How Small YouTube Channels Can Stay Consistent: My Complete Filming and Editing Process

Today, I'm planning to shoot four YouTube videos, and then tomorrow I'm hoping to edit one. And through that process, I'm hoping to show you exactly how I do this. So not only how I film, batch film, but also how I then edit these videos. I really want you to see how I stay consistent creating weekly YouTube videos while running a business and having other distractions. Now, before we can film, there is one essential step, and that's planning my videos in advance. So let's go do that. Now. In last week's video, I shared exactly how I make a content calendar for YouTube so that when I sit down like I am today, I can shoot multiple videos at once because I have a bigger about six video strategic plan for my YouTube content. And yes, I have changed since the last time you saw me because I am now on my third video of today that I am shooting. Oh, and if you want to see how I do that content calendar and build that strategy, watch this video next. It's the video from last week. Now, because all of my videos are planned in advance, all I have to do today is show up and film. I have my script or my video game plan pulled up right here. I have three in a row that I know I'm going to do. I've done my hair and makeup, and I can just focus on that. So let me first share with you my setup for a filming day like this. Now, I'm working on getting better B roll and sharing better clips, but I forgot this morning to grab B roll of me setting up my equipment. I recently did just paint this room. So all of my lighting and equipment was in that closet right there. So I just pulled it out and I set it up how I normally do. All right, so we're going to go on a little field trip. On my left here, I have a window. And because that light hits the left side of my face, I do need another light source, which is this soft box to hit me on the right side of my face. Just. Just to balance things out. Now hitting my face directly to kind of smooth the fine lines and give that, like, ring look in your eye is my ring light. So I have that right there. The other thing that tends to be a problem for most people is good audio. So I am going to plop a picture in here of what my mic is on this camera. I like to have my mic plugged into my camera. So I just have one file of audio in video. But this room, it does have tiling, as you can see, and it can cause More of an echoey sound. So what I do is I lay blankets on the floor and those are just duvet covers to help absorb some of the echoing to make the audio sound a little bit better. So I'm hoping you all can notice the difference in audio recently because I am really making an effort here to up level my quality of my video stuff. And then I guess the last thing is my camera. I use the Sony ZV1 because again, it is minimal to tech. It's just turn on point and shoot. And so we talked about my setup here. My camera, my mic, my lighting, and then the blankets on the floor to really make the audio better. I actually have a list of my go to equipment, everything that I mentioned just now, some beginner equipment and then some more advanced equipment@trina little.com forward slash equipment. It's totally free. You can download that. Check out the list I have of, you know, bootstrapping ideas. And then there's more advanced. If you're looking to up level your equipment. The key to being consistent on YouTube is obviously filming consistently. And for me that means keeping the process simple and keeping the equipment simple as well. Trust me, the more you complicate it, the more excuses you'll have to not film these videos. And I've been there as well. That's exactly why I don't use this fancy camera anymore. I bought it with the fancy lens, I probably spent about $1,000 on it. And I don't use it because it was such a pain to not only get on the tripod but then to get it focused right. And to get the AUD audio, I need an external mic and it was just too complicated. So while I spent a lot of money on it, I like a much simpler, even less expensive setup that I can be consistent with. Now, before we keep going, I want to see what is the hardest part for you when it comes to filming YouTube videos. I want to continue creating content that's going to help you get on YouTube and stay consistent. So if I can kind of hear what the biggest problems are in the comments below, I can focus my content on helping you find solutions for those problems. Now, before I share how I film these videos, there are three major questions that I get all the time when it comes to YouTube videos. Do you change your clothes? How long is your video? And how do you not give away all your information? Change of clothes? Yes. Usually I will change my shirt after I'm done, finished filming and getting my thumbnail photo. Key point there. Getting your thumbnail photo with the shirt you just filmed in, I don't make it super complicated. I just go in my closet, pick a T shirt. Generally, there is no rule on my channel where once I wear a shirt I can never wear it again. I usually wear about the same six to eight shirts over and over again. True story. When I first started batching content here on YouTube, I thought I literally needed to change everything for every video, meaning hairstyle and makeup. So I was washing my face off between every video and putting brand new makeup on to slightly different because I thought it needed to be that different. And it doesn't. Just grab a shirt. If you want to wear the same shirt for three videos, four videos, five videos, go for it. Steve Jobs did it for years. Length of video Honestly, I have no idea how long my videos are going to be until I get the first draft back from my video editor. My goal in this content that I share in these videos is to deliver on my promise that I put in the title of the video. So whatever the title