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you only need a phone — Transcript

by Ali Abdaal · 6,462 words · 915 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00In this video, we're going to talk
0:00through how you can film yourself using
0:02just your phone. No fancy equipment, no
0:04fancy stuff. The hacks and tips and
0:06tricks that I've picked up over the last
0:078 years of being a I guess professional
0:09content creator. By the way, if you're
0:10new here, hello. My name is Ali. I'm a
0:11doctor turned entrepreneur. And since
0:122017 on this YouTube channel, I've been
0:14documenting the journey from broke
0:16medical [music] student to working
0:17full-time as a doctor including during
0:18the pandemic to now being an
0:19entrepreneur and an author. And for the
0:21last 5 years, I've been running an
0:22online community called the Part-Time
0:24YouTuber Academy where we've helped
0:25thousands of students including lots of
0:26faces and names that you probably
0:27recognize [music] start, grow, and
0:28monetize their YouTube channels. But all
0:30that said, let's get into the video.
0:33Now, whenever the lights are off, what
0:35I'm always looking for is a window. So,
0:37there is a window over here.
0:39Now, I probably don't want to film being
0:42backlit because there is a light behind
0:43me. What I'm really trying to find is
0:46I'm trying to film in a way where the
0:48light is sort of like 45° from where my
0:52face is. So, that's thing number one.
0:53Find a light source that's ideally as
0:56like big as possible. So, windows are
0:58very big lights. And ideally, they're at
1:00around 45° [music] from where you are.
1:01Principle number two is you kind of want
1:03your background to be a bit more
1:05interesting than [music] just a plain
1:06white wall. If for example, I stand
1:07here, now I've got like more stuff in
1:11the background. And if we go if we put
1:12the camera here and just go straight on,
1:14you can see over here I'm like, "Okay,
1:15this [clears throat] is another way of
1:16doing it." I've got the light directly
1:17in front of me. I generally don't like
1:19it when a light is directly in front,
1:21but over here at least the background
1:22just looks a little bit more
1:23interesting, right? And the other key
1:24principle is you always want your lines
1:26to be straight. So, if for example,
1:28Becky who's behind the camera goes wonky
1:31with the camera, you will see that this
1:32looks absolutely freaking terrible. Like
1:33it just looks super unprofessional. Like
1:35you can basically take the the same
1:36shot, you can be a bit wonky with it,
1:39and then you go straight,
1:40>> [sighs]
1:41>> and now hopefully the shot looks a lot
1:44more professional. Well, I was doing
1:45some playing around with it. If your
1:46lines are straight and you're sort of
1:48eye-level with the camera, and you're
1:50sort of your head is sort of brushing
1:51the top of the frame, that generally
1:53looks pretty that generally looks pretty
1:55reasonable. It looks pretty
1:56professional. And then we also want to
1:57appreciate what effect like tilting has.
1:59So, most mostly in cameras you can get a
2:01sort of spirit level and you want your
2:04thing to be kind of eye level. There are
2:06other ways of doing it. So, for example,
2:07if we put the camera underneath and
2:10tilted it, what that does is create
2:12allegedly create a more like powerful
2:14imposing kind of thing where I'm like
2:16speaking down to the camera.
2:17Alternatively, if we go up and look down
2:19at me, now here my camera's still
2:21theoretically brushing the top of the
2:22frame, but this looks a little bit
2:23different. Unless you're deliberately
2:24going for like the POV look that like
2:27you know that kind of vibe. Unless
2:28you're deliberately going for it, you
2:29generally want to just be eye level
2:31looking straight down the barrel of the
2:32lens with as many straight lines behind
2:35you as humanly possible without any
2:36weirdness going on in terms of like
2:38wonkifying and like tilting tilting your
2:40camera view. Now, when filming with a
2:42phone, obviously one thing you can do is
2:43you can just use the selfie camera and
2:45you can just hold it out and this is a
2:47sort of like, "Hey Becky, you know, this
2:48sort of vibe." Now, the issue with using
2:50the selfie camera is look at where my
2:53eyes are looking. I can I can totally do
2:55head brushing the top, I can totally do
2:56like you know straight lines roughly,
2:58but I'm just so tempted to look at
3:00myself. Whereas if I look at you, now
3:03hopefully that feels a lot more natural
3:04because I'm actually looking at the
3:06camera.
