- If you're wanting to vlog on your phone
and you're wondering what gear you need to get
or if you need to get any gear at all,
I'm gonna go over that in this video.
And show you what all of these moving parts are
and how to set it all up.
And I've got you all covered for both
Android and iPhone.
And if you're new to the channel
and you wanna learn how to make content on your phone
or be a mobile YouTuber,
be sure to hit that subscribe button,
followed by the notification bell
so you don't miss out on future videos.
So the first thing we're gonna talk about
is the handle.
And this particular one,
that you've probably seen around the internet,
most of the top vloggers will use something like this.
This particular one is made by JOBY,
but there are lots of brands
that make this sort of thing.
And they have medium sized ones,
they have small ones made just for phones.
And the way it works, is you just mount
your recording device, your camera,
or your phone on top.
These are flexible.
They can work like a tripod.
Or you can take the legs and wrap them around something.
But when it comes to the smaller ones
that they make for your phone,
now you can use the larger one for phone as well,
but it doesn't come with the right top
to mount your phone on it.
The ones that come for your phone
usually have a top on it like this, it slides open,
you slide your phone right down inside,
and you tighten it up.
And then you have your handle for vlogging.
But as you can see, there's nothing
on the top to connect your microphone to.
So that leaves you with two choices.
The first choice is use an external microphone like this,
this particular one is a Rode VideoMic Me.
And the way this works is it plugs right into
your headphone jack of your phone like this.
If you're gonna have your phone
and you're gonna be speaking into the phone,
this is going to capture your voice.
If you wanna film something on the other side of the phone,
you would simply turn it around
and face it towards the subject.
But if you have one of the newer phones
or an iPhone that doesn't have a headphone jack,
you're gonna have to use one of the dongles
and attach that to the phone,
then use an external microphone
that plugs into the dongle.
But you'll notice, like I said before,
on top of this particular JOBY grip,
there's no cold shoe mount,
there's nowhere to attach an external microphone.
So what you need to get is a phone mount
that looks like this,
that has a cold shoe mount on the top
so you can actually put on an external microphone.
And it will screw into the bottom of the grip.
So what you wanna do is you wanna take the handle
and unscrew the mount that came with it
and screw this one onto the top.
When it's finished, it's gonna look like this.
And then you slide your phone inside,
and you tighten it up.
Then you take your external microphone,
this particular one is the Rode Videomicro,
you slide it into the cold shoe
on the top of the mount, you tighten it down,
and then you plug it into the dongle
that's connected to your phone.
Then you're left with a set up that looks like this.
You have the handle, you have your phone,
you have the dongle that goes right up
to the microphone that's connected to the phone mount
that has the cold shoe mount on the top.
And this is the most convenient set up.
And this is gonna cover you
no matter what microphone that you have
as long as it has a cold shoe mount here.
You can slide it right into the mount,
your phone goes inside and this is a perfect set up.
And this particular microphone actually comes
with a windscreen, or deadcat.
So if it's windy outside,
you slide this in here like this
and it looks like this.
Now there are other types of handles that you can use.
You can use something like this
to put your phone inside.
But again, there's no cold shoe mount on the top,
so you're gonna have to use a microphone
that you can attach to your headphone jack
or use no microphone at all.
And you can also use a selfie stick,
but again, nothing on the top.
Well you can't replace this one.
But you can replace this one,
so you can put that sort of a phone mount on here.
However, this particular type of handle,
which I actually love this type of handle,
but there's nothing on the bottom
for me to set it down with.
So, if I wanna put this down and record myself,
I can't.
I'm gonna have to screw in some legs onto the bottom.
So, I prefer the JOBY or GorillaPod type,
that looks like this.
This is the most versatile, I can set it down,
I can wrap it around something,
I can hold it, I can put it out in front of me.
And this thing pretty much does everything I need it to do.
Now there's something else that I wanna talk about
when it comes to vlogging with your phone,
or any camera for that matter.
And that's that, if you can use manual controls
you're gonna be better off.
Because if you're walking outside,
and the light is changing,
you're gonna notice that the screen
gets darker or lighter,
if you're running an auto exposure,
based on your lighting conditions.
You don't wanna shoot with the sun behind you
or bright light behind you,
because that's gonna darken you in the front
because your camera is on auto.
So what you wanna do, if you have manual controls,
is learn how to use those.
You're gonna be able to dial in your video image
to look exactly how you want.
And you're not gonna be at the mercy of sunlight
or bright lights or any other type of light
that could be interfering with your shot.
And if your phone doesn't have manual controls,
I'm gonna put some names down
in the description below,
some apps that you can use
to give you full manual controls on your phone.
Now as you can see, the gear is pretty easy,
you have a handle, you have some sort of
a phone mount with a cold shoe in it,
or you have a microphone that plugs into your phone,
or just use no microphone at all,
if that's what you need to do to get started.
But the most important thing is that you get started.
Go out there, start vlogging.
Your first handful of videos,
probably a lot of your videos starting out,
are not gonna be as good.
And when you get into 20, 25, 50 or even 100 videos,
you're gonna look back and you're gonna say,
"Oh my God, that was terrible,"
but you're gonna be glad that you started.
And also, don't let the gear, or the lack thereof,
get in the way of the story
or the message that you're trying to share.
Your story, your message,
whatever it is that you're trying to share,
that is the most important thing.
You want people to resonate with you.
So be you.
Be uniquely you.
Let that internal dialogue that you have
in your head everyday,
let that out on camera
and let people see you for who you are.
Don't try to copy somebody else.
Look, there's already a Casey Neistat.
There's already a Peter McKinnon.
Be you.
You're the only person in the entire universe who's you.
If you wanna learn how to make content on your phone,
or be a mobile YouTuber,
be sure to hit that subscribe button,
followed by the notification bell
so you don't miss out on anything.
Thank you so much for watching.
I do appreciate it.
And I'll see you in the next video.