Last month I created what I consider to be an incredibly cool video, and I used several video and content creation tools to bring it to life. Here’s the breakdown.

The Cool Video

My goal was to create a fun promo to prompt planners to think of me as they plan for events next year. The final product was just over a minute long, and it took about 4 hours and about 9 different tools from the original idea to the distribution.

Step 1: Use AI to Write the Script

I wanted a catchy poem or the like to make people smile. My first thought was to write a parody of “Jingle Bells” and sing, but I want people to hire me, not to block me.

So I switched to a parody of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” I knew it was going to take too much time and mental energy for me to write the poem myself, so I turned to my favorite AI writing assistant, Jasper.

Oh. My. Gosh. I was blown away by the results. S.e.r.i.o.u.s.l.y.

Step 2: Create the Background for the Video with Depositphotos, Envato Elements and Ecamm

So now I had an amazing poem, and I needed to record. Ecamm Live is a (Mac-only) tool that lets you create cool scenes and backgrounds for your videos. I wanted something winter-y and holiday-y, so I searched for backgrounds in Depositphotos, which has hundreds of thousands of some of the best stock images around (and is still having a Black Friday sale for a few more days!).

I chose an image with good copy space because I knew I wanted to include the lyrics, and it was easy for me to use Ecamm to layer my video into the computer monitor. I also used a green screen so I could float myself over another holiday image, which I found on Envato Elements, a subscription service with hundreds of thousands of images, videos, graphics, sounds and so much more.

So this was the setup:

Step 3: Use Teleprompter Mirror to Record the Video

To make sure I got the poem right, I loaded my script into Teleprompter Mirror. I love this site! It’s free and fast and totally awesome. Here’s a super-fast demo:

Step 4: Use Zoom to Record

Ok, this was a vanity thing. Ecamm has great recording tools, but Zoom lets you touch up your appearance. So I chose to record through Zoom so I could smooth out my rough edges. Here’s a comparison of the two:

Step 5: Clean Up the Audio with Descript

For whatever reason, the original audio was very tinny…

I dropped the video into a phenomenal tool called Descript, where I clicked one button to clean up the audio, then I trimmed the front and back. I exported the video again to add some special effects, and I also exported the closed captions to use later.

Step 6: Use iMovie to Add Open and Close Plus a Music Track from Envato Elements

I could have done these steps in Descript, but I’m more comfortable with iMovie for basic video editing. I found a jingle-y bell-y music track on Envato Elements and threw on a very simple intro slide.

Step 7: Add Lyrics with Wave.Video

As I mentioned above, I wanted to add the lyrics of the poem, so I popped over to Wave.Video. This phenomenal tool will transcribe your videos for you, but I chose to upload the captions from Descript since I cleaned up the text when I fixed the audio.

Wave.Video lets me move the captions anywhere on the screen and does the cool karaoke effects.

Step Eight: Distribute with Dubb

I sent this video out to hundreds of planners in my database (past and future clients), and I wanted to see if people were actually watching it. So I used Dubb, a video email tool that helps you create a little preview GIF to paste into emails. The stats showed that the video was a success… I ended up with a couple hundred views and even a couple of leads! Dubb gives me a great landing page and lots of stats to obsess over. It also analyzes the content to give me tips for better videos.

If I wanted to, I could track individual people to see the names of the people who watched, but I didn’t do that for this one.

It Doesn’t Have to Take This Long

As you can tell, I am a bit of a perfectionist who specializes in overkill. I could have probably finished the whole thing (idea to distribution) in less than an hour with maybe 3 tools if I wasn’t so picky.

And if I didn’t record the video 10 times to get it p.e.r.f.e.c.t.

And if I hadn’t changed outfits and hats and backgrounds and images about forty-eleven times.

So I’m not the best role model for video production speed. But I sure do like the result!