Better YouTube Videos (or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc) – a case study

Platforms such as YouTube, snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have revolutionised the way we watch video. So it’s should be no surprise it has also dramatically changed the way we create video, too.

Go back 20 years – YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter weren’t even ideas in their inventor’s minds. In 1998, Apple were making these…

…and blowing people’s minds.

The first iPhone wouldn’t be around for another 9 years. Here’s the first YouTube video, uploaded in 2005:

Things are different now

We’ve had just over a decade of smartphones. Which means kids are now growing up with a much closer relationship to photography and videography than previous generations. That’s why videos on YouTube are much more fluid and entertaining than they used to be…

Hmm. Wait. Okay, there’s still work to do.

Actually, I think it’s a bit like singing in the shower. If we think no one is listening, we sing with full expression. Because we’re alone so who cares if we sound like a cat being strangled? But if we have to stand on stage and do it – suddenly we become aware we need to be “good”, so we try our hardest not to make mistakes.

Problem is, unless you’re used to singing in front of audiences, we end up sounding worse. You know, probably the only thing we really had going for us was the emotional part. But in front of an audience we freeze and the emotion gets stifled.

How to have fun and be playful

From the videos I’ve seen, the same thing happens to people once they start a YouTube channel. They go from doing this for fun, to thinking: “okay, millions of people could see this so I need to be professional”.

To my eyes, that “being professional” is the killer of your imagination, expression and creativity. Think about it – have you ever been to a concert because you know the singer has a degree in music?

“Hey, I’m going to see Beyoncé live!”

“Wow, so cool! I’ve heard she’s really professional!”

Said no music fan ever. Whether you’re a Beyoncé fan or not – you get what I’m saying here.

Beyoncé fans go to see Beyoncé because she lights up their lives. In other words, she connects with them emotionally, through the power of words, melody and harmony. She’s probably sung those songs hundreds or thousands of times, yet when she performs, it’s like she’s feeling those emotions right now.

(disclaimer: I’ve never been to a Beyoncé concert)

Imagine listening to a song being sung by someone who is technically perfect, but is terrified of making mistakes and so is doing everything by the rule book. It would be dry, boring and soulless… like so many YouTube videos.

What can we do?

Well, you need to get singing in the shower again – in a metaphorical sense – with your videos.

Here’s my go to video, again. The one by Patreon founder Jack Conte. Let’s analyse this and see what makes it so alive and engaging.

First shot

From the very first beat of this video, Jack has thrown caution (and convention) to the wind. The first frame of this video is of Jack’s shoulder, as he takes his seat in his studio – whilst holding his camera in his hand and talking, introducing himself to the hoped-for receiver of the video – Casey Neistat.

If Barclays Bank had paid you to make this video, featuring their CEO, can you imagine starting like this? Of course not – you’d have the camera on a tripod, lighting, clip mic on the subject. Everything would be prepared and you’d ask the bank CEO to start talking, introduce herself etc.

And it would be dry and dull and boring. Perfectly professional. But painful to experience.

So, right away, we Jack is being informal. It’s like he’s talking directly to us, like we’re in a video call with a friend. Being in his studio tells us right away this person is creative and sending us a message from his creative environment.

Why is this important? Because he’s not really sending this message to Casey, it’s really to us – creatives, YouTubers. He wants to tell about Patreon, hidden as a message to Casey.

The first shot lasts 10 seconds. Jack launches into his pitch, rapid fire, full of emotion. He ends on the word “studio”.

Rapid-fire montage

Cut to some rapid close up shots of his studio gear. The sequence lasts about 18 seconds and I lost count of the number of shots in that sequence (over 20?). Notice…

The pace of the editing changes to fit how Jack feels about the shots.

Jack adds plenty of sound FX to make those shots more punchy and impactful.

None of the shots are “professional” – they put you into the studio as someone looking around.

Neither is the editing slick and polished. It’s deliberately rough, creative and fun.

This sequence is driven by the images and the audio equally.

What does this sequence do?

Appeals directly to our childish, playful, creative nature.

Tells us “this is for YOU, creative people”.

the informality relaxes us, puts us at ease, invites us to watch.

Have you ever been to an open mic night for stand up comedians? Do you remember that tension you felt sitting in the audience as the first comedian steps up to the mic? “What if this guy sucks?”

Most humans have empathy. Which means we feel uncomfortable at someone’s social awkwardness. If a comedian is telling jokes and no one is laughing, most of us feel increasingly uncomfortable.

This is indeed one of the challenges of being a stand up comedian. Because the more tense the audience gets the less likely they are to laugh. So the longer this goes on, the worse everyone feels.

Wait, a sidetrack story

I’ll tell you about when I used to work at a cinema. Thing is, it was a special cinema (the BFI IMAX in London), where staff had to make a speech before every film. And the other thing is, I have a social phobia – the idea of standing up in front of 500 people and making a speech terrifies me.

But I decided I had to get over this, so I confronted my fear. After a while, once I felt a bit more comfortable, I started to add jokes. Sometimes those jokes got laughs. Sometimes they fell horribly flat.

So you make a joke and see 500 blank faces staring back at me, “Was that a joke? Not funny.” But here’s where I learned a great lesson – I learned how to get people on your side.

When I made a joke and nobody laughed, I then followed that up with another joke about how bad my joke was. Then people laughed – out of relief (because they were feeling uncomfortable about my social “mistake”).

