Making A Simple Video For YouTube

I have just been asked to upload the little YouTube video I made for the 30 Day Challenge “Film Festival” to my Facebook group page. This was the first time I made a YouTube video, so I’m pleased someone likes it

Although hardly an expert, I thought it might be helpful if I quickly described here, the steps I used to create the video…

STEP 1 - Wrote A Short Script.

About 300 words I think.

STEP 2 - Recorded My Words

Plugged a microphone into my laptop and used the free audio recording and editing software Audacity to record the voice script.

You can see the single (mono) voice track in this screenshot of Audacity.

STEP 3 - Add Some Background Music

I already had some copyright free music (I made it).

So I imported two different pieces of music into Audacity, chopped them and slid them to the correct time positions, relative to the voice track…

Above is a screenshot of Audacity showing the voice track, together with aligned background music tracks.

During this step, it was also necessary to reduce the volume level of the music sections running alongside the voice, so the voice could be heard over the music.

STEP 4 - Exported The Finished Audio Track

I used the option in Audacity to export as an single (mixed down) mp3 file.

STEP 5 - Made The Visuals

Opened Windows Movie Maker that I found on my PC (comes with Windows XP).

Then I imported two royalty-free images I wanted to use into it, together with my audio track.

STEP 6 - Created Titles

I created all the text screens, to show the messages I wanted to fit to the voice script.

I did this just by using the “Create Titles” function of Windows Movie Maker.

Then arranged the title pages, with the two images. I added a fade-in and fade-out to each.

There was quite a bit of fiddling and previewing, to get the titles and images to be sychronised with the audio track.

Screenshot of Windows Movie Maker Showing Timeline Components

STEP 7 - Exported The Finished Video

I exported the video, choosing the “Save To Computer” option, with a quality setting of “512k Broadband” internet use.

Movie Maker did all the technical stuff, producing a .wmv video file.

STEP 8 - Uploaded To YouTube

I read the help file on YouTube and found out how to upload.

You can upload a video as big as 100MB. My finished WMV file was less than 3MB so no problem.

It was uploaded straight from my Desktop, to YouTube.

SUMMARY

All in all, not too difficult to make a simple video, consisting of various images, titles, voice narration and background music.

Start to finish it took me about 6 hours, but a similar video should be quicker next time.

I enjoyed doing it and hopefully have learned some useful skills for the 30DayChallenge and product creation, in general.

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5 Responses to “Making A Simple Video For YouTube”

1. Lynne Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

   Great Stuff

   That explanation is a niche product all in itself!!

   Thanks for the great input

   Lynne

2. Lynne Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

   Stumble it guys vewry worthy!

3. Deb Says:
   August 5th, 2007 at 9:12 pm

   Great info! I have all that stuff on my computer and never thought to look at it.
   Thanks
   Deb

4. meanie Says:
   March 6th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

   thanks for this. googled “basic youtube video”

   this site/page delivers.

5. A Simple Way of Making YouTube Videos » Colin Evans Says:
   May 11th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

   […] Making A Simple Video For YouTube […]

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