Transcript
00:00:00In this video, we're gonna talk through
00:00:01how you can film yourself using just your phone.
00:00:03No fancy equipment, no fancy stuff,
00:00:05the hacks and tips and tricks that I've picked up
00:00:06over the last eight years of being a,
00:00:08I guess, professional content creator.
00:00:09By the way, if you're new here, hello, my name is Ali.
00:00:11I'm a doctor turned entrepreneur.
00:00:12And since 2017 on this YouTube channel,
00:00:14I've been documenting the journey from broke medical student
00:00:16to working full-time as a doctor,
00:00:18including during the pandemic,
00:00:19to now being an entrepreneur and an author.
00:00:20And for the last five years,
00:00:21I've been running an online community
00:00:23called the Part-Time YouTuber Academy,
00:00:24where we have helped thousands of students,
00:00:26including lots of faces and names
00:00:27that you probably recognize,
00:00:28start, grow, and monetize their YouTube channels.
00:00:30But all that said, let's get into the video.
00:00:32Now, whenever the lights are off,
00:00:35what I'm always looking for is a window.
00:00:37So there is a window over here.
00:00:39Now, I probably don't wanna film being backlit
00:00:42because there is a light behind me.
00:00:44What I'm really trying to find is
00:00:46I'm trying to film in a way where
00:00:48the light is sorta like 45 degrees from where my face is.
00:00:53So that's thing number one.
00:00:53Find a light source that's ideally as big as possible
00:00:57so windows are very big lights,
00:00:59and ideally get it around 45 degrees from where you are.
00:01:02Principle number two is you kinda want your background
00:01:04to be a bit more interesting than just a plain white wall.
00:01:06If, for example, I stand here,
00:01:09now I've got like more stuff in the background.
00:01:11And if we put the camera here and just go straight on,
00:01:14you can see over here, I'm like,
00:01:15okay, this is another way of doing it.
00:01:17I've got the light directly in front of me.
00:01:18I generally don't like it when a light's directly in front,
00:01:21but over here, at least the background
00:01:22just looks a little bit more interesting, right?
00:01:24And the other key principle is
00:01:25you always want your lines to be straight.
00:01:27So if, for example, Becky who's behind the camera
00:01:30goes wonky with the camera,
00:01:31you will see that this looks absolutely frickin' terrible.
00:01:33Like it just looks super unprofessional.
00:01:35Like you can basically take the same shot,
00:01:37you can be a bit wonky with it,
00:01:39and then you go straight.
00:01:40And now hopefully the shot looks a lot more professional.
00:01:44We're like just doing some playing around with it.
00:01:46If your lines are straight,
00:01:47and you're sort of eye level with the camera,
00:01:49and your head is sort of brushing the top of the frame,
00:01:53that generally looks pretty reasonable.
00:01:56It looks pretty professional.
00:01:57And then we also want to appreciate
00:01:58what effect like tilting has.
00:01:59So mostly in cameras, you can get a sort of spirit level,
00:02:03and you want your thing to be kind of eye level.
00:02:06There are other ways of doing it.
00:02:07So for example, if we put the camera underneath and tilted it,
00:02:10what that does is create, allegedly,
00:02:12create a more like powerful imposing kind of thing
00:02:15where I'm like speaking down to the camera.
00:02:17Alternatively, if we go up and look down at me,
00:02:19now here, my camera's still theoretically
00:02:21brushing the top of the frame,
00:02:22but this looks a little bit different.
00:02:24Unless you're deliberately going for like the POV look
00:02:26that like, you know, that kind of vibe.
00:02:28Unless you're deliberately going for it,
00:02:29you generally want to just be eye level,
00:02:31looking straight down the barrel of the lens
00:02:33with as many straight lines behind you as humanly possible
00:02:36without any weirdness going on in terms of like
00:02:38wonkifying and like tilting, tilting your camera view.
00:02:41Now when filming with a phone,
00:02:42obviously one thing you can do
00:02:43is you can just use the selfie camera,
00:02:45and you can just hold it out.
00:02:46And this is a sort of like, hey Becky,
00:02:48you know, this sort of vibe.
00:02:49Now the issue with using the selfie camera
00:02:51is look at where my eyes are looking.
00:02:54I can totally do head brushing the top.
00:02:56I can totally do like, you know, straight lines roughly,
00:02:58but I'm just so tempted to look at myself.
00:03:01Whereas if I look at you,
00:03:02now hopefully that feels a lot more natural
00:03:04because I'm actually looking at the camera.
00:03:07I'm not looking at myself.
00:03:08There's something about looking at yourself
00:03:09that feels weird.