3:07I'm not looking at myself. There's
3:08something about looking at yourself that
3:09feels weird. So, one of the biggest
3:10signs of like kind of noobs to being
3:12creators filming with a phone for the
3:13first time, they often look at
3:14themselves when they really they should
3:15be looking at the camera and they they
3:17should be looking at the viewers.
3:18Sometimes it's not exactly obvious where
3:19the camera is, so sometimes what I do is
3:20I put my finger and I'm like, "Okay, oh
3:21that's the camera." Especially if you're
3:23filming with like the back of a phone.
3:24Here I've got the 1x camera and like
3:26sort of holding it like this. I have no
3:29idea absolutely no clue what this looks
3:30like. I don't even know which which of
3:32[music] the three cameras it is. And so,
3:34what I'm going to basically do is flip
3:35the camera around and I'm going to be
3:36like, "All right, I'm going to cover
3:37that one. Okay, it's not that one. It's
3:39not that one. Oh, it's that one. Okay,
3:40so it's the bottom right. Okay, cool."
3:41So, now I know that if I'm filming
3:43myself from this kind of perspective,
3:44I'm I need to be looking at this [music]
3:46camera right over here. Cuz if I'm
3:47looking at that one or if I'm looking at
3:49that one or if I'm looking anywhere
3:50else, it will just it'll there'll just
3:52be something about the video that feels
3:53a little bit off compared to directly
3:55looking at the camera that I know I
3:57should be looking at. And this is
3:58something that like you kind of have to
3:59train yourself [music] to do. Now if
4:00we're filming with the back of a phone
4:01handheld like this, 1x could work, but
4:03often 0.5x often looks nicer because it
4:06feels a little bit more vloggy if that
4:07makes sense. So that's like my 0.5x
4:09view. So now if I'm doing like handheld
4:11with the camera like this, I'm trying my
4:12best to just sort of generally keep it
4:14straight. You can see what this looks
4:15like. I'm trying not to be wonky with it
4:17because generally wonky looks weird,
4:19especially if you're [music] like
4:20putting doing stuff in like horizontal.
4:21And I'm making sure I'm looking at this
4:23one because I know that that is the 0.5x
4:25lens. And so hopefully this looks like
4:26relatively reasonable. And as I'm
4:28walking along and filming with my phone,
4:30I'm trying my best to be my own kind of
4:32stabilizer. If I was really trying to
4:33optimize it, I would probably I've got
4:35lights also over here. I've got
4:37reasonable background over there. I'd
4:38probably do something like this. I don't
4:40know what this looks like because I
4:41obviously can't see myself. But I just
4:42sort of know that if I've done the
4:43general principles correctly around like
4:45background, around like having a soft
4:46light. I mean, there's a big [snorts]
4:48harsh light in my face. I don't really
4:49care personally, but like whatever. I
4:51know if I'm if I've done the
4:52[clears throat] general principles
4:53right, this should look somewhat
4:55reasonable even though I've literally
4:56just whacked out my phone and I'm just
4:58talking to it without even being able to
4:59see myself. By the way, if you are
5:00interested in growing your business in
5:02platforms like Instagram, there is a
5:03wonderful little tool that my team and I
5:05have [music] been using for the last
5:06year or so. It's called Stanley and it's
5:07created by Stan who are very kindly
5:09sponsoring this [music] video. Stanley
5:10is your very own AI agent. And what it
5:12does is that it connects to your
5:13Instagram and it gives you insights into
5:15what content of yours is doing well and
5:17therefore gives you insights on how you
5:18can grow your business or your presence
5:20on Instagram. It also helps you create
5:21carousels and posts and captions in your
5:23voice. So it saves a bunch of time if
5:25for example you're posting a reel and
5:26then you're spending ages trying to
5:27figure out like what to caption it. You
5:28can just ask Stanley to write the
5:30caption in your voice and it can save
5:31you a bunch of time. And it also shows
5:33you these really useful stats like a
5:34consistency score, a growth score and a
5:36stand score that lets you see how well
5:38you're doing compared to other accounts
5:40in similar niches. So if you're
5:41interested in growing your Instagram
5:42presence, you should definitely check
5:43out Stanley. And it's created by Stan
5:45which is our recommended sort of online
5:46platform for selling anything as a
5:48creator on the internet, so you can
5:49check that out as well. And there will
5:50be links down below and on screen
