so I prefer to put them either on a bench, on a table, somewhere I can on the ledge, on the fence, something like that, that my camera stays stable. If there's no other choice, then I just use my tripod at all times. Of course, more professional videographers either use a gimbal. It's something that stabilizes the camera while they're moving and walking or if they're using simple movements, they use a slide. A slide literally just goes forward, backwards, and maybe can rotate slightly. So actually, something that we can learn from the professionals and from this slide that's a more expensive tool is that simple movements are the best. Linear movements are easier to track. They're easier for your brain to see, and they're just overall nicer. And, of course, this translates directly when you're filming for your shorts. Best option you have is the tripod because then you have the angle you want, the composition you want. That's the best. The second best is to put it somewhere on a table or on a chair, something like that. You might not have the precise angle you want, but it's still static. The third best option you have is to really remember elbows tucked in using two hands and just like so. And fourth, if you really want to incorporate some movement, for example, you're in a museum or apartment and you want to show the whole apartment, then try and do simple movements, simple and slow movements. Instead of doing this with your arms all flailing and it's really shaky, lbows tucked in. And for example, if I want to pan in an apartment, I tuck my elbows and I just rotate my torso slowly. No quickly because if you go too quickly, it looks a little blurry. So you try and look slowly. Slow movements maybe pan like this. You can use your torso up down. But your arms are locked. So this is the most stable shot you can have with your phone. Try and make it. Don't go up and down left and right. Try and make it linear, just like the slide. You go left to right, slowly or up to down, some like this. Those simple shots are the best. Professionals use it, so I think we should also use it, too. Oh, one last thing. If you're filming static shot, make sure everything is straight. For example, right now, everything is well aligned. But if the camera or the table you're filming something and I would be standing up like this, it would feel a bit odd, right? So, try and make stuff all align front face. Again, try and make it stable. I hope this tip, along with the previous tips have really helped you up your filming level because if you do simple movements, you film better than I feel 99% of people that just film casually. With that said, I'll see you in the next one. 11. Voiceover Secrets: Sound is something people maybe don't really think about. But if you have really bad sound, then people don't want to watch it. That's just the simple thing. Fortunately, phones nowadays have great microphones. But I'm mostly talking about voiceovers in case you want to do a voiceover in a video where you have clips and you're talking on top of the clips, then sound quality becomes more important. There is something I want you to understand that people are able to tolerate bad video much more than they could tolerate bad audio. I would argue that if you're talking to a camera, the most important upgrade is an external microphone. Something that sounds better than this. Because it has something to do with the human brain being able to tolerate bad video, but bad sound, on the other hand. That's an excuse at all. If you see bad quality video, that's okay. That's not as bad. But if you have bad audio, then all of a sudden, it very quickly becomes annoying. So if you're doing voiceovers, it's really important that you understand how to have a great sound. If you're doing a voiceover with your phone, there are two tips I'd like to give you. First of all, I'm going to exemplify this with my microphone here. You don't need an expensive microphone. You can use the microphone of your phone because the first tip is the distance between the sound and the microphone. You want it to be optimally close because the distance does make a difference. So let me show you. So I'm just talking the same way, but the microphones over there. Even though the microphone is a very good quality microphone, if the distance is incorrect, it won't sound that good. The second tip I want to give you is to if you're doing a voiceover with your phone, you have to have a well insulated or soundproof room. I'm going to be honest. This room isn't the best in terms of sound, but because the microphone is so close it sounds good. But if you want the best possible sound, you go to a trick I've learned and is to do your voiceovers in your bed. Because all of this surrounding material really absorbs the sound well and doesn't make it echoi. Because the thick mattress and the thick materials really absorb the sound very well, making it sound that much better. Now you know the importance of sound and how to make any microphone sound immediately better. The next step and the final most important step is the editing because we have an idea, story, we film, we have our clips, we have our voiceovers. We have everything, but at the end, we can really tell our story through editing, the LC there. 