this video is everything you need to
know about instagram reels instagram’s
answer to tick tocks shorter form videos
we’re going to cover exactly how to make
instagram reels including how to use and
upload your videos as reels simple tips
and tricks to increase your views and my
top video editing apps and tools for
iphone and android all designed to help
you get better results now while we’re
going through this video why not grab
your smartphone jump over to my
instagram and hit follow once you’re
done come back and give your instagram
handle a plug down in the comments below
and share it with the rest of the primal
video community i’ll be down there as
well now comparing reels to instagram
stories which are limited to 15 seconds
and disappear after 24 hours reels are
vertical videos as well but they can be
up to 60 seconds in length and they
don’t disappear giving you that benefit
of having a piece of content you’re
creating that can stick around and bring
you impact and value for a long time
after you create it now reels really do
need to be created in that portrait
format as well and for best results when
you’re posting them i’m going to share
some tips a little later on so that
important stuff doesn’t get cropped off
now compared to tick-tock the two of
them are very similar tik-tok right now
does support up to three-minute videos
and this is something that maybe reels
will be increased to that at some point
as well but for right now your maximum
video length with reels is 60 seconds
but apart from that the two are very
similar they’ve both got a lot of
effects and filters and music and stuff
that you can use to create short sharp
engaging videos and that’s really the
real benefit of the real draw card with
this type of content short sharp
engaging bingeable content that people
can consume quickly now in terms of
creating reels you’ve really got two
main options you can do the entire
process just within the instagram app so
i’m going to show you that first but
option number two is to use more
professional third-party apps which will
give you more advanced controls and
customizability and really let you get
more creative with your editing allowing
you to create more professional reels so
i’ll cover those ones off second to
create reels in the app itself there’s a
few ways you can access it you can swipe
across from the left and you can see
that we’re now in the instagram camera
down the bottom you’ve got the option
there for reels and pressing that is
going to allow you to make reels from
here if we back out of this now hitting
the x at the top the other way that you
can get to this is by hitting the little
plus button up the top and then down the
very bottom you can select reels i’m on
camera again or if we go back one more
time the third place is if you select
the dedicated reels button down the
bottom middle of the screen then you’ve
got a camera button in the top right
hand corner if you press that it’s going
to take you to the same place now in
here the first thing you want to set is
your video length so we can see that
here on the side and we’ve got the
option of 15 seconds 30 seconds or 60
seconds now even if you select 60
seconds start recording your video and
you’re not maxing it out it’s under 60
seconds then it’ll crop that down for
you so you’re better off selecting 60
seconds here instead of say 30 seconds
and then running out of time to finish
your video if it goes over now if you
want to add in music and match your
recording to the music then you can
press on the music here you can select a
lot of popular music tracks in here you
can search for them up the top there as
well and you can then select the section
of the music track that you want to
include i’m going to press the trash can
in the top left to cancel out of this
there’s also a speed button in the app
here so we see where it says one x if we
press on that we can choose the
different recording speeds so we could
record a video and have it play back in
slow motion or we can even use this to
get a little bit tricky and we can
record our movements in slow motion and
have them play back in real time so
that’s how you can see some of those
reels that seem to be perfectly timed to
music or perfectly timed dance moves
this is how they’re doing it down below
that you’ve got all your filters and
effects that you can add on hey
actually looks pretty good no it doesn’t
looks terrible get off get off and
there’s also a touch-up mode down below
that now this is really just like a
beauty mode it’s going to smooth out
your skin make you look amazing
you can press and hold on it though and
you can adjust the amount that you want
to have
looks nothing like me
so we can turn that one off there’s also
a countdown timer you can turn on so
that your videos will start recording
after a certain amount of time and the
last button down the bottom is for
aligning your camera to your previous
shot so if i press this now it’s going
to overlay where i took a quick
screenshot or a quick little clip and i
can line myself up there so when i press
record to start recording again
i’ve lined up pretty close so again a
creative tool to help you line up your
shots and make them seem more seamless
now the most important thing here though
is the record button down the bottom now
this will work two ways you can either
just tap on it and it’s going to start
recording until you tap it again and
it’s going to stop or you can press and
hold on that button down the bottom and
when you let go it’s going to create
that clip so if i press and hold on it
now then this is recording and i can see
they’ve got the countdown timer at the
top telling us how long about 60 seconds
we have left the moment that i release
then that clip is paused and we can see
on the progress bar at the top that
that’s how much we’ve recorded now i can
do the same again i can press and hold
and you can see that our countdown timer
is happening again at the top this is
recording a second clip to add on after
the first one now we have the ability
here to hit preview and to play them
both back together or we can come over
here and we can edit these down so if i
press on this little button here then we
can see our two clips down the bottom
and i can either press the trash can to
delete them or i can press the scissors
to trim them down maybe i want to trim
something off the end i can just grab
this end back
or likewise from the start so we can
easily trim down our clips here i’m
going to hit cancel on that at the top
and i’m just going to hit done on this
one here now now when you’re done
recording your videos here if you press
the preview now obviously that’s going
to play it back then here you’ve got all
the same features and effects and things
that you have when you’re posting a
regular instagram story to add in text
to draw add in stickers and gifs effects
voiceover music and the last button
there is to download and save a backup
version of your clip now that’s a good
idea if you’re looking to repurpose what
you’ve just shot to another platform
without any of these texts and effects
and things on now if we go next on this
one here then this is where we can post
and share this out as a reel we have the
ability to add in a caption add text
here we can tap on our cover image there
and we can go through and we can pick
out the perfect frame that we want to
use as our cover image for this reel or
we also have the ability and a lot of
people miss this right down the bottom
