Win Camera Confidence for YouTube & Beyond

1. Introduction: Do you feel like you've become a weird and self-conscious version of yourself. When you are in front of the camera, you keep checking how you look in a Zoom meeting or a FaceTime call. Yeah, then this course is for you. I'm Laura, and I'm so excited to be your instructor. I'm an actress, writer and entrepreneur. And I have been using videos for a very long time to grow my business and boost my sales. Even though I have a background in acting, I have been in your shoes, but with practice, I have learned to master being in front of a video camera. Now I'm here to share all my knowledge and awesome anergy with you. Let's boost your self confidence. This video is king nowadays and having a great presence on camera is one of the vital skills that you must master. No matter if you're starting a YouTube channel or you just want to feel more comfortable in your Zoom or FaceTime calls. You will learn so much from this course, from warm-up exercises to body language, setting up an editing like a pro. You learn everything that you need to create a mind-blowing videos for your business and brand. I have prepared lots of exercises and challenges to help you discover your true self and how to be completely authentic onscreen, when you are in front of the camera, you show the real you and your best self is just waiting to brighten up the screen and the world. You will learn how to be natural, comfortable, and confident. Just like you are in front of your best friends and family, you learn how to empower yourself and how to become a natural on camera. Let's turn on your speaker personality and let your authentic self shine through, show your true colors, and become fearless in the way you present. The real. You. Ready? Let's begin this fascinating journey. Sewing me. Now. 2. It’s Your Journey, Your Story. Feel free to tell it as you want.: Congratulations for joining this course. You are one step closer to becoming a better version of yourself. I wanted to create this course not only to boost your on-camera confidence, but to boost your self-confidence in your everyday life as well. Every video that you create, you tell a story. Your story. It's not about fancy equipment, but more about the message and the emotions that you are sharing. Think about all your favorite movies. They stuck with you because of their characters and their stories. You didn't know about the crazy high angle shot or the insanely complicated equipment. You know, how you felt. You cried, you laughed, you're terrified. Your heart was racing. This is the power of storytelling, and this must be your focus in the end, when you concentrate on this, most of the fear of being in front of the camera fades away when it comes to producing videos, we are more or less one man, one woman show. That's why I prepared for you all the tools that you need to create videos from scratch. Not only that you will earn the confidence to speak in front of a camera, but you also learn how to create an engaging script, how to stage your video, and how to edit it. Keep in mind this magical powers of cutting a, mixing the videos as you want. Because this will give you a boost of confidence when it comes to speaking in front of the camera. Furthermore, you'll learn how to put your ideas and thoughts on paper. Well, on video, how to get your message through this lens towards your audience. It's all about your journey, your story, and the feelings that you want to share, own your truth, and the rest will follow. This is not about pretending or make believe. It's about discovering your true self and showing your beautiful cell phone camera. It's about embracing your power and self-confidence. Aim for richness in everything that you do, and let your story unfold. Are you ready to unlock your true potential and unleash your best self? Let's begin your journey. 3. Break The Ice: You ready? Why did just now is to crest wreck and dance for 10 min. You don't need to press record and start talking right away or get straight into the subject. Take your time. Pause. Relax. Oh, your place in front of the camera yet into your comfort zone. And only one you will feel fully relaxed, comfortable, confident, then start sharing your message only than Greg the eyes. Imagine when you go out with your best friend and has a delicate matter to share or a delicate subject that you want to talk about. It don't dive straight into the subject, right? You'll talk about something else in the very beginning, just to warm up. I love you do all the small talk before. And then when you feel ready, prepared, comfortable in your comfort zone, only then you will share your big news, right? It's the same thing here. You should have the exact relationship because your camera is your best friend. Don't dive straight into the subject. Give yourself time. Get used to this place, in front of the camera, on your place. Move around. Play big goofy. Luck with all your heart, dance thing, smile, do whatever you need to do to be relaxed in this moment. This is your moment of glory. Inside. Keep in mind that the most important thing is to have fun in the whole process. This is something for you to make it feel more confident, comfortable, and empowered. The idea is to get over the fear of filming yourself. To be aware that you can the lead or this moment of breaking the ice anytime that you want. This is just for yourself to conquer your emotions. To forget that you pressed on the record button and just be yourself. Be the real, you lead the truth, come out. Let your inner child played. Be yourself, be real. Rock. It also helps you to be more energized. Granting speak in front of the camera, pump up that level of energy for dancing, for singing, for laughing through, just fooling around and being goofy, being yourself, get into that accident mood. The best move that you can have, lat your beautiful energy radiate through this lens towards your viewer. This is pure electrifying energy, and this will help you to connect with your audience. You can see that the level of energy changed since I first started this video. Towards the end, my level changed because I got more and more excited about this topic, about what I'm offering, what I'm saying, you need to get into the state. And we will go through lots of exercises in this course that will help you discover your true self to turn on your speaker personality and form this relationship with the camera and the relationship with your audience, with your viewer. Now that we broke the ice, are you ready to start this fabulous course? Let's go. It's super beautiful. It's amazing. I'm so excited right now. Move around. And this is, this is pure electrifying energy. Take your time. Take your time. Frank. Smile with all your heart. No, smile. Laugh with all your heart. Comfortable, comfortable and empowered. Own it. Oh, mood. Break. D. I's 4. Practice: You need 10,000 h of practice to become an expert in any field. The 10,000 hour rule was invented by Malcolm Gladwell, and he said that this is the magic number for expertise. Now, I dare you to film yourself 10,000 h. I'm just joking. No, you don't need 10,000 h to become a natural on camera. No, you don't need that, but practicing is no secret. The more you practice, the more you'll feel empowered, confident, comfortable, and super relaxed and just natural in front of the camera. We are not born feeling confident after nine months in her mother's womb. The minute we get out there into the world, first words are not. This doesn't happen. No one is born with this amazing skill. So we have to practice. To reach this point. We learn everything from scratch, including being on camera and filming yourself. It's easier nowadays because we practice every day without even being completely aware of it. We practice when we FaceTime, or parents or friends or family, when we have Zoom meetings or Zoom calls, online classes, workshops, or even filming travel story for your TikTok. We have freedom in creating what ever we want that fully embrace your freedom. I will share more stories with you along this course, but I'm telling you this is one of the best things that you can use. You need to practice in order to become better and better and better and better and better and better and better. But what do you do? It doesn't matter the field, it doesn't matter your profession or your passion, your hobby, practicing will always make you an expert. Being a future actress, mostly in the beginning hasn't helped me so much with the camera because we didn't practice film acting. We practice interacting with practice, speaking loudly, being all over the place. I didn't have this intimate connection with the camera, but I learned to master it. So my challenge for you is film yourself every single day. You don't need to post it. You may delete the videos at the end of the day if you feel more comfortable, just practice, film yourself, walking, dancing, cooking, doing whatever you want, traveling, doing all sorts of activities, your favorite activities. The biggest challenge, film yourself talking in front of the camera, talking with your camera. Like it is your best friend in the whole wide world, your favorite person, your loved one. Choose your subjects, play around, and remember to have fun. Remember that this is the goal to get confident in front of the camera. To own this place, own your truth, and your moment or moments of glory, grow your confidence step-by-step with every video that you create. 