The MKBHD Method™ For Editing High Quality Videos

So, if you've been editing videos for

years, or if you've never edited a video

before, you'll still get something out

of this video. Editing isn't just uh

software and plugins and presets. It's

decision-m. It's it's a bunch of tiny

decisions all stacked up on top of each

other to create a cohesive project. So,

I asked my editing team to show you how

they make creative choices. I gave him a

video of me giving some advice to

creators and then we pass that file from

lead editor to color to graphics to

audio and so you can see how they make

decisions that stack up into the final

result. So while watching this video

look for these four principles that we

use to create highquality videos here at

MKBHD. So first good in good out you

just can't edit your way around poor

planning and execution. Two, focus. What

you cut is as important as what you

keep. Three, don't be boring, but don't

be insulting. There's more to editing

than just cutting really fast. And four,

know your audience. You know, an A+

quality work designed for a six-year-old

won't feel like A+ work to a college

student. So, know who you're talking to.

So, with these in mind, let's start the

process. Let's get right into it.

Beginning with our lead editor, Mariah.

Take it away.

I'm Mariah, the lead editor at MKBHD.

And today we're going to be talking

about two scenarios that every editor

has encountered. One where you have too

much footage and one where you don't

have enough footage. So, let's look at

some recent videos and break it down.

So, first we're going to start with the

robo taxi video which had way too much

footage. So, we're going to talk about

the creative decisions I made to

subtract. Truly autonomous driving is

one of the hardest technological

problems to solve on planet Earth today.

We have kind of the baseline of the

structure. The structure is the A-roll,

right? So, him talking, explaining

what's happening, and then the chaos is

everything from onsite. So, the first

thing to do was to go through all of the

hours of footage from the two cameras we

had, sync them up for all the rides, and

then see what happened, what we want to

keep, and what we want to throw away. I

keep drafts of everything. So, ideally,

you want to have everything so you can

always go back and pull something out

later if you change your mind. I like to

color and label everything. That way,

when I'm looking at my timeline, I can

tell if I'm overusing too much stuff or

underutilizing footage that I really

should be using. So, the second problem

I had was actually following the script

too much, which is a weird problem to

have. So, let's take a look at the

difference between the first cut and the

second cut with this. So, this first

robo taxi ride was fascinating.

Okay. Yeah, this is great. Everything's

normal. Robo taxi. Okay.

Hello.

Hello. Fundamentally, it went totally

fine. The car showed up. We got in. It

drove like a normal person would. And

now,

it's probably hard to put your finger on

why this edit just doesn't feel right.

And that's just part of the puzzle. And

it kind of feels like to me that Marquez

knows something that we don't. A lot of

the times I'm my own worst enemy. I'll

be honest, but sometimes Marquez is my

own worst enemy. And so there's a part

in the script where he just has a

section that says intercut commentary

with the Tesla ride and Whimo ride. The

problem with the first couple cuts on

this is I was really trying to force

having him talking in the A-roll with

the B-roll from the on-site shoot.

trying to do present tense and past

tense. There's all these different times

of things happening and knowing when is

the right time for something is really

hard sometimes. So, as the editor, you

know, all the footage, you know,

everything that's happening, but no one

else does. And so, that's why when you

need feedback, sharing it with other

people is really great to get a fresh

pair of eyes, see it from a different

perspective, and understand why stuff

isn't working. With the feedback in

mind, now let's take a look at the

second version.

Okay,

start ride.

So, we arrive in 9 minutes. This is our

We've got our feedback. We've moved

stuff around. We've done a little

fixing. But what happens when we

actually need to fully remove a scene

from the timeline?

My iPhone

is, I'm pretty sure, still in that robo

taxi that just drove away. How do I get

it back? I'm not really sure how to get

it back. I need to figure this out.

Marquez straight up lost his phone in

one of the taxis while he was there. And

I could have included all of it and it

would have been dramatic and really

funny. And in fact, one of the cars kind

of poked fun at him saying like, "Don't

forget your valuables after the fact."

That would have been really funny. But

does it make sense to put in a video

that's supposed to be like more

informational, like something that's

like very to the point? It was part of

the experience, but does it kind of lead

you astray from what we're really trying

to hone in on? So, when you're trying to

figure out whether you should keep

something in your edit or if you should

get rid of it, really it just comes down

to the value you're proposing to your

audience. Does your audience care about

this or is it not important to what

you're trying to say? So, now let's

transition to a scenario where you have

too little footage.

