Transcripts
1. Introduction: [MUSIC] A story can be told in
many different ways. There's a joy in finding
the most interesting, the most fun, the most unique
way to tell a story. [NOISE] [MUSIC] Hi, I'm Rob. I do quite a bit of
things actually; animation, illustration, arts and crafts, and
creating videos. I think everybody has
a story to tell and videos are a great
storytelling tool. I have spent close to a decade
creating videos of brands. Like Google, Mattel, Disney, Netflix, Amazon, and many more. Now, social media has given
everyone an opportunity and a platform to connect with an audience, build a community. You don't even need fancy
tools or equipment. In this class, I'm
going to show you how to take what you're
passionate about, make videos out of it, and share it with the world. I'll take you through my
process from start to finish. How I ideate, how I script, how I make my storyboards, and how I edit my videos. I'll show you how to increase your reach and teach you how to create content
consistently enough to create a career out of it. This class is for you
if you are somebody who wants to create videos
but doesn't know how, but also for you,
if you are someone who wants to take your
videos to the next level. I like making reels about art. You can create content on wherever it is you
are passionate about, on any platform you like, whether it's
Instagram or YouTube. You can tell your
story your way. Are you ready to get started? Then let's go. [MUSIC]
2. Examining Your Process: At my code, I've always been a storyteller. I started off with television, I had my own art show on TV. After that, I transitioned to YouTube and I used to make the
average videos on YouTube. When I started making my own
content I was very excited. This was not a show on a channel but I
had my own channel. I had more control
and more freedom. But I didn't know how to reach
out to the right audience. TV world was very different, it was more produced and YouTube was more personal,
more intimate. TV was you going into
the audience's space, but YouTube was the audience
being in the room with you. This realization changed
how I made my videos. I started making my
content more real, more relatable, the audiences were forgiving of the mistakes. In a way, you and the audiences are learning
and growing together, and that's a great process. Now I really enjoy making
reels on Instagram. Now with my reels, I've
had to learn how to tell the same stories but in
a much shorter duration. What I've learned
from this journey is that if you have
stories to tell, and if you have an interesting
way to tell that story people will watch it no matter
what platform it is on, so adaptability is
key for a creator. Maybe the structure
might change or your storytelling techniques
might change a little, learning new things, quirking your structure to be able to share a
story in the best, most entertaining way
possible is super important. The shifting also helps
you to stay relevant, keep up with what
the audiences want. I always knew that I wanted
to make videos about art. It's something that I have truly always been
passionate about. The best way to find out
what you are passionate about is to see where
you invest your time. Think about what you love madly, what inspires you, what is
the story you want to tell? It's always important to
have a personal story. It could be a dancer, a musician, a chef. As a chef, you can easily
make instructional videos, but making a video about your grandmother's recipe makes it a lot more interesting. Because now it's a
personal connect that the audience gets
to have with you. This edge can make your
content stand out. Social media can
be a great space to share your personal stories. You can attract your tribe, build your community, and it's a relatively
quicker process. Television was more
time-consuming, I used to brainstorm for months and then try out every artwork, every idea, present
it to the channel, and then only move
ahead with an approval. But on my digital platforms, I can create content
at my own pace. I can create what I want
and when I want it. Now, I know you're
excited to get into the process
bits of the class, but there are some
things I want to share with you to keep in mind as
you embark on this journey. Number one, authenticity, even when brands are involved. Your video should look, feel, sound, and be your own video. I will often go
back to my bank of ideas and try and pick one
that fits their brief, integrate the brand into my content rather than
the other way around. While making your
content personal, it's also important to keep
an eye on what's trending. I know I've talked
about making exactly what you want to make,
but I promise you, there is a way to balance authenticity with what your
audience wants to see. If you already create
content and want to reach out to a
larger audience, this can be super beneficial. For a very long period
after moving to YouTube my channel was stuck
on 50,000 subscribers. I didn't know what to
do, so I had to come up with creative ways so I
started doing a lot of collaborations with
fellow artists and comedians to reach out
to a wider audience. After the collabs, I saw a big jump
in my followers. As soon as I saw the spike, I started putting
out more content. I started learning
how YouTube works, understanding who is following me and what my audience wants, and then I put on more of that. I also love experimenting
with my content. It's the only way I can see
what works and what doesn't. I tried reaction videos, some popular trends along
with my standard stuff. It's not about changing your
content completely but it helps getting people
to notice what you do. Audiences might come for a trend but stick around if
they like your content, and your content is good. Social media is very
easy to get sucked into obsessing over
follow accounts, but follow account
is not everything. Some people manage to
get a crazy amount of views with even a
low follow account. Social media can also
be very unpredictable. A few weeks, your
world can be trending, and then you might see a drop. As a creator who will start questioning if it's
you or the timing. What I want to say is
there is no fixed formula. Don't settle for mediocre work just to create
content more quickly, you will always look back at anything made like
this and regret it. Always hold onto why
you started this. You do this because
you want to create. If your content is still good, if it's how you wanted it to be, then it will still feel
good about what you create. Keep at it and you
will find a community, people will find your work. Your project for this class is to follow along my process, apply my tips to your
content and upload your script or video onto
the projects gallery below. Now let's talk about what
you need to make a video, and to follow along this class? When I started out and I was making content
for television, I had a massive group. When I transitioned to YouTube, the team became smaller but still I had quite a few
people working with me. But now my team has shrunk
to just one person, it's either only me or I
work with the videographer. Today, you don't need
a very big team or expensive equipments
to make a video, all you need is just a
camera and a tripod. If you don't have a camera,
start with your phone. A friend to help
is always great, but don't let that stop you, you can totally do
this on your own. In the next lesson, we'll
be talking about setting goals and how to plan
out your content.
3. Setting Goals: [MUSIC] Now you're probably
thinking to yourself, why is this lesson important?