00:03:10So one of the biggest signs of like kind of noobs
00:03:11to being creators, filming with a phone for the first time,
00:03:13they often look at themselves
00:03:15when really they should be looking at the camera
00:03:16and they should be looking at the viewers.
00:03:18Sometimes it's not exactly obvious where the camera is,
00:03:19so sometimes what I do is I put my finger and I'm like,
00:03:21okay, oh, that's the camera.
00:03:22Especially if you're filming with like the back of a phone.
00:03:24And so here I've got the One X camera.
00:03:26I'm like sort of holding it like this.
00:03:28I have no idea, absolutely no clue what this looks like.
00:03:30I don't even know which of the three cameras it is.
00:03:33And so what I'm gonna basically do is flip the camera around
00:03:36and I'm gonna be like, all right, I'm gonna cover that one.
00:03:38Okay, it's not that one.
00:03:39It's not that one.
00:03:40Oh, it's that one.
00:03:40Okay, so it's bottom right.
00:03:41Okay, cool.
00:03:42So now I know that if I'm filming myself
00:03:43from this kind of perspective,
00:03:44I need to be looking at this camera right over here.
00:03:47'Cause if I'm looking at that one,
00:03:48or if I'm looking at that one,
00:03:49or if I'm looking anywhere else,
00:03:51there'll just be something about the video
00:03:53that feels a little bit off compared to directly looking
00:03:56at the camera that I know I should be looking at.
00:03:58And this is something that like you kind of have
00:03:59to train yourself to do.
00:04:00Now if we're filming with the back of a phone,
00:04:01handheld like this, One X could work,
00:04:03but often 0.5 X often looks nicer
00:04:05because it feels a little bit more vloggy,
00:04:07if that makes sense.
00:04:08So that's like my 0.5 X view.
00:04:10So now if I'm doing like handheld with a camera like this,
00:04:12I'm trying my best to just sort of generally keep it straight.
00:04:15You can see what this looks like.
00:04:16I'm trying not to be wonky with it
00:04:17because generally wonky looks weird,
00:04:19especially if you're like doing stuff in like horizontal.
00:04:21And I'm making sure I'm looking at this one
00:04:23because I know that that is the 0.5 X lens.
00:04:25And so hopefully this looks like relatively reasonable.
00:04:27And as I'm walking along and filming with my phone,
00:04:30I'm trying my best to be my own kind of stabilizer.
00:04:33If I was really trying to optimize it,
00:04:34I would probably, I've got light source over here.
00:04:37I've got reasonable background over there.
00:04:38I'd probably do something like this.
00:04:40I don't know what this looks like
00:04:41because I obviously can't see myself,
00:04:42but I just sort of know that
00:04:43if I've done the general principles correctly
00:04:44around like background, around like having a soft light,
00:04:47I mean, there's a big harsh light in my face.
00:04:49I don't really care personally, but like whatevs.
00:04:51I know if I've done the general principles right,
00:04:53this should look somewhat reasonable,
00:04:55even though I've literally just whacked out my phone
00:04:57and I'm just talking to it
00:04:58without even being able to see myself.
00:05:00By the way, if you're interested in growing your business
00:05:02in platforms like Instagram,
00:05:03there is a wonderful little tool
00:05:04that my team and I have been using for the last year or so.
00:05:06It's called Stanley.
00:05:07And it's created by Stan
00:05:08who are very kindly sponsoring this video.
00:05:10Stanley is your very own AI agent.
00:05:12And what it does is that it connects to your Instagram
00:05:14and it gives you insights
00:05:15into what content of yours is doing well
00:05:17and therefore gives you insights
00:05:18on how you can grow your business
00:05:19or your presence on Instagram.
00:05:20It also helps you create carousels
00:05:22and posts and captions in your voice.
00:05:24So it saves a bunch of time.
00:05:25If for example, you're posting a reel
00:05:26and then you're spending ages trying to figure out
00:05:28like what to caption it,
00:05:28you can just ask Stanley to write the caption in your voice
00:05:31and it can save you a bunch of time.
00:05:32And it also shows you these really useful stats
00:05:34like a consistency score, a growth score, and a Stan score
00:05:37that lets you see how well you're doing
00:05:38compared to other accounts in similar niches.
00:05:41So if you're interested in growing your Instagram presence,
00:05:43you should definitely check out Stanley
00:05:44and it's created by Stan,
00:05:45which is our recommended sort of online platform
00:05:47for selling anything as a creator on the internet.
00:05:49So you can check that out as well.
00:05:50And there will be links down below and on screen somewhere
00:05:52if you're interested in checking those things out.
00:05:54So thank you Stan for sponsoring this video
00:05:55and let's get back to it.
