Guide to TV and Film Production

[Just the facts]

For the past few months I have been toying with the idea of creating Travel videos similar in production quality to the Rick Steve's Best of Europe show on PBS.

I watch a lot of travel videos on YouTube and the vast majority of them are very amateurish (mostly a guy walking around with a cell phone) yet have 10's of thousands of views, if not more, and wondered, "How difficult can this be?"

With that in mind I started educating myself on the intricacies of film production and oddly enough, YouTube has been a big help. I found this series on film production and thought I would pass it along for those interested in learning what it takes to make a TV show or movie.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...2qF9Yfe-LKSDha

[catch22]

Many people underestimate the amount of time it takes, especially when you get into post-production. I run a small 1,000 subscriber youtube channel and have very bare-bones content: minimal music overlay (90% is just ambient sound from my camera), and zero narration or voiceover. My content is 100% Point-Of-View perspective. I show traveling from my point of view and do not include any voiceover, it is all observation based. I do well (in my own opinion) with about 4,000-6,000 views per month and 1,000-2,000 watch hours. Nothing crazy.

Total post-production time is usually about 1 hour per finished minute. I.E. 31 hours of editing for a 31-minute video. I am working on a new episode now and spent 9 hours yesterday trimming 5 hours of footage down to 47 minutes. I have spent a couple of hours today cutting that further to 36 minutes with a finished goal of around 30 minutes. By the time I release an episode, I have watched it at least 20 times, frame by frame. It's time-consuming if you are a perfectionist -- you are right some people do just throw up content that looks terrible and they make it work. Youtube is a high failure rate arena. Many people spend thousands of dollars on gear and hours and hours editing a video all to get 7 views.

Less is more. You are using your viewer's time, it is best to not waste it. Watch and trim. Watch and trim. Watch and trim.

Just some things to keep in mind, it is very time consuming if you want good production value.

[wunderkind]

What's the name of your YouTube channel?

[Just the facts]

Thanks Catch22. I started writing my initial script a few weeks ago and planning the story board. I am a huge Rick Steve's fan so I spend lots of time stuyding his production techniques and reading his behind the scenes blog. For a 30 minute episode I need 3200 words.

https://blog.ricksteves.com/

[catch22]

I would suggest trying to get something started before releasing the piece you are working on. Go out and throw up some amateurish videos out there. Get your channel into the algorithm. I don't know what's near you but if you are still in Jax go to the beach and just take a 2-minute video of you walking down the beach commenting on how great it is that ____________________. Wait a few weeks and put up another one walking into the grocery store talking about how great it is that ______________. If there's a local intersection that grinds your gears because it is set up so stupid go out and talk about it, but be brief. No one watches 8-minute rants and raves. They will get all of 3 views each. But that's okay. The algorithm just needs something to rate your channel against. Just make the content somewhat relatable to your main topic. The first video you upload to youtube WILL NOT get distribution. It could be a complete James Cameron work of art, but if it is the first video you publish they will not put it in anyone's feed. So it is important to get a few smaller pieces out there floating around for youtube to test on. When you do upload something that captures audience time, it will then propel it higher in the ranking.

You need something to get some traction for that bigger piece you are working on. However, the best piece of advice I have heard is the algorithm works for the viewer, it does not work for the creator. It delivers the perfect video for that viewer at the time, but it does not deliver the perfect viewer to your video. There's a subtle but huge difference.

What's the name of your YouTube channel?

I don't plug it or self promote I was just using my experience for some context of the discussion.

[Just the facts]

Catch22 - step 1 for me is just seeing if I can do it to the level of quality I want. If I can't there is no point going forward.