I'll tell you why. Say if you want to
make a six-pack, you want to build muscles. You can't go two days to the gym and expect
great results. Similarly, for your content, you'll need to have
a proper plan. You need to invest
X number of hours. You need to do certain
number of things. Setting goals is important
because it will push you, it will motivate you to stay consistent and see
the desired results. Goals can be different for
each and every one of us. I remember when I
crossed 100k on YouTube and I got my
silver play button, I was so excited and I was like, now I want the gold
play button that you'll get after crossing a
million subscribers. To reach that milestone, I quickly devise a plan. Along with the collapse, I also pivoted my content
a bit and I started making less instructional videos and more videos that were pure entertainment still
revolving around art. I also experimented
with the language. I started shooting my
content in Hindi because I realized a lot more people are consuming content in Hindi. I also started posting my
content more frequently. With a combination
of all these things, I was able to reach my goal much quicker and finally
got my gold play button. Some things that can
be helpful are knowing what features the platform
you're honest pushing. For example, when
reels first came out, I started making a
bunch of reels and Instagram was pushing
reels at that time. Because of that I saw
instant growth on my page. Another quite
straightforward thing is more content often
leads to more views. To be more precise
with my strategy, what I like doing is planning a calendar for my content.
Let me show you how. Now here I have my whiteboard. Usually, I plan my whole
week out on this board. There are many reasons I use
an actual physical board, if there is any
change last minute, using a whiteboard
makes it super easy and organized to
make these tweaks. When you're working with a
team can be very helpful. Everybody's aware of what exactly is happening now
and what is coming up. Also having a physical
board is super motivating. It really makes you feel
like when you wake up in the morning you have
a mission to get to. Also exciting to strike out things once you are
done, I love that. It can also help you
keep a record of how much content you
have made overtime. Sometimes I end up keeping
the older reels on the list, so if I look at it a month
or so from when I started, I see I've made about 50, 20 deals already which is
super exciting of course. It's like the board is giving you a little
pat on the back. Now I'm going to show you
guys how I plan my week, but I suggest that
you should plan a whole month so that if you want to you can juggle things around or move things
around if need be. My calendar used to be a mix
of YouTube videos, posts, and reels, but right now I am focusing my time
mostly on reels. Here I have a list of reels that I've narrowed
down for the week. Now let's decide
what goes where. I have a brand reel
that I have to shoot, edit, and upload this week. Wednesday is the upload
from my brand reel. Usually, I take a day or
day and a half to shoot, edit, and upload my reels. But for brand reels, I usually keep a
little more time. I'll keep Monday for the shoot. I keep the next day
usually free because once I send it to the client
there's always some feedback, so I'll keep my
Tuesday more or less free for any feedback
and changes. Usually, brand reels take
longer to shoot and edit, so I also give myself more time if I have
to make any changes. This one is a simple one so
I have only given two days, but it would usually be about
four days. Let's move on. Usually, I like to post a
new reel almost everyday. I like keeping my most
fun one for Monday. Everybody hates Mondays, so I usually put up my
most exciting reel then. Also motivational content can really get people going
for the rest of the week. I would never do something
super heavy for a Monday. A lot of my followers
actually started catching onto this waiting for
my Monday videos, I usually always hashtag
this, hashtag Rob Gauguin. This also helps them find these videos in one
place if they wanted to. Let's put motivational
reel on Monday. Like I said, I usually shoot, edit and upload on the same day, but since I'm already shooting
something on a Monday, I'll have to push
it to a Saturday. Also, if my reels are
slightly more elaborate, I give myself a
little more time. Let's keep motivational
reel shoot on a Saturday. Fridays and Thursdays, I mostly keep for
quick DIY projects. I actually started
doing this because if I ever uploaded a DIY midweek, I used to read comments
that would say, "Oh, we can try this DIY
today because we are busy with work or
school or college." I figured releasing it on a Thursday or a
Friday would make more sense because
they would have time to try this out
over the weekend. It's super important to be aware of your audience's
feedback on your videos. Can't stress that enough. Spend time on the platform
that you're trying to master, be aware of what's happening. Are the schools shut? Is anything special
like IPL is going on? Is there a college
first coming up? You need to know
if your audience is free or not to
watch your content. Now I have my regular list done. Let's start filling
in the other days. In this case, Tuesday, I have kept free for feedback and any changes
from the client, but because I like to
shoot something every day I can still incorporate
a quick reel here. Maybe a quick
animation or a reel using built-in filters or
some easy transitions. Let's move to Wednesday. You can see I already have
a brand reel upload here. But also with the brand reel there will be additional
deliverables. But again, we can
squeeze in a shoot here. I can do part of the DIY reel that I'm
going to upload on Friday. Thursdays I usually
keep for throwbacks. There are some posts and old reels that I can
post on Thursday, and also I can continue with my shoot for my DIY
video on Friday. I have this flexibility because
I have my own equipment, I have my own studio, so I can shoot a video in bits and I can
continue the next day. This is of course not
true for everyone. It is okay to pick a
schedule that works for you. Friday is pretty much free, so I can plan a quick
reel on this day too, so shoot, edit, and upload. Pretty much done. Saturday, I'm already
shooting from Monday but maybe
I can squeeze in a quick fun reel using again one of those
built-in filters. They actually take you
about 15-20 seconds. With that, my whole
week is done. Sundays are always off. It's very important to take a break so that you
don't burn yourself out. I try and follow a
calendar as much as I can, but I'm not very rigid. If a brand comes to me, I will move things
around or by shooting. If I'm not excited about an idea I have
scheduled for that day, I often cancel that
video or I park it on any other day of the week
and give it another chance. That's why a monthly
calendar makes more sense because you
can juggle things around. Your student exercise for this lesson is to
plan out your month. Get ready for your
next lesson where we are going to talk
about ideation. I'm also going to tell you
about my reel idea that I've come up with and take
you through my process. [MUSIC]
4. Ideating: [MUSIC] Creativity
doesn't have a calendar. The ideation process
isn't something that I necessarily sit down
in one place and do, ideas can spark
anywhere, anytime. So I make sure that I put these down as in when
they're happening. Whether I'm out with friends, out for a run, or for a movie. For a while, I used to use
my phone to jot these down, but now I've gone back to
doing the old-school way, grabbing whatever I can find, posters, sketchbook, a sheet of paper, newspaper, journal, and write
the ideas down. Also, I draw a
doodle next to it. When I see a movie
poster that I can alter or play around with, make it funny or create my own version of it,
I click a picture. Cataloging inspiration
also includes a lot of screenshot-taking. If you're thinking
to yourself that, "Oh I actually do so many things but inspiration
never seems to strike." There are several ways to
consciously inspire yourself. Keep surrounding yourself
with good content, watch good content,
follow good creators. When your brain is exposed
to new content constantly, it starts to understand
different things like framing, composition,
color palette. Some of the creators that