00:05:56To be honest, anything handheld
00:05:57that doesn't have stabilization generally to me
00:05:59doesn't look particularly professional.
00:06:01So this is where tripods come in.
00:06:02Now there is one tripod that I always have
00:06:05attached to my phone at all times.
00:06:07It is this peak design phone tripod type situation.
00:06:10If you're doing like a Zoom call
00:06:11or reading a book at a coffee shop,
00:06:13it's kind of nice to just be able to do this
00:06:15and not have and kind of be able to go hands-free.
00:06:17Or if you wanna film horizontally, you just like boom.
00:06:20And now you have this sort of situation
00:06:22where you can prop your phone up.
00:06:23The issue with using a tripod on the phone
00:06:24with a selfie camera is that you're gonna,
00:06:26you're almost always gonna end up with a situation
00:06:28where the phone is looking up at you, right?
00:06:31Because this is not following the rule of eye level.
00:06:34It's not too bad.
00:06:35There's something about this
00:06:36that can still look quite professional.
00:06:37You don't give yourself too much headroom.
00:06:39Like this looks terrible and it looks very unprofessional
00:06:41because I've given myself too much headroom.
00:06:43Similarly, I don't wanna cut my headroom off.
00:06:45Obviously this looks weird.
00:06:46This looks like some sort of secret filming
00:06:47for some sort of dodgy interrogation.
00:06:48But if I do something like this
00:06:50where I've got just enough headroom
00:06:52for this to seem reasonable, even though I'm a pro at this,
00:06:53it's still very tempting for me to look at myself
00:06:55rather than to look at you directly through the camera.
00:06:57You, my dear viewer, thank you for being here in the video.
00:07:00I hope it's valuable.
00:07:01I hope it's kind of useful.
00:07:02And if I try and get this as like eye level as I possibly can
00:07:04and make sure I'm looking at the camera, you know what?
00:07:07This doesn't look too bad,
00:07:08even though I'm just using a basic-ass magnetic phone tripod
00:07:11that you can get on Amazon, that you can get cheap knockoffs
00:07:13on Amazon for like $5 or something.
00:07:15And you can just always have it with you at all times,
00:07:16which means you're always able to film stuff on your phone.
00:07:18If I wanted to level this up a bit
00:07:20and I didn't have an actual tripod on me,
00:07:21what I might do is I'm gonna be like,
00:07:23okay, are there any books or is there, you know what?
00:07:25Let's grab this frickin' box of tissues
00:07:28and use the box of tissues as a bit of a tripod
00:07:30so that if I stick the phone on top of the box of tissues,
00:07:32will that allow me to be a bit more eye level?
00:07:34Possibly, actually it's not too bad.
00:07:36That's not too bad.
00:07:37Can I go even straighter if I even further twizzle
00:07:40and tweak this little tripod?
00:07:42Yeah, that's pretty straight.
00:07:43Okay, nice.
00:07:44And hopefully this also doesn't seem too bad.
00:07:47I have to worry about like shake
00:07:49because I know this box of tissues
00:07:50has not got much like stabilization on it.
00:07:51But I mean, for the most part,
00:07:52this doesn't actually look too bad.
00:07:54Phones, even with just the basic-ass selfie camera these days
00:07:57are actually pretty good.
00:07:58What happens if I try and switch to the proper camera?
00:08:00I'm trying to roughly get where I think the shot is gonna be
00:08:04using the 1X lens.
00:08:05So you can see on my Apple Watch,
00:08:07I can see exactly what's going on.
00:08:08And wow, that actually worked relatively reasonably.
00:08:11Oh, I think my head's being too cut off.
00:08:13And so I'd wanna either lean forward.
00:08:16Is this reasonable?
00:08:17Have I got something reasonable going on?
00:08:18Okay, this actually doesn't look too bad
00:08:20because I've done sensible things like,
00:08:22I'm looking at the camera.
00:08:23Hopefully the lines are kind of somewhat straight.
00:08:26In terms of the background,
00:08:27like there's a lot of stuff going on in the background,
00:08:29which means the background is just kind of interesting
00:08:30compared to sitting against a wall.
00:08:34And I just do it like this.
00:08:36Oh my God, this box of tissues isn't gonna fall.
00:08:38I suspect this looks a lot less interesting
00:08:40than the previous shot.
00:08:41And this is actually a mistake I see a lot of our
00:08:43like Lifestyle Business Academy
00:08:44or Part-Time YouTuber Academy students making.
00:08:45They think that in order for a shot to look professional,
00:08:48it should have nothing in there, but nothing in a shot.
00:08:50I mean, even like, even this is kind of interesting
00:08:52'cause there's a whiteboard.
