can someone please tell me the best way to make a youtube vid? Just
play to the camera and upload or do I need a little a/v studio with
Adobe Premier and After Effects etc
There is no right way. I find alot of YouTube videos to be sloppy as hell,
and absolutely perfect for what they are intended. For music you're just
distributing to the Harp-l posse, just make sure it sounds good and it's
your best effort.
I've just finished my first video, not online yet, and since I intend it to
promote my music to a larger group - essentially to people who don't know
me - I spent time making sure I look good (nearly impossible), that the
video was lit well, that the performance was strong and that the sound was
good. In fact, the sound on my camera is terrible, so I recorded the audio
with my Zoom H2 and then laid it in using Final Cut Pro 3. Much better sound.
But if you're upping your vids for Harp-l people, I'd recommend you just
make sure the stuff sounds good. For your own peace of mind, I'd recommend
that you do a few takes on things, and upload the best take.
Finally, don't upload anything where you have to make excuses. I for one
rarely view videos where the announcement says "There's some good stuff
about two minutes in and then it gets boring and then a minute later
there's some more good stuff." Make me grin with your video and I'll try
to do the same with mine.