5. Be Yourself. Be Natural: Be yourself. People are drawn to honesty and vulnerability. There is a certain power in vulnerability. The more resilience you have towards your feelings, and the more you do not allow yourself to do and say watch you truly want and what you think, the more trapped you feel inside yourself, and the less likely you will be to do those things. Live life with courage, braveness, to dare to be your true self. If you are not true to yourself, you will not be true to others and you will not be able to connect with the world. Your relationships will suffer. And you will not be able to build an audience, to find your tribe, to create your own universe. One of the most important qualities that you need is honesty, being straightforward, telling the truth to your tribe, to your audience, on your moment of truth. And you will own the camera as well. On your place in front of the camera. This is your stage. On the stage, you can say whatever you feel and whatever you want on your place in front of the camera. And your words will start to flow. Give power to your inner voice, your inner child. This will offer you authenticity because your inner child is your most authentic self. Children always speak their mind and they are natural. They do audiophile, they do what they want, they run, they play, they scream, they jump, whatever. Because their instincts are intact. As we grow, we start putting on so many masks. We create a persona, we create this character that may work at cocktail parties at your job, but they will not work in front of the camera. Here, you have to be honest, you have to be trustworthy, straightforward, because the world sees you. The real, you. You cannot fake anything here. You have to be honest. You have to be real. You have to be yourself, your most authentic self. You have to discover yourself again. And guess what? You may fall in love with your true self. Give yourself permission to do what you want, what you love, what you truly love, and feel. Natural. And he will say, yes, Laura, but you're an actress. It's really easy for you. That's true, but I also reached this point through practice. My first encounter with a camera in the professional environment was not the best in university. We played a lot of theatre and we had few encounters with film acting. So I was used to speaking loudly and in front of a very large audience. I was trained to be onstage and not in the more intimate atmosphere of a film, a video camera. So it was practice and lots and lots and lots of practice that got me here. Plus, I learned to correct my mannerisms. Practicing self-awareness is essential when it comes to being on camera. So you need to develop deeper sense of self-awareness. A great exercise is to take note of your behavior, body language, and expressions. When you are with people, what message are you sending? Here is a challenge for you. Are you ready? Film yourself, talking about one of your passions or an amazing trip, a funny story. Watch yourself very carefully to spot any mannerisms. Maybe there is something that you do with your eye, your eyebrows, mouth, especially if you're not too relaxed and have tensions in your mouth or forehead. If you don't see anything. Fact, if you spot anything, try to record yourself repeating the exact same story. And this time, focus on that small mannerism to correct it. Don't look at yourself while you speak. Look straight into the camera. Be in the action, be in the moment, be present in the moment, and look at yourself afterwards. Watch the recording. If you are extremely happy with your video, feel free to post it online. Make sure to tag me as I would love to see your work. If you don't like it, remember that you can always delete any unwanted video. These are just for practice. We will also learn how to edit your videos and so many amazing things that will help you to become a star. Are you ready? 6. Warm Up: Breathing : The voice is the most important instrument for a performer and speaker. Take any great actor, you realize how they use their voice to great effect. It's not just the quality of the voice and how they modulate it to convey emotions. Breathing plays the most important role in this. So we will go through a couple of breathing exercises that actors do that will help you warm up and be ready for action. The first important thing is to relax and be aware of your breathing. Close your eyes, and just focus on your breathing. Listen to the way your body reacts. And without trying to control it, just connect to the pace and rhythm of your breathing. Now, when you feel that you are in harmony with your body, slowly it up. Let's do our first exercise. Stand up, relaxed, and place your hands on the upper part as your abdomen, right below your lungs. Here is your diaphragm, the major muscle of respiration right at the base of your chest. We have to train that muscle to feel in our lungs with more air. The diaphragm contracts rhythmically, creating a vacuum effect that pulls more air into your lungs. This will help you to speak longer, louder and clearer. Let's begin. Release all the air and slowly inhale through your nose with your mouth. Shot. Hold for a couple of seconds. And exhale. Repeat this for a couple of times and try to focus on your diaphragm and visualize the amount of air that fills in your lungs at full capacity. Do this at your own pace. Don't exaggerate in the beginning by holding the hair too much as you'd get dizzy, and it's best to do it gradually. E.g. let's inhale as we count to four. Hold for 2 s and exhale as we count from six up to eight, it's always best to exhale more and keep it as long as you can. I You ready? Release, inhale and exhale. You can also do this lying down. And if you want to make it even more interesting, please. Something heavy on your abdomen, like a book or something similar to push yourself to breathe harder and push your diaphragm. Another fun exercise that I like, as it's very challenging, is to inhale as much as you can. Of course, after you have done the previous exercises and exhale by counting as much as you can very fast, not very loud. In one single breath. Do not breathe in-between numbers. So it goes something like this. Inhale as much as you can. 1234, 567, 891-011-1213ter. And you feel like you are surrounded by your favorite smell, your favorite perfume. All your senses are incomplete. You relaxed. 7. Warming Up Your Face: Now let's work on something fun. Warming up your face is super fun. Girly front of a mirror or your camera if you can see yourself, use even your phone, but it's best to be in front of a mirror. Now, have fun. This is really the purpose, is to relax your face and work all your muscles. It's like faith yoga. Play with your mouth, tongue, lips, play with everything. The second thing is that you get into a font mood, right? You get into a very playful mood. You allow yourself to play, to tell yourself that now is delay time. And this will make you feel naturally relaxed, fun, and excited. Another awesome thing is that a smile stimulates a chemical reaction in the brain, releasing the hormone dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine increases our feelings of happiness. And serotonin release is associated with reduced stress. You see, you are already much more comfortable on camera. Let's do something even more fun. Are you ready? Let's go. 8. Warm Up: Tongue Twisters: Worm up with tongue twisters. These are really fun to do and they help you with your diction and pronunciation. They stretch and strengthen the muscles that you use to speak. Your body is your instrument, it is your source of power. That is why we need to train it physically, mentally, and spiritually. You are used to training the rest of the body muscles when you go running or exercising at the gym. When it comes to speaking, you also need to train your mouth, your lips, and your tongue. Practice these in the language that you use for your videos. Is that language is English. Perfect, and here are some great ones that I love to do. Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers, a peck of because peppers Peter Piper picked. Is Peter Piper picked a peck of because peppers. Where's the peck of pickled peppers? Peter Piper picked ice cream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream. Susie works in shoeshine shop where she shines. She sits and where she sits. She shines fuzzy was he was a bear. Fuzzy was he had no hair. Fuzzy ones. He wasn't fuzzy. Was he has got a date at a 07:45. I'll see you the gates, so don't be late. You know, New York, unique, New York. Unique New York. That he picked plenty of Apple bits from the baby's bed. My favorite word, super taller, fragile lipstick, x-b. Those shifts. Super realistic. Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. You say it loud enough. Now, repeat every tongue twister as fast as you can. If your videos are in your native language or any other language that you muster, just google some tongue twisters. Now let me share with you a couple of the Romanian just for your last bullet, goodness who will reach the breed we do will be kappa, kappa, kappa, kappa Pianta. It sounds so funny. My challenge for you is to choose five of your favorite tongue twisters and record yourself saying them out loud. Listen to your voice and pronunciation and see if there are certain letters or sounds that you need to improve and work on them, you can focus on a certain letter or group of sounds to strengthen your weak spots. Don't forget to have fun. This is a fun and exciting process. Are you ready for the next lesson? Let's go. 9. Warm Up: Dancing and Singing: Are you ready? Yeah. My favorite part is dancing and singing. I love to sing and easily. If you do not have a great voice, it doesn't matter. It will help you release all the tension in your vocal chords. Start dancing too, and pump up your energy. I dare you to start dancing. Now, feel free to pause this video. Put on your favorite music, get up and start to move your body. 10. Acting Exercises: Welcome to acting exercises. That successful adult is the child who survived. As we grow, we tend to succumb to societies, rules, to dress in a certain way, to act in a certain way, and to become more serious, we sometimes forget to play, to have fun, too big, goofy, and not take things so seriously. These are the reasons that make us feel uncomfortable in front of the camera. These acting exercises will help you to reconnect with your inner child, to let go, to release all that negativity and get in touch with you. The real you. And also to play how fond love with all your heart does the night away be wild? One of the secret ingredients of an actor is the power and the ability to play our imagination. This is one of the most fascinating superpowers. Even when we speak in front of the camera, we use our imagination. We imagine someone there. I'm talking with one person, I'm talking with you. And I have an entire movie going on in my head. I visualize my story, I visualize my words, I visualize everything that I'm saying. So I'm using my imagination. The secret is to learn how to use and master your imagination. When your