- Have you ever wanted to make a video
but then you just don't have anyone
to help you out and actually shoot you?
What I wanna do in this video is go through
a few different methods on how to film yourself,
the gear that you need and some techniques
to give your audience that feeling
that there is someone else there
actually shooting your video.
The first one is gear.
So when it comes to your gear,
it's actually relatively easy
what you need to be able to film yourself.
The key thing is a camera.
You can use basically any camera that you have
and a tripod and the tripod is important.
You don't want like a little tabletop tripod.
You wanna try pod that can get you different angles
and different perspectives.
So just think one that goes like five, six feet.
Another tool that I use is a drone,
and drones are great because you can put them up in the sky
and get cool looking shots of yourself
with this completely different perspective.
And if you wanna incorporate some moving shots
into your video, well, you can get a slider
or you can get a gimbal and lock your gimbal off on a tripod
and program it to do different movements.
You can get super fancy with this,
but honestly, the majority of the shots that I get
are on a tripod with my camera,
that becomes the easiest
and the fastest way to grab shots of yourself.
Sometimes you'll wanna bring out some fancy piece of gear,
but honestly, just a camera on a tripod,
that's really all you need.
Number two is planning and blocking.
You wanna think through
how you're going to be interacting with the scene
and are you gonna be entering frame?
Are you gonna be exiting frame?
Are you gonna be going to the cliff over there?
Are you gonna be walking past camera?
You wanna think through what is the movement
that you're going to be doing
and you also wanna block it out.
So you might set your camera down
and actually try the movement, play it back, look at it,
reframe it a little bit and do it again.
There's no right or wrong way to do it,
and you don't always nail every shot the first time.
Number three is that you wanna lock your focus on manual.
So a lot of times when you shoot with auto-focus
it might fluctuate and bounce between different aspects.
If you're filming yourself and you've blocked it out,
you know where you wanna be in focus.
And I would say, just lock off your focus at that point.
Whenever I'm filming myself and I just leave it in auto,
it doesn't necessarily always get the shot,
and that's why I say you wanna review your shot
because you wanna see if the focus was bouncing around,
it's gonna look much better
if your focus has held on one point.
Now there's definitely situations
where auto-focus will work great
and that's where you're moving closer
or further away from the camera.
So if you're like walking right up onto the camera,
then you'll probably want to use auto-focus
because you wanna be able to capture
that focus moving in and out.
Whereas if you're moving across the frame
or you're entering and stopping at one point,
it might be better to lock off the focus on manual.
Or if you have things in your frame,
you'll definitely wanna lock off your auto-focus
so that it's not bouncing between something
in the foreground and something in the distance.
Number four is framing and composition.
So you don't always wanna just do the same shot over
and over and over.
You wanna think through a variety of shots,
shot sizes, perspectives, get a super wide shot,
super close up.
You wanna dirty the frame,
which basically means putting objects
in the frame that fill it.
So things that could be out of focus in the foreground
or like in the background, something that's in the distance,
you just wanna think through variety.
What are the shots that you need to tell your story
or move the video along?
And then what are some creative ways
that you can shoot that?
And this is why I say you wanna get a tripod
that's not just a small little tabletop tripod
because sometimes you'll want to get a shot
that's at five feet,
whereas sometimes you'll wanna get it at one foot.
And just depending on the situation
and where you're shooting,
it's gonna be more beneficial to be able
to move that camera up and down and all over
so that you're not always getting
the same perspective in the same angle.
Number five is shot sequencing.
So you wanna think through what is a sequence from A to B,
think of like four or five different shots
that you can put in sequence and with shot sequencing
you also wanna think through continuity.
So if you're moving from shot A to shot B,
but then your hat changes from forward to back
or like you change your clothes,
or your headlights are on, and then they're off,
that's gonna be jarring for the viewer.
So you wanna make sure that every shot is continuous.
It's one shot to the next.
So when you make a sequence,
think of it like you're making a movie,
you don't want things to be changing for each shot
and you wanna move
from a wide angle to a medium, to a closeup.
You wanna change the shots and perspectives
throughout a sequence and vary it up.
The more that you can vary up your shots
and bring different elements into each scene,
the more it will feel produced and more cinematic
or like a movie, because there's actually a progression
and there's different styles of shots.
So it just feels more thought out.
And number six is avoid the wide lens, always close up.
When you're vlogging, if you just have a wide lens
like a 16 to 35, and you're always just throwing it on 16
and putting it on the ground and getting like a wide shot,
all your footage is gonna look the same.
I've found that when you actually think through your shots
and you use like a longer lens, like a 50,
or like an 85, or like a 135
and you use these long focal lengths to grab these shots
of yourself, and doing whatever it is in your video,
it's really gonna make the footage stand out
because seeing something shot at 135
but then is like a full body shot of you walking
through the frame, is gonna look so much different
than just your 16 millimeter sitting on a bench right there
and having to just walk by the wide lens.
So this is why I say get a variety
in terms of your perspectives and your sizes
but also change your focal lengths
and give your audience something else
than just the same style of shot over and over.
Number seven is add movement in post.
So when you're filming yourself,
it's just gonna be a camera on a tripod
and all of the shots will static.
But if you add just a slow push in a slow pull out
or like a dolly left to right,
you can give your footage movement.
And this is a technique that I use all the time.
Whenever I'm filming myself
I'll add just a slight 5% push-in or pull-out,
gives that extra layer of movement.
If you're using a drone, you can actually add some movement
into your footage as well.
Just depends on what you're doing.
So you don't wanna do things that are illegal
but at the same time, you can fly and grab some cool shots.
One of the things that I like to do
is put the drone up and get like a tripod shot.
So you could put it up in the sky, get a cool perspective
and then have your movement happen throughout it.
Now again, you could add some posts zooming
into your drone shots if they are just
like a tripod in the sky, same thing applies,
it will look like a moving camera.
Now number eight it has to do with sequencing again,
but you wanna shoot things
that are not necessarily just you.
So if you're looking out over a landscape,
well, then shoot the landscape.
So you wanna shoot shots that are gonna be intercut
with the footage of you interacting with the scene
that show more of a perspective.
And the more that you can paint this picture
of what's going on in your story
and show these different shots,
the more dynamic it's going to feel.
One big tip is don't just get one shot and move on
but I've always noticed when I'm able
to get a few extra shots,
I end up using all of them in the edit.
One thing you have to remember is,
when you set a camera down on a tripod
and you walk a distance,
especially if you're using a long lens,
you're gonna have to go pretty far out
to get a nice wide shot.
You're gonna have to double back
and get that camera and the tripod.
So make sure it's safe from the elements
but also make sure it's safe
that someone's not gonna come by and just snag it.
I'm not gonna put my camera down somewhere public
where people are walking by
and then walk off into the sunset.
I'm definitely gonna take note of what's in my surroundings
before I actually do some of these shots.
So just something to keep in mind,
people will steal gear.
Your camera will fall, things will happen.
When you're not near your camera,
think that things could go wrong,
so just make sure it's secure
just so you don't lose it or damage it in any way.
And if you have any questions about filming yourself
when you're solo, let me know down in the comments
and next I highly suggest
you check out this playlist right here.
It goes through some other filming techniques
that's really gonna help you craft better videos.
All right, I'll see you on the next one.