I'm sitting down with the young editor on my team, the one who makes our videos look good. Work he's made has been watched millions of times on social media. You'd never recognise him, though. He's always behind the camera.
I ask him what he'd tell someone who's just starting out with video, or who wants to get better at it.
One topic per video
"Concentrate on one topic at a time," he says. "Everyone's trying to get so much into one piece of content that it ends up diluting the message."
Before you hit record, be really sure what you want the video to do. One idea. Everything else can be another video.
Water the plant
Then he sneaks a second tip in. "You've got to be really patient. You water the plant every day and then you have a forest. It doesn't come overnight."
In other words, your first video probably won't get a million views. If you want to make better videos, make more of them. "The more you do it, the better you get," he says. "It's a process."
How long?
It depends who's watching. For a vlog he reckons around ten minutes is fine. For something informative, two minutes, and five at the very most.
His real answer is to try different things and watch what the numbers tell you. When something works, own it.
Editing tells the story
He calls editing massively important. It's where you take what you filmed and turn it into a story.
And it's where you find your own style. He's proud that people can spot his work without seeing his name on it. That only comes from doing a lot of it.
The tip that isn't about video
His last one surprises me most. "Audio is hands down the most important thing. Once you've got their attention, it's more about what you're saying."
People will forgive a wobbly picture. They won't sit through sound they can't hear.
Still good advice
A lot has changed since 2017. Short vertical video has taken over, and the phone in your pocket films better than the camera we were using. His advice has aged better than the kit. I'd give the same tips today, especially the one about sound.
If you're stuck for what to film, there are plenty of starting points in Stuck for something to post?, and Record, remix, release shows how one video can become a lot more.
Film one short video this week about one thing only. Spend more time getting the sound right than feels sensible, post it, and start planning the next one.
First published September 2017.