12. The Only Editing Tool You Need: Now this is where we really put our footage in our editing program. You can use any free editing program in your phone or in your computer just as long as you can put footage together and cut because cutting is the single most important tool that you can have in your editing program. And it's so simple. You have a video, you cut the parts that you don't want, and then you put them together in a sequence. That's all you really need to know. It's so simple because it's the only tool you'll need. One. Honestly, I thought people romanticized them. But you know what? I decided to try one anyway. It's bent from walking everywhere. And it has been completely wet. But somehow stuck with me and threw it off. Now that it's the rest of these fancy transitions and complicated things, those you don't need for anything. All of this is fluff. For short form content, all you need is a good hook, a clear beginning, and a great ending. And that's all you need. You don't need complicated things. It can be super simplified. You can do great videos with free tools. So there are three things you need to follow when you're editing. And the first one film with intention, then you want to edit these videos with the different type of footage you've got. So with the wide shot and then medium, and then close up, you can mostly use medium. But sometimes from time to time, you can add a little wide shot or close up shot depending on your story. For example, the little one, I started off with a wide shot and then medium, and then some other types of close up shots to really show in detail what's happening. It makes it more dynamic and more interesting. Things that are unique in a Portuguese idle. Idle comes from Germany, but there are some awesome things you won't see there. Right at the start, we have the bakery section. Vista Nato for this cheap croquettes my personal favorite. These are things that I actually miss when I'm in Germany. The next thing I honestly wish it could exist in other countries, it's a fresh orange juice machine. If there are no oranges loaded, you can do them yourself, and it essentially presses fresh natural oranges into a bottle of choice. Will be so successful in many other places. A major difference is that they sell a lot of seafood in Portugal. You'll never find this much variety. The second thing I want you to make sure is that you cut your videos that go in order of the storyline. The little video that I'm showing you unique things about Portuguese idles. For example, imagine you have this great shot of something funny that happened in idle, but it has nothing to do with the story, then you should cut this footage out because it doesn't add anything to the video. So you set up something great in the beginning, like something itchy, a curious moment. But if the footage later has nothing to do, it only confuses the viewer then that itch isn't really being scratched. It's just confusing the viewer and people don't want to watch it. So make sure you're sticking to your story line and make sure at the beginning, you still have that hook and the curiosity and make sure it's clear. And the third one is don't make your clips unnecessarily long. So, for example, Okay, so I say goodbye to her, and for a good 10 minutes, she just continues sleeping. This surprised me. Instead of jumping immediately on the bed, she goes outside the room to check for any possible remaining humans in the vicinity. Once it's clear, she takes a leap and sniffs around. Maybe the with that said, I will see you in the next one of the final part of the editing process. I'll see you there. 13. The Importance of Subtitles: Now, for example, you've been watching these lessons without any subtitles on the screen that I've put. And do you see how different the video feels when I put these subtitles? In a way, all of a sudden, it feels like the video became more engaging. It feels like my eyes are kind of glued to the screen. Apart from cutting and putting things together, the last thing you have to learn is just how to put subtitles. This process is a bit different from program to program, but it's just adding text at the right time, and even some TikTok or Instagram tools, editing tools already have this automatic captioning that you can use. So the choice between having subtitles and not having subtitles makes a big difference because of two reasons. The first one, as you saw, the video becomes more engaging. Does the crowdst Metro I've ever been in the capital of China feel so safe regardless? Well, I was shocked to know that in every Metro station, you have to go through this. If you have any bags, similar to airports, you have to get them Xray scanned. Then they check for honestly, I don't even know from your body. And the second one that people might not think about it is that sometimes when you're watching these videos, you're in your bed or you're in, like, somewhere public in public transport and you don't always have your headphones. So you watch videos even without sound. And the subtitles make it completely possible for you to watch these videos and still be entertained without any sound. Of course, it's always more entertaining with the sound. But for people in different situations, it makes it possible for people to watch these videos without skipping, even when they're playing without sound. So I hope you understand the importance of subtitles and how you should add them to your video. Best of luck with your editing. I'll see you there. 