Professional video is as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4 (REALLY)
By: Jeremy Krakowski
Video is here to stay!
Everyone has high-speed internet, and people will usually stay engaged with a video longer than they will read an article (or make a video to compliment your articles for maximum engagement and SEO!) Don’t skip out on video in your business or you will be losing a ton of cash daily by not using video, (even simple video) in your business. If you don’t like making videos cuz it seems too hard, takes too long, then I would strongly urge you to simplify it. Don’t make it so hard for yourself, just do some simple videos, and it will increase your engagement and your followers!
Alot of people ask me “How do you shoot your videos” or “Why do they look so good”, “What camera do you use”, among my FAQ of questions that people ask me when it comes to video. Let me tell you this (and it’s gonna blow some of your minds!) It doesn’t matter what camera you use to get good professional video. Yes. Really. Now, do I want to shoot video with the best camera I can? OF COURSE! But is it what makes videos turn out best? No, not really. I’ve shot plenty of professional looking videos with barebones cheapy cameras and they look great!
There’s actually some things you can start doing today when shooting your videos with your webcam, iPhone, or digital camera that can make your videos go from so-so to professional quality in seconds!
The first two are mandatory; the last two are optional but still important.
TRIPOD: The number one thing you need to do to improve the quality of your videos is get a tripod. Simple, and I know some of you have done this. But what if you just have an iPhone? You can google some iPhone video camera tripod adaptors that clip your iPhone into them, and then screw into your tripod! Instant video camera! Most digtal cameras allow you to screw into a tripod, including the flip video cameras (which are also good starter cameras). You will be extremely surprised how affordable a tripod is and how much better it will make your videos.
Guerilla tip: if you use a camera that doesn’t have a flip out screen, go out and buy a mirror and a stand and put it behind your camera, then it will bounce a mirror image of your screen back to you while your are recording yourself, problem solved!
LIGHTING: This is about as important as getting a tripod, and it’s the biggest thing most people miss and don’t think about. Lighting will make your videos go from looking amateur and lame to professional in about a half second! Ever notice how your videos look better outdoors than they do indoors? That’s because the sun is a much brighter light outdoors than your lights indoors. You can invest in what’s called a “softbox lighting kit" for about $80 on Amazon! It looks like a skinny tripod with a white box on top, and inside that white box are a bunch of bright lights. The white box makes the light softer and much more attractive! You can buy just one or if you have the budget, get a kit with two or three lights and then you can set them up for some really cool professional lighting effects! (If you want to do it the guerilla method, you can get a shop light from home depot for about $10 and throw a really powerful bulb in it, get a few of those, to mount to a couple chairs, although, I strongly prefer the look of softbox over this method, but it works on a budget).
MICROPHONE, or record in a small room (to minimize “echo” effect). This is optional, but will make your videos sound better, and people will be more engaged in your video. If people can hear you better and minimize on background noise and any sort of echo effect, it will have more people staying engaged in your videos. Recording your videos without a microphone in a big room, or outside standing far away from your camera, then no one will hear you, so a microphone is a must in those situations. If you’re in a small 10×10 room, you can get away with not using a microphone as long as the camera is within 2-3 feet away from you.
EDITING is also optional, but can make a world of difference. This is not always important for beginners, so if you don’t know the first thing about editing, don’t worry about it in the beginning. If you can take some quick tutorials on using iMovie or other software, it will make a world of difference in your videos, being able to adjust color, cut out mistakes, slice in different sections. Editing can be as simple or advanced as you would like it to be. Again, if you don’t know anything about editing and it’s not making you any money to know about editing, find someone who knows how to do video editing and hire them to do this!
Now obviously, I can’t show you or tell you all the tips and secrets of video production and editing in one simple article, and it’s a skill that can take a lifetime to master, but using these tips you will be able to take your videos from lame to pro with a few simple tweaks.
Stay tuned for more tips and tricks on making your videos better, and we have some other crazy ninja things in the works for video coming from ARealChange in the future!
Talk to you soon!
Jeremy Krakowski, Video Producer at ARealChange.TV
Jeremy Krakowski is the resident video editor, audio editor, graphics designer, and technical guru at ARealChange.com and ARealChange.tv. He resides in Austin, TX and is here to give you tips and tricks to improving the image of your marketing through video, audio and graphics!
