hey friends elizabeth here from plant based bride back again with day two of plantmas and i am so
excited to continue on with our little mini series how to youtube for all of you who are content
creators or aspiring content creators yesterday we covered planning and organizing content and today
is all about filming how do i fill my videos what do i recommend what equipment do i use what do you
need to get started i'm going to cover as much of this as i can in this video keep in mind i'm
not an expert and this is just what works for me but hopefully this will work as a good jumping off
point for any of you who are either just getting started or trying to upgrade your equipment to
improve your videos here on youtube as you all know i make two main types of videos on my channel
videos that feature my face like this one and videos that are shot down towards my table for
bullet journal or art videos so i will talk about both of those in this video please keep in mind
you definitely don't need all of this equipment to get started on youtube cameras on smartphones are
good enough these days that you can literally just use your phone and some sort of tripod or stand
to get it in the position you need natural light and your phone is more than enough to
get started but if you're looking to upgrade and maybe buy a camera maybe get some lights maybe
buy a microphone hopefully i can help you today by showing you the equipment and the setup that i use
now keep in mind that this is just a snapshot in time things are ever changing i am always swapping
out for a new lens or trying a different lighting layout especially because my husband is really
into the technical side of video and has a lot of fun researching and finding new things i could try
so things are always looking slightly different especially when i move into a new space as we
did recently but the setup i'm using right now is really working for me and it's an evolved version
of something i've been using for essentially a few years at this point so hopefully this is helpful
for all of you of course if you have any questions at all as i go through my equipment and my setup
please leave those down below and i will do my best to answer as many as i can i really want this
little mini series to be as helpful as educational as possible so please don't hesitate to ask any
questions you have remember that tomorrow is all about how i edit my videos and how i make
thumbnails and day four of this little mini series is going to be all about how i make money on
youtube so without further ado let's take a peek behind the lens let's look at what i'm looking
at right now as i'm looking at you so this is my view from where i'm sitting right now borrowing
my husband's camera for this and uh spotting a little sleeping kitty over there hi yoda
so here we are and this is what i'm looking at while i'm filming my face for this video
so up here you can see this amazing setup here multiple lights two cameras we will
talk about that more as we go along and then also in front of me right here you can see my
microphone here another light right there this is where i put my ipad if i need my script for
a video or if it's sponsored or something and i need to check my brief and you might be able to
tell but behind that that desk there is where i film my bullet journal videos with that camera
that's pointing down that one is what i use to fill my table tops we will go into more detail but
i wanted you to see kind of an overview of what it looks like from my perspective while i'm filming
so let's start by looking at the main hub of equipment in my home office which is all centered
around my filming table so the filming table that i have is from ikea and just like everything that
i'm going to talk about in this video i will link as many pieces of my setup as i possibly
can in the description box you can see off to the left there i have a freestanding tripod this is
a vanguard tripod it is so versatile and very easily can hold the extreme weight of my camera
even with a prime lens on it so highly recommend this tripod it is quite good in the center there
you can see the main piece of this setup which is all mounted on a single pole attached to the desk
so this pole with the arms coming off of it these would be used to mount computer monitors
and my husband had the brilliant idea to use this as a basis to build my filming setup and
it's been really awesome this particular clamp and post came with two arms but we were able to
buy four more arms to complete this setup here starting on the left at the bottom you can see
a smaller light i use this as a fill light just to make sure that i'm getting some light coming from
the front of the desk there a little bit closer to the desk this helps a lot with shadows especially
because the only window in this room is off to the left there so there's really no light coming from
in front of the desk to kind of fill in that space hence calling this my fill light above that on
the left you can see a big light mounted on that arm pointed up towards the wall and the ceiling
which is mirrored by another light on the other side so all of these lights are falcon eyes rx
lights the two larger ones up top are falcon eyes rx12 td lights and the smaller one mounted at the
bottom there is an rx8 td i have two more of these smaller lights one i leave not attached
to anything so i can put it kind of anywhere i need to and the other small light is attached to
