---
title: 'How to Film and Edit Vlog-Style YouTube Videos for Beginners'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=dcA6CWXAKpQ'
video_id: 'dcA6CWXAKpQ'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 1589
---

# How to Film and Edit Vlog-Style YouTube Videos for Beginners

> Source: [How to Film and Edit Vlog-Style YouTube Videos for Beginners](https://youtube.com/watch?v=dcA6CWXAKpQ)

## Summary

This video is a comprehensive beginner's guide to creating vlog-style YouTube content. It covers the crucial mindset shifts, minimal gear recommendations, camera settings, shot types, storytelling techniques, footage organization, and editing tips needed to start vlogging.

### Key Points

- **Overview of the vlogging guide** [00:01] — The video promises to cover mindset shifts, comfort on camera, gear, filming angles, engagement tactics, storytelling hacks, and the process for organizing and editing vlogs.
- **Mindset shift: vlogging is a muscle** [00:29] — Vlogging is a skill like playing piano or swimming; the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Beginners should vlog for themselves, not for an audience, and don't need to be perfect.
- **Mindset shift: lean into the cringe** [02:03] — Cringing at yourself is normal and signals you're outside your comfort zone, which is where growth happens. It's not a sign that you're not meant for this.
- **Mindset shift: no right way to vlog** [02:29] — Your vlog doesn't need to be aesthetic, daily, or even talking to the camera. You can vlog weekly or monthly, use voiceover, minimal editing, or fast cuts — find what feels comfortable.
- **Mindset shift: thoughts are not reality** [03:11] — Negative thoughts like 'I look uncomfortable' or 'people are judging me' are just thoughts, not facts. You can't control how others perceive you when filming in public.
- **Gear: start with your phone** [04:03] — You don't need expensive gear. Ryan Trahan films 90% of his content with a phone, proving that a phone is enough to start vlogging.
- **Tip: clean your lens** [05:14] — Wiping your phone's lens instantly improves video quality — a simple but often overlooked step.
- **Recommended gear: microphone and tripod** [05:27] — A good microphone, like the Rode Wireless GO, improves audio quality. A tripod, especially with MagSafe, allows more angle variety and makes solo filming easier.
- **Camera settings: casual vs. cinematic** [07:43] — For casual horizontal vlogs, record at 1080p 30fps. For more cinematic or aesthetic content, use 4K 60fps. Keep enhanced stabilization on and turn off HDR for a more natural look.
- **Document daily to improve shots** [09:18] — The more you document your day-to-day life, the more you naturally experiment with angles and composition, helping you level up your filming skills.
- **Shot types to use in vlogs** [10:15] — Key shots include establishing, wide, medium, portrait, close-up, overhead, POV, over-the-shoulder, and macro shots. Each provides a unique perspective that keeps the viewer engaged.
- **Using stock footage for B-roll** [12:50] — Storyblocks provides royalty-free stock footage, music, and sound effects to fill gaps in your vlog without filming extra B-roll yourself.
- **Storytelling hack: time frame + identity** [14:56] — Combine a time frame with an identity (e.g., 'Week in the Life of a Content Creator') to give your vlog a clear structure and relatable angle.
- **Storytelling hack: the objective** [16:19] — Give your vlog a goal or challenge (e.g., train every day or collect something from each city) to give viewers a reason to keep watching.
- **Storytelling hack: the after effect** [17:11] — Instead of planning a storyline beforehand, film everything and figure out the narrative in post-production using voiceover and edited clips.
- **Organizing footage with an SSD** [18:08] — Transfer phone footage to a portable SSD daily. Organize by day, with subfolders for A-roll, B-roll, voiceovers, and graphics to keep editing efficient.
- **Editing: edit the hook last** [21:56] — For a strong hook, front-load the best or most intense clips from your vlog in the first 10 seconds. Edit the hook last after you know the best moments.
- **Editing: cut out more than you think** [24:08] — Creators often overestimate what to keep. The creator initially had 12 minutes of footage for a 5-minute daily segment and had to cut repeated moments and filler aggressively.
- **Editing: show, don't tell** [25:20] — Replace long talking-head moments with B-roll and voiceover to make the vlog more visually engaging and concise.
