- Do you want to have a successful YouTube channel
but all you have is a smartphone?
Then this video is for you.
I teamed up with my buddy Dee Nimmin
who has a YouTube channel that's completely centered
around making content using your smartphone.
So we're gonna go through some things
that you need to think about
if you're getting started on your YouTube journey.
(dramatic music)
So when it comes to creating YouTube content,
you really only need a device to record.
So a smartphone has a good camera,
that's all you need to get started, that's it.
Gear is not going to define
what it is that you're going to create,
it's more about the story,
it's more about what you're doing than how you do it.
Now there are some tools
that are gonna help you make it easier
but we're talking about just starting with your smartphone
and yes, you can create awesome looking content
only using a smartphone.
But guys, if you're new here to this channel,
my name is Jeven Dovey, I do a lot of filmmaking tutorials,
product reviews, and I also do a lot of YouTube training,
so make sure you hit that subscribe button
and turn on those bell notifications
so you don't miss one of these tutorials.
All right guys, I'm gonna pass it over to Dee,
he's gonna take it from here and give you some tips
on how to use your smartphone to create awesome content.
- Thanks Jeven, my name is Dee Nimmin
and over on my channel I help mobile creators
make content succeed on YouTube.
And in this video I'm gonna give you some practical tips
on how you can get started on YouTube using your smartphone.
The first tip that I have for you is pretty obvious
but a lot of people make this mistake
and that's not looking at the lens on their smartphone.
A lot of people are making content
and they're looking at the viewfinder
or the LCD screen or OLED screen
instead of looking at the lens.
And the reason it's important to look at the lens
is because you wanna make eye contact
with the person viewing your video,
this makes it a lot more personal
and in some cases it makes it seem
like you're speaking directly to that person
and that's a powerful thing.
- So a tip to add on here,
if you're constantly looking at your face
when you have the camera
kind of stretched out away from you,
I would say just flip it and just start recording yourself
using the back facing camera, the one on the other side
and the reason for this is that's gonna give you
some practice of just looking directly into the lens.
I know it could be kind of awkward at first
when you're looking directly into the lens
because you want to like look at yourself
and look at how you look, so do some last looks,
hold it out, see what you look like, flip the camera,
and just record and just practice that
because when you look into the lens,
that's when you connect with the viewer on the other side.
- The next tip that I have is to download
and learn how to use the YT Studio app.
This is a free app created by YouTube
and this app will allow you to answer comments on your phone
and check your analytics.
The next tip is specifically
because you're shooting for YouTube
and that's to make sure that you're shooting
in landscape mode with your phone.
There are some platforms that require vertical
or portrait mode but YouTube is not one of them
so make sure you turn your phone sideways
and shoot in landscape mode.
- So the standard for video is gonna be horizontal
and it's gonna stay horizontal
unless there's a major shift in the industry
and that's just the way it is.
So one tool to make it easier
when you're shooting horizontal is to get a mini tripod
and you can get basically a mount for your phone
which allows you to screw on a mini tripod
and then when you're holding it out,
you basically hold the grip vertical
rather than having to try or hold your phone horizontal.
And so it makes it much easier to shoot horizontal content
because when you're shooting with the camera stretched out,
you can hold it nice and easy,
keep your arm in a good position
and it gives you a good horizontal shot.
Or if you're setting it down somewhere on a tripod,
it keeps it horizontal.
So having this kind of small tripod setup
makes it super easy to shoot and create content.
Now there's this other case called a shutter case
and I actually really like this case
for a couple of reasons.
This case comes with a battery built-in
and it comes as a battery grip so you're able to hold it
which that makes it a lot easier to shoot with
so you can pop this battery on and off
but when it's on and you stretch your arm out,
you can keep it horizontal and it's nice and easy to hold
whether you're shooting with the front facing camera
or the back facing camera,
you could just use your thumb to hold it on this side.
Now the other thing that's really cool about this case
is that it's got a place for moment lenses.
So you can tie on a bigger lens
if you want to have like a wide lens or a telephoto lens
but it definitely has good uses for those of you
who are shooting YouTube content only using your phone.
- The next tip that I have for you
is more of a production tip
and that's to make sure that your lens is clean,
your battery is fully charged
and make sure you have enough storage space on your phone
before you hit that record button.
Nothing that's gonna ruin your video faster
than getting a fingerprint or a smudge on your lens
or your battery dying right in the middle of a great clip
or you run out of storage.
- I want to add on a little bit about organization here.
Organization is one of those key things
that's gonna make you successful
because if you're getting lost in your footage
and it's all over the place,
then you're gonna get wrapped up more
and trying to figure out where things are
rather than creating content.
One of the things I always say
is offload your footage every time you shoot.
So when you shoot for a day,
take that footage and then put it onto a hard drive.
And that workflow is specifically for those of you
who are editing say using a laptop or another computer.
Now if you're only using your phone,
then what you're gonna need to do is figure out
how much space your typical video
is gonna take up in your phone
and then make sure that you have more space than that
so that when you go out there and shoot,
you're not gonna fill up your phone and cause an issue.