So, the number one or there's I guess

two main ways I can decide if a subject

is worth my audience's time. one is if

and so the second video I'm going to

show you is a little bit more

structured, a little more typical for

the main channel. And this is the video

that is going to be passed through all

the stages of post-prouction. You're

going to hear from Ellis, you're going

to hear from Vin, you're going to hear

from like everybody that touched it. For

this video, we wanted to do something a

little bit different. And so we asked

Marquez, "What is something you want to

talk about that you don't think would be

a good video or wouldn't perform well?"

Um, and so he wanted to talk about how

he picks what videos he makes, which I

don't think I've ever heard him talk

about either. What no one tells you is

when you're the editor, you are at the

end of the pipeline. If there's a

problem, you are going to be the one to

have to deal with it. For this one, my

fear when we were talking about it is it

not being visual. And the worst thing

you can do is probably tell and not

show. For this video, we chose to use a

lot of archive footage. And so you'll

see the problem with that immediately.

I'm Marquez and this is how I pick what

videos I'm going to make. Two main ways

I can decide if a subject is worth my

audience's time. One is if they have

shown interest in it in the past.

Originally, I had jumped straight from

the intro of how we pick what videos to

make straight into the questions and it

just felt really slow. It kind of had no

momentum or excitement. If I'm not

excited and I'm editing it, you're not

going to be excited. if you're watching

it. So, now let's watch the second

version of this intro.

I'm Marquez and this is how I pick what

videos I'm going to make. This is the

front glass from the iPhone 6. And so,

here I'm going to show you everything I

learned about what Spot actually is, but

I'll leave you with this. I've got my

upsides and downsides to Vision Pro.

So, the lesson from this re-edit is not

to make montages. They're great. They

work sometimes, but ultimately being an

editor is about focusing on clear

communication and problem solving. And a

lot of times you'll be given stuff that

just isn't very good. It's going to

happen. Focusing on your experience and

the tools you have will really just be

the best thing you can do. But

ultimately, there was actually a really

good reason to add the montage to this

video. Something I will never do to you

is I will never lie to you. I will not

pretend this video is something it's

not. And if I was to do a Mr. Beast

crazy montage opener with text and stuff

flying around, I've said it before and I

said it again. I don't like it and I

don't think it makes sense for what we

do. Personally, setting up from the

get-go that this is a clip from 11 years

ago. It's not new. It's not fresh, but

it is a memory. A good intro doesn't

just hook the audience, but it also sets

up the expectation for the viewer, and

that's so, so important. Something else

I did in this video was a really simple

thing and it can really uplift a video

is just adding transitional music. It

helps move things along and provide

context. There are some video

opportunities that have come across my

inbox or my social feeds that are

totally disconnected from like purchase.

If I'm treating this like a main channel

video, Marquez does not like having

music typically running for more than

like 20 30 seconds. like he says it

makes things feel like an ad, but in

this case there's no product. So really

like what are we advertising? Usually I

use it as a transitional period to kind

of like segue to your brain that we're

about to switch to something else. So

you'll hear later from Ellis, but he

told me something really important that

stuck with me and that when you're

picking music, it needs to convey

something that isn't already being told

through video. something subliminal,

something to set the tone, the vibe, or

set up expectations for later.

I also think YouTube is a treadmill, and

if you try to chase past success over

and over and over, you end up kind of

burning out a little bit. And I think

you should look at what you enjoy making

just as much as what worked in the past

on your channel. So, all of that

just kind of a nice wrap-up. Clearly,

this video is not completely done. And

we still have sound to pass off to

Ellis. We still have a bunch of stuff to

do, and we also still need to do the

color, as I'm sure you can tell. So,

you'll be hearing soon from Vin, who's

actually going to take over from here,

and he's going to fix the ugly color.

Thanks Vin.

We sit this close normally.

Marquez, what are you editing right now?

Uh, I'm editing a video where I ask

everyone to subscribe to the studio

channel. It's going to be a banger.

Super short.

Hey, Vinn here, art director for MKBHD

channel. Essentially, color grading is

putting emphasis and deemphasis on parts

of your image to tell the story. So, for

this section, let's talk about prep,

LUTs, and plugins. For this tutorial,

I'm just using Da Vinci Resolve. That's

what I prefer, but you can use any

editor. Premiere, Final Cut, Sony Vegas.

