Blog Post Written By: Melrose Michaels
As an experienced adult content creator who distributes work across multiple platforms, I'm frequently asked about my content creation and organization methods. Given the volume of my output, I'm happy to share my process with others in hopes that it may prove helpful and informative for their own content-creation endeavors. In this blog post, I'll dive into how I create and manage my content, and offer insights that you can incorporate into your own processes.
Shooting Content
Let's start by discussing how I create my content. I want to emphasize that I choose to create content on my iPhone, despite owning expensive cameras, because it simplifies my process and still provides high-quality results. Most smartphones, including later iPhones, offer 1080p video quality, which is the maximum playback quality for most platforms. Shooting in 4K on your phone isn't recommended since most platforms don't support it, and it makes the content harder to upload and edit. In summary, shooting on your phone with the rear camera is a practical and efficient way to create quality content.
When creating content, it's important to consider the format that will provide the best viewing experience for your audience. To ensure that your videos are easily viewable and well-received by your fans, it's recommended to shoot in landscape style with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the same format used by Onlyfans and most adult platforms. When videos are shot vertically with a 9:16 aspect ratio, they often appear with black bars on the left and right sides when posted to fansites or clip stores. This results in a smaller overall video that can be frustrating for viewers. To avoid this, it's best to shoot in 16:9 and then edit the video into a vertical format later if needed.
In order to capture the perfect shot with your iPhone camera, it's important to have the right setup. One way to ensure that you're capturing the best possible footage is by using a tripod to stabilize your phone and aim the rear-facing camera at the area you want to capture. To make sure you're in the frame while filming, it can be helpful to mirror your iPhone to another device, such as a MacBook. Simply swipe down from the top right corner of your iPhone screen and select the icon for mirroring. This will display all available devices for mirroring, and you can select your MacBook. By propping up your MacBook behind your tripod and phone, you'll be able to easily see if you're in the frame or not. While this tutorial is specific to iPhones, it's possible that Android phones have similar features.
Once I have my iPhone mirrored to my MacBook and I can see myself, I attach a small ring light. Rather than using a big ring light or a full lighting setup, I opt for this $35 clip-on light from Amazon as it provides a unique vignette effect that makes the edges of my content darker than the subject. This allows me to remain well-lit without drowning out any colored lights in the background. Currently, the only lighting I use is my clip-on ring light, this $15 sunset lamp, or natural light if I’m filming in daytime hours near a window.
When I have my lighting set up how I like it, I start my videos by shooting in cinematic mode on my iPhone. This mode adds greater depth of field to my videos, making me appear in focus while the background is not. This effect helps to give my cell phone content a more professional look and feel.
However, I only shoot certain things in cinematic mode, as it's important to have the full frame of the camera in focus when showcasing specific body parts like genitals. To ensure that everything is in focus, I pause the video and switch back to normal video mode.
It's crucial to avoid shooting an entire video in cinematic mode, as this can result in the action being completely out of focus while your face remains sharp. I've made this mistake before, so I highly recommend checking your footage to ensure that everything is in focus before finalizing your content.
Editing Content
Once I'm done filming my content, the next step is editing. To save time, I use my iPhone and edit everything on CapCut, a user-friendly app that I've recently switched to for its more advanced features. Before CapCut, I used InShot, which is still a great app for beginners to start with.
When I begin editing, I watch my clips slowly and cut out anything I don't want to include. To do this, I tap on the clip, select "edit," then "split" to remove the unwanted part. When I come across something I don’t like, I select the clip by tapping on it, then on the bottom, I select the ‘edit’ button’ and then the ‘split’ button. That clips the clip off the original content, at which point I delete it. I continue that process until I’ve scrubbed through all of my clips, and removed the parts I don't want to be included.
Next, I slide my video all the way to the end, because CapCut always tries to sneak in a black end screen with their logo on it. I tap on that black watermarked end screen and delete. Then I click the plus sign on the right to ‘add’ back a plain black end screen in its place. A screen will come up that has two tabs at the top, one that says ‘recents’ and shows your phone's camera roll, and another that says ‘stock photos’. I tap on the stock photos one, and the second option it shows is a black end screen. I select that option, so it gets applied to the end of my video, and click ‘add’.
After editing the end of my video, I tap my clips so none are selected, at which point a white box appears between the clips. If you tap on that white box, it brings up the option to add transitions between your clips. I typically use the ‘mix’ transition as it looks like a nice crossfade, and then I select ‘apply to all’ on the bottom left so that transitions are applied to every other part of my video where I’ve spliced it to edit content out, including fading to black on the end screen we just added.
Once I've gone through the above steps, I add any music and filters to the content, then I export the video from the CapCut app in 1080P. When I have the full version saved to my phone, I go back to my video in CapCut, pick a spot in the project about 1 minute or so in, delete all the other clips past that except the black end screen, and save that version as my trailer. This way I now have the full 1080p video and trailer saved to my iPhone. Alternatively, you can duplicate your video or 'project' if you want to keep both the full version and trailer available in CapCut. Pro-Tip: you can name your videos or 'projects' in CapCut if you're an organizational freak like me!
Finally, I export the full 1080p version of my video from CapCut and save a shorter trailer version that begins about a minute into the content. By using my iPhone and these editing tips, I'm able to quickly and easily create engaging content without sacrificing quality.
Organizing Content
In order to effectively schedule content across multiple platforms, organization is key. While some people may prefer to use Airdrop to transfer their content from their MacBook to their iPhone, there are other methods that can work even better.
I find that the Telegram messaging app is an incredibly useful tool. I have a private channel that only I have access to, where I send myself my content in the order that I want to schedule it to my Onlyfans page. One of the reasons I love using Telegram is because the channels are searchable, making it easy to locate content when needed. Additionally, Telegram is available both as an app and on desktop browsers, which makes it easy to download the content one by one as I schedule it to my fansites and clips stores.
To make things even easier, I send myself content in this private channel for every video I make and organize it in the order I want it to post on my fansite. This system also works well if you're working with an assistant who helps you schedule content, as you can simply add them to the channel. If you're curious about how to make a private channel, Check out this tutorial I posted to Twitter.
To further organize my content, I have a personal assistant who uploads the content to my Dropbox for backup. This way, I have both a Telegram backup and a Dropbox backup for added security. In my Dropbox, I organize my content by folder for each shoot, with subfolders for pics, dm content, and the trailer & full video within that main folder.
Finally, my assistant schedules the content to my platforms and tracks which videos have been posted where using an Asana board. Before we used Asana, we tracked everything on a Google sheet, which is available for free under the Tools & Resources tab here on Sex Work CEO. Simply copy the sheet into your own Google Drive to start tracking your content.
In conclusion, creating, editing, organizing, and distributing adult content is an ongoing process that requires careful planning and execution. By utilizing these tools and strategies, adult content creators can effectively engage their audience and build a strong online presence. No matter what adult platforms you use, the key is efficiency. With the right mindset and approach, you can create a system that helps you achieve your goals. So, keep experimenting, keep learning, and keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the world of adult content.
If you enjoyed this blog, you'll really love the Twitter Space we did focusing on this topic, I think you'd really enjoy it! Want to be part of the conversation? Join us Tuesdays at 1pm CST on Twitter where we discuss new topics weekly to help take your adult content creator business to the next level. Unable to make it live? No problem! You can listen to all our past Twitter Spaces here.
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