Having space on your phone and having battery
to shoot throughout the entire day
are two essential things that will make or break your shoot.
If you're always running into the issue
of not having enough data storage,
then I highly suggest taking a step back
and looking at your complete workflow
and figuring out how you can make it a little bit easier
so that you will have enough footage for your shoot day
and you have enough battery to last you
for the entirety of what you're planning to shoot.
And for some of you that means
that you're gonna have to get an external battery
so that you can keep your phone charged
throughout your entirety of your shoot.
- The next tip that I have for you
is to not fall into the trap of thinking that you need gear,
that you need stuff, you need gimbals and lenses
and great microphones to become a great creator
or to get started on YouTube, that's simply not the case.
What is important is the story that you're telling
or the message that you're sharing with the world.
If you master that, it doesn't matter about the gear.
Now, the gear does serve its purpose,
there will come a time where you might want
to get a microphone, you might want to get a gimbal,
you might want to get a lens
but in terms of getting started, that's not important.
MrBeast who just reached 20 million subscribers,
he started off on an iPhone
and got his first 200,000 subscribers only using his iPhone.
Wrap your head around that for a second.
- Dee is completely right, gear does not matter
and that's what I said at the beginning of this video.
Gear doesn't matter, just start shooting with your phone.
But if you do want to get a few pieces of gear
to add to your arsenal,
the things that I would say to look at are a tripod,
a case to hold your phone
so that you can mount other pieces on,
a microphone, and then a light.
So sometimes you'll be shooting in darker scenes
and it's nice to have an extra light
so you can lighten up your face
so that you always have a good look here
when you're shooting your content.
Honestly, audio is way more important than visuals,
however, you do want your visuals to look good.
So if you're going to be constantly shooting in scenes
where there's lots of mixed lighting
or there's lots of dark lighting,
then a light might be something you should go after
so that you can make sure that your face is illuminated
when you're on camera talking to your audience
because you want to make sure that people
aren't clicking off your video
because they can't really tell what's going on.
- When it comes to editing video on your smartphone,
you have a lot of great options at your disposal.
These are some of my favorites,
on the Android side you have PowerDirector and KineMaster
and as an iOS user you have KineMaster and LumaFusion
but you also have iMovie which is free.
Now if you're on a budget
or you need a totally free app to get you started,
check out Vlogit,
that's a great cross-platform video editor.
To make your YouTube channel art
and your thumbnails for your videos,
I recommend checking out the following apps,
Snapseed which is free and owned by Google,
super powerful app and you also have PicsArt and PixelLab.
If you're intimidated by looking at a blank canvas
or you don't yet have the skills to make a design,
check out the Canva app, this is a template-based system
and the way it works is you start
with another design created by someone else
and you're free to mold it and bend it and shape it
and then use it on your own channel.
Canva is a great app for beginners.
Now while I did say that gear
wasn't important to get started and that's absolutely true,
I do want to talk about audio for a moment
because if the microphone in your phone doesn't sound good
and some older phones don't have great microphones,
you might want to think about upgrading your audio
and picking up an inexpensive microphone.
A great inexpensive microphone
is the Boya BY-M1 lavalier microphone.
It clips right onto your shirt
and costs around 17 or 18 U.S. dollars.
If you want something that plugs right into your phone,
Rode makes the Rode VideoMic Me and VideoMic Me-L
that can plug into your lightning port for iOS users
or your 3.5 millimeter headphone jack for Android users.
The next tip is to be mindful
of how you're holding your phone
and make sure that you're not shaking your phone too much
because if you have shaky footage,
people are probably gonna tune out.
Getting started, it might help to hold it with two hands
until you get comfortable with it
and then you can hold the phone with one hand
and focus on being stable as you share your message.
And if you're wondering
what I'm shooting this with right now,
I'm shooting this on my iPhone XS front facing camera,
that's the selfie cam and it's the worst quality camera
on the phone and I did this on purpose
and that's to prove to you that if I can shoot this video
on the worst camera on my phone
and it ends up on YouTube on a great channel like Jeven's,
then you can definitely do this too.
- As both Dee and I have been saying
throughout this entire video, gear doesn't matter.
What matters is creating content
that connects with the people
on the other side of the camera.
Just focus on your content first,
focus on creating the best content that you can create
and really focus on narrowing what you're doing
into a topic that people want to gravitate towards
and they want to follow you for.
- If you want to learn how to use the apps
that I mentioned in this video
or just learn how to make better content
or be a mobile YouTuber, head on over to my channel,
I would love to see you over there,
Jeven is gonna put a link to my channel
down in the description below.
- Guys if you want to learn more
about how to grow your YouTube channel
and how to get your first 1,000 subscribers,
I'll put a link right here
and you could check out an entire series
that I did with Dee's brother Nick
all about how to get your first 1,000 subscribers.
- Thank you so much for watching
and Jeven, thanks for having me.
- I'll see on the next one.