How Much Planning Actually Goes Into a YouTube Video?
Spoiler: It’s a lot!
As someone who grew up watching YouTube in the early 2010’s, creators like Bethany Mota and LaurDIY were releasing videos had me glued to my screen and dying to decorate my room with “three easy DIY projects!”
For years to come, I would dream of creating my own channel and make my big break. But alas, it never happened. Honestly, I thank my mom for trying to burst my bubble, “those video’s take a LOT of work.” And while I never really understood it then, I do now.
So while I’m not creating a YouTube channel with the intentions of becoming a lifestyle vlogger, I still am going through the same planning processes that those creators are. So, what could I possibly need to do to create a successful and organized video? Here’s the rundown of the pre-production planning phase:
Project Planning
As I talked about last week, project planning is a huge piece of the puzzle. I need a plan as to how I am going to break up the project into manageable chunks and then give myself a general timeline to complete said chunks.
Thought Maps
There are a lot of directions that my project could take, and without harnessing those thoughts into a document, I could get caught in an endless spiral of ideas that honestly, won’t do me or my audience any good. Through creating a thought map for each choreographer I plan to highlight in my video series, I was able to categorize each subject and idea I had surrounding their background, impact, experience, etc.
Script Plan
Before there was a script, there was an idea… a plan. Before I can dive into writing a paper, or in this case, a script, I have to organize my thoughts even more than just what I bubbled together during my thought map. This is where I take the ideas presented in my mapping and expand upon them to give me a clearer idea of what EXACTLY I want to talk about in each video. I also find this helpful in making each video less overwhelming to write a script for.
Script
Many, if not most YouTuber’s have a script ready to go. It’s hard to just jump in without a script planned out especially when presenting research. So while incredibly smart and educated in their fields, Hank and John Green over at Crash Course aren’t just hitting record and spitballing everything they know about their video topic. There is a script that is written and utilized to ensure that the information being presented is factually correct, comprehensive, and presented in an organized fashion that makes it easy for the viewer to understand.
That’s all done, now what?
Those are just the steps I take during the pre-production phase of my videos to set myself up for success. Following this phase will come a whole other layer of planning for deciding locations, filming, editing, designing thumbnails, etc.
So, I really do give the big time (and small time!) YouTube creators credit for the work that they do just to set up for a video.