imagination helps you to manifest your goals, to visualize your ideal life, your best version of yourself, your best self, then you are on the right path. Imagination is one of the most powerful tools and it is exactly like a muscle. You have to train it. You have to exercise every single day. The more you train it, the more it becomes an amazing asset. And a tool that you can use, a tool that will help you write more creatively, the more playful, daring, and create more powerful and mind-blowing vetoes when it comes hand in hand with observation, it has a greater impact. We're so caught up nowadays in our busy lives that we stop observing. We rarely stop in the middle of the street to know, to look at something, to really look at the world, really observe the world. We shut down the entire world. We listened to our music, and we ignore everything that's going on around us, which is sometimes okay for our mental health. But we also stop training this muscle. We lose our connection with the environment and with the world. We shut down everything and we just run through life. Now, are you ready to play? This first exercise is amazing and very interesting to do. It's one of the best imagination exercises that we did in the first year of Performing Arts. And it goes something like this. Go to a cafe or a pub, or even a park, mall, a museum, wherever you have the chance to see lots of people and let your imagination run wild. Pick a couple of people and start creating their life story. Look at all their details. The hair, makeup, clothes, bags, shoes, what are they drinking? How do they act? Do they smile? Can you guess their income, their profession? Do they have pets? What are their dreams and passions? Play with your imagination and create this character, create this persona. You will definitely feel the power of imagination and what you can achieve with your own plants or goals. Now, are you ready for exercise number two? Okay. This is something really fun and silly. One of the first acting exercises that you'll do in uni Is becoming an animal. Yeah, I know, but not imitating an animal like truly studying the way that an animal moves and really becoming that animal. At first, I felt that this is the craziest exercise ever, right? What, what are we doing here? Then after some years, I got my cat and I realized how much I learned from her. This is all related to your body, to being more in touch with your body as animals react to their instincts, they don't have all the society norms printed in their DNA like we have. Let's try this. Choose your favorite animal in the whole world. It can be a cat, a lion, Panther, a dog, a monkey, anything that you wish, a crocodile, the parrot. I mean, any animal that you can think of, go wild. My professor kept giving me some Engelberg. I was like, how can I be a flamingo? I mean, what do they actually do? They really do. Yes, they are gorgeous, gorgeous animals, but how can I become a flamingo? And he kept insisting on it. I always had to be a flamingo. So then I started to really study Domingo's. I found out that they are so interesting. They are so elegant, gracious, colorful, happy, in a strange way. They dance. I was fascinated with this bird. This is exactly what you need to get from this exercise. Find that quality in that animal that represents you. Choose your favorite animal and try to move like it. Play-like it, be like it acts like it and see how you will feel. Maybe you will find some qualities that you haven't explored yet, or maybe some superpowers that you have no idea that he possessed. So do this, try this crazy and silly exercise. Let me know how it goes. I'm really curious to find out your favorite animals and how this worked for you. Now, here's another super crazy exercise. It can be linked to the previous one. Imagine that you are given a quality, Let's say, sharp or edgy, daring, shining, fabulous. And this becomes your only energy. And you have to learn to move with the help of this quality. So you do not have any other qualities. You do not possess any other qualities. You are pure energy. And you have to imagine your whole body being sharp or shining or edgy. This is the only creative force. Your superpower and the only one that allows you to move. Don't overthink it. Don't think about it at all. Don't overthink anything, don't plan, just do it, just become that quality, just B. And the answer is, in your body. This is again, a great exercise for movement and for releasing all that energy. And play with your body, play with your movements, and just be that quality, walk, run, jump, crawl, downs. What ever you feel like doing? P, this quality become this quality. Be this quality with all your body, the sharp edge, shining, fabulous, daring, bold, unique, rather fragile. This cover your extremes. 11. Posture: Posture is really important when you speak in front of the camera. I highly recommend to stand up when speaking and not to sit down. If you're just getting started, I highly recommend to stand up because you will have a totally different energy because your entire body language changes or your pace and rhythm, your voice, you are more active and have more energy. This is my personal choice because I feel better when standing. I feel in control. Now, it will force you to have more energy to speak from your use your diaphragm. And it's much better for your speaking, for your pronunciation, for the level of energy that you proved jagged. The key essentials are to stand straight. Don't be like this. Stand straight. Relax your shoulders. Relax your hands. Relaxed here. Well, don't relax them. Talk with your hands. Need to find expression in your hands. Don't be afraid to use your hands when you speak. And look, look me in the eye. You see if I will talk with you, looking in another direction or avoiding eye contact or looking at my texts. It's like I'm avoiding eye contact with you. You have to look me in the eye. Don't forget to blink though. Avoid the serial killer who look relaxed, booing, smile. Don't avoid eye contact. Never. Now, let's talk about the power. The power pose is a position that will immediately tell your body that you are in control. You are powerful. Imagine that you are Wonder Woman or any superhero that you love. Stands straight. Spread your legs until you feel you are very well balanced. Imagine that your legs are rooted in the ground like a very strong tree. Rise your head, open your arms and place them on your hips. Or go wild, open up your hands and raise them in the air if you are alone or in your garden, in the woods, somewhere, somewhere isolated, try shouting or yelling, victory. You'll see how good that feels and how your whole body got a boost of confidence. You got your shot of empowerment. You got your boost of confidence. Now, are you ready for more? Yes. 12. Know Your Message: Videos that do not have a clear message lack in essence consistency. And you'll eventually end up rambling without any direction. You lose yourself in details. Sorry, it's like people will stop watching your video and they will definitely not follow you. You have to be coherent in your ideas and your story has to flow. Great movies and novels have fantastic stories. They have characters that are driven by a motive, that have a goal, a mission, a vision that is by the power of storytelling, goes beyond our imagination. It's the core of every thing. Good storytelling is what will keep your audience engaged, wanting more, craving for more. We're not reinventing the wheel here because storytelling has been the most fundamental method of communication for over 27,000 years since the discovery of the first cave paintings. This is a mind-blowing fact. People always told stories with all the tools that they had that moment in time. We're so lucky. Look at us now, look how we communicate. We can reach people from all over the world. At the same time. This is fantastic, it's absolutely fabulous. We have the power of visuals, the power of reaching the entire world. There are so many fantastic content creators now all over the world and we are all learning from one another. That's why I'm doing this right now and I'm creating this lesson, this course for you to unlock your true potential, to unleash your creativity, to be wild and free in your imagination and mind, use your inner creative forest, put it all out there. First of all, you have to know your message. What do you want to say? What ideas do you want to discuss, to share, or to launch? Is it a life hack? Is it a daily vlog where you share your adventures? Is it a travel log where you share your travel tips about country or a city? What is your goal? What do you want to achieve? It may be just confession, like a diary, a video in which you get out all your emotions, all your feelings, and you kind of analyze yourself or maybe you ask the opinion of others. You want to share your struggles or your challenges, and you have the courage to share this with the whole world. It's important for you to know your goal. Now, your why. Practice. Let's start with an exercise. Write down your absolutely favorite topic in the whole world. Something that you're so passionate about that you could go on for hours without any preparation or any script, something that you are truly passionate about. It can be a hobby, a movie, something weird, like your favorite pet, your travels, your adventures. Usually the first that comes to mind is your favorite thing in the whole overload. So don't overthink it. Just clear your head, clear your mind, and see what comes first. What idea, what topic? Write it down. Now, in this exact moment, pause this lesson and come back when you're ready. I'll be here. I'll be waiting for you. Have you discovered your favorite topic? Great. My next challenge would be to record yourself talking about this topic. Let me know in the messages are in the Q and A's. How this exercise, when and what are your favorite topics or hobbies? Know your audience, even if you are just getting started and you don't know yet who your audience really is. You still have an idea. You still have some topics that may interest. Only women are only men, people of a certain age, teenagers, graduates, new parents, people in a certain work field who share the same hobbies as you, the same passions or interests. You already know this in a way