5:52somewhere if you're interested in
5:53checking those things out. So, thank you
5:54Stand for sponsoring this video, and
5:55let's get back to it. To be honest,
5:56anything handheld that doesn't have
5:58stabilization generally to me doesn't
5:59look particularly professional. So, this
6:01is where tripods come in. Now, there is
6:03one tripod that I always have attached
6:05to my phone at all times. It is this
6:07Peak Design Phone Phone Tripod type
6:09situation. If you're doing like a zoom
6:11call or reading a book at a coffee shop,
6:13it's kind of nice to just be able to do
6:14this and not have and can be able to go
6:16hands-free. Or if you want to film
6:18horizontally, you just like boom, and
6:20now you have this sort of situation
6:22where you can prop your phone up. The
6:23issue with using a tripod on the phone
6:24with a selfie camera is that you're
6:25going to you're almost always going to
6:27end up with the situation where, you
6:29know, the the phone is looking up at
6:30you, right? Because, you know, this is
6:32not this is not following the rule of
6:33eye level. It's not too bad. There's
6:35something about this that can still look
6:37quite professional. You don't give
6:38yourself too much headroom. Like this
6:39looks terrible and it looks very
6:40unprofessional because I've given myself
6:42too much headroom. Similarly, I don't
6:44want to cut my headroom off. Obviously,
6:45this looks weird. This looks like some
6:46sort of secret filming for some sort of
6:47dodgy interrogation. But if I do
6:49something like this, where I've got just
6:51enough headroom to for this to seem
6:52reasonable, even though I'm a pro at
6:53this, it's still very tempting for me to
6:54look at myself rather than to look at
6:56you directly through the camera. You, my
6:58dear viewer, thank you for thank you for
6:59being still here in the video. I hope
7:00it's valuable. I hope it's kind of
7:01useful. And if I try and get this as
7:03like eye level as I possibly can and
7:04make sure I'm looking at the camera, you
7:06know what? This doesn't look too bad
7:08even though I'm just using a basic ass
7:10magnetic phone tripod that you can get
7:12on Amazon. You can get cheap knockoffs
7:13on Amazon for like $5 or something, and
7:15you can just always have it with you at
7:16all times, which means you're always
7:17able to film stuff on your phone. If I
7:19wanted to level this up a bit and I
7:20didn't have an actual tripod on me, what
7:21I might do is I'm going to be be like,
7:23"Okay, are there any books or is there
7:24You know what? Let's grab this freaking
7:26box of tissues
7:28>> [laughter]
7:28>> and use the box of tissues as a bit of a
7:29tripod so that if I stick the phone on
7:31top of the box of tissues, will that
7:33allow me to be a bit more eye level?
7:34Possibly. Actually, it's not too bad.
7:36That's not too bad. Can I go even
7:38straighter if I even further twizzle and
7:40tweak this little tripod? Yeah, that's
7:42pretty straight. Okay, nice.
7:44And hopefully this also doesn't seem too
7:47bad. I have to worry about like shake
7:49because I know this box of tissues has
7:50not got much like stabilization on it.
7:51But I mean, for the most part this
7:53doesn't actually look too bad. Phones
7:54even with just the basic ass selfie
7:56camera these days are actually pretty
7:58[music] good. What happens if I try and
7:59switch to the proper camera? I'm trying
8:01to roughly get where I think the shot is
8:04going to be using the 1X lens. So, you
8:05can see on my Apple Watch I can see
8:07exactly what's going on. And wow, that
8:09actually worked relatively reasonably.
8:11Oh, I think my head's being too cut off.
8:13And so, I'd want to
8:15either lean forward. Is this reasonable?
8:17Have I got something reasonable going
8:18on? Okay, this actually doesn't look too
8:20bad because I've done sensible things
8:21like, you know, I'm looking at the
8:23camera. Hopefully the lines are a kind
8:25of somewhat straight. In terms of the
8:26background like there's a lot of stuff
8:28going on in the background, which means
8:29the background is just kind of
8:30interesting compared to sitting against
8:32a wall.
8:34And I just do it like this. Oh my god,
8:36this box of tissues isn't going to fall.
8:38I suspect this looks a lot less
8:40interesting than the previous shot. And
8:41this is actually a mistake I see a lot
8:42of our like Lifestyle Business Academy
8:44or Part-Time YouTuber Academy students
8:45making. They think that in order for a
8:47shot to look professional, it should
8:48have nothing in there. But nothing in a
8:50shot I mean, even like even this is kind
8:52of interesting cuz there's a whiteboard.