00:08:53If I were to go even less interesting
00:08:55and just like have it straight up against a wall,
00:08:58like I see a lot of people film,
00:08:59this is the sign of a total noob
00:09:01as it relates to being a creator where you're like,
00:09:04I am going to be professional
00:09:05and therefore I'm gonna film with nothing at all behind me.
00:09:08But this sort of feels like either you are some kind
00:09:10of teacher and you're filming like, I don't know,
00:09:12you're the first time you've ever filmed a video lesson
00:09:14because it's the pandemic and you're like,
00:09:15I need to film video lessons for my students
00:09:17and you decide to have an empty wall
00:09:18or you're on some kind of interrogation
00:09:19or doing some sort of like interview.
00:09:20Even though this is a shitty background,
00:09:22I do whatever I can to make the shot look reasonable,
00:09:24but it's still, you know, it's just much nicer
00:09:26when you have something in the background.
00:09:27Speaking of, this is also generally why I don't like
00:09:30to shoot straight on against a wall.
00:09:32I like to shoot an oblique kind of angle
00:09:34because if we go back to this sort of thing,
00:09:38this is sort of shooting into a corner.
00:09:39Shooting into a corner will just make your background
00:09:41more interesting than shooting straight on.
00:09:43If you're shooting straight on, then the background,
00:09:45I mean, obviously it can still be interesting,
00:09:47but you just get a lot of interestingness vibes
00:09:49by just shooting into a corner,
00:09:50making sure you're looking at the camera,
00:09:51making sure the lines are as straight as they can be,
00:09:54making sure your head is just about brushing
00:09:56the top of the frame.
00:09:57Now, one thing that I actually forgot to do
00:10:00was changing the frames per second of the phone.
00:10:04For stuff to look cinematic, most movies are shot
00:10:06in either 24 or 25 frames per second,
00:10:09but iPhone footage and phone footage in general
00:10:11is often shot at 30.
00:10:12So it makes it look just a little bit more smooth
00:10:15than you would expect it to look
00:10:16if you were watching something legit on TV.
00:10:18And so in general, if you want your footage
00:10:20to look a little bit more cinematic,
00:10:22you switch it to either 24 or 25 frames per second.
00:10:26I think this video that we're exporting
00:10:27is gonna be in 25 frames per second anyway,
00:10:28so maybe you didn't quite notice the difference,
00:10:30but that's often one tell of like,
00:10:32oh, it was shot with a phone,
00:10:33which is that it's a little smoother
00:10:34than you would expect it to be.
00:10:35So if in doubt, switch your phone to 25 frames per second,
00:10:38which I personally forgot to do.
00:10:39Some people often ask the question of like,
00:10:41oh, should I film in like cinematic mode
00:10:43or should I film in like professional mode
00:10:44or should I film in like raw mode
00:10:46and any of this sort of stuff?
00:10:47And my take is that if you are a beginner creator
00:10:49and you're doing video for the first time,
00:10:51don't worry about any of that stuff.
00:10:53You can just film things using the default camera app
00:10:55on your phone and you don't need to think about it.
00:10:56Once you've made a few dozen to a few hundred videos
00:10:58and you really think that like shooting log or whatever
00:11:01is gonna drastically level up your production value,
00:11:04or if you're not just doing talking head camera videos,
00:11:06or you particularly wanna make it,
00:11:08give it a particular kind of cinematic look,
00:11:10then yes, you could film in like whatever the iPhone raw
00:11:13ProRes video file is.
00:11:14For most people I speak to who are doing
00:11:16basic educational content to try and either build
00:11:18a personal brand or to try and drive leads to a business
00:11:21to make some money, all of that is massively overkill
00:11:23and so you don't need a lot of that stuff
00:11:24unless you're actively interested
00:11:26in the art of like color grading.
00:11:27Phones these days have a lot of different focal lengths.
00:11:30So if Becky were to be my tripod,
00:11:32let's do 0.5X using the general idea
00:11:36that my head is brushing the top of the frame.
00:11:38Okay, so you'll notice that the camera is very close to me.
00:11:41It's like I could basically touch it with my hand.
00:11:43I suspect what this does is that it makes it feel
00:11:45like you and I are very close together.
00:11:47The closer the camera is to you,
00:11:48the more intimate an experience it's gonna feel
00:11:50for the person on the other end.
00:11:51So what happens if we switch to the 1X lens?
00:11:54Okay, so we have switched to the 1X lens.
00:11:57I would have to really reach out to like lean forward
00:12:00and reach out to touch the camera.
00:12:01Now, even though we can try our best
00:12:03to make the framing look similar to the 0.5X lens,
00:12:08there's something about this
00:12:09that will feel a little bit less intimate
00:12:10than the 0.5X lens.
