After publishing more than 3,000 YouTube videos, I have a process that works well for me to be consistent with brainstorming, shooting, and posting new videos. The process varies for other channels I’m a part of, but this is what it looks like for the Video Creators channel, including where I record my ideas, how I set up the camera and lights in my house, and tools I use to work with my video editor.

A few of you guys have asked, Tim, what’s your process for making each of these videos? And so today I’m going to show you my exact process, and it starts with cleaning up my basement from all the kids’ toys.

My Process for Brainstorming

Now, obviously I need content, right? So actually what I did all day today– I’m here at my computer– and I spent almost all day just gathering, and researching, gathering data, researching topics that you guys have requested, that you guys have said you’re interested in. And so right here is my Evernote document. I use Evernote. You guys can use whatever works best for you, obviously.

So I have one Notebook in here just called Video Notes, and this is where I just kind of go. So these are going to be all the videos I’m going to shoot here today for the rest of July and into August a little bit. And so I have five videos outlined, and these are where I keep other past videos that I’ve done.

 

So all I’m going to do now is put them here on my the iPad. It will automatically sync to Evernote and then I can just stand over at my camera and go ahead and shoot them for you.

My Process for Shooting

Now, two common questions that you guys usually ask around this point is, Tim, one, how many takes do you end up doing? How long does it take you to do each of these videos? And I have a video that shows the entire behind the scenes of me standing right here, looking at that camera, shooting for you guys.

And then the second question is, Tim, what camera gear and equipment are you using? What lights are these? What camera is that? What microphone are you going to use? All that, and I have another video that gets into all my gear that I’ve already done for you guys too.

I’m back shooting all my videos at once, I don’t want to look that way, you know, when you watch all these videos. And so I actually go through a few different shirts. I have my shirts lined up.  I change my shirts so it looks like I didn’t shoot them all in a batch.

The next thing I do is take a little bit of time just to adjust the camera. I get the focus lined up. This is my little remote I use to get the focus just right. You know, that’s just like having the shutter button right here in my hand because I can’t reach that far and grab the camera, obviously. And then I set my spot. I can just jump right into the spot without having to worry about focus and things like that. So now it’s time to shoot.

My Process for Posting Videos

Once I’m done shooting that video. I’m going to take it out, my card out of the camera. And I’m going to take it back to my computer back here. Usually, I don’t do this with every single video. I usually just kind of shoot all my videos batch them all up on the card and then transform all at once.

I’m going to dump it onto Dropbox.

I’m going to create a new folder. And I title it the name of the video.

I’m going to open it up and see all the files from my card.

And then while that’s doing that, I come over to Trello. I have a whole other video about this you can check out here. I have a video editor. We have a Trello column for new videos. I’ve uploaded the Dropbox for her. So I come here, title it that. Click on Add. And then I’ll edit it and I’ll give it a different label.  Then I’ll want to give it a new due date. And let’s just say this one, I want it due on the 27th.

And so now Julia, my editor, knows that this video is uploaded to Dropbox, and so then she’ll go through the process of editing it.

Once the video is edited, she puts a draft of it here in frame.io, it’s a website. And this is just like collaborative editing so I can just click on her comment and it’ll take me right to that point in the video. It’s cool too because I can actually edit on here. I can also, draw annotations if I’d like.

So we go back and forth. She’s really good. Like, we have very minimal revisions usually that need to be done. I actually have a whole video dedicated to that process of working with an editor and everything. That will take you through, step by step, how do I work with my editor if you want to get into more details about how the process works from this point forward.

And that is basically the process I go through to make videos for you guys. So I’m really looking forward to hearing your comments. What does your process look like? I’m looking forward to learning from you guys. Where do you find that I could maybe shorten some steps, and save some time, or be more efficient? I’m looking forward to reading all down there, and guys learn from each other as well.

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