14. Student Project Breakdown: Hooks + Subtitles: So far, we learned quite a lot. Before we go into a full edit breakdown, I'd first like to show you a student example from a submitted project. Arthur was very nice to let me use his short as a good example to learn more about hook and subtitles, because I have uncovered some things. His example shed light on them. So let me first show you the full short and see if you can identify what is wrong with the subtitles? Wouldn't it be cool if you could try engagement rings before going down to the store? She wanted to see a reading cut on her hand, but no store had one. So I built a way for us to visualize it. I modeled a few diamond cards, added color and size controls, and tested it in AR. Now we could switch cards, resize the diamond and try different bands instantly. And finally, she could see the radiant cut without leaving home. If you take a look at the font and color of the subtitles, I really like the style. It really looks good, and it's easy to read. So there's no problem without that. But there's one simple thing that I think I failed to mention, and it is actually quite important. And it is about eye placement. What I mean by that is when you watch any video, a short or long form content, it doesn't matter. When you're editing, it is important to know where you lead the eye. Usually for long form video, any kind of movement you have will lead the eye to that place. If you want to make a smooth transition, then the next clip should have the attention also similarly at the same place. If you keep jumping around, it makes the viewer confused where you should focus. Is it up here? Is it down there? And especially for shorts, if you use subtitles, they give a lot of attention. That's where the focus will be. So you see, for example, this great short, by the way, could be vastly improved if the subtitles would stay at a constant position. As you see here, it's up there, and then all of a sudden, it cuts to a different shot, and the subtitle is all the way down. It just makes it a bit confusing. And I fully understand that Arthur wanted to show what's in the background because that's important about the ring. But the problem is the confusion of these inconsistent jumps makes it for a worse viewing experience. There are two solutions I can see to this. The first one, since he already shot everything like this, I would put the subtitles at a constant spot maybe with a lower font size. So the letters wouldn't occupy so much space. And maybe some shots the subtitles would overlap, but that's a little sacrifice we have to make. But maybe for the next shortill film, you could pay extra attention to the framing of the shot, giving a little space to where the subtitle would be. But usually, if you shoot wide enough, you have more flexibility to choose afterwards where subtitles are. He also had a question about the hook, which was about the shot in the background and also what he said. Wouldn't it be cool if and there are thousands of ways to start a video, and definitely starting by wouldn't it be cool if works well as a hook? I don't see anything wrong about it. You can go so many ways. On top of my head, I think, like, for example, finding the right ring is tough. So I thought, Mm hmm. What if you could test them at home? But, honestly, both are equally good. They work very well. But I do agree with his first frame. The first shot could be a little more related to it. Having a close up shot of just drawing on a tablet doesn't really convey the curiosity and isn't super clear what the video is going to be about. I think sometimes starting with a close up isn't clear enough, a wider shot is better in this case. Example, I really liked the shot where Arthur was sitting on the chair with the monitors, and I feel like that could be very well used in the first shot. You have the working, the monitors, and you can see the ring in the big one monitor and maybe the codes on the left. I think that would work very well. Induce a little more curiosity, and it's also a little clear. Another option I see is having the first shot of the modeled ring. That also conveys a great message. So, Arthur, thank you so much for letting me use your short as an example. I hope you'll learn a few things, and I'll see you in the next one. 15. Full Edit Breakdown: By now, you've learned everything you need to know to do a short. So this time, I'm going to show you more in detail the edit part, which means I'm here in Adobe Premiere, but it's completely okay if you edit on your phone, on a free app or on TikTok directly or Instagram. I'm just showing you this because this is where I usually edit my videos. If you're not familiar with this, this is basically a timeline here, and I have the videos here on top. And at the bottom part, I have the audio. And you can see the video shows on the top right alongside as I drag the timeline longer. So here, right now, I'm 9 minutes or something like that. And what I'm going to do is to decompose