inspire me are Peter McKinnon, who makes such cinematic videos, his framing is super cool, his storytelling techniques
are so new and fresh. Then, there is Casey Neistat. Who's style is
completely different, so raw with his
distinct personality that comes across in
every video he does. Also, there is Daniel Schieffer,
lovely shooting style. Then there is Louis Cole. His life is full
of adventure and stories and there is Zack King, master of illusion and
there are many more. I also still take out
time every day to watch new things like
movies or shows, listen to new music, check out new artists. I strongly encourage you to
put aside time to do this. It will definitely help
give birth to new ideas. Now, let us look at
how I narrow down on one idea for the reel I'm
going to talk about today. Here, I have a bunch of different ideas that
I've written down. See the little doodles
I was talking about. Drawing out an idea, no matter how rough it is really helps me remember
it in totality. I really recommend that you do this because in some ways, it already starts off the process of
visualizing your idea. Let's look at this one,
the fish animation. I was at the beach and a lot of seaweed had washed the shore. I love stop motion animation. I thought, why don't I
pick this up and try and do a stop motion
reel with the seaweed. But I thought maybe the
seaweed might not be a good idea because stop-motion usually takes
a long time to shoot. I didn't know how seaweed
would react to bright light, whether it will hold
up shape or not. So I thought, what
can I do to retain the same idea but do
it in a different way? So I put down fish
animation using actual objects or
clear animation because it's quite malleable and you can really play
around with it. But also when you're working
with actual objects, it looks really interesting. I thought maybe I can
pick up things from the garage and create a
whole underwater scene. I decided to use
pliers as fish and the nuts of different sizes
to show bubbles underwater. Another one would be Squid Game. I thought it'll be
a good idea to make some videos related to the show. I put down two ideas. The first thing you
notice about the show is the characters
that are wearing these masks and I knew
that people would love it for Halloween
parties or costume parties. I decided that I
should definitely do a YouTube video where I teach
how to make a face mask. The other thing was the
stunning visuals, the set. There was a
particular segment in the show where they
keep walking from one room to the other and that whole section was actually
like an optical illusion. I knew I had to make a reel
related to that subject. I ended up doing both and both
the ideas did really well. For Dr. Strange,
really cool superhero. For this one I thought
maybe I'll use paper cups and make
tiny holes and see if I can create smoke rings because his superpower is
when he creates these rings, I wasn't getting the
desired effect I wanted. This is still on hold. Maybe I'll make
it, maybe I won't. I've done quite a few with Goku, another very popular character. When I put out a reel and I
see in the comments section, they love the reel
and they start sharing it and they
want to see more of it. What I do is I try making more on the same
character but spread them out so that it doesn't
look like I'm just picking one character and making
reels one after the other. Spot the drawing challenge. This was a very simple
challenge idea. A lot of people try this, so I wanted to do
my own twist to it. I drew few things on the paper and ask them
which one do you think is the drawing and my hand
keeps coming in and it was actually my watch
that was hand-drawn. A lot of people who participated
in the comments section, not too many people guessed what the drawing was and
that got me excited and I started thinking
maybe I should do a whole bunch of them and try and make them even better so that
people can guess it. Now, let's talk about the
reel I picked for this class. Who am I in 30 seconds? [MUSIC] Who am I in 30 seconds. Hi, I'm Rob, I'm a visual artist
and a designer. You will always see me in
a hoodie and a snapback. I live and work
from [inaudible]. I love dogs and I love coffee. But what I love most
is to work with different materials.I
believe that if you want something
you never had, you have to do something
you never did. Yeah, that's me.
Thanks for listening. [MUSIC] I thought this would be a great visual representation of my personality and all
the things I like to do. Combination of
stop-motion animation, stop blogs, and live-action, and one of the reasons why
I narrowed down on this one is that challenge videos are really blowing up on
Instagram nowadays. I thought this would work
perfectly at the moment. Your story exercise for this
lesson is to get inspired, come up with your
own set of ideas, and narrow down on one that you would be excited
to make a video about. [MUSIC]
5. Scripting: Scripting involves deciding the flow of the video. Scripting is also
where I start forming the visuals in my head before I even get
to the storyboard. Usually for reels, I don't
really have a script as such. I put down my pointers, create a storyboard, and then I move
these parts around if I want to change
something and build on it. As you can see, it's not like
your regular script format. It's just few lines that I wanted to write for
the flow that I want. For this particular idea, I really felt that a
view would go best. Having a view gave me a lot of freedom to play around
with my visuals. Now, I am a fairly
visual person, so I have almost worked backwards from the visual
ideas that I had in my head. I wanted to pick lines that will lead to more
interesting visuals. For example, for the
line where I say, "Hi, I am Rob." I pull out a placard out on
my ear and I get to do a very fun visual that can hook someone within the
first few seconds, which is very important
when you're making reels. I'm a visual artist
and designer. Now for this line, I
could show my tools. This will also allow me to play around with different
materials, objects, elements when I get to
the shooting stage, so that makes my shooting
process a lot more fun. Like we spoke about earlier, your work should reflect
your personality. As you can see, I've kept
the script short and snappy, very crisp, something that would work really
well for reels. The script is very
casual. It's quite funny. When you're writing
your script definitely keep your audience in mind. Like I know my audience
is very young. It's between the age
bracket of 18-24. They are looking
for entertainment, but they're also
looking for motivation. At the end of the day, I
have motivation lines, but showcase in a more
fun, non-preachy way. Also, the things that I've
mentioned in my script, like dogs and coffee and
casual wear like a hoodie and a snapback are things that my target audience
would appreciate. Over the years, I've discovered a structure
that I like working with. So for most of my videos, I
have a hook in the beginning. Then I have the process shots, which is the working shots, which lead to a grand reveal or there is a surprise
element in the end. Now for this video
because this is not like my regular DIY
instructional video, I didn't stick to
the same structure, but it has few of
the same elements. Like you see, there is a
hook in the beginning, there is a grand
reveal at the end. Also most of my reels
now are a loop. As soon as it ends, it goes back to the first frame. That's like a cherry on
the cake because you see the surprise element and then
you go back to the start. Here on the second line, you have to do something
you never did, is the part where the character made with these different
objects start talking. It's like a surprise that the
audience is not expecting, and it's a great way
to end the video. It's important to have
a signature style because it makes your
work more recognizable. Anyone who sees a video
will instantly go, "Hey, that's Rob's video." It automatically makes
your work stand out. If you don't have a style, if you are finding
it difficult to come up with a signature style,
don't stress over it. It took a while for me to
come up with my own style. It will eventually happen. If you keep making videos, you will figure out what
your signature style is. The student exercise
for this lesson is write a script for your idea. Next up, we're going to take
a script, visualize it, and break it down
into a storyboard.
