How To Make YouTube Videos

I started my YouTube channel Kat Kuan back in 2017 and have uploaded 49 videos and racked up over 31k views since then. If you’re curious about how I make my videos, read on!

1. I usually start with the topic of the video – whether it will be a vlog, a story I’m trying to tell (i.e. a style transformation), or an educational topic like a style tip or some career advice.

2. Then I shoot the footage. I typically use my Canon vlogging camera with the flip screen so I can see myself (and make sure my head is not cut off!). For the equipment I use, refer to this earlier blogpost.

I grab as much footage as I need because I won’t be able to go back for it. So I may do an extra take to make sure I have the right ending, beginning, etc..

Another option is to use the camera on my phone to film and tilt it horizontally. (You could leave it in portrait mode if you want to film for IGTV.)

3. I also try to remember to take a photo for the YouTube thumbnail picture. A custom thumbnail picture makes the video more attractive for clicking on. Example:

4. After the footage has been recorded, I go to my laptop (MacBook Pro) and export the files I recorded from my SD card onto my computer.

5. I browse through the content and remove the outtakes and blurry photos. I’m basically curating a subset of the raw footage that I want to use.

When I’m watching back these videos, I go with my visceral feelings to pick out the most authentic clips. I look for what are the most natural emotions, and usually it’s from the first take. When filming subsequent takes, I start to get in my head and it looks like I’m reciting lines and overthinking the words instead of feeling the words.

6. Then I open up iMovie, create a new project, and then import the raw video and photo files that I want.

7. I start with laying out the video clips I want. I drag the video files down onto the timeline and put them in the desired order. You can also drag the start / end of the video clips to trim them.

Or you can right click on a spot in the video clip and select “Split clip”. Then you can move each part of the clip independently or delete one of them.

8. You can see a preview of your edited video in the top right corner of the iMovie application. Hit play to watch it back.

Within this window, I can also adjust the audio volume in the clip. I may mute the audio completely if it’s a B-roll shot (meaning alternative footage compared to the main footage). For example, if I’m walking up to the restaurant, then I’ll just mute the volume because I’ll add background music later. See the white sound icon with the red line crossed through it.

You can also play with the speed of the video by clicking on the timer icon. Choose Speed as Fast, Normal, Slow, etc.. You can speed it up by 2x, 4x, 8x, etc.. In the below example, I sped it up by 2x.

9. At some point, I usually pick music to go with my video. I pay for a service called Epidemic Sound to get royalty free music for my YouTube videos. This is great for creators because then you can pick from a wide selection of songs and not worry about infringing on copyright issues.

I have their annual subscription, which was about $150 per year but I think the price has slightly increased. These songs are for videos uploaded to YouTube / Facebook / Instagram / podcast, so if you use them for other purposes, you may need to pay a different price per song.

I think this music subscription is worth it if you’re serious about creating videos more frequently. Music adds a fun dimension to your videos.

I choose my songs in a pretty random way. I browse their staff picks, albums, or search keywords. Sometimes I search by genre, category, or even tempo. I like music with a pretty upbeat tempo for YouTube videos because it keeps the viewer engaged.

10. Once I find a couple of songs I like, I download them and import them into my iMovie project. In this below example, I imported 4 songs for this video. Same as with the video clips, I drag the audio clips down onto the timeline underneath the video clips. Drag them left or right or trim them so they line up with your video as desired.

If you want audio effects like a swoosh or a click or anything, iMovie provides a library of sound effects you can use for free. Click on the “Audio” tab to see and preview them. Drag them onto the timeline and adjust until the timing is correct.

11. Here are some other cool effects. If you are transitioning from one scene to a completely different one, you may want to add a transition like Slide Left or Fade to Black or Cross Blur, among others.

If you need subtitles to describe who’s talking or what’s going on in the video, you can add text by clicking on the “Titles” tab. There are a bunch of preset options and some are animated. You can change the text and font style.

12. Once you’re done with the video, watch the full thing back to make sure it’s what you expect. Then you can export it to your YouTube channel (or as a standalone video file). At this time you can also add metadata like the title and description of the video.

13. I prefer to wait until the video has been uploaded into YouTube to edit the metadata. You can set the title, description, thumbnail, tags, and more.

Title – Be sure to include keywords on the video. I also use “|” separators to add more phrases like a subtitle. For search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, a good title will help the video show up more often in users’ search results.

Description – I describe the video and include any relevant links to products / people / places that I mentioned. I also include a standard blurb on how people can connect with me on other social media platforms.

Tags – I try to add as many relevant tags as I can to the video, again for SEO purposes to make the video more discoverable. There’s a limit to the number of tags that YouTube allows per video, so I usually keep adding until I hit that limit.

14. As I mentioned earlier, there’s also an option to create a custom thumbnail for the video. The thumbnail is the preview that shows up on YouTube when the video is in a list of other videos, or when you paste the YouTube link in a website or social media post. I like to create a custom one with a clear photo and some text to describe what the video is about.

I create YouTube thumbnails in Canva (see my earlier tutorial post on Canva).

Download the image from Canva after you’ve created it. Then set your custom thumbnail on the metadata page for the video in YouTube studio. Alternatively, you can also choose from random screenshots that YouTube selected from the video as your thumbnail. See the 3 photos on the right.

15. Within the metadata page of the video, you can also select “End Screen” to customize what the end of the video looks like. At the end of YouTube videos, you may have noticed that there will be small thumbnails of suggested videos to watch next. Those can be selected by you and you can arrange the layout of them on the screen too!

Select the “End Screen” button and you’ll be brought to a new page.

Select “Use template…” and choose from the templates. You can have up to 2 suggested videos and select which videos or playlists should appear. You can also show a round thumbnail of your YouTube channel icon, so people can click to subscribe on your channel.

In the above example, I chose to add a button to subscribe to my channel and a video that YouTube determines is best for my viewer at that time. These elements are overlaid onto my existing video for the last seconds of the video. You can choose when those elements appear in your video and for how long, but they must occur at the end of your video.

Because these elements overlap the screen, you want to make sure that it’s not covering any vital information behind it. This is why some YouTubers have “End Screen” graphics that have some space on the side for these elements. Or I’ve inserted extra seconds of a blank black screen into my video so that I can add these elements.

In this case, I added a photo of some succulents as the background while these End Screen elements are shown. This is what the video in iMovie looks like.

16. Back to the metadata page of the video in YouTube… Add the video to one of your playlists, if applicable. (I added this video to my Vlogs playlist.)

Then make the video public! Anyone can view it and so that it will show up in YouTube search results / suggested videos.

Or you can choose to make the video “Unlisted” and only people with the direct link will be able to find the video.

17. As the last sanity check, watch the video one more time to make sure that it uploaded just as you expected it to. Then share with your audience!! Great job on making your first video!!

If you want to see the final product of the video I was making, check it out below.

Here are other types of videos on my channel:

• My Documentary: Finding What’s Real
• Writing a Children’s Book
• Style Makeover Videos
• Style Tips
• Business Tips
• Life Skills to Have
• Vlogs

Thanks for reading! And subscribe to my channel for the latest videos!