- **Editing: consume vlog content** [25:48] — Watch other vlogs analytically to identify what you like and dislike, then apply those learnings to develop your own authentic style.

### Conclusion

Starting a vlog is less about gear and more about mindset and consistency. By adopting a practice-oriented mindset, using simple gear, telling a clear story, and editing tightly, anyone can create engaging vlog-style content.

## Transcript

edit vlog-style YouTube videos like this one, then keep watching because in this that you need to know. The mindset shifts to help you get comfortable filming vlogs, gear recommendations, filming angles, shots, how to make vlogs
more engaging, simple storytelling hacks, and of course my process for organizing and editing vlogs. As always, timestamps are below, use them if you shifts. I'm going to start here because usually when I'm talking to my students
asking me about filming vlogs, some of their first hesitations is just not knowing how to show up on camera or how to film vlogs, and what I find is that mindset is usually the number one thing that holds people back from even filming
vlog-style content. So, that's why we're starting with mindset. First mindset shift is vlogging is a muscle. It's a skill just like learning to play the piano, swimming, or storytelling. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Your job right now with vlogging is not to be perfect. It's not It's to practice. So, what I want you to do, if it's your first vlog, I want you to vlog for yourself, not for your channel, not for your followers or subscribers, just
vlog for you. Because this first vlog that you do never has to see the light never have to post it, you never have to watch the footage back. I just want you to do a vlog for you. Don't put the unnecessary pressure on yourself for
this first vlog or any vlog to be perfect. When you do this practice, I want you to just pay attention to other thoughts or challenges that come up as you start exercising that vlog muscle. And I think this goes without saying
under this mindset shift, but like don't compare your first vlog to someone else's hundredth or thousandth. Like every creator that you are watching started somewhere with their vlogs. The difference is that they've had hundreds
of opportunities to improve. So, don't compare your first to someone else's millionth. Second mindset shift is to lean into the cringe or the discomfort. It is okay to cringe at yourself. I cringe at myself all the time when I'm
I'll immediately regret it and tell my editors, "Uh, cut that out. That was cringey." It is completely normal. Cringing is not a sign of you don't know what to do or you weren't made for this. It's not a sign for that. All it is is a
sign that you are a little uncomfortable and you're pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and that is good news because when you push yourself outside of your comfort zone, that's actually you growing. So, yeah, it will feel
weird. It will feel uncomfortable, but that's just because you are leveling up to a place that you've never been before. Third mindset shift, there is no right way to vlog. Do what works best for you. Your vlog doesn't have to be
aesthetic. It doesn't have to be talking to the camera all day. It doesn't even have to be everyday. You could vlog once a month, once a week. It could be talking. It could be voiceover. It could be casual with minimum editing or it
could be fast-paced cutting. It doesn't matter. There is no one way or right way to vlog. Start with the style that feels comfortable for you and you'll build from there. In starting and just creating, naturally over time you will
develop your own unique style that's authentically you. And number four, your authentically you. And number four, your thoughts are not reality. They're just thoughts. Just because you think, "Oh, I look uncomfortable." Or even somebody
who who talks about filming in public and how you think, "Oh my gosh, all these people are judging me." All of those thoughts, just because they come to you, that doesn't mean they're true. Your thoughts are only thoughts. You
cannot control how other people perceive you when you're filming in public. And honestly, when I'm out and about and I see somebody else filming, I am not gosh, that's so cool. I wish I had the confidence to film like that." Just
doesn't make it true. Those are a few basic mindset shifts. I'll probably video, but now I want to dive straight into gear recommendations. One of the most common concerns I hear from creators who want to start vlogging is,
yet, or I don't know what camera to get." But honestly, you do not need a lot of gear to get started. I know everyone says, "Oh, you could just start [clears throat] with your phone. Use your phone." Here's proof. One of my
favorite YouTubers, Ryan Trahan, films 90% of his content with his phone. That is it. And he has millions and millions of subscribers. Literally, go watch any of his videos. He's filming on his phone. Even my own vlog that I posted,
creator, I filmed the whole thing on my phone. I was the same way. Thinking about gear would stop me from vlogging because I didn't want to have to think about my camera settings anytime I moved around the house and have to set up my
camera and adjust the settings and the white balance and all the terminology. Like, that stopped me from vlogging for so long. But my week in the life of a content creator was the easiest vlog I had ever done because I lowered the
barrier of entry. I lowered the friction that I was feeling and told myself, your phone and see what happens." And it was amazing. So, if you're going to be filming on your phone, number one tip is to clean off your lens. You would not
believe the quality difference it makes when you clean your lens. So, give your camera a little wipey and your quality will instantly improve. Now, alongside your phone, there are two pieces of gear that I recommend adding to your setup.
