This past week (well, actually the week before that since I took a break for Thanksgiving) I finally posted my first episode! It feels great to finally see a finished product from my work. I still have two more to get to, though!

Step One: The Filming

First off I had to film my video. This turned out much smoother than my test shoot – there were no technical issues and every shot I had planned I got to make. Since I had mapped out every single shot and what type of shot it was (b-roll, talking to camera, looking at journal, ect.) the process was smooth as could be.

One thing that I think would improve this step would be to gather my voiceover sooner than I had. Instead of making the rough cut and v.o. right after filming I waited a couple of days and by then I had lost my momentum so I had to build it up again. Still, I was able to do so and moved to the second phase.

Step Two: Editing

Again, because of my script and shot list, this process was fairly easy – though with the color correction, voice over, audio editing, gathering music, text editing, and image creation it ended up taking about seven or so hours. I may have been able to chop off an hour if I had made proxies of my footage earlier, though.

Along with editing the video I used stills from the shoot to create my channel art and icon. For my icon I used photoshop, taking a pose that I made during my filming that I knew I would use either for my thumbnail or the icon.

For my banner I used the tool from snappa.com. This was very helpful since there are borders that certain devices will see. if you go to my channel page on desktop or mobile you will only see a narrow strip of the image, but on a television you will see the full thing.

I also made my thumbnail in in Photoshop. I went for a more simple look, similar to AmandaRachLee‘s thumbnails (which I took note of from last week’s competitive analysis). I think next week I will try to mix things up but keep the same font for continuity.

Step Three: Uploading

Finally I was able to upload my video. While the file was processing I took my time to create a description that had relevant keywords, links to my social media, and timestamps for each section.

And now, the result! It feels good to finally have a finished prodcut from all of the work I have done so far.

Step Four: Monitor & Interact

As of right now (a week after posting) the video has 73 views and comments from two users that I have replied to. The views seem to be growing steadily, so I am satisfied with this result.

The retention rate is not optimal, but not the worst. As you can see from the chart below the views drop to about 55% within the first few seconds. This means that for my next video I will get to the point right away. After I begin the videos main content, though, the retention stays at around 33% so it looks like those who are interested in what I begin to talk about stay to hear it all.

As the weeks go on I will continue to monitor the analytics and make adjustments as needed. For now I am happy to know that my views are going up, even if it is a slow growth.

On to the next…

This week I also finished my research for the rest of my videos and wrote the script and shot list for Episode 2. I am glad that I ended up doing the research for Episode 3 before beginning the script for Episode 2 since I incorporated a lot of ideas from Arnold Bennett’s How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

Because I found the method of color-coding each beat in the script and shot list to be very useful in the filming and editing process the first time, I continued that in these next documents. You can see my updated (and almost complete) bibliography and the script & shot list for Episode 2 below:

Finally I compiled every task I had done this week into my weekly production journal which can be viewed here:

One final task I did was shift the dates on my Trello board since I decided to use my week off after finishing Episode 1. I have no wiggle room now, so I will be sure to keep on top of everything and listen to my own advice!

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Stay tuned for next week’s post where I will be tackling the next episode’s filming, editing, uploading, and creating the script and shot list for the third and final video.