of the video is, that's why it's so important to determine the title of the video. First, I make sure the content that I have in this video will support the title. So you feel really great about clicking on my video and getting exactly what you wanted. That could be five minutes, that could be 25 minutes. There's no secret length that your videos need to be to get success on YouTube. You just need good content. And then let's talk real quick about how do you balance free content that you're giving on your YouTube videos versus your paid content? Same paid workshops or courses. Well, here's the reality. AI has kind of cracked that all open, right? Information is totally free on ChatGPT and other AI platforms. And so if you're going to withhold great information from your audience, from your viewers, they're not going to build that trust with you. Will your viewers pay to have your information in a sequential order with your frameworks and maybe worksheets and checklists along the way? Absolutely. So what I share here on YouTube, I try to make sure it is my best content possible. Because if I'm not going to give them the solution to their problem, they're going to go to other YouTube channels, they're going to go to chat GTP. So I want to build that relationship with them. And then in my paid products, what is something special I can offer for them? Is it one on one time with me? Is it my specific framework? Is it my workflows? Is it my templates to make Them want to buy my products in addition to watching my free content here on YouTube. Now let's move on to the actual filming process. Filming is easier, faster, and you get better content when you do plan in advance. Plus, I'm going to be talking about my editing process coming up at the end of this video. And by planning in advance, you're also going to shorten the amount of time it takes you to edit your videos. I use what I call my video game plan. You can grab this if you want. It's called Scripts that sell@trina little.com forward slash scripts. And this is what I'm using right now as I'm looking at my computer, at my video game plan to know exactly what I'm going to be sharing in this video. I've also planned out what additional footage are B roll that I need to get. So as I'm filming this content, I can grab B roll, take breaks between videos. I can make sure I'm taking my camera with me and getting specific B roll. Because my goal right now as I Double down on YouTube and take a break from Instagram is make my content as good as possible. I really love the way Katie Steckley films her videos and she's really inspired me to level up my filming process. Before, I would just sit here, film content, bang out one after another because I was so scattered. But I believe because I tell you this all the time and I finally had a realization that Trina, double down on your YouTube video. So as I plan what I'm saying in my videos, I also take the time to plan out what additional footage I'm going to need for my videos as well. To make this easier, I've also created a B roll library where I just make a list of a bunch of different B roll that I think would be great for my videos or that we would use multiple times in a video. And then one day I will just take my camera around and shoot more multiple B roll clips. So I'm not worried about getting them between shots like I am right now. The last time I shot B roll library footage was about 2022, so it definitely needs a facelift. But that is also a great way to batch content like B roll content to make your videos better. Now, I've talked about this quite a few times, but the way I shoot my content, the way I am talking to you right now, I'm not memorizing this stuff by no means. I also don't think a teleprompter works either. Unless you're really good at it like a newscaster generally see your reading the teleprompter. So instead what I do, like I said, I have my game plan pulled up right here. Anytime I need to take a pause or I want to remember where I'm going with this, I will stop, I will look over here, I will scroll and then I'll come back here and I will deliver what I'm going to say. So you don't need to be a one shot wonder when it comes to filming your YouTube videos. Take your time, take those pauses and you can cut those pauses out during your editing process. Now the key piece as you're getting started is just create valuable content that your audience will appreciate. You can do talking heads for the first year of your channel as you get your flow going. Because this is all I've done for a long time and I've gotten great results. So don't overthink it. Just show up and start delivering valuable content. Before I move into editing. I need like a flasher here. Do not move forward. Don't until you do this. When you're in your filming process, so many people forget to remind people to get their thumbnail photo. So whenever I'm done filming my video, I will turn my camera off, switch it over to timer mode and get thumbnail photos. Generally I will have four to five different options that I've pre planned in advance. But you got to get these thumbnails before you move on to that next video or wrap up filming. Okay, let's move on to editing. And I've got some great news for you. The trend on YouTube right now, now is very minimal, simple raw style editing. No more Mr. Beast ADHD style editing where you're putting like 500 clips in a one minute YouTube video. You can really minimize your editing and still get great results right now on YouTube. In fact, I tested this in April where I edited my own videos and they took me under 30 minutes to edit. And you can see right here the audience retention graph shows they just did fantastic. In fact, some of them did better than my typical edited videos. So let's talk about the software that you may need to edit videos. I recommend anything that you can get for free to start with. So if