How To Make A TikTok Video

Even TikTok users who signed up for the app just to watch great content or follow one of their favorite personalities are likely to be hit with the urge to create a video of their own.

Here’s the good news: producing content isn’t as difficult as you might think, thanks to the full-featured and intuitive nature of the social media platform.

Before you can create a TikTok masterpiece and post it for your fans to see, however, you’ll have to figure out what type of video you want to shoot. Let’s start there.

Planning Your TikTok Video

We’ll run down a few ideas for your first videos, starting with the easiest.

Talk to Other Users

Not only are vids where you just talk to the camera among the easiest for beginners to produce, but they’re also some of the most popular types of content on the app. 

Educational videos in which you discuss a topic you’re familiar with and knowledgeable about, and storytelling vids that are entertaining and right to the point, both work well. Just be sure to keep them brief and interesting; 30-60 seconds is a good target.

Show and Tell

Options like how-to videos and product review videos are examples of the next step up. You’ll still be talking to the camera, but also using props or action while you film. It can take some experience (or a lot of editing) to create cohesive videos like these that hold viewers’ interest, so you might not want to jump right in as a beginner.

Dance and Lip-Sync Videos

It’s difficult to scroll a TikTok feed without running into these uber-popular options. Recording them is pretty easy, but it may take quite a while to master a dance or learn the song you want to use as your backing audio.

Highly-Produced Videos

It’s best to save complicated productions or those that require significant editing work for when you’re more experienced, but if you have a video or theater background, you might want to plunge right in.

Creating Your First TikTok Video

The app is designed to make video creation and editing simple, and you can shoot and upload right from your phone. Don’t get frustrated, though; it can take a little time to get comfortable with making TikTok content.

Here are the basic steps to follow when producing a straight-to-camera video.

1. Open the app and click on the “+” icon at the bottom, which opens the “Create” screen.
2. Choose the maximum length of the video you want to create, either 15 seconds, 60 seconds, or 10 minutes, from the row of options above the red button.
3. When you’re ready, hit the red “Record” button and start filming. You can tap the button to pause the recording and tap a second time to resume, allowing you to switch filming positions or take a sip of water before continuing. Watch what you’ve recorded by hitting the red checkbox, and if you’re not happy you can delete the video by clicking the white “X.”
4. The white icons on the right-hand side of the screen are editing tools that let you (in order) flip between the front and back cameras, turn on the flash for recording, run a timer so you can see how long your video is running,auto-adjust color and lighting, add TikTok filters, and change the recording speed. Experiment to see how they work and how they can improve what you’ve shot.
5. Once you’ve previewed your video and you’re happy with it, you can use additional editing buttons on the right of the screen which let you do things like editing your creation or adding more videos or text, captions, effects, and stickers. You’re also able to add music or sounds by tapping the “Add sound” button at the top and choosing from a library of trending audio. You can also find and add your own.
6. Happy with what you’ve created? Click “Next” again and you’ll be able to create the post that will contain your video by adding a description and location, hashtags, mentions, and links, select who can see your post, and share it elsewhere if you’d like. Finally, hit “Post” and you’ve uploaded your TikTok video.

It’s not as complicated as it might sound once you try it a few times — and then you may be ready to try shooting some more involved content.

Creating Other Types of TikTok Videos

A lengthy explanation of all of TikTok’s video creation features is beyond the scope of this article, but here are a few ideas to get you moving forward.

If you’ve shot a video ahead of time and saved it to your camera roll, open the Create screen as described above, then find your video’s thumbnail in the bottom left of the screen and tap it. It will be moved to the main screen for previewing and editing.

To create a dance or lip-sync video, follow the steps we’ve listed above, but start by choosing your audio by hitting the “Add sound” button. You’re then able to hear the music as you record your production. Just try to keep up!

As you gain more experience, you’ll discover all the cool ways you can craft outstanding and compelling TikTok videos. Want more people to see them? An iDigic TikTok follower package can trigger powerful growth in your audience and fan base on the app.