8:53If I were to go even even less
8:54interesting and just like have it
8:56straight up against a wall like I see a
8:58lot of people film. This is the sign of
9:01a total noob as it comes as it relates
9:02to being a creator where you're like I
9:04am going to be professional and
9:05therefore I'm going to film with nothing
9:07at all behind me. But this sort of feels
9:08like either you are some kind of teacher
9:10and you're filming like I don't know,
9:12you the first time you've ever filmed a
9:13video lesson because it's the pandemic
9:15and you're like, I need to film video
9:16lessons for my students and you decide
9:17to have an empty wall. Or you're on some
9:18kind of interrogation or doing some sort
9:20of like interview. Even though this is a
9:21shitty background, I do whatever I can
9:23to make the shot look reasonable, but
9:24it's still, you know, it's just much
9:25nicer when you have something in the
9:26background. Speaking of, this is also
9:28generally why I don't like to shoot
9:30straight on against a wall. I like to
9:32shoot an oblique kind of angle because
9:35if we go back to yeah,
9:37this sort of thing. This is sort of
9:38shooting into a corner. Shooting into a
9:40corner will just make your background
9:41more interesting than shooting straight
9:42on. If you're shooting straight on, then
9:44the background
9:45I mean, it obviously can still be
9:47interesting, but you just get a lot of
9:48interestingness vibes by just shooting
9:49into a corner, making sure you're
9:50looking at the camera, making sure the
9:52camera making sure the lines are as
9:53straight as they can be, [music] and
9:54making sure your head is just about
9:55brushing the top of the frame.
9:58Now, one thing that I actually forgot to
9:59do was
10:01uh changing the frames per second of the
10:03phone. For stuff to look cinematic, most
10:06movies are shot in either 24 or 25
10:08frames per second. But, iPhone footage
10:10and phone footage in general is often
10:11shot at 30. So, it makes it look just a
10:13little bit more smooth than you would
10:16expect it to look if you were watching
10:17something legit on TV. And so, in
10:18general, if you want your your footage
10:20to look a little bit more cinematic, you
10:22switch it to either 24 or 25 frames per
10:25second. I think this video that we're
10:26exporting is going to be in 25 frames
10:28per second anyway, so maybe you didn't
10:29quite notice the difference, but that's
10:30often one tell of like, oh, it was shot
10:32with a phone, which is that it's a
10:33little smoother than you would expect it
10:35to [music] be. So, if in doubt, switch
10:36your phone to 25 frames per second,
10:38which I personally forgot to do. Some
10:39people often ask the question of like,
10:40oh, should I film in like cinematic
10:42mode, or should I film in like
10:44professional mode, or should I film in
10:45like raw mode, and any of this sort of
10:46stuff? And my take is that if you're a
10:48beginner creator and you're doing video
10:50for the first time, don't worry about
10:52any of that stuff. You can just film
10:53things using the default camera app on
10:55your phone, and you don't need to think
10:56about it. Once you've made a few dozen
10:57to a few hundred videos, and you really
10:59think that like shooting log or whatever
11:01is going to drastically level up your
11:03production value, or if you're not just
11:05doing talking head camera videos, or you
11:07particularly want to make it give it a
11:08particular kind of cinematic look, then
11:10yes, you could film in like whatever the
11:12iPhone raw ProRes video file is. For
11:14most people I speak to who are doing
11:16basic educational content to try and
11:18either build a personal brand or try to
11:19try and drive leads to a business to
11:21make some money, all of that is
11:22massively overkill, and so you don't
11:23need a lot of that stuff unless you're
11:25actively interested in the art of like
11:26color grading. Phones these days have a
11:28lot of different focal lengths. So, if
11:30Becky were to be my tripod, um, let's do
11:330.5x
11:34uh using the general idea that my my my
11:37head is brushing the top of the frame.
11:38Okay, so you'll notice that the camera
11:40is very close to me. It's like I could
11:42basically touch it with my hand. I
11:43suspect what this does is that it makes
11:44it feel like you and I are very close
11:46together. The closer the camera is to
11:48you, the more intimate an experience
11:49it's going to feel for the person on the
11:51other end. So, what happens if we switch
11:52to the 1x lens?
