YouTube Workshops: Comedy Writing

Posted on August 28, 2014 Updated on August 29, 2014

Welcome to the second video of the Youtube workshop series! This session is on comedy writing, delivered by Mark Douglas of The Key of Awesome.

In the words of Bill Cosby, good writing never goes out of style.

Mark gave us really useful tips on comedy writing and roping in audience to share some good laughs

Length: 2-3mins is enough (especially for comedy). YouTube audience has short attention spans and anything longer than that will lose them.

Here’s his 3:03 minute long collaboration video with AmericanHipster:

Preparation: Have a solid plan for your video to help you get organised. However, be prepared to improvise as things naturally happen. It’s helpful to try a lot of improv beforehand to practise. Try doing stand-up comedies to get yourself used to it.

Set a deadline: It’s quite difficult to get creative on demand. However, setting up a deadline helps you to get your creative juices flowing.

Appeal to the audience:

• Do behind-the-scenes shots and out-takes to draw audience; bloopers are always fun to watch!
• Respond to comments on camera
• Give your audience a job at the end: “what should we do next? You decide!” It straight away takes the audience’s mind of what just happened & focuses on the next thing

Check out our post about YouTube creative strategy that could help with this!

The little details: Make the most of your thumbnail and meta data. This could influence whether viewers would click on your video based on the small details they see. Meta data is also useful for YouTube to index your content and bring it up in related searches.

Polish your skills: Take acting classes and practise your comedic talent!

And finally, enjoy this hilarious video that Mark recommended to us and see how they do it:

YouTube Workshops: 10 Fundamentals of a Creative Strategy

Posted on August 26, 2014 Updated on August 26, 2014

A few weeks ago, the digifest team headed over to Youtube Space London for some exciting events revolving around the various facets of Youtube production, from audience development, budget and content production.

In the spirit of both digifest and YouTube, we’re here to share what we’ve learnt!

The first in the Youtube workshop series is: 10 fundamentals of a creative strategy, presented by Jessica Elvidge. Since we’ve been dabbing our hands in video-making, this workshop is very useful in helping us build solid content and strategy for a successful YouTube video. A creative strategy is important to build a trajectory of audience views and ratings.

So what are the 10 fundamentals in creative strategy?

1. Shareability

Will viewers share your video? What will they say about it? what 10 words will your friends use to sum up the video? What do they think of themselves when they share the video? Make it compelling; be relatable, topical, valuable. These qualities can contribute to the shareability of a video, and in turn reach new audiences.

2. Conversation

Is there an element of speaking to the audience? YouTube is a social platform that is meant to engage viewers. Take a look at this video:

The conversational element in this video builds a direct connection between the people in the video and the viewers. It doesn’t have to be directly speaking to/looking at the audience, it can be a short greeting and introduction in the beginning of the video, or a thank-you at the end.

3. Interactivity

A great way to rope in viewership is to involve the audience and give them a chance to participate in the production. A few simple ways of doing this is to discuss comments from the previous video in the next one, or ask viewers to contribute their ideas and what they want to see.

4. Consistency

A great  way to retain viewership is to include recurring elements in your videos; it could be the same format, theme, schedule, tone, etc. This helps subscriber to understand the channel and keep them returning to it. Sticking to a consistent schedule of video uploads can tap into people’s routines and make them know what and when to expect the videos.

This channel’s theme is re-making movie endings as how they think it should be, and viewers are roped in as videos on other movies are made.

5. Target

Do you have a clearly defined audience? More specialised topics or issues garner a specific audience set, so if you were planning on making videos like these, make sure you tailor it to the right audience.

6. Sustainability

If the audience loved you videos, you can continue to make it long-term. But several things to consider is the time, budget and resources to make those videos.

7. Discoverability

How easy is it for the videos to be found through search? How can it be reached by larger audiences? This could be done by addressing trending topics, or producing videos on evergreen topics, i.e. things that people routinely search for, like this:

One of the great things about a how-to video is that sometimes people need to actually see the demonstration instead of reading them. And this is how you can attract audiences!

8. Accessability

How easy is it for new users to understand what’s going on? How much context is required? Roping in viewers early on in the series can increase understanding in follow-up videos.

9. Collaboration

Is there a way to feature guest stars from other channels into your videos? Collaboration-based videos is a very helpful way to grow your audience or subscribers, since there will be double promotion – one on your side, and one on the collaborator’s side. However, it is important not to collaborate for the sake of collaborating; make sure it starts from the right idea.

10. Inspiration

Is it coming from a genuine place of passion? Be inspired and passionate because if this is a long-term project, it adds more zing to your videos if you continue to love what you’re doing as you go along through it.

Happy YouTubing!