you have sort of intuition about who your audience will be. You feel it in your height. And that's really, really great. Now that you know both your message and your audience, you should think about, you should discover how you would present your message. What would be your tone? Do you want to entertain your audience? Do you want to educate them? Maybe you have a story to share that is very close to your heart. We'll make you emotional as you tell it. So naturally your audience will become emotional as well. And this is another reaction that you provoke, e.g. now, I have a very clear goal in mind. I want to entertain and educate you. And I want you to have fun while watching my class, but also to learn a lot and to help you become more comfortable, become more natural, become goofy. I'm going to show you that you can do so many things with your camera and you can be relaxed and just playing. I think this is the biggest problem. We feel sort of restraint. Yes. Yes, we feel restrained by society and we just have to let go and play. Never forget that you have to be natural. You have to be very genuine in your message, in your behavior in front of the camera. Start with you. How would you normally tell this story in real life and not in front of the camera? How would you tell the story to your best friend? If you're not a very funny person in real life, don't try to be fine just because you think that all funny people get more likes or views. Don't do it for the likes and views, do it for you and for your message, you have a goal to achieve a mission. That's why finding your why is so super important. Have you asked yourself, why do you want to do this? I want to help more people by sharing my story. I want to help more people from my life experience. I want to empower people all over the world. I want to inspire people to motivate people all over the world. I want to share my travels and the things that I learned while traveling. I want to share my business and to offer tips to other entrepreneurs in my niche, I want to become more confident by doing videos. So it can be as simple as that. It doesn't have to be something very grand and like I want to change the world, but I want to save the planet. No, just find your why. You find What do you want? And this is another exercise for you. Write down, what do you want? I want and fill in the blank. You can write more sentences. It doesn't matter. You can have five sentences if you want. But one of them will be on the first place. You feel that that is your main drive, your main engine. When you are rock and genuine, people are attracted to you like a magnet. When we meet genuine people, could tell real stories who are true to themselves, vulnerable, powerful, just real. We are instantly drawn to them, right? We want them in our life. We want to know their stories, we want to learn them all. We know that they will always tell the truth. They will not lie. They have no interest in putting on a mask, in being fake, in proving anything to anyone. They are real. The heart and soul is on the table that this is me. If you like me fine, if you don't like me, fine. I mean, I will keep on living my best life and I'll keep on becoming my best version because I'm real and I'm true to myself. First of all, I know what I want. Maybe I don't know how to get there, but I will try in my own way. And at least at the end, even if I failed, I know at the end that I was true to myself and that I followed my own path and I was genuine. Until the end. We have our message, we have our audience, we know how to say it. Why do we need now, we need to become excellent storytellers. What do excellent storytellers do? They know how to grab our attention from the very, very beginning? They start their story with a joke, funny thing that's on effect. Something intriguing. A question that makes us wonder, something that makes us one more, that makes us stop. Sit down, listen to what they have to say. Think about all the great movies. They all start with a hook, with an unsolved crime is a girl is crying and then we see her immediately dancing and happy. And we think like What happened, what happened to that girl? Then? A good storyteller and his story is tile. They see something so profound or so mind-blowing that resonates with the audience long before the story is over. Let's do another exercise. Grab your notes. Think about your story, and write down a beginning and an ending right down at the very beginning of facts that can be funny or intriguing about your story. And then right down at the end, something that will make the viewers think about a story long before it's over. When you are ready, I will wait for you in the next lesson, where you'll learn how to script your video and make it engaging. 13. How To Script Your Video: How to script your video. First of all, the hook, you need to grab your viewers attention right away. Nowadays with social media, our attention span is very, very short. Psychologists say that the average human sustained attention is 20 s. The Internet says that for online videos, it's about 60 s, but that is for a video that interests you, not some random video. But let's face it, when we scroll down, we want about three or 5 s, right? So start with the most exciting part of your video. Show a sneak peek at that moment. If you are creating a travel log, you want to show the funniest moments first, or either not a monkey grabbing your bag or even a wild party with people dancing and having fun, roller coaster ride or jumping from an airplane or something crazy. Now that you have laid the groundwork, you are ready to let them know what happened exactly before that exciting moment that you just showed or tall. They are ready to listen to you. They have embarked on your ship and you are now the captain, the sales than into the magical land of storytelling. Next, you have to learn to tell your story or less than in a coherent way, concise, and not lose yourself in details. That's why writing a script is very important. When you write down what you want to see, you organize your thoughts and then you can step out of your own story and analyze it. Read it out loud, and see if it makes sense. We tend sometimes to start the story and then in the middle of it, begin a new one or start to many side stories and we kind of lose the purpose of your initial story. That is why First things first, write down your story as simply as possible. Go from a to B, tell the facts what happened. Than spice it up to make it more engaging. Start adding some details, but not any details. Add emotions. Even if you are working on a tutorial or something adaptational like this course, you can still add a very short story about your first time doing that. Or a fun thing that happened to you, or an inspirational thing that changed you. Make it personal. See how you're feeling. If you tell the travel story, let me know as a viewer, how the weather was, how was that smell of that particular garden? The atmosphere, the feeling of the beach, the sand and water play with all my senses because this is what a great filmmaker dots in video. We have only images. Now. What about the rest of the senses? Now, you have the power to take me in your story by simply telling me how it was. Wake up, my imagination and my memory, and I'll be there with you all the way. Last, but not least, tell them what you have learned from your experience. What is the life lesson that you'd love to share with your viewers? What changed you? We rarely want to share things that didn't have any impact on us. So that's why when we choose a subject, it must be important for us. If you want to create a video for your business or your brand, there is a simple plan that you can follow. One, hook, the hook to identify the problem in your niche and your target audience. Three, share the solution that your brand brings for letting me know why you are better than the rest. Five, let me know what to do. Introduce a call to action. Send me to your websites, social media campaign, physical store on the moon, wherever you want. If you want to make YouTube videos, Here's the plan. One hook. Of course, to let them know what the video is about and what they should expect. Free to ask them to engage, to subscribe, to comment, share for start your story or tutorial right away. Get into the things, let them know what they have to do and be concise. Don't lose your focus. Five, ask them again to engage. You can ask if this was useful for them or how do they feel about your topic? Six? And the yen share something that will make your viewer think about you afterwards. Long after the video has finished. Share a life lesson, an idea, exciting future project or video idea, or even something funny like bloopers, don't you just love to see films livers. It's so relaxing to see great actors making mistakes, being goofy, being real, being fun. This is also something that will make you really likable and viewers will connect with you faster. Great storytellers, film makers, share the same qualities. They are humane, truthful, trustworthy, and vulnerable. And you think about these qualities after this lesson. Find them in yourself. Find your superpowers. 