great videos start with great stories and video is the perfect medium for storytelling in our modern world. Many people carry around a device in their pocket where they can watch videos all the time, and video is both visual and audio. So it's a great way to give your story to an audience. Now, figuring out what story you want to tell with. Video is a whole nother story. Sometimes you might already have that story in mind and you know that it would make the perfect video. And for me, this came about last year when I was thinking about making a short documentary and I had a friend who was unfortunately diagnosed with a L. S. Or lou Gehrig's disease in his mid twenties and he was a professional, award winning photographer and he basically couldn't use his hands to change the settings on his camera anymore. But after a couple of years he figured out a way to still take photos from his wheelchair. And this whole story was just so inspiring to me that I knew it would make a great documentar...

y now. You might not have that perfect story to tell right now. But as filmmakers were always on the lookout for a great story. Even when I was shooting the Anthony Carbajal documentary, I'm always on the lookout for inspiration for my next video. If you're struggling to find a story, shoot something you're passionate about, you should always be really excited about what you're shooting. So if you start by shooting your passion, you may be able to evolve and develop a story or something out of that. I for example, really like hockey. So I shoot a lot of hockey videos sometimes I just take my camera out there and before and after games I get out there and I shoot and really because I'm passionate about it, the story will sort of find me. So our advice to you to get started with finding your story is to get out there and shoot your passions. It's a great place to start looking for inspiration and hopefully it will spark your next idea. So if you have an idea, a subject or the type of video you wanna make or even if you're still a little lost and trying to figure out what you want to do, you should really just go online and see what else is out there, Go onto youtube, go onto instagram search companies that you know, you like where they're similar to your own company and just start grabbing inspiration from those things. See how they made them look at each shot individually and think of, oh, they went in and they shot this wide shot and they shot this close up and analyze how it was made. So you can go and use your own style or use your own techniques to make a video better than that one. You know, be better than the videos you're grabbing inspiration from or you know, use similar tricks I know for myself when I first started with Major Lazer, I had shot some events but never at that level. And so I went and saw what other big acts were doing, seeing how people cover their events. Were they doing behind the scenes shots where they're doing just really cool fast editing, you know, all these different things. And Over time I developed my own style, I developed the, my way of approaching it and it's really, it's been a great learning experience for me and each video is different. Each approach is different, but I'm always looking out there and seeing what other people are doing to know, Oh my gosh, you know, these guys about this video and it got 500 million views. Okay, well people obviously like that stellar. They like something that they're doing there. So all go and try doing something similar. But again, my subject matter is different. I'm a different filmmaker. So it's going to be my own style. When you're coming up with your video idea, you've got to think about how engaging your video will be and with engagement, it comes down to a couple of things, but one is the length of your video, there's no perfect length for a video. I always say that your video should be as long as it takes to tell your story for some stories. This might be two hours for some stories. It's 10 hours. It's a full season of tv shows for some, it's a 32nd clip on instagram, There's no perfect length for your video but remember that we do live in a world where people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and shorter, so trimming the fat and keeping it short will make it more engaging. Aside from the length of your video, engagement comes across with how you make your video as well, including what types of shots you have a video with one long shot of someone talking at the camera isn't going to be as engaging as that same video with multiple shots or multiple people telling that same story. Also adding things like music graphics or titles can make your videos more engaging. Here's a checklist to help come up with your next video topic. Think about what you're passionate about research are the videos that you're drawn to, that you can gain inspiration from bounce your video ideas off your friends and family because getting a second opinion can help you develop your idea, use a tool like google trends to see what's currently trending or just hop over to Youtube to see what the trending videos of the day are. Think of things that will make your video stand out among the rest. Use these tips to start thinking about your next video topic

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Come up with a Great Video Ideas

Come up with a Great Video Ideas

Lesson Info

4. Come up with a Great Video Ideas

Lessons

Welcome to the Class

What Makes a Great Video

What Type of Video Should You Make

Come up with a Great Video Ideas

Plan Your Video

The Pre-production Checklist

Does Equipment Matter

Our Recommended Cameras

Our Recommended Audio Equipment

Our Recommended Lighting Equipment

Our Recommended Editing Equipment

Our Recommended Drone Equipment

Quiz: Chapter 3

Exposing Your Shots

Compose Your Shots

Filming Yourself

Getting the Right Shot

Choose a Background

My Office Video Setup

Quiz: Chapter 4

Exposing with DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras

Focus with DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras

Stabilize Your Shots

Know Your Lenses

Shoot with Your Smartphone

Shoot with Your Webcam

Record Great Screencast Videos

Tips for Better Drone Shots

Types of Drone Shots

Quiz: Chapter 5

Choose the Right Microphone for Your Video

Record Better Audio in Any Environment

How to Use a Lavalier Microphone

How to Use a Shotgun Microphone

How to Record Audio with Your Computer

Quiz: Chapter 6

Why We Light

Use Natural Light

The 3-point Video Lighting Setup

Quiz: Chapter 7

Intro to Editing

The Post-production Process

Craft a Story with Editing

Improve Your Audio with Editing

Find and Add Music

Design Clean and Professional Titles

Increase Video Engagement with Calls to Action

Quiz: Chapter 8

Export the Best Quality Video for Online

Tips for Posting Online

Grow Your Youtube Channel

Quiz: Chapter 9

Case Study - Corporate Promo Videos with Ghirardelli Chocolate

Case Study - Event Videography with Major Lazer

Case Study - Documentary Films with Phil

Case Study - Shooting By Yourself

Case Study - Wedding Videography

Case Study - Phil's Livestream Setup

Thank You

Final Quiz

Class Materials

Philip Ebiner

Sam Shimizu-Jones

Will Carnahan

topics covered in this class

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