Movie Review Channels | How to Start Your Own

I share how to start your own movie review channel in this video.

There are 5 steps you must know if you're a beginner movie critic. Watch this video to learn how to start your own movie review channel on YouTube.

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:33 - Tip 1
02:10 - Tip 2
04:33 - Tip 3
05:41 - Tip 4
09:01 - Tip 5

[TheorySmack]

I'm going to teach you how to write scripts for movie review videos on YouTube.

There are five crucial elements to every great script:

- **The Cold Open** – this is like a hook that lets viewers know what to expect and entices them to watch further.
- **The Intro** – this tells viewers what the video is about and tease something later in the video in order to keep them watching.
- **Concept in Action** – this is like the body of the script and the main idea is to make a captivating narrative that includes a false hope moment. For a movie review script, we'll include things we liked and didn't like about the movie in this section.
- **The Golden Moment** – this is the pinnacle of the story – the main moment. The hero’s success moment. In a movie review, this could be something like the best or worst thing about the movie.
- **The Outro** – this is the ending that has a core idea or takeaway.

When writing the script, it’s important to hook viewers and keep them engaged.

**Hook viewers in every part of the video**. It’s no secret that the average person’s attention span is shorter than it used to be. In fact, a recent study showed that the average attention span is now just 8 seconds. So how do you hook viewers in the first 30 seconds of your video?

Here are a few tips:

### **1. Start with a bang.**

Your first few seconds are critical in grabbing attention. So **make sure you start strong**! An attention-grabbing opening could be anything from an exciting statistic to a visually arresting scene.

### **2. Tell them what they’re going to learn.**

**Viewers want to know what’s in it for them. So tell them**! Give them a quick overview of what they can expect to learn from your video.

### **3. Be clear and concise.**

**Don’t try to cram too much information into your opening**. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point.

### **4. Have a strong call to action.**

**End your opening with a strong call to action that tells viewers what you want them to do next**. Whether it’s subscribing to your channel or watching another video, make it clear what you want them to do.

By following these tips, you can make sure your video gets off to a strong start and keeps viewers engaged for the whole duration.

Ok, are you ready to write a script?

[SamanthaPostmanSays]

My fav tip was when you pointed out how important it is to show our personality. The top actors/ actresses lean into it. Our personality becomes our success & monitizable trademark.

[benjaminpearcefilms]

I love watching Roanoke Gaming reviews because he's a scientist and he breaks down the science of a horror movie or creature as he reviews the film and breaks it down.

[vvrarebri]

this video definitely encouraged me to start a movie reviewing career on youtube. thank you so much! i subscribed ❤

[GregDunn]

Love it! Those are some really great tips. This is definitely where I'd start to make my own movie review channel.

[JESSEALLEN]

These are all great tips and all; a lot of which I haven't seen explained as well, or at all in other videos. But my problem is I've been watching all these videos and doing all these web searches trying to find out "where" or "how" to get movie footage for the movies I'm talking about.

I actually have a bachelor's degree in animation, and learned a lot about basic editing and production (including the importance of "B-Roll" footage). I do know a bit about fair use, copyright issues, how to find generic "stock footage and images". So I'm all good there. I just don't know how/where all these YouTube review channels get their movie footage.

I once made a music video for one of my bands where i just strung a bunch of horror movie clips together playing over the music. But for that i literally just set up a camera on a tripod, pointed it at my TV, and just videotaped a bunch of movie footage from my personal collection. We're kind of a "punk" band and the movies were mostly old-school, low budget "B-Movies". So that grungy, d.i.y. approach fit well for that. But I'm pretty sure the YouTubers I'm watching are doing something a bit more sophisticated than that.

I've seen some people suggest actually reaching out to the movie studios and requesting footage to use. That definitely seems like the safest, most legitimate route to take (especially for new movies currently in theaters), but that also seems like a bit more work. If you are just doing an in depth review of a single movie, then yeah. That seems reasonable. But I watch a lot of videos about the "Top 10" this kind of movie, or the "Top 20" movies on whatever streaming service. I seriously doubt that all the YouTube reviewers are contacting EVERY movie studio to get all the footage in those cases!