we can upload an image from our camera
roll so if we press on this we can go
through and pick an image that we want
to use let’s pick this picture of
russell we can then have that as our
cover image or thumbnail image for our
reel so if we go done now then that’s
applied now you also have the option
here to also share your reel onto your
instagram feed we can turn that on or
off here and if you are going to do that
then that’s going to go out as a square
image so you have the option here to
crop your profile image down so you can
see it’s given us a display here this
was our entire image we can just pick
the section that we want or we can even
scale it up if we want to make it a more
compelling instagram image that’s going
to go on our feed we can also tag people
in our reel we can come down here under
advanced settings and also add a paid
partnership label if you’re going to be
doing branded content and then from here
you can either share it out or you can
save it as a draft now one thing to be
aware of if you are going to be posting
your reels onto your feed
is how they’re actually displayed so
when you’re viewing them in the real
section you can see that they are full
screen but if you go back and view them
on your profile you can see that we’re
getting a four by five aspect ratio here
so it’s cropping off the top and the
bottom so you want to keep this in mind
because if someone is previewing this
way without actually tapping into view
at full screen they might be missing off
what you’ve got on the top and the
bottom so any text that you’re adding
you want to make sure it’s within that
area so that’s option number one just
using the instagram app now to kick
things up a notch and get more
creativity more control and higher
quality out of the videos you’re
creating and this is where you can use
some third party or aftermarket apps for
both filming and editing your reels now
we’ve done full breakdowns on the best
filming apps the best editing apps on
both android and ios and i’ll link those
down in the description below but in
terms of the best all-rounders for
creating instagram reels for filming you
really can’t go past filmic pro you
could think of this like your built-in
camera app but on steroids this is going
to allow you to create your vertical
videos with so much more control and
higher quality than you’ll get out of
the built-in camera app and the
instagram camera app as well you better
do things like lock down your shutter
speed lock down your iso rack focus to
change the focus while you’re recording
adjust volume levels change up the
picture profiles of your recording to
really dial in the look and feel of the
video you’re creating essentially
unlocking dslr like settings on your
phone now probably the biggest thing you
won’t have in filmic pro that you did
have in the instagram app was the
ability to pause your recording and just
to quickly go back and remove things on
the fly with this workflow though
instead you’ll be recording either a lot
of separate clips or one really big clip
and doing your editing down afterwards
in your editing app now in terms of the
best editing apps to use then to edit
down your footage that you’ve just shot
in filmic pro if you’re looking for the
most professional app on ios that really
goes hands down to lumafusion but it is
going to be over complicated for a lot
of people it’s really a very
professional app on android probably the
closest thing to it right now would be
kinemaster or kinemaster but in terms of
the best all-rounder for someone who is
an absolute beginner right through to
someone who is more advanced i would
suggest checking out vn video editor or
cut both of those are really easy to use
they’re both free and they both pack in
a ton of features now i have full video
editing walkthroughs on this channel for
both cap cut and vn video editor and
they’ll be in the description below as
well but this is what you’ll see when
you open up vn video editor you just
want to hit down the bottom on the plus
to create a new project and then select
new project you then want to select your
video clips that you want to edit down
and press the next button down the
bottom and then we can go through and we
can edit this together we can pick up
and we can move clips around we can tap
on a clip and we can adjust again the
start time or the end time just by
dragging those yellow handles around if
we’re playing through we want to cut a
clip in half we can press the scissors
down the bottom to split a clip into we
could even add another cut and we could
delete that middle section entirely by
pressing the trash can so you can easily
go through trim down your footage remove
all the stuff that you don’t want really
sharpen up and create your refined video
in here with so much more control and so
much more features than you have in the
instagram app you’ve got the ability to
speed up and to slow down your clips to
add in filters and effects to change how
your video looks and even apply
transitions and effects to take your
videos to the next level now if you’re
editing your videos down this way
there’s two great resources which will
help you take your videos to the next
level the first one is place it this is
an amazing online service that will let
you easily create video animations video
intros animated text and graphics you
can easily then drag and drop into your
videos and the second one is storyblocks
this is another amazing online service
that gives you access to so much b-roll
or stock footage so that you don’t need
to go and shoot everything yourself
there is a massive library of video
clips that you can download and use in
your videos to help make them more
engaging so these are two services that
i highly recommend and they’re going to
help you make your videos look even
better so once you’ve edited down your
video just do a quick check before you
save it out to make sure that there is
no end screen or watermark or branding
saved on it with some of these free apps
so we can see we’ve got one here we just
want to hit delete on that to make sure
that’s gone we then want to save it out
so we come up the top here to export and
then come down the bottom to export
that’s going to go ahead and save our
video out for us so we can then jump
back over to instagram open up our reels
section as if we’re going to create an
instagram reel but instead of hitting
record down the bottom left we can
select a video from our phone and select
the video that we just edited down then
we can come up the top and press add we
actually still have the ability then to
add in music and effects and things if
you haven’t done it already we can then
preview that and again adding any text
stickers captions anything else that you
want to add to that hit next and you’re
posting it just the same as you’re
posting a regular reel so this is a
great way as i said to help you to get
really creative with both your filming
and your editing without the need to
just be locked into what instagram is
giving you for your reels and you can
still mix it up and integrate a lot of
those reels features into your videos as
well so those are your options for
creating amazing looking instagram reels
now if you’re interested in leveling up
your filming on your smartphone then
check out the two videos that are linked
on screen a complete step-by-step
process for creating amazing looking
videos using your iphone and android
device you can then save out and use in
your reels as well i’ll see you in the
next one