00:12:12The 0.5X lens really feels like sort of
00:12:14we're up close and personal.
00:12:15I think the 1X lens on an iPhone is a 24 millimeter,
00:12:17which is sort of like YouTuber classic kind of vibes.
00:12:20And so, you know, this probably looks totally reasonable.
00:12:23Okay, so now we've switched to the 2X zoom.
00:12:25Now, I think this is sort of like a 50 mil equivalent
00:12:28or whatever, but basically the camera is so far away from me.
00:12:30It's like miles away.
00:12:31Well, it's not miles away,
00:12:32but it's like a couple of meters away from me.
00:12:33There's no way I can reach out and touch the camera.
00:12:36This is what more of a,
00:12:37this gives you more of like a presenter kind of feel.
00:12:40If you think of what the news looks like,
00:12:41a news reader does not feel like a YouTuber.
00:12:43A news reader feels like the camera is miles away
00:12:45and they're reading the news
00:12:46and they're sort of presenting the news.
00:12:48Even though the framing could be identical
00:12:49and my head is still brushing the top of the frame
00:12:51and I still look relatively the same size,
00:12:54everything is sort of sufficiently sort of zoomed in
00:12:57so that it feels like this is more of a presenter.
00:12:59If we go 4X, it's gonna be even more zoomed in than that,
00:13:02but there's literally not enough space in this room
00:13:04to do a 4X kind of zoom.
00:13:05I generally prefer the vibe of feeling like I can reach out
00:13:09or of being able to reach out and touch the camera.
00:13:11So if I'm filming with a phone,
00:13:13I would prefer to film with the 1X lens or even the 0.5X.
00:13:16It feels like a more friendly relationship
00:13:18with the viewer on the other end,
00:13:19rather than this, which feels like I'm a presenter
00:13:21doing a presenting-y type thing.
00:13:23Now, again, because we're filming with a phone,
00:13:24we don't have to think too hard about the lighting.
00:13:26The phone will compensate for most of the lighting,
00:13:27but as long as we're doing sensible things,
00:13:28head brushing the top of the frame, the lines are straight,
00:13:30there's something vaguely interesting
00:13:32going on in the background
00:13:33so it doesn't look like I'm shooting against a wall
00:13:34like I'm being interrogated by the police or something,
00:13:36then we should be fine and it should look relatively okay.
00:13:39Okay, one thing we have not talked about at all is audio.
00:13:42So right now, I am recording audio
00:13:43using this microphone over here,
00:13:45which is attached to the camera that Becky is using to film.
00:13:48The camera is the Sony ZV-E1,
00:13:49and this is like one of these little things
00:13:53that connect up to the camera.
00:13:56Back in the day, a few years ago,
00:13:58these little pocket microphone things
00:14:01were either very hard to find or super expensive,
00:14:03and so you had to do elaborate setups like shotgun mics
00:14:06and all that kind of stuff like you see on TV.
00:14:08Now, I'm gonna show you what the difference in audio is like.
00:14:10So for this entire video so far,
00:14:11we've actually been using the audio from this microphone,
00:14:13which hopefully sounds reasonable enough
00:14:15that if you're watching at this point in the video,
00:14:17you haven't switched off.
00:14:18Basically, the main factor when it comes to audio
00:14:19is how close is the microphone to your mouth?
00:14:22This microphone is very close to my mouth,
00:14:24and so the audio should hopefully sound reasonable.
00:14:25So this is what audio from the iPhone sounds like
00:14:27when we were at the 2X lens zoom,
00:14:29so when the iPhone was miles away from me.
00:14:31There's no way I can reach out and touch the camera.
00:14:33This is what more of a,
00:14:35this gives you more of like a presenter kind of feel.
00:14:37As you can hear, that sounds absolutely terrible.
00:14:39Now, if we bring the iPhone quite a lot closer
00:14:41and we use the 1X lens, this is what the audio sounds like.
00:14:43This is the sign of a total noob
00:14:46as it relates to being a creator,
00:14:47where you're like, I am going to be professional,
00:14:50and therefore, I am gonna film with nothing at all behind me.
00:14:52And now if we bring the iPhone even closer
00:14:54and we have it at 0.5X distance,
00:14:56so it's like right up close and personal,
00:14:58this is what the audio sounds like.
00:14:59The closer the camera is to you,
00:15:00the more intimate an experience it's gonna feel
00:15:03for the person on the other end.
00:15:04So hopefully you can hear from that example
00:15:05that like the closer the iPhone is to me,
00:15:08the better the audio in the iPhone is gonna sound.
