If you’ve ever watched a Life of Riza video, you know there’s something special about her style. Her cinematic shots, nostalgic vibe, and seamless storytelling have captivated audiences and helped her grow from a few thousand to nearly 1 million subscribers in less than two years.
The magic of Riza’s style comes from the combination of a lot of factors — beautiful cinematography, clever editing techniques, and her unique personality. So, while you can’t emulate all of what makes Riza special, you can certainly take inspiration from her aesthetic and editing style to bring the same dreamy, immersive quality to your videos.
In this guide, we’ll break down the key elements of Riza’s editing choices and show you how to recreate them. Whether you’re a vlogger, filmmaker, or content creator, these tips will help you infuse your videos with that signature Life of Riza look.
Who is Riza?
Life of Riza, also known as Kariza Santos, is a Filipino-Canadian YouTuber and vlogger who has taken the platform by storm. In just a few short years, she’s built a loyal audience from the ground up, captivating viewers with her stunning visuals, relatable storytelling, and honest reflections on creativity and life.
Riza’s content revolves around documenting her 20s as she shares the ups and downs of everyday life, including the challenges and joys of being a creative. Her videos feel personal and authentic, making viewers feel like they’re on the journey with her, whether she’s baking, cleaning, or working on a creative project.
One of the main things that makes Riza’s videos special is her ability to blend cinematic beauty with real-life moments. Her cinematography is breathtaking, with a signature dream-like quality that feels both nostalgic and modern at the same time. Paired with her sense of humor and down-to-earth personality, it’s no surprise that so many people feel connected to her content.
Riza’s style: bright, nostalgic, and cinematic
Filming outdoors
One of the standout elements of Life of Riza’s videos is her bright, happy cinematography. She loves filming outdoors in natural sunlight, which brings warmth and vibrancy to her content. Her use of color and lighting creates a signature look that feels both polished and inviting, turning everyday moments into visually captivating stories.
Dreamy visual style
Riza’s cinematography is carefully crafted, adding depth to her shots through thoughtful composition and layering. Her videos have a distinct dream-like vibe, often evoking feelings of nostalgia and comfort. This unique aesthetic is achieved through a combination of clever filming techniques and smart editing choices.
Halation
A key element of her visual style is halation, a lighting effect that softens highlights and gives footage a vintage, film-inspired glow. While Riza achieves this look using a Pro-Mist filter, you can recreate the same nostalgic effect in post-production — but we’ll get to that in the next section.
Slow pacing
Beyond the visuals, Riza’s storytelling stands out for its slow, intentional pacing. While many YouTubers are making a career off of fast cuts and high-energy edits, her videos take a different approach, allowing viewers to fully immerse themselves in each moment. This slower pace creates a calming, reflective experience that resonates with her audience.
How to edit like Life of Riza
Achieving Riza’s signature cinematic style isn’t just about the gear — it’s about how you use it and how you approach storytelling in the edit. Let’s dive into her style element by element to see how you can recreate her dreamy, nostalgic vibe with a few key tools and techniques.
The gear behind the magic
Riza’s toolkit consists of carefully chosen equipment that allows her to film solo while maintaining high production value. Here’s a breakdown of the essential gear she uses:
- Camera: Sony ZV-E1, a powerful, compact camera that delivers high-quality cinematic shots.
- Lens: Sony G 20mm 1.8 offers a wide field of view with beautiful depth and bokeh.
- Filters: Riza uses a Variable ND filter (K&F Concept 82mm) to help control exposure when shooting in bright sunlight and a Pro-Mist filter (Tiffen 82BPM14 1/4 diffusion) to add a soft, dreamy glow to highlights, enhancing that nostalgic look.
- Audio: The Sony ECM-B1M Compact Shotgun microphone captures crisp, directional sound for vlogs.
- Motion: The GVM motorized camera slider creates smooth tracking shots that enhance storytelling.
- Stability: The Vanguard Alta Pro 263AB tripod ensures steady, professional-looking shots.
- Extras: Riza also uses a Sony NPFZ100 Z-series battery for extended shoots and a FEELWORLD FW759 budget monitor for better framing and focus.
While Riza uses DaVinci Resolve for editing, you can achieve similar results in any major editing software, including Premiere Pro, which offers powerful tools for cinematic effects.
Recreating Riza’s dreamy, cinematic look
One of the standout features of Riza’s videos is the soft, vintage glow she achieves using a Pro-Mist filter (as mentioned above). If you don’t have this filter, don’t worry—you can recreate the effect directly in your editing software.
Here’s how you can achieve the nostalgic halation effect in Premiere Pro:
- Duplicate your footage and place it on a track above the original clip.
- Apply the Luma Key effect to the top clip.
- Set the Threshold to around 90-100% and adjust the Cutoff to about 50.