14. Tell Your Story : The beauty of today is that you can tell your story in so many creative ways. We see so many creative videos on TikTok or YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, on all the social media platforms. So these inspiration is everywhere and you do not need any fancy equipment. You just need your phone. You can get so creative. You can talk directly to the camera. You can create a sketch with a friend, you know, create some comedy. You can use voice-over, had a deal. Sure. Take your day off. Anyway. Now it's not a time, but it's it's I'm doing all the work anyway. It's not like you're helping me with anything, just use voice. What am I supposed to? Do? You know, you could be very supportive from time to time. It's not like I'm asking too much. Okay. Fine. Yes to you can get allover to be as creative as possible for you to be as creative as possible. Okay. It's my turn. You can have the day off. I mean, we can't talk at the same time. It's really weird and it's what you just said, you want my help? People are make up your mind. What would people say? It's very weird whom you are recording? Oh, yeah, you're right. Let your imagination run wild. The sky's the limit. Nothing can stop you. And then there's this magical thing called editing. You can be a superb magician and play with all the tools that you have. You can create a magical land with fairies and whimsical music. Or you can create dramatic suspense. At violins. Rock guitars. You can have everything that you wish. You can have dynamism and vibrance. Play with his mate. The imagination of your viewer, create the atmosphere that Hewish. Give it sound. Good. Go back to music. Images. Give it, touch it. Smell. Emotions. Joy, sadness, given power and confidence. Given vulnerability. Use effects or not. Use raw images. Use filters, are not given Magic. Think of every video that you create as your own magical world, your own magical story. Unleash your creativity and play as much as possible. Don't be afraid to experiment and to try new things. I mean, there are no rules when it comes to creation. Creativity should be an untamed force. Your untamed scale, unlock your true potential. Because you are creative, you are inspiring, you are talented, you are amazing. You are beautiful. And now is the time to tell your story exactly as you want. As you feel go, where no one else has gone before. Are you ready to unleash your creative force? Yes, you are. Because you are a force. You are powerful, you are talented, you are inspiring, and you are ready to tell your story exactly the way that you want. And you can bring new things into the world. 15. Thought-provoking: Where Does the Fear Come From: This is a thought-provoking video because fear comes before everything. This is what holds us down. And it was and still is sometimes something that holds me down and stops me from becoming my best self. And it's usually stops us from quick thing, the job that we don't like and following the career that we love, doing, the things that we truly love, following our passions, following the love, falling in love, marrying the person who he loved. So many times, fear stops us from bluffing, from traveling the world. It's not only the fear of failure, It's also the fear of success. When it comes to filming, we tend to find so many excuses. Like we don't have the proper equipment, we don't have a suit here. We don't have the proper lights. We don't have a niche, we don't have mind-blowing ideas, or maybe a nice presence on camera. But, you know, I know, we know that it's all about fear. All the great people who achieve something in life, from great leaders to amazing artists. They succeeded not because they lacked fear, did it? In spite of their fears, in spite of their lack of confidence, let's talk about ways to overcome your fear. When it comes to creating videos, I found that the most common fear is, how do I look in front of the camera? How do i sound? And how do I move? What is my body language? What are my expressions, my facial expressions? Where do I look? These are the most common things. I met many people who told me that they don't really like watching themselves on camera because they are not used to the way they sound on camera. It's pretty odd because these things have become a greater concern than the actual message, the actual topic of the video. Now the message that you are sending into the world, and it should be the other way around, right? It's not about you. It's about the message that you're sending. It's about the skill that you want to share with the others. It's about the life hack, the inspiration. It's about your story. And yes, it's very important the way you deliver it. But the actual feeling that you convey and the actual story and the actual life hack or inspiration. These are much more important than the way you look. There is this constant fear of judgment. Our whole world is based on looks and appearances. Our whole society is focused on bodies instead of focusing on the essence of things. This is a very long fight, of course, of accepting yourself and loving yourself. Loving your body, loving the way you look, loving your voice, loving your eyes, your mouth, the way you express yourself, your, your hands, your movement, every thing. This is a fight that you have to read with yourself to get to a certain piece and balanced with yourself. But it also comes with practice. The more that you practice, the more that you fill me ourselves, the more users you get to your voice, to the way you look on camera, to your movements. And this is what you need to do. You'll start to get used with this persona that you have on camera. You're turning on your speaker personality. You are now a storyteller. I highly recommend practicing as much as possible if you can do this every day, do it, even if it's just for five or 10 min. Practice this every day. Because when you will get used to yourself, to the way you look on camera, to the way you sound, the way you move. Then you start to focus on the important things, your message, your story. You may have seen a really beautiful person, doesn't express anything. And people who are maybe not so beautiful in that classical way, but they have something that, they have, that x-factor. They have confidence, they have Vibrance, magnetism. This is far more important than the confidence that you have, the confidence that you project on camera. This is what counts. This is the most important thing of all, is that vibrance is that joy and happiness. There is this one skill that you need to master to be on top of everything? Knowing that you will be okay. No matter what you mentioned that you lose today, everything all the materials, things that you have in your life, will you be okay? If the answer is yes, then you are on the right path. You have to know no matter what you will be okay? Because you have your skills. You have your mind, your intelligence, you have your knowledge, and you have your power within. And this has nothing to do with all the material things that you own. This has to do with you. If you go back to zero now, will you be okay? Ask yourself this question and find the power in yourself to say, yes, I will be okay no matter what. Because I am smart. I have life experience, I have lots of skills. I can do anything. I am enough. I am brave and courageous. I can start today from zero. I started from zero. And I can start again and again and again and again. No matter what it takes, I can start again from zero from scratch. And I will still reach the top. If you know that you have this power, then nothing can stop you. Fear will not have any power over you. So this is a skill that you need to master. Know that you will be okay. No matter what. My challenge for you is to think of a moment like this when you realized that you will be okay no matter what, my second challenge is to think of where the fear comes from. What exactly triggers your fear of being on camera or a filming yourself. A few come from. I'm eagerly waiting for your answers and stories in the Q&A section of this lesson, or send them directly to me, send them by private message. If you don't want to make them public, send them to me. And I'd love to have a chat with you about this and help you overcome your ear. 16. Set Up: Lighting: Great lighting is one of the best things that you can do for your video quality is even more important than the rest of your equipment. For lighting is extremely distracting and this is also available for the sound. You may not have a fancy studio or a great budget to ensure amazing equipment. And I'll be honest with you and let you know that neither derive. This never stopped me from creating videos. In these lessons, I will share some texts that will help you create videos anywhere with any basic equipment like your phone. I have videos filmed with very old iPhones and you can't tell the difference when you added them. The magic is done in editing. There you'll play with the exposure, saturation, the colors with effects and transitions. I have even saved bad videos in editing. Anything is possible. If you are just getting started, your best friend is the son My dear. Use natural light. I love natural light when it comes to photography, especially the golden hours after sunrise and just before sunset, you can't go wrong with natural light and only with your phone you can create magic. Avoid filming at noon, especially in summer when the sun is too bright, that will get you a burn image. The only issue is that the natural light is unpredictable and it may change quickly. However, I imagine you'll not film the entire day. So for one or 2 h of speech, you are good to go. If you are filming a travel or daily vlog, you don't have to worry about any changes. If your video is not suitable for the outdoors, then film inside, in front of a window, find the brightest room from your home, and place yourself facing the window. You will only need a tripod for your phone and you are good to go. Because your key light, This is the brightest source of light. If you're using a window, then that will be your key light. If you want to improvise a studio, you can get a ring light. This is the best for vlogs and any kind of tutorials. The best way is to focus your key light on yourself, the subject, and not your background. Even if you're using a wide window, you can use a curtain to focus the light on yourself. If you have a ring light around softbox slide, it's easier to control the light as it's already focused. Improvise, use do-it-yourself, lighting. Any source of light can be used. So if you want to create something out of the box, do it. Use candle's, light bulbs, Christmas lights, anything works with all your sources until you get the light that you wish. Lighting also plays an important part in the atmosphere of your video. If you want to tell him more intimate story than you should, dim your light. If you have a fun and dynamic tutorial, you should have more light. The temperature plays a part as well. Warmer light sources, I like reds and yellows in your image, while colder sources highlight green and blue tones. Usually a ring light has a temperature button. So you can change between warm and cold or have both at the same time for a more balanced temperature. Avoid ceiling lighting. Most rooms have ceiling lighting, and this will offer an overhead light that will create shadows on your face and an overall unflattering angle. That's why you need to focus your tea light in front of yourself and not below or above in order to avoid shadows. Create a cinematic look by playing with the shadows. We want to avoid shadows, but sometimes they can be used for a true cinematic experience. Here's a trick to create more debt in frame. And you just need one source of light. Place both the camera and the source of light on the opposite side of yourself. Imagine yourself in a triangle with these two. Both the darker and lighter side will be captured at the same time. This is a technique used very often in film-making, and I am sure you have seen it in some of your favorite films. The three-point lighting setup. This is one of the most common set-ups used by professionals. That for this, you will either need a studio or a lot of space, including a lighting kit that consists of a key light, a fill light that bounces the shadows created by the key light, and a back light used to make the subjects stand out. This is placed behind the subject, opposite of fill light, and its role is to increase the contrast between the subject and the background, offering more deaf in your frame. Don't worry about this setup. If you're just getting started using natural light and just get a ring light to not worry about the weather. Or if you wish to film in the evening or at night. Let's discover more tips in the next lesson. 