00:15:09So if you happen to be filming with just a phone
00:15:12or just a camera,
00:15:13and you don't have some kind of external microphone,
00:15:15there is a lot of value in just using 0.5X
00:15:18and having the microphone or the audio
00:15:20as close to you as humanly possible,
00:15:22because in general, audio quality is more important
00:15:24than video quality.
00:15:25People wouldn't mind sitting through poor video quality,
00:15:28but very few people will sit through bad audio quality.
00:15:30So anyway, audio is the most important thing.
00:15:32I always carry these like ear pods with me.
00:15:34You know, the old school wired Apple headphones?
00:15:38'Cause you never know when you might need
00:15:39some reasonable sounding audio.
00:15:41But here I'm gonna record a voice memo using just this,
00:15:43you know, it feels a little gen Z
00:15:46to be holding up a wired thing like this.
00:15:49Hopefully if we've done this right,
00:15:50this audio should actually sound pretty good
00:15:52because the microphone is very close to my mouth.
00:15:54And yeah, I'm holding up a microphone,
00:15:57but like, you know, there's something cool
00:15:58and retro about it these days.
00:15:59I would rather do this than have really bad audio.
00:16:02What you can also do if you really care about audio,
00:16:04and sometimes I do this if I'm filming out and about,
00:16:06is like literally carry a proper microphone with you.
00:16:11Why would you bother carrying a proper microphone with you?
00:16:13I could totally record audio
00:16:14with just this microphone over here.
00:16:15But if you are willing to carry a laptop around,
00:16:18you can plug a microphone into a laptop.
00:16:20So this is now a voice memo I'm recording on my MacBook
00:16:23with this microphone plugged in.
00:16:24Now, the reason I sometimes do this is for the vibes, right?
00:16:27This here is the Mantis Pod.
00:16:31I quite like it.
00:16:32I've had it for a few years.
00:16:34The Mantis Pod also has this sort of like iPhone,
00:16:37iPhone tripod attachment.
00:16:39So like, I don't wanna deal with like
00:16:41the box of tissues and stuff.
00:16:42So I'm actually just gonna set up my phone
00:16:44on a legit looking tripod.
00:16:45Okay, so I'm just gonna use a selfie camera over here.
00:16:47Now, what I'm trying to do is set up the shots
00:16:49so that it looks reasonable.
00:16:50This is not reasonable because the lines are not straight.
00:16:52So this looks like the most amateur thing
00:16:53you've ever seen in your life, right?
00:16:55It looks horrendous.
00:16:55The reason it looks horrendous
00:16:57is 'cause the lines are not straight.
00:16:58So what I'm doing is as I'm like tweaking
00:17:00the leveling of this tripod so that that line over there
00:17:04is the same sort of angle as sort of like
00:17:07the edge of the iPhone.
00:17:08So on an iPhone, you have straight lines.
00:17:09You have that line over there
00:17:10and you have that line over there.
00:17:11These are straight lines.
00:17:12If there's wonkiness, you look at the angle
00:17:14between that line and that line, there's an angle.
00:17:17That means it's not straight.
00:17:18Whereas like what would be straight?
00:17:19Well, that looks more straight
00:17:22'cause you can see that that line on the wall,
00:17:24this line over here is kind of like lining up
00:17:28with like the edge of the iPhone.
00:17:29Now, obviously if you like pan or tilt and stuff,
00:17:31you can sort of get the illusion of straightness,
00:17:33but like straight is what I'm going for.
00:17:35Straight is the primary thing I go for
00:17:37because that's the primary thing
00:17:38that people subconsciously look at
00:17:39when they are deciding like how professional something looks.
00:17:42And what I'm trying to do is create a kind of foreground
00:17:47using my laptop and using this microphone.
00:17:50It just makes the shot a little bit more interesting.
00:17:51Part of why I have this like colorful Dbrand skin
00:17:53on my laptop, which we designed in collaboration
00:17:55with Dbrand, it's the pallet skin,
00:17:56is because this splash of color in the foreground
00:18:00makes anything look nicer, in my opinion.
00:18:02At least that's kind of the vibe, the vibe that I go for.
00:18:04And so when I do this sort of thing,
00:18:05I'm like, I'm spending a while.
00:18:08I say, well, it's not that long.
00:18:09I'm spending some amount of time
00:18:11making sure that the laptop looks reasonable.
00:18:12Now, right now this doesn't look great
00:18:13because it sort of looks like the laptop screen
00:18:15is just coming out of thin air
00:18:16because you can't actually see the laptop thingy.
00:18:19I also have quite a lot of headroom.
00:18:21Maybe if we go down a little bit over here, something.
00:18:25Okay, that's not too bad.
00:18:29I do have the effect of like the camera's looking down on me
00:18:32a little bit like this,
00:18:33but I don't think that's too much of a problem.