my video into parts, so you understand my thought process. I started out by laying here just the raw footage. So if you take a look here, That's just me filming, panning from bottom to up, showing the pillow with the lump. It's a bit shaky, but I do it again, I think. Yeah, there you go. And that was basically the beginning of the video. And you see it goes for longer, but it doesn't really matter. And then I go to fill Mochi, which is my dog. Literally just having her do something. So this is my dog Mochi, and she has her own bed next to our bed. And she knows exactly that she cannot go to. As you see, I forgot completely about this. I talked over with the camera, and I didn't end up using it. And I was just showing her both Mochi and the bed. And the raw footage from here, literally 15 minutes, I went out and came back and everything that happened. So I say goodbye to her. And then everything that she does, she lays down on the pillow and she comes back, basically, like, as if nothing ever happened. This was all the rock clips straight from the camera, or if you're filming with your phone, just a rock clip straight from your phone. Now, how I edit the video basically makes or breaks the video. That's where I am able to tell the story. So you see here, I have 16 minutes of footage, and I basically have to edit this down into a few seconds, maybe less than a minute. Unfortunately, I don't have the decomposed edit. I lost that file, but it was just used with cuts. So if I go to another short, so you see, nothing is fancy. It's literally just clips. I cut them. POV? You're professional gaming chiropractor. And you see here, basically, it's just literally just clips. These pink ones are basically the text tool. You on your phone, you can also just add text on top. And then here is basically a voiceover. Nothing special. I didn't use any effect. Basically, I just use simple cuts. I'm really showing you this because you can add text on top. You can add voiceover or a little bit of music. If you need to, you don't need to always use music. But you see all of it adds up like this. It doesn't need to go further than that because this is more than enough. You can do great video, the cut tool where I cut two videos, and then I stitch them together, and that's it. Nothing special. So basically, here is the same where I would have the subtitle here on top and a bit of music and voiceover. So I'm going to decompose the video now. So you see the beginning of the first clip here. It's basically what I use for this first clip. Every time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow. Of course, the animation is not needed. I believe this short would have done just as well without the animation. Every time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow. And remember, everything I talk, there's always a subtitle. If you don't hear you can still understand what the video is about understand and follow it. I just pen the thing way because I'm talking, I keep a little. Always a lump on my pillow. And then I cut to Mochi because that's what I'm talking about. I think I know who I think I know who's guilt. As you see, the raw video it's me. And then I even talk to her. So camera. It was basically like a minute or two. And in the short a lump on my pillow. And I think I know who's guilty. 2 seconds. That was it. 2 seconds because longer, it would have been too boring. So, see, here, I filmed all of this. But it wasn't really necessary. I just needed to show the face of Mochi looking a little bit guilty, and that's about it, going from the beginning. Every time I come home from work, there's always a lump on my pillow. And I think I know who's guilty. To make sure it wasn't ghost or something, I decided to record to know exactly what happens. See, this was the introduction. It was the hook, and you already know what it's going to be about. From here on, the viewer has decided, Oh, I want to watch this or no, I don't want to watch this. But if you want to know, then you have to continue to watch to understand what really happens. To know exactly what happens. Okay, so I. So from here, you see this was the long clip. It was the 16 minute clip. And how did I cut the 16 minute clip into just a few seconds? This is where we're going to see. Say goodbye to her, and for a good 10 minutes, she just continues. So you see here the subtitle, it goes step by step, just so it's more clear. She is sleeping. And this surprised me. Instead of jumping immediately on the bed, she goes outside the room. You see, basically, I cut the part where I understand, so she just continues sleeping. That's the voiceover. But then you already know what's happened. So you move on to the next thing. That's why you cut to the next. Surprise me. I see her strep Instead of jumping immediately on the bed, she goes outside the room. And this surprised me. Instead of jumping immediately on the bed, she goes outside the room to check for any possible remaining humans in the vicinity. Once it's When I end my life. Meaning hum Just for checking remaining humans in the vicinity. Humans in the vicinity. That's when I cut because that's all the information you need. You already understand. If it were to be longer, it'd be boring. So cut to the next part. Once