Speaker 1: A good video grabs your attention, tells you a compelling story, and gives you a new perspective on things. At least, that's what I aim for in my content. Hello, I'm Matthew Encina. I've been making videos for a long time, from TV commercials to music videos to content here on YouTube. In this video, I'll share my YouTube filmmaking process and my favorite tools and tips so you can improve your own content. Before I begin, I want to thank Asus for sponsoring this video. My process starts by asking a simple question. What's the point? It may sound overly simplistic and obvious, but if you don't have a clear answer to this early on, you're going to waste a lot of time throughout the process. You'll shoot things that don't matter, overwhelm yourself sorting through footage, and you'll be wrestling with a convoluted story until you know the point of it all. When you have a clear direction, you'll capture with intent and can focus your creative efforts. If you're like me, you make content because you enjoy it and you want to share your message with an audience you can connect to, but how do you know if they'll care? One way to test the viability of your ideas is to see if people are already searching for the subject you're covering. I use a tool called TubeBuddy because it helps me determine how big of an appetite there is for my type of content. I research different keywords to find what people are already searching for, and I do my best to align my own ideas with those popular search terms. Then I aim to make my own content better, unique, and different from what's already out there, so I can stand out amongst all of the noise. Before I shoot anything, I build a script and shot list. This gives me an idea of what the final video might look like. Of course, this is just the place to start from. Once I start shooting, I end up finding new angles and my story develops as I work through the process. Having a good plan takes a big project and breaks it down into small, manageable tasks. This helps me gauge how much work needs to get done, so I can set aside enough time for it. With a plan in place, I'm ready to shoot. I usually aim to cover at least one wide shot to establish the scene, a medium shot to focus on the subject, and 3-5 close-up detail shots to keep the viewer visually stimulated. I tend to look for things in the space that describe the character of the scene, putting the camera in unexpected places, giving the viewer visual surprises. When you're capturing B-roll shots like this, make sure to capture a wide variety of shots and get at least 20 seconds per clip. Having this kind of coverage will give you a lot to play with in the edit, and you'll thank yourself later. While it's nice to have good camera gear, don't underestimate what you can accomplish with the one you already have in your pocket. I use shots from my phone all the time, and for the most part, the footage looks just as good as my fancy cameras. Don't let a lack of gear stop you from making. I try to put a lot of care into the audio of my content. Sound is half of the experience, and many would argue that it's more important than the visuals. When I shoot my footage, I always try to capture the natural sounds of what's taking place and layer them into my videos. Just like good B-roll, this secondary audio gives texture and detail to the experience. In most of my videos, I use voiceover narration to carry the story along. To record good audio, you need to be in a quiet room with good acoustics. Since my office isn't sound treated, I do my recordings in my closet because the clothes around me eliminate any echo and outside noise. For a rich sound, I speak as close to the microphone as possible to capture the full depth of my voice. Underneath the captured audio is music. I source my tunes from several music libraries, which I'll list in the description. When you're watching something, music tells you how to feel. I generally like relaxing vibes, so I prefer to use mostly chill beats. With everything captured, it's time to edit. I pull in the footage and line it up with my narration to make my rough cut. This helps me see how well the story has come together. If I feel like I'm missing something, I'll do a pickup shoot to get the shots and audio I need to complete the story. Then I do several more passes on the edit to trim out excess and refine my story points. To stay organized, I color code the sections of my edit to match my script and shot list. This helps me easily identify each section of my story. Being a good editor requires you to be emotionally detached from what you shot and solely focus on what you're trying to communicate. Every shot should have a purpose, and every sequence should move the story forward. Everything else should be edited out. One of my favorite parts of the post-production process is color. This is where I take the footage I've shot, color correct it, and then add a little color grading to enhance the look of my picture. For most of my shots, I like to slightly overexpose them and add a classic orange and teal color grade on top. When you're working on any kind of color sensitive imagery, it's important to have an accurate monitor. The Asus ProArt Display PA278QV is a monitor designed for creatives who need color accuracy for their work. It's a 27 inch IPS panel monitor with a 75hz refresh rate and adaptive sync technology. This monitor has 100% sRGB and 100% Rec.709 wide color gamut, so you can see more details when you're fine-tuning your visuals. It's Kalman verified to guarantee color accuracy by Hollywood post-production standards and arrives pre-calibrated so you can get to work right out of the box. The ergonomic stand allows you to adjust the height, angle, and rotation to meet the needs of your setup. Whether you're editing videos or working on a full-page design, the monitor has plenty of ports so you can connect multiple devices and peripherals while maintaining clean cable management. It also has built-in features like the ProArt preset which provides multiple modes for quick color gamut adjustments, eye care technology to reduce eye strain from long viewing sessions, and a handy quick fit feature to preview your print files and grid alignment. If you work on images or videos and you need a color-accurate monitor that won't break the bank, the ProArt Display PA278QV is designed just for you. And if you're looking for a 24 inch monitor, Asus also has the PA2048QV. After a video is colored, mixed, and rendered out, it's ready to be published online. I upload to YouTube, giving it a search-friendly title by including the keywords I discovered in the research at the beginning of the process, and then give it an interesting thumbnail to draw people in. The thumbnail and title are the most important elements to nail outside of making good content. It's your first impression on your potential audience, and if you can't get them to click through, they'll never see your video. Once published, I monitor the performance of my videos over the next few days and weeks. Specifically, I study the comments, views, click-through rate, and retention to see what areas I can improve. I closely watch the YouTube analytics and continue to A-B test different thumbnails and titles using TubeBuddy. These small adjustments help me improve the click-through rate on my videos, so the YouTube algorithm is more likely to pick up and promote my content. These post-publish adjustments can make a huge difference in the overall success of a video. And that's an overview of my video production process. These are the methods I've used to grow this channel and the two others I work on. There are so many more details to my process, from research and writing, to the craft of film and editing, to understanding the platform, how it works, and how to make sense of your analytics. Because there's so much to it, I'm currently developing a detailed course about my video content creation process. If you're interested in learning more from me, sign up for my email newsletter and be the first to know when it goes live. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them. I've also left links to my camera gear and additional resources in the description below. With that out of the way, it's time to get back to work.