I've been asked to make more content about how I'm able to produce high quality
videos or at least certain shots on a limited budget.
It's kind of difficult to answer given how much I tend to wing things
But I have a few ideas here that should help make your video production better, more fun
or at least get you thinking out-of-the-box a bit more.
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I EposVox here to make tech easier and more fun! Talking about a few ways you can improve your video b-roll
production on the cheap. I've used the taste of the expensive side of gear and materials
but I still primarily use my budget stuff.We will be covering lighting
backdrops and materials and even a couple super low budget options for actual gear.
Lighting is the most important aspect of video quality, so we'll talk about this first. Admittedly
I don't have a ton of new ideas here
just ideas that I use most regularly but most people seem to ignore. For clean lighting you can find a pack of cheap daylight LED
bulbs at your local Meijer
Walmart or hardware store these actually provide a nice actually white color temperature that looks great on camera you're seeing most of that right now
and I regularly see them on sale for an affordable price while we're on grocery runs.
Sometimes they produce the annoying LED refresh issue on camera,
but a simple shutter speed adjustment can often take care of that if you want fancy colored lighting and you can actually buy
individual colored CFL bulbs on Amazon for dirt cheap I have both a red and a blue that I use regularly
and they cost me no more than like five or six dollars on Amazon. They're often sold as party bulbs and work great for b-roll.
Alternatively of course you can to look into full Phillips Hue or LIFX home kits,
but those are quite a bit pricier. For actually holding the lamps, something like these swing arm lamps
I got from Amazon for 25 each can give you more positioning control,
but you can also just use basic clamp lamps for dirt cheap.
These can be had for five to ten dollars on Amazon or picked up at your local hardware store such as Lowe's and Home Depot.
I've seen them on sale for like a dollar apiece every once in a while a great time to stock up on them if you don't
have any. They come with a removable reflector hood, and you can use wax paper or other translucent material as diffusers.
We did this for a green screen setup and have local basement live production studio that I interned it.
Really really don't discount the value of natural lighting.
Opening window blinds or simply taking your shoot to a local park can make your videos look so much better than shooting in the same
indoors environment over and over.
More and more I've been working on making use of better backdrops and texture material for product shots.
I've collected a lot of cheap things for this colored poster board available for 69 cents from local stores.
They provide a nice clean backdrop.
Black foam boards can be used to block out light or create a nice backdrop.
White foam boards can be used to bounce light create a softer more widespread white look or just create super white backdrops.
I've also picked up a lot of placemats from stores as well as random things with neat patterns or textures -
Such as this weird metal grate thing and a wicker plate holder and so on. This can all add a dynamic element to your shots.
Similarly just generally spending more time designing your shot composition can make the world of difference in your shot looking amateur or professional.
This means adding in the extra set pieces in the background or foreground,
changing location every once in a while and so on and if you want that cliche youtuber look
I've got the fake grass bit from a local five below store for just five bucks.
Toys, comic books, clothes, candles - whatever fits your style and product focus.
These have been the biggest boon to my video quality - my only problem that I've run into is storing them without bins and creases.
Currently, I just have a tiny table below my shooting desk
but I wish I had a better system for the backdrops in the poster board
Lastly we get to budget gear options.
I actually cover a fair amount of budget gear when I can on the channel
so I will point you to the playlist for more - mics, fluid video heads, tripods -
I've reviewed a number of things that I've used and I will aim to keep reviewing more, but a couple
I haven't made a dedicated video on are the CCTV lenses
I got on Amazon less than $30 each for these little lenses in the appropriate mount for your camera. They're not tack sharp
They're not great overall, but they provide a really cool bokeh effect, which can be quite desirable for creative shooting and fancy b-roll.
Specifically there are the Helios lenses from Russia that can get quite pricey for their swirly bokeh effects.
But these Fotasy 25 millimeter f1.4 and 35 millimeter F1.7
lenses can get much similar effects for quite a bit cheaper.
They're a lot of fun and I will have dedicated videos coming on them very soon.
There's always options out there for making creative video for cheap and low budget productions
but you have to develop an eye for looking outside the box and doing things a little bit differently than you would with a big-budget
production. I hope I've helped to get you thinking a little bit on the matter if you liked the video hit the like button subscribe
for more I will have affiliate product links for most things that I've mentioned in the video description.
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