6. Storyboarding: [MUSIC] The way you shoot your content is very important to make a
good quality video. Finding out clever or
different ways to shoot, ways to tell a story better
to make it more exciting. Even though I have a
pretty signature structure for making my videos, I don't have a
fixed visual style. I love experimenting, I choose the right
visual treatment for a particular video
depending on the theme. For example, when I made a reel on Sherlock
Holmes [MUSIC]. The show is about a detective, about crime, so the lighting was quite
dramatic, quite dark. Even the prompts
that I picked were chosen specifically to
recreate a crime scene, like there was red ink in
places hinting that a crime has occurred and I had
exacto knives laying in places, broken test tubes. Even my outfit wasn't
my usual Look, I was dressed up like
a detective with a long jacket and a berry. The music I picked was quite spooky and mysterious
building tension. All these things came
together to form the perfect treatment for
this particular video. But on the other
hand, if I'm shooting my regular DIY
instructional videos then the lighting
is pretty standard, evenly lit, and
not so far spaced. When I was working in
the animation industry, I realized the importance
of a storyboard and how it really helped
streamline the visuals. Now, what is the storyboard? A storyboard is a visual
representation of your story. Picture a comic book. It's like a story that unfolds in these small tiny boxes, a storyboard is pretty
much like that. Storyboard is not just
important for you, but for your whole
team to clearly understand how the story flows, it gives the story in your
head a very clear visual form. Everyone can understand and
see your vision on paper. For this one, I didn't do this, but doing a quick
breakdown of the script into shots like close-up shots, and wide shots, makes the
storyboard process go much smoother so you
know exactly what we want to drop
before you start. For reels, especially
a storyboard is very important because
you have such few short, so each short, then
is very precious. You need to be super
planned to most effectively tell the
story in 15-30 seconds. I make my own thumbnails when
I'm making my storyboards, draw with whatever is available, pen, pencil, marker. I draw in my sketchbook or
on a loose sheet of paper. Working on paper works
better for me than digital because it's a
very simple process, I can quickly doodle the frames. Also when I'm done
shooting a frame, I can just strike it out, or if I want to
make any changes, then I can just doodle another
frame right next to it. This way, if I'm working with a new editor or I'm working with the editor I
usually work with, he knows that I've
changed the short. I also like keeping a
physical copy beside me for reference at all
times when I'm editing. Let me show you how I started
sketching my storyboard. I was very clear
that I want to start with a text title
because I want to encourage my viewers to make a version of this
reel for themselves. Having text title gives that
call to action out clearly. I'll just simply say, who am I in 30 seconds. My audience knows
what to expect, and right in this frame, I enter and I sit down. I can also write a
little note next to it , walks into frame. You can see I'm making a
very simple thumbnail, but these little notes
are very helpful because I know exactly what's
happening in my frame. I sometimes put down notes
like time of the day, lighting, location, props,
objective of the shoot. I always keep my script in mind while I'm
drawing the board. If you want, you can also
keep a physical copy of a script right next
to you for reference. The next shot was that I
sit down and I pull out a placard from my ear that has my name written on
it, let's draw that. I'm thinking to break down
my action into two frames. In this one, I am showing the action of pulling the
placard out of the ear, and the next one I can
show the placard opening. My little note would be so
I know what props I need, paper, roll with a
rob written on it. If you're working with a team and someone looks at this frame, they should know exactly
what's happening. They shouldn't confuse
it with I'm putting an earbud in my ear. [LAUGHTER] The next frame is
the shot of placard opening. The placard open here, you can see a bit of my face, placard says Rob, and
some action lines. I want this action to be fast, I'll just write, maybe
I'll use a sound effect. I have divided the
action into two frames. When I start making
the storyboard, I don't really know how many frames I'm going to be making. You can draw your
action or break it down in as many
frames as you want. Now I'm going to go
ahead and show you guys the finished storyboard. As you can see, the
next frame is where I'm crushing the placard and
making it into a paper ball, so you can see the action here. Then a top shot where I
slam the paper ball onto the table and it
breaks into a set of tools appearing on the table. Again, I've drawn
some action lines to show that this action is fast. You can see I've drawn some arrows so you know
that the hand is moving in. When my hand is
exiting the frame, I've drawn arrows that show
that the hand is moving out. Then we move into
the hoodie change, I've just drawn me sitting
and I've shown action lines, and I've written hoodie change. There is a transition here, but I choose not to draw many frames to
show the transition, so I've just written
five or six hoodies. In this one, I have a transition from
indoors to outdoors. In this frame, you
can see me snapping, I've written snap here. I've written here a little note that this will be exterior shot, very simple, doodle
coconut trees, just to show that this
would be an exterior shot. In the next frame, you
can see me holding a dog, but I've drawn arrow
lines so you understand that I'm actually
entering the frame. I'm coming from down up. Next one, brings
in the coffee cup, a similar frame, and I'm holding
a coffee cup in my hand. But I've drawn a little arrow
that basically denotes that the cup comes from the right
of frame into the frame. We move to the top shot again, I have written here, top shot. In this shot, the
hand enters and places the coffee
cup on the table, my note says places
on the table. This one, I've just
done a few doodles because there's a lot of
action happening here. This is the part where the stop-motion
animation happens, the note says
stop-motion animation. The coffee cup breaks into two small cups that will again
form into the sunglasses, the gloves enter, that
will become the cap. Next, we move to
the character that is fully formed with
all the objects, a few action lines. It says lip-sync because
this is the part where the character will actually
say the last line. In the next frame,
the hand comes in to pick up the balloon. Again, arrow lines showing the hand coming in and
picking up the balloon. We go back to the frontal
where I'm blowing the balloon, this is a stop block shot, but I just do the action. In a stop block,
I just switch it with a balloon that
is fully blown. We move to the next
frame where you see that the balloon will have
thank you written on it. Then we move to the
next shot where I cover my camera
with the balloon, which will act like
a transition wipe. In the next frame, you see half of my frame is covered with the balloon and the top
half is coming out clean. This clean frame actually loops back to my first
frame that says, who am I in 30 seconds. I cover the lens of my
camera with the balloon, which will act like
a transition wipe. I've drawn that and
I've written, loop, that is my basic storyboard that completes my entire reel. Your storyboard doesn't
need to be very detailed, like I said, they should
communicate the right message. Even if you'll just
draw stick figures, it's fine as long as you know what's happening
in each frame. Your student exercise for this lesson is to
storyboard your idea. Really think about what
shots are important for you. This will really help you save time when
you're shooting and create a crisp reel [MUSIC].
