Equipment, Want vs. Need
Ahhh, the age old story: “I just need to get this last piece of equipment and then I can finally do what I wanted to do.”
We see this on set probably more than anything, people want to create but they are paralyzed by analysis of their current set up. They don’t like their audio, video, lighting, ect. So instead of starting, they just start planning, and continue planning then life happens, rinse and repeat.
This can be one of the more difficult things in filming, especially self filming. People are obsessed with making things perfect. I often think of Vince Lombardi saying “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
To me this message is clear, you can never be perfect, you will never have the perfect set up, even as a professional media company there is equipment even better than ours out there! RED cameras costing upwards of $40,000, fancy lights that cost 5x what our lights cost, ect. ect. We could go on and on about things that could help us improve, but guess what.
There are TikTok influencers out there with nothing but a cell phone making millions of dollars per year, they did not let their equipment hinder their production in the slightest. However you just need to find the method to make your equipment work the best for you. We wanted to share a few tips with basic equipment, a cell phone and how you can build and scale just with the one device most people have in their pocket.
Use lighting, don’t film in a dark dingy space, use a big window, go outside, do something that brings light into the camera because this will make your image multiple times better.
Download some free editing software, you can edit out all your nervous ticks, your “uhms” and everything else and stitch the video together.
Speak clearly, we all know phone microphones are not the best sometimes, so it is important to be clear and concise when you are recording.
Use the back camera, now I understand using the back camera can be difficult because you can’t see yourself, but it is significantly higher megapixels than your front camera and will clean up the image even more.
Add subtitles when posting, there are many studies out there you can look up, but subtitles are huge for user engagement, many programs like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook will have an auto caption option, this is better than nothing even if it isn’t the most accurate.
Have a plan! We do not go to any filming without a plan or vision, you need the same, when you have a plan the content comes together and you are much more confident in your delivery.
Three things that really help users relate are: using comedy, giving valuable information, and analogies for complex subjects to break it down. Learn other things you can relate to in order to make your content understandable by many different people.
Lastly, post regularly. For video content I like 2-3x per week, and as far as business and growth every 3-5th post should have a call to action in it. Maybe you want to call attention to something you believe in, maybe you want to get extra business, don’t ask every single time, it gets redundant. But be strategic with it.
These are all simple steps you can use to create really great content without breaking the bank or getting hung up on equipment. Stay tuned for next weeks blog, as we will be going over equipment upgrades and how to slowly scale as you start building income.