11:55Okay, so we we've switched to the 1x
11:57lens. I I would have to really reach out
11:59to like lean forward and reach out to
12:01touch the camera. Now, even though we've
12:02we can try our best to make the
12:04uh the framing look similar to the 0.5x
12:07lens, there's something about this that
12:09will feel a little bit less intimate
12:10than the 0.5x lens. The 0.5x lens really
12:13feels like sort of we're up close and
12:15personal. I think the 1x lens on an
12:16iPhone is a 24 mm, which is sort of like
12:18YouTuber classic kind of vibes. And so,
12:21you know, this probably looks totally
12:22reasonable. Okay, so now we've switched
12:23to the 2x zoom. Now, I think this is
12:26sort of like what a 50 mil equivalent or
12:28like like whatever, but basically the
12:29camera's so far away from me. It's like
12:30miles away. Well, it's not miles away,
12:32but it's like a couple of meters away
12:32from me. I could there's no way I can
12:34reach out and touch the camera. This is
12:36what more of a This gives you more of
12:38like a presenter kind of feel. If you
12:40think of what the news looks like, a
12:41newsreader does not feel like a
12:42YouTuber. A newsreader feels like the
12:44camera's miles away and they're reading
12:46the news and they're sort of presenting
12:47the news. Even though the framing could
12:49be identical and my my my head is still
12:50brushing the top of the frame and I
12:51still look relatively the same
12:53the same size. Everything is sort of
12:54sufficiently sort of zoomed in so that
12:58it feels like this is more of a
12:59presenter. If we go 4x, it's going to be
13:00even more like zoomed in than that, but
13:02there's literally not enough space in
13:03this in this room to do a 4x kind of
13:05zoom. I generally prefer the vibe of
13:08feeling like I can reach out of of being
13:10able to reach out and touch the camera.
13:11So, if I'm filming with a phone, I would
13:13prefer to film with the 1x lens or even
13:15the 0.5x. It feels like a more friendly
13:17relationship with the viewer on the
13:18other end, rather than this, which feels
13:20like I'm a presenter doing a
13:22presenting-y type thing. Now, again,
13:23because we're filming with a phone, we
13:24don't have to think too hard about the
13:25lighting. The phone will compensate for
13:26most of the lighting, but as long as
13:27we're doing sensible things, head
13:29brushing the top of the frame, the lines
13:30are straight, there's something vaguely
13:31interesting going on in the background
13:32so it doesn't look like I'm shooting
13:33against a wall like I'm being
13:34interrogated by the police or something,
13:36then we should be fine and it should
13:37look relatively okay.
13:39Okay, one thing we have not talked about
13:40at all is audio. So, right now I am
13:43recording audio using this microphone
13:44over here, which is attached to the
13:46camera that Becky is using to film. The
13:48camera is a Sony ZVE1 and this is like
13:50one of these little
13:53things that connect up to the camera. Um
13:56back in the day, a few years ago, these
13:58like little pocket microphone things
14:01were either very hard to find or were
14:03super expensive. And so you had to do
14:04elaborate setups like shotgun mics and
14:06all that kind of stuff like you see on
14:07TV. Now I'm going to show you what the
14:08difference in audio is like. So, for
14:10this entire video so far we've actually
14:11been using the audio from this
14:12microphone, which hopefully sounds like
14:14reasonable enough that if you're
14:16watching at this point in the video you
14:17haven't switched off. Basically, the
14:18main factor when it comes to audio is
14:19how close is the microphone to your
14:21mouth. This microphone is very close to
14:23my mouth and so the audio should
14:24hopefully sound reasonable. So, this is
14:26what audio from the iPhone sounds like
14:27when we were at the 2x lens zoom, so
14:29when the iPhone was miles away from me.
14:31I could There's no way I can reach out
14:32and touch the camera. This is what more
14:34of a This gives you more of like a
14:35presenter kind of feel. As you can hear,
14:38that sounds absolutely terrible. [music]
14:39Now, if we bring the iPhone quite a lot
14:40closer and we use the 1x lens, this is
14:42what the audio sounds like. This is the
14:44sign of a total noob as it comes as it
14:46relates to being a creator where you're
14:47like, "I am going to be professional and
14:50therefore I'm going to film with nothing
14:52at all behind me." And now if we bring
14:53the iPhone even closer and we have it at
14:550.5x [music] distance, so it's like
14:57right up close and personal, this is
14:58what the audio sounds like. The closer
14:59the camera is to you, the more intimate
15:01an experience it's going to feel for the
15:03person on the other end. So, hopefully
15:04you can hear from that example that like
15:05the closer the iPhone is to me,
15:07>> [music]
15:07>> the better the audio in the iPhone is
15:09going to sound. So, if you happen to be
15:10filming with just a phone or just a
15:12camera and you don't have some kind of
15:14external microphone, there is a lot of
15:16value in just using 0.5x and having
15:18[clears throat] the having the
15:19microphone or the audio as close to you
15:21as humanly possible because [music] in
15:22general audio quality is more important
15:24than video quality. People wouldn't mind
15:26sitting through poor video quality, but
15:28very few people will sit through bad
15:29audio quality. So, anyway, audio is the
15:31most important thing. I always carry
15:33these like ear ear pods with me. You
15:35know, the old-school wired Apple
15:36[clears throat]
15:37headphones cuz you never know when you
15:39might need some reasonable sounding
15:40audio. Uh but here I'm going to record a
15:42voice memo using just this, you know, I
15:43I it it it it it feel it feels a little
15:45a little Gen Z to be holding up a you
15:48know, a wired thing like this.
