11 Lies You Can Find on YouTube about Video Production

YouTube is a great source for content creation tips. Anyone with a camera pointed at their face in a video knows at the bare minimum of how to turn that camera on and feed its output to a recording program. But can they give you good advice to be better than that? Here are 11 lies YouTubers have been telling you:

1. Side-Hustles are The Same as Jobs

Some content creators have been working for 8 years, 10 years - they’ve been doing this for 20 years. This is their life. But it’s not their Job. Having a side-hustle, a part-time gig that you do once in a while isn’t the same as a day-to-day business.

2. Get Different Cameras

Having multiple cameras is good - as backups. But they should be the same brand, same kind of camera. Content creators with an arsenal of different cameras use them for reviews, not for shoots.

3. Satisfied As a One-Man-Band

If you’ve been in business for 8 years and you’re still doing it alone, then you’re still doing it wrong. Businesses grow, they add on, they employ. If someone is still working alone that long, that’s a red flag - or a discount.

4. Just Show Up And Film

Companies have uniforms to show solidarity, teamwork and respect to their own brand. It’s a basic, first-step to becoming a professional that gets ignored a lot. A professional should look professional, not like, well, most YouTubers.

5. You Can Fit a Whole Shoot in a Backpack

You can’t even fit studio lighting in a backpack. If their business is small enough they can carry it around and drive to shoots in their personal car, that’s not how a business runs.

6. Value Equals Image Quality

Image quality has become ubiquitous, you can get professional shots on an iPhone - but not professional composition. There’s more to business than pixel count.

7. Shoot For Free For Your Demo Reel

Use your jobs for your demo reel, things you earn that solve a problem. Clients pay you to solve their problems. Shooting for free doesn’t solve anything.

8. Good Gear Replaces Good Education

Thousands of dollars worth of equipment is only worth those thousands in the hands that know how to use it all properly. Focus on education, courses, and active learning then get the equipment you know that you need.

9. Redundancy Is For Memory Cards

If you encounter a problem with your gear, what now? Shoot’s over, go home, try again? No, you get the second unit ready. Have multiples of all your essential gear, because like it not, you might need it.

10 Sometimes a Client is a Loss

Good customer service can turn a bad client into a good one, and the feedback of a rejection can help you improve on things you were neglecting. Don’t just shrug off lost clients, work with them to find out what went wrong and how to fix it, and they may just come back again.

11. The Client is Losing Out Not Hiring You

The client has already made a decision based on the value you’re offering. They looked at you and said no for a reason. Find out what that reason is and bring in the value they didn’t see the first time. Don’t settle for rejection, improve yourself with it.