How To Make Reaction Videos for Free (Mac, PC, or Linux)

This video walks you through how to make reaction videos on computer, mac, PC, or even Linux.

DiVinci Resolve 14 Free Professional Video Editor: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

Making reaction videos to trending topics is a sure way to pump up your views and reach a bigger audience. In a recent video I talked about that strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqU5z5omk7s&t=2s

This video goes in-depth to show you how to do the technical side of pulling reaction videos off.

There are also video editors that you can use to do this on you iPhone or Android phone.

In one of my other recent videos, I talked about a winning strategy to draw more viewers to your content, videos, or social media.

In this video, I’m going to walk you through the easiest way to get started with this strategy of making videos about hyper-timely topics.

Before you do anything, think about what type of content the audience that you want are looking for online?

Are you a filmmaker? Your audience is looking for movies, reviews, and such… not usually behind the scenes or how to videos.

Are you a musician? Same deal. Drop the how to videos, and react to some of the most popular new music that interests you.

Once you know what type of content you’ll be reacting to, make sure you have a few hours set aside to film, edit, and upload your video.

Go to wherever you can get the MOST RECENT videos about the subject you are reacting to. In this video we’ll be using movies as an example. I like to use IMDB, because it’s the trendsetter for a lot of other media outlets around movies. Find the trailers tab and we’ll check the MOST RECENT option.

It’s incredibly important to be choosing something that has been released in the last 24 hours. If it was released an hour ago, even better.

The next step is simple. Set up your camera (which you can use your phone or even a cheap web cam) with your face framed to the left or right of frame. Imagine that there will be a little box in the other part of the image that the trailer or music video will show up. We’ll show you how to do that shortly, just make sure to leave space for it now.

Once you’ve got your framing down, now film your video. You’ll want to do a little intro explaining what you’re doing in about 10-15 seconds. Press play on the video you are reacting to and react in real time. Make sure your camera can pick up the audio from the trailer.

After it plays through, you keep the camera running and talk about your afterthoughts of the video at length. YouTube videos don’t have to be short anymore, so don’t be afraid to talk for awhile (as long as it’s interesting, and you can keep your energy up).

Now get your footage onto your computer. You’ll want to head to YouTube to see if you can find the trailer or video you were reacting to. You can use KeepVid to download the video. Just copy and paste the URL into KeepVid and hit download. Be VERY careful not to click on of the ads on this site, it can get confusing because they make it look like they are the download button.

With the free version, you’ll only be able to download a lower resolution version of the video, but that’s okay. We’ll be framing the video small in your video anyway.

You might be wondering if it’s legal to do this and the answer is…. ehhhhh. Kind of?

Because you are creating commentary on the video, this technically falls under fair use. As long as you’re actually talking over the video instead of just playing it through and then reacting, you’re within your rights.

Now it’s time to edit the video. I use Premiere Pro usually, but I’m going to show you how you can do this for free. If you’re really afraid of video editing software you can use something like VSDC Free Video Software. I’m going to show you how to use Divinci Resolve to edit the video. Divinci is free, but extremely powerful and can be used on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

It’s important not to be deceptive when titling your video or making the thumbnail. This might get you more views at first, but the dislikes will outweigh any long term benefits and your video might even be removed. You can use the same thumbnail as the actual trailer or video but make sure to AT LEAST at Reaction on the image so that people know that they aren’t clicking on the original trailer.

That’s it. Share that video out to your social media channels and do it again. Respond to every comment you get because that helps rank your video higher. It’s valuable to stick around your notifications for the first day to respond to things quickly. You want to have an actual conversation about the video. Disagree with people respectfully. Have discussions. It’s all great.

Thanks for watching! Good luck on growing your audience!