15:49Hopefully, if we've done this right,
15:50this audio should actually sound pretty
15:51good because the microphone is very
15:53close to my mouth. And yeah, I'm holding
15:56up a microphone, but like, you know,
15:57there's something cool and retro about
15:58it these days. Uh I would rather do this
16:00than have really bad audio. What you can
16:02also do if you really care about audio,
16:03and sometimes I do this if I'm filming
16:06out and about,
16:06>> [music]
16:06>> is like literally
16:08carry a proper microphone with you. Why
16:11would you bother carrying a proper
16:12microphone with you? I could totally
16:14record audio with just this microphone
16:15over here. But if you are willing to
16:16carry a laptop around, you can plug a
16:19microphone into a laptop. So, this is
16:21now a voice memo I'm recording on my
16:22MacBook with this microphone plugged in.
16:24Now, the reason I sometimes do this is
16:26for the vibes, right?
16:29This here is the Mantis Pod. I quite
16:31like it. Um I've had it for I've had
16:33I've had it for a few years. Uh the
16:34Mantis Pod also has this sort of like
16:36iPhone
16:37iPhone tripod attachment. So, like, I
16:40don't want to deal with like the box of
16:41tissues and stuff. So, I'm actually just
16:42going to set up my phone on a
16:44legit-looking tripod. Okay, so I'm just
16:46going to use the selfie camera over
16:47here. Now, what I'm trying to do is set
16:49up the shot so that it looks reasonable.
16:50This is not reasonable because the lines
16:51are not straight. This looks like the
16:52most amateur thing you've ever seen in
16:54your life, right? It looks It looks
16:55horrendous. The reason it looks
16:56horrendous horrendous is cuz the lines
16:57are not straight. So, what I'm doing is
16:58as I'm like tweaking the leveling of
17:01this tripod so that that line over there
17:04is the same sort of angle as sort of
17:06like the edge of the iPhone. So, on an
17:08iPhone, you have straight lines. You
17:09have that line over there, and you have
17:10that line over there. These are straight
17:11lines. If there's wonkiness,
17:13you look at the angle between that line
17:15and that line, there's an angle. That
17:17means it's not straight. Whereas, like,
17:18what would be straight? Well, that looks
17:21more more straight cuz you can see that
17:23that line on the wall, this line over
17:25here
17:26is kind of like lining up with like the
17:29edge of the iPhone. Now, obviously, if
17:30you like pan or tilt and stuff, you can
17:32sort of get the illusion of
17:33straightness, but like straight is what
17:34I'm going for. Straight is the the the
17:36primary thing I go for because that's
17:37the primary thing that people
17:38subconsciously look at when they are
17:40deciding like how professional something
17:42looks. And what I'm trying to do is
17:43[music]
17:44create a kind of foreground element
17:47using my laptop and using this
17:49microphone. It just makes the shot a
17:50little bit more interesting. Part of why
17:52I have this like colorful dbrand skin on
17:53my laptop, which we designed in
17:54collaboration with dbrand, it's the
17:55pallet skin, is because this splash of
17:58color in the foreground makes anything
18:00look nicer in my opinion. At least
18:02that's kind of the vibe the vibe that I
18:03go for. And so, when I do this sort of
18:05thing, I'm like I'm I'm spending a
18:07while. I I say, "Well, it's it's not
18:09that long." I'm spending some amount of
18:10time making sure that the laptop looks
18:12reasonable. Now, right now, this doesn't
18:13look right because it it sort of looks
18:14like the laptop screen is just coming
18:16out of thin air because you can't
18:17actually see the laptop thingy. I also
18:19have quite a lot of headroom. Maybe if
18:21we go down a little bit over here,
18:24something. Okay.
18:26That
18:28That's not too bad.