17. Equipment & Camera Angles: We have already established that great lighting does most of the job. Ad a charismatic and confident presence on camera. And you are almost there. Don't invest too much in cameras and other equipment, especially if you're just getting started or you do not have a great budget for this, use your phone and make sure to film in high resolution. Most phones have the Forky options now, so feel free to use that for a nice filming style. Also, the more frames per second your video has, the smoother it looks on larger monitors. So choose the highest VPS when choosing the recording settings. Use a tripod to have steady shot. There are lots of affordable loggers, kids to use while traveling as well. Sound is essential. Invest in small Mike or lavalier for your phone. The roads video mike is really good and assure envy 88 plus. If you want to own a professional or semi-professional camera, there are a lot of budget cameras that are perfect for vlogging. I personally have a Canon EOS and 50 got a couple of years ago, and I'm extremely happy with it as it is lightweight, practical, and the battery is holding up pretty good. Choose a mirrorless camera in this price range, and you can't go wrong with Canon, Sony, Panasonic, or GoPro. You will also need a tripod and an external mind. I have a small one from road which is pretty good. Another best when it comes to travel dogs, especially if it's windy, but you can use it inside. I also have a Boyar level here, which is perfect for tutorials, lessons, and any law that you wish to do indoors. I also recommend getting a voice-over microphone as well for increasing the quality of your video. If you create travels logs and you have any issues with your original sound captured, you can always add a voiceover. Sometimes a voice-over can also have an artistic effect. There are lots of budget microphones out there as well from rhode audio, tiny car or human. Now let's talk about camera angles and how to find the best camera angles for your videos. We oftentimes to take selfies from a high angle, and we sometimes tend to film ourselves in the same way. Well, in film making a high angle, the character is isolated, small, vulnerable, and not very powerful. While the low angle is used to offer power to the character, it almost seems like the subject is looking down at the viewer. Course. You wouldn't want that when you speak to the camera, especially that the angle may not be very flattering. You want to loop straight into the eyes of your viewer. So the best way is to have the camera at your eye level, maybe slightly above your eyes, offer a balance. It quality in your speech. You want to connect with your audience, so you shouldn't look down at them, nor should you be small in your corner looking up at them. You should also phage your background and work on the composition of your frame. Not only that, you have to focus the key light on yourself, but you should be at the center of the frame and not have anything in the background that distracts the viewer, like an open window or an open door assignee poster that has nothing to do with your topic and so on. If you have an open window behind yourself, I am expecting something or someone to show up there. So it's a huge distraction. These are some common sense tips with you could also play with the colors, Sensations, the chromatic of your frame. Choose an outfit that matches are complements your background without emphasizing too much. The second one, place a flower in the background that adds a nice elegant touch or lead yourself blank spaces in case you want to place graphics later on in editing. You Youth Movement. If you are filming a tutorial or a vlog, it's more difficult to use movement as you practically sit in front of the camera and talk. But you can use BI roles in editing, illustrating what you're saying with layered images or videos. We will talk all about this in the edit like a pro section. None of the last tried to create your script as dynamic as possible. Introduce movements in your videos, as simple as walking in front of the camera and setting it up. Illustrate your stories with dynamic videos and use transitions to offer a visit vlogging experience, larger than life experience. 18. Your Environment: You are environment is extremely important. Find familiar space in which you can film. First of all, you need to feel comfortable and safe. You also need to have the proper amount of silence, especially if you have an important message to share. If you are just getting started and do not have fancy microphone or equipment, is best to film at home or in your improvised studio. Filming outside tend to be so much. But if you don't have the proper microphone, the sound will be so much better in your studio or at home, because there's no place like home. Make sure no one interrupts you. It's best to limit distractions and make sure you have plenty of time. Take your time, be creative. Play, and give yourself space. Give yourself time to be relaxed. In the very beginning, you definitely feel more comfortable in your own home. If you're doing travels logs, get a good microphone or use voiceovers just like I'm doing right now and record your message afterwards. Such a beautiful morning that I just had to go outside and play. And there are so many ways through which you can visually tell your story. Filming your favorite part of the day. Is it morning, Is it afternoon? This is very important because you'll feel more energized at a certain time. You have your hours every day where you feel super, super energized. So use that. You are a one man, one woman. Show you or everything. Producer, director, writer, actor. You are everything. So you decide wants to film, when to film, how to film it, how to present yourself. You decide everything. This is super, super important to be aware of it and have this mindset. This mindset is a game changer. So if you're a morning person sounds, then if you're more active at night film, then it's all about the energy that you give into the world. 19. Body Language: We communicate with our bodies more than we do through words. The non-verbal communication is 93%, while the actual words that we use are only seven per cent. So you could say, I love you. Actually mean I don't love you. Write or probably the most common thing that we say every day. I'm fine. How are you today? I'm fine. I'm okay. When we're not okay, we do this. We use this all the time. It's much easier than saying, I'm having an existential crisis. I'm pulling it up with the wrong person. I think my job at the top of that, I'm having a bad hair day. Yeah, I'm fine. 38% of our communication is through our voice and tone. If you listen to a group of people who are lying, and then you listen to another group of people who are telling the truth. You will immediately know the ones who are lying because they tend to raise their voice without any logic and make unnecessary pauses and so on. There are a lot of things that don't really make sense when you tell a lie and when you tell the truth, when you feel that the flow of the speech is different, your energies different because you believe in what you're saying. When you believe in your words, your whole body believes, your whole body reacts accordingly. And this is the magic of body language. 55% of our communication is through our body, from the facial micro-expressions that can't be faked to the way we move and to our posture. Do you stand straight? Do you cross your arms when you talk to you lean towards someone when you talk, maybe you have noticed that I tend to lean very often towards the camera. I want to get my message across. I'm interested in delivering my message. I'm interested in engaging with you. That means that you're interested in that person. If someone pulls away, then they just really don't care about what you have to say. So it's best ended. Don't waste your energy on someone who doesn't deserve it. We do not feel comfortable. We tend to close ourselves. Now to cross our arms, to protect ourselves, to cross our legs are we tend to touch ourselves for comfort. When we feel in control. We open ourselves ready to share, ready to embrace life and the world. These movements are all unconscious. You need to learn to master these. You have to learn to master body language. When it comes to being in front of the camera, things are easier. Yeah. I know you don't believe me, but they are because you do not have to react to an audience or to a listener or viewer. You don't have to react as just you. With your camera. You are in full control of your movements, of your speech. This little bumble that you have created, It's just you with your camera. And all you need to learn is to control yourself and deliver your texts and message with confidence. Breve, pause. Don't rush your words. Just take your time and everything else will follow. Things that are more challenging when you talk with someone or to a large audience. Because