12:55Maria Wendt · Tutorial
How I made my first digital product in 2 hours
A creator walks through the exact course that sold 904 units at $37 in two days, and the two-hour split between outline and filming that made it.
September 17th 2025The argument in one line.
A polished course video isn't about talent — it's a repeatable system: two cameras for invisible jump cuts, a lighting rig built around catch lights, and content sourced from the creator's own past struggles, engineered to survive filming 50 videos in three or four days.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A coach or course creator who wants their videos to look expensive without hiring a full production crew.
- Someone about to buy their first camera and lighting kit and wants to know what actually matters versus what's overkill.
- A solo creator curious how one small team batch-produces dozens of course videos in a handful of days.
SKIP IF…
- You want a screen-recorded software tutorial — this is a conceptual walkthrough of a physical set, not an editing-app how-to.
- You're looking for the coaching content itself — this is about how the videos were made, not what's taught inside them.
The full version, fast.
A creator's filmmaker takes viewers behind a multi-day shoot to reveal the production system that makes a coaching business's course videos look far more expensive than they are. The core mechanism is a two-camera setup that lets the editor jump-cut between angles whenever the host pauses mid-sentence, making breaks in speech invisible, paired with a roughly $14,369 lighting rig that darkens the background, brightens the face, and adds catch lights in the eyes. Course topics aren't scripted — they come from what the host wishes she'd been taught when she was starting out — and every video is built to be discoverable across eight-plus platforms, all funneling into one email list. A single multi-day shoot is designed to bank roughly 50 videos at once.
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00:00 – 00:37
01 · Intro & Preface
The filmer/editor breaks the fourth wall to explain this is a behind-the-scenes video, not a wrong upload.
00:37 – 01:37
02 · What Is This Video?
Explains the plan: three to four days of filming to finish new mini-courses by early August, shown alongside a course before/after graphic.
01:37 – 01:55
03 · Day 1
Cuts to arriving on location to begin filming.
01:55 – 02:32
04 · What Are We Filming?
Outlines the two things being shot: additions to the existing Get Clients Now program and several new mini master classes.
02:32 – 04:03
05 · How We Film The Videos
No teleprompter or script; two cameras let the editor jump-cut to hide pauses, which reads as invisible to viewers.
04:03 – 05:03
06 · What Content Goes In The Videos?
Topics come from what the host wishes she'd known starting out, and from being transparent where other coaches stay vague.
05:03 – 05:38
07 · Setting Up For Filming
Crew sets up cameras and lighting in a staged living-room set.
05:38 – 06:14
08 · Lighting The Scene
Tour of the three-light setup: main key light, a softening fill light, and a hair light.
06:14 – 07:25
09 · The Difference Lighting Makes
Side-by-side before/after: pupils shrink, background darkens relative to the face, and catch lights appear in the eyes.
07:25 – 08:49
10 · Price of Equipment & Quality of Video
Breaks down the roughly $14,369 equipment cost and argues production quality is a competitive differentiator.
08:49 – 09:49
11 · On Set
Filming rolls; the editor manages technical checks while the host presents to camera.
09:49 – 11:34
12 · Closing Thoughts & Recap
Apologizes for not capturing more, promises to reply to every comment, and asks viewers to like/subscribe/comment.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A two-camera setup lets editors jump-cut between angles whenever a speaker pauses mid-sentence, making the break invisible instead of an obvious jump cut.
- Dilated pupils under flat lighting shrink and reveal true eye color once a key light is added — a visible, measurable sign a lighting setup is working.
- Lighting a subject's face brighter than the background pulls the viewer's eye toward the face, because the eye is naturally drawn to the brightest point in an image.
- Small catch-light reflections in the eyes come from a light source aimed to bounce back toward the camera, and they make eyes look alive on screen instead of flat.
- A full camera, lighting, and audio kit for a talking-head course shoot ran about $14,369 — before counting the computer, monitor, and multiple hard drives needed to store 4K footage.
- Recording in 4K lets an editor 'crop cut' inside a single shot, faking a second camera angle without an actual second camera.