- Add a Gaussian Blur to the top layer and set it to 250 to create a soft glow around the highlights.
- Optionally, add a second Gaussian Blur, setting the blur dimensions to horizontal and adjusting the blurriness to 10-30.
- Reduce the opacity of the top layer to fine-tune the intensity of the effect.
And if you’re short on time and want an easier way to achieve this look, you can download a ready-made preset from Motion Array to quickly add a cinematic glow to your footage.
Creating flow and movement in your videos
Riza’s videos feel dynamic and engaging thanks to her clever use of progression and movement. One of her signature techniques is simulating a motion slider effect — a technique that makes the audience feel like they’re moving through the story alongside her.
One way to create this look is with a camera slider, but you can also achieve this effect in Premiere Pro:
- Make jump cuts to highlight the progression of an activity.
- Nest your clips together into a single sequence.
- Apply keyframes to start at 100% scale and gradually increase to 105% scale.
This simple trick creates a smooth forward-moving effect that mimics high-end camera equipment without the cost.
Seamless transitions that tell a story
Riza’s known for her creative scene transitions, which help her videos feel smooth and professional. Instead of relying on fancy effects, she connects two scenes using contextual objects — a technique that subtly ties shots together and enhances the storytelling.
Here’s how you can create seamless object-based transitions:
- Identify an object that appears in both scenes (e.g., a coffee cup, a book, a grocery item).
- Film the object being used in the first scene and reappearing in the next scene.
- Cut the clips together to create a seamless visual flow.
This technique makes transitions feel natural and cohesive while adding an extra layer of polish to your edits.
Embracing a slow, intentional pace
Compared to the super fast, intense pace that’s common on YouTube these days, Riza’s slow-paced videos are a refreshing change. While many YouTubers rely on rapid cuts, she often spends the first 30 seconds of a video without saying a word, letting the visuals speak for themselves.
To emulate her pacing, consider the following:
- Keep your shots longer than average; while creators like Gawx Art average around 1.8 seconds per shot, Riza’s videos average 2.8 seconds.
- Allow moments of stillness to create atmosphere and emotion.
- Use sound design and music to fill spaces rather than relying on dialogue.
Music: the secret ingredient to Riza’s storytelling
Music is at the heart of Riza’s storytelling process. She often selects a track before filming, allowing the mood and rhythm to guide her creative decisions. The right music helps her establish an emotional connection with viewers and reinforce the nostalgic, dreamy vibe of her content, with her often opting for folk music and chill royalty-free music to fit her vibe.
For a similar feel, explore acoustic, folk, and chill tracks from the Motion Array catalog.
Lessons you can learn from Life of Riza
Riza has captured the hearts of nearly a million people with her authentic, cinematic approach to storytelling. But even beyond her editing techniques and dreamy visuals, there are valuable lessons any aspiring YouTuber can take from her journey.
1. Be authentic – follow your own rules
In a world where creators often feel pressured to follow trends and algorithm hacks, Riza stands out by staying true to herself. Her content reflects her real-life experiences—documenting her 20s with honesty and relatability.
She doesn’t chase viral trends or conform to rigid YouTube formulas. Instead, she crafts content that resonates with her personality and interests, proving that authenticity is key to long-term engagement and audience loyalty.
The lesson? Don’t be afraid to experiment and express yourself authentically. Whether you’re documenting your life, sharing creative insights, or offering tutorials, your unique voice is what sets you apart.
2. Combine traditional techniques with a unique twist
Riza’s success isn’t built on flashy, over-the-top effects. Instead, she relies on classic filmmaking techniques like lighting, thoughtful framing, and intentional pacing while adding her own modern twist to make them feel fresh and unique. It’s Riza’s ability to combine timeless techniques with creative innovation that makes her content so compelling.
The lesson? Master the basics of filmmaking — composition, lighting, and pacing — then find ways to add your own style and personality to stand out.
3. Success takes time – keep showing up
While it might seem like Riza became an overnight success, her rapid growth is the result of years of dedication, learning, and consistency. Before skyrocketing in popularity, she spent years honing her craft, posting videos, and improving her skills with each project.
Her journey highlights the importance of patience and persistence, showing that success on YouTube doesn’t happen overnight. Whether it’s mastering new editing techniques or building an engaged audience, consistent effort is key.
The lesson? Don’t expect instant results. Stay consistent, keep improving your skills, and trust the process — your hard work will pay off in time.
Wrapping Up: Make Riza’s style your own
Life of Riza’s captivating storytelling and dreamy cinematography have earned her a dedicated following — and this blog has given you the tools and information you need to incorporate elements of her style into your videos and, even more importantly, find your own unique voice and style.
Looking to emulate Riza’s style? Check out Motion Array’s pre-made pack of Life of Riza-inspired creative assets, including cinematic music tracks and a halation effect preset.
