So I get the question from time to time, “What do I need to make YouTube videos?” In the past I have always had this convoluted answer that included WAY too much stuff.
My current camera is a DJI Osmo Action on a GoPro Selfie stick that has a tripod in the base.
Now I have been making videos for a while and have found, what I feel, is the perfect “location” kit that can do double duty for your studio kit in a pinch.
Videos can be made with virtually any device these days. Anything from your smart phone, to a ARRI Alexa is in use on YouTube. What I have found for me that works really well though is a good action camera. I have used GoPro cameras with great success as well as my current machine, the DJI OSMO Action. Mine is the “gen 1” camera so they are really inexpensive now, and it works great once you learn its limitations. The main things I like about this little camera is that it has the front screen to help with framing the shot and that it has REALLY good stabilization for something so small. It is so good that I don’t bother with a gimbal at all. It isn’t perfect, but it is good enough for me.
The tripod is a nice touch and I use this more than I like to admit as it is so handy. The only problem is that I still have to find a surface tall enough to set it on to get the shot I want.
This is something that lots of creators forget for some reason, batteries and lots of them, especially if you plan to shoot a lot of B roll as well as A roll. I carry at least 3 on every trip and usually more if they are charged. Batteries are cheap and you dont want to have to shut down a project to charge a dead battery…
Next thing I like to have is this little GoPro to cold shoe adapter that allows for POV recording on your camera hot shoe. This is awesome for the times when you want to share how you got the shot as well as the finished product.
Now we are done with video and the next thing we have to address is sound. No one will watch your videos if your sound is trash. It is true. Just try to do it yourself and you will see, sound is arguably more important than the video footage itself. So I learned a while back to record audio off camera with a separate recorder, this was before the on camera solutions were so prevalent and I still use it today because it works so well. This is the Zoom F1 field recorder and it comes with the lav mic in the picture. It works REALLY well and allows you to get audio when you are far from the camera as well as right up next to it. Shotgun mics that mount on the camera work great for talking to the camera footage but don’t work when you want to get a shot of you away from the camera and are still talking about what you are doing. This is why I like separated audio. It is pretty simple to sync up in the video editor too so it isn’t a problem for me to do it this way.
This is a wind muff, loving called a “dead cat” by the Rode microphone company…lol. It stops the wind noise when you are outside and softens the audio somewhat too, I love these and use them literally everywhere when recording audio. Even when I don’t need them.
Of course these are spare batteries for the recorder as it uses standard AAA batteries so I keep some in the little bag in case my rechargeables go dead before I am finished for some reason. These have saved a shoot more than once…
I bought this lens pouch off of eBay to house the “kit” so that it is a ready to go system that I can just grab when I want to work on a video. It was not very expensive at the time since it was used and works really well and since it is Thinktank Photo is even has a rain cover in the base of it! A lot of times I will wear it on my belt just to have to extra pocket it provides. It is perfect for my needs here.
Did you see or notice anything that is missing or that needs updating? Let me know! Then get your camera out and go take some photos!!!