it's clear, she takes the leap and sniffs around, maybe the human scent comforts her. I don't know. See, even if it was interesting, maybe she was on the bed. We already understood that she was sniffing. So that was done. Whatever I was talking was also finished, so I had to cut to the next thing where she actually goes onto the pillow. Sir, I don't know. She chose this pillow today and keeps her side at the door and hears for any possible disturbance. And that's it. You see, in the raw video, she actually lays down there for quite a while. But that'd be boring. You already know she is laying down. If I were to continue playing, it'd be really boring. That's why we need to continue. I just move on to the next thing. That's why I cut from there. Now, when I come back, she immediately jumps out of the bed and pretends like nothing ever happened. And that's it. Remember, no need for an outtro. Thank you for watching or check my other videos or anything. If there was to be something else of the story that would be relevant, I would add it. But that was it. You saw how she got out of her bed, went onto my bed, laid down on the pillow, came back as if nothing ever happened, and end the story. I don't need to go any longer so that we keep the highest percentage of retention, so that the algorithm likes that and then shows it to millions of people. And that's exactly what happened for this video. So I hope you got to understand a little bit what I was thinking. I hope you got to understand one to cut, when not to cut. If I'm talking about something specific, you can let the clip run longer. But if I'm not talking about it and you already understand what happened, you move on and cut to the next thing. It's mostly just feeling. You just have to try it. And if you're editing, you go back and then watch the video over again. Like, imagine you are a new viewer and see if you can interpret everything correctly for the first time. It's too fast and you cannot understand, then maybe you have to edit a little slower. But if you're finding yourself a bit too bored, then maybe you can cut down stuff a few precious seconds that don't need to be there. Remember, it's really just cutting and putting subtitles on top if you need and maybe a voiceover if you want to, if you're not talking to the camera. And that's about it. That's how a short is. This short is basically just 22 seconds long. Nothing too special. And this story was less than 45 seconds, and it got millions of views. It is not that complicated. You just have to know pacing, understand, one to cut and understand that everything goes for the story. If you get these things right, you are more than halfway to do a really good short. I hope this breakdown was helpful, and I'll see you in the next one. Thank you so much for watching. 16. Looping: Keeping Viewers Hooked: You already learn, this is the normal structure of a story of a normal story where you have an introduction, hook story, the main part, and then the ending. If it were to be a normal video, a normal, maybe a long form video, you'd have the intro, which would be, Hey, guys, I'm this and this. And then in this video, I'm going to something. This is the hook, and then this is the actual story. And at the end is like, thank you for watching, blah, blah, blah. This is the ending. And we've learned already that for short form content, we skip the intro we immediately start with the hook. Then we have our story that can prolong. And then the ending, we also skip. We don't need to say, thank you for watching and stuff like that. So basically, we just have the hook and the story. So before we go even the two types of looping, the question becomes, why do we even need to loop? Well, to answer that question, you don't necessarily need to loop a video. I've had videos that done pretty well and they don't have any looping. This is a more advanced technique that lets the viewer be hooked in the beginning, and then you have the story and remember how we remove the ending the person can sense the ending and then immediately swipe. And for the algorithm, these few precious moments are lost for the algorithm. So what we do is that they're hooked. The story continues, and because the story loops, the viewer doesn't realize and they watch it again. This is good for the retention of the video, which is important also for the algorithm. So knowing this, there are two ways of looping a video. The first one, I'm going to show you is basically using words, how you write. You can write in the script, and then you can plan this ahead. So imagine you would normally start the video as, like, I opened the door and saw a huge dent on my pillow. Instead of saying like that, you start the video by saying, a huge dent on my pillow or there's a huge dent on my pillow. And you end the video with so I open the door and saw and then it ends. The video abruptly ends because we know that the video in short form content, they loop automatically. The video will end as, so I open the door and saw and then loops a huge dent on my pillow. So basically, we cut off the ending and as the viewer is hearing, so I opened the door and saw they don't really sense the ending, and it's a loop. They stay until the end, and they loop and see a bit more. A