First is a good microphone because good quality audio can make a huge difference in how your video sounds and even feels to somebody watching, especially if you're filming out and about having a microphone to just capture your audio
quality is such a game-changer. For my vlog and honestly, all of my short-form vlog and honestly, all of my short-form content, I used the Rode Wireless GO mic micro micro in white. This is so easy to use. You just set it up with an app one
time and then it's good to go basically for forever. The mic that I was using before the Rode mic was the SmallRig mic. So, if you are looking for like a look into the SmallRig brand. And then
For your tripod, you want to make sure that it can go at least up to your eye level if not more. And for me personally, I love having the magnetic the stands that you have to like squeeze on your phone and it just you can't get
as much variety with your angles and shots. So, MagSafe, if your phone doesn't have the magnetic option, just get a phone case that has the MagSafe on it and that way you're able to just like snap it on and you can just like adjust
any angle. It is so efficient and it made my vlogs so so so much easier. That is all that you need to create vlogs for a very very very very very long time. Let's be real. Don't let gear be the
started. I'll be sure to link all of my personal favorite gear recommendations down below including options if you want to up-level your gear or you want to invest in gear. Like for example, right now I'm filming on my Sony ZV-E10.
That's what I film most of my talking head content for my YouTube videos. So, options, I'll leave a link down below. If you've learned a one new thing so far, consider hitting the thumbs up since it's going to tell YouTube that
other creators like yourself will find this video valuable and be sure to show it to the right people. And if you learned two new things by the end of subscribing since it's a free way to support my channel and it allows me to
continue to make free content like this for you every single week. I think for you every single week. I think YouTube had said that 60% of viewers are that's you, just check the subscribe down below and make sure you're
subscribed. Now, let's get into filming because there's a lot that can go into filming. You have like your camera settings, angles, capturing B roll, all settings, especially if you're using
your phone, you got plenty of options. You got lots of options when it comes to my phone and show you. If you're recording horizontally [snorts] and you're doing standard day in the life content for YouTube, there's
nothing cinematic. It's just casual lifestyle content, you could record at 1080 30 frames per second. Now, if you have a little bit more experience with your camera, setting up good shots, you want more aesthetic or moody vlogs, then
I would suggest changing to 4K at 60 frames per second. I also recommend 4K if you are filming horizontally, but want the option to crop in to repost to you're doing vertical vlogs for like TikTok, YouTube shorts, and again, it's
casual day in the life, you could just do 1080 at 30 frames per second. But again, if you want more cinematic, up-level feel, then 4K at 60 frames per second. I always have enhanced stabilization turned on, and I don't
love HDR video, so I'll turn it off. For anyone filming at 4K, just make sure you're posting to, like if you're posting to TikTok or you're posting to Instagram, make sure your settings within the app allows for high-quality
uploads. Then, my biggest tip when it comes to actually filming yourself and it's just to document. The more you document your day-to-day, the more you'll start to see opportunity to play with variations of shots. For example,
doing a vlog, and I'm doing the same thing every day, I sit down at my desk The first day I film it, I'm like, "Cool, I got that angle. I sit down at like, "Cool, I'm going to document me sitting at my desk." And then I'm like,
to try a new angle." So, when you're just documenting and you're getting in naturally, you start to challenge yourself to play around with different angles or composition or just up-leveling your skill overall. This
could be playing with the rule of thirds or leading lines. If you want a little bit more like step-by-step tutorial for how to film aesthetic content, I have a full video breakdown that talks through like the technical of like, "Okay, this
thirds. This is how to add some dimension." So, you can watch that video next. But, for my beginner vloggers, just document what you do every single day. And the more you do it, you can start to add variety to your shots. Let
me give you some examples of different shots and angles that you could film the next time you vlog. First is the establishing shot. This is like setting the scene and giving the viewers context for where they are or where you are in
your vlog. If you're filming a weekend in New York City vlog, this could be like a wide shot of the city skyline or a busy street or Times Square. Then you have a wide shot. Wide shot captures the full scene, but now with you in it.