you have a Mac product, Imovie is totally free. I use Imovie for a long time until I leveled up with Final Cut Pro. What's great about Final Cut Pro, again Mac users is you pay for it once and it's paid for. Whereas something like Adobe Premiere Pro is a licensing fee that you pay every single month. And I just found Adobe Premiere Pro a little bit more complicated. I also have a lot of my clients really liking descript. I haven't had the chance to use that, but so many people are coming to me saying that they love it and it really speeds up their editing process time as well. So let's watch me edit one of my YouTube videos. And the first thing I do is my first round of edits. Welcome to editing Trina Editing. Trina does not do hair and makeup because today's on a day I need to show up on camera. So what I've done so far is pull up Final Cut Pro. I have imported the two files that I'm going to be editing, and I'm also going to be showing you here on the screen my editing workflow. I'm gonna need to move this guy here because it is not working. The first thing I'm going to do is I want to get the lighting right. So this is the first time I filmed in this room and it looks a little bit dark. I'm also going to go ahead and take off my blue light glasses real quick just to get the best look at the lighting here. So what I do on Final Cut Pro is I come up to here and I'm not a fancy editor. That's why my editor is doing this particular video and I'm editing Sunday videos. I will up the exposure just a little bit because you can go real high. That's crazy. But because this is darker, the room is darker. I up the exposure a little bit. I'm probably going to need to also take the saturation up a bit because unfortunately it looks like my blue background is washing me out. Just gives me a little bit of color. And I did use a like to tint this a little bit blue, but I don't think I need to with the new blue background. So I'm going to just leave it like that. Color correction done. The next thing I'm going to do is come to the audio and I don't see any peaks here. So this is the second thing that I do in my workflow is if I see any red peaks of audio, I'm going to go ahead and turn it down so that they're not any audio cracks. This is completely done. So I'm going to go ahead, put my glasses on and I'm going to start editing. And I know my shortcuts here in Final Cut Pro, so it allows me to go a lot faster. I'm going to Go command B, delete this and I'll start watching from here. I will also watch it in two times speed to go quicker. And I am starting this at 1:54. We see the time up here, let's see what time we get it done. Once I have all of that in, then we're gonna do the second round of edits. And this is where I put all the pizzazz to the video. Alright, check in time. I have my first edit done. I started at 1:56. It is 2:13 so it took me just about 15 minutes. The raw footage was around 16 minutes. So again the key is keeping your raw footage short and then you'll have less editing. Now the next thing I'm going to do is go through here, make sure the edits are tight enough and add anything extra. I know I talk about Taylor Swift in here so I may add a gif. I'm not sure what happened to my camera but it's doing this. Or maybe it's me in my last years of my 30s really having a new era awakening now this may set you back and be like oh no, I can't use this video, it's messed up. Nope, done is better than perfect. I'm gonna put this video out. I'm gonna put a little disclaimer at the beginning. Like camera is whacking out here. Please bear with me when I send my email out, I'm gonna say that as well. So I'm gonna go through this second round of edits. I'll show you what I add when I get done. We're gonna start the timer again. So we're 15 minutes in. We're gonna start the timer again at about 2:15. See how long it gets the final draft to be done. Alright, the second round of edits are done and in 15 minutes. So you can see the time right up here. Literally 30 minutes to edit this. And I really did keep this super simple. It is a Thursday for me. As I'm editing this. I got stuff to do tonight that I'm already thinking about. So I just want to make this super simple. All I did was go through again making sure that the edits were where I wanted them to do. I added text right here. So if we click on here to let people know. So sorry, camera was having a breakdown throughout this video. Bear with me the zooming thing, other things that I added again I just watched this through a second time. I didn't do even zoom ins. It's all one shot here. I did get some screen recordings to show Ashlyn's channel that I was talking about here. I also talked about the product of Ashlyn's that I use to help me in this particular video. And just for fun, I threw it in a Taylor Swift gif and that's literally was about 16 minutes of raw footage down to 11 minutes, 12 seconds. I didn't even put an end card on this. I'm just gonna put my end screen right here where there's space. So I'm gonna export it, upload to YouTube and I'm done. Like I said, if you're just trying to get consistent on YouTube right now with one video a week, just edit the video. Don't add the pizzazz. We can add layers on as you go, but you need to start getting in this routine the cycle of publishing once a week YouTube videos and to start getting that consistency. Muscle working now Health Habits with Shannon recently commented on my video. How do you show up, record and create videos when life feels hard and stressful? How do you do it energetically? So I want to share some of my habits and my tricks to staying motivated even though it feels really hard to show up some days, especially when things are hectic at home or you're really dealing with a bout of imposter syndrome. I'm going to dive into that in my next video on your screen right now. So click on that video and watch it now.