They're all good. Based off of this

clip, you can tell that already before

the L is applied, there is a big blue

cast on the whole background. And that's

because we have two sky panels blasting

at the ceiling. And then we fine-tuned

the hue number. We took a couple minutes

to do that. And we would do camera tests

to see if the hue is correct for the

background. 80% of your image should be

done on camera. And then your last 20%

is color grading. You can't fix bad

lighting in post. It doesn't matter what

camera you're using as long as you're

shooting in log. And if it happens to

have 10 bit codec, that's what really

matters because 8 bit is a little too

small. You don't get as much dynamic

range in post. More data basically means

more flexibility in post. You've

probably seen this acronym a couple

times now on the internet. LUT, LUT. It

stands for lookup table. What does that

mean? No one really knows, but it's

essentially a filter that goes on top of

your footage. On the main channel, we

seem to gravitate towards just using the

regular red rec 709 conversion light

just cuz that's what we're used to. For

Marquez's A-roll, we shot on a Canon

C70. If we apply the L, this is the

default conversion. This is what we saw

on camera. So, right now, this is just

the default L. I generally don't like

using this because it's not catered to

the camera from the R5, R5 Mark II, C70

in the C300 Mark II, literally all of

them shoot clog 2 differently. So Canon

is not just guilty of this. Sony is very

guilty of this. They have too many

cameras and so that SLOG 3 L is going to

look different on all of their cameras

based off of the stock Sony L.

Personally, I don't like using the stock

LTS unless they're from Red or Ari. Most

of the time, I would prefer even a

YouTuber L as an alternative because

they're catered to the camera. So, here

we have a custom L from our YouTube

friend Tyler Stelman. Shout out to

Tyler. His is actually based off Ari's

color space. So, you can tell it's a

little bit more saturated. His is more

uh stylized, so I can't push and pull as

much, but it's already so good that I

don't really want to do much to this.

Based off of this image, he seems a

little bit underexposed. So, you should

have a threewheel editor, and there's an

offset tab, which is like a general

exposure. All your editors should have

that. Plugins can vary in price point.

Some of them are 100, some of them are

a,000. This one I'm using is Dehancer.

It's about 400 bucks for two seats. So,

in this situation, I have the C70 camera

selected and CLOG 2 Cinema Gamut. The

company that made this plugin tests all

their cameras specifically. So, anytime

that you see that conversion done, it's

made for that camera because they all

shoot a little bit differently. I

already like the starting point a lot

better than the stock L. So, for me, I

would just bump up exposure a little

bit. And I already have this done, but I

turn down saturation a little bit. A big

reason as to why this cost $400 is

because of the stylistic effects that

you get along with it. So you have

things like halation that adds red to

the edges on the chromatic aberration.

So any highlight you see has like a

little red flare to it and it can warm

up the image a little bit. Makes it look

a little retro and older. Bloom is

basically your diffusion filter, but you

can dial it in post. It lets you pick

how intense you have it. Um, you can

even pick what kind of camera like film

stock it's replicating. Older cameras

usually bloom harder. So that's why if

you pick 8 mm, he looks really soft. And

if you pick 70 mm, that's a more modern

camera. All of these you can fine-tune

with the sliders and you basically just

pick through a bunch of boxes. It's

pretty easy to use. If you're trying to

achieve a more stylized look, well,

you're going to have to do that during

production because you can't stylize

what's not stylized. Ultimately, color

grading should serve the project itself.

If you don't push yourself in

production, you can't push your image.

So, go ahead and take a risk. As of

right now, this looks pretty good. But

that's only half of the story. Now, we

need to spruce it up with some graphics.

So, let's hand it off to Michael.

Hello, I'm Michael. I'm the head of

motion design and I'm excited to walk

you through my process. Let's go ahead

and break down the overlay animation

that I made for this video.

So, a mistake I see a lot of newer

creators making specifically is to look

at what works on other channels and then

just try to copy it one for one. I think

that's the worst thing you can do cuz

they don't have a reason to watch the

thing you're making over the thing that

already exists. So, as it turns out, we

lost all of the footage of me talking

directly to camera. So, from here on

out, you will be seeing a little cartoon

version of me that Olivia, our other

animator, so kindly created. Enjoy that.