Maybe this is you walking along a busy street or walking into a coffee shop. Typically, this shot shows a little bit more full body. Then we have the medium shot. This brings viewers in a little bit closer to the action. So, if your
wide shot is full body, medium shot might be like hips up. Then we have our portrait shot. I think this is one of the most common vlog shots. You know, it's just focused on you and your face. I think torso up is the best way to
represent what portrait shots are. This is typically when you're filming your updates, you're talking to your viewers, you're bringing them along throughout shot. Then you have different close-up shots that you could get. These are
bringing viewers into the details of what you're doing. You know, the steam coming off of your coffee shop, your fingers typing on a keyboard, turning things up a little bit, you also have the overhead shot. I really like this
unique point of view that not a lot of people can capture. So, when you do capture it, it brings a lot of excitement to the vlogs. This is like the top-down shot that we see a lot of food content creators get. Another angle
is like the POV shots because this helps viewers feel like they're experiencing a moment with you. Maybe they're walking with you through a busy street or shopping, grabbing something from a shelf. Like any sort of POV shot where
your eyes is really cool. Next is over the shoulder. This angle makes viewers feel like they're kind of there, observing you, with you, hanging out with you. It takes a little extra setup, but I do feel like it can make your vlog
look a little more cinematic. We also have different macro type shots. We had like our general close-ups, but macro gets even closer. It's like being able to see a bead of water dripping down the side of your glass. These shots add
texture and help the story within the moment. Now, I know I just threw a bunch of options at you and you might be thinking, "There is no way I can film all of these shots by myself." Well, the good news is that you don't have to
because a lot of the examples that I just showed you came from Storyblocks. Now, I love using Storyblocks to help with the visual storytelling of my content here on my channel. Filming extra B-roll on top of your main footage
can feel like a lot, so I always go to my Storyblocks account and then I'll post-production. Now, for those of you who are new to this channel or you haven't heard of Storyblocks, they are a 100% human-made stock media library
essential for creators. So, if you need anything like stock footage, music, sound effects, motion graphics, templates, you can find all of that through them without having to jump between a bunch of different sites to
find everything. One of the biggest things that slows creators down is like stopping every few minutes to go search for assets when they're editing, and Storyblocks solves that by putting footage, music, sound effects, images,
and templates all in one place so that you can stay focused on editing instead of having to go hunt everything down. For example, maybe I'm talking about how I worked from a coffee shop, but I forgot to film it, or like I was in a
rush and I wasn't able to film it. I can search for clips in Storyblocks, drag them into Premiere, and instantly make that section of my vlog feel more complete. Plus, like I said, the library is 100% human-made
and created by real filmmakers and artists. At the beginning of every project, when I'm organizing my footage, I create a folder for music, another for sound effects, and one for stock media. That way I have everything organized
part is that everything is 100% royalty-free and pre-cleared for everything in your YouTube videos and copyright issues ever. So, if you want to start telling better stories with the
tools that I use, head to storyblocks.com/modernmillie. They're also offering a limited-time discount for my audience that is only available through the link below. Our fourth vlogging tip that we're going to
be going over is simple storytelling hacks, because I feel like that also holds people back. It's like thinking, "Well, my life isn't even interesting it." And honestly, I used to think the same thing. For me, my life feels
the same thing every day. I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to sit at my desk and work. Oh, I'm going to sit at my desk and work." Like, for me, my life just feels ordinary. But ordinary to you might be super interesting to thousands if not
millions of other people. Remember, your thoughts are not reality. So, to help make your vlogs a little bit more interesting, I wanted to share some simple storytelling techniques that you could use in your next vlog. Technique
number one is the time frame plus identity vlog. This is one of the easiest ways and most common that I see creators use, and that's by combining a time frame with your identity. This is the classic week in the life of a
content creator. So, the time frame is we're going to do a week of vlogging, and your identity is a content creator. Time frame, day. Time frame, day. Day in the life of a identity, student.