18:29Um I do have the effect of like the
18:31camera's looking down on me a little bit
18:32like this, but I don't think that's too
18:34much of a problem.
18:35All of this is about tradeoffs. I'm
18:36like, where can I position the laptop so
18:37it looks reasonable? Where can I
18:38position the microphone so it looks
18:39reasonable? I'm in a random room, the
18:41worst conference room in terms of
18:42lighting and in terms of decor in this
18:44entire building, but this shot hopefully
18:46doesn't look too bad and hopefully it
18:48doesn't sound too bad because I'm
18:49recording the audio from here directly.
18:51I've got this in the back in in the
18:52foreground. You know what? Should I put
18:53it over here just to make it more
18:54interesting cuz we've got that that
18:55plant is interesting. Yeah, you know
18:56what? it. That plant is
18:57interesting, so I want to put this here
18:59so it looks reasonable. Now, if I was
19:01shooting an entire YouTube video like
19:02this, this is actually totally
19:03reasonable. I have my phone on a tripod.
19:05You can get a cheap ass tripod if you
19:06want. I'm literally connected my laptop
19:08to like a my you know, you probably have
19:10a laptop. You can get a cheap microphone
19:11that you connect it to. This is why I
19:12generally like microphones that look
19:14nice because, you know, it it's part of
19:16like the look of the shot even if there
19:18are microphones out there that sound a
19:19little bit better. But, you can totally
19:20imagine having an entire filming setup
19:22and building an entire YouTube channel
19:23just off of filming a video like this.
19:25Filming with a phone, just using the
19:27selfie camera, recording audio on my
19:29laptop with a microphone, and this looks
19:31totally reasonable. The lines are more
19:33or less straight. I'm looking I'm
19:34attempting to look at the lens and and
19:35and not just looking at myself. The
19:37background is like fine. The lighting
19:38really, really sucks. This would be like
19:40it's going top down, it's yellow, it's
19:42horrendous. What happens if [music] I
19:44turn the light off? Maybe actually that
19:45looks a little bit better cuz the iPhone
19:46will compensate for poor lighting. It
19:48will add some noise to the recording.
19:51Some people would say that this looks a
19:52little bit better.
19:53Do I agree? Do I think this looks
19:54better? Yeah.
19:56Versus actually having the light on.
19:58There's much more harsh shadows on my
19:59face. Whatever. I think this is fine.
20:01So, if I was recording videos for one of
20:02my courses or even for the main channel
20:04or for anything I'm doing, this would
20:05actually be a totally reasonable setup.
20:07And we've seen that there's there's
20:08there's nothing fancy about this. I
20:09don't have any fancy lights. I'm not
20:10even using the fancy camera. I don't
20:12have a fancy microphone. I'm just making
20:13do with what I happen to have in my bag
20:14and the shot looks relatively okay. If I
20:16didn't even have one of these
20:17microphones, but I had a spare laptop on
20:19me or I had a spare phone or whatever,
20:20then I can totally just plug this thing
20:22in and hide it hide this earphones in
20:25under my top. And now I have relatively
20:27reasonable sounding audio. Of course, if
20:28I just wanted to straight up plug this
20:30into the iPhone, I could do that as
20:31well. Uh the iPhone is a little bit far
20:32away right now. So, I think with this
20:35focal length,
20:37maybe I can't reach. Actually, no, I
20:39kind of can. To be honest, if I didn't
20:40have any of this and I just plugged
20:43these these EarPods into my iPhone. I'm
20:45just like holding it up like this. This
20:47is like a super low-tech setup that
20:49anyone can do with just their phone and
20:51a cheap tripod or just propping up the
20:52phone on a bunch of books using one of
20:54these like magnetic tripods. Or if you
20:55don't have a tripod, you prop it up on
20:57some books or a tissue box, you stick a
20:58mug or a glass behind it, and you sort
21:00of prop up your phone against the mug or
21:02the glass, and you can get a setup that
21:04looks totally reasonable. Gear is not an
21:05excuse to not be doing content if the
21:07thing you're trying to do for your
21:08business or for your life or for your
21:09side hustle involves doing content to
21:11some degree. If you're doing vertical
21:12content, this becomes a totally
21:14reasonable setup for filming like
21:16Instagram reels or something and giving
21:17myself enough headroom.
21:19But generally when it comes to vertical
21:20content, people are much more forgiving
21:21of poor production value. When it comes
21:23to vertical content like right now, I'm
21:25not looking at you, I'm looking at
21:26myself. But if I look at you through the
21:28lens, it just looks a little bit nicer.