the mobile setup which you saw briefly earlier but we'll talk about in more detail in a little bit so
all three of these lights are mounted directly to these monitor arms the reason why the lights
are pointed at the wall and the ceiling instead of directly down at the table is just to diffuse the
light that very very bright white light bouncing off the white walls and the white ceiling helps
to kind of fill all of the space the entire room with a soft diffused light in the center we have
my two cameras mounted each on their own arm and my husband was able to buy separate ball heads
from tripods to screw onto the arms to mount the cameras on so the camera on top is a sony a600
which is my newest camera it's the camera that i typically use for filming my face and also
for getting sort of sideways angled shots in my bullet journal videos or any b-roll you see where
the camera is kind of moving around maybe at the beginning and the end of a video the reason why i
use this particular camera for that rather than my other camera is just that this newer version has
better image stabilization so it does better with any kind of moving shots and the lens that i use
with this camera is a 30 millimeter sigma lens giving you that classic out of focus background
and very sharp in focus foreground or whatever you're focusing on which is a really nice effect
for portraits on someone's face and also for getting more artsy or detailed shots so where
that top camera is mounted right now is where it sits when i film my face videos so it's actually
up quite high and it's tilted down on an angle to get a nice framing around my face when i'm sitting
in my filming chair on the other side of the room because this lens is actually quite zoomed in
i sit pretty far away from my camera when i film my face videos even though i end up looking like
i'm quite close to the camera when i'm not filming my face but am doing a bullet journal video
this camera instead of sitting up on this top ball head will actually be on the tripod in the bottom
left hand corner so i can easily move it around and adjust it to get those side angle shots so
under my sony a600 i have my tabletop camera which is my sony a6400 and the lens i'm using with this
camera right now is actually the kit lens that came with the 6600 the camera can be mounted
on the bottom as usual onto this ball head but i actually have it in a metal cage which allows
me to mount it from any side but i've chosen to mount it from the top and this is just so that
i don't have to flip the footage 180 degrees in editing and also when i'm live streaming the image
is right side up both cameras when they're in the position they are right now use dummy batteries
which are what they sound like they're a fake battery that actually just plugs into power
because i have had issues with my sony cameras overheating that used to be a really big issue
for me because i tend to film for quite a long period of time and the cameras would overheat and
turn off and i would have to wait for them to cool down to keep filming and using dummy batteries has
really helped with reducing the internal heat on the cameras and has helped a lot with that
overheating issue so i definitely would recommend if you do go the sony camera route and you're not
going necessarily with some of the newest or top end models if you do have issues with overheating
check out dummy batteries they are a lifesaver i also have a micro hdmi cable that plugs into both
cameras and connects to the yolo box which you can see on the lower white table to the right and that
is what i use for live streaming and i can also use it as a backup recorder to the right of the
cameras is a microphone and this is an akg shotgun mic with a windsock or pop filter on it and this
is the microphone i use for live streaming up until recently i was using one of my tula mics
for live streaming but we recently swapped it out for this one just because it was easier to mount
here and leave it permanently i still use my tula mic for all my voiceovers that i record sitting at
my computer including the voiceover i am recording right now that you were listening to in the future
but i will talk about equipment that has to do with the editing stage of videos in tomorrow's
video i'm not going to get sidetracked under the microphone you can see a monitor but it has been
giving us some issues unfortunately since we moved so it's actually not plugged in here i just wanted
you all to see where it normally sits the monitor usually when it is plugged in just shows what's
being recorded on my cameras this helps a lot for checking focus because sometimes the camera
screens themselves are small enough that you can't really see the details and it's especially helpful
when i'm filming my face again because i actually sit on the other side of the room i'm far enough
away that i cannot see at all if my face is in focus within the camera screen i'm just too far
away to see that kind of detail or if it's sharp or not so the monitor is a lifesaver for that
moving to the equipment off to the side there i already mentioned the yolo box which is what
i'm using for live streaming i got this pretty recently so i'm still learning how to use it
and getting my bearings but so far it is a lot more user friendly than any other method i've
used for live streaming which i am grateful for because streaming is complicated and stressful