huge dent on my pillow. You've earned a few extra maybe second or two of retention. And that's why a lot of people, a lot of creators loop. And the second way is not by the words we actually say or how we script, but we have, for example, here, a clip. This is a normal clip. Maybe the hook has this clip. And what we do is in the editing process, we split this clip in half. And basically, we use one half for the hook in the beginning, and then we use other clips. Let's say this and this, which tells a story. And then we end with the other power of the video. When we watch the video, we basically see this, the story, which is usually longer. And then we end by using this clip, which seamlessly loops with the hook. And this is another technique that people use so that they get you to watch the whole thing, and maybe you don't realize that you're watching it again because it just seamlessly continues the video. Bye die. Now, other creators might actually use both at the same time. So they both strategically edit it in a way here that the video seamlessly loops while they are saying something that also seamlessly loops. It makes you more engaged. It makes you stay longer, and sometimes you just don't even realize or want to see the action again. Again, remember, you don't need these techniques to make a good story. All you really need is a good idea how to set up the hook, make it clear, and then you tell the story, make sure the ending, you don't need the intro you also don't need. And this in itself is a great recipe. This what I just taught, it's more of a complex thing that people do just to maximize the viewers. It's okay, but you can have as many views by just using and mastering these things, only the hook and the story, and that's more than enough. So I hope you learn something, and I'll see you in the next one. 17. Let's Talk About Monetization: A creator, more important than monetization is the love of doing and sharing videos. But of course, part of the incentive comes from the money side of things. And being part of this creator community, I believe it's really important to be transparent about the second side. This is why I created this class in case you're interested. I won't be talking about any video techniques, rather, I'll be comparing numbers between long form and short form content. What are their advantages and disadvantages? In general, creators can earn from multiple sources of income. These are the main ones. First, you have the ads. This means the ads you see when you're watching videos. Then you have sponsorships, when companies pay you directly in exchange for a video made for them. And lastly, we got a fill in marketing. When, for example, you make a video about a product and the viewer decides to use your link to buy it, you get a small percentage of the revenue. Now, this is how it differs between long form and short form content. Let's start off by the first point. Add revenue. Before you even start earning, there are some minimum requirements you need to qualify. You need to either in the long form route, have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months. And for the short form route, you must have 1,000 subscribers and 10 million valid public short views in the last 90 days. For Tik Tok, which is just short form content, you must have 10,000 plus followers and at least 100,000 valid video views in the last 30 days. For the videos to earn on Tik Tok, you must have 1 minute plus videos to earn from the creativity program. Instagram doesn't have any ad payouts, so reels are only paid if you have a direct sponsorship with the company. Now, how much creators actually earn is usually estimated by RPM revenue per mill, meaning how much you earn per thousand views. In short form content, you'd earn on average, depending on niche, country, about four to $0.05 per thousand views, both for YouTube and Tik Tok. Long form content, somewhere between two to even $10 if you're making videos about high paying niches. Let's say, on average, you earn $4. That means to get your first $100, for long form content, you must have around 25 K views. So 25,000 views to get your first $100. For short form content, however, this means you must have 2.5 million views to get your first $100. So just by looking at the ads, this affects how much one view is actually worth. For short form content, you usually have more views easily. Therefore, you earn less. And for long form content, as you saw already, you only need 25 K views to get your first $100. Let me show you a few real life examples of some of the videos I've made. I'm going to show you two videos, one long form and one short form that have about the same amount of use. And let's take a look at how things differ. For the first long form video, I made a video simply about a notebook that I took from Japan. It's a video about 4 minutes. And you see I've earned in total until up until now for two months, about 60 euros, which is about $70. Because this was a video about notebooks and travel, it has a lower RPM. That means per 1,000 views, I get a bit less simply because of the theme of the video. So let's compare now to the short of my dog jumping on the bed, which on YouTube had 31 K views, and on TikTok, it blew up to 2 million