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Video Transcript: So there is lots of equipment out there. I mean there is lots of equipment. Just like the world these days is all about choice, there are heaps of different levels of video cameras and audio equipment and things like that to use. The most important thing is really to be honest with yourself and ask yourself what do you actually need? For the kind of productions I do, I need a prosumer, like a higher end camera, those are the things I need because that’s what my clients need and that’s the kind of thing I need to do.
If you’re doing things where you’re doing Dave’s style where he’s constantly giving out information about his products and services and things like that, you might not need this because this takes a bit of time to set up. It takes time to capture, it’s not as fast turn around in terms of a workflow. Wherever you’re at and what the type of thing you’re looking to do with video will dictate the type of equipment that you need. Grow with it, add it as you evolve and as your tastes and desires and audience expectations change, get the video production equipment to match that.
Avoid technology paranoia. What I mean by that is, and everyone I guarantee goes through this in whatever thing you’re into, it’s like, I don’t think I’ll get that because there’s that new one coming out soon. There’s the new iPhone coming out and it’s got this and it’s got that. There’s a new camera coming out and it’s got better audio and it’s got a better image and all that kind of thing. That’s always going to happen. It’s the same with computers, everything gets superseded. So jump in, start using the equipment that you have now, become an expert with that and then when the next thing comes out, you’ll be ready for it.
Finally, don’t blame it on the video production equipment. It’s always about the story, guys, it’s the content. That first video I showed you, one of the first ones Dave ever did, 36,000 views. That was shot on a computer screen, it’s not the most amazing video but the content in it is fantastic. It’s a good story. Equipment is great but content is the king.
So what do you really need? Now I’m just going to quickly run through these. These days you can shoot a video on an iPhone. I was discussing with Stu, he’s our superman at the end of the room there, about the iPhone 4, the video and the iPhone 4 is HD now. You can edit in the camera, it can be a very effective thing to use, if that’s the kind of thing you need. Just say you’re at a conference or something and you want to do a quick interview with someone or you’re walking around and you’re, here I am or whatever, unboxing a product or something like that.
David: Did any one see, I posted something on YouTube the other day, what I eat for breakfast? I eat pieces of rubbish for breakfast. You should watch that video, it’s pretty funny, but I recorded that on my iPhone. It wasn’t an iPhone4 it was an iPhone 3. So if you want to see what I eat for breakfast, watch it.
Ben: Yes, Will it Blend, that’s going to be Dave’s next thing. Now there are these other thing. Has anyone heard of these, Flip cameras, the Kodak Zi8? They’re really small HD cameras that are really good, they give a really good image. They have some more automatic functions, you can’t change white balance and things like that. Again, those are more sophisticated things but you can get a whole lot of great content out of these small cameras.
The advantage of something like this one, this is different, this is a Creative, they have an external mike jack, so you can put a different microphone in, such as this one here. The Flips now, I’ve just found out, the new ones have a different bottom so you can put in a USB microphone and get a better quality audio. I’ll go into audio in a second, I’m a real stickler about audio.
These ones, the disadvantage of these video production equipment, when you’re holding them, we’re not all surgeons. People’s hands shake, it’s hard to keep a steady image. Most of them have a little spot for a little tripod. If you’re doing something where you’re presenting something to camera, it’s good to put it on a tripod, or even walking around, preferably something that is a bit steady. Unless you’re going for that thing of, here I am walking down the street and wow, look at that, wow, there’s the Eiffel Tower. Again, it’s that context, what you need for the actual job. These are only $200, these are really good things, you’ll get a great bit of vision out of those.
Question: They’ve got exceptional low light performance relative to their price. So they work in almost all situations. They’re very good outside but they’re also good in a low light room.
Ben: Yes, they are. They’re also improving all the time. They have auto white balance. The zoom function on them isn’t fantastic if you need to be zooming in and out, but think about what you need.
Handycam, hands up, most people have a Handycam these days. These are amazing these days. They’re HD, they’re usually on a hard drive. I don’t think Dave’s ever deleted anything. He’s got a sixty Gig hard drive and it’s just like videos and videos.
Dave: You never know when you’re going to make a movie about you, so it’s good to keep all the footage.
Ben: These days they’re well priced, they’re always coming down in price and improving in their quality. It seems that video image has been evolving faster than the audio in most cameras. So the inbuilt mikes on these things aren’t great, so what you want to use, and I’ll talk about audio more, but an external microphone of any kind, whether it plugs in or it’s something like this which I’ll talk about in a sec. These are very effective, they’re a bit more stable because they’re a bit heavier, they fit on those tripods and they’re a really effective thing to use as well. They’re good in low light as well, most of them are.
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