a lot of times we make vlogging a lot more complicated than it needs to be today I want
to walk you through the basics of the equipment you need how to tell a story how to edit it
together and post it on social media so that other people can enjoy your story hey my name
is Jake and I create content here to help solar careers on the go so I test and review lots of
filmmaking equipment here in Alaska and I give you tips and tutorials on how to use them so you
can tell great stories if that's something interesting consider subscribing this video
is sponsored by Tamron who makes some fantastic lenses for Sony e-mount and other camera mounts
and until today in particular we're using the new 20 to 40 which is probably one of
the best vlogging lenses that I've used because of the price point and because of the quality
while you can record great video with any late model phone you probably are going to
want to upgrade to a proper camera before too long for a couple of different reasons they do
better low light they get a lot more options for different kinds of lenses you get better
audio options and you can make the background a little bit fuzzy so on a day like this it's
not a big deal but if you're going to film in other places you definitely probably going to
want to upgrade to a camera so let me switch to a real camera here now we're on a real camera
which is the a74 the a74 the a7c and the zve E10 are a couple of my favorites because you get a
lot of great interchangeable lens options but you also got fantastic image and video quality
when it comes to lenses you want to pick a lens that does a couple of things one it gives you
something wide enough to do what I'm doing now or be able to hand hold the camera and talk to
it like I have been earlier but you also want to pick something that will zoom in a little
bit so that if you see something happening just a little way off you can punch in and capture
it without feeling like you're super far away so a few of my favorites are the Tamron 20 to
40 as I said earlier because it's a great price point the lens is really good quality
small lightweight easy to carry with you there's also the Tamron 17-28 another fantastic vlogging
lens it doesn't quite reach as far but you get a lot wider shots when it comes to aps-c cameras
you have the 17 to 70 which is a great option or the 11 to 20 is another great lens there's a
few others like the 28 to 200 and the 28 to 75 they're all great options but you want a lens
that's going to give you a greater good amount of Versatility to go from wide to much tighter
shots and capture something that's far off one thing you want to keep in mind for lenses is
the f-stop because if you're going to record stuff in lower light then making sure the
lens has an f-stop of 2.8 or a lower number will give you better low light performance
and then we need to talk about audio because audio is way more important to anything video
related than most people think fortunately there's a lot of great options out there
and a bunch of them are under a hundred dollars there's options from Road from Sennheiser from
DD which are all under 100 and will vastly improve your audio quality for example this
is how the built-in in microphones in most cameras sound they don't sound great the
mics aren't great they pick up everything around you and wind anything like that is going to come
through really loud and clear and make it hard to pay attention but if you add one of the small
external microphones then immediately your sound quality goes way up not only is it more focused
and directed sound towards you which means it's getting rid of other noise around you but most
small microphones have a little windshield so they will help deal with wind a lot better and
getting good audio is crucially important to people being able to enjoy your vlogs
then we come to lighting and lighting is really important you want to make sure at least that
your face is well lit and especially if you film things outdoors then you don't necessarily want
to film with the sun shining straight in your face it's actually a little bit better to have
it off to the side or maybe even slightly off to the back and then make sure your face is nicely
exposed but if you're filming indoors like I am right now then having a little external light
like this the aperture MC is really helpful for being able to fill in Shadows in your face but if
you don't have any lights at all then something as simple as sitting next to or near a large
window that's letting lots of natural light in will help you look the best that you can look
foreign the last crucial piece of gear you're going to need is a good small tripod there's
a lot of options some of them are under thirty dollars it does a couple of things it doesn't
take much but one it helps you hold the camera more stable when you're hand holding it like I
am right now because it gives you a better grip and it helps balance the camera out a little
bit but then it also gives you the option to set the camera down on something and be able to walk
away or talk to the camera and get different types of shots depending on the type of stuff
that you're filming so having a small tripod gives you a lot more options for the different
kinds of things and the different kinds of shots that you're going to want to capture
most people think of Vlogs as just you filming yourself going through the day
and telling people what's going on and while you can do that the best Vlogs are the ones
that tell a story and a story is basically broken down into a beginning a middle and
an end in the beginning we have a character that wants something character usually you
decides you want to have something or want to get somewhere or do something specific
the middle is where you have a conflict something you have to overcome something the character has
to kind of get through and then in the end you have a conclusion which is the resolution to
the conflict and our character finds they you know accomplish their goal they got what they
wanted they got to the place they wanted to go or anything like that so in the case of here today a
character of me wanting to come up to this mind to explore and take some photos the conflict of
the middle would be probably the walk up here being how challenging it is to walk up here in
the snow and to keep going for a mile and then the resolution is obviously we made it up here
then we come to the different types of shots you want to capture and there are two a-roll
and b-roll a-roll is you talking to the camera and telling the story or explaining what's going
on b-roll are shots of whatever you might be doing so a-roll is me saying hey today we're
out here in the forest we're going to be going and looking at these beautiful fall colors that are
happening right now and then b-roller shots of the forest and the Beautiful fall colors or me walking
through the forest or in the case of up here we capture shots of us arriving here driving up to
the place where we park and then walking up here on the way up to this mine shots of walking in
the snow How deep the snow is anything like that and then shots of arriving so we want shots like
me walking into the mine area we wanted shots of all the things that we're talking about and
describing to people as we're up here then we want to be able to match that with the shots that we're
showing on the screen so we talk about how this is a beautiful place with all these really cool
old buildings obviously you want to Overlay that with shots of the beauty in this area
and the really cool old buildings and then we could also say and talk about how it's a place
that lots of people come to cross country ski or to uh race and so we could show people on
cross-country skis racing around all those things the a-roll is where you want to tell
people what's happening you want to explore the story move the story forward describe
what's going on describe your thoughts your feelings through the process all of that and
then the b-roll is all the shots that are going to demonstrate also show what you're
talking about in the video so you want a good mix of a-roll and b-roll one thing to keep in
mind is while a-roll can be fairly static like what I'm doing now just holding the
camera still in one place you want b-roll to have a fair amount of motion and movement in
it or have subjects that are moving through to keep people's interest we've walked through the
basics of the equipment you need to film the Vlog how to tell a story and actually film a
story with a vlog now the quick key is editing but to do that we definitely can't be up here
now you want to take all that footage you shot and get it onto computer I'm using iMovie for Mac
because it's free there's also free software out there for Windows and then you want to organize
all of your footage according to a-roll and b-roll for editing I put all of the a-roll
in a timeline and then edit out all the parts that I know I don't need to tell the story then
going over the timeline I add in the b-roll that helps to Showcase or helps to support the story
or whatever I'm talking about in the a-roll this is also where you might want to find some music
that will fit the mood of the video the story that you're trying to tell YouTube has a free
music library and there's other few places out there as well but you want to be careful not to
use copyrighted music as it could cause you issues down the road once you've done all of that it's
time to export that video and upload it to your favorite social media site so you can share it
with friends and family for other ways you can approve your videos check out this video right
here I'll see you over there as always if you have questions ask me in the comments below or you can
join the live stream Wednesday nights at 4 pm Alaska time 8 PM Eastern at least if if we're
not out in the middle of nowhere filming something like how to do something ridiculous with cheers