Record and edit a video blog

1 Absorb audio

To stop sound echoing off the walls glue foam tiles onto sheets of card and place them round your Mac. You can pick up 24 acoustic tiles from amazon.co.uk for around £30.

2 External mic

Your Mac’s built-in mic is OK, but for studio quality audio purchase an external USB mic such as the Blue’s Yeti. This mic will set you back around £119 from Amazon.

3 Record ‘talking head’

Pop a piece of card behind your seat to create a cleaner backdrop. Launch Quicktime. Choose File>new Movie Recording. Choose the external mic. Click the Record icon.

4 Save your file

Chat to your Mac’s Facetime camera.

Hit the Stop icon when you’re done. Choose ‘File Save’. Label the file in the ‘Export As’ field. Click ‘Save’. File>import the clip into imovie.

5 Crop the clip

Add a clip to the timeline. Drag the ‘talking head’ onto the top layer. Click on the clip and then the Crop icon. Choose ‘Crop to Fill’. Drag the handles to fill the frame with the blue card.

6 Picture in picture

Click the blue tick to apply. Click on the Video Overlay Settings icon above the viewer. Choose ‘Picture in Picture’ from the dropdown menu. Drag and resize the talking head PIP.

7 Add a border

To give an inserted picture more impact click to add a thick border. Click the colour swatch and choose a clean neutral white. Click the Shadow icon to make it stand out.

8 Add captions

Add more background clips to illustrate the subject of your talking head Vlog. Click on the Titles browser and drag a title to the timeline. Customise the text fields in the viewer.

9 Export to Youtube

Choose File>share>youtube. Give your Vlog a title and description. Add keyword tags. Choose a Resolution and a Category. Click ‘Next’ to sign into Youtube and share.