How To Create And Upload A VIdeo To YouTube

If you have ever had the urge to perform your favorite Shakespeare play for an audience of thousands, or tell people your views on politics then you may consider uploading a video to YouTube. "But I don't know how to do that!," "I'm technologically impaired" "What is YouTube?" If you said any of these three things then stop thinking and just read, because I put this guide together just for you. The guide will go over the basics of creating a video and uploading it to YouTube (a website were anyone can upload videos of themselves for the world to view and criticize).



Step 1 - Digital Camera: Practically all cameras today come with a video record option. Buy or borrow a digital camera with this feature and make sure that it also has a USB cable to connect it to your computer. If you are going to be in the video read the camera manual to learn how to put the timer on or have a friend help do the recording while you perform.



Step 2 - Get ready to become a star! Before you begin shooting create a simple outline to follow with a beginning, middle and conclusion. This will give your video structure and viewers are more like to rate your video 4-5 stars. Film in a quite area because the camera's microphone will record all nearby sounds. Shoot extra takes of everything so that during editing you can pick and choose the best takes to include in your masterpiece.



Step 3 - Extract Video: Once you have all the video you need on the camera you will need to extract it from the camera to the computer's hard-drive. Take the USB cable and plug it into the camera and the other end into the computer. All the pictures and movie files on the camera will show up on the computer. Create a folder on your desktop and label it "YouTube Video." Drag or copy the video files to the "YouTube Video" folder. Hang in there! You are doing great so far.



Step 4 - Create Title and Credits: Open up Microsoft Paint and create both a title and end credits page. Use a large readable font and save the files to your "YouTube Video" Folder.



Step 5 - Window's Movie Maker: Open up Window's Movie Maker. One by one import every movie file and both MS Paint files into Window's Movie Maker. Once they have been imported arrange them in the proper chronological order starting with the title and ending with the credits.



Step 6 - Editing: Splice any extra footage off each video as you see fit, or, you can shorten each clip by grabbing and dragging their edges. Most YouTube viewers have a short attention span, and start to loose interest at the three minute mark. Because of this make your video between thirty seconds and three minutes.



Step 7 - Add some music. While in Windows Movie Maker you can grab any mp3 off your hard-drive and drag and drop it with your other files. Then click on "View" and select "Timeline view" from the drop down menu. Once the view changes drag and drop the mp3/s at the bottom of the page. You treat the mp3 the same way you do the video files.



Step 8 - Create the Final Video: After you have previewed the movie in Windows Movie Maker, export it to a WMV file format. WMVs are great for YouTube, but you can export it to another file if you have the right codecs. If you've never done this before, use WMV. It's noob-friendly.



Step 9 - Visit www.youtube.com and create and account. Once your account is created find and hit the "UPLOAD" button. YouTube will take you through a couple steps and your video will now be part of the ever-growing Internet! Good Luck! You can do it!



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