00:18:35All of this is about trade-offs.
00:18:36I'm like, where can I position the laptop
00:18:37so it looks reasonable?
00:18:38Where can I position the microphone so it looks reasonable?
00:18:40I'm in a random room,
00:18:41the worst conference room in terms of lighting
00:18:43and in terms of decor in this entire building.
00:18:45But this shot hopefully doesn't look too bad
00:18:48and hopefully doesn't sound too bad
00:18:49because I'm recording the audio from here directly.
00:18:51I've got this in the back, in the foreground.
00:18:53You know what?
00:18:54Should I put it over here just to make it more interesting?
00:18:55'Cause we've got that plant is interesting.
00:18:56Yeah, you know what?
00:18:57That plant is interesting.
00:18:57So I wanna put this here so it looks reasonable.
00:19:00Now, if I were shooting an entire YouTube video like this,
00:19:03this is actually totally reasonable.
00:19:04I have my phone on a tripod.
00:19:05You can get a cheap ass tripod if you want.
00:19:07I'm literally connected my laptop to like a mic.
00:19:09You know, you probably have a laptop.
00:19:10You can get a cheap microphone that you connect it to.
00:19:12This is why I generally like microphones that look nice
00:19:14because you know, it's part of like the look of the shot.
00:19:17Even if there are microphones out there,
00:19:18they sound a little bit better.
00:19:19But you can totally imagine having an entire filming setup
00:19:22and building an entire YouTube channel
00:19:23just off of filming a video like this.
00:19:25Filming with a phone, just using the selfie camera,
00:19:28recording audio on my laptop with a microphone.
00:19:31And this looks totally reasonable.
00:19:32The lines are more or less straight.
00:19:33I'm looking, I'm attempting to look at the lens
00:19:35and not just looking at myself.
00:19:36The background is like fine.
00:19:38The lighting really, really sucks.
00:19:40This would be like it's going top down.
00:19:41It's yellow.
00:19:42It's horrendous.
00:19:43What happens if I turn the light off?
00:19:45Maybe actually that looks a little bit better
00:19:46'cause the iPhone will compensate for poor lighting.
00:19:48It will add some noise to the recording.
00:19:51Some people would say that this looks a little bit better.
00:19:53Do I agree?
00:19:54Do I think this looks better?
00:19:55Meh versus actually having the light on.
00:19:58There's much more harsh shadows on my face.
00:20:00Whatever.
00:20:01I think this is fine.
00:20:01So if I was recording videos for one of my courses
00:20:03or even for the main channel or for anything I'm doing,
00:20:05this would actually be a totally reasonable setup.
00:20:07And we've seen that there's nothing fancy about this.
00:20:09I don't have any fancy lights.
00:20:10I'm not even using the fancy camera.
00:20:12I don't have a fancy microphone.
00:20:13I'm just making do with what I happen to have in my bag
00:20:15and the shot looks relatively okay.
00:20:16If I didn't even have one of these microphones
00:20:18but I had a spare laptop on me
00:20:19or I had a spare phone or whatever,
00:20:20then I can totally just plug this thing in
00:20:22and hide this earphones in under my top.
00:20:26And now I have relatively reasonable sounding audio.
00:20:28Of course, if I just wanted to straight up
00:20:29plug this into the iPhone, I could do that as well.
00:20:31The iPhone is a little bit far away right now.
00:20:34So I think with this focal length, maybe I can't reach.
00:20:38Actually, no, I kind of can.
00:20:39To be honest, if I didn't have any of this
00:20:41and I just plugged these ear pods into my iPhone,
00:20:45I'm just like holding it up like this.
00:20:47This is like a super low tech setup
00:20:49that anyone can do with just their phone and a cheap tripod
00:20:51or just propping up the phone on a bunch of books
00:20:53and using one of these like magnetic tripods.
00:20:55Or if you don't have a tripod,
00:20:56you prop it up on some books or a tissue box,
00:20:58you stick a mug or a glass behind it
00:21:00and you sort of prop up your phone
00:21:01against the mug or the glass.
00:21:03And you can get a setup that looks totally reasonable.
00:21:05Gear is not an excuse to not be doing content
00:21:07if the thing you're trying to do for your business
00:21:09or for your life or for your side hustle
00:21:10involves doing content to some degree.
00:21:11If you're doing vertical content,
00:21:13this becomes a totally reasonable setup
00:21:15for filming like Instagram reels or something
00:21:17and giving myself enough headroom.
00:21:19But generally when it comes to vertical content,
00:21:20people are much more forgiving of poor production value.
00:21:23When it comes to vertical content, like right now,
00:21:25I'm not looking at you, I'm looking at myself.