7. Shooting: [MUSIC] Before we really
get to the shooting, I work on my pre-production. Pre-production is where all your crucial prepper for
the shoot happens. Your prep can make
or break your shoot. Because I haven't added too many details at
the storyboard stage, pre-broad can be when you flesh out and build
on that storyboard. Like what props you need? What backgrounds? What costumes?
Prep is especially important if you have
a crew involved, otherwise you would
waste a lot of time getting everyone
on the same page. At this stage, I'll gather all the materials, tools, props. For this shot, I had a
color palette in mind. I wanted all the props to
be in black or white color. It matches with
the paper and ink colors like the textile
written with the marker. Knowing what palette works
comes with experience. The more you make videos, the more you'll become with what looks
good aesthetically, I also tweet some of the
props at this stage, like this scissor for
example, it wasn't yellow, so I decided to paint it white beforehand so that I don't waste any time
while I'm shooting. Sometimes if I'm
shooting a DIY video and my process for the arts
section is time consuming, then I'll prep up the artwork
in stages beforehand. Like if I'm working with paints and paints will
take a long time to dry or if I'm working with say resin and it takes a long
time to set or cure. In some cases, I'll make
the finished product before hand and shoot the process short or the working
shorts separately. You can do the same thing
when you're prepping up. Keep everything
ready beforehand. It's smart and clever because that will save you a lot of
time when you're shooting. Now for my hoodies transitions, I picked up about five or six completely different
color hoodies to make this transition
more impactful. Doing this with
different shapes of the same color wouldn't
be so effective. What I did was I picked
up different colors, but really poppy
and bright colors. Pre-production really allows me the time to make
these decisions. Like even with
this coffee short, I was planning to use
the regular coffee mug, but while putting
everything together, I realized that
visually the handles of the mug wouldn't look so nice, whereas a glass will look
better and also would seamlessly transition
to the sunglasses I was using in my short, I ended up using a
glass instead of a mug. Next comes planning
your schedule. Now schedule is a division of
how your shoot day will go. Now reels are a lot quicker, more fast-paced to
shoot compared to my YouTube instructional
videos that usually need more time because
you're trying to teach. My reels are mostly
for entertainment. It gives me a lot of space to play around with
the background, with the set or the
props that are going to come in my frame, my outfits. If it's a thematic, then I have to also
focus on a little bit of play acting.There's
a lot going on. I also have to focus on art. It can get a little tricky. You need to use
your time wisely. You should know how many
hours you will need for setting up to shoot
a certain short, and if there is
an outfit change, how much time you need for that? Where you can squeeze
in your lunch break and order you want
to shoot it in. Like I mentioned,
amount of time I spent shooting depends on how
elaborate my reel is. It's usually not more than
half a day or a day shoot. For a simple idea, I have a script,
I can storyboard. I can find my shrewd
with my videographer , and I start shoot. Mostly by night, all
my shooting is done, and pretty much I
have my footage, so I sit on the Edit. Sometimes I even shoot simple
videos in 20-30 seconds. These are easier videos conceptually without
too much prep, like the trends on Instagram. These impromptu videos helps
show my followers that I'm having fun engaging with what's current
and what's trending. Now, this reel in
particular took a bit longer because it has
so many elements in it. It's quite elaborate. Like there are transitions
that are stopped block shorts, that is stop-motion
happening, live action. I'm shooting outdoors. Also, there is a
loop at the end. I had to plan everything
and also shoot linear because there's a lot of continuity between
the transitions. This took about 2.5 days. This is what my
schedule looks like. On day one, I started
with recording the VO because that sets
the pace of the reel. Then I started with
the face animation because they knew that would
be the most difficult one. I wanted to knock
that out first. Then I did the balloon shot
and the end of the reel which connects back to the first
frame because it's a loop. Right after that, I
ended up shooting the first short which leads
to the animation, which is the paper ball being crushed and the tools
forming on the table. With that, I had finished
a big chunk of my reel. Day 2 was slightly lighter. I finished all the remaining
shorts and the shorts with my dog and exterior shot, which was a lot of fun. The next half day, was
spent for editing, recording the sound effects
and finishing the reel. Formally excluded short. I knew that I wanted really
soft diffuse space lighting. I couldn't match it
with my indoor shot. I ended up shooting
at the location in the evening because the light during the day would
have been too harsh. Something that could be
super-helpful for you is doing a Reiki of the location that
you wanted to shoot at. Go check out the
place, the lighting, where there are less
people, or more people, depending on what
you wanted to shoot, whether the location
is noisy or not, if you want to record
any audio there. I always do this without fail. I know beforehand
what the location looks like and what
I can achieve there. One additional tip
would be to come up with a timeline for
your whole process, not just the shooting. A lot of people spend
so much time shooting, but don't give enough
time to the edit process. You don't want to do
that, because if you have spent so much
time shooting, you should have enough
time for edit too, because that is what will make your end product look good. Having this planned out in
advance will really help you allocate the right amount
of time to each thing. For this shoot, I use
my Sony A65 100 camera. I use a soft-box, which is my main light source. Then I use these LED panels for separation and also
some more fill light. I use portable lights, one in the background
and one in front. Again, it's for separation between me and the background, and also a little bit
of burst of color. The other one next to the tripod is light for my face because I use a cap all the time and it casts a shadow
right under my eyes. That little portable light helps even on the
light on my face. Good visuals with good
audio makes a good video. I use a roadmap to record my view before I start shooting. I have a small DIY
setup in my wardrobe. Having these beforehand really helped me during the shoot, especially to time my shorts
and the lip sinking section. If you're shooting live sound, you also have to take
care of your audio. You can shoot in a noisy place. Use a good mic, a great one to start would be a label mic that
connects to your phone. I use a monitor to
check all my shorts. A monitor is by no
means necessary, but it could really be a good investment
if you're shooting alone do mark positions for
yourself or your props, especially for your
stop-loss shorts. You can do this on
