Project Document Your Life

1. Choosing the right equipment

Pick a suitable camera for equipment. It doesn’t have to be high quality or expensive, as long as it works. Do bear in mind that if you’re using a phone camera, you should always film horizontally.

Things you need for this step: 

a camera that works

2. Planning and filming

Though DYL videos might seem beautifully spontaneous to you, it actually requires some careful planning.

It is very important that you make sure you have your camera with you in the right place and at the right time, so have a look at your calendar and see what events you would like to show in your video. Be sure to make a conscious effort to film during these events. Furthermore, make sure you get permission to film from the people you are filming.

Things you need for this step:

camera with full batteries and enough space on its memory card

permission from people appearing in your video

3. Importing your material

During your first few months, I would recommend an early start for the editing process. This will make the largest task (editing a month’s worth of materials) less overwhelming.

First, make sure you’ve got suitable editing software that you know how to use. Start out with a basic one, such as Apple or Window’s standard video editing software.

Import materials whenever you can and sort them out. This will save you a lot of work and time at the end of the month.

Things you need for this step:

editing software

4. Editing

At the end of the month, you should have all of your work gathered into one project.

Now it’s time to cut away nasty bits, for example bits of clips that are too shaky or out of focus. You can also start cutting some of your clips shorter.

Afterwards, you can add a title screen showing the name of the video (Document Your Life + month), and an end screen for final annotations (to be added later on YouTube). The end screen must not be shorter than 5 seconds.

5. Adding music

We’re onto the last and at times most difficult task: picking the right music. The soundtrack has to suit the general atmosphere of your video, but more importantly, it has to have a good license. Copyrights to music can be checked in the Youtube audio library: here you will find any restrictions your video might have if you choose to use a certain song. For example, your video might not be viewable worldwide if you pick a very popular song.

After you’ve picked a good song, you import this into your video and edit it to the sound of the music. Once you’re finished and satisfied with the result, you may export the video.

6. Exporting and uploading

After your video has been exported, you should do an extra check by playing it on your computer. If everything looks okay, you can start uploading.

Don’t forget to credit the Document Your Life project in your description and to add the end screen! This can all be done in Youtube’s video manager. You can also add tags, make your own Document Your Life playlist, and upload your own thumbnail.

More information