00:21:26But if I look at you through the lens,
00:21:28it just looks a little bit nicer.
00:21:29If you're doing Instagram reels, if you're doing TikToks,
00:21:31if you're doing YouTube shorts,
00:21:32there is something to be said for like lower production value
00:21:34filmed with just a phone in a way feeling more authentic
00:21:37than doing it properly.
00:21:38It kind of depends on what brand you're going for.
00:21:39Like most of my Instagram reels,
00:21:41we film properly with a proper camera
00:21:42and we have fancy editing on them
00:21:43because that is kind of one of our unfair advantages
00:21:45that we can lean into.
00:21:46But certainly if I was like trying to do content
00:21:48and I wanted to feel natural, I wanted to feel raw,
00:21:52I wouldn't even be concerned about lighting.
00:21:54I would be concerned about audio because audio is important,
00:21:55which is why you see all these people
00:21:57holding up microphones and stuff.
00:21:58But I would actually just be able to walk around
00:22:00doing this sort of thing
00:22:01and this would look totally reasonable.
00:22:02The thing I would still be mindful of
00:22:04is to keep the lines relatively straight
00:22:06because as soon as I do this sort of thing,
00:22:08now this, well, it looks a bit artsy,
00:22:11but generally straight lines across the board
00:22:15works very nicely
00:22:16and making sure your audio sounds reasonable,
00:22:17which you can do with a simple pair of ear pods like this.
00:22:20You know, back in the day, having like high production value,
00:22:22like something looking really good and looking professional
00:22:25was a flex and it was a thing that let you separate yourself
00:22:28from the masses of amateurs who were producing
00:22:31poor quality content with poor quality,
00:22:33like microphones and cameras and stuff.
00:22:34Right now, we're in an era where having
00:22:37less good production value is actually fine
00:22:40because it feels authentic.
00:22:42And right now we have a crisis of authenticity.
00:22:45No one knows what's real anymore.
00:22:46No one knows what's fake anymore.
00:22:47Everyone's like, oh, is this AI?
00:22:48And so we've actually found with our staff
00:22:49that if our editing is too good,
00:22:51sometimes people in the comments are like,
00:22:53oh, he's just using AI in the editing.
00:22:54Even though we're not, it's very easy for normal people
00:22:56who don't understand video editing and animation
00:22:58to think if something looks good, oh, it must be AI.
00:23:00And that means that if your brand is leaning
00:23:02into authenticity as a thing,
00:23:04you might wanna experiment with not using a camera,
00:23:06a fancy camera to film your videos.
00:23:07I know creators who deliberately like,
00:23:09who film with a fancy camera,
00:23:10but who deliberately add grain and noise to their videos
00:23:12so that it feels as if it was filmed
00:23:14with like a less fancy camera and a less fancy lens.
00:23:17There are general rules of thumb.
00:23:18You know, things like the straight lines is a rule of thumb.
00:23:20Things like eye level is a rule of thumb.
00:23:22Things like head brushing the top of the frame
00:23:24is a rule of thumb.
00:23:25But if you know what the rules are
00:23:27and you know that that's generally what is accepted
00:23:28and what's considered looking professional,
00:23:30you can then artistically and artfully break those rules.
00:23:34You could make the camera really wonky if you wanted to.
00:23:36You could do something that my friend Daniel Dalen does
00:23:38and have the camera super high
00:23:40and looking down at you from a super wide angle.
00:23:42Now this sort of breaks the laws of,
00:23:43breaks the rules of like video creation and stuff.
00:23:46And it doesn't look particularly cinematic,
00:23:48but this creates a different kind of vibe
00:23:50and creates more of a, you know,
00:23:52he's leaning into the point of view vibe.
00:23:53And so if he's like working away
00:23:55and then he's talking to the camera over there
00:23:56and he's working away, talking to the camera over there,
00:23:57like some people artistically do things like this
00:24:00to create a different vibe in their videos.
00:24:01The key thing is if you know that that's what you're doing,
00:24:03then it tends to work.
00:24:05But if you're just randomly doing it
00:24:07without knowing what the rules are or the rules of thumb are,
00:24:09then generally the thing tends to look unprofessional
00:24:11rather than artistic.
00:24:12Now, if you enjoyed this video
00:24:13and you're interested in how I set up my actual YouTube studio,
00:24:16I have a video right over here.
00:24:17So yeah, if you wanna see the process
00:24:18of exactly how that happened,
00:24:19how I turned my tiny ass Hong Kong apartment bedroom
00:24:22into like a YouTube studio that looks pretty reasonable,
00:24:24then check out that video over there.
00:24:25Thank you so much for watching, have a great time,
00:24:26and I'll see you in the next video.
00:24:27Bye bye.
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