Feedback Needed My First (Possibly Only) YouTube #Shorts Video....

[HippoDrone]

I thought I'd see what the fuss was about with YouTube #Shorts to see if it is worth putting any effort into them. I've not shared the video other than on here, so it will be interesting to see how many views it gets as they will all be from how YouTube promotes the video.

It does annoy me that YouTube have nerfed the thumbnail, considering they want a vertical video, you'd have thought that they would have wanted a vertical thumbnail too???

 

[scooterwuf]

Does YT format the video vertically for a Short selection? I’ve never seen the appeal of watching a video like that. Really strange.

- Wolf

 

[Drakhen99]

@HippoDrone - good job on the short - the angle grabs the viewer's attention.

@scooterwuf - YT does NOT format it - you have to do that in whatever editing software you use to create the video. The vertical [or, you can use the square format - I've done both] is designed to work best on the viewer's phone, where it is full screen, or close to it.

-John

 

[LoneWolfer]

I don't mind shorter vlogs/videos in general, but I have the ability to rotate my phone in my hand to view it landscape with little effort because video looks 1000 time better that way. I don't enjoy the stories feature on instagram or facebook because of that fact, which is hat Youtube is trying to emulate. Which is stupid because I don't want to have the same features on all social media.

 

[Dewey316]

Its a different type of video for sure, they aren't really meant to go in your normal video feed. If you use the TY app on your phone, and go to the shorts section, it actually uses only the vertical part of your thumbnail. It is really all about them trying to get TicTik traffic to use their new platform, not so much as a way to change the way normal videos on youtube are done.

Right now, based on the the demographic data I got on the one I did, I am not going to do another, until it is more widely used by an audience I think will likely want to watch more motovlog content from me.

 

[HippoDrone]

I hate vertical videos, and every phone I have had in the last 10 years has been able to sense I have twisted my phone to landscape and can play videos correctly as they should be, in landscape. But then 99% of Instagramers can't even work out how to take a selfie without the writing in the photo being reversed, so that is what we have!
I really don't think I'll bother doing any more "#Shorts" as it is a format I don't like to watch, and the videos are too short to have any substance. I have seen some interesting Tik-Toks where loads of people have grabbed, then added to videos, which is what it is all about really, it isn't intended for motovloggers, or even vloggers really.

 

[scooterwuf]

I'm not a fan of VVS - Vertical Video Syndrome. I hate it when my students show their work that way (I explain to them the beauty of the wide screen format) and probably the main reason I haven't posted anything to my Instagram channel in months (seriously, why is it virtually impossible to post work there from a laptop?)

I've never been to the TikTok website, and really don't see the appeal. Am I missing something or is it just vapid?


- Wolf

 

[Drakhen99]

I'm not a fan of VVS - Vertical Video Syndrome. I hate it when my students show their work that way (I explain to them the beauty of the wide screen format) and probably the main reason I haven't posted anything to my Instagram channel in months (seriously, why is it virtually impossible to post work there from a laptop?)

I've never been to the TikTok website, and really don't see the appeal. Am I missing something or is it just vapid?


- Wolf

TikTok is for kids, from what I've been too old. I tried signing up but the little scroll-to-find-your-birth-year thing didn't go that far

As for Instagram, use Chrome, click on the three dots in the upper-right corner, More Tools > Developer Tools. Then, there's 2 icons that look like tablets - click the one on the right. Refresh your Instagram page, and it'll pretend like you're on a phone. Then you can share your pics

Click the left tablet-looking icon and close the subwindow housing the code, and refresh your page. Now you're back to desktop mode.

That's how I post my pics on Insta

-John

 

[Skyd]

I imagine this is YT's response to the tik tok craze which I am definitely not a part of. I do use the Gram, but also hate that you can't post from anything but mobile, LAME!

This was the first short I've watched, also I hadn't heard of them prior to seeing the discussions here so YT isn't doing a phenomenal job of promoting them considering I spend a large portion of my evenings on the platform.

 

[HippoDrone]

I imagine this is YT's response to the tik tok craze which I am definitely not a part of. I do use the Gram, but also hate that you can't post from anything but mobile, LAME!

This was the first short I've watched, also I hadn't heard of them prior to seeing the discussions here so YT isn't doing a phenomenal job of promoting them considering I spend a large portion of my evenings on the platform.

You'll probs only really see them come up if you use your phone to watch them. Mine doesn't even show on my channel page unless I search for it. I am not sure it is right for the platform, but they all want to be the go to platform, not realising they can all co-exist

 

[Drakhen99]

I imagine this is YT's response to the tik tok craze which I am definitely not a part of. I do use the Gram, but also hate that you can't post from anything but mobile, LAME!

This was the first short I've watched, also I hadn't heard of them prior to seeing the discussions here so YT isn't doing a phenomenal job of promoting them considering I spend a large portion of my evenings on the platform.