in those cases, you can either feel the reaction of the audience, which may not be the one you hoped for. Or someone tells you an uncomfortable truth makes you feel not in your comfort zone. You need to learn, to read people, to feel them and anticipate the reactions. Have you seen the TV show Lie to me? It's one of my favorites and you really have to see it because it's all about reading people, it's all about micro-expressions. The show portrays Paul Ekman, a renowned psychologist who studied facial expressions. He went to New Guinea to study micro-expressions on an isolated tribe who had no contact with the modern world. And he realized that we all have the exact same expressions. No matter our background, education, nationality, social circles, sex, race. We have the exact same expressions are faces, move in the exact same way. Pretty mind-blowing, right? Imagine if you learned to master these, to recognize them. Well, you know how to read the entire planet. No one could ever tell you a lie. Trust me, it's very helpful, both professionally and in your personal life. You'd definitely be one step ahead all the time. Paul Ekman broke them down into seven main micro-expressions which show up less than 1 s on your face before you can build up the expression that you want to show. The lie, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness, sadness, content. These are all the seven expressions that are deeply rooted in our nature. If you will learn them, you'll see how easy it is to read your partner, your friends, your family, your professional relationships, your boss, and many other people with whom you interact on a daily basis. The body is an instrument of the mind. It follows. The mind, dictates, and that is why you need to nurture your Tambo with healthy thoughts, actions, and feelings. 20. Rhythm and Pace: The rhythm and pace of yours, pH, is just as important as it is in music. Sing a song the wrong tempo, and the whole tune is compromised. So you need to find your own red. Unlike real life, when you speak on camera, you need to put little bit more energy into your message and it's delivery so that your audience receives the exact amount of energy that you want to project. We need to break this glass and send more energy into the world. I want to send you more energy to you, my dear. At the same time. You don't need to race. Tend to rush words when we are not very confident. I used to do this in my first year in acting and drama. I was so nervous and anxious and so afraid of my performance that I didn't give myself time to breathe, to pause, to be, to actually be there on stage, to enjoy, enjoy that moment, to shine, to have my little moment of glory. I didn't have that because I was so scared and I was so I brushed my text every single time and my professor told me, Hey, take your time, relax, breathe. You need to have that energy. But take your time, find your rhythm. On the other hand, speaking very slowly can also be a big no, no, no, not. Find your oh, reader. And now we are usually in a rush and we don't have time to listen to everything. We want the information pronto we needed now, like get to the point. We need to find the perfect tempo. We need rhythm. Great energy. Without rushing, confident people usually take their time. You need to let the audience absorbed your message, your words, give them time to understand what you're saying, but keep them engaged. Having rhythm in your speech makes it memorable. This comes with a very well-written script. And we talked about how to script your videos for amazing engagement. The other key to having rhythm is silence. It's also important when you pause, when you let the audience think, digest what you just told. Imagine, laugh. Smile. Let the audience react to what you are saying. This is all about perfect timing. You can also let them look into your eyes. And guess, what are you going to say next? Make them wonder. Make them guess. Give them a little hint, let them guess where the story is going. This also creates suspense and provokes the viewer to watch your video until the end, the perfect pot demonstrates great control and confidence. Of course, don't be quiet for too long. Find the perfect balance. When you learn to master stylus, you will send your reader, you will know the tempo of your speech, and you will keep your audience engaged. 21. Smile :): This is another key to success. And one of the best tips. A person who smiles often tends to be happier, more energetic, more dynamic, active, and even healthier. Smiling is also a sign of peace. Of being at peace with yourself and the world, being balanced and living in harmony. When you bring this simple yet meaningful expression into your videos, your audience will immediately feel more relaxed, cheerful, joyful, and happier. You will project light and great vibes. Who doesn't want to be next to a happy person. Or to watch Happiness unfold in front of their eyes. Laughter is contagious, and happiness is contagious as well. Don't forget to smile. Look at yourself and try to talk with your teeth showing. Tried to talk smiling without exaggerating it. Don't force it. Imagine yourself smiling and you'll see that your voice also changes when you smile. Your tone is different. You have a source of energy and a sort of worms in your voice. When you smile before doing anything, get yourself into a great mood. Into a happy mood. Feel yourself with energy. Start smiling. Have fun with your best friends before you know, to put yourself into the mood but without losing your concentration. So you have to, because sometimes you tend to get some goofy and you tend to feel like way too relaxed. We just need that balance. And this is another key. This is another, this is another key to, this is another key to success. And one of the best. Fear. More energetic. Being balanced. 22. The Camera is Your Best Friend: One of the most common mistakes that speakers make is that they think of an entire audience when they are in front of the camera, your mind goes too far. And you think of the thousands and thousands of people from all over the world that are going to watch your video. And naturally that your tone changes, you are different. The secret is to dress Only one person. You are talking to your best friend. The camera is your best friend. Think of your favorite person in the whole wide world. The one who listens to all your stories, your dreams, your thoughts, crazy desires, your passions, your goals. Who is that person? It can be your best friend. It can be your partner, your mom, or your dad. It doesn't really matter. Close your eyes. And imagine who is that amazing person. I've thinking about her right now. You can see that my face has changed. I'm smiling, I am more relaxed. I feel certain happiness and joy. I'm eager to share my experiences, my secrets, my knowledge, my passions, dreams, desires, all my crazy thoughts. Because I want to share them with the favorite person, with my favorite person in the whole wide world, naturally, your tone changes. You are more intimate. Your pace is different, your rhythm is different. You want to tell her what you are feeling to express that with every inch of your body. This kind of glorious feeling that grows inside a fire that burns so inside of you and you have that need to share with your best friend or with your loved ones. And this is exactly what you need. You have to imagine this every time you turn on the camera and you're in front of it, you have to imagine your favorite person in the whole world and talk to them. Talk to that person. You will see how different you will feel and you'll feel comfortable and confident. Think about the last time you had an amazing dream, or you had a promotion, or you fell in love, you achieved one of your goals. Who was the first person who found out your news? Think about a recent moment like this in your life. Think about how were you feeling? How is your state of mind now? Get into that state. Use your imagination, use your memory and get into that state. Remind yourself of that passion, that fire that burned inside you, that precise moment. That joy, that pure, electrifying joy, that happiness. Now, you are ready to record your video. 23. Edit Like a Pro: Editing is the magical process that happens before your video is ready for the final viewing. It can be time-consuming, especially in the very beginning. But with practice, you will learn to master it. For magic. You have the freedom to play with your footage as much as you want. You can change the pace and rhythm and sounds and music. Play with the filters are effects. And zoom out. Blowing transitions, life, graphics and text, voiceovers, and so many other things. It's your playground where you create magic. Agreed, editor can turn a mediocre actor into an Academy Award winning actor. This has to give you a confidence in front of your camera, is you have the power of editing. It doesn't matter if you stammer in front of the camera because you can turn yourself into a star in the editing room. Let's go through some tips and steps that you need to take in order to have a smooth editing process. First of all, organize all your footage at all your clips into a folder. And then you can also have some sub-folders with sounds, music, photos, graphics, everything that you plan to use for your video. Having a script is essential as it helps you to place your footage in a certain order. It's always best to split your script into some sections while filming, especially if it is a longer video, even if you have more takes for a certain part of the script, it will be much easier to rearrange them and selects the best take afterwards, make sure to backup your files. I always have at least one external hardest where I store all the raw material, the best takes, the first draft and the final videos. You can also use the cloud or Google Drive, whatever works best for you, but has some copies in another place, not only on your laptop or computer number to choose your magical weapon. It's very important to work with a video editor that you love if you do not want to spend too much time and just add some clips together, quick transitions, and some basic graphics or texts. Feel free to use iMovie or the YouTube video editor. If you work mostly on your phone, there are a lot of great apps easy to use, like