Day in the life of a identity, student. Weekend in New York City as a solo traveler. Come with me to my 9-5 as an accountant. Technique number two, the objective. This one is my favorite storytelling tricks because it's
implement a lot in his videos. So, while he might be filming like a travel vlog, throughout his trip, he's actually working towards a goal or objective.
Maybe he's collecting things from every city that he visits. Maybe he's trying to complete a challenge before the end of the video. This objective or goal gives the viewers a reason to keep watching. For my vlog, I challenged
myself to train every single day since I'm training for a triathlon, and if I missed a workout, my repercussion was I had to buy my trainer coffee, and I
myself, which was like that's a big deal for me, high stakes. Now, suddenly viewers aren't just watching a week in my life, they're also checking to see the challenge that I set for myself at the very beginning. There's lots of fun
ways to do this. Just binge a bunch of Ryan Trahan videos, and you can get inspired. Technique number three is what I call the after effect. This is when you're okay with not having a storyline until after you film. A lot of people
and show your face and talk to the camera and tell the story as you go in real time, but if you don't know where the storyline is going, you don't have that implements this really, really well is Linda Sun. She documents her life.
She has footage for all of her vlogs, but the story is actually figured out in post-production when she's editing. She'll do voiceover to tell you the little bits of her talking to the camera
when she vlogged that week, but most of the storyline is actually driven after effect, after she's already filmed. So, those are three different storytelling in your next vlogs. Now, let's talk about organizing footage. When you're
vlogging, you're going to end up with a lot of footage from every single day, especially if you're not sure which direction is going and you're just like, "Okay, I'm going to capture and document everything." This is where I highly
recommend staying organized from day one. Here's the system that I used for my week in the life vlog. At the end of each day, I transferred all of the footage that was from my phone and moved it onto my SSD. This portable SSD, this
it onto my SSD. This portable SSD, this is where all of my active projects live. So, if I'm working on a vlog, I had Monday, I'm like, "Cool. Filmed all of Monday's content on my phone. Let me just AirDrop it to my computer and back
right here. I put everything here because it clears up space on my phone and it clears up space on my computer. I don't have to worry about like saving footage there and taking up space. Put everything here even because when I
edit, all of the editing energy is here instead of on my computer. I feel like if you edit off of your computer, it can get laggy, especially if you're editing on a laptop. I'm always editing off of an SSD. Then, on my SSD, I organize
everything by day so that nothing gets mixed up. So, my folder structure looks like this. We have the week in the life folder. Within that, we have every single day, right? Monday through Friday. Within Monday, I have multiple
folders, an A-roll folder, a B-roll folder, voiceovers, and graphics. Graphics is anything extra that I want to have on screen or use when editing.
Storyblocks will probably be in the graphics folder. I do the same thing for each day folder. Same thing for Tuesday, A-roll, B-roll, voiceover, graphics, and so on. I like to do this one day at a time because my content and what I
after I AirDrop everything to my computer, it's easy for me to look at the clips and be like, "Oh, yeah, that was A-roll, that's B-roll, here's my voiceover. Cool, everything's organized. Peace out, girl scout. Let me start on
Tuesday." I will edit everything off of this one. I'll get into editing tips in a second. But then, after the video is edited, posted, published, I'm happy, I'm going to drag all of the content, everything from the vlog that was on the
SSD, and I'm going to move it to my hard drive. That way, this bad boy, it keeps clearing up space for new active vlogs or videos that I'm working on. And
anything that's done, I can archive it and I could just save it and have a backup of it if I ever need to reference it again. Here. A common question people ask me is after you transfer everything from your phone to the SSD or to a hard
drive, should you delete it? That is completely up to you. For me, I do delete stuff because I don't always want my camera roll to be filled with like business stuff. I also want my camera roll to be like for me and my family and
like of my baby. So, I try to keep my camera roll clean and have most of my business stuff either in Google Drive or on my hard drives. Now that we've talked about gear and filming and organizing footage, let's dive into editing. Now,
honestly, I wanted this video when I was first conceptualizing this video that gosh, I want to do a full filming, editing step-by-step." And then as we is going to be like a 3-hour video because it's going to show the filming
tutorial." And I'm like, "I don't think we have enough time to turn that around so quickly." So, scratch that. Turn this into bullet points and if you want a separate like step-by-step editing tutorial where I'm like actually in
Adobe Premiere Pro editing a vlog and showing you my full process for that, then you could drop a comment down below and let me know if that's something that would be helpful. For now, I just want to give you some of my top tips for
editing vlogs that are either fast-paced or ways to keep people interested and watching. So, let's first, tip number one, talk about the hook. There are so many different ways to edit a hook for a vlog and I think it'll all depend on the
type of vlog that you're creating. Like I said, there is no one way or right way to vlog, just like with these tips, these aren't like, "You have to do this." These are just like suggestions for you to like take and leap with. So,
an example of a solid hook for somebody using the time frame and identity technique, so day in the life or week in the life of a content creator, a great hook could be after you finish editing your video, edit the hook last and then
throughout the week and move some of the best clips to the front. Front load those first 10 seconds of like little clips of the best moments of your week or the disasters, like you spilled your coffee all over your new carpet, right?
