You've probably heard on the grapevine that you need to create videos for your business, but creating consistent social media content costs money. So in this post, we will look at how to do it yourself. From getting the right equipment to making the process as easy as possible.
What Equipment Do You Need?
So to start let's get stuck with the equipment. To make any video you're looking at three main components, a camera, sound and lighting.
Camera
You have a great camera already in your pocket
So you could spend lots of money on a shiny new camera, but that would be a big waste because you probably have a decent camera in your pocket. Your phone! For most of the bits and pieces you create, a phone will be more than good enough. There are some drawbacks to using a phone like not being able to get a blurred background as you can see in the picture below. But is it really worth paying over £1,000 for? I think not.
The only thing you need to buy is a tripod and a phone mount, to mount your phone on the tripod. But you can pick these up for about £15.
Having a professional camera and lens system makes it easier to blur the background.
Sound
Sound can be as important as the image in a video
So that’s your camera sorted, let's talk about sound. If you have terrible sound in your video, people can't clearly hear what you're saying and you can say bye-bye to them quicker than the British summer in September. The problem is that the microphone on your phone is too far away from the noise hole on your face. The solution? Get a wireless microphone.
The Rode Wireless Go 2
I would recommend the Rode Wireless Go microphones as they are great quality and really reliable, but they are on the pricey side when you're just starting out. A quick search on Amazon shows that you could probably get something a little bit cheaper, but obviously I can't guarantee the sound quality of these.
A selection of wireless microphones on Amazon
The beauty of the Rode microphones is that you can just use the transmitter as your microphone, it's got a little microphone on the top, or if you want to make it look a bit tidier and a bit more professional, you can buy a plug-in lav mic, like I’m using in the video at the top of the page.
You can plug a lav mic into the Wireless Go system.
Just remember that whatever you're using, try and get it as close to your face as possible.
Lighting
Lighting can help your subject pop from the background
The last piece of equipment you need to look at is lighting. When it comes to lighting, you really do get what you pay for. But you can get starter lights like the ones from Neewer for just over £200. Any cheaper than this and you'll start getting strange colour casts from the lights, giving your skin a weird green hue like you've been on a heavy bender and you're suffering the next morning.
Cheaper lighting is available but the quality will massively dip.
I'll cover lighting in a future video, but here's a quick summary. You want to buy at least two lights because you can use one light to light you, and then you can use the other light to either light the back of you, or light your background in a different colour. Both of these will help you stand out and draw the viewer's eye to you, rather than what's going on around you. In an ideal world, you'd have three lights, but let's just start with the basics.
So that's the gear done, let's move on to the process of making the videos.
Location
Before you can press record, you need to pick a location for your video. A key thing to keep in mind is ease of set-up. Can you film the video somewhere that you can leave most of your equipment set up and ready to go? Ideally, you want to be able to set up and record your videos in 5 to 10 minutes. Any longer than this and you'll start to put roadblocks in front of you making the content.
If it takes you half an hour to set up the location, lights, camera and audio, then you're more likely to say “oh, let's just leave it for tomorrow”.
So keeping that in mind, here are a few pointers for a good location.
Firstly, think about what's in the background. Is it too bare or too cluttered? Is it showing enough of your personality? This is where things like shelves with knickknacks are a good addition.
Think about what might distract your viewer in the background.
Next, try and bring yourself away from the background as much as you can. This will help give you depth.
Can you shoot into the corner of your room? Then you should. It will create leading lines which will draw the viewer's eye towards you.
Natural lines in your environment can help direct the viewers attention towards you.
And lastly, is there something you can put in front of you like a desk? By having something in the foreground and background with you in the mid-ground, you're creating depth and space which creates a more 3D and real experience.
Using a desk or other objects in front of you helps create a sense of depth in your shot.
Location done. Last bit we're going to talk about in this video is the process.
Making The Videos
Break down the process to make it easy and manageable.
You can break video production down into three main areas. Pre-production, which is the planning and preparation. Production which is shooting a video, and post-production, which is any editing on the video.
The idea is to make this whole process run like a well-oiled machine. For example, let's say you want to put out a video every other week and you can dedicate two hours every week to creating the content. The first week could be pre-production, where you’re researching topics for the videos, writing scripts and thinking about any props you may want to use in the video.
The second week could be all about production and post-production. You could spend the first hour filming the video and the second doing a bit of editing, even if it's just cutting bits off the front and the end, adding a few graphics and a bit of music.
By dedicating this time every week, say every Wednesday from 10 to 12, you're making yourself accountable and making the process more manageable.
The good news is that the more videos you create, the quicker and better you become at each stage in the process. With the extra time, you could start creating two more videos, meaning you'll have enough content for weekly posts. Or you could reduce your weekly committed time to make it even more manageable.
What are you waiting for?
My last piece of advice is to not overthink it and just get started.
Look, I know this is a daunting experience. You're probably scared of being in front of the camera, or you think your videos will look rubbish, or you believe that you don't know what you're doing. But the only way to get past those feelings is to accept them and do it anyway.
You'll only get better in front of the camera, make better videos, and improve your skills by actually doing it. If you want to see some proof of this, then find a popular YouTube channel and go back to look at their very first videos. I’m betting they will probably look pretty rubbish.
But the only difference between you and them is that they actually got started.
That being said, if this is too much for you to take on or you don’t have the time or motivation to create your own videos, I offer a monthly content subscription service for a fixed price. You can find the details here.