21:29So if you're doing Instagram reels, if
21:30you're doing TikToks, if you're doing
21:31YouTube shorts, there is something to be
21:32said for like lower production value
21:34filmed with just a phone in a way
21:35feeling more authentic than doing it
21:38properly. It kind of depends on what
21:39brand you're going for. Like most of my
21:40Instagram reels, we film properly with a
21:42proper camera and we have fancy editing
21:43on them because that is kind of one of
21:44our unfair advantages that we can lean
21:45into. But certainly if I was like trying
21:47to do content and I wanted to I I wanted
21:49to feel natural, I wanted to feel raw, I
21:52wouldn't even be concerned about
21:53lighting. I would be concerned about
21:54audio because audio is important, which
21:55is why you see all these people holding
21:57up microphones and stuff. But I would
21:58actually just be able to walk around
22:00doing this sort of thing and this would
22:01look totally reasonable. The thing I
22:02would still be mindful of is to keep the
22:04lines relatively straight because as
22:06soon as I do this sort of thing, now
22:08this well,
22:10it looks a bit artsy, but
22:11>> [laughter]
22:12>> generally straight lines
22:14straight lines across the board works
22:15very nicely and making sure your audio
22:16sounds reasonable, which you can do with
22:18a simple pair of AirPods like this. You
22:20know, back in the day, having like high
22:21production value, like something looking
22:23really good and looking professional was
22:25a flex and it was a thing that let you
22:27separate yourself from the mass masses
22:29of amateurs who were producing poor
22:31quality content with poor quality like
22:33microphones and cameras and stuff. Right
22:34now, we're in an era where having less
22:38good production value is actually fine
22:40because it feels authentic. And right
22:42now we have a a crisis of authenticity.
22:45No one knows what's real anymore, no one
22:46knows what's fake anymore. Everyone's
22:47like, "Oh, is this AI?" And so we've
22:48actually found with our stuff that if
22:50our editing is too good, sometimes
22:51people in the comments are like, "Oh,
22:52he's just using AI in the editing." Even
22:54though we're not, it's very easy for
22:55normal people who don't understand video
22:57editing and animation to think if
22:58something looks good, oh it must be AI.
23:00And that means that if your brand is
23:02leaning into authenticity as a thing,
23:04you might want to experiment with not
23:05using a camera, a fancy camera to film
23:07your videos. I know creators who
23:08deliberately like who film with a fancy
23:09camera but who deliberately add grain
23:11and noise to their videos so that it
23:13feels as if it was filmed with like a
23:15less fancy camera and a less fancy lens.
23:17There are general rules of thumb. You
23:18know, things like the straight lines is
23:20a rule of thumb. Things like eye level
23:22is a rule of thumb. Things like head
23:23brushing the top of the frame is a rule
23:25of thumb. But if you know what the rules
23:26are and you know that that's generally
23:28what is accepted and what what's
23:29considered looking professional, you can
23:30then artistically and artfully break
23:33those rules. You could make the camera
23:35really wonky if you wanted to. You could
23:37do something that my friend Daniel
23:38Deilenn does and have the camera super
23:39high and looking down at you from a
23:41super wide angle. Now this sort of
23:42breaks the laws of breaks the rules of
23:44like video creation and stuff and it
23:46doesn't look particularly cinematic. But
23:48this creates a different kind of vibe
23:50and creates more of a, you know, he's
23:52leaning into the point of view vibe. And
23:53so if he's like working away and then
23:55he's talking to the camera over there
23:56and he's working away talking to the
23:57camera over there. Like some people
23:58artistically do things like this to
24:00create a different vibe in their videos.
24:01The key thing is if you know that that's
24:03what you're doing, then it it tends to
24:04work. But if you're just randomly doing
24:06it without knowing what the rules are or
24:08the rules of thumb are, then generally
24:09the thing tends to look unprofessional
24:11rather than artistic. Now if you enjoyed
24:12this video and you are interested in how
24:14I set up my actual YouTube studio, I
24:15have a video right over here. So yeah,
24:17if you want to see the process of
24:18exactly how that happened, how I turned
24:19my tiny ass Hong Kong apartment bedroom
24:22into like a YouTube studio that looks
24:23pretty reasonable, then check out that
24:24video over there. Thank you so much for
24:25watching. Have a great time and I'll see
24:26you in the next video. Bye-bye.

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