Sep 8th 09 Posted by Fritz McDonald in Featured Articles, Strategic Creative

Making Movies: What YouTube is really All About: II

Fifteen Ways to Make Better YouTube Videos

1. Tell a story: It’s the oldest, most universal form of communication on the planet. Done well, it works every time. Get away from talking heads and roving interviews and study the way storytellers capture audience attention…and hold it.

2. Look for trouble: Without conflict, no one will be interested in what you have to say or show. It’s the essence of drama and comedy and everything else. Another way of putting it: your characters should always do the wrong thing…this is how they learn to do the right thing.

3. Use a three-act structure: Every story has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Hence, the three act structure provides the architecture for your story. Act I establishes the main character and central conflict. Act II brings that conflict to a crisis. Act III resolves the conflict (hopefully for the better).

4. Concept your story as a pitch: In Hollywood, nearly every project starts with a pitch. If your story can’t be told in three sentences, it can’t be sold. Think three-act structure. Think setup and hook (white shark wanders near the wrong beach), think character and plot (not the other way around).

5. Make it visual: Think of your video story as something people have to see, not hear about…another reason to get away from the talking heads approach. When you say your campus is fun, what does fun look like? What does academic quality look like?

6. Give us someone to root for: We all need to identify with someone in life and in storytelling. Note the number of famous novels and movies titled after main characters: Oliver Twist, The World According to Garp, Batman…

7. Action is character—believe it: The best way to make your story visual is to put your protagonist in motion. Give them something to do. Set them on a journey.

8. Cast it right: Ninety percent of any movie’s success depends on casting. The same is true for YouTube videos. Cast the right people in the right roles, then get out of the way and let them work.

9. Love editing more than you love life: The other 90% success factor (I didn’t say I was good with numbers) in video comes from editing. In fact, it’s the only aspect of film-video making that does not derive from another art form.

10. Favor indirection: Charlie Chaplin’s definition of a bad sight gag: guy walks down the street, slips on a banana peel, falls. Chaplin’s definition of a good sight gag: guy walks down the street, spots the banana peel, avoids it by carefully stepping over it into a puddle, sinks all the way up to his neck. Indirection: what you can’t see coming.

11. Keep it simple: Like fables, poems, short stories, the commercials you rave about at the water cooler. We remember simple story lines: Cinderella, Star Wars, ET. And simple doesn’t mean stupid. Ben Jonson said Shakespeare’s gift was communicating complex ideas in simple language.

12. Keep it short: YouTube’s video length limit—10 minutes—is still too long. Short is memorable, digestible, repeatable, to-the-point-and-fun-along-the-way. Always leave them wanting more.

13. Love your director: Owning a flip cam is no proof of creativity. Good video directors can do everything well—writing, shooting, coaching talent, editing. Find someone on your campus with this kind of talent and find a way to help them help you.

14. Back up your director: Your director can do everything well, but shouldn’t. Back him or her up with a good production manager who can oversee the thousand small details.

15. Write it before you shoot it: Whether it’s a full-blown script or an outline scratched out on cocktail napkins, you need a plan on paper. The better the plan, the better the video. A great director can make a great video from a great plan. However, even a great director can’t save a bad plan or no plan at all. Robert Altman scripted all that loose dialogue…you should too.

Next Post: 15 more YouTube video tips covering shooting, lighting, and promoting. In the meantime, my offer from last post still stands: tell me a story about a video you made or about a college video you really like, and you could become a guest blogger for Stamats.

Photo by: Andre Cherri