By making a joke about myself, people were able to relax: “Ah, it’s okay, he knows his joke was bad, like we do. He understands us – we understand him”.

Why is this important? Because that’s exactly what Jack does at the start of his video – he says, “hey everyone, relax, I’m just a flawed human like you.”

Stop trying to be professional

You see, a “professional” would not have made a joke about his bad joke. Because a “professional” must never admit his mistakes – professionals need to you to believe they’ve got this under control. I mean, a surgeon in a middle of a procedure doesn’t go, “Oops, sorry, wasn’t meant to cut there!”

But social media doesn’t work like that. The general message of social media works best when it says, “Hey, we’re all in this together. I’m a lot like you, so don’t be afraid. Come on in!”

Story structure – turning point 1

Traditionally, stories have a beginning, middle and end. This video comes to the end of its beginning at about 48 seconds. The point where jake decides the time is right to introduce his idea to Casey (us, really).

He uses a title: “This Is It”. But not using the title creating function of his editing software, which would have been very easy. Instead, he writes it on a piece of paper and films himself pulling it out of a bag and presenting it to camera.

This is informal and in keeping with the theme of the video – fun, childlike creativity. The writing style is deliberately casual. It’s charming and disarming. he’s not trying to impress us with his slick and professional title writing skills.

Then it turns out that the title is actually an envelope, which he then proceeds to open while he continues to talk to camera. Wow, this shot now working on 2 levels – we’re half listening to what he is saying, but we also want to know what’s in the envelope…

As he talks, a nice lively music track underscores what he’s saying. While he’s staying on one shot, the music keeps things energised…

Plot twist!

Just as Jake is about to reveal what’s in the envelope, the music cuts. The momentum of the video stops as Jake decides to tell us something else – and, of course, keep us hanging on as to what is in that envelope.

Now that he’s hooked us with the envelope opening cliffhanger, he knows we’re more likely to stick around while he gives us some back story. Genius, right?

Cue: new music track and new montage. Notice how these fast cut montage sequences are used to break up the story to keep things fun and fresh. They are also great for pacing the story – showing you what happens next, but compressed in time so you don’t get bored.

Montage ends with Jake announcing: “This is my childhood.”

From the look of that box, it was a creative childhood spent making a ton of videos. Remember that theme? Fun, childlike creativity.

Jake is not trying to persuade you that he’s now a serious, professional filmmaker. He’s not saying he’s better than you. He’s taking you back to his childhood, opening himself up and saying, “I’m just like you. Let’s play.”

He now talks to us, like it’s just him and us in the room. He talks softly, intimately to the camera (actually us). So close it breaks that barrier between audience and presenter and turns us all into his Jake’s best friend, feeling like we’re 8 years old again.

Story structure – the middle

Jake now takes us quickly through his life journey from child videographer to fanatical YouTuber. Again, using upbeat music and montage he keeps the pace going – he’s never going to let us get bored.

Notice how Jake is very familiar with the camera. Moving it when he feels like it, talking to it, reaching out and carrying it when the mood takes him. He treats the camera like his best ever friend, which of course means we – the audience – feel like Jake’s best friend, too.

Watching this video, I feel like Jake has invited me round to his studio and he’s telling me (just me) all about his new idea. I mean, I feel honoured that he especially chose me to tell such an important thing. Do you feel that way too?

Cut to: shots of his notebook with hand scribbled notes (more images of spontaneous creativity).

Middle – part 2

Jake now tells us about Patreon and how it was created. Well, this was his whole intention when he decided to make this video. But he knows he needs to hook you first, before he starts selling you his multi-million $ web company.

Plot twist!

To keep us on our toes, the music stops to indicate that once again the story is about to take a slightly new direction. Jack starts talking to himself via his desktop editing software, pretending to have a live conversation. It’s fun and keeps the audience thinking.

It’s a real fun, creative and simple way to keep the information delivery fresh. Jack now builds to the promise he gave us earlier, that he would reveal what is inside the green envelope. The one titled: “This Is It”.

With editing, Jack now brings us back out of this diversion to his past. We plop back out of the wormhole to find ourselves back at the moment Jack was about to show us the contents of the envelope. And the reveal is….

A plane ticket

Jack reveals he’s bought a plane ticket so he can visit Casey to talk about his big idea. Except he’s not going to reveal that idea yet. So he keeps us hanging on that cliff edge – we’ll have to watch the next video now, to find out.

The end

Jack now concludes his video, bringing this episode of the story to an end. No more fast cutting – because now the audience has either left or committed to watch to the end. Jack knows he doesn’t need to work to keep the audiences attention at this point.

Instead, the music easy-going music (as opposed to the high energy music earlier) creeps up under his voice, as he brings us back gently to earth, like a skilled hot air balloon pilot.

So that’s an analysis of a great piece of YouTube video, that went viral to the tune of over 2 million views. The follow up video also received over 2 million views, which indicates Jack really gripped his viewers. Enough that they’d watch the next video, which is over 12 minutes long.

If you’re going into the business of making your own YouTube videos (or any kind of videos), for profit or for fun, I hope you find this analysis useful and inspirational. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas on how to free up your video making creativity, using simple shooting and editing techniques.

If you want to read a shot by shot analysis of a more polished YouTube video, shot on an iPhone – head over to my article on Made In Paris.

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