Angela Chen

What I Learned from My First Vlog

Angela Chen -

A couple of weeks ago, I published my first vlog on YouTube. And honestly, I probably could have released it sooner, but I procrastinated. I found myself trying to perfect every step of the process. I was nervous about producing something bad.

To avoid falling into my usual bout of perfectionism, I ripped off the bandaid and set the deadline earlier than I had initially planned.

And surprisingly, it was ok.

My first YouTube video published on December 18, 2021

Looking past the actual video, I learned a lot of new skills, even if I wasn't good at them. Perfecting each step is all part of the journey. So I wanted to use this as an opportunity to sit down with myself and reflect on what I learned and what can be improved next.

Baseline Skills

I walked into this project with the video development experience from the six cleanroom pharmacy training videos I created for work. The general process was similar, and I was able to apply the same knowledge and skills to my vlog:

Overall Process

With a strong understanding of the video development process, the workflow is straightforward: Idea —> Write a script —> Film —> Edit video —> Publish.

Basic iMovie Video Editing

I was also proficient in using iMovie for post-production. Specific features I previously used included:

  • Cutting clips
  • Speeding up and slowing down clips
  • Using transitions
  • Adding a voiceover via USB microphone
  • Adding full-screen pictures
  • Adding pictures within a video clip
  • Adding supplemental on-screen text

New Experiences

In hopes of building on my previous skills and making better videos, I spent a bit more time figuring out how to polish the video and try new things. For this first vlog, it was my first time doing the following:

Filming Myself

Filming came with its own set of problems I was unprepared to face. Given the nature of vlogs, I was forced to sit down and talk to the camera. Surprisingly, this was more difficult than I initially imagined. Something about it felt uncomfortable, and I still haven't quite figured it out. Is it fear of appearing vain? Fear of truly seeing myself as others do?

What is there to fear? I don't know.

Another challenge I faced was camera handling. With a more dynamic video, I struggled to steady the camera and capture the best angles. The last clip I shot was nauseating despite having my camera's stabilization feature enabled. A quick solution to address the shakiness is investing in a gimbal, which I hope to be my next purchase. As for camera angles, I plan to study and emulate what others are doing to figure out what works for me.

Adding Music

Once I sat down to review my footage in iMovie, I realized it was really boring. There were long periods of silence that I wasn't willing to cut out. But I recognized that long periods of video without speech or music could make a video drag. By adding music, I would be able to set the video's mood and fill the silence.

While adding music isn't too different from doing a voiceover, I knew I could run into issues with future monetization if I didn't do my research. After watching a couple of videos, I learned that I needed a source for royalty-free music. There are both free and paid options, and after browsing both, I decided to go with a free trial on Epidemic Sound. Videos that helped me learn about royalty-free music options are linked below.

Removing the Background from an Image

In my head during scripting, I imagined having a pop-up image of James Hoffman when I mentioned following his french press guide. Unfortunately, Google images did not have a picture of him without a background. This left me with a couple of options:

  1. Insert a full-screen image of James and replace my filmed footage
  2. Insert a pop-up of the entire image, including the background, with hard lines into the video
  3. Find a way to remove the background so I could have a James-only pop-up in the video

I ended up choosing the latter option. To do so, I skimmed his videos, found a still image I liked, took a screenshot, and removed the background to only include his torso-up. It was surprisingly easy, and I was able to use Preview to do it with no additional cost.

Thank you, Dr. Google.

Fit to Frame in iMovie

During post-production, I opted to continue using iMovie in the hopes of gaining proficiency in the software. At this point, I had used most of its features. However, when watching other YouTubers, I noticed there would be times the video frame would zoom in on the subject's face for comedic effect.

After noticing my video clips did not have much value on the espresso machine, I felt the need to maximize on my facial expressions for entertainment value. I had previously only used the Cropping tool "Fit to Frame" feature on images and was pleased to find it was just as easy to do on a video clip. After this revelation, I marked every segment where I made a funny face, clipped it, applied the Fit to Frame around my face, and added supplemental captioning.

Creating a Thumbnail

The last new endeavor I overcame with this first YouTube video was creating a thumbnail. I learned that a thumbnail needs to be eye-catching and set video expectations. Some key tips that I kept in mind were:

  • Pose either before or after filming, so you have options for your thumbnail
  • Make sure the text is large enough to read when displayed as a small thumbnail for viewers
  • Saturate the image to be more vibrant and eye-catching

Fortunately, I had enough blooper footage to choose an image where my face looked displeased to set the expectation that my unboxing did not go well. My tool of choice was Canva, so I took a screenshot of my video and imported it in. All I had to do afterward was saturate the image and add title text. The video below helped teach me the basics of creating a thumbnail.

For Next Time

I am proud of myself for overcoming these new challenges in creating my first video. Was the video perfect? No. I still have a lot to learn. In reflecting on my performance, a couple of obvious areas for improvement include:

  • Improving camera presence
  • Filming better footage, which includes finding the best angles/shots, getting a gimbal to reduce shakiness, and investing in a video lighting setup
  • Learning more about improving audio, including music

This was just the first step of many to come. I look forward to my next creation and what else I can improve.