enough so i'm very happy with this so far and this is the yolo box pro to the right of the yolo box
is my mixer which is a behringer flow eight i use this while live streaming to control
whether or not my microphone is being picked up the background music and i can control it
manually with the faders or i can use an app on my phone or my ipad to control it
it's also the interface for my speakers on my computer so that is the entire setup around my
desk where i do the majority of my filming and under the desk is 500 very well organized cables
hopefully my description of everything was clear but again if you have any questions check the
description box where everything is going to be clearly listed or pop a question in the comments
down below and i'll do my best to answer now the last thing i want to show you is this little mini
mobile setup and this is what i pull out and put in front of me when i'm filming a face video
so as you can see this is another one of those smaller falconized lights the rx8 td with a little
light box around it just to diffuse the light this i point right at my face from a little bit of a
lower angle just to light the bottom of my face since all the other lights in the room are from
a higher angle than me when i'm sitting in my filming chair it can tend to cause shadows on
my face so this just helps to light the bottom portion of my face and i usually turn it quite
low so it's not super bright in my eyes and all of this is mounted on a standard k and m tripod
mic stand then to the right you can see there's a tablet or ipad holder clamped to the mic stand and
this clamp came with this tablet holder and this is just where i put my ipad when i'm filming so
i can have my script there or information about the video when i'm doing a reading wrap up video
for example i can have my stats up there so that i can read them off i can have goodreads open so
that i can double check the review i wrote of a particular book if i can't remember what i
wanted to say that comes in super handy and then mounted above that is another microphone this is
the same type of mic as the one mounted on my desk although this one doesn't have the pop filter so
it looks a little bit different but it is another akg shotgun mic again up until very recently i was
using a tula mic mounted to this system it's just a lot easier for me when things can have
a permanent home and i'm not constantly plugging and unplugging things and switching mounts over
from one stand to another and adjusting everything just to be able to sit down and film it's really
nice to be able to leave things in their home and have dedicated equipment for different purposes
it is a privilege to be able to own multiple microphones and you know multiple lights and all
of that i'm certainly grateful that i am able to do that but you know on the other hand these are
investments that i've made into myself into my business as a self-employed creator to purchase
multiple cameras multiple microphones multiple lights to make my life easier because time is
money especially when you are the sole employee of a business when it all of the work falls on your
shoulders so for me saving that time is worth the money you may not be in a place where you want to
have multiple microphones or multiple cameras but maybe someday it will be the right choice for you
i certainly didn't for a very long time and here are some behind-the-scenes footage as well
showing me filming a tabletop bullet journal video with everything in its position you can
see that tabletop camera and my b-roll side view camera there and all my lights are lit and again
typically that monitor would be showing what i'm seeing up on the little camera screen and that's
my whole setup that's all the equipment i use for filming and this is how it is configured so i hope
that this gives you some ideas if you are trying to figure out your own setup if you're trying to
figure out how to accommodate filming in your space this is just one way to do it but this
is the happiest i have been with my filming setup pretty much ever in my entire youtube
career and i started my first youtube channel 15 years ago so that is saying something and pretty
much all of the credit goes to my husband he has figured out 99.9 of this i think the only piece of
equipment in everything that i showed you that i researched and purchased myself without his input
was the tripod it is a really good tripod though but almost everything is thanks to him and his
innovative ideas so pop a thumbs up in the comments to give some props to
the husband for being awesome and giving me the best filming setup a girl could ask for
i hope you found this video helpful thank you so much for hanging out with me for day two
of plant miss and i hope you'll come back again tomorrow for plantmas day three don't forget to
turn on notifications so you'll be notified every day when i post a new plant this video
especially because there are a few more giveaways coming up throughout plantmas scattered in there
and you definitely don't want to miss them thank you as always to my patrons for your support
i appreciate you so so much to the moon and back and with that i'm going to get going thank
you so much for watching and i'll see you really soon tomorrow for plantmas day three bye friends
hi jimmy what's up buddy boy hi hello hi julie come here buddy come here
talking talking talking looking like i'm filming a video talking to the camera
hey hello hi how's it going