in short. Magisterial. Viva Cut. Imovie can also be used on your phone and so many other editors, depending if you're using Android or iOS, not to mention Instagram and TikTok for short and created videos where we have so many cool filters and effects. If you want to get serious and create stunning professionals videos, then you have to get into Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premier Pro, depending if you are a Mac user or if you prefer Windows or Linux. I'm an Apple user, so I will show you how I edit my videos in Final Cut. However, the principles are the same, even if the tools are different and you need to become familiar with every editor, the rules are mostly the same. I personally started with iMovie and at some point I wanted to do more with my videos. So I bought Final Cut Pro and from the very first day, I knew what to do. I learned some new tips and tricks along the way. I knew how to use the editor. So if you learn some basic things, you know how to adapt in any environment. Number three, first things. First, trimming your clips. Let's get rid of all the unwanted footage. You've organized your clips, have chosen the best takes, and now you place them all on your timeline. Now you can go through all the footage and Todd, the beginnings, the endings, all the unwanted pauses, and maybe even some parts of the scripts that just don't seem to fit now in the final video. Sometimes in writing it makes sense. But when you actually deliver it to the audience and you see it and listen to it, you realize that you could do without that part, it happens. This has to give you the freedom while filming your video. Always keep this in mind. Don't be afraid to improvise. Don't be afraid to be completely free when you film yourself, because you have the freedom and the power of editing. You can cut anything and play with the material as much as you want. One important thing, do not get too attached to your footage. The hip ever is to know when to cut. And this takes me to number four, feel the rhythm of your video and pace. If I am editing a travel blog or a fashion blog, I always add the music first and I do the trimming on the beats of that song. Follow the rhythm of the music and do the transitions and a cut on that precise beat. This is great editing. If I am teaching online classes, I avoid adding music to not distract you dear students from the knowledge and purpose of this class. But in my YouTube videos, I always add music and follow his rhythm. I highly recommend editing using headphones because it will help you hear the beats of the songs. Avoid using copyrighted music. As YouTube will take down your video and give you a strike. The best way is to either use the YouTube audio library with free music or use a couple of websites with copyright-free music like semantic, which is free. Envato Elements, one of my favorites. But here you have to pay a monthly fee. Epidemic Sound, Sound Stripe, and many, many others. Just typing Google copyright-free music and you'll find so many websites. Number five, avoid jump cuts. I mentioned that you should cut all the unwanted pauses or to have a nice coherent and dynamics video. But cutting these will make the flow of the video look odd. Okay, now we have our message, we have our audience, we know how to say it, or do we need now, we need to become excellent storytellers. Want to do excellent storytellers. Do they know how to grab our attention from the very, very beginning? That's why you have to add b roles, which are extra video clips layered over these moments to keep a wonderful flow of the final video. You can also add screenshots or photos, anything related to the content of your video. Keep in mind that for this, you'll need more than video editors. Okay, now we have our message, we have our audience, we know how to say it, or do we need now, we need to become excellent storytellers. We want to do excellent storytellers. Do they know how to grab our attention from the very, very beginning? Number six, keep your content visually interesting. In order to keep your audience engaged as much as possible, you have to vary your plates and shots. Sounds from different angles or spice up your content. If you're talking directly to the camera. Photos or other videos, be roles that will make your vlog more dynamic. Keep in mind the rhythm and paste. Easier for travel logs, extreme sports, or any videos filmed outside. But even if you are simply talking about a topic that you're passionate about in your own room. You still can add photos, shots with you practicing your hobby, or even graphics and text highlighting certain words or ideas just to keep it visually extremely engaging. Also, don't forget to play with the senses and emotions. Sounds, music. Tell you a story using everything that we talked about in the previous lessons to take the viewer with you inside your world, right in the middle of your story. And this takes me to number seven. Tell a story. You are a storyteller. You have a story to tell that has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. You already have followed the steps of your script. And here you add the final touch, making your video as close to perfection as possible. Be creative and kingdom. We are constantly learning your videos with keeps getting better and better and better. 24. Quick Tutorial for Final Cut Pro: Let's do a quick tutorial in which I show exactly what I do when I started creating a new video. I have selected the best takes, added them all in my timeline in the order of the script. And first thing, I added a sound on the entire clip before trimming. If you do this afterwards, it will be more difficult to edit each and every clip individually. So I analyze the sound, remove background noise, and I also added voiceover effect. Then I also added the colors on the entire clip. You open the color board and start playing with the hues, the exposure, and saturation until you get the desired image. Then if all your clips are found in the exact same location with the same Mike and same light, you can simply copy and then paste attributes to all the clips. If you have different locations, is best to do this individually to the raw material before trimming it. Then you can add your music if you wish to have music. Some people add this at the end. But for me it is very important to feel the rhythm of the music and edit the entire video on that rhythm. If you do not wish to add music, simply start trimming your footage as you wish. Keep only the best and the most essential parts. If you have a large video, is best to export it. Now, this will be your first draft that you can upload in a new project. It's easier than to work on it. It will load faster. It will be only a single clip and not lots and lots and lots of tiny clips. After this, see if you have any junk. It's okay to have some that are not so noticeable. But if you have extreme jump cuts, do add b rolls, layering extra videos or photos. Then checkout where you can add some cool graphics, texts, sound effects, and maybe some funny things. I always do this towards the end. Add your intro or outro for your YouTube channel. And if you wish, you can also add some bloopers. Make sure to export it in better quality and use these settings. For graphics, transitions, sound effects or titles. I use Envato elements, even if it has a monthly subscription, it has a huge library of lots and lots of things that you can use designed for editors and creators. You can also look for YouTubers who are video editors, who usually share for free some of their graphics or transitions. I got a lot of these elements from YouTubers as well. Now, you are ready to add it like a pro. 25. Final Thoughts & Challenge: Congratulations for completing this course. You are now ready to rock this spot in front of the camera. The stage is yours. You are a force of nature. Fearless, powerful. You are beautiful, talented, and strong. Most of all, you have something to say. Your story matters. You have the confidence now to share it with the world and a drive to build your community, to create a platform, empowering like-minded people. Don't be perfect. Feel free to mess up. Feel free to be a mess. I had been struggling to be perfect most of my life. And I have recently learned that it's perfectly fine to let go from time-to-time, to be raw, unfiltered, to be natural and simple, and just have fun. We are our biggest critics. That's a fact. And we have to learn to silence or inner critic. We are usually the ones who see all these imperfections. While the rest of the world does not see all the tiny floss. And as a matter of fact, they might fall in love with your cute flaws. There is beauty in imperfection, there is beauty in embracing your true self. Now, you know how to master being in front of the camera. This right here is your stage. And you can say what ever you want and think here, it's your moment of truth, of honesty, of brightness. This is your moment of glory. You have learned to master your body language and expressions, to completely relax in front of the camera, and to tell your story. You are ready. My last challenge for you is to share your progress. You can do it here on the platform or tag me in your social media posts. Let me know how you evolved. Be aware that you are unique. I know it may be ugly shadow, there is truth in this. No matter your field of expertise, No matter what you do, there is something in you that no one else has it. Maybe your knowledge or experience or just though we, you are sharing it with the world. The way you express it, the way you talk, the way you look, the way you smile. The camera loves confident people, the ones who own their spots. And now you are one of them. I'm so proud of. You. Think of what makes you unique. What is your special trait? What do you have a no one else has? What is your superpower? Find your true colors, magic, and great. I look forward to hearing your stories, experiences, and fantastic progress. Thank you so much for joining my course. It has been such a pleasure to be your instructor. It was an amazing experience for me and I absolutely loved every minute of creating this video. It has been such a blast and I'm sorry that it comes from them, but I promise you that I'll be back with more interactive videos. The journey is just getting started.