- Course topics were chosen by asking 'what would I have wanted to know when I was starting out,' turning the host's own past frustration directly into the curriculum.
- A single multi-day shoot can produce roughly 50 videos once mini-courses are added, meaning three or four solid filming days feed months of content.
- None of the videos are scripted or teleprompted — the host already taught the material live on coaching calls, so recording is recycling proven explanations, not writing new ones.
- A single piece of content is deliberately built to be discoverable across eight-plus channels — YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook groups, Pinterest, LinkedIn, podcasts, and blog posts — with every path funneling back to one owned email list.
- Frequent rapid cutting in a video is often a sign the host struggled to get a line out cleanly, not a stylistic choice.
Three systems make a course video look expensive.
WHAT TO LEARN
The polish in a well-produced talking-head video comes from three transferable systems: a two-camera edit trick, a lighting setup that directs the eye, and a content strategy sourced from your own past struggles.
05How We Film The Videos
- Recording without a teleprompter and cutting to a second camera whenever the speaker pauses removes the visible 'jump' from a jump cut, because switching camera angle tricks the eye more than a straight cut does.
- Presenting from memory instead of a script works when the material has already been taught live for years — the recording becomes a recycling of proven explanations, not a first draft.
06What Content Goes In The Videos?
- Choosing topics by asking what you wish someone had told you when you started turns your own past frustration into a built-in content roadmap.
- Being transparent about what most coaches keep vague — exact numbers, exact steps — is treated as an actual product differentiator, not a risk.
09The Difference Lighting Makes
- Adding a key light shrinks dilated pupils and restores true eye color, which is a concrete, visible test that a lighting setup is working.
- Making the background darker than the subject's face works because viewers' eyes are drawn to the brightest point in a frame — the fix is relative, not just 'add more light.'
- A dedicated light aimed to create catch lights in the eyes is a small addition that reads as alive on camera versus flat without it.
10Price of Equipment & Quality of Video
- A full talking-head production kit — cameras, three lights, audio — can land around $14,369, and that figure still excludes the computer, monitor, and hard drives 4K footage requires.
- Higher production quality is a direct competitive lever: content that simply looks better than a competitor's stands out in a crowded market.
11On Set
- Every piece of content can be built to be findable across eight-plus channels at once, with all of them funneling back to one owned email list.
- Batching production — filming several straight days to bank dozens of videos — trades short-term exhaustion for months of content runway, rather than producing one video at a time.
Terms worth knowing.
- Jump cut
- An edit that cuts between two moments of continuous footage without changing camera angle, normally jarring because the background stays still while the subject visibly shifts position.
- Crop cut
- Digitally zooming into a single high-resolution (4K) shot to simulate a second camera angle, used to hide a jump cut without filming from an actual second camera.
- Catch light
- A small reflected highlight in a subject's eye created by a light source aimed toward the camera, used to make eyes look brighter and more alive on screen.
- Key light
- The primary light source aimed at a subject's face, responsible for most of a shot's brightness and shadow definition.
Things they pointed at.
01:37productGet Clients Now Program
Lines you could clip.
04:14
“So, I promised myself, once I figure this out, I promise I'm gonna turn around and share this to other people.”
07:54
“That was in total so the big light was about 1,200 in total. This little light was like a 100, so not much. And then the light up top there was another 250.”
07:19
“Those are known as catch lights because they're catching the light that we're putting on her face and reflecting it back towards us so we get to see it.”
Word for word.
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metaphor
00:02Woah. No. Don't worry.
00:04You're not on the wrong video. This is Maria's video. We're just doing something a little extra special today, a little behind the scenes.
00:15For those of you that don't know me, I'm Maria's filmer and editor, and you might have seen me make a cameo a couple of videos back in the entrepreneurs video where I was the perfectionist.
00:23If you're a perfectionist, your life might look something like this. I told you not to blink. This has gotta be perfect.
00:30Okay.
00:34Look, okay, my acting isn't that amazing. Alright? But that's not the point.
