Is really difficult to make a youtube video?

[ansonbao]

Finally the Chinese New Year holiday begin .These days I am thinking a question and hope get some suggestion.
We held a video activity and the award is so good,first prize will get $350 cash +$150 coupon.However, the number of people that participate in the competition did not meet expectation,is it really difficult to make a youtube video?

[soubitos]

Yes... it is... it can be very simple but it can also be a complex process requiring a not so small investment...
I personally shoot with my mobile phone which is limiting to say the least....

[Falkra]

is it really difficult to make a youtube video?

No, not really. The difficult part is to make a good youtube video. With interesting contents and good video and audio quality. 

[igendel]

Finally the Chinese New Year holiday begin .These days I am thinking a question and hope get some suggestion.
We held a video activity and the award is so good,first prize will get $350 cash +$150 coupon.However, the number of people that participate in the competition did not meet expectation,is it really difficult to make a youtube video?

The real question is not how difficult it is to make a youtube video, but the expected ratio of investment to gain.

Just as an example, let's say your competition rules say that the video with the most views will win. I know I can only get about 100 views, and I know there are kids in China who can get 1M views just from their friends at school so obviously I will feel there's no point in me participating.

Or, let's say you offer a $20 coupon for all participants, valid for one month only. But I don't have any PCB job planned for the upcoming month. So why bother?

Or maybe I just like to think my channel is for showing my own projects and content, not an advertising platform for whoever promises me prizes. It may cause me to look like a sellout, and consequently I may lose my best, most dedicated followers.

Now, I should say that I have used PCBWay services in the past and was happy with the results. Still, uploading a video about it is not an obvious step.

[@rt]

I personally shoot with up to three mobile phones, which is three times less limiting to say the least

[lundmar]

Once you have to raw footage you can save money by using some of the open source video editors such as https://www.openshot.org or https://kdenlive.org

[Red Squirrel]

Depends on quality you want.

Some of the big  youtube channels with intros and outros and special effects and camera angles etc will be harder to make than a simple video with a bit of text and music.  Music is another challenge.  You pretty much have to make your own music and make sure it sounds nothing like existing music or you'll get hit with copyright claims.  For a small time channel I would not worry too much - any music you use just slow it down or speed it up in a sound program.  But if you are depending on that for your livelihood you can't afford to get a hit.   

Like this video of my shed build is probably one of my most "complicated" videos and I don't think it took me more than a few hours.   Though it did require some planing while I was doing the project, like I had to setup the camera, then download pictures at end of day, place them in proper folder etc...   so there is a certain amount of work involved but not really hard.  Real time project footage is much harder to do as you always have to move the camera around and setup shots etc and actually stop to talk or what not, while simultaneously working on the project.   It's kinda crossed my mind to start doing that with home projects.  I'm kinda camera shy, but I imagine that's something you get over.

[JugglingElectrons]

It is possible to go very far with just a modern smartphone or even a decent webcam. You'll fare better if you have a better camera, more lighting, tripods/mounts, locations/perspectives, etc. At the end of the day it's your photography, creativity, visual skills, editing skills, ideas, etc. that will really set you apart from others. I have no artistic side, so whenever I make a video it is extremely dry and just regurgitates information. You want to express yourself and show that you have a unique perspective to show but be relatable enough so that you have the most widespread appeal.

[EEVblog]

Finally the Chinese New Year holiday begin .These days I am thinking a question and hope get some suggestion.
We held a video activity and the award is so good,first prize will get $350 cash +$150 coupon.However, the number of people that participate in the competition did not meet expectation,is it really difficult to make a youtube video?

No, it shouldn't be hard, but it's extra effort, and most people are lazy.
Most people do not want to do any work to enter a contest, which is why if you hold a contest where people just have to enter a reason why they want to win you might get 10,000 entries. But hold the same contest and say people have to upload a 30sec video of them talking about why they want to win, you'll get 100 entries.

It's actually a common method used in hardware design contests to keep the entries to workably low value, just ask them to produce a 5min video.

[ansonbao]

No, it shouldn't be hard, but it's extra effort, and most people are lazy.
Most people do not want to do any work to enter a contest, which is why if you hold a contest where people just have to enter a reason why they want to win you might get 10,000 entries. But hold the same contest and say people have to upload a 30sec video of them talking about why they want to win, you'll get 100 entries.

It's actually a common method used in hardware design contests to keep the entries to workably low value, just ask them to produce a 5min video.

Thanks for your suggestion. Hi,Dave,usually how many steps you need to make a video?It will take you so much time?

[EEVblog]

Thanks for your suggestion. Hi,Dave,usually how many steps you need to make a video?It will take you so much time?

A lot more time than a $350 worth, if I was charging my time.

[Red Squirrel]

As a professional amateur, I take 3 steps.

1. Point camera at stuff while it's recording
2. Upload to Youtube
3. No profit

Seriously though, the "steps" really depend on the person.  You do what works for you.  Dave did make a video showing how his workflow works.  It works for him, and may or may not work for other people, everyone has their way of doing it.

Generally you want to do your best to minimize the amount of post processing, as that is what eats up a lot of time.