YouTube
YouTube hosts videos of many different kinds -- most notably material captured from mainstream media, but user-created media is also central to its core. Not only has YouTube launched the next generation of stand-up comics, but also aspiring musicians, sports analysts, and video journalists. Screencasters teach us about using Photoshop. Video game gurus show off their moves. Marketers push their products, and tout a variety of schemes for making money.
The most interesting contributors to YouTube, however, are the socializers. They use YouTube as a medium of communication. They make videos for their friends and make friends with their videos. They comment on one another's videos. They rate each other's videos. They respond with their own videos. Once in a while, someone is so talented they 'go viral.' This is the group we call "YouTubers."
YouTubers like these often want to keep it simple, light-weight, and cheap. They may use inexpensive camcorders or picture cameras with a video function, free editing software, and makeshift sets. They aren't, however, immune to the urge to make better videos.
The YouTube low-resolution format puts limits on detail and subtlety, but this has become a minimalist style of its own, with its own charms. Still, videos that make good use of color, light, and effects stand out from those that don't. Videos that are pared to the best footage keep the viewer's attention. Videos that have been edited to the beat of a music track stand out from the one-take, one-clip wonders. Videos shot from a tripod or monopod are usually preferred to the product of an unsteady hand. In other words, many of the values of traditional movie-making are beginning to come to the YouTubers.
YouTuber camcorders don't have to be High Definition. They need to be light, portable, and ready to shoot at a moment's notice. Above all, they need to be cheap. Even so, the first steps to improved YouTuber videos are 1) a tripod/monopod mount, to get rid of the shakes, and 2) a mic input, for better sound. YouTuber editing software needs to be free or cheap. The next step up for many YouTubers is multiple video tracks, for green screen and picture-in-picture effects, and multiple audio tracks for mixing in background music and sound effects. And, of course, they need some improvements to technique -- Video Strokes for YouTuber folks!
Tripods, Monopods, and Other Camera Stabilizers
Affordable Wireless Microphone
Video Editing Software for Vloggers and YouTubers
Editing Software Tutorials:
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