Probably for something like this, I

probably actually spent more time

developing the flat static graphics in

Adobe Illustrator than I did actually

animating them in After Effects. The

most important part of motion design is

getting the design part right first. So,

for me, what that looks like, yeah, just

building everything in Illustrator

first. Um, everything that you see is

made up of uh vectorzed paths, which

means I can move things independently

and not be worried about losing

information or things being stuck

together without using words um or at

least very many words. Uh, I wanted to

show the abstract concept of something

being viewed on the internet and then

something being viewed on your computer

as a like project creative thing that

you're making. And I felt like the best

way to do that was YouTube and Final Cut

Pro. Um, so what I did was I took a

screenshot of both of those things and I

oversimplified the heck out of it. I

mean, this is what Final Cut Pro looks

like. I mean, maybe that's not a

surprise to most people watching this

video, but um, I was like, what parts of

this make it look like Final Cut Pro?

And I was like, oh, there's a little

play button with information like or the

the time code. Once again, it's like I

could have included all of this and it

would have still read as Final Cut, but

he might have been distracted with like,

is he talking about color grading? Is he

talking about the audio levels? Is he

talking about the effects? Is he talking

about But it's like, no, he was talking

about generally making a project.

Everything I need for this animation has

been built here. So, at this point,

we're we're done with with Illustrator

for the most part, and we're ready to

transfer to After Effects. I use a

sneaky little plugin called Overlord,

just for those who care. It's really

great at porting things over. But to

move on, so one of the first things we

learned in motion design school was the

12 principles of animation, which is

originally developed by Walt Disney. And

a lot of that actually really applies to

simple graphic animation here as well.

The main three principles that I want to

talk about are easing, timing, and

staging. Easing is, I would say, one of

the biggest telltale signs between an

amateur motion design project and a more

professional motion design project. And

really what that means is making

movement feel lifelike and real. So this

is an example of an object moving with

no easing.

It gets the job done. The object moves,

but there's no life to it. It's very

robotic. Here is an example of an object

that um has the easing applied. Uh what

it shows is the object starting really

slow and ending really slow and in

between it has this sort of fluid

movement. The object on the bottom just

doesn't feel real. Every single key

frame in this video, anytime I move

something, there's easing to it. Um

meaning that it starts slow, moves fast,

and ends slow. Ordinarily, if you're

getting started with After Effects, I

would not recommend jumping straight

into plugins because I think it's really

easy to get distracted and excited about

flashy plugins that seem to like solve

all of your your motion design problems.

But this is one plugin that I do think

is actually really helpful for all

motion designers, even if you're just

getting started. It's called Motion

Studio. It's designed by someone named

Matt, who has a YouTube channel called

Mount Moaph. A lot of times if you want

to change the ease of an object, you can

go into the graph editor and you can

move adjust these handles and it works,

but it's a little finicky and it's hard

to be precise with it. So this tool

allows you to dial in exactly what

easing quantity you want. So let's say

we want 50% on the out and 20% on the in

just sets it for you. Literally every

single object that I drop into After

Effects, I highlight the key frames and

I hit this little preset. Slow at the

beginning and then really slow at the

end. It's like a nice easy movement that

I figured works. There's a whole grid of

different functions that this thing does

and some of them are very elaborate, but

the basics are really great. I'd

recommend checking out Mount Moaph on

YouTube and also checking out Motion

Studio online. They have a whole

breakdown of everything it does, but

this is sort of the basics. So, another

really important principle that applies

really well to our YouTube videos is

timing. Really what that translates to

is making sure that the beats that

happen with what Marquez is saying line

up well with the movement that is on

screen.

I think that's the worst thing you can

do because they don't have a reason to

watch the thing you're making over the

thing that already exists.

So in this case, I want to make sure

that the spotlight and the eyeballs are

shifting uh focus from one side to the

other at the exact time that Marquez is

saying other person's content. I see so

many things online where what is being

talked about and what is being shown has

a half a second delay or even a second

delay and you really miss it. Like it's

actually really hard to follow. One of

the most important things in design in

general is being intentional about where

the viewer's eye goes. With motion

design, it's a lot to expect viewers to

focus on the words that someone is

saying and the visuals on top of that.

It's really easy to have those fight

each other and to make it actually

harder to understand the concept if

you're distracted by what's on screen.

It's like step one, so show the shapes.

Step two, introduce the YouTube video.