00:37So what exactly is this video? Well, Maria's flying back from California today. Today is Wednesday.
00:42If you wanna go see the video of California, you can check that out in the description. We did a little vlog. But tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, those three days we're gonna be filming for probably the whole day every day to get all the content we need to have these new courses out by around the first week of August.
00:56This video is gonna be really cool because we're gonna take you behind the scenes for two different One, because you're gonna get to see a professional film set behind the scenes and that's gonna be really cool. But number two, we're gonna talk with Maria a little bit and me about the creative decisions we make on how we actually produce one of these online courses and what goes into it.
01:11So that you have other business owners and entrepreneurs out there can learn a little bit about the process and hopefully that'll help out and provide some value in your business. So with that being said, let's head over to Maria's. Well, I forgot to mention what we're filming.
01:23So back in May, as you may know, Maria released the Get More Clients program which is her main program, which has about 65 or more videos that we filmed. And now we're doing a bunch of mini courses, I think about like eight or so mini courses with even more videos than that. So we got a lot ahead of us.
01:41Now we are off.
01:45Wow. No one here to greet me.
01:54Alright. Today, we are filming some videos to fill the get clients now program.
01:59There's a couple of additional videos that I wanna add. That's the cool thing about that program is once you join, anytime I update it, anytime I add extra awesome training videos, you get it completely free.
02:09So the sooner you get in, the more awesome videos you get. The other thing that we're gonna be filming is a couple of small master classes. These are going to be on subjects like how to choose the right price point, how to make your first three k or five k months consistently, how to manifest your dream life.
02:25So we're just gonna be banging out a total of I upped it too, Johnny. It's gonna be more like 50 videos.
02:31Wonderful. So while Maria's inside on her call, I thought I'd talk about our process or mainly my process for how I film these things. So Maria doesn't script her videos.
02:40We don't use a teleprompter or anything like that. She just has a rough outline in her head because she's taught all of this material before on coaching calls and all types of things like that. So she's basically recycling the stuff that she's already taught for years, building her business now onto an online course format.
02:55So for her, it's pretty easy. The reason I use two cameras for the shoot is because we're not using a teleprompter. Maria's gonna naturally have pauses in between sentences sometimes just to work things out or say a sentence a couple of different ways.
03:06Then in post production, when I go to edit that, I can actually cut to the other camera and that's gonna give me a cut in between that breakage in her sentences and it's gonna make it look like there was no break. It kinda tricks your brain into thinking that there was no cut in actual time, but just a cut in cameras.
03:22And if you look, this is what it looks like when you cut in camera. That's called a jump cut because the background doesn't move, nothing moves, but you can see Maria move a little bit just because she's talking. She's always gonna move a little bit.
03:32When I use this cut here to cut to another camera, you can't really tell. It's very imperceivable to the brain. It kinda tricks your brain into thinking that there was no actual cut, but just a a switch of cameras.
03:42You're gonna film an Instagram story, sharing a little bit about why you joined this You're gonna film an Instagram story sharing a little bit about why you joined this pro That kinda helps everything flow and makes everything look very good. So if you ever see me cutting back and forth really fast in one of the courses, that's just because Marie probably had trouble saying something, and every other second she sort of had to have a pause and say something again.
04:02So how do you how do you do the videos? How do you section out? Like, what's your process for figuring out what's gonna be in one video?
04:07How many videos you put in each one? Yeah.
04:10Basically, I do is I just think about what would what would I have wanted when I was first starting in my business and the pain points that I had or the struggles I had. And I felt like when I first got started, so many people were like, I made $10,000 a month, but I'm gonna be really secret about it.
04:26I'm not gonna tell what I did. I just It was always so frustrating. So, I promised myself, once I figure this out, I promise I'm gonna turn around and share this to other people.
04:35So, that's my process is just what do what did I need when I was at this point? What would have been really helpful to me? What would have made what would have made me accelerate my growth?
04:44Process and now you're basically Yeah. Just looking back and saying, I had a mentor, if I had a person, if I had a course, it would be on this. Exactly.
