Equipment & Tips to Create your Own Video Content

Equipment & Tips to Create your Own Video Content
June 9, 2017 rupert

Do you want to create a stronger online presence and speak more directly to your customers? Do you want more people to visit your site? Well this is exactly what our client wanted to do. As an HR consultancy firm, they had tried writing online articles but felt that the ‘human’ and ‘dynamic’ aspect was missing. They then realised that creating their own monthly videos on YouTube would be a much more appropriate for their voice. And by showcasing thought leaders in their industry, it would create educational and relevant content which would cleverly soft-sell their own expertise. 

In this article we take a real-world client of ours, and break down the stages from the shopping list to filming and camera settings. The aim of this article is to show you how easily you can create your own videos affordably. Or how we can help you do it!

The requirement was to film a 2 person interview setup. I.e. A ‘host’ and ‘guest’ speaker.  Which means miking up two people. But you can adapt the below for one person too. Here is our shopping list.

The Shopping list:

  • x2 Canon 600D camera’s (RM1600, $375/ ea)
  • x1 18-55mm Kit lens (came as kit with 600D RM1675, $390)
  • x1 Canon 50mm STM F1.8 Lens (RM550, $130)
  • x2 Boya B1 MY Lav mic (RM150, $35/ ea)
  • x2  LED Lights with stands Kit (package price 495RM, $115)
  • x2 tripods (RM250 $60, RM120 $30)
  • x2 16GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards (RM150, $35 ea)
  • Editing software: Final Cut Pro X (RM1600, $380)

Total cost: RM6890 or US$1620

This might seem like a lot, but consider that to hire a video crew to film just one video would be approximately the same if not more. And here we are investing in producing many videos. It quickly works out.

 

Filming a 2 person interview

Aside from having a clear idea of your content. On a technical level, there are 3 important points to consider

  1. Camera and lighting placement
  2. Sound
  3. Camera settings

Filming a 2 person interview

(1) Camera & lighting placement

Generally we use 3 point lighting which requires 3 light sources. But in our case, we are going for 2 point lighting as shown in the diagram below. Thereby both sides of the host and guest face are lit up evenly. In terms of camera positioning. Only one camera is shown on the diagram. A 2nd camera can be positioned on either side. The wide shot (showing both people) we use the 18-55mm lens and the other camera we use the 50mm lens for a mid or close-up (showing guest only). 

(2) Sound

You need to mic both the host and guest. Proper lav placement is shown in the picture. Make sure the microphone isn’t brushing against any clothing and is facing up towards the mouth.

Attach the ‘Guest’ mic 1 to camera A and ‘host’ mic 2 to camera B. You also need to go into each camera menu, choose ‘manual’ audio recording level and -/+ the levels while person is test speaking to get optimum signal pickup whilst not ‘clipping’ into the red. Around 75% gain is good.

Filming a 2 person interview

3) Camera settings

With a 2 camera set-up you should mirror settings on both cameras. In the menu you should sync the following:

  • White Balance
  • ISO (E.g. 200, 400)
  • Reformat to: PAL (25fps) or NTSC (30fps)
  • Shutter Speed (for PAL 1/50, for NTSC 1/60)
  • Picture style (e.g. Portrait)
  • Manual focus
  • Movie mode
  • Adjust Aperture to allow more/ less light (also known as the F stop)
  • Check image is correctly exposed using Exposure Wheel or Histogram

Filming a 2 person interview

Editing

Editing is the subject for another day. And best explained in a YouTube video. But as an idea of time, we managed to import the footage, edit the footage with music and logo and share a 5 minute video along with a crash test course in Final Cut Pro X in 4 hours. Thank you for reading and feel free to add your comments below or share any tips.

The end result!

You can see Human Inc’s YouTube channel here, showing all the content they have since made, after our mentoring session. Going strong!

Human Inc TV YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7beOWeT2U4N5wZfbLZt6Ig/videos

Company Website
http://humaninc.co/

 

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