Step three, introduce the timeline. Step

four, reput the movement back just on

the video screen to drive home that this

is a copy of the original. So now you're

focused back on the shapes again. If we

were to just have the shapes move right

away with the timeline, then you'd sort

of be like taking that in and the shapes

and all that. But we're we're doing one

thing at a time. The next thing I want

people to do is focus on the differences

between these two. So, we get rid of

everything that's on YouTube on on the

timeline and everything. And we're just

showing the shapes. The little eyeballs

in in the middle are sort of just like a

fun element to keep this frame

interesting cuz otherwise it'd be like a

pretty boring frame. But we're going

even further. We're saying I want the

viewer's eyes to be on this one. And

then as Marquez is talking about the

original, I want the eyes to be on the

original. So, I'm literally putting a

spotlight on them. It's like I want it

to be as easy as possible for the viewer

to like have zero strain when they're

looking at this. Okay. Effects/plugins

that I use almost every day in After

Effects. Uh for main channel, uh number

one effect that I will slap onto

something to make it feel on brand uh

and give it a little bit more energy is

the glow effect. So, we're going

stylized glow and we're adding it. I

think with every effect there's a right

and wrong way to use it. And I think

with this one, it can look horrible if

you just like slap it on there. But a

lot of times I'll like duplicate it and

make it a little bit more intentional.

And that looks like way too much, but

we're going to dial it back.

I think a nice subtle glow goes a long

way. So a lot of times on the studio

channel we will use an effect called

turbulence displace paired with an

expression called wiggle which allows us

to have clean vector shapes but look a

little bit like handdrawn sort of uh

stop motiony. So the circle on the left

has a bit more of like a handdrawn look

to it and the circle on the right is is

just the plain shape. Basically what

turbulent displace is doing is it's uh

giving this shape a randomly generated

slight wobbly variation to it. So with

one effect you get sort of a smooth

wobbly egg. And then as we add more

effects you get more grunge and more

texture to it. And then we've we've set

the random seed to have um a wiggle

effect that basically posterized time

says every 3 seconds change this value.

And wiggle says uh every 3 seconds

change it by 150 points. uh if we

multiply that by three at different

sizes, you get uh this handdrawn look.

People shouldn't be thinking about all

the stuff that I'm doing in the

background. People shouldn't be thinking

about all these freaking key frames and

all this like easing that takes place to

make everything feel natural. It's like

it should just feel like information

that's easy to understand. People always

say this and it's really cheesy, but

good design is invisible. So, this

animation looks great and I'm really

happy with where it's at. But in order

for this to feel super polished, I think

we need to get some sound design on

here. So, I'm going to let Ellis do his

magic.

Thanks, Michael. Now, time to get into

our threepart series on doing sound and

videos. And this part one is possibly

the most important. It's music. Remember

that speaker video I did on this channel

like about a year ago? Well, the key to

making that video work was using Bbop

rhythm sections under all that stuff I

was saying. You've probably noticed a

lot of videos on this channel use

uptempo jazz rhythm sections as their

underscore. And it's not an accident.

You have seen tons of media that uses

those same Bbop drums and bass to get a

a frenetic sound, a behind-the-scenes

sound, an industrious sound, and that

sounds already in your viewer's head.

So, when you're picking music for your

video, you're not just picking a song

that you like. You're picking a song

that your viewers will personally

resonate with. So, where do you find

that track? Well, the answer is pretty

obvious. It's epidemicound.com. I don't

know you. I don't know what kind of

content you're trying to make, but I do

know whatever you need, it's on there.

You need something with some epic cinema

builds, it's on there. What about some

'90s grunge stuff, chat? You betcha.

Japanese classical music, it's on there.

I've seen it. They even have whatever

this is.

[Music]

Once you have your song, you can

download the stems and easily start

editing it. And if you're not

comfortable editing stems or you're just

getting started, Epidemic Sound has an

adapt feature that helps you easily make

a song fit your video. So much of the

music and sound effects we use here at

MKBHD come from Epidemic Sound. And now

you can get access to that great library

with the link in the description, which

will give you a 30-day free trial and

access to the MKBHD playlist we made for

you. And now that you know where to get

your sound and music for your next

video, we're going to throw it over to

the newest member of our team, Rufus,

who will hopefully save you hours of

time on your next production.

Hey, I'm Rufus. I record most of our

videos and I make sure the foundation

that Ellis gets when he goes in to do

that sound design is really strong. So,

why am I talking to you in the editing

video? You spend a lot of time in the

edit fixing bad audio. Really, like

everybody has this problem. This is I've

had this problem. Eric has had this

problem. Rich has had this problem. When

you get bad audio on your desk, you have

to spend a lot of time fixing it. And if

you had just placed your microphone,

which is free and not that hard, you can

save all of that time, all of that

strife. So, if you give me 5 minutes,

I'll show you how to do it. The key to

recording great sound is 90% putting the

microphone where it needs to go. The

rest of it is I'll cover it at the end

of the lightning round, but it you can

forget about it for now. Your brain when

you walk into a room is telling you kind

of automatically what to focus on. and

it's doing so subconsciously. A

microphone does not hear like that. So,

I'm going to teach you how to hear like

a microphone in order to think like a

microphone, to point like a microphone.