a cam you find out, but it's just not as precise
on the small screen. When you're starting out, don't focus too much on what
equipment you should have. Quality matters, but
story is most important. I do most often stick exactly to my storyboard when shooting, especially for
animation, because you need that precision
to get it right. For transitions too, sticking to your plan
can really help realize that vision in your
head most accurately. But if I really come up with an interesting idea
sometime during the shoot, I like allowing myself to do one or two extra shorts if I
feel like it'll really help. Sometimes when things don't work out exactly like your plan, then you have to improvise
and change the short. For example, in my
reel, in the shot, when I bring the dog in, I completely disappear because there was a table
in front of me. But in the short prior to that, when I'm in the outdoor location every time I was bending down, I wouldn't disappear
because it was a wide shot. The only way I could disappear was when I go under the camera. But the transition wasn't
as smooth as I'd plan, but it worked, but I could
have planned with better. Your student exercise
for this lesson is to schedule and
shoot your video. Do not skip prep-broad, will make your life
much easier on shoot. Next up, editing your video. [MUSIC]
8. Editing: Now, you shot your video and have a ton of great footage. What next? Editing.
To edit my videos, I usually use Premiere Pro. I start by transferring
all my footage, then I sit down with my
storyboard and I pick out all the best takes
and create a lineup. Some things I usually
watch out for when choosing takes is
check for pacing, pronunciation, there are
no fumbles, my energy, there are no audio glitches, and once I have all the best
takes and I got to music, or if I'm using a view
like in this case, then cut it to the view. Here, I have my
fully edited reel. But thought I'll take you
guys through the edit, and I'll show you guys why
I made certain choices. The here you can see the
first shot where I take out this little roll of paper from my ear. It
looks pretty nice. This is the line where
I say, hi, I'm Rob. Audiences not expecting
something coming out of my ear. A very simple short
just two takes, where I took one short without the roll and the
second one I edited it and it creates
a perfect illusion like the roll is
coming out of my ear. I open it and you can see
that's my name on it. I crush the paper, and I slam it on the table and
all my materials, and my tools come
out just like that. This was a simple stop-motion. As you can see,
there aren't that many frames and in
just a few frames, you can create a cool
effect like this. I'm going to show you another
fun section of this video. This part where I changed my
hoodies and my snap backs. Though there is a track
playing in the background that compliments the
video or the visual, I added a sound effect from like a retro video game that makes
it even more interesting. Did you see that?
It went [NOISE]. You can see that
that sound effect amplifies the whole
effect of the visual. When you're looking
for sound effects and you don't find any, you can create your own. Most of the times I create my own sounds and just
record them on my phone, this crashing sound
is just a piece of paper similarly towards the end. You heard that? When I'm
pointing it goes [NOISE]. Again, I just create these
sounds using my mouth. I think this is very important, particularly in this shot, there are only these
tiny buttons appearing, which are my earrings
and something so small in the video, people can miss out. But adding that sound
effect makes it stand out, and you notice something
is happening in the frame. Now here's a trick. If you see this transition
is very smooth. I'm in my studio and I snap, and I'm in the next
few days short. I'm pretty much
in the same pose, and every time I'm doing
transitions like this, I take a whiteboard marker
and I draw a simple outline, I just mark my pose. When I go to the next location, I pretty much stand
in the same pose and my transition always comes out pretty smooth. Look at that. While you're shooting you always have to keep your edit in mind. Now we have come to the
last bit of my video. Usually I have like a
surprise element at the end, and that's exactly
what I plan for this video too. Watch this. You never had, you have to do something
you've never did. You have to do something
if you never did. Cool, right? It's always nice to leave your audience
on a high note. I also now have a
loop at the end, so my last shot, where I blow the balloon, and I say thank you
to my audience. I cover most of my screen, which acts like a good
transition wipe that helps me go back to my first frame and
loop the video just like this. There you go. You can plan these little things
for your videos to make them more
exciting so that your audience wants to
watch them again and again. When my edit is done, it's time to review the edit. I review it a couple of times to see everything is flowing fine, all the shots are
laid out properly, it's syncing to music on
my video, and after that, I shutdown the laptop
and take some time off, and then I come back and review it again
with a fresh mind, with a fresh perspective
and see if everything is still fine or if it
requires any tweaking. When you are reviewing the edit, a certain amount of
detachment is very important, it doesn't matter if you spend four hours or five
hours shooting it. If it's too long, if the
pace is not working, the action is not right, you have to cut it out, you have to only pick
what works for the video. Another thing that can help
you review your edit is, once you're done with it, show it to a friend who doesn't know what the video is about and see whether the video is communicating the
right message or not. If they feel that it's fine, then you have done your
job right, if not, then you have to get
back to the edit table and make the changes. I don't use text in my videos, but whenever I do, I try
and cut it to music. For example, like this, Who am I in thirty-seconds? Audience always is listening and viewing at the same time. When your text or your
visual is synced to music, it stands out even better. I keep it for at least
three to four seconds because it takes that much
time for a person to register. What's certain, if you
have longer lines then we'll have to give it
a little more time, so it's legible, but around three to four
seconds works best. I try and keep my text bold, my message simple because
people are watching videos, they don't want
to read too much. Most of the information
I put it in my captions, so my videos are pretty much clean and the text is minimum. As you can see my real is
pretty fast-paced and that's because people consume reels
for purely entertainment, they're scrolling
through different videos and they'll only
stop if something really catches their eye. My colors are pretty
bright and poppy, my pace is pretty fast, the music I choose is
also pretty trendy. All these things are very
important to make a good reel. All these decisions are based on the platform you're
putting a video on. My YouTube videos don't have the same pace because they
are instructional videos, they are DIY videos
and tutorials, so the pace is slightly
slower because I want to give people more time to understand what I'm doing, so be a little mindful of that. When it comes to optimization, every creator has