04:51I wish it would have been on this. Exactly. Exactly.
04:53And here's the things I wish she would have told me, and here's where I wish she would have been transparent. A lot of business coaches aren't transparent, so I try to just, like, throw all the good good juicy stuff in. So Alright.
05:03Marie's getting ready, we have to renovate the apartment. It looks nothing like this in the master class. You'll see it.
05:07Very cool. Have an olive on the carpet. So whatever whatever the Okay.
05:16So all the lighting and stuff is set up now, and Marie's getting her makeup on. Uh, let's take a little tour of how we set this up. Alright.
05:24So our main camera is all the way okay. Thanks, buddy. Main camera's all the way back here, getting this shot of the of the space that we got.
05:32And this camera that I'm using right now to film this is gonna be set up on this tripod, getting a sort of profile shot of Maria that We can always cut to. In terms of lighting, this is the big light that we use and this is the main source of light that's gonna be on her face. And then I have this little one that basically makes it so that the shadows on the face that the light from this direction is making on her face, it basically makes them softer so it's not like super intense or anything like that.
05:56And then we have this light which is lighting up her hair and making it look really good. This is what Maria is staring at, with me back in that chair staring at her all day. It's
06:07true.
06:08Let's show you guys a little like with the lighting how it looks and then without the lighting so you can see it before and after. So this is what it looks like with no lighting as you can see right now on Maria. Gonna I go turn on the lights and stay in the same spot, Maria.
06:21Okay. And that is what it looks like with the lighting, which is just just a stupid difference. I mean, that is just incredible.
06:28There's three really interesting things to note about this before and after. Take a look at Maria's pupil in her eye in the before picture. It's very big and expanded compared to the after where it's very small, and you can see the difference this makes on her eye color.
06:41It actually makes a lot more of the eye color pop out in the after and makes it a lot more beautiful. And that's not even just because Maria has blue eyes. This works for any eye color.
06:49Number two, if you look at the background, how overexposed and white and blown out it is in the before picture is very uncinematic and looks very amateur. But in the after, because we're putting a lot of light on Maria's face, means it that the background gets to be darker than her, and your eye naturally goes to what's brighter in the image, so it's drawn to her face.
07:06Which leads to number three, if you look in her eyeball, you can actually see these little white lights. Those are known as catch lights because they're catching the light that we're putting on her face and reflecting it back towards us so we get to see it. So naturally, her eyes are gonna pop out at us.
07:19All these things are very small, but they add up in the grand scheme of things and make a picture look so much better. So how much does it cost to get these three lights? I feel like that's one of the first questions people would have.
07:30These three lights, that was in total so the big light was, uh, about 1,200 in total. This little light was like a $100, so not much.
07:38And then the light up top there Mhmm. Was another $2.50. So I just wanted to briefly cut in and talk about the pricing that we're talking about.
07:45Adding up all of the equipment that we're using, I thought this would be a good little insight. All of the equipment that we're using totals about $14,369 and that's a rough estimate but that's about how much we're spending on these shoots in terms of equipment with lights, cameras, microphones, tripods, everything combined.
08:02It's a lot of money but that's not even accounting the computer that I'm using, the monitor and all of the hard drives that running. If you look down here, I have one, two, three hard drives right there and then in this bucket full of stuff I have another, I don't know, think like three hard drives and I just bought another one too to be able to store the insane amount of storage that I need to to keep all of this footage because it's very high quality four k footage and needs all that.
08:25I think it's cool because this is something that Mori and I pride ourselves on because a lot of the other courses that we see out there by coaches and and people in general, doesn't matter what they're teaching, The production quality is not as high as the ones that we're producing and that's something that we really enjoy and it it really helps you leverage yourself and stand out in front of the market when you have ads and stuff that are going out to people and they just look better than other people.
08:48It really helps separate you. Both cameras are rolling. We're good to go.
08:51Okay. So Maria just does her claps.
