YouTube Channels For Dummies

Chapter 4

What Makes a Good Video a Good Video?

In This Chapter

• Choosing the right camera
• Understanding the basics of making a good video
• Mastering different video genres
• Dissecting the video

Not that long ago, video was a far cruder, much simpler medium. At home, people had more fingers than television channels, and for those making their own movies, consumer-level video came in two varieties: bad and worse. Maybe that's a bit unfair, but the quality lagged far behind commercial productions.

Clunky cameras that captured low-resolution video were no match for the broadcast-quality content found on television. And the quality of television was inferior to the look of a feature film. Not sure about that last one? Just watch a music video from the early days of MTV, circa 1982.

Since that time, technology has evolved to the point where you can now watch hundreds of channels and where most anyone who wants to has the ability to make a broadcast-quality movie that can be seen by potentially a global audience. Consumer-level camcorders not only come close to broadcast quality but can also even rival it. That means your YouTube video can look truly professional. Of course, can is the operative word here.

Clearly, technological advancements have allowed online video to change the rules of consumer-level moviemaking. Yet, because of the relative adolescence of online video, there's some confusion about what makes a good video. Understandably, that criterion depends on the particular ...