See my post above, re: Instagram - you CAN post from a desktop, it just takes a few extra steps. Also, I have done #shorts on my channel, and shared my experience in "A #Long Vlog About #Shorts"

You'll probs only really see them come up if you use your phone to watch them. Mine doesn't even show on my channel page unless I search for it. I am not sure it is right for the platform, but they all want to be the go to platform, not realising they can all co-exist

Interesting... I see mine in my Video list, and other channels' video listings too. If you're talking about the Home page on your channel - yeah, they don't show up there... unless you have a "Shorts" section at the bottom. I have several sections I added, for Bikes, Rides, and Gear... and then Shorts at the bottom.

-John

 

[Skyd]

TikTok is for kids, from what I've been too old. I tried signing up but the little scroll-to-find-your-birth-year thing didn't go that far

As for Instagram, use Chrome, click on the three dots in the upper-right corner, More Tools > Developer Tools. Then, there's 2 icons that look like tablets - click the one on the right. Refresh your Instagram page, and it'll pretend like you're on a phone. Then you can share your pics

Click the left tablet-looking icon and close the subwindow housing the code, and refresh your page. Now you're back to desktop mode.

That's how I post my pics on Insta

-John

Whoa! Genius, I don't know why this never occured to me. Now can you tell me how to fix my IG account so I can follow hashtags.....HAHA. I'm gonna give this a go tonight.

The hashtag thing is a known bug apparently but IG didn't respond to my bug report.

 

[Moto Mengy]

I'm not a fan of VVS - Vertical Video Syndrome. I hate it when my students show their work that way (I explain to them the beauty of the wide screen format) and probably the main reason I haven't posted anything to my Instagram channel in months (seriously, why is it virtually impossible to post work there from a laptop?)

I'm not a fan of vertical videos either. It's why I don't bother with Tik Tok or Instagram Stories, they just don't appeal to me.

However, I still might make a few of these YT shorts just as an experiment. Wouldn't take long to make them up as highlights from the videos I'm already making anyway. I don't expect it will draw any new viewers at all, but from a creative point of view it might be fun to try them out nonetheless.

 

[Drakhen99]

Whoa! Genius, I don't know why this never occured to me. Now can you tell me how to fix my IG account so I can follow hashtags.....HAHA. I'm gonna give this a go tonight.

The hashtag thing is a known bug apparently but IG didn't respond to my bug report.

No idea - I didn't even know you COULD follow hashtags!

I'm not a fan of vertical videos either. It's why I don't bother with Tik Tok or Instagram Stories, they just don't appeal to me.

However, I still might make a few of these YT shorts just as an experiment. Wouldn't take long to make them up as highlights from the videos I'm already making anyway. I don't expect it will draw any new viewers at all, but from a creative point of view it might be fun to try them out nonetheless.

They can be quite quick to edit since they're short, but I tried the other day to cobble one together using highlights from a vid I was editing, but after about 20m I gave up - I just wasn't happy with it. Also, with a mix of 360/non-360 footage, for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get the danged clips to scale properly. I did it in my GoPro/Insta mashup trailer #short, but alas, I couldn't figure it out.

-John

 

[Moto Mengy]

They can be quite quick to edit since they're short, but I tried the other day to cobble one together using highlights from a vid I was editing, but after about 20m I gave up - I just wasn't happy with it. Also, with a mix of 360/non-360 footage, for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get the danged clips to scale properly. I did it in my GoPro/Insta mashup trailer #short, but alas, I couldn't figure it out.

I just edited a short up just to see how to do it, and yeah it wasn't as "quick" to do as I thought it would be.

I set it 1080 X 1920 in the vertical, made my footage square at 1080 x 1080 in the center, and added a blurry background to fill in the black bars at the top and bottom. I like how it turned out but it took more time than I expected.

It should go faster now that I know how to do it. I'll make a few more offline test shorts this weekend and see if I want to bother with these or not.

 

[Drakhen99]

Sounds like a good plan!

-John

 

[HippoDrone]

Can you not just set the camera to the correct aspect ratio? With the 360 cameras it is easy, at least it is with the Insta360 Studio, and with the GoPro, just turn it on it's side when recording the short?

It seems silly to lose quality by cropping after recording!

 

[Moto Mengy]

Can you not just set the camera to the correct aspect ratio? With the 360 cameras it is easy, at least it is with the Insta360 Studio, and with the GoPro, just turn it on it's side when recording the short?

It seems silly to lose quality by cropping after recording!

Not if I'm making #Shorts out of my standard motovlogs like for highlights or such. When filming new stuff just for shorts then sure film in the correct aspect ratio, but I doubt I'd ever film much of anything specifically for shorts only.

 

[HippoDrone]

The trouble with motovlogs is the camera is so dynamic, I think the only way to ensure what you want is in shot is to purposefully film in 1080/1920 rather than window a 1920/1080 vid. Is a pain to need to move cameras though

 

[Drakhen99]

I don't use the GoPro app to reframe my 360 footage, I use the Reframe 360 plugin in Davinci Resolve. That said, the 360 footage really looks cool when you change the aspect ratio - the shots look neat when reframed for vertical.

-John