their own take. I personally don't like using the same footage I've shot
for one platform on another. I think it really messes with
the quality of the video, like when you see a small, tiny square in a
vertical format. I used to do this earlier, but I myself didn't enjoy
watching videos like that. I didn't want to make videos
like that because it was easy and ruins someone's
viewing experience. But when you want to do that
to save time, for example, shoot it, compose your shots in such a way that it would
work for both edits. It will take you some
extra time to plan it, but I really think
it's worth it. Now a lot of people like to play around on the edit table, move their footage or
the shots and place them differently from what
was planned earlier. I don't like to do
that, that's why I make a storyboard because
that's what my vision is, that's what my flow is, and once I stick to the board, my edit becomes fairly easier. If something is not working, then I'll definitely
move it around, but I don't like playing
so much on the edit table. Your student exercise
for this lesson is to edit your video for
your chosen platform. Try out some of the
tips and tricks that we discussed today in the lesson, I promise you it'll
help you a lot. In the next lesson we
will discuss some tips and tricks on how you
can increase your reach. [MUSIC]
9. Increasing Your Reach: [MUSIC] Every time a platform
releases a new tool, make the best use of that. When Instagram
first launch Reels, when they launched IGTV, I started meeting
a lot of videos and my videos we're
getting a lot of attention because there was an
early movers advantage because the algorithm
pushes whatever is new. This is also the
time when everyone is trying to understand
how something works, so you're allowed to make
a lot more mistakes. Really pay attention
to what is trending. When a tag is trending, there's a whole library of everyone making
Reels on that music. If you get onto that library, your Reel start
circulating more. My videos were making it to
the top 10 or top 20 and that helped me get more
and more people to watch those
particular videos. This works for any video, no matter what you do, you couldn't be making
dance Reels or makeup, or even Reels with
funny dialogues. I would really say when
you are trying out these trends, make
them your own. Even if not my whole structure, I always try, and stick to some me elements. For example, art and
me go hand-in-hand, so when I was doing a Bollywood dance Reel
with Ruhee Dosani, I made sure that I start
the Reel with me creating the doodle and that doodle slowly transitioning
into the real Ruhee, and then it moved to what she does best,
which was dancing. It became a doodle dance Reel. Similarly for Badshah
song, Bachpan Ka Pyaar, everyone was making
dance Reels or using the baby filter and lip
syncing to the song. I didn't want to do that but I really wanted to be
part of the trend. I ended up creating
a doodle character, the kid wearing a school
uniform and singing the song. The song transitions to
the Badshah remix version. I changed the doodle from
the school uniform kid to a doodle kid wearing more
of like a hip-hop gear. [MUSIC] A lot of people tried
making these doodle puppets and making them sing
and dance on that song. My take actually helped
me get more views. Adding your own touch
can make sure you still stay relatable to the
audience you already have. The people who have invested
in your personal story. In today's landscape, being on multiple
platforms does help. But in my experience, only creators with
big teams are able to juggle making
consistent content for multiple platforms
because they are only involved in certain
parts of the video, maybe he's just shooting. This is much harder on someone creating
content on their own. I would really suggest you
focus on one platform, learn everything you can
about that platform, the tool it offers, monitor your growth on it rather than stretch
yourself too thin. Thumbnails and titles, work like the cover of a book. People are more
likely to pick up that book if the
cover is intriguing, look at other Reels
that are doing well, checkout their thumbnails,
checkout their hashtags, captions, trending songs or songs that are doing
well and this will give you some direction
or some cues on what thumbnails or
captions you can use. Always pick up the best, most intriguing image
for your thumbnail. If you think you're in a space where people recognize you, they recognize your
face and make sure that you add your face
in your thumbnail, then an interesting caption will make them watch your Reel. Something I also try and
do is include a poll or a game in my caption to encourage interaction
and engagement. For example, for this
Reel, I'm thinking, I'm going to ask my audience, "How many times do you
think I blow the balloon?" I know what responses
I might get. People who might say two times
or five times or 10 times. Or people who know
extra loop will say, "I know it's only one time
because the Reel is a loop." Some might say, "I'm still watching the Reel
is not ending." I know I might get some
funny responses and some interesting comments and that increases
engagement on my Reel. I also like keeping my
captions personal because people always appreciate if you put out a bit of
your personality. For this Reel, I'm thinking of a couple of different
thumbnail options. One could be the
animated face made with different objects because that is interesting and intriguing. People would want to
see what the face would do or how the face is formed. The other option would
be me holding my dog and coffee cup because that
also builds curiosity. People would want to see
what the dog would do. It's also personal because
I'm holding my pet and dogs anyways do
really well on Instagram. Thumbnails and titles are also super important on YouTube. A lot of creators, I know, in fact spend a lot
more time figuring out thumbnails and titles than
even shooting the videos. When it comes to choosing these, you know your content best, so figure out what
works for you, what do you want to highlight? If you are making a video
about say how to make slime, then just by looking at
the thumbnail and title, people should know that this is the easiest video they
can watch to make slime. Every time I want to
upload a video on YouTube, I type out the video title in the search bar, for example, how to make slime and a whole
bunch of videos come up and I try and see what
thumbnails they have used, what titles they have and similarly you can do the
same and then pick off these YouTube suggestions
and mixed and matched with different titles and
see what works best for you. Research what other
videos have done well, what description they have, what title they have used
and even for thumbnails, see what is more eye-catching. Does a hand playing
with slime look better? Or just the photo of slime or slime pouring
out of a container? Something that can
help you gauge how your content is
doing on a platform is analytics or insights as
it's called on Instagram. Let us look at my growth. As you can see, there
were a lot of unfollows. It's natural, it happens a
lot of people unfollow you. But I have a higher
number of follows, which means I got a lot of
new followers to my account, that means my content