I've also seen some people say to just look up movie footage right here on YouTube and just download that. But I'm not really seeing any way to do that unless I either subscribe to YouTube Premium, or copy and paste the URLs into different, 3rd party download software. Are those the only 2 options? I don't really want to subscribe to Premium if I don't have to; and I have tried a couple of the downloaders I've seen mentioned. But so far the download software I've come across has either been these shady as hell virus magnets or just plain doesn't work.

I have had some luck finding sites that have those little meme-ish clips that are only a few seconds long. Thats cool, and I'm sure I'll make use of that in some cases. But that's not really what I'm looking for. I'm looking to do that thing where I have different, longer movies scenes (without sound) playing while my voice-over is discussing that movie.

The only other option I can think of is actually "ripping" movie footage to my computer. But I quit all that "piracy/torrent" jazz at least 10-15 years ago. And I've been out of that game for so long that I'm sure the tech and methods have completely changed.

So yeah, I know these people must be getting this movie footage from fairly legal and dependable sources. For the life of me tho, I just can't get any solid advice. It's starting to feel like there's some special club or something that everyone else knows about and I'm just not invited! Lol

Sorry for the super long post (definitely no Chat GPT here! Lol), but this whole movie footage thing is pretty much the ONLY thing holding me back right now. I've got decent gear (good enough to start out with anyway), decent ideas, a fair amount of technical know-how, plenty of time and plenty of motivation to get things rolling. It just this ONE THING!

Any nudge in the right direction would be immensely appreciated!

Thanks

[charleskaufman]

The secret sauce on free take away! Great video and VERY informative!

[spookychords]

I understand the B-roll footage tip, but I'm worried about getting copy striked. How much B-roll can i use from the media I'm reviewing before YouTube thinks it's too much?

[Arahnk]

thanks for all of the great advice! I'm definitely off the couch and 2 videos in so thank you for the motivation!

[dranmarks]

Question for your sir. First how are you doing today and how your weekend. What is the recommended camera for YouTube.

[NocturnalCritic]

Great in-depth, informative video bro! I watch videos like these often just as brain food to stay on my shit, thanks!

[moviemelody]

Question: is it okay to focus on movies that have been out for years or should you mix it up between old and new releases? (I ask because I don’t like a lot of movies that are currently coming out)

[Mr.Surprise.]

I agree with what you said about personality. But if you want more views and subs following their episodic structure will get you more views etc.

[poleritude]

For most things 1000s of people have probably already made a video about that thing before. You however have never made a video talking about that before (until you have), and if your first impulse is to try and mimic someone else who did it well, you've given up the one thing that made your video unique.

[influx]

Have a Question... If I want to start a channel where I review, recommend classic 1980's horror movies, can I download a full movie from something like Tubi and then select a few good scenes and clip them out myself? Yes, this is a serious question. Been thinking about starting a channel, but not sure if it's possible to create my own clips. / Thanx for taking a look at my comment. Looking forward to your reply.

[Kadin-im]

I have some super lofty ambitions when it comes to reviewing and analyzing my favorite and least favorite games and movies as YouTube entertainment but it's sadly hard for me to do because of my learning disorder and bad memory. Also I don't think I could handle the bad and disagreeing comments.

[TheBranchez]

Very nice video man! Quite helpful. I am willing to give it a shot. The idea is not to make a lot of short videos, but make a thoroughly researched, more of an essay than review I'd say. The only thing I am worried about is copyright since you can't go without playing some music, showing clips, screenshots etc. when doing a movie review. What are your thoughts on this?

[Mii-coh]

Hello, so I just found your channel and this was pretty informative, but the software you recommended davinci resolve isn’t on windows. What’s the next best alternative please?

[MemiefulTV]

What about copyright? Sorry I had to bring up that concern, do we just give credit in the description?

[ctmckin]

This is so helpful! Thanks! and Subscribed! :)