A Full Year, and Not One Video
He said he'd start a channel in January.
In February he was waiting to buy a microphone. In April he decided to learn editing first. In June he found his idea had been done, so he went looking for another one. In September he was busy.
And in December, when a friend asked him: how many videos have you filmed?
He said: none yet. Still getting a few things ready.
A full year of intention, and zero minutes in front of a camera.
The thing he never said to himself: he wasn't missing a microphone or an idea. He was missing one finished, mediocre video.
This article is about that one day. The day you finish your first video without waiting for anything.
First: Lower Your Expectations
Your first video will be weak. Your voice will sound strange, you'll say "uhh" a lot, and you'll hate the result.
This happens to everyone without exception. Every person you watch today who looks professional had a first video worse than you'd imagine.
The point of a first video isn't for it to be good, it's for it to be finished. Because once you go through the whole journey a single time you discover where you actually need to improve, instead of guessing for a year.
Step One: Pick an Easy Idea (15 minutes)
Don't start with the hardest idea you have. Start with one you know well and can talk about without research.
Good first ideas: something people ask you about often, a mistake you made and learned from, or an explanation of something you do every day.
And avoid, for a first video: ideas that need long research, filming in multiple places, or guests.
Step Two: Write Five Points, Not a Script (20 minutes)
Don't write every word you'll say. Reading from a written text your first time makes your voice stiff.
Write five points only:
- The opening: what will the viewer know from this video? One sentence.
- First point
- Second point
- Third point
- The close: what do you want them to do?
Five points on a piece of paper. That's all. And when you progress and need a tighter structure, how to write a full script is covered in: how to write a YouTube video script in Bardiyah, step by step.
Step Three: Set Up Your Space (10 minutes)
Three things only.
Light: sit facing a window, with the window in front of you and not behind you. That's all you need.
Sound: close the window if the street is noisy, and switch off the fan and the air conditioning. A room with rugs and curtains beats an empty one.
Stability: put your phone on anything steady, a stack of books or a shelf or a cheap tripod. Don't hold it in your hand.
Step Four: Film (40 minutes)
Clean the phone lens first. One fingerprint ruins the whole image, and everyone forgets it.
Then film each point separately. Don't try to record the whole video in one take.
And when you make a mistake: stop, stay silent for two seconds, and take the sentence from the top. Don't restart from the beginning. The bad part gets cut in the edit, and the silence before the retake helps you find the cut.
And most importantly: don't refilm any point more than three times. The fourth attempt won't be better, because tension accumulates rather than fading.
Step Five: Just Cut (45 minutes)
On a first video, editing is one job: delete the bad parts.
Delete the long silence at the start and end, delete the failed takes, and delete the sentences you stumbled through.
And don't add effects or music or transitions or colour grading. They all eat hours and don't improve a first video.
Any phone editing app is enough for this.
Step Six: Write the Title (10 minutes)
Write five titles and pick the clearest. Not the cleverest, the clearest.
A good title says what's in the video plainly. Clever vagueness stops people from finding you.
Step Seven: Publish (5 minutes)
Publish it. Now.
Don't wait for it to "get better", and don't push it a day to review it again. A video that doesn't get published teaches you nothing.
And this is the step that separates the person at the top of this article from someone who has a channel.
What Happens After You Publish
Probably not many people will watch it. That's completely normal, and it isn't a verdict on you.
Sit and watch your video all the way through once, and write down three things only: something you liked, something you'll change next time, and the step that was hardest.
Then start the second video. And don't go back to watching the first one over and over.
In Short
The whole thing is about three hours: fifteen minutes for the idea, twenty for the points, an hour to film, under an hour to cut, and fifteen minutes to publish.
Three hours against a year of waiting.
And the only difference between someone who has a channel and someone who doesn't is that the first one finished their first video. Nothing else.
And when you reach your fifth or tenth video and want to improve what you're shooting, the filming basics are covered in: can you create content with just a phone?