Put that clip at the very beginning. Start with the most intense moment. Tease the most intense moments in those first few seconds. It could be just the clip playing by itself or it could be a voice-over where it's like, "It was at
this point when I knew everything was falling apart." That's the hook. You know what I mean? So, like start with the most intense moment or peak moment of your vlog, and then leave them hanging. Don't show the resolution, and
your vlog. Another way to package the hook for the objective technique is just jump straight into what you're doing and what the objective is. Ryan Trahan does this in almost all of his videos where he's like, "I'm traveling to 50 states
I don't, blah blah, you know, like he jumps straight into what he's doing, the challenge, the objective, and the consequence, going straight into it and not like starting with fluff of like, "So, today, like" just starting with
like what the stakes are or what the story's going to be could be a really good hook, too. Now, I do go deeper into hooks, packaging, pacing in a recent video that I posted. It's a video that helps you hit 4,000 watch hours faster
on YouTube. So, if that's something you're interested in, it is on my link it in the card above. Tip number two with editing is cut out more than you think you need to. We are biased, and we want to leave every single moment
in our vlogs because it feels important to us. I mean, it was us. It happened to us. We want to keep it. When I filmed my week in the life, my goal was to land at around 5 minutes of content per day. So, that's like 5 minutes for Monday, 5
Thursday, Friday. That way the vlog wasn't too long. And my first pass for editing Monday, it was over 10 minutes. It was like 12 minutes long. And that was after I thought I cut a lot. And I was like, "Oh, how am I supposed to cut
six more minutes of footage when it's me, and I'm so important?" You know, like you'll have to cut more than you think. For me, what I ended up cutting were moments that I repeated myself. So, like I like to say things one way, and
then to emphasize my point, I'll say it a new different way to sound smarter or whatever. And anytime I repeated myself, I was cutting that. It took me a lot of passes before I feel like I had my final vlog, where like I would watch the whole
thing and cut more out. Watch the whole thing and cut more out. Anytime I was for a second, I was like, "Something either needs to go or we need to edit Tip number three, I'm sure you've heard this one before, is to show, don't tell.
Talking head moments for me is what was keeping my video running longer. I was yapping yapping yapping yapping and I could have summarized what I was saying in like two sentences. So, instead of having viewers watch me talk to the
camera about X, Y, Z, I just took that moment to share B-roll with them instead, show them what I did and added voice over after. Tip number four is to consume vlog content. You will continuously develop your own unique
vlog style. And for me, I feel like the best way to do that is by watching other people's vlogs and identifying what do you like and what do you not like? What keeps you interested and what gets you bored? Watch vlogs from a analytical
perspective and implement a lot of what you love and stay away from what you don't love. When you're consuming a lot of different style of creators and a lot of vlog styles, you'll be able to kind of piece together your own authenticity
with vlogging over time. Honestly, there's so much more I could yap about all the things. If you have any follow-up questions, just let me know for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Follow your joy. Bye.