is working well. The overall growth
is pretty good. You can check out the graph
and see the timeframe when more people followed you and you can check out what you
had posted at that time. It helps you cater to your
audience more precisely, if your audience is from Mumbai, but you're creating
your content in Punjabi, it's not going to work. For me, the top by
cities are Mumbai, which is right on the top, followed by Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Kolkata. I have about two or three cities where people speak more in Hindi than I have Bangalore and Chennai where
people speak more in English. I have to keep a good
mix between the two. But obviously my content is more skewed towards me
speaking in Hindi. Another important
bracket that you need to look at
is the age range, how old is your audience? I have 48.1 percent, which is the highest here, 18-24 years old, which
means the youth. My audience is very
young and that's why I try and pick up
all the trends because I know my audience is consuming that content or finds
that content relatable. Also, if you see, I have a
lot of 13-17 year old's. They are quite young, and that's why a lot
of my content is targeted towards this age range, like a lot of my
superhero content. Next bracket is gender, which is also very important. As you can see, a lot
more men follow me, 70 percent, men and
about 30 percent, women. I remember when I
started YouTube, I used to do a lot
of home decor stuff, so a lot more women were following me at that
time but as soon as I started making a lot more
superhero related content, I started doing a lot
more reaction videos, I saw that there was a lot more boys or men
started following me. But I still try and keep a good balance and if
you want to do the same, then you can design your
content accordingly. Another bracket that
I look at which is also quite important, is what time of the day you
should post your content. Here you can see the highest
will be in the evening. A lot of young people follow me. I guess they're done
with their college, with their jobs, and they
are free at that time. Another one would be in the
morning at around 11-12. As you can see that
it's also quite high. That is the best time for me
to post any content piece. Posting a Reel at
12 in the night, early in the morning, is not going to get enough engagement. You can look at
your insights and see what time works
best for you. This is just a basic overview but it does get a
lot more detail. You can spend hours
and hours looking at your insights and
checking what is working, what is not working, and how you can make
your content better. Another thing that
you should keep in mind is your comments. The comments section can be a great space for very
specific feedback. Sometimes as a creator, you don't even think
about certain things and your audience because they are following you for
such a long time, can actually bring some really important
things to your notice, that will help you shape
your content much better. I suggest do spend time definitely reading
all your comments. A tiny word of caution though, don't get super swayed by
analytics and completely change your content or cater your
content only and only to this. My spot, the drawing Reels
they do really well, but I don't want to make
my whole feed about these. I like trying out other
content, experimenting. As a creator,
there's lots you can do if you allow
yourself that freedom. The student exercise
for this lesson is for you to check
out your insights and see how much closer you
are to the goals you set out for yourself
in your calendar. In the next lesson,
I'll share some tips on how you can start
monetizing your content. [MUSIC]
10. Monetizing Your Content: Common misconception
is that you need to hit a certain follower count to start monetizing
your content. [inaudible] is a good example
of how this isn't true. He didn't have a
very big following, but one or two of his
tracks that he put out went viral and just after
two or three deals, he started getting a lot
of brand associations. Of course, if you have a
big number of followers, you can definitely
demand more money. It does give you credibility, but a lot of creators, even with a really
small following, have made reels that reach millions and in turn started to charge
for making content. Every brand today has a
social media presence. If you are making something with the product you
like, tag the brand. I still do this today, more for my followers
because they like knowing what are supplies I use. But this can definitely
work for you too, no matter what you make. Think of clothing brands
with fashion videos. Tagged brands are more
than happy to re-share your content if you
make something cool. Even if that brand is
not contacting you, some other similar brand might see your work
and contact you. It's also pretty straightforward
to reach out to a brand, send them an email, send them a DM, tell them
you have used their product, loved it, and would
love to do a colab. Even if you're not making
money in the beginning, they send you a lot
of free stuff that can act as resources
for your videos. Think of art supplies, beauty products
for beauty videos, or clothes or shoes
for dance videos. When brands send you stuff, it also gives you interesting
content ideas like reviews. Brands always appreciate this. Artists often find
it difficult to understand the business
side of things. If you don't know how
this whole game works, then talent management
agencies can really help. If you tie up with one, they will be able to put
you in touch with brands. They can come up with
different options, do the work for you. But it's incredibly
important to find someone you trust and you like. There are multiple
different ways to make it. There is no fixed
formula to this. Totally depends on the
content you are putting out. Maybe you hit a trend
at the right time, figure out your target audience, approach the right brand
at the right time. If you make a reel about cricket when a big
cricket tournament is on, something like an IPL, and if your reel goes viral, they might approach you and ask you to make
something similar. That's when you can
make money from it. Always keep your
eyes and ears open. See what's trending,
what's topical, what's eye-catching, and try and incorporate that
in your content. One reel, one video can
do wonders for you. The key is to keep
making good content, get better at what you do rather than obsessing over increasing
your follower account. If I had to give you
something to live with, I would say money will come. Maybe slowly and steadily, but keep your focus on being
the most consistent you can be and bettering your content every time you make something. Just start today, start
with what you have. Student exercise for this lesson is for you to make a list
of brands that you would like to collaborate
with and make space in your calendar to make a video
that you can tag them in. Shoot your shot. [MUSIC]
11. Final Thoughts: Congratulations on
finishing this class. It's been so much fun. I really want to see
what you guys have made, so please don't forget to share your work in
the project gallery, and if you want to check
out some of my stuff, you can find me on Instagram at Oddguyrob or my YouTube
channel, Robin the hood. Thank you, and I'll
catch you guys soon.
Rob, Artist, Designer, Content Creator