08:54She claps in. We record a bunch, and then we cut it up afterwards, and it's lovely. Let's go.
08:59After that, things are pretty smooth sailing. Maria just sits there and presents the material, and I'm behind the camera making sure that technically everything is set up and good to go, and that presenting wise, Maria is good, her tonality is good, her voice sounds good, and everything like that. Occasionally, I'll have to stop her and ask her to redo something or check-in to make something's good like she's recording her screen for her iPad.
09:19Record the screen. Yes. If I do end up stopping her for whatever reason, of course, we gotta make it funny.
09:24So what is the 51 You're good again because I was talking. Gotta give a little bit of air silence so that the cut doesn't have audio weaken from the other stuff. Okay.
09:32Both cameras are good. You're Shut the up. Fucking talk.
09:37I'm recording. You're
09:39recording? Yes.
09:41You're recording? Your screen's recording? Yes.
09:44Okay. Go ahead. Okay.
09:46Is your screen recording? Alrighty. That's about it for the video.
09:51We weren't able to capture all that much, but, uh, here are the closing thoughts. First off, sorry that we weren't able to capture that much. Uh, we started filming on, uh, on Thursday, and we weren't expecting to have to film Sunday, but then pretty quickly we realized with the amount of stuff that we had to film, we gotta add Sunday in, which I thought was gonna give me enough time originally to edit this video on Sunday, but it didn't because we were filming on Sunday.
10:13And I mean, was literally like off at 06:30 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and and film until five or six in the afternoon, and then I'd have until like ten or eleven to be able to edit this YouTube video every day. So it wasn't a ton of time, and I wish we could have put more time into it because there's so much more that we could have talked about.
10:28There's so many more things that Maria could have talked about, which only means there's room for more videos. So if you guys actually like this video and you thought it was informative, like honestly, let us know. Being on the other side of this stuff is interesting because we really, really rely on you guys telling us what you enjoyed and what you like because we're still testing out a bunch of stuff ourselves.
10:44So if you're liking the video formats, you're liking the last, you know, four or so videos that we did, let us know. And because we didn't do as much as I wanted to, as much as Maria wanted to in this video, we'll make it up to you guys by promising Scout's honor, even though I'm not a Boy Scout, we will respond to every question that you guys have in the comments below.
11:00So if you have anything, even if you didn't have anything, pause the video right now, think of something, and comment it. We will respond to it and get back to you guys, and hopefully provide some value there because there's so much more that could have been talked about. So I guess until next master class filming then you'll have to wait for some more behind the scenes, but until then, thank you guys so much for watching.
11:16I hope you guys enjoyed. Let us know if you wanna see more stuff like this in the future. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment.
11:21Those things help us so so much you guys don't understand. And we're obviously pumping out these videos every single week now. So let us know anything else you wanna see, and let us know how we did in this video, and we'll talk to you next time.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Before the course creator says a word, the video opens on someone else entirely — her filmer and editor, breaking the fourth wall to explain that today isn't a normal upload. It's the start of a three-to-four day marathon shoot built to bank roughly 50 course videos, and he's about to walk through exactly how it gets made: the camera trick that hides every mid-sentence stumble, the lighting math behind a face that suddenly looks cinematic, and the real dollar figure behind a look that reads as far more expensive than it costs.
Named ideas worth stealing.
08:36list
Content-to-Email-List Funnel
- YouTube
- Facebook Groups
- Podcasts
- Blog posts
A whiteboard map showing one piece of content repurposed across eight-plus platforms, with every arrow pointing back into a single owned email list.
Steal forany content distribution plan that treats social platforms as top-of-funnel and email as the owned asset
04:14concept
The 'What Did I Need' content method
Choosing course topics by recalling what the host personally struggled with or wished someone had told her when she was starting out, rather than guessing what an audience wants.
Steal fortopic selection for any coaching, consulting, or course business
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
10:50subscribe
“Don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment.”
Closing pitch reframes commenting as a two-way promise — viewers are told to comment a question and get a guaranteed reply, which lowers the friction of engaging.
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