So, what do you want to hear? Well, in

our case, we want to hear the sound of

Marquez Brownley, who sat in this very

chair moments ago. Here at MKBHD, we

typically use for almost everything

shotgun microphones. These microphones,

if you watched our last video, you know

this, have a polar pattern, which is

very directional. It hears a lot like a

cone. But the thing is, the cone has a

limit. It has an end point. And a

microphone that's pointed the complete

wrong direction, but is really close to

me

is going to do a much better job of

hearing me than a microphone that's

across the room pointed straight at me.

But we're assuming that your microphone

is basically close enough. And for us,

that's kind of that's right on the edge

of frame. Like this one's literally

right here. That narrows it down to 180

degrees. The microphone is going to be

in front of Marquez somewhere cuz his

voice is going forward and that's what

we want to hear. So why is the

microphone not directly above him or

directly below him where you often see

shotgun microphones? Why is it right

here? Well, it's cuz we're in a room

with sounds like our air conditioner.

That air conditioner makes a noise. So

if we were below Marquez, we'd be

pointed up at that. So that knocks out

this bottom position. We also have a

light right here. The light makes a

noise. It has a fan in it and you can

hear that. So, we don't really want the

microphone to be right by the light. So,

that knocks out, you know, this chunk.

And lastly, it's been in front of you

the whole time, the desk, which you're

right, it it doesn't make any sound by

itself, but when Marquez speaks, his

voice can come out, bounce off of the

desk, and then into the microphone. We

don't want to record that. It's like

shooting Marquez through a mirror. So,

this position where the mic ended up

means the cone is pointed at what we

want to hear and isn't pointed

at what we don't want to hear. Quick

lightning round of some questions people

have asked is how loud should you be

recording? Uh, if you have a machine

that's recording sound, which we're

assuming that you do, it should have

levels on it that will tell you in decb

how loud you are. You want to be around

minus 20ish on average. And the absolute

loudest someone's going to talk should

be around minus12. If you're there,

you're pretty safe. and then it can go

even a little bit louder and you'll

still not be clipping. If you hit zero,

that's clipping and it sounds like this.

So, you don't want it. Two, generally

speaking, if you're recording dialogue,

which we're assuming you are, you want

to turn on a low cut. It might be on

your microphone, it might be on your

recording device, but that basically

means that wind noise, like sort of

bumping, rumbling, things like that.

doesn't completely get rid of them, but

it makes sure that you don't get so much

that it overwhelms the dialogue that

you're trying to record. Third, if

you're buying your first shotgun

microphone, stick to the bottom end. The

Audio Technica AT875R is a great

microphone. It's pretty cheap and it has

no reason to sound as good as it does.

It beats basically all of the

microphones in the mid-range in my

opinion, which means if you have that

microphone and you're using it well,

upgrading to a mid-range mic is not

going to make things sound much better.

upgrading to a flagship like the MKH416,

the Ships Semit 5U, the DPA 4017, you're

going to hear a difference, and that's

worth it. Those are microphones are

going to last you a lifetime. Only buy

those if you're ready to really take

things seriously. Everyone else, the

mid-range isn't really worth it. If

you're looking at sound recording and

this stuff looks big and scary and

things, it's as simple as pointing the

microphone at what you want to record

and not pointing it at what you don't

want to record. Every part of sound,

when you get down to it, is like that.

They're not that complicated. Do not let

anyone tell you it is more complicated

than that. So now your video sounds

good, but your video could sound better.

What is up gamers? Ellis here, your boy.

And today we're going to talk about

sound design. That's the part of the

production process where you take sounds

that you didn't record on set and you

put them in your video. And now I have a

feeling you're probably wondering one

big question. Rule number one, things

that move probably make a sound. To show

this, let's crack open the OnePlus 13S

intro we did on the main channel a

little while back.

[Music]

[Applause]

So, this intro is full of motion.

There's just so much of it in here, but

let's focus on the four main moves that

the phone actually does. First, it turns

90 degrees to the left. Then, it turns

90° to the left again. And then it turns

90° to the left a third time. And then

the phone falls off screen. Seems pretty

simple, right? But how do we actually

know what those moves are supposed to

sound like? First off, how big is the

phone? The phone's huge. It's the

biggest thing on screen. For a lot of

it, it takes up pretty much the entire

frame, which means even though the phone

in real life is phones sized, in video

life, the phone is ginormous. And what a

ginormous things sound like. They're

big. They're low pitched. You could hear

they have mass. So, let's make the

phone's motion big and low pitched.

