filming remodel
Hello. I am renovating my 5th wheel top to bottom. Have had people asking me to post film of my renovations on Youtube. How do I do this? Any suggestions on equipment? I don't want to spend a lot ...
Forum Discussion
You really don't have to go out of your way, or spend a lot of money for equipment to get semi pro results for YouTube vids. If you have a recent smartphone, you likely already have a HQ video camera? This is what I use for training vids at our office - a Nokia Lumia or Samsung Note. I don't even bother using my Sony Alpha anymore, though this is an amazing quality portable video/still camera.
Combine your smartphone with a decent 2 or 3-axis brushless gimbal stabilizer. Which can be more useful than tripods, actually saving time. These will get rid of the shaky cam effects, similar to Steadycam shots, though don't require extensive training. They've come down in price, but quality varies. Read user comments. And make sure you do not exceed the rated smartphone weight limits. Also, you need to take the time to level your smartphone "before" turning on the stabilizer for best results.
One of the biggest ways to shoot pro vids is to record your audio separately. Don't use the built-in mic for anything else but reference audio for editing. Or connecting a separate mic into your smartphone, which tend to have low quality noisy pre-amps. Instead, use something like a Zoom H1 recorder or similar, with a quality inexpensive mic like a JK MIC-J 044.
You'll need a basic video editor to at least sync back your recorded audio to video. Though can actually achieve some pro results with consumer editors. I use Sony MovieStudio Platinum for convenience in editing on my notebook PC. Even-though, I have access to a dedicated full pro edit suite w/Adobe Production in my office. MovieStudio is actually very powerful, with keyframe animation and multi-layering capabilities, producing finished vids almost indistinguishable from pro editors costing thousands of $. Though admit it can be buggier and slower workflow than Sony Vegas Pro, as it is a watered down version for consumers.
Make sure to render out your finish videos to a HQ format/settings for uploading to YouTube as Google will re-encode them to their specs. Personally, I use Ustream for hosting office vids, only because I have access to our enterprise accounts.
I would also avoid using copyrighted music or photos in your vids, as there are a number of high quality sources of license free content available. Do a search for Creative Commons (CC) resources.
Combine your smartphone with a decent 2 or 3-axis brushless gimbal stabilizer. Which can be more useful than tripods, actually saving time. These will get rid of the shaky cam effects, similar to Steadycam shots, though don't require extensive training. They've come down in price, but quality varies. Read user comments. And make sure you do not exceed the rated smartphone weight limits. Also, you need to take the time to level your smartphone "before" turning on the stabilizer for best results.
One of the biggest ways to shoot pro vids is to record your audio separately. Don't use the built-in mic for anything else but reference audio for editing. Or connecting a separate mic into your smartphone, which tend to have low quality noisy pre-amps. Instead, use something like a Zoom H1 recorder or similar, with a quality inexpensive mic like a JK MIC-J 044.
You'll need a basic video editor to at least sync back your recorded audio to video. Though can actually achieve some pro results with consumer editors. I use Sony MovieStudio Platinum for convenience in editing on my notebook PC. Even-though, I have access to a dedicated full pro edit suite w/Adobe Production in my office. MovieStudio is actually very powerful, with keyframe animation and multi-layering capabilities, producing finished vids almost indistinguishable from pro editors costing thousands of $. Though admit it can be buggier and slower workflow than Sony Vegas Pro, as it is a watered down version for consumers.
Make sure to render out your finish videos to a HQ format/settings for uploading to YouTube as Google will re-encode them to their specs. Personally, I use Ustream for hosting office vids, only because I have access to our enterprise accounts.
I would also avoid using copyrighted music or photos in your vids, as there are a number of high quality sources of license free content available. Do a search for Creative Commons (CC) resources.
