How To Make Videos Like 5 Minute Crafts

In this article, I break down the formula on how to make videos like 5 Minute Crafts. Similar to the movie the Prestige where every magic trick is broken down into three acts - The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige, these 5 Minute Crafts videos can be broken down into three hacks - The Click, The Shot and The Edit.

How To Make Videos Like 5 Minute Crafts

Have you ever wondered what makes the 5 Minute Crafts videos so successful? Let me break it down for you. 

The 5 Minute Craft video formula reminds me of the movie called The Prestige where every magic trick has 3 acts - The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige. If you haven't seen that movie, you're definitely going to want to check it out. It's all about magicians and how they fool the audience with smoke and mirrors to do their tricks and I believe that's really how 5 Minute Crafts creates their videos as well. It's all smoke and mirrors.

So similar to that movie The Prestige where you have those 3 acts - The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige, I think 5 Minute Crafts can be broken down into 3 hacks - The Click, The Shot and The Edit. Let's break it down so you can examine what they're doing and how you can incorporate this to benefit your own videos. 

The Click

The first component is The Click. If you've ever noticed 5 Minute Crafts videos in search results, you'll quickly notice one thing - the thumbnail. Their thumbnails are very well done, very colorful and shows you exactly what is taking place in the video (emphasizing the most ridiculous part of the video) to make you want to click. It makes one think - is that real? Could that actually happen? And I have to watch this. It's a thumbnail that drives you to click and watch. From the thumbnail, they have won your attention. There is no way you can go on with your life seeing that thumbnail and seeing that title and not watching - you just have to watch it. This is what we call "Winning the Click." You do this by enticing your audience with a catchy thumbnail.

Think about your own behavior here on YouTube. You're scrolling through search results looking at video options. Most likely what catches your eye immediately are the images or the thumbnails. It allows you to judge if the video looks credible. You might notice if it's colorful or stands out from the other options. These factors help to lead you into making the choice to click and watch the video. Without a good thumbnail, your video will lack this draw. That's why it's always important to incorporate custom thumbnails. Take the time to explore how to create thumbnails that win the click. If you examine the 5 Minute Crafts thumbnails you can see that they lead you in by their design, bright colors and the fact that you want to see how they do what they show in the thumbnail. 

The Shot

If you watch 5 Minute Crafts videos, you'll notice that the vast majority of their shots are completed on a tripod. It's a static shot. It's not shaky. It's not moving around. It's an easy shot that's appeasing to the eye. 

In addition to the shot, you will notice that the lighting, the colors and the shot composition are well planned and provides exactly what you need to see to understand how they're completing the craft. They incorporate extreme close-ups to help you as a view to understand exactly what is taking place should you want to try it on your own at home. 

So how can this help you when you create videos? Think about using tripods on your shots. Think about the viewer. If you're holding a camera in-hand and it's very shaky this can be very distracting to watch and actually take away from the content that you're trying to show. I would recommend that if you're talking to the camera or conducting an interview that you always put your camera on a tripod. The same goes if you're shooting something outside or from a far distance, it's going to be very difficult to keep that shot static in your hand so put the camera on a tripod and get the steady shot. What you'll realize is that you can actually get pretty creative on a tripod. Don't think that just because you're using tripods you cannot get creative.

Regardless of how you shoot the video, the name of the game is Sequencing. 5 Minute Crafts is very intentional about how they sequence their shots. They have a wide angle shot, a medium shot and a close-up. This makes it easy for the view to follow and importantly for you easy to edit. 

The Edit 

That brings us to the third and final component, the edit. Breaking down the format of the 5 Minute Crafts videos is actually pretty easy once you've studied them. Aside from their YouTube shorts which are vertical format, all of their uploads are in square format (a 1x1 or a 800 pixel x 800 pixel square). When you think about typical YouTube videos, they are generally widescreen or 16 x 9. 5 Minute Crafts differs with their typical square video which is a genius move because it's super easy to repurpose those videos in that format. Square videos can be easily shared on all social media platforms without having to resize or reformat the videos.

Another trick to the 5 Minute Crafts video editing is that they utilize fast motion to speed up their videos. This allows them to get to the point quicker to show you how to do the craft in a very concise manner and keeps you watching because it's not overly drawn out and boring. They can get through multiple hacks quickly using this fast motion editing technique. 

Fast motion and square format seems to be a winning combination for the 5 Minute Crafts channel. It's something that you might consider when making your own videos. You don't always have to conform to what the platform suggests. Do your own thing. Think about using square video because you can easily repurpose it on different platforms. 

That it - The Click, The Shot and The Edit. Good luck making your own videos. 

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