views. But here for YouTube, you see that for 31,000 views, I received in total two euros and 61, which is maybe about $3 something. Big difference, right? Looking at these two graphs, there are two key differences. First is how long term your content can be. For example, on the notebook video, this video didn't do that well in the beginning, and then eventually YouTube started to recommend it. This graph shows the views, and it continuously and maybe linearly goes up because YouTube keeps recommending it even two months after I published it. I completely forgot about this video. I made it, and I'm still earning a few euros here and there every day just by having it on YouTube. Comparing it to the short form content, you see that it's spiked immediately in the beginning, having a lot of use, and then the plateaued. Now, this doesn't mean for long form content, it doesn't plateau. It actually does a lot for maybe 99% of the videos I make. Only a few one still gets recommended, so it's not that common to get a graph like this. So all in all, this means that long form content, depending on the type of content can be more long lasting, which we called evergreen. Evergreen videos are types of tutorials that are good now and good in ten years. They won't change. A big example I'd like to show you is a tutorial I made on how to type faster. And up to this point, it received about 2.5 million views. And in total, I received 3,200 something euros, which is a crazy amount just for a form in a video I made more than three years ago, I would say, I am still earning from that single video I posted three years ago. I think that's mind boggling, just for a small long form video I've made. Even the most evergreen short form content usually slows down a lot faster than long form because the platforms push new content more aggressively when you're looking for short form content. But if you nail the topic and format, some shorts can pull views even for months or even years. I would say the biggest advantage of short form content is how many views it attracts. You can make shorts about it since people can discover you that way. Of course, this isn't always the case. It's easier said than done. There are many creators who only focus on short form content and do amazingly well. Now, the second key difference between long and short form content is, for example, the number of subscribers. You see for long form content for about the same amount of use, I got way more subscribers, which means that longer videos retain more attention and people connect to you in a deeper way. They may want to subscribe you because of the quality of your videos. Meanwhile, in shorts, they just scroll away. This second point, I want to talk about influences directly the affiliate marketing. Long form tends to win this one because as I said, longer videos build better connection and trust. And short form, it's easier to go viral, but the audience retention is shallower. Many viewers don't follow up or click on your link and then buy with that link. So an example I can give is this camera video I made, this $30 camera kids video that prints. I made it for fun. I showcase how fun it was, and a lot of people decided to watch the video, and they clicked it, and they decided to buy it on Amazon with Affiliate Marketing, earning me more extra an extra source of income. Of course, this is just the business side of things. I don't want to discourage anyone from making any type of video because that's what it's really all about. At the end of the day, you really should be making videos for the love of it, because if you're doing this creative career and just purely for the money, you won't be consistent because you won't really like it in the long term. And honestly, there are easier ways to make money than just creating content. I hope this short lesson got to give you a better insight on the monetization part of things, and I'll see you in the next one. 18. Thank You for Watching!: Thank you so much for coming along this trip. I hope you got to learn a lot of new things, a lot of new techniques, how to go from idea, how to understand the game you're playing into a story, and how to film and edit properly. If you're a beginner, it really might seem a lot at first, but don't worry, go step by step, and you'll get the hang of it. I personally create more cinematic storytelling videos on YouTube, so feel free to check those out. But more importantly, if you're interested in doing long form videos, I go step by step, and one of my courses that goes from idea, scripting, filming and editing really in deep detail, especially the editing part where there are a lot of techniques that are really, really important for long form video and filming where I really film a scene so you can really step by step, see how I actually film and get the idea. Feel free to leave a review. It really helps. And also, don't forget to share your project with us for me or any other students to give you any sort of feedback. If you have any questions in any part of the process from idea, story, filming or editing, you can always ask them in the discussion tab. I always watch them, and I always answer them. With that said, thank you so much for taking this course. I'll see you in another one.