Myth #4- “I need to buy a lot of equipment to start making my own videos.”
In this series, I wanted to showcase some of the big myths around creating videos for your business and help you to see some of the different ways you can start your journey to creating them.
In my previous blog posts I shared some insights on how to keep your video quality high and your costs low for promo videos, but now let’s switch our focus to content videos you can do on your own for social media!
Oftentimes, when I speak with business owners, they believe they can’t start creating their video content because they don’t have a professional camera.
A professional camera does always help with high-quality content but we are now blessed with incredible cameras within our devices that we keep in our pockets – our phones!
Bear in mind that ever-changing and rapidly upgrading technology trends are aimed at making us spend money.
Every few months (if not weeks) there’s a new camera coming out, that’s supposedly much better than the previous one.
However, it’s not about what you have – it’s about how you use it.
You can make some amazing content videos with the mobile phone you already have.
Some of the best phone cameras around include the iPhone 11 Pro with a triple-lens camera, the Google Pixel 4, and the Galaxy Note 10 Plus – all of which have excellent camera quality for you to record your videos on.
These are perfect for creating quick clips you can post on your social media whilst maintaining a good quality of your content and creating the right impression.
How to create a top-notch video with your phone:
- Invest in a tripod. Making sure your filming is stable and doesn’t cause any feelings of travel sickness for your viewers will make your videos look much more professional. There are many on the market, including ones that enable you to walk whilst you talk without wobbling.
- Have your source of light in front of you. Lighting is one of the major factors that influence the quality of your image. Lenses are super sensitive to light and interpret it differently from our eyes. Make sure your source of light is in front of you, not above, behind or on the side, to ensure you look your best and not tired or ill.
- Look at the camera, not yourself. We all want to make sure we look our best whilst filming, but when we look at ourselves in the videos, we don’t pull in the viewer through eye contact.
- Make sure your camera is at your eye level or slightly (but only just slightly!) above. You want to create a sense of conversation where both sides are equal, so looking down or up at your audience wouldn’t have the desired effect. Looking straight into their eyes and being subconsciously on the same level creates a much better connection with the viewers.
- Be sure you’re not too close to the screen nor too far away. Think about the type of interaction you’re trying to create with your video. If it’s an intimate conversation, you’ll want to be relatively close to the camera. (My top tip – keep it at an arm’s length, that’s just about the right distance for a conversation size of your shot.) If it’s a presentation to a large audience, then you’ll want to be a bit further away as if you were in a room seen from a little bit further away. Just not too far.
- Plant your feet firmly on the floor to give you a sense of feeling “grounded” – this will help you to feel balanced and concentrated while you’re delivering your message and will give you more support to make sure you sound even more confident.
- Keep your background simple. Let the viewers focus on you, not your surroundings! Unless you are creating content for specific services such as interiors, or design, you want to be the main feature in your films. This isn’t to say you can’t show off your personal style in your home or office, but keep it neutral and with minimal distractions around you.
Check out this simple infographic I created to help you keep these tips in mind:
I hope this shows you that it truly is possible to start filming your business videos, and you don’t need to have a professional camera to get started.
So grab your phone and try out my tips now!
Compare them with any videos you’ve made in the past and notice the difference.
If you feel like they would be videos you would happily watch then go for it! Upload them to social media (and tag @ufocuspro – I’d love to see your results!)
If you’re feeling a bit shy or if you have any questions at all, feel free to get in touch! Send me a message anytime at: hello@ufocuspro.com