Easy. But why is it moving? There's no

actuator. There's no hand. There's no

machine turning the phone in the video.

So that means the only thing it's

touching is air, which is lucky for us

because air actually makes a lot of

sounds. It sounds like the right call is

probably a whoosh. But what kind of

whoosh? A big low pitched whoosh where

you can hear the mask.

All right, so remember that thing that

Michael said about easing and how it can

make stuff feel like natural and

lifelike? That's really important for us

as sound designers. Let's take a look at

how these phones actually move, right?

They're not constant. They start slow

and then they sort of accelerate in

their turns. And lucky for us, those big

whoosh sounds are perfect for that. They

go

fantastic easy breezy beautiful

covergirl. But if you noticed, the last

move, that last 90° turn in this intro

does not have any easing on it.

Michael's computer glitched out. He

couldn't get the easing to work, and he

just said, "Let it ride." And so for the

last sound in this intro, I needed to

pick something that still sounded big

and massive, but in real life would have

no easing, just start and stop. And so

what better sound

than a boulder?

That's just a stupid

play this.

It's not just a boulder,

it's a rock.

Um, didn't you add a slide whistle in

here too?

Oh, yeah. Uh, I did do that. Um, I don't

know. I just kind of freestyled that

one. It was just sort of like intuition.

So, uh, I guess we should just move on

to the next rule.

Yes, you read that right. Silence

actually does make a sound. Don't

believe me? Look at how painful this is.

I told you silence actually does make a

sound in our brains because in real life

I promise you you have never actually

heard real silence before. Even the

quietest places on earth still have a

little bit of sound to them. And so if

you suck all the sound out of your video

at any given moment, it's going to feel

weird and awkward and painful and most

importantly not believable. So what do

sound designers use in those sound holes

that sounds like silence? Well, there

are two tricks we like to use. The first

one is called reverb.

Sound gets everywhere. It's kind of like

sand after the beach. And as sound

bounces off all the objects around you,

it's all going to make it back to your

ear. And we as humans perceive that as

this thing we call reverb. Our brains

actually get a lot of subconscious

information about the kind of space

something is happening in from the

reverb. I use this trick on the OnePlus

13S video. When we suck all the music

out and things get silent, I carry

through a lot of that silence with a

long reverb tail that lets you know,

hey, this big empty limitless space

we're in that exists and it sounds like

this.

[Music]

The other trick we use is called

ambience, which is just like big fancy

speak for background noise. Background

noise is a super clutch way to inject

some believability into your sequence.

Check out this shot from our video about

the fastest car in the world from a

little bit ago.

That's crazy.

[Music]

This shot looks fake. It looks like a

video game, but I promise it is 100%

real. There's no CGI. There's no

compositing. It's just kind of nutso.

And so, we needed to add a few sound

effects to kind of make people believe

that we actually got the shot. And I'll

tell you this, it wasn't the sound of

the Porsche that we added in post that

made it believable. It wasn't the sound

of the rimats that we added in post that

made it feel believable.

It was the sound of the birds that

weren't even there in real life. There

were not even birds that day when we

were shooting. But it's a big up high

shot. You see all this green tree grass

around you. No one even noticed I did

that, which means it worked.

[Music]

All right, rule number three is use

sounds that actually mean stuff to your

audience. There are some sounds that get

stuck in your head in a cool emotional

way. And there's a great example of that

in this OnePlus intro. Take a look at

the very first thing that happens in

this intro, right? We watch the phone

get traced. It's very simple. It's just

this writing floating on screen that

traces the outline of the phone. What

sound does tracing sound like? There's a

bunch of obvious answers. There's pencil

on paper. There is pencil on cardboard.

There is marker on dry erase board.

There is chalkstick on chalkboard.

There's a million different writing

sounds that we all agree like, "Yep,

that's what writing sounds like. Heard

that before? Makes sense." But those

sounds won't make you feel something.

I think it's safe to assume that a lot

of you at home are around my age or

around Marquez's age. You grew up in

North America or Europe and you probably

watched something get traced on TV as a

kid about 10 million times.

And whether or not you knew that about

yourself, that's probably what midair

tracing sounds like in your heart. So,

what is actually in that famous Disney

Channel sound? It's mostly a roadside

flare and a bell tree. And that is

exactly what I did in this video.

You are watching Disney Channel.

No one batted an eye. No one questioned

it. No one even noticed. And that is the

goal of sound design. So, unless your

name is Erica Doll or Mark Manini, don't

try to be a hero. Don't go too hard.

You'll know you did your job well when

no one notices your job at all. So, I'm

gonna put my money where my mouth is and

actually use these techniques in the uh

video you're watching right now. So,

here's the final cut.

[Music]

I'm Marquez and this is how I pick what

videos I'm going to make. This is the

front glass from the iPhone 6. And so

here I'm going to show you everything I

learned about what Spot actually is. But

I'll leave you with this. I've got my

upsides and downsides to Vision Pro.

I've never regretted making a video just

for the views. I think most of the

videos we make, there's a bunch of

different reasons why I made it. But if

you want to go all the way to the far

end of the spectrum of this one we know

is going to get views. It's the iPhone

unboxing video. It's just one of those

things where people like seeing shiny

new things come out of boxes, and that's

fine. Actually, the audience is smart.

They can tell when the creator

especially is not incredibly excited

about a video. So, I think a lot of the

comments were like, "Yeah, this isn't

important or interesting. Why is this a

video?" And it's cool to see that

because they're picking up on exactly

how I'm feeling about the video, which

means I communicated it well. But also,

I didn't regret it because it still

performed the way we thought it would,

and it still got people to subscribe and

to see the channel and see the videos.

Even if they weren't having the most

in-depth thoughts after watching a video

about a new purple colored iPhone, they

could still subscribe.

Two main ways I can decide if a subject

is worth my audience's time. One is if

they have shown interest in it in the

past or two is if I'm interested in it

and I've been able to connect it to

things that my audience is interested in

the past. Usually I look forward by

looking backwards. So I'll give an

example. A video we did recently which

was reviewing the robotic hand. I

thought it was awesome and I was super

interested in it when I got to test it.

So that was a pretty good indicator for

me right off the bat. I've also done a

video in the past uh talking about uh

prosthetics, 3D printed prosthetics for

pets. And while the video didn't get a

ton of views or attention necessarily,

it was still really wellreceived and

people were interested in it. And I

thought it was a really fun video to

make. So when we looked at this new

thing, which is this robotic hand, okay,

it's new, it's different, but clearly

it's tech which the audience is

interested in. And the last time we

talked about potentially awesome

prosthetics that people can use, it also

went really well. So just finding those

connections to the past made it pretty

obvious that this would be a fun video

that would be good to make. And there

was also the excitement of tying it to a

certain other video another channel

made. So it was going to be fun no

matter what. There are some video

opportunities that have come across my

inbox or my social feeds that are

totally disconnected from like purchase

decisions. Usually when I make a video,

even if it seems like kind of

disconnected or a little bit out there,

you can in some way connect it to this

is the tech that's going to affect me as

a regular person in the future. So the

stuff that's like this is the super cool

tech behind like how skyscraper

elevators work. There's just no way for

me to connect it to you the viewer.

Those are the ones I just pass on. So

mistake I see a lot of newer creators

making specifically is to look at what

works on other channels and then just

try to copy it one for one. I think

that's the worst thing you can do

because they don't have a reason to

watch the thing you're making over the

thing that already exists. So the more

you can make it your own interpretation

or the more you can bring in various

sources of inspiration the better. But

so I used to do a lot more list type

videos like top five this top 10 that

and they were great. So like format-wise

you could optimize for attention. You

count down from 5 to 1 people stay for

the whole video. You could pick lots of

different types of topics. It was just

kind of a free content spin a wheel

generator, just top five, insert

whatever you want here. But I stopped

doing a lot of those because I just felt

like they didn't uh provide as much

value as I was hoping. I was hoping to

help people learn stuff, uh, experience

stuff, feel like they know what it's

like to own a gadget before actually

buying it. And the top fives are more on

the pure entertainment value side of the

spectrum. And other channels just

started doing way more of them, and that

kind of became their thing. and I just

stopped doing top fives. I also think

YouTube is a treadmill and if you try to

chase past success over and over and

over, you end up kind of burning out a

little bit. And I think you should look

at what you enjoy making just as much as

what worked in the past on your channel.

So all of that.

Hey Olivia, you you did most of the

graphics on this video, right?

Yeah, I did.

So So you should have a segment in this

video right?

No.