How am I on camera — radical candor please
As a strategy to grow and educate users at the same time. I am creating 1-2 YouTube videos per week.
I like to start with YouTube because everything else is easier.
- answering questions on Quora is easy
- writing a blog post is easy
- creating a feature landing page is easy
- posting the video on Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn is easy
- when selling I can always link questions to video content
- it’s great for SEO — I think
- it’s great for getting exposure and traffic directly from YouTube
I’ve heard it takes at least 35 videos on YouTube to get a groove and a little traction. I’m only at 18 and I don’t think my content is that great, plus I don’t engage as much as I should if I want to grow.
However, I am spending quite a bit of time and would like a third party perspective to share with me what I can improve to maximize engagement and viewership enjoyment/education.
I think it’s improving but I’ll leave it up to you for your thoughts so I can improve.
Cheers
Hey Michael! I think you're great in front of camera. Confident + high quality recording. If you create more of a 'set', I think you'd be 9.5/10 (there's always room for improvement, right...?) rather than 8.5/10.
As a side-note, I thought you said you were 18 (not that you had made 18 videos), so I got a bit of a shock when I watched your video!
Awesome product too. I'm going to be using this for our social media. Keep creating!
Haha, I am cracking up. I thought that also when writing that last night.
When you say 'set' you mean more interesting lighting and background like the famous YouTubers?
Yeah, pretty much - lighting + background would enhance the production value a little more, but to be honest, there's nothing wrong with the way you're doing it now. Content rules, so focus on that first and foremost.
Keep making videos. Shipping a video is the hard part. Keep going.
Here is some unfiltered feedback>
Intro is bad. I thought my sound settings were messed up. It annoyed me.
Your audio is clipping. You are too loud or you don't have a pop filter, or you didn't mix it right.
Your lighting is inconsistent. The lights on your face shift as you move taking attnetion away from what you are saying.
'Today we will talk about stacking media' not a great intro. What is the outcome. Something like 'today let's learn how to get more sales.' talk about what the user wants.
This is great feedback. What I could improve.
doing some more research ahead of time (I coded the feature and was too excited to share it without thinking about what the user wants to hear)
Fixing the lighting, this is a tough one as I am a noob. I could just shut the blinds and buy a lighting kit from Amazon, this should actually do the trick.
Not sure what you mean by clipping? The audio DB is too high? Yeah, I usually lower it by -1DB I forgot on this video. Good point, the intro was like whoah.
Intro was forced, I just wanted to ship, I think having a better format will solve this.
Good to run through these things. Thanks :)
Good luck! Just keep making videos. They key is to keep shipping. You will get better and better.
check out Webflow university tutorials. They are probably my favorite kind, short, straight forward to point and with a bit of humour. You could copy their style to make your videos
https://university.webflow.com/courses/webflow-101-crash-course?video=O5TdnuUhIgs
This is great. Here is what I like about it.
What I can learn from this. I can.
What I can't do
My videos need to be useful and extremely fast. I found this format works best in the short term until I pick up some traction and can hire someone to do this full time.
yes this is a great break down. the main things I like about them
I've heard of this before.
What did you like about them? Obviously the short and sweet aspect. What else? Taking a look now.
I am not digging the tank top look - why wouldn't you present yourself as professional?
Fair enough haha,
I guess it's a San Diego thing, beaches, hot weather, etc. I don't really mind being casual but if viewers are off-put by that then it's something I'll consider while still trying to stay true to my genuine style.
Hi Micheal
Firstly what I loved about he video. The main thing is your personality it great for YouTube and the tone of your voice is good for this kind of technical tutorial type content. Also your appearance is good and the semi messy room works well to give a creative appearance that’s unique probably when everyone else has pristine backgrounds.
Minor point is in the first section I think zoom out a bit so there a bit of space above your head.
If you do just one thing differently: slow down a lot! Try watching the famous blender donut videos and aim for his speed. I’ll chuck a link in a second to that.
Having a silent section at the start confused me and I thought my phone was bust again!
I would go straight in to your face talking at 0s, explain what you’ll do then show the example, talk while that is shown, then go into the how to.
To summarise my suggestions are go slower and reorder the beginning a bit to make things clearer. This might be possible without reshooting.
Well done you can really talk well which is the main thing so there isn’t much in my opinion to make this perfect.
Disclaimer: just a random internet opinion, not a video expert here, take with pinch of salt etc.!
Thanks for sharing it.
Ha ha everyone disagrees with me about the clutter! Ok maybe go with the majority there and ignore me!
Blender donut:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TPrnSACiTJ4
Haha, thanks for the feedback. I agree the intro was weird, I sort of jammed it in there.
Because I had exported the final copy and wanted to showcase it. I think the execution could definitely be better. I am trying to move fast but having a proper format set up ahead of time will solve both those problems.
Looks good overall from a production point of view.
Good catch, I do manually sync the screen recording to the camera. So the chances of that are high. I didn't notice it but you have a good eye.
Thanks for the feedback. I agree with having a stronger use case. This is the thing about content creation I am learning. You don't have to be perfect and you can always re-create content. I hope that helps others who are hesitant to create.
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I agree with this. You are confident and clear on camera but some of the details have let you down, some of which seem petty but are noticeable - the clutter (as Primer mentioned), your hair wasn't symmetrical and the cap and singlet (nice gun show) seemed too informal.
Some teachers intentionally present themselves as approachable experts by dressing one level of formality higher than your intended audience would normally wear. (i.e. if your audience wears t-shirts, wear a shirt without a